Der moderne Staat und 'le doux commerce'

Enlightenment debates about ‚doux commerce‘ revolved around crucial questions about how to organize the modern state and economy: Do commerce and market economies lead to an increase in welfare and liberty, and do they civilize societies as well as international relations? Or do they rather bring about new inequalities, configurations of power and conflicts? Discussions of these questions produced a variety of theories about the organization of the state, the economy and the international system that still influence contemporary debates as well as current political and economic practice.

This volume brings together contributions by experts on central positions in the European Enlightenment. Putting a particular focus on their respective characteristics and the differences and similarities between them, the essays collected here cover individual thinkers like Saint-Pierre, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Smith and Fichte as well as broader currents like the physiocrat movement and debates in revolutionary France.

With contributions by Olaf Asbach, Marc Bélissa, Matthias Bohlender, Bruce Buchan, Paul Cheney, Dieter Hüning, Isaac Nakhimovsky, Marco Platania, Céline Spector, Koen Stapelbroek/Antonio Trampus and Hans-Ulrich Thamer.