This book has emphasised the critical importance of honour in foundational liberal thought, explaining how a feudal propensity for social distinctions can preserve civic virtue within an emerging inward-looking liberal order. Chapters 1 and 2 examined the institutional and intellectual context of early eighteenth-century public and private finance in France to help illuminate the entry point to this important facet of Montesquieu's theory of moderation. His response to John Law's economic system in particular reveals a preoccupation with questions concerning the relationship between commerce and liberty, and the role of the nobility in market society (Chapter 1). In examining these themes, Montesquieu observed certain trends in eighteenth-century political economy which threatened to turn commerce into a handmaid of despotism: despite it being a source of political moderation, commerce itself needed to be moderated.

While Montesquieu appreciated the existing nobility's publicminded mores, he equally valued the increasing quality of life delivered by modern commerce. It is in this context that he revises James Harrington's republican project (Chapter 3). In a post– Financial Revolution climate, Harrington's republican vision was too utopian in its failure to recognise tangible commercial threats to political freedom. Eighteenth-century financial innovation may have helped stimulate commerce and reduce the public debt. However, it opened new avenues leading to political despotism, unidentifiable through a mid-seventeenth century lens. More specifically, the ‘monied interest’ threatened to supplant the principal source of France's political education, namely, the noblesse de robe, whose intermediary check on the sovereign was indispensable for France's liberty. John Law's System undermined France's intermediary bodies, threatening to eliminate the nobility's economic lifeline. Having considered these material circumstances, Montesquieu's theory of moderation proposes a modified republican vision suited to a modern commercial context.

To approximate republican virtue, a nation's institutions, manners and mores needed to correspond with the new commercial reality. Even though Montesquieu described both republics and monarchies as models of free, moderate government, in the face of financial innovation, he deemed the honour-loving archetype more viable for France and most of its continental European neighbours. In light of this realisation, his works are preoccupied with how legislators could harness existing monarchical institutions in a manner that allows a sense of personal honour to translate into genuine virtuous behaviour.