Part I. From Radical Calvinism to the American Revolution.↩

[introduction]

Although it is impossible to give a complete history of libertarian thought in a couple of pages, the aim of this introductory review essay is to sketch a very rough outline of such a history. Later reviews will deal with each major period and topic in greater depth. Here, however, we are only concerned with giving the reader some feeling for the rich heritage and varied origins of modern libertarian thought. With a reading of the classic texts and the recommended secondary literature, we can begin to appreciate the importance of understanding libertarian ideas in their historical context and their uneven development over the centuries.

It must be remembered that only very recently has a comprehensive libertarian world-view, encompassing a belief in natural rights, the free and unhampered market economy, methodological individualism, [3] anti-war and anti-imperialism and radical anti-statism, been developed.

Many people are aware of the contributions to liberal thought made by Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick, but it should be remembered that libertarianism did not begin with these thinkers nor can it end with them. It has taken considerable time to reach the present stage in the development of libertarian thought and it would be a mistake to ignore the people and movements which have contributed to its formulation. Our interest in the history of Real Liberal thought is no mere antiquarian interest but rather a recognition that the concerns which preoccupied great libertarians of the past are still timely. The great historical struggle between Liberty and Power (see the essay on this subject by Roy Childs, "The Permanent Revolution: Liberty Against Power," Laissez Faire Books, New York, 1975) is still with us and is far from over. We can learn much from previous efforts to come to terms with and understand State Power and it is for this reason we consider a study of the history of Libertarian ideas important.

To assist you in learning about the great libertarian movements of the past we will list some journal articles or chapters from books at the end of Part One. We feel these books and articles would be a useful way of introducing you to these ideas and could serve as basic reading for a study group or a weekly seminar.

§ I. Radical Calvinism and the Reformation

One should begin a history of Libertarian or Real Liberal thought with the Radical Calvinists of the 16th century Reformation. Out of the religious wars between the Protestants and the Catholic Church emerged a surprisingly modern theory of individual natural rights and justified violent resistance to authority. Using ancient Roman private law concepts to justify rebellion against tyrants, Radical Calvinists such as John Ponet, Christopher Goodman, George Buchanan in Scotland and England, and Francois Hotman, Theodore Beza and Mornay in France, transformed an essentially religious duty to resist into a secular, moral, and even natural, right of resistance. The best general introduction to the political thought of the Radical Calvinists is Quentin Skinner's The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Volume II: The Age of Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 1978), especially Part III: "Calvinism and the Theory of Revolution." On the classical and medieval origins of tyrannicide see the older work by Oscar Jaszi and John D. Lewis, Against the. Tyrant: The Tradition and Theory of Tyrannicide (Glencoe, Ill., 1957). To read the original texts, see John Ponet' s A Short Treatise of Politic Power, reprinted in W. S. Hudson, John Ponet 1516-1556. Advocate of Limited Monarchy (Chicago,1942); Christopher Goodman's "How Superior Powers Ought to be Obeyed of Their Subjects ... " in Puritan Political Ideas 1558-1794, ed. Edmund S. Morgan (Indianapolis, 1965), pp. 1-14; George Buchanan, The Powers of the Crown in Scotland, translated and edited by Charles Flinn Arrowood (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1949) and also the recent biography by I.D. McFarlane, Buchanan (Duckworth, 1981); Francois Hotman, Francogallia, translated by J. H. M. Salmon, ed. R. E. Giesey (Cambridge 1972); Theodore Beza, "The Right of Magistrates over Their Subjects," in J. H. Franklin, Constitutionalism and Resistance in the 16th Century (N. Y., 1969); see especially the almost anarchic anonymous pamphlet in French, "Political Discourses on the Various Forms of Power Established by God in the World," in Simon Goulart, Memoires de d'etat de France sous Charles neufième (Geneva, 1578); and Mornay, Vindiciae contra Tyrannos (Edinburgh, 1579).

One of the best examples of the abstract, universal, and secular reasoning of the 16th century monarchomachs comes from the young Catholic Etienne de la Boetie. His famous and influential Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (1548) was a spirited call for widespread civil disobedience. Boetie made two very profound insights into the nature of the State, viz., that all states are in essence a hierarchy of privilege which benefits a limited minority and that all states, including tyrannous ones, are based upon general popular acceptance. He concluded that tyranny can only be overthrown when the majority of the ruled withdraws its consent and thereby deprives the ruling minority of its support and grudging acceptance. The best modern edition is that introduced by Murray N. Rothbard, The Politics of Obedience (Free Life Editions, N.Y., 1975). For those who wish to view the original French alongside a 1735 English translation see The Will to Bondage, Libertarian Broadsides no. 6, ed. William Flygare (Ralph Myles Pub., Colorado Springs, 1974). For a discussion of Boetie's views see Rothbard's introduction and the essay by Nannerl 0. Keohane, "The Radical Humanism of Etienne de la Boetie," Journal of the History of Ideas, 38, 1977, pp. 119-130.

§ II. The Levellers and the English Revolution

The next major period of libertarian activity took place during the English Civil War (1642-1647), when a colossal outpouring of self-consciously libertarian pamphlets, speeches, and debates by the Levellers accompanied the Parliamentarians' challenge to the Crown. The Levellers are crucially important in the history of libertarian thought because they mark the beginning of the Radical Liberal tradition in England. They were the first to argue for a natural right to property which was prior to and independent of any political or social structure. They should also be remembered for their formulation of the concept of "self-propriety," or self-ownership, as well as for their uncompromising opposition to political and economic privilege in all its forms. The best way to learn about Leveller political theory is to read the collection of speeches, debates, and pamphlets from the turbulent 1640s, especially those by the most consistent and radical Levellers, Richard Overton, William Walwyn and John Lilburne. See C. H. Firth (ed.) The Clarke Papers (1891-1901 Camden Series, 4 vols.); W. Haller (ed.) Tracts on Liberty on the Puritan Revolution 1638-1647 (N.Y., 1934) 3 vols.; A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism and Liberty (London, 1974); Don M. Wolfe (ed.) Leveller Manifestoes of the Puritan Revolution (N.Y., 1944); W. Haller and G. Davies (eds.) The Leveller Tracts 1647-1653 (N.Y., 1944); two smaller but valuable collections are those edited by G. E. Aylmer, The Levellers in the English Revolution (Ithaca, N.Y., 1975) and A. L. Morton, Freedom in Arms (N.Y., 1975). Useful secondary works include [p. 4] T. C. Pease, The Leveller Movement (Washington,DC, 1910); Joseph Frank, The Levellers (Cambridge,Mass., 1955); W. Haller, Liberty and Reformation in the Puritan Revolution (N.Y., 1955) and the books by H. N. Brailsford, The Levellers and the English Revolution, ed. Christopher Hill (Manchester, 1976); the very important work by C. B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford, 1964); and Christopher Hill's stimulating and rich The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (Harmondsworth, 1974); as well as his recent biography of Milton, Milton and the English Revolution (Harmondsworth, 1979). All three authors should be used carefully because of their Marxist perspectives. Many authors cannot decide whether the Levellers are radical democrats or possessive individualists. Most importantly for libertarians, however, are their ideas on property rights, self-ownership, free trade, and their profound influence on the history of Classical liberal thought. The extent to which they wanted to extend the franchise is only of secondary importance. On Richard Overton see the essay by Carl Watner,"'Come What, Come Will!' Richard Overton, Libertarian Leveller," Journal of Libertarian Studies, IV,Fall 1980, pp. 405-432.

