From the Science of Trade to “Commerce politique”
“Commerce politique” is a French phrase that was widespread in diplomacy. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, it referred to the code of conduct which applied to public discussion, more particularly when negotiating treaties and alliances between nations.
The expression thereafter acquired a broader meaning of political sociability or court ceremonial. Veron de Forbonnais introduced the expression into economic language by giving it most of the attributes of the science of trade. He made systematic use of it in the 1750s, contrasting the “practical merchant [who] sees in trade nothing but his fortune” with the “political merchant [who] considers the wealth of all, that is, the wealth of the State” (Veron de Forbonnais 1753: 114). This distinction also appears in Dutot (1738 [1739]: 257), who uses it as a way of asserting the primacy of “general trade” over “particular trade”. “Commerce politique” is therefore trade observed and analysed from the viewpoint of the political body, that is, the national interest. It is an adaptation to the French intellectual context of the British “science of trade”. A sign of the greater sophistication of the analyses of British writers, the references, the borrowings of ideas and the translations increased in the middle of the eighteenth century. The climax of this British vogue is Vincent de Gournay’s intendance (1751-58). It is under the latter’s administration that works of John Cary, The British Merchant (edited by C. King), Charles Davenant, David Hume, Josiah Child, Thomas Culpepper, Lord Bolingbroke, Josiah Tucker and Matthew Decker were translated.However, a feature of the British literature was the contrast between, on the one hand, Britain and the free States of Holland, and, on the other hand, the absolute monarchies of France and Spain. Moreover, William Petyt, Nicholas Barbon and Davenant described France as an absolute monarchy with pretentions to be a universal monarchy. What concerned therefore the French writers was to prove that France, even with an agricultural territory and neither a mixed constitution nor a Republican government, could be a trading nation just as Britain and Holland and even commercially dominate the other nations in Europe. Three main attempts were made in this direction: Melon’s parable of the islands, the “doux commerce” thesis and the developments proposed by the Vincent de Gournay circle.