Commerce, Civilization, and Liberty in Montesquieu and Adam Smith
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this conference was to compare and contrast two of the leading eighteenth-century theorists of liberty on the question of the civilizing effects of commerce. Both Montesquieu and Smith placed great store on commerce, and both were certainly theorists of civilization in some sense, but through what precise mechanism and with what precise effect did they see commerce as contributing to civilized order?
READING LIST
From Liberty Fund
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith’s first and in his own mind most important work, outlines his view of proper conduct and the institutions and sentiments that make men virtuous. Here he develops his doctrine of the impartial spectator, whose hypothetical disinterested judgment we must use to distinguish right from…
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (vol. 1)
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner
William B. Todd, Textual Editor
First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that…
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (vol. 2)
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner
William B. Todd, Textual Editor
First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that…
Additional Readings
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. The Persian Letters. Translated by George R. Healy. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1999.
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. The Spirit of the Laws. Translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller, and Harold Samuel Stone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. Considerations on the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline. Translated by David Lowenthal. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1965.
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. "Reflections on Universal Monarchy in Europe." Translated by David Carrithers and Mark Waddicor, Unpublished work, 2000.
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. "Considerations on the Wealth of Spain." Unknown, Translated by David W. Carrithers and Mark Waddicor, 2009.