§ III. The Glorious Revolution and the Commonwealthman Tradition

Before leaving the 17th century, mention must be made of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the two libertarian authors working at that time whose political theories were to be so influential in the 18th century: John Locke and Algernon Sidney.

The importance of John Locke rests on his theories of property rights, justified revolution, and limited and constitutional government. Locke wrote his first draft of the Second Treatise of Government during the period 1679-1683 to provide a theoretical justification for resistance to the sovereign. Later, during his exile in Holland, the draft was completed and published in 1690. Locke's theory of the individual's natural right to property and his "homestead" principle for acquiring previously unowned property by "mixing one's labor" with it, provided the basis for his theory of the limited and revocable powers of any government. When the state overstepped its bounds and violated the natural rights of its subjects, it was the state, rather than the citizens, which was guilty of rebellion and must therefore be resisted by force. Locke's ideas were to provide a fundamental justification for the American colonists' revolt against the British empire and they remain a classic formulation of libertarian political theory.

The definitive edition of Locke's Two Treatises is Locke's Two Treatises of Government, A Critical Edition with an Introduction and Apparatus Criticus. ed. Peter Laslett (Cambrige University Press, 1965) whose introduction is important for having proved that the draft of the Treatises was written before the Revolution and was not an ex post facto justification. As a reminder that Locke was not a thoroughgoing libertarian see J. W. Gough's Introduction to John Locke, Epistola de Tolerantia. A Letter on Toleration, ed. R. Klibansky (Oxford, 1968), where it is shown that Locke did not believe in complete toleration, especially for atheists. Important secondary works on Locke include Maurice Cranston's definitive John Locke, A Biography (London, 1957); Richard Cox,Locke on War and Peace (Oxford, 1960); John Dunn, The Political Thought of John Locke (Cambridge,1969); Julian H. Franklin, John Locke and the Theoryof Sovereignty (Cambridge, 1978) and C. B. MacPher.son's The Political Theory of Possessive Individ.ualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford, 1977). See also the bibliographical review essay by Karen Vaughn, "John Locke's Theory of Property," in Literature of Lib.erty, (Spring, 1980) and her John Locke: Economist and Social Scientist, (Chicago, 1980). A very useful collection of essays on Locke has been edited by Gor.don J. Schochet, Life, Liberty and Property: Essays on Locke's Political Ideas, (Belmont, Calif., 1971).

As important as Locke is, one should not forget Algernon Sidney, whose Discourses Concerning Government (1698), justifying rebellion against the king and the primacy of parliament, became a virtual "textbook of Revolution" in the 18th century. Sidney influenced Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Jonathan Mayhew and even William Lloyd Garrison in America. The English Radical Whigs, Robert Molesworth, John Toland, Thomas Gordon, John Trenchard, and Thomas Hollis considered themselves part of the tradition begun by Sidney, Milton, Harrington, Marchrnount Needham and Henry Neville. Fortunately, the Discourses have been reprinted by the Arno Press in their European Political Thought: Traditions and Endurance series (1979). Caroline Robbins's article is also useful, "Algernon Sidney'sDiscourses Concerning Government: Textbook of Revolution," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series vol. IV, no. 3, 1947, pp. 267-296. On the 17th-century origins of the Commonwealthrnan and Radical Whig tradition see the important work by Caroline Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman (Harvard University Press, 1959), Chapters II and III.

A lesser known figure in the Commonwealthrnan tradition is William Wollaston, whose essay The Religion of Nature Delineated (originally published in 1722, but reissued by Stanley Tweyman, N.Y., 1974). George Smith has called "one of the finest essays on property rights ever penned." (See Smith's essay,"William Wollaston on Property Rights," Journal of Libertarian Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, Fall 1978, pp. 217.224.) Wollaston's essay is important because of its more radical defense of property rights than even Locke achieved. Wollaston stresses the right of "prime occupancy," the right to transfer property "by compact or donation," the absolute right to defend with force one's person and property from aggression, and the crucial importance of restitution in remedying rights' violations.

Introductory Readings.

I. Radical Calvinism.

• Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge University Press,1978); Volume II, "The Age of Reformation", Part III "Calvinism and the Theory of Revolution," chapters 7 ,8,9.
• Etienne de la Boetie, &The Politics of Obedience*, Murray N. Rothbard (ed.), (Free Life Editions,N.Y., 1975).

[p.5]

II. The Levellers.

• C.B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford,1964). Part three deals with the Levellers.
• G.E. Aylmer (ed.), The Levellers in the English Revolution (Ithaca, N.Y., 1975). The Introduction and Overton's great "An Arrow against all Tyrants", pp. 68f.

III. The Commonwealthmen.

• John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (any edition.)
• John Dunn, "Consent in the Political Theory of John Locke", in G.J. Schochet (ed.) Life, Liberty and Property. Essays on Locke's Political Ideas (Belmont, Calif., 1971), pp. 129-161.

Part II. From the Radical Whigs to the German Enlightenment↩

§ IV. The Radical Whigs and the American Revolution

Key Introductory Readings

• David L. Jacobson (ed.), The English Libertarian Heritage: From the Writings of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,1965). Introduction.
• Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Harvard University Press,1967). Especially Part II, "Sources and Tradition" and Part III, "Power and Liberty: A Theory of Politics."
• Cecilia Kenyon (ed.), The Anti-Federalists (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965). The Introduction.

The two most widely-read polemical Radical Whig authors were Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard. By means of their anti-clerical and anti-military essays, known collectively as The Independent Whig and Cato's Letters (written between 1720-23), they kept alive the Radical Whig traditions of natural rights, suspicion of the ever-encroaching nature of State power, and justified rebellion. Gordon and Trenchard were able to transmit these revolutionary ideas in popular form to the American colonies. One must savor the strong defense of liberty made by Trenchard and Gordon in the original; the complete Letters have been reprinted by Da Capo Press as John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, Cato's Letters: Essays on Liberty,Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects, 2 vols. (N. Y., 1971). A useful selection from both the Independent Whig and Cato's Letters, and a good introduction to their ideas, is found in The English Libertarian Heritage: From the Writings of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, ed. David L. Jacobson (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965). On Trenchard's opposition to standing armies see Lois G. Schwoerer, "No Standing Armies!": The Anti-army Ideology in 17th Century England (John Hopkins University Press,1974). Also see Caroline Robbins, The 18th Century Commonwealthman (New York: Athenaeum, 1968), pp. 115-125.

Thomas Hollis was an important connecting link between the English Commonwealthman tradition and the American Revolution. Hollis distributed libertarian tracts in both England and America and subsidized the publication of American revolutionary pamphlets, as well as reprinting the classics of the 17th century Commonwealthman tradition (such as Sidney and Locke). He was instrumental in supplying radical republican and libertarian literature to libraries in France, Switzerland, Italy, and to Harvard University. Caroline Robbins has written on "The Strenuous Whig: Thomas Hollis of Lincoln's Inn," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, no. 7 (1950), pp. 407-53. See also Colin C. Bonwick, English Radicals and the American Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977).

