ABSTRACT
Mercantilism, the realism of Thomas Hobbes, and the raison d’état of Cardinal Richelieu have much in common. They project a view of the international arena as a state of nature with finite resources, where all states are pitched against each other as their interests come into conflict. Most disturbing of all, there is neither a Leviathan to impose order nor a powerful enough sense of a moral order, such as universal Christendom, to override priorities of state. Modern economic statecraft emerged from these conditions.
