Commerce, Culture, and Liberty - by Henry C Clark

Book Synopsis

This collection of thirty-seven readings (from thirty-three writers) brings together some of the most significant pre-Adam Smith writings on the political and cultural dimensions of capitalism. To modern readers, these seventeenth- and eighteenth-century discussions of commerce and economic life in general are surprising because they are so closely integrated with current moral and cultural issues. Part of the value of this book is in reminding us that many of our own concerns are not without precedent and earlier reflection.

The selections come both from now-unfamiliar authors who were influential in their own time, as well as from such well-known writers as Rousseau, Defoe, Fielding, Montesquieu, and Voltaire. The essays emphasize the human meaning of the market; they were selected to provide a sense of the range of opinion that prevailed on the broader significance of the market economy before it became a pervasive feature of modern life.

Henry C. Clark is a Visiting Professor in the Political Economy Project at Dartmouth College. He has written two books and numerous articles, mainly on the French and Scottish Enlightenments.

Review Quotes

"Contemporary opinion in Western Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as shown in the anthology Commerce, Culture, and Liberty reveals a wealth of 'modern' ideas about economic life and commercial culture. Editor Henry C. Clark did not select readings that reflect a single doctrine. Yet, most of these authors in their time appear to have participated in the same conversation about the same general topics."

Itinerario
2005

"Deftly compiled and edited for contemporary readers by Henry C. Clark, Commerce, Culture, and Liberty: Readings On Capitalism Before Adam Smith is an amalgamation of significant writings published before Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" (1776) impacted the world's perceptions on economics. A wide variety of authors ranging from Voltaire, to Ferdinando Galiani, to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, contribute to this absorbing source of pre-Adam Smith perceptions and judgments about economic matters prior to the birth of the American nation as a capitalist beacon to the nations of the world."

Wisconsin Bookwatch
July 2003

"It turns out that Smith did not in fact emerge naked from the sea foam with his 1776 classic Wealth of Nations to found capitalism. The 37 essays and articles, about a quarter translated from French, reveal the thinking about commerce by some well known and less well known writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, and particularly highlight the moral and ethical contexts and concerns that have fallen by the wayside since."

Reference & Research Book News
August 2003