It is the Nature of Power to be ever encroaching, and converting every extraordinary Power, granted at particular Times, and upon particular Occasions, into an ordinary Power, to be used at all Times, and when there is no Occasion; nor does it ever paart willingly with any Advantage. -John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, February 9, 1722, Cato's Letters.

The radical libertarian nature of the American revolutionaries has only been recently acknowledged by historians. The pathbreaking work showing the connection between 17th-century English commonwealthmen and the American Revolution is Bernard Bailyn's collection of revolutionary pamphlets. Drawing upon Caroline Robbins' work, his "General Introduction" to the Pamphlets of the American Revolution 1750-1776, vol. I: 1750-1765, ed. Bernard Bailyn and Jane N. Garrett (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1965) shows the "transforming libertarian radicalism" of the American Revolution in the writings of such revolutionary leaders as Jonathan Mayhew, Thomas Fitch, James Otis, Oxenbridge Thacher, Daniel Dulany and John Dickinson. An expanded version of the Introduction was published as The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1967) and in summary form Bailyn's thesis can be found in his "The Central Themes of the American Revolution: An Interpretation," in S. Kurtz and J. Hudson, eds., Essays on the American Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,1973).

The ideological war against the British empire and the monarchy was continued by the radicals Thomas Paine and Richard Price. Paine is best remembered for his popular tract, Common Sense (1776), which attacked monarchical government and urged an immediate declaration of independence from the crown and the formation of a Republic, as well as for his passionate defense of the French Revolution, Rights of Man (1791, 1792). The dissenting clergyman, Richard Price, a self-styled "Honest Whig," defended natural rights, justice, and the right of a people to rebel against oppression, in his Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty ... and the Justice of the War in America, also published in 1776. Paine's rousing pamphlets can be found in the sometimes inaccurate edition of Philip S. Foner, Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine (Secaucus, N .J .: Citadel Press, 1974). The two best biographies are these by Alfred Owen Aldridge, Man of Reason (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1959) and David Freeman Hawke, Paine (N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1974). Eric Foner's Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1976) and C. C. Bonwick, English Radicals and the American Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977) are also useful studies. For a very useful critical survey of the literature on Paine see A. 0. Aldridge's "Thomas Paine: A Survey of Research and Criticism since 1945," The British Studies Monitor 5, 1975, pp. 3-29. Selections from Price's works can be found in B. Peach (ed.), Richard Price and the Ethical Foundations of the American Revolution (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1980). See also Carl B. Cone, Torchbearer of Freedom: The Influence of Richard Price on 18th Century Thought (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, KY, 1952) and D. 0. Thomas, The Honest Mind: The Thought and Work of Richard Price (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977).

The so-called Anti-Federalists (really "True Republicans" or radical Jeffersonian democrats) fought against the creation of a strong national government, as embodied in the Constitution. Men such as Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, and John Taylor opposed the ratification of the Constitution which created a Federal government with the powers to impose taxes at will and to create a standing army (which would consume taxes and could be used to create a new tyranny). It also provided a financial apparatus capable of dispensing privilege (thus creating a new aristocracy), and granted the office of the president such power that the office-holder could in effect, become a monarch. Although the Anti-Federalists lost the battle of Constitutional ratification to the Federalists, they were successful in creating the Bill of Rights (their attempt to undo the gains of the nationalists and to protect the rights of the individual against the inevitable encroachment by the State). The best collection of Anti-Federalist tracts is found in Cecilia Kenyon, The Anti-Federalists (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966).

Kenyon's "Introduction" is useful, along with her "Men of Little Faith: The Anti-Federalists on the Nature of Representative Government," William and Mary Quarterly, Vol 12 (1955), pp. 3-43. (Her use of the label "Men of Little Faith" refers to the typically libertarian, Commonwealthman lack of faith in the ability of a constitution to contain State power.) See also the collection by John D. Lewis, Anti-Federalists versus Federalists: Selected Documents (San Francisco: Chandler Publ. Co., 1962). For a sympathetic neo-Beardian analysis see Jackson Turner Main, The Anti-Federalist: Critics of the Constitution 1781-1788 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1974), and Robert A. Rutland's The Ordeal of the Constitution: The Anti-Federalists and the Ratification Struggle (University of Oklahoma Press, 1966). On the Bill of Rights as the legacy of the Anti-Federalists, see Herbert J. Storing, What the Federalists Were For: The Political Thought of the Opponents of the Constitution (University of Chicago Press, 1981 ). (Storing's definitive seven volume edition of The Complete Anti-Federalist has recently been published by the University of Chicago Press.)

One of the most uncompromising and radical Anti-Federalists was John Taylor, whose [p3] Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (1814), ed. Loren Baritz (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969) offers penetrating insights into the misuse of government power inevitable under the Constitution. His comment on the role of the State in creating a privileged class via national banking and funding are particularly acute and prophetic. John Taylor and George Mason were among the Radical Republicans (including John Breckenridge, Richard Henry Lee, Nathaniel Macon, George Logan, and John Randolph of Roanoke) who opposed Jefferson's movement away from the radical Whig position. On John Taylor see Robert E. Shalhope, John Taylor of Caroline, Pastoral Republican (University of South Carolina Press, 1980).

The radical views of George Mason can best be enjoyed by reading his papers, edited by Robert A. Rutland, The Papers of George Mason 1725-1792 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1970). On his life, see Rutland's George Mason: Reluctant Statesman (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg, 1961).

Finally, on the Radical Republicans, one should consult the uneven but often brilliant work by Charles A. Beard on a slightly later period, Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (New York: Free Press, I 965), especially Chapter XII, "The Politics of Agrarianism."

On the American Revolution in general see the extensive bibliographies compiled by Murray N. Roth.bard in his Conceived in Liberty, 4 vols. (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 195), and his "Modern Historians Confront the American Revolution," Literature of Liberty, vol. I, no. 1 ( 1978), pp. 16-41.

§ V. The French Enlightenment

Key Introductory Readings

• Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, vol. 2, the Science of Freedom (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977). Chapter 7, "The Science of Society," pp. 3 I 9-96, for a discussion of the philosophes' insights into sociology and the humane sciences; Chapter 8, "The Politics of Decency," pp. 397-447, on the powerful sense of natural right and justice of so many enlightenment thinkers.
• Keith Michael Baker (ed.), Condorcet: Selected Writings (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978). Baker's introduction is a good guide to Condorcet's thought and his historical setting.
• Eli Heckscher, "Mercantilism," in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York: Macmillan, 1933), vol. 10, pp. 333-39. A short statement of Heckscher's classic views on the mercantilist system.

If the 17th century witnessed the failure of the liberal Leveller revolution, then the 18th century can be said to embody its partial victory in the form of the American Revolution, and the Radical Enlightenment in France, England, Scotland, and Germany.

