A Revolution in Commerce : The Parisian Merchant Court and the Rise of Commercial Society in Eighteenth-Century France / John Brinckerhoff Jackson; Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jackson, John Brinckerhoff, Author.

Contributor:

Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz, Editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Paris (France). Juge et consuls des marchands--History.

Paris (France).

Commercial courts--France--Paris--History.

Commercial courts.

Paris (France)--History--1789-1799.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (402 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2007]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This groundbreaking book provides the first comprehensive account of the juridiction consulaire, or Merchant Court, of eighteenth-century Paris. Drawing on extensive archival research, Amalia D. Kessler reconstructs the workings of the court and the commercial law that it applied and uses these to shed new light on questions about the relationship between commerce and modernity that are of deep and abiding interest to lawyers, historians, and social scientists alike. Kessler shows how the merchants who were associated with the court-and not just elite thinkers and royal reformers-played a key role in reconceptualizing commerce as the credit-fueled private exchange necessary to sustain the social order. Deploying this modern conception of commerce in a variety of contexts, ranging from litigation over negotiable instruments to corporatist battles for status and jurisdiction, these merchants contributed (largely inadvertently and to their ultimate regret) to the demise of corporatism as both conceptual framework and institutional practice. In so doing, they helped bring about the social and political revolution of 1789. Highly readable and engaging, A Revolution in Commerce provides important new insights into the rise of commercial modernity by demonstrating the remarkable role played by the law in ideological and institutional transformation.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Situating the Court: Institutional Structure, Jurisdictional Conflict, and the Rise of a New Conception of Commerce

2. The Court's Self-Conception as a Bastion of Virtue: Relational Contracting and a Community-Based Approach to Procedure

3. An Equity-Oriented View of Contract: The Court's Resolution of Disputes Concerning Sales, Employment, and Marriage

4. Société and Sociability: The Changing Structure of Business Associations and the Problem of Merchant Relations

5. A Crisis in Virtue: The Challenges of Negotiability and the Rise of a New Commercial Culture

6. Launching a National Campaign: The Administrative Monarchy and the Demands of le Commerce

Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300150070

0300150075

OCLC:

1024033392