MACMILLAN The Politics of Commercial Treaties in the Eighteenth Century: Balance of Power, Balance of Trade

This book is the first study that analyses bilateral commercial treaties as instruments of peace and trade comparatively and over time. The work focuses on commercial treaties as an index of the challenges of eighteenth-century European politics, shaping a new understanding of these challenges and of how they were confronted at the time in theory and diplomatic practice. From the middle of the seventeenth century to the time of the Napoleonic wars bilateral commercial treaties were concluded not only at the end of large-scale wars accompanying peace settlements, but also independently with the aim to prevent or contain war through controlling the balance of trade between states. Commercial treaties were also understood by major political writers across Europe as practical manifestations of the wider intellectual problem of devising a system of interstate trade in which the principles of reciprocity and equality were combined to produce sustainable peaceful economic development.  Review “The volume at hand should be celebrated for highlighting their importance for early modern history in general and for political economy more specifically. … this excellent edited volume offers a welcome reminder not only of the high stakes of our current predicaments but also of how long they have been so and why peaceful international order remains so elusive in a world where wealth and power are positional goods.” (Sophus A. Reinert, Journal of Modern History, Issue 9, 2019) Review “The Politics of Commercial Treaties in the Eighteenth Century is that rare book that changes the way scholars look at their field. Economic historians have tended to look at economic theory or the history of industry and growth.  This brilliantly conceived book instead examines commercial treaties in historical context, showing that they contain far more accurate information on the reality of economic policy than books of theories or even laws.  These treaties form a remarkable corpus of economic thought and policy.  Edited and designed with great breadth by Alimento and Stapelbroek, this book is essential reading for all economic historians, and I believe it will bring new interest into this extremely rich and overlooked field.” (Jacob Soll, University of Southern California, USA) From the Back Cover This book is the first study that analyses bilateral commercial treaties as instruments of peace and trade comparatively and over time. The work focuses on commercial treaties as an index of the challenges of eighteenth-century European politics, shaping a new understanding of these challenges and of how they were confronted at the time in theory and diplomatic practice. From the middle of the seventeenth century to the time of the Napoleonic wars bilateral commercial treaties were concluded not only at the end of large-scale wars accompanying peace settlements, but also independently with the aim to prevent or contain war through controlling the balance of trade between states. Commercial treaties were also understood by major political writers across Europe as practical manifestations of the wider intellectual problem of devising a system of interstate trade in which the principles of reciprocity and equality were combined to produce sustainable peaceful economic development.  About the Author Antonella Alimento is an Associate Professor in Modern History at the University of Pisa, Italy. Her main research interests are European eighteenth-century political and economic history, with a special focus on France. Koen Stapelbroek is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Associate Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His research focuses on political economic thought in eighteenth-century Europe.