Across the Atlantic, the Enlightenment's influence in America is sympathetically traced by Henry F. May in The Enlightenment in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), especially in the section "the Revolutionary Enlightenment 1776-1800." Peter Gay, in his excellent two-volume history of Enlightenment thought, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, volume one: The Rise of Modern Paganism; volume two: The Science of Freedom (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977), has called the Enlightenment "the revolution of reason." Central to his interpretation is the vital connection between the rise of critical intelligence and reason on the one hand, and the autonomy and liberty of the individual on the other. Gay even goes as far as to claim, with some justification, that the idea of the free market and laissez faire was basic to Enlightenment thought; that Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) should be considered the "cardinal document of the Enlightenment." A useful essay on Gay's view of the Enlightenment is Chris Tame's "The Revolution of Reason: Peter Gay, the Enlightenment, and the Ambiguities of Classical Liberalism," Journal of Libertarian Studies, vol. I, no. 3, (1977), pp. 217-27.

On the continent of Europe, the Enlightenment had a profound influence in France. In the thought of the Physiocrats it produced what some have called the first theoretical awareness of the role of natural law in economics, and thus of the severe limitations on policy-makers in the economic sphere. See in particular the essay by 0. H. Taylor, "Economics and the idea of 'Jus Naturale'," Quarterly Journal of Economics ,vol. 44, no. 2 (1930), pp. 205-41, reprinted in his book Economics and Liberalism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1955), pp. 70-99. For the English case, see W. D. Grampp, "The Liberal Elements in English Mercantilism," Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 66 (1952), pp. 465-501, and Alfred F. Chalk, "Natural Law and the Rise of Economic Liberalism in England," Journal of Political Economy, vol. 59, no. 4, (1951) pp. 332-47.

One of the most important economists in France during this period was Richard Cantillon. His major contributions to economic thought include the doctrine of the harmony of interests, the important role of the entrepreneur in economic activity, an awareness of the macro-economic effects of State-monetary policy, opposition to the State privileged banking system, and an early formulation of Say's Law. Cantillon's Essai sur la nature de commerce en general (1755) was translated and edited by Henry Higgs for the Royal Economic Society (London: Macmillan 1931, reprinted 1959). On Cantillon, see Joseph J. Spengler, "Richard Cantillon: First of the Moderns," Journal of Political Economy, vol. 62 (1954), pp. 281-95, 406-24; W. Stanley Jevons, "Richard Cantillon and the Nationality of Political Economy," Contemporary Review, vol. 39 (1881), pp. 61-80 and the important introduction b yHayek to the German translation of Cantillon's Essai (Jena: Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1931).

Drawing upon Cantillon's insights, the Physiocrats Frarnçois Quesnay and Anne Robert Jacques Turgot advocated a policy of laissez faire, the reduction and more equitable distribution of the tax burden, and the elimination of the crippling mercantilist restrictions on trade and commerce (see especially Turgot's "Memoire sur les prêts d' argent," pp. 154-202 and "Lettres sur la liberté du commerce des grains," pp. 393-398, in Oeuvres de Turgot et documents le concernant, vol. 3 (Paris: Akan 1913-23). On the [p4] Physiocrats in general, see Ronald L. Meek, The Economics of Physiocracy: Essays and Translations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, The Origins of Physiocracy: Economic Revolution and Social Order in Eighteenth Century France (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976). The leading French authority on Physiocracy is Georges Weulersse; see Les Physiocrates (Paris: C. Doin et Cie., 1931). (Interested readers may also consult his four-volume history of Physiocracy.) Although the priority the Physiocrats gave agricultural over industrial or mercantile production now seems quaint and without theoretical foundation, the Physiocratic school should be remembered for their opposition to economic privilege, restrictions on trade, and their hard-core defense of laissez faire economic policy.

One of the most consistent and radical of the Physiocrats was the mathematician, philosopher, and politician Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet. A radical supporter of Turgot's laissez faire economic policies, Condorcet was in some ways even more radical than Turgot. For example, Condorcet demanded the elimination of forced labor; he was suspicious of reform carried out by the bureaucrats themselves; and he advocated the suppression of all seigneurial dues (he weakened in advocating compensation). See A. Condorcet-O'Connor and F. Arago, eds., Oeuvres de Condorcet, 12 vols. (Paris, 1847-49), vol. 11, pp. 59-86. In many pamphlets and essays, Condorcet advocated the extension of the franchise (eventually adopting universal suffrage); the recognition of equal rights for women ("On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship" (1790), in Keith Michael Baker, Condorcet: Selected Writings (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976), pp. 97.104); the spread of trade, free markets, and the industrial system to all parts of the world; the concomitant recognition of each individual's natural rights to life, liberty, and property; and the elimination of all prejudice, intolerance, and privilege. His inspiring essay, written in hiding during the Terror, addresses these issues: "Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind" (1793), reprinted in part in Selected Writings pp. 209-282, and in its entirety by Noonday Press (New York: 1955), translated by June Barraclough.

Unfortunately, Condorcet was not completely consistent. His radical liberalism was diluted by his advocacy of compulsory state education (which he felt was the only way to produce "virtuous" and educated citizens), state finance of public works, such as canals, and state provision of other public goods, such as a unified, reformed system of weights and measures, and a national currency. However compromised, his defense of the market and his optimistic view of human progress are worthy of serious attention by modem liberals. Useful discussions of his thought can be found in Keith Michael Baker's introduction to the Selected Writings, and Baker's much longer Condor.cet: From Natural Philosophy to Social Mathematics (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1975).

In order to understand what the Physiocrats were struggling against, one must appreciate the extent to which French society had been tied up by mercantilist restrictions. The classic work on the mercantilist system is still Eli Heckscher's Mercantilism, the revised edition by E. D. Söderland in two volumes (New York: Macmillan, 1955). An abbreviated version of Heckscher's thesis appears in the article "Mercantilism" in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, (New York: Macmillan, 1933), vol. 1O, pp. 333-39. A useful collection of essays discussing the Heckscher thesis has been edited by D. C. Coleman, Revisions in Mercantilism (London: Methuen, 1969). The restrictions and injustices of the mercantilist system inevitably provoked opposition. The development of this opposition during the reign of Louis XIV has been described by L. Rothkrug in his Opposition to Louis XIV: The Political and Social Origins of the French Enlightenment (Princeton University Press, 1965).

The time will therefore come when the sun will shine only on free men who know no other master but their reason; when tyrants and slaves, priests and their stupid or hypocritical instruments will exist only in works of history and on the stage; and when we shall think of them only to pity their victims and their dupes; to maintain ourselves in a state of vigilance by thinking on their excesses; and to learn how to recognize and so to destroy, by force of reason, the first seeds of tyranny and superstition, should they ever dare to reappear among us. - Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Human Mind.

§ VI. The German Enlightenment

Key Introductory Readings

• Hans Reiss (ed.), *Kant's Political Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1980). Reiss's introduction is a useful discussion of Kant's political views.
• Paul Sweet, "Young Wilhelm von Humbolt's Writings (1789-93) Reconsidered," Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 34, no. 3, (1973).
• Marianne Cowan (ed.), Humanist without Portfolio: an Anthology of the Writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1963). The organization of the translations is very confusing. The section "Political Principles," pp. 29-64, is the most useful and contains selections from most of Humboldt's important works.

