Emily Erikson, Trade and Nation: How Companies and Politics Reshaped Economic Thought

Abstract

Trade and Nation is a major work in historical sociology on the rise of modern economic thought. Erikson offers a thoroughly researched account of the transition from medieval economic thought to the emergence of modern thought in England in the seventeenth century. But it is more than an historical account, she also offers a sociological explanation. Medieval ideas of the economy were part of a religious view of the world and were also deeply moral. But in the seventeenth century, people began to frame economic issues very differently from the preceding centuries when scholastic discourse dominated. Instead of notions of fair exchange and individual morality, it was the ideas of growth, the balance of trade, and the prosperity of the nation that took precedence. The transition, between 1580 and 1720, had huge implications for the modern economy in that it made possible a new discourse, one that was the basis of the modern science of economics. It also laid the foundations for economic nationalism. The needs of the state – crown and nation – were given predominance over social concerns, such as the welfare of the poor. The new economic discourse took place within the context of the nationstate, which was in need of new ideas for economic growth. The seventeenth century saw the rise of a vast body of writings on commerce and trade. In this period, there was also some major debates on the economy, though the notion of the economy as such was not widely used to frame debates. One of the most consequential debates for the new era of mercantilism was the argument, advanced by Thomas Mun, for the over-riding importance of the balance of trade, which began to be seen as operating on its own dynamics and not something that could be easily controlled by governments. In this period, the basic tenets of liberal economic theory were taking place. Erikson provides an explanation of why this take-off occurred and why it did so in England, and not elsewhere as, for example, in the Dutch Republic where the 1158881 ISS0010.1177/02685809231158881International SociologyReviews: Economic Sociology review-article2023