The Economic Turn

Description

A new look at the origins and diverse natures of political economy in the Enlightenment.

The mid-eighteenth century witnessed what might be dubbed an ‘economic turn’ that resolutely changed the trajectory of world history. From the birth of new agricultural practices and the foundation of private societies to the sustained and popular theorization of social and material phenomena, the period experienced an unprecedented interest in ‘economic’ concerns across a wide spectrum of human activities and social strata alike.

The discipline of economics itself emerged amidst this turn, and it is frequently traced back to the work of François Quesnay and his school of Physiocracy (literally the ‘Rule of Nature’). The school or, as it was called at the time, sect of économistes spearheaded a theoretically sophisticated form of economic analysis that postulated the virtues of laissez-faire and the unique ability of agriculture to generate wealth. Though lionized by the subsequent historiography of economics, the theoretical postulates and policy consequences of Physiocracy were disastrous at the time, resulting in veritable subsistence trauma in France. This galvanized relentless and diverse critiques of the doctrine not only in France but also throughout the European world that have, hitherto, been largely neglected by scholars.

Though Physiocracy was an integral part of the economic turn, it was rapidly overcome both theoretically and practically, with durable and important consequences for the history of political economy. ‘The Economic Turn’ brings together some of the leading historians of that moment to fundamentally recast our understanding of the origins and diverse natures of political economy in the Enlightenment.

Acknowledgments; Notes on Contributors; Chapter One The Economic Turn in Enlightenment Europe, Steven L. Kaplan and Sophus A. Reinert; Chapter TwoThe Physiocratic Movement: A Revision, Loïc Charles and Christine Théré; Chapter Three The Political Economy of Colonization: From Composite Monarchy to Nation, Paul Cheney; Chapter Four Against the Chinese Model: The Debate on Cultural Facts and Physiocratic Epistemology, Stefan Gaarsmand Jacobsen; Chapter Five “Le superfl u, chose très nécessaire”: Physiocracy and Its Discontents in the Eighteenth- Century Luxury Debate, Michael Kwass; Chapter Six François Véron de Forbonnais and the Invention of Antiphysiocracy, Loïc Charles and Arnaud Orain; Chapter Seven Between Mercantilism and Physiocracy: Forbonnais’s ‘Est modus in Rebus’ Vision, Antonella Alimento; Chapter Eight Physiocrat Arithmetic versus Ratios : The Analytical Economics of Jean- Joseph- Louis Graslin, Arnaud Orain; Chapter Nine Galiani: Grain and Governance, Steven L. Kaplan; Chapter Ten “Live and Die Proprietors and Free”: Morellet Dismantles the Dialogues and Defends the Radical Liberal Break, Steven L. Kaplan; Chapter Eleven “Is the Feeling of Humanity not More Sacred than The Right of Property?”: Diderot’s Antiphysiocracy in His Apology of Abbé Galiani, Steven L. Kaplan; Chapter Twelve De facto Policies and Intellectual Agendas of an Eighteenth- Century Milanese Agricultural Academy: Physiocratic Resonances in the Società patriotica, Lavinia Maddaluno; Chapter Thirteen Sensationism, Modern Natural Law and the “Science of Commerce” at the Heart of the Controversy between Mably and the Physiocrats, Julie Ferrand and Arnaud Orain; Chapter Fourteen ‘One Must Make War on the Lunatics’: The Physiocrats’ Attacks on Linguet, the Iconoclast (1767– 1775), Arnaud Orain; Chapter Fifteen The Grain Question as the Social Question: Necker’s Antiphysiocracy, Steven L. Kaplan; Chapter Sixteen Physiocracy in Sweden: A Note on the Problem of Inventing Tradition, Lars Magnusson; Chapter Seventeen Spain and the Economic Work of Jacques Accarias de Serionne, Jesús Astigarraga; Chapter Eighteen Captured by the Commercial Paradigm: Physiocracy Going Dutch, Ida Nijenhuis; Chapter Nineteen Cameralism, Physiocracy and Antiphysiocracy in the Germanies, Andre Wakefield; Chapter Twenty No Way Back to Quesnay: Say’s Opposition to Physiocracy, Philippe Steiner; Chapter Twenty-One “A Sublimely Stupid Idea”: Physiocracy in Italy from the Enlightenment to Fascism, Sophus A. Reinert; Chapter Twenty-Two Epilogue: Political Economy and the Social, Steven L. Kaplan and Sophus A. Reinert; Index.

