Looking forward: Hales and Milles

David Reisman ()

Chapter 4 in Mercantilism, 2025, pp 32-44 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: War with the Spanish, French and Dutch necessitated stocks of gold and silver. Trade itself was a kind of war. Machiavelli and Hobbes had diagnosed self-interest and opportunism. Hales and Milles wrote about zero-sum economics in a time of conflict. Hales tried to situate individual interest in the context of the whole. ‘Love and society’ were not incompatible with the exchange ethos but wise leadership was needed as well. Milles praised the natural order and automaticity, but subject to state regulation. The consumption of luxuries reduces employment and sucks in imports. Like monopoly, it should be limited. Population should be augmented by natural increase and immigration. The chapter situates Wheeler on companies and Wilson on usury in the debate about market and state.

Keywords: War; Specie; Individual and national gain; Protective state; Consumption; Population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035347650
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