ABSTRACT
But inasmuch as the shift from republicanism to mercantilism accurately describes the changes of the seventeenth century's last decade, we must acknowledge that the characterization of that transition as 'revolutionary' is a red herring. Although radical politics played an important role in the events of 16881690, those politics were orchestrated and led by many of the wealthy Whig merchants who had played instrumental roles in the Exclusion Crisis. What I want to suggest in this chapter is that 1688 marked a culmination, rather than a revolution, as the populist version of Whig radicalism had been finally and ineluctably outflanked by antipopulist, crown partisans. In effect, entrepreneurial individualism was the only viable political ideology left to the Whigs.
