Global Commerce in the Age of Enlightenment

J. Bohorquez is a researcher at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociais, University of Lisbon, Portugal. He was a fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

Introduction: On global commerce: topoi, utopias, and the existential production of knowledge. Part I: “The granary of the universe” Travelogues, observations, evidence, and a global history of property. 1. Pierre Poivre: A microglobal life. 2. Eighteenth-century travel accounts: Platforms for economic observations. 3. Feudal Laws: Liberties for a few. 4. An empirical turn: Evidence and the attack on the economists. Chapter 5. Property rights: A global history. Part II: “A universal warehouse of workforce” Re-industrialisation, delocalisation, de-urbanisation, and the propagation of economic maxims. 6. Ange Goudar: Does the republic of economists need transgressive authors?. 7. The will to know: The praxis of economic maxims. 8. The will to write: North and South Europe in transnational perspective. 9. Industry’s geometry and geography. 10. Materialising ideas: A chamber of Agriculture. Part III: “A universal intercourse of traffic as is desired” Free ports, fairs, and institutional evolution in a global perspective. 11. Free ports: the idol of all economists. 12. Lasting and unlasting markets: From Medieval fairs to free ports. 13. Institutional diversity: Free ports, the Navigation Act, and the Drawback system. 14. A Mediterranean silk road: Venice, Genoa, and Piedmont. 15. Tyre and Carthage: Failed projects and new glocal fairs. Conclusion. Bibliography.