Commerce, Finance and Statecraft: Histories of England, 1600–1780 by Ben Dew (review)

This book explores how early modern English historians characterized the rise of capitalism. As the English population struggled to come to terms with the rapid spread of commerce, merchants, politicians, clergymen, and philosophers fiercely debated whether trade and credit could foster prosperity, not just for the elites, but for the entire population. For many, it was difficult to envision how the public might benefit from private ownership, private profiteering, and private accumulation. They feared that wealth would end up in the hands of a small number of people, who then would wield their power in ways that undermined long-established values, mores, and norms. The dire warnings of Aristotle and Machiavelli—that the pursuit of infinite private wealth would corrupt the polity and destroy the basis for convivial social relations—powerfully shaped public opinion. Numerous philosophers, from John Locke to Adam Smith, sought to calm these fears by arguing that commercial society was not only grounded in a benign set of natural laws, but also enjoyed a promising future. Historians have written voluminously about how early modern English philosophers and political theorists viewed the emergence of capitalism, but they have not had much to say about their own predecessors’ perspectives on capitalism. In this fine study, Ben Dew perceptively examines seventeenth- and eighteenth-century-historians of England’s narratives and normative assessments of commerce and finance, as well as monarchical policies designed to shape the new economic conditions.

While philosophers mostly employed conjectural histories to explain the development of modern commercial institutions, the English historians surveyed by Dew chronicled events and developments instrumental to the spread of commerce with a focus on evaluating whether policies enacted by past monarchs promoted or suppressed commercial prosperity. In what Dew calls histories of “economic statecraft,” they assessed the impact of policies on trade, money, taxes, and debts on the nation’s power and plenty. The sense was that rulers could, through wise management, navigate the treacherous moral landscape of capitalism and thereby ensure that commerce served as a powerful source of prosperity. Studying past successes and failures was therefore crucial to any monarch intent on promoting national opulence. The first economic history writers in England were thus self-consciously didactic and political.

The first historian examined by Dew, Sir Francis Bacon, wrote in the humanist tradition inspired by Tacitus. Intent on uncovering the causal mechanisms governing history, he investigated the relationship between the character, circumstances, and actions of monarchs. In the realm of economic statecraft, monarchs had to exhibit moral fortitude and manage the nation’s affairs with skill and acumen. In particular, they had to ensure that the nation steered clear of commercial practices that benefitted the few at the expense of the many, such as exporting raw materials that could have been worked-up and finished at home, thus creating employment for the poor. Allowing merchants to pursue the highest possible profits was a prudent policy only if it entailed the importation of new useful commodities, the negotiation of favorable contracts with foreigners, or the attraction of manufacturers to the nation, but not if it were generated by charging exorbitant prices, interest, or rents. For Bacon, commerce was Janus-faced; it had the capacity to promote either wealth, power, and plenty or poverty, weakness, and corruption. The monarch was responsible for making sure that the appropriate path was taken.

While Bacon held that prosperity was the result of skillful monarchical management, William Camden, the subject of the second chapter, insisted that the virtuousness of the monarch was critical to the nation’s wealth and happiness. Elizabeth I, Camden argued, served as the perfect illustration, appropriately prioritizing God, church, and commonwealth over her own pleasure and profit. She consistently managed the nation’s resources in the best interest of her subjects, never taxing too much and always ensuring that state revenues were allocated wisely. While Bacon and Camden agreed that the monarch’s actions set the tone for the nation, another...