Commerce and Virtue
Most Enlightenment philosophers believed the growth of commerce would have a civilizing influence. But they remained convinced that virtue was necessary in its own right, and they liked the idea that men might increasingly be motivated by interests, rather than by passions.
Interests require cognitive attention, even calculation. Passions, on the other hand, connote impulse and emotion, femininity and heat. The distinction between the interests and the passions became the basis for a new concept of stages of development, the secular pilgrim's progress. Man was climbing an historical ladder beyond the feudal pursuit of power and glory to the commercial pursuit of pecuniary gain.40 As Saint Lambert put it, ‘‘I believe it is better for a people to obey frivolous epicureans than fierce warriors, and to feed the luxury of voluptuous and enlightened rascals rather than the luxury of heroic and ignorant robbers.''41 Better still, many economists would later argue, to obey noble and innovative capitalists.The distinction between interests and passions was somewhat overdrawn. The term ‘‘interest'' conveys calm consideration. When attached to the word ‘‘self'', however, its meaning shifts. Self-interest arises from self-love, or amour-propre, a term the French particularly liked. Love implies not only interest and commitment but also emotion. Self-interest is susceptible to self regulation. But self-love threatens greed and lust. Confidence in a society based on the pursuit of interests, therefore, requires that self-interest is not carried to passionate extremes.
Such was the consensus of most contributors to the remarkable compendium of eighteenth century French thought edited by Diderot and D'Alembert, the Encyclopedie, the first volumes of which appeared in 1765. The entry on ‘‘commerce'' could hardly have been more enthusiastic about the civilizing effects of trade, portraying it as an advantageous alternative to war: ‘‘The Supreme Being forged the bonds of commerce in order to incline the peoples of the earth to keep peace with each other and to love each other.''42
Commerce was good if men were good, and men were good if they were wise. Why fuss over the possibility of conflict between individuals and society, instead of hoping for the best?
Saint Lambert even published a catechism for children, an alternative to what the local priest might recommend. ‘‘Question: Who are those that love themselves aright? Answer: Those who seek to know one another and who do not separate their own happiness from the happiness of others.”43 The wisest of men (philosophers, of course) were not tormented by greed; they merely desired the basic comforts of life. In his essay on need, Diderot distinguished between real needs and those created by society and fashion. He defined the duties of men as making themselves and their fellows happy.44