Trade and empire in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world / Andrew Hamilton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hamilton, Andrew (Andrew J.)

Contributor:

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Free enterprise--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Free enterprise.

Free enterprise--United States--History--18th century.

Commerce.

History.

Great Britain--Commerce--United States.

Great Britain.

United States.

United States--Commerce--Great Britain.

Great Britain--Commerce--History--18th century.

United States--Commerce--History--18th century.

Physical Description:

xxv, 168 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Newcastle : Cambridge Scholars, [2008]

Summary:

"Free trade" has become a highly politicized term, but its origins, historical context and application to policy decisions have been largely overlooked. This book examines the relationship between liberal political economy and the changing conception of empire in the eighteenth century, investigating how the doctrine of laissez-faire economics influenced politicians charged with restructuring the transatlantic relationship between Britain and the newly independent America. As prime minister during the peace negotiations to end the American War of Independence in 1782-3, Lord Shelburne understood that the British Empire had to be radically reconceived. Informed by the economic philosophies of Adam Smith, he envisioned a new commercial empire based upon trade instead of the archaic model of territorial conquests. Negotiations between Shelburne and the American statesmen Benjamin Franklin and John Adams demonstrate the application of Smith's commercial theories to the British-American peace settlement.

By tracing the genealogy of laissez-faire, this book locates the historical background from which modern ideas of free trade, empire, and cosmopolitanism emerged. Benjamin Vaughan, confidential secretary to Shelburne during the peace talks, is established as an important historical figure, and his treatise, New and Old Principles of Trade Compared (1788), is identified as a significant contribution to the literature of political economy. An interdisciplinary study integrating history, economics and philosophy, Trade and Empire offers a new perspective on the intellectual history of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world.

Contents:

Political Economy and the Changing Face of Empire

The language of commercial ideology viii

Liberalism and mercantilism: disaggregation as a method xvi

Chapter 1 Laissez-faire and Reason of State

A genealogy of laissez-faire 1

Anglo-American or French genealogy? 4

Gournay, d'Argenson and laissez-faire 7

The providential argument and its early modern carriers 12

Reason of state and the rich country-poor country model 17

Chapter 2 Toward a Common Liberal Vision of the Atlantic World

Shelbume and his circle 25

Shelburne's views on commercial expansion in the modern world 29

Shelbume's theory of informal empire 32

Shelbume and the Dissenters 35

Benjamin Vaughan enters circle 41

Chapter 3 Commonwealthmen, Dissenters, and American Radicals: Benjamin Vaughan in his Circle

Positioning Vaughan within the larger circles 51

Early biographical connections and the Club of Honest Whigs 54

Importance of Vaughan's editing of Franklin's writings 61

The Wedderburn Affair 66

Vaughan and the peace negotiations of 1782-3 69

Interlude between peace and revolution 72

Remnants of the circle 74

Chapter 4 From Conquest to Commerce

The Union debate as context 77

Raison d'ťat and the shift from the passions to the interests 82

Doux-commerce, Hugo Grotius, and society 90

The Spanish question, mercantilism, and the shift to doux-commerce as a policy decision 97

Conquest to commerce as a philosophy of history 105

Chapter 5 Benjamin Vaughan and the Liberal Moment

Vaughan's writings before 1788 111

Vaughan's New and Old Principles of Trade 124

The rich country-poor country model in Vaughan's writing 125

Doux-commerce language in New and Old Principles of Trade 132

Theory and practice 135

Providential distribution of goods and the cosmopolitan vision 138

Chapter 6 John Adams, Nationalism, and the Retreat from the Liberal Moment

John Adams and free trade 147

The collapse of the liberal moment 150.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781847188373

1847188370

OCLC:

239844583