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Political economy
• Economic history

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 16 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783088577
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Economic Turn
Anthem Other Canon Economics
The Anthem Other Canon Economics series is a collaboration between Anthem Press and The Other Canon Foundation. The Other Canon – also described as ‘reality economics’ – studies the economy as a real object rather than as the behaviour of a model economy based on core axioms, assumptions and techniques. The series includes both classical and contemporary works in this tradition, spanning evolutionary, institutional and Post-Keynesian economics, the history of economic thought and economic policy, economic sociology and technology governance, and works on the theory of uneven development and in the tradition of the German historical school.
Series Editors
Erik S. Reinert – Chairman, The Other Canon Foundation, Norway and Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Rainer Kattel – University College London, UK & Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Wolfgang Drechsler – Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Editorial Board
Ha-Joon Chang – University of Cambridge, UK
Mario Cimoli – UN-ECLAC, Chile
Jayati Ghosh – Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Steven Kaplan – Cornell University, USA
Jan Kregel – Bard College, USA & Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Bengt-Åke Lundvall – Aalborg University, Denmark
Keith Nurse – University of the West Indies, Barbados
Patrick O’Brien – London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK
Carlota Perez – London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK; University College London, UK; SPRU – University of Sussex, UK and Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Alessandro Roncaglia – Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Jomo Kwame Sundaram – Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia
The Economic Turn
Recasting Political Economy in Enlightenment Europe
Edited by Steven L. Kaplan and Sophus A. Reinert
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2019
by ANTHEM PRESS
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and
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© 2019 Steven L. Kaplan and Sophus A. Reinert editorial matter and selection; individual chapters © individual contributors
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-855-3 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-855-9 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Chapter One
The Economic Turn in Enlightenment Europe
Steven L. Kaplan and Sophus A. Reinert
Chapter Two
The Physiocratic Movement: A Revision
Loïc Charles and Christine Théré
Chapter Three
The Political Economy of Colonization: From Composite Monarchy to Nation
Paul Cheney
Chapter Four
Against the Chinese Model: The Debate on Cultural Facts and Physiocratic Epistemology
Stefan Gaarsmand Jacobsen
Chapter Five
“Le superflu, chose très nécessaire”: Physiocracy and Its Discontents in the Eighteenth-Century Luxury Debate
Michael Kwass
Chapter Six
François Véron de Forbonnais and the Invention of Antiphysiocracy
Loïc Charles and Arnaud Orain
Chapter Seven
Between Mercantilism and Physiocracy: Forbonnais’s ‘ Est modus in Rebus ’ Vision
Antonella Alimento
Chapter Eight
Physiocrat Arithmetic versus Ratios : The Analytical Economics of Jean-Joseph-Louis Graslin
Arnaud Orain
Chapter Nine
Galiani: Grain and Governance
Steven L. Kaplan
Chapter Ten
“Live and Die Proprietors and Free”: Morellet Dismantles the Dialogues and Defends the Radical Liberal Break
Steven L. Kaplan
Chapter Eleven
“Is the Feeling of Humanity not More Sacred than The Right of Property?”: Diderot’s Antiphysiocracy in His Apology of Abbé Galiani
Steven L. Kaplan
Chapter Twelve
De facto Policies and Intellectual Agendas of an Eighteenth-Century Milanese Agricultural Academy: Physiocratic Resonances in the Società patriotica
Lavinia Maddaluno
Chapter Thirteen
Sensationism, Modern Natural Law and the “Science of Commerce” at the Heart of the Controversy between Mably and the Physiocrats
Julie Ferrand and Arnaud Orain
Chapter Fourteen
‘One Must Make War on the Lunatics’: The Physiocrats’ Attacks on Linguet, the Iconoclast (1767–1775)
Arnaud Orain
Chapter Fifteen
