ABSTRACT
This chapter starts from a twofold observation made by French authors in the first half of the eighteenth century: the world had become a commercial one, and the English “science of trade”, particularly as regards foreign trade in its relationship to politics, was incomparably superior to the French approach. Melon, Cantillon, Montesquieu, Vincent de Gournay and Forbonnais, all in various ways adopted this science which saw in trade the principal means of the power of a nation and in the balance of trade the measure of that power. The application of the principles of this science to a large state like France, however, posed a twofold question. Are the effects of this trade as beneficial in such a kingdom as in a republic with a smaller territory, and will not this trade tend to change the nature of the monarchical and agricultural State? And more generally, are there not limits to enrichment through this trade, which is uncertain, subject to variations in the quantity of money, and which is moreover an expression of the rivalry of nations?
