Introduction: commerce and its discontents; 1. Bon luxe, mauvais luxe: a language of commerce; 2. Doux commerce, commerce odieux: the commerce in humans; 3. Cette odieuse piraterie: defining piracy; 4. Indigne ateliers: monopoly and monopolists; Conclusion: commerce and its discontents.
This book uncovers the ambivalence towards commerce in eighteenth-century France, questioning the assumption that commerce was widely celebrated in the era of Adam Smith.
Anoush Fraser Terjanian is Director of the Anxieties of Democracy program at the Social Science Research Council, New York, and Associate Professor of History at East Carolina University.
'… [this book] enhances our understanding of late
eighteenth-century debates over the place of commerce in state and
society. In an erudite and theoretically sophisticated account,
Anoush Terjanian breaks with a long historiographic tradition that
has emphasized the Enlightenment's favorable attitude to 'sweet
commerce'. Focusing on Abbé Raynal's best-selling, multivolume
History of the Two Indies - a work that is shown to have been every
bit as important as The Wealth of Nations - Terjanian uncovers the
deep ambivalence attached to practices such as monopoly, slavery
and piracy … Thoughtful and elegantly written … a major reference
for scholars of Enlightenment, empire and political economy.'
Madeleine Dobie, Columbia University
'Terjanian's argument proceeds from a brilliant insight - namely,
that ambivalence actually defined the eighteenth century's attitude
toward commerce and all that it brought in its wake … [This] is a
smart, engagingly written and indisputably important book.' Jay M.
Smith, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
'Terjanian's main argument - that eighteenth century writers had
complex and nuanced views about commerce - is certainly compelling.
Her research is meticulous, her argument well stated, and the
scholarship she cites the very best.' Helena Rosenblatt, The
Journal of Modern History
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