Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T20:32:42.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SIR JAMES STEUART ON THE ORIGINS OF COMMERCIAL NATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2018

José M. Menudo
José M. Menudo*
Affiliation:
Universidad Pablo de Olavide.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines James Steuart’s explanation of the emergence of commercial nations. Unlike other Scottish thinkers of the time, Steuart argues that artifice is necessary for the rise of commercial societies. He uses the term “artificial” to refer to a devised process, one that is an alternative to the supposedly natural process arising from innate propensities. The system of trade and commerce is an “artifice” created by merchants to obtain benefits, and established by the sovereign for his ostentation and personal prestige, until it became generalized as a commercial nation. Steuart’s explanation of the emergence of commercial nations accounts for how individuals become dependent on and subordinate to the public market. This paper concludes that Steuart’s Political Œconomy promotes a science of the artificial that seeks to understand the functioning of non-natural mechanisms and to create instruments that the statesman adapts to the needs and objectives of individuals.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 561 - 578
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Paul Dudenhefer and Stephen Meardon for his comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article. The paper benefitted from inspiring remarks made by three anonymous referees and several colleagues at the Charles Gide Conference (Lyon 2014). Any remaining errors are nevertheless my responsibility. This work was supported by the Regional Government of Andalusia under Grant project SEJ-246 and the Andalusian Studies Centre under Grant project PRY131/11.

References

REFERENCES

Berry, Christopher. 2013. The Idea of Commercial Society in the Scottish Enlightenment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braudel, Fernand. 1979. Civilización material, economía y capitalismo, siglos XV–XVIII . Madrid: Alianza editorial.Google Scholar
Brewer, Anthony. 1997. “An Eighteenth-Century View of Economic Development: Hume and Steuart.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 4 (1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaney, David L., and Inayatullah, Naeem. 2010. Savage Economics: Wealth, Poverty and the Temporal Walls of Capitalism. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cabonet, Dominique. 2001. “The Formation and Development of Commercial Society in the Economics of James Steuart.” In Porta, Pier L., Scazzieri, Roberto, and Skinner, Andrew, eds., Knowledge, Social Institutions and the Division of Labour. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 265–284.Google Scholar
Dellemotte, Jean, and Walraevens, Benoît. 2013. “Adam Smith on the Subordination of Wage-Earners in the Commercial Society.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672567.2013.792375. Accessed 12 July 2018.Google Scholar
Doujon, Ruhdan. 1994. “Steuart’s Position on Economic Progress.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 1 (3): 495–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eagly, Robert. 1961. “Sir James Steuart and the ‘Aspiration Effect.’” Economica 28: 53–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltis, Walter. 1990. “Sir James Steuart’s Corporate State.” In Mair, Douglas, ed., The Scottish Contribution to Modern Economic Thought. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, pp. 197–219.Google Scholar
Fleischacker, Samuel. 2004. On Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Philosophical Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Geuma, Marco. 2002. “Republicanism and Commercial Society in the Scottish Enlightenment: The Case of Adam Ferguson.” In van Gelderen, M. and Skinner, Q., eds., Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage. Vol. 2, The Values of Republicanism in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 177–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halévy, Elie. 1948. The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism. London: Faber and Faber Limited.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 1999. “Jeremy Bentham and Adam Smith on the Usury Laws: A ‘Smithian’ Reply to Bentham and a New Problem.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 6 (4): 523–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David. [1739] 1987. A Treatise of Human Nature. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David. [1752] 1987. Of Luxury. In Hume, David, Essays. Moral, Political, and Literary. Indianpolis: Liberty Fund, pp. 268–280.Google Scholar
Israel, Jonathan. 2011. Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750–1790. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
James, Michael H. 1977. “Pierre-Louis Roederer, Jean-Baptiste Say, and the Concept of Industrie.” History of Political Economy 9 (4): 455–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Edgar A. J. 1937. Predecessors of Adam Smith: The Growth of British Economic Thought . New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
Karayiannis, Anastassios D. 1988. “James Steuart on Distribution.” Quaderni di Storia dell’ Economia Politica 6 (2): 25–50.Google Scholar
Karayiannis, Anastassios D. 1994. “Sir James Steuart on the Managed Market.” In Reisman, David, ed., Economic Thought and Political Theory. Norwell: Kluwer Academic Publisher, pp. 37–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalil, Elias L. 1987. “Sir James Steuart vs. Professor James Buchanan: Critical Notes on Modern Public Choice.” Review of Social Economy 45 (2): 113–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobayashi, Noboru. 1967. James Steuart, Adam Smith and Friedrich List . Tokyo: Science Council of Japan.Google Scholar
McColloch, William. 2011. “Marx’s Appreciation of James Steuart: A Theory of History and Value.” Working Paper No: 2011-09. Department of Economics, University of Utah.Google Scholar
Meek, Roland L. 1967. Economics and Ideology and Other Essays. London: Chapmand and Hall.Google Scholar
Meek, Roland L. 1973. Turgot on Progress, Sociology and Economics. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Menudo, José M. 2013. “Sir James Steuart’s Theory of Justice.” Économies et Sociétés, série PE: Histoire de la pensée économique 49: 1659–1679.Google Scholar
Perelman, Michael. 2000. The Invention of Capitalism: Classical Political History and the Secret History of Primitive Accumulation. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piteau, Michel. 2002. “Monnaie de compte et système de paiements chez James Steuart. Quel rôle pour la stabilité bancaire?” Revue économique 53 (2): 245–271.Google Scholar
Pocock, John G. A. 1981. “Virtues, Rights, and Manners: A Model for Historians of Political Thought.” Political Theory 9 (3): 353–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramos, Aida. 2007. “Economy, Empire, and Identity: Rethinking the Origins of Political Economy in Sir James Steuart’s Principles of Political Economy.” PhD dissertation, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN. http://etd.nd.edu/ETD-db/. Accessed 12 July 2018.Google Scholar
Ramos, Aida. 2011. “Luxury, Crisis and Consumption: Sir James Steuart and the Eighteenth-Century Luxury Debate.” History of Economics Review 53 (Winter): 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redman, Deborah. 1996. “Sir James Steuart’s Statesman Revisited in Light of the Continental Influence.” Scottish Journal of Political Economy 43 (1): 48–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutherford, Donald. 2012. In the Shadow of Adam Smith: Founders of Scottish Economics 1700–1900. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Andrew S. 1963. “Sir James Steuart: International Relations.” The Economic History Review 15 (3): 438–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Andrew S. 1966. “Introduction.” In Skinner, A. S., ed., An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Œconomy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 7–34.Google Scholar
Skinner, Andrew S. 1993. “Adam Smith: The Origin of the Exchange Economy.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 1 (1): 21–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Andrew S. 2006. “Sir James Steuart: Principles of Political Œconomy.” In Dow, A. and Dow, S., eds., History of Scottish Economic Thought. London: Routledge, pp. 71–101.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. [1776] 1981. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Steuart, Sir James. [1767] 1995. An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Œconomy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Taouil, Rédouane. 1995. “The Market According to Steuart.” Cahier de Sciences Économiques 1: 57–64.Google Scholar
Thirsk, Joan. 1978. Economic Policy and Projects: The Development of a Consumer Society in Early Modern England. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Tribe, Keith. 1988. Governing Economy: The Reformation of German Economic Discourse, 1750–1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Urquhart, Robert 1996. “The Trade Wind, the Statesman and the System of Commerce: Sir James Steuart’s Vision of Political Economy.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 3 (3): 379–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winch, Donald. 2006. “Scottish Political Economy.” In Goldie, M. and Wokler, R., eds., The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 443–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar