We have already seen that Montesquieu and Hume were sensitive to how commercial innovation threatened their respective nations’ distinctions of rank. However, Hume did not share Montesquieu's propensity for the formal titles that distinguished non-commercial from commercial elites – a subtle disagreement that reflects their historically divergent understandings of liberty. In interrogating Montesquieu and Hume's disagreement over the role of the nobility in the modern world, this chapter provides a more textured account of the place of honour and its function within their political philosophies. First, I compare Montesquieu's and Hume's genealogies of modern liberty to demonstrate the importance of honour in their works. I show how Montesquieu traces the origins of modern liberty in France to Saint Louis's judicial reforms, whereas Hume follows James Harrington, tracing the origins of modern liberty in Britain to Henry VII's property reforms. The discussion then points to how their historically grounded theories of politics distinctly pacify honour by channelling it within the commercial world. I argue that, in contrast to Hume, who categorically privileged commercial honour over ancient and feudal modes, Montesquieu had deeper reservations concerning a political culture whose ‘principles’ were borne via commerce alone.

A number of scholars have identified important ideological, epistemic, and philosophical affinities between Montesquieu and Hume, rightly shining a spotlight on how their assessments of England constitute the two philosophers’ political visions. These discussions often focus on their disagreements concerning the impact of climate on human beings. However, if climate was so central to Hume in his critical reading of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, why was this topic not mentioned among Hume's friendly ‘quibbles’ in their 1749 epistolary exchange? Inversely, Montesquieu applauds Hume for his essay ‘Of National Characters’, which most directly refutes the former's theory of climatic determinism. These considerations have given recent readers pause during their examinations of Montesquieu and Hume's affinities.

Despite Montesquieu's penchant for considering physical factors that shape a nation's general spirit, both he and Hume agree that commerce, communication and moral laws, rather than climate, have a greater effect on European national characters.