There was also a German component to the European-wide phenomenon of Enlightenment. Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Fichte, and Wilhelm von Humboldt all contributed considerably to the Enlightenment in general, and to classical liberalism in particular. Friedrich Schiller was especially concerned with the problem of authority and State power. The relationship between the individual and authority is a dominant theme in his many plays, especially in his earlier and more radical "Die Verschwörung des Fiesko zu Genua" ("Fiesko's Conspiracy in Genoa"). "Fiesko" was translated by Henry G. Bohn in The Works of Friedrich Schiller: Early Dramas and Romances (London: Bell and Daldy: 1873). A useful introduction to [p5] Schiller's ideas on power is Gordon A. Craig's "Friedrich Schiller and the Problems of Power" in The Responsibility of Power: Historical Essays in Honor of Hajo Holborn (New York: Doubleday, 1967), edited by Leonard Krieger and Fritz Stern.

An intellectual giant of the 18th century, Immanuel Kant, deserves to be read by modern libertarians. As the "philosopher of the French Revolution" he sympathized with the aims of both the American and French revolutionaries, and sought to defend the independence and dignity of the individual in the face of authority. Kant is perhaps best known for his attempt to derive philosophical principles upon which a lasting, morally just, and peaceful world order could be based. His essay, "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" (any edition, although Kant's Political Writings, ed. Hans Reiss, translated by H. B. Nisbet, (Cambridge University Press, 1980), pp. 93-130, is a very useful collection) is an attempt to view peace as "the quest of justice between men through justice between states." (See the intelligent and careful chapter on Kant in W. B. Gallie, Philosophers of Peace and War: Kant, Clausewitz, Marx, Engels and Tolstoy (Cambridge University Press, 1979.)

Kant made important contributions to classical liberal thought, not least of which was his use of natural law concepts, first to oppose Frederick the Great's doctrine of enlightened autocracy, and then to help shape the idea of the rule of law (Rechtsstaat). Kant's other contributions to liberal thought include: the view that man's inner life must not be subject to coercion, that all individuals have a fundamental right to acquire property, that individuals have inalienable and equal rights, and that no individual should ever involuntarily serve as the·means to someone else's ends. Kant expressed this last principle in the following way: "Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time and as an end." See Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), edited and translated by H. J. Paton, p. 96.

The most important German liberal of the period is Wilhelm von Humboldt. His 1792 essay, Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staates zu bestimmen ("The Limits of State Action"), is a passionate defense of individual liberty and an exposition of the need to protect the individual from the state, so that one's potential may be fully developed. The essay is also important for the effect it exerted on more influential, but less consistent, classical liberals such as John Stuart Mill. The relationship between Mill and Humboldt is discussed in Robert Leroux, "Guillaume de Humboldt et J. Stuart Mill," Etudes Germaniques, vol. 6, nos. 3-4 (1951), pp. 262-274 and vol. 7, nos. 2-3 (1952) pp. 83-87. Unfortunately, few of Humboldt's writings have been translated into English. His 1792 essay was first translated by Joseph Coulthard as The Sphere and Duties of Government (London, 1854); this translation was recently reprinted (with a more accurate title) as The Limits of State Action (Cambridge University Press, 1969), edited by J. W. Burrow.

To investigate Humboldt's life and thought, one would do well to begin with any one of the following sources: Burrow's introduction to The Limits of State Action; the recent article by Paul R. Sweet, "Young Wilhelm von Humboldt's Writings (1789-93) Reconsidered," Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 34, no. 3 (1973), pp. 469-482; Sweet's Wilhelm van Humboldt: A Biography (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1978) especially Chapter 3, pp. 83-120 and the appendix on "The Publication, Reception and Influence of The Limits of State Action pp. 303-307; or the article by Ralph Raico, "Wilhelm von Humboldt," The New Individualist Review, vol. I, no. 1. (1961), pp. 18-22. (Incidentally, The New Individualist Review has been reprinted in toto in a handsome edition by Liberty Press: Indianapolis, 1981.) The best biography remains the old and still valuable work by R. Haym, Wilhelm van Humboldt: Lebensbild und Charakteristic (Berlin: 1856; reprinted, Osnarbrück: 1965). On Humboldt's political thought, the study by Robert Leroux, Guillaume de Humboldt: La formation de sa pensée jusqu'en 1794 (Paris: Societe Edition: Les Belles lettres, 1932) is important. Also see Siegfried A. Kaehler's Wilhelm v. Humboldt und der Staat (Munich: 1927; reprinted Gottingen: Vandenhoek and Ruprecht, 1963 ), especially Chapter 5, "Die Abkehr vom Staate" ("The Renunciation of the State"), which stresses Humboldt's hostility to the State.

Although Humboldt compromised his early radical liberalism by his later support of the Prussian state, (he became Minister for Public Worship and Education), his earlier writings are valuable contributions to the corpus of classical liberal thought. Apart from his major work, The Limits of State Action, Humboldt's letter to his friend Gentz (the basis of his later work), is well worth reading. It has been reprinted and edited by Albert Leitzman in "Politische Jugendbriefe Wilhelm von Humboldt an Gentz," Historische Zeitschrift, vol. 152 (1935), pp. 48-89. Humboldt's other essays worth reading include "Ideen über Staatsverfassung, durch die neue französische Constitution veranlasst" ("Ideas on government, occasioned by the new French Constitution") (1791), "Über die Gesetze der Entwicklung der menschlichen Kräfte" ("On the Laws concerning the Development of Human Powers") (1791), "Das achzehnte Jahrhundert" ("The Eighteenth Century") (1796-97), and "Betrachtungen über die Weltgeschichte" ("Observations on World History") (1814).

Some of these essays have been translated in extract form in the curious and badly organized collection, Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the Writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1963), edited by Marianne Cowan. Humboldt's theory of history is put forward in the essay, "Über die Aufgabe des Geschichtschreibers" ("On the Historian's Task") (1812), [p6] which has been translated into English as the appendix to The Theory and Practice of History (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973), ed. G. G. Iggers and K. Moltke. For readers fluent in German, all of these essays can be found in Wilhelm von Humboldt, Werke in fünf Bände, vol. I, Schriften zur Anthropologie und Geschichte (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, 1960), ed. A. Flitner and K. Giel.

Reason cannot desire for man any other condition than that in which each individual not only enjoys the most absolute freedom of developing himself by his own energies, in his perfect individuality, but in which external nature itself is left unfashioned by any human agency, but only receives the impress given to it by each individual by himself and of his own free will, according to the measure of his wants and instincts, and restricted only by the limits of his powers and his rights. - Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action.

Before leaving the German enlightenment, the liberal phase of Johan Gottlieb Fichte must be briefly mentioned. Fichte is more commonly regarded as a socialist thinker than as a classical liberal forebear. In Der geschlossene Handelstaat ("The Closed Commercial State," 1800), Fichte advocated the organization of society and production in such a way as give near-total control over property, and hence power, to legally-privileged guilds. Earlier, when the influence of the French Revolution on his thought was at its height, Fichte had been a radical, individualistic liberal. He began with a spirited defense of the freedom of expression, "Zurückforderung der Denkfreiheit von der Fürsten Europas, die bisher unterdrückten" ("Demanding Freedom of Thought back from the Princes of Europe, Who Have Suppressed It up til Now") (1793), and then moved on to write one of the best and most radical liberal defenses of the French Revolution ever written, later in the same year.

