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Comércio e conquista na História das duas Índias do abade Raynal

2017; Volume: 21; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4013/htu.2017.213.01

2236-1782

Tiago Silva,

Political and Social Issues

The article discusses the contrast between commerce and conquest in the Enlightenment. By focusing on Abbé Raynal’s narrative on ancient, medieval and modern Europe, it aims to trace his arguments on both practices, demonstrating how the first one was capable, over time, of supressing the detrimental consequences generated by the second one. Our source for investigation is the third version of the Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des européens dans les deux Indes, published in ten volumes in 1780. In addition, we seek to draw parallels between the perspectives inscribed in Raynal’s work and the production of other French-British thinkers of the Enlightenment, establishing theoretical relations based on the work of Pierre Rosanvallon, John Pocock and Albert O. Hirschman. We advance the conclusion that for Raynal commerce constitutes a kind of locomotive of the civilizing process. By controlling the irrational and rampant passions evoked by the spirit of the conquest, commerce would be crucial to the formation of political corpus where peace, freedom and prosperity would reign.Keywords: trade, conquest, Enlightenment, Raynal.