The Grain Question as the Social Question: Necker’s Antiphysiocracy
Steven L. Kaplan
Chapter Sixteen
Physiocracy in Sweden: A Note on the Problem of Inventing Tradition
Lars Magnusson
Chapter Seventeen
Spain and the Economic Work of Jacques Accarias de Serionne
Jesús Astigarraga
Chapter Eighteen
Captured by the Commercial Paradigm: Physiocracy Going Dutch
Ida Nijenhuis
Chapter Nineteen
Cameralism, Physiocracy and Antiphysiocracy in the Germanies
Andre Wakefield
Chapter Twenty
No Way Back to Quesnay: Say’s Opposition to Physiocracy
Philippe Steiner
Chapter Twenty-One
“A Sublimely Stupid Idea”: Physiocracy in Italy from the Enlightenment to Fascism
Sophus A. Reinert
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue: Political Economy and the Social
Steven L. Kaplan and Sophus A. Reinert
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank The Other Canon Foundation in Norway for generously funding the conference that inspired this volume, organized on the islands of Tjøme and Hvasser, Norway, September 19–23, 2012, under the title Economies of Enlightenment: Physiocracy and Its Discontents . We would further like to acknowledge the contributions to that conference of Graham Clure, Béla Kapossy, Isaac Nakhimovsky, Erik S. Reinert, Anoush Terjanian, Liana Vardi and Francesca Viano. Finally, we are grateful to Robert Fredona, Kate Jenkins and Fernanda Reinert for editorial assistance.
CONTRIBUTORS
Antonella Alimento is associate professor of modern history at the University of Pisa. She has published widely on the eighteenth century and is the author of Riforme fiscali e crisi politiche nella Francia di Luigi XV: dalla tarifée al catasto generale (Olschki, 1995) and Finanze e amministrazione: Un’inchiesta francese sui catasti nell’Italia del Settecento (1763–1764) (Olschki, 2008), as well as the editor or coeditor of several volumes, including, most recently with Koen Stapelbroek, The Politics of Commercial Treaties in the Eighteenth Century: Balance of Power, Balance of Trade (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
Jesús Astigarraga is professor of political economy at the University of Zaragoza. A specialist on the history of political economy in Enlightenment Spain and of the circulation of economic ideas more broadly, he is the author of Los ilustrados vascos: ideas, instituciones y reformas económicas en España (Critica, 2003) as well as numerous articles and edited volumes, including The Spanish Enlightenment Revisited (Voltaire Foundation, 2015) and, with Javier Usoz, L’économie politique et la sphère publique dans le débat des Lumières (Casa de Velázquez, 2013).
Loïc Charles is professor of economics at the University Paris 8—Vincennes and associated researcher at the Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques in Paris. A historian of economic ideas, he has coedited Oeuvres économiques complètes de François Quesnay et autres textes (INED, 2005) with Jean-Claude Perrot and Christine Théré, and the volume Le cercle de Vincent de Gournay. Savoirs économiques et pratiques administratives en France au milieu du XVIIIe siècle (INED, 2011) with Frédéric Lefebvre and Christine Théré. He is also the author of a number of articles focusing on political economy in Enlightenment France.
Paul Cheney is professor of European history and the College at the University of Chicago. He is a specialist in old-regime France and its colonial empire, with interests in political economy, the history of political thought, and historical world systems theory. His first book, Revolutionary Commerce: Globalization and the French Monarchy (Harvard University Press, 2010), is an intellectual history of how administrators, merchants, and philosophes understood the political and socially disruptive effects of primitive globalization. His second book, Cul de Sac: Patrimony, Capitalism and Slavery in French Saint-Domingue (University of Chicago Press, 2017), is a micro-historical exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of old-regime capitalism in France’s richest eighteenth-century colony.
Julie Ferrand is associate professor at the University Jean Monnet (Saint-Etienne, France). Her research focuses on the “republican” and “liberal” traditions in the French Enlightenment, on the “science of commerce” of the Gournay circle, and on the Physiocrats and Antiphysiocrats. She has recently published several papers devoted to the wo