A much more theoretical and generalized defense of individual rights, "Beitrag zur Berichtigung der Urteile des Publikums über die französiche Revolution" ("Contribution to Correcting the Public's Opinion of the French Revolution") was an extreme development of the Lockean notion of natural rights and the autonomy of the individual. Fichte saw the earlier phase of the French Revolution as the embodiment of the right of the individual to his or her life, liberty and property and went so far as to push the theory of "contract" to its logical end: the right of each individual to withdraw their consent from the State and to form a separate political community within the confines of the old State and without being molested by it. Unfortunately, these two important essays have never been translated into English. They are readily accessible, for those who read German, in two books; the first is Beitrag zur Berichtigung der Urteile des Publikums über die französische Revolution, edited by Richard Schottky (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1973). Schottky's "Introduction" stresses the Lockean radicalism of Fichte's pamphlets as well as what he calls "The anarchistic radicalization of the rationalistic-liberal theory of the State." The second, edited by Bernard Willms, is *Schriften zur Revolution ("Writings on the Revolution") (Koln und Upladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1967). Both books have useful bibliographies.

Key Introductory Readings

Part II. From the Radical Whigs lo the German Enlightenment

IV. The Radical Whigs and the American Revolution

• David L. Jacobson (ed.), The English Libertarian Heritage. From the Writings of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965). Introduction.
• Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, 1967). Especially Part II, "Sources and Tradition" and Part III, "Power and Liberty: A Theory of Politics."
• Cecilia Kenyon (ed.), The Anti-Federalists (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965). The Introduction.

V. The French Enlightenment

• Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, vol. 2, The Science of Freedom (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977). Chapter 7, "The Science of Society," pp. 319-96, for a discus.sion of the philosophes' insights into sociology and the humane sciences; Chapter 8, "The Politics of Decency," pp. 397-447, on the powerful sense of natural right and justice of so many enlightenment thinkers.
• Keith Michael Baker (ed.), Condorcet: Selected Writings (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978). Baker's introduction is a good guide to Condorcet's thought and his historical setting.
• Eli Heckscher, "Mercantilism," in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York: Macmillan,1933), vol. 10, pp. 333-39. A short statement of Heckscher's classic views on the mercantilist system.

VI. The German Enlightenment

• Hans Reiss (ed.), Kant's Political Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1980). Reiss's introduction is a useful discussion of Kant's political views.
• Paul Sweet, "Young Wilhelm von Humbolt's Writings (1789-93) Reconsidered," Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 34, no. 3, (1973).
• Marianne Cowan (ed.), Humanist without Portfolio: an Anthology of the Writings of Wilhelm van Humboldt (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1963). The organization of the translations is very confusing. The section "Political Principles," pp. 29-64, is the most useful and contains selections from most of Humboldt's important works.

Part III. § VII. The Scottish Enlightenment↩

Recommended Reading

• Jane Randall, The Origins of the Scottish Enlightenment 1707-1776 (London: Macmillan, 1978).
• Andrew Skinner, "Adam Smith: An Economic Interpretation of History," in A.S. Skinner and T. Wilson eds., Essays on Adam Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975).
• Peter Stein, "Adam Smith's Theory of Law and Society," Classical Influences on Western Thought, 1650-1870 (Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 263-73.
• Donald Winch, Adam Smith's Politics: An Essay in Historiographic Revision (Cambridge University Press, 1979).
• T. D. Campbell, "Adam Smith and Natural Liberty," Political Studies, 1977, XXV, 4, pp. 523-34.
• Jacob Viner, "Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire," in The Long View and the Short: Studies in Economic Theory and Policy (New York: The Free Press: 1958), pp. 213-45.

The Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century is one of the more remarkable periods in the development of liberal ideas. It was here that political economy as a discipline came of age with the magnificent work of Adam Smith: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1981), ed. R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner. The Scottish Enlightenment also made incalculably important contributions to the study of history, sociology, legal theory, moral philosophy, and the science of politics. A small measure of its value can be seen from the quite palpable influence it has had on Friedrich Hayek, one of the leading classical liberal writers of the twentieth century. One need only look at Hayek's three volume treatise Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement Of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy (University of Chicago Press, 1973-1979) to get some idea of the Scottish influence on his social and legal philosophy (from David Hume) and his idea of spontaneous order (from Adam Ferguson).

A good place to begin sorting through the huge literature dealing with the Scottish Enlightenment is the short essay by Nicholas Phillipson, "The Scottish Enlightenment," The Enlightenment in National Context (Cambridge University Press, 1981), ed. Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich, pp. 19-41, and the collection of extracts edited by Jane Randall, The Origins of the Scottish Enlightenment 1707-1776 (London: Macmillan, 1978). For a more detailed treatment, concentrating on the economic and legal aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment, see the collection of essays Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 1983), ed. Istvan Hont and Michael Ignatieff. For the best collection of essays about Adam Smith and his contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment, see Adam Smith: Critical Assessments (London: Croom Helm, 1984), 4 vols., ed. John Cunningham Wood.

Hutcheson

In many ways the Scottish Enlightenment began with the moral philosophy of Francis Hutcheson who interpreted the seventeenth century natural jurisprudence tradition of Grotius and Pufendorf for a new generation of thinkers. Hutcheson's A System of Moral Philosophy (l75 5) contains many social, legal, and economic insights which were developed in much greater depth later in the century by writers such as Adam Ferguson, Lord Kames, John Millar, William Robertson, and Adam Smith. The other major pioneer of the Scottish Enlightenment was David Hume whose contributions to social philosophy and history were immense. On Hutcheson, see W. L. Taylor, Francis Hutcheson and David Hume as Predecessors of Adam Smith (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1965) and Caroline Robbins, "When is it That Colonies May Turn Independent: An Analysis of the Environment and Politics of Francis Hutcheson 1669-1746," William and Mary Quarterly, 1954, 11, pp.214-51. On Hume, see Duncan Forbes, "Politics and History in David Hume," Historical Journal, 1963, 6; Duncan Forbes, Hume's Philosophical Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1975); Friedrich Hayek, "The Legal and Political Philosophy of David Hume," in Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (University of Chicago Press, 1969); Eugene Rotwein, David Hume: Writings on Economics (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970).

"each (man) has a natural right to exert his powers, according to his own judgment and inclination, for these purposes, in all such industry, labour or amusements, as are not hurtful to others in their persons or goods ... This right we call natural liberty."

"Mankind have generally been a great deal too tame and tractable; and hence so many wretched forms of power have always enslaved nine-tenths of the nations of the world, where they have the fullest rights to make all efforts for a change."

Francis Hutcheson

Historical & Sociological Contributions

Although the Scottish Enlightenment is probably best remembered for its contribution to economic theory, it also made fundamental contributions to history and sociology. For the first time, the categories of economic analysis were applied in a systematic manner to the study of history and social institutions to create what was known as "Theoretical or Conjectural History." For example, it was observed that the ancient world [p7] and the recently discovered aboriginal societies of North America had very different economic and social structures from the more commercial societies of eighteenth century Europe. Lord Kames in his Historical Law Tracts (1758), AdamSmith in his "Letter to the Authors of the Edinburgh Review" (1755), Adam Ferguson in Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), and William Robertson in History of America (1777) developed a sophisticated theory of historical change based upon the structure of property rights and the particular means of production in each of the different societies to explain the varying degrees of economic progress. On the history of what is known as the "four stages theory" of economic development, see Ronald L. Meek, Social Science and the Ignoble Savage (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1976).

Class Analysis

Related to the development of their historical understanding was the creation of a theory of class. Adam Ferguson and John Millar are the most interesting precursors of modern sociology in this period. In Ferguson's An Essay on the History of Civil Society (Edinburgh University Press, 1965) ed. Duncan Forbes, and Millar's The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (reprinted in Lehmann, John Millar of Glasgow, cited below, pp. 165-322) and An Historical View of the English Government (London,1803 ), ed.J. Craig and J. Mylne the idea that political privilege, based upon one's social or economic position, is a determining factor in explaining the history and development of political power. Marxists like Ronald Meek have seized upon this aspect of Scottish thought as an early presentiment of the materialist theory of history. However, a closer examination of Ferguson and Millar reveals their liberal inclinations and the importance they placed on non-economic (i.e. political) forms of privilege. On the class analysis and general sociological theory of the Scottish Enlightenment, see David Kettler, The Social and Political Thought of Adam Ferguson (Ohio State University Press, 1965 ); William C. Lehmann, John Millar of Glasgow, 1735-1801, bis Life and Thought, and his Contribution to Sociological Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 1960); William C. Lehmann, Adam Ferguson and the Beginnings of Modern Sociology (Columbia University Press, 1930); William C. Lehmann, "John Millar, Historical Sociologist: Some Remarkable Anticipations of Modern Sociology," British Journal of Sociology 3, 1952, pp. 30-46; A. Swingewood, "Origins of Sociology: The Case of the Scottish Enlightenment," British Journal of Sociology, 1970, 21, pp. 164-80; D. A. Reisman, Adam Smith's Sociological Economics (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1976); Duncan Forbes, "Scientific Whiggism: Adam Smith and John Millar," Cambridge Journal 7, 1954, pp. 643-70; Andrew Skinner, "Economics and History: The Scottish Enlightenment," Scottish Journal of Political Economy 12, 1965, pp. 1-22; Andrew Skinner, "AdamSmith:AnEconomic Interpretation of History," in A. S. Skinner and T. Wilson eds., Essays on Adam Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975); Ronald L. Meek, "The Scottish Contribution to Marxist Sociology," Democracy and the Labour Movement (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1954), ed.J. Saville; Andrew Skinner, "A Scottish Contribution to Marxist Sociology?" in Classical and Marxian Political Economy: Essays in Honour of Ronald L. Meek (London: Macmillian, 1982), ed. Ian Bradley and Michael Howard, pp. 79,114; Albert Saloman, "Adam Smith as Sociologist," in Social Research 12, 1945, 22-42; and Albion W. Small, Adam Smith and Modern Sociology (University of Chicago Press, 1907).

"It is expected that the prerogatives of the monarch, and of the ancient nobility will be gradually undermined, that the privileges of the people will be extended in the same proportion and that power, the usual attendant of wealth, will be in some measure diffused over all the members of the community." John Millar

"Men who have tasted of freedom, and who have felt their personal rights, are not easily taught to bear with encroachments on either, and cannot, without some preparation, come to submit to oppression." AdamFerguson

Legal Theory

The linchpin of the "system of natural liberty" advocated by Adam Smith and the other representatives of the Scottish Enlightenment was a legal system which represented individual liberty and property, dispensed fair and inexpensive justice, and allowed for the expansion of individual opportunity by permitting the expansion of commerce and industry. The basic sources on Scottish legal theory are Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1976), ed. D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie and Lectures on Jurisprudence (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1982), ed., R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael and P. G. Stein. For a discussion of Scottish jurisprudence, see the following works by Peter Stein, "Adam Smith's Theory of Law and Society," Classical Influences on Western Thought, 1650-1870 (Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 263-73; "Scottish Philosophical History of Law," in Legal Evolution: The Story of an Idea (Cambridge University Press, 1980), pp. 23-50; "Legal Thought in Eighteenth Century Scotland," Juridical Review 1, 1957, pp. 1-20; "The General Notions of Contract and Property in Eighteenth Century Scotland," Juridical Review 8, 1963, pp. 1-13; "Law and Society in Eighteenth Century Thought," in N. T. Phillipson and R. Mitchison eds., Scotland in the Age of Improvement (Edinburgh, 1970). Other useful pieces on Scottish legal theory include [p8] N. McCormick, "Adam Smith on Law," Valparaiso University Law Review, 1980; the essays by James Moore and Michael Silverthorne, David Lieberman, and J. G. A. Pocock in Wealth and Virtue, cited above; T. D. Campbell, "Adam Smith and Natural Liberty," Political Studies XXV, 4, 1977, pp. 523-34; and Knud Haakonssen, The Science of a Legislator: The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume and Adam Smith (Cambridge University Press, 1981).

"As it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that we obtain from one another the greater part of those mutual good offices which we stand in need of, so it is this same trucking disposition which originally gives occasion to the division of labour."

"The real recompense of labour, the real quantity of the necessaries and conveniences of life which it can procure to the labourer, has, during the course of the present century, increased perhaps in a still greater proportion than its money price."

Adam Smith

Political Economy

But whenever the contributions of the Scottish Enlightenment to liberal social theory may be, the development of the science of political economy is perhaps the most important and Adam Smith's An Inquiry into theNature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1981), 2 vols., ed. R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner, is justifiably the most famous example of it. Wealth of Nations (1776) combines a formidable historical knowledge of, both ancient and contemporary economic history and statistics with a theory of how an advanced commercial society operated. Smith was not just content with describing the effects of the expansion of commercial and industrial relations which were then transforming European society. He also was engaged in a fierce struggle to end the inefficient and unjust mercantilist restrictions which were hampering trade, retarding economic growth and prosperity, and threatening to cause a major break with the North American colonies. On Adam Smith's political involvement in the revolutions of his time, see E. A. Benians, "Adam Smith's Project of an Empire," Cambridge Historical Journal 1, 192 5, pp. 249-83; C.R. Fay, "Adam Smith, America, and the Doctrinal Defeat of the Mercantile System," Quarterly Journal of Economics 48, 1934, pp. 304-16; J. A. La Nauze, "The Substance of Adam Smith's Attack on Mercantilism," Economic Record, pp. 90-93, 193 7; R. Koebner, "Adam Smith and the Industrial Revolution," The Economic History Review II, 3, 1959, pp. 381-91; and Donald Winch, Adam Smith's Politics: An Essay in Historiographic Revision (Cambridge University Press, 1979).

Adam Smith & Laissez Faire

Although Adam Smith was no believer in laissez-faire (reserving rather extensive public good functions for the state) the broad analytical framework he worked out was an improvement on what had gone before and laid the basis for more radical laissez-faire theorists, such as the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Say, in the future. On the debate about whether Smith believed in laissez-faire, see the works cited in the previous paragraph as well as the following: Lionel Robbins, The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1952); Jacob Viner, "Adam Smith and Laissez.Faire," in The Long View and the Short: Studies in Economic Theory and Policy (New York: The Free Press: 1958), pp. 213-45; Warren J. Samuels, The Classical Theory of Economic Policy (Cleveland: World, 1966); Albert Schatz, L'individualisme économique et sociale (Paris: Armand Colin, 1907); Jacob Viner, "The Intellectual History of Laissez-Faire," Journal of Law and Economics 3, 1960, pp. 45-69; and Andrew S. Skinner, "The Functions of Government," in A System of Social Science: Papers Relating to Adam Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979). More generally on Adam Smith's economic and political theories, see E.G. West, "Adam Smith's Economics of Politics," History of Political Economy 8, 4, 1976, pp. 515-39; Ronald Hamowy, "Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and the Division of Labour," Economica 3 5, 1968, pp. 249-59; and Samuel Hollander, The Economics of Adam Smith (University of Toronto Press, 1973).

Adam Smith's economic theories were to have a profound effect on both liberal thought and government policy in the nineteenth century, particularly in France and England. The next part of our "Outline" will deal with Jean-Baptiste Say and the liberal movement which developed in France.

"Such neglect of the history of the law, is the more strange, that in place of a dry, intricate and crabbed science, law treated historically becomes an entertaining study: entertaining not only to those whose profession it is, but to every person who hath any thirst for knowledge." Lord Kames

Part IV: French Liberalism from the Revolution to the end of the Nineteenth Century. (incomplete)↩

Recommended Reading.

• Anthony Arblaster, The Rise and Decline of Western Liberalism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984).
• Western Liberalism: A History in Documents from Locke to Croce ed. E.K. Bramstead and K.J. Melhuish (London: Longman, 1978).
• Gary Kates, The Cercle Social, the Girondins, and the French Revolution (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985).
• Thomas E. Kaiser, "Politics and Political Economy in the Thought of the Ideologues," History of Political Economy, 1980, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 141-60.
• Renee Winegarten, Mme de Staël (Leamington Spa, Dover: Berg, 1985).
• Guy Howard Dodge, Benjamin Constant's Philosophy of Liberalism: A Study in Politics and Religion (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980).
• H.O. Pappé, "Sismondi's System of Liberty," The Journal of the History of Ideas, 1979, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 251-66.

Introduction.

The great English liberal movement of the nineteenth century is probably the best known of the classical liberal movements. The liberal struggle for deregulation of industry and agriculture, lower taxes, parliamentary reform, opposition to militarism and the empire, and above all free trade largely defined what it meant to be liberal in the nineteenth century. But it would be a mistake to assume that liberalism was a purely English or Anglo-Saxon phenomenon. Organised and sophisticated liberal movements also sprang up on the European continent and contributed to the progressive democratization and industrialization of political and economic life in the hundred years between the overthrow of Napoleon in 1816 and the beginning of the First World War in 1914. One of the most interesting continental liberal movements arose in France and it is this branch of the liberal family which is the subject of this issue of the Review.

In order to do it justice, the nineteenth-century English liberal movement will be discussed in a future issue of the Review. For readers who can't wait until then to find out more about it the following works should provide a useful introduction to British liberalism in the nineteenth century. A general overview of British public policy which includes a discussion of the laissez-faire liberals is given by Sydney Checkland, British Public Policy, 1776-1939. An Economic, Social and Political Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 1985). W.D. Grampp deals with the most radical liberal economists in The Manchester School of Economics (Oxford, 1960). The entire classical economics school is the subject of D.P. O'Brien, The Classical Economists (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978). A magisterial account of the rise and fall of British liberalism is W.H. Greenleaf's two volume The British Political Tradition (London and New York: Menthuen, 1983).

No entirely adequate general treatment of nineteenth-century liberalism exists. One must make do with Guido de Ruggiero, The History of European Liberalism trans. R.G. Collingwood (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967); Anthony Arblaster, The Rise and Decline of Western Liberalism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984); Massimo Salvadori, The Liberal Heresy: Origins and Historical Development (London: Macmillan, 1977); and the collection of extracts from liberal writers in Western Liberalism: A History in Documents from Locke to Croce ed. E.K. Bramstead and K.J. Melhuish (London: Longman, 1978). A proper assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of nineteenth-century European liberalism still remains to be done.

The Eighteenth-Century Origins of French Liberalism

In volume one, number two of the Humane Studies Review we discussed the contribution of the French Enlightenment to the development of liberal thought, noting the particular influence of the Physiocrats and the philosopher Condorcet. The Physiocrats should be remembered for their natural law defense of property rights, their understanding of the theory of spontaneous order in economics, and their radical defense of the free market in agricultural products at a time when no internal market, let alone external markets with other nations, was free of extensive government control. On Physiocratic economic theory see Ronald L. Meek, The Economics of Physiocracy: Essays and Translations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963). The philosopher Condorcet should be remembered for his writings on the constitutional limits to state power, the right of women to vote, his attacks on the immorality of slavery, and his theory of economic and social progress. Condorcet is most accessible in the short collection of his writings edited by Keith Michael Baker, Condorcet: Selected Writings (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976).

The Girondins

During the political and economic turmoil of the French Revolution liberals played an important role in trying to limit the power of the state to interfere in the lives of French citizens. The most bitter battles in the early stages of the Revolution were against populist and socialist groups which wished to imprison and execute opponents without proper trials and which endeavoured to regulate the economy by imposing draconian price controls and requisitioning of goods for the war effort. The liberal party which opposed the increasingly socialist direction the revolution took in the early 1790s was know as the Girondins, named after the area around the port of Bordeaux where many of them originally came. The Girondins, such as Nicolas Bonneville, Jacques-Pierre Brissot, J.A.N. Condorcet, Claude Fauchet, François Lathenas, Manon Roland, and Etienne Clavière, organised influential clubs and societies in order to spread their liberal theories as well as to publish a considerable number of books and pamphlets through their publishing association, the Imprimerie du cercle social.

The Girondins were politically defeated by the left and many of them were dispersed or even summarily executed. Had they succeeded in defeating the left, the French Revolution might have taken a very different path than it did. The massive centralization of the French national state, the excesses of Napoleon's Empire-building, and the discrediting of revolutionary liberal ideology might have been avoided with incalculable consequences for the course of modern history. The most recent assessment of the Girondins' organization and theories is Gary Kates, The Cercle Social, the Girondins, and the French Revolution (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985). A special colloquium was held in 1975 on the struggle between the Girondins and the left, Actes du Colloque: Girondins et Montagnards (Sorbonne, 14 décembre 1975), sous la direction d'Albert Soboul (Paris: Société des Etudes Robespierristes, 1980). See in particular the essay by Marcel Dorigny, "Recherche sur les idées économiques des Girondins."

The Idéologues

After the defeat of the Girondins the liberal movement had a much less prominent public face. To some extent the liberal movement had to withdraw from politics and go underground as successive waves of revolutionary fervor and reaction swept across France. Liberal ideas were still discussed in private salons and in small circulation journals. One such journal was the Décade philosophique where the young political economist Jean-Baptiste Say began his intellectual career. Say was part of a group of liberals who called themselves "idéologues" who reacted against the socialist and statist political theories which were thrown up by the revolution. The ideologues wanted to create a science of human behaviour which would be firmly based upon the accurate observation of individual and collective human activity.

For example, Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis developed theories of applied medecine and psychology in Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme (Paris: Guiraudet, 1830); Pierre-Claude-François