ABSTRACT
James Steuart has been frequently designated a ‘late mercantilist’, or at least singled out as an economist who, in the second half of the 18th century, supported old-fashioned mercantilist principles. Steuart examines external trade among countries in similar levels of development, as well as among states differing in their levels of development. Effectively, a great part of Steuart’s considerations on external trade envisages the asymmetric relation between ‘industrious’ states and primitive people. Statesmanship is indispensable in both environments, trade confronting manufacturing countries and primitive states, and trade among developed countries. Besides, and following a tradition of debates on the relation between ‘value of money’ and exchange rate that goes back at least to Locke, Steuart’s approach encompasses three basic features of national monetary systems: debasement, the heterogeneity of pieces under the same stamp, and coinage rates. Credit relations are envisaged as inherent in trading societies, money naturally arising from them.
