Revolutionary Commerce: Globalization and the French Monarchy (Harvard Historical Studies) [Hardcover]

Paul Cheney (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvard Historical Studies | Publication Date: March 16, 2010

Combining the intellectual history of the Enlightenment, Atlantic history, and the history of the French Revolution, Paul Cheney explores the political economy of globalization in eighteenth-century France.

The discovery of the New World and the rise of Europe's Atlantic economy brought unprecedented wealth. It also reordered the political balance among European states and threatened age-old social hierarchies within them. In this charged context, the French developed a "science of commerce" that aimed to benefit from this new wealth while containing its revolutionary effects. Montesquieu became a towering authority among reformist economic and political thinkers by developing a politics of fusion intended to reconcile France's aristocratic society and monarchical state with the needs and risks of international commerce. The Seven Years' War proved the weakness of this model, and after this watershed reforms that could guarantee shared prosperity at home and in the colonies remained elusive. Once the Revolution broke out in 1789, the contradictions that attended the growth of France's Atlantic economy helped to bring down the constitutional monarchy.

Drawing upon the writings of philosophes, diplomats, consuls of commerce, and merchants, Cheney rewrites the history of political economy in the Enlightenment era and provides a new interpretation of the relationship between capitalism and the French Revolution.

(20101112)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating, thoroughly researched, and beautifully written intellectual history depicting the emergence of the novel eighteenth-century 'science of commerce.' A major asset of the work is that while Montesquieu serves as its central figure, the reader learns about so much more, including the relationship between commerce and statecraft, the prevalence of social-scientific comparisons between absolutism and republicanism in the century before the American and French revolutions, and the birth of philosophical history. Cheney shows great skill in elucidating the sometimes dense works of eighteenth-century economists in language that is at once remarkably spare and vivid. Lucid, lively, and informative, this book was truly a pleasure to read.
--Mary D. Lewis, author of The Boundaries of the Republic

This engaging book powerfully conveys the dual sense of opportunity and risk felt by the thinkers, politicians, and merchants who experienced the eighteenth century's global revolution in commerce. With sensitive and precise attention to the language and concerns of the writers he treats, Cheney makes an excellent case for rejecting conventional narratives such as the transition from a mercantilist to a laissez-faire phase of French economic thought. This is a signal contribution to the emerging literature about the place of colonies and global commerce in French revolutionary politics.
--Jennifer Pitts, author of A Turn to Empire

In this ambitious and timely book, Cheney argues that the pressures of globalization strained French political institutions and social structures, issuing in the revolutionary transformations of the 1790s. By focusing on the economic thought of the old regime, which was preoccupied with the challenges of international competition, he shows how globalization became central to political debate. Revolutionary Commerce makes a major contribution to the intellectual history of the old regime and to debates on the origins of the French Revolution.
--John Shovlin, author of The Political Economy of Virtue

The very intelligent, novel, and meaningful achievement of this book is to show how and why France's eighteenth-century colonies--in the Caribbean mostly--mattered critically to the French reading and writing public's understanding of their country's economic and political place in the world.
--Patrice Higonnet (Times Literary Supplement )

About the Author

Paul Cheney is Assistant Professor of History, University of Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674047265
• ISBN-13: 978-0674047266
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Historical Political Economy, December 19, 2011

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Joseph R. Goldman (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Revolutionary Commerce: Globalization and the French Monarchy (Harvard Historical Studies) (Hardcover)

This is a "five star" book in every sense of the designation. Chaney exmaines and explores the emerging "poltiical economy" of global commerce and trade under the ancien regime in France. Using original sources and casting the facts, ideas and data into a modern "political economy" model, Chaney tests his hypothesis that maritime powers like Britain, Holland and France were innovative in developing wealth by markets and not just colonies and resource rape like Spain and Portugal. Chaney's discussion of the royal Caribbean sugar trade alone in the context of his framework is illuminating when looking at political documents of the time with the ledgers that made great fortunes for the metropol state before the Revolution.

Chaney writes is a clear and precise language that readers of all levels of interest can grasp his thinking and argument. Revolutionary Commerce is a "benchmark" study in originality because the author combines evidence with a fresh perspective to present a theory quite demonstrated in many 20th century studies of trading states whose empires or markets have earlier roots. This is a historian using political and economic language directly to political scientists and economists besides historians interested in political development and political economy. As a professional historian of 18th Century Europe and a political scientist of contemporary economic security, I highly commend this book to the widest audience interested in scholarship with penache!