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Hume Studies Volume XXII, Number 2, November 1996, pp. 369-382 The Promise of Peace? Hume and Smith on the Effects of Commerce on War and Peace ROBERT A. MANZER The crisis of legitimacy that led to the precipitate fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe proceeded in large part from the desires of peoples to join the West's cornucopia of consumer goods and advanced technologies. In the end, neither seventy years of official indoctrination in the evils of bourgeois society nor forced collectivization succeeded in stamping out such desires; and as the success of free markets highlighted the shortcomings of planned economies, they came to the fore. Unable to compete, the new model Soviet Man succumbed to the industrious, profit-seeking man of commerce, propelling the world toward a common way of life. In this way, the historic demise of Marxist communism appeared to confirm the much-storied power of commerce to bring peace. Just over two centuries ago, leading political and economic thinkers began to recognize that the explosive development of internal and international commerce might lead to a profoundly new epoch in human history. Many of course bemoaned the onset of this new epoch, seeing within the expansion of commerce the potential to unsettle previously authoritative moral understandings . Others greeted it with more optimism—even glee. In the expansion of commerce, they saw the potential for promoting a greater humanity, ending violent religious sectarianism, and elevating man's material estate. Most expressive of this new optimism, however, were the hopes for world peace that seemed substantiated by the pacific "spirit of trade" and "the mechanism of man's inclinations themselves."1 This article will examine the Robert A. Manzer is at the Department of Politics, University of Dallas, 1845 East Northgate Drive, Irving TX 75062-4799 USA. Email: manzer@acad.udallas.edu 370 Robert A. Manzer thought of David Hume'and Adam Smith on the meaning of the expansion of commerce for war and peace between nations. Previous treatments of this subject have focused on the "discovery" of "interest" and commerce,2 on the efforts to promote them in the service of peace and prosperity,3 and on the "inescapable ambivalence" in Hume's and Smith's visions of commercial modernity.4 While drawing on these earlier studies, I will focus more narrowly on Hume's and Smith's understandings of their own roles as shapers of opinion. The need to perform this role grows out of the fact that while they thought "the natural effect of commerce is to bring peace,"5 neither was confident that the spirit of commerce or the mechanism of man's inclinations would in fact accomplish this. For them, most importantly, prudence was necessary to ease the tensions between the commercial world and the one that preceded it, as well as those within the commercial world itself. In focusing on the roles of prudence and opinion in Hume's and Smith's thoughts on commerce and war, this article provides a helpful corrective to earlier interpretations that stress their contributions to "a deflection of political philosophy towards the economic"6 and a corresponding diminishment of politics and political judgment.7 It also provides a helpful perspective on the recent controversy over whether the contemporary expansion of democracy is a force for peace.8 In general, the literature on this controversy slights the importance of commerce in favor of the cooperation-inducing potential of democratic institutional constraints9 and democratic norms and cultures.10 In opposition, critics cite the intractability of a Hobbesian concern with security that breeds suspicion and anticipant strikes.11 To be persuasive, however, such arguments must take account of the power and character of economic self-interest, which is arguably the most prevalent and influential motive in the contemporary world. In this regard, Hume and Smith help us better understand modern self-interest by showing us how it depends on a certain intellectual basis. They show us how understandings of pride and self-interest itself must be carefully shaped to support modern self-interest. In addition, by returning us to the role of prudence in shaping this intellectual basis, Hume and Smith remind us of...

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