Sovereignty and Economy According to Montchrestien and Cantillon

Jérôme Maucourant ()
Additional contact information
Jérôme Maucourant: UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne, TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The political constitution of markets is promoted by Montchrestien whereas, on the contrary, the absolute autonomy of the sphere of exchange is favoured by Cantillon. Yet, this article seeks to demonstrate that both authors also participate in the emergence of a modern way of thinking about the economy. In both cases, we find the idea that the sphere of exchange acquires an autonomy which requires the application of a specific science. In the case of Cantillon, this autonomy is absolute and anticipates the foundations of contemporary economics. On the other hand, Montchrestien's work forms part of a ``political economy''. This article also aims to show that the mercantilism attributed to Montchrestien in no way implies that, in principle, the economy when theorised as such is a simple transposition of a war-like model. Similarly, it will seek to show that Cantillon, a supposed mercantilist, does not suggest that state intervention is futile, even if he adheres to the fundamental principles of economic liberalism. This modernity has two sides, represented by these texts which present economics as a science for the first time. It will be suggested that it allows us to call into question the postmodern theses which imagine a contemporary economic world in which the classical notion of sovereignty is totally absent.

Keywords: money; exchange; political economy; markets; Sovereignty; trade; Montchrestien; Cantillon; modernity; liberalism; selfregulation; auto-constitution of society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03146917v1
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Economic alternatives, 2020, 2020 (1), pp.5-32. ⟨10.37075/EA.2020.1.01⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03146917v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03146917

DOI: 10.37075/EA.2020.1.01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().