Nation-World: Autarky and Geo-economics in Montchrétien’s Traicté

Abstract

In his Traicte de l’oeconomie politique (1615), Antoine de Montchretien proposed a model of development, based on an autarkic economy, formulating analytical and political alternative to increasing integration of world trade, which in the seventeenth century was under Dutch and English hegemony. Montchretien’s response to the problem of world trade integration focused on the establishment of a French colonial empire, completely self-sufficient and closed to international trade. Montchretien proposed an “economic nationalism” connecting politics and the economy, in a perspective that would be called geo-economic, pitting nationalism against globalization to avoid the failure in international trade competition that could threaten the political survival and independence of the country’s national interests. This paper explores the analytical frameworks of Montchretien’s autarkic model, which constitutes an exception in the 17th century literature, which is focused on the idea of commercial supremacy and the gains of trade in a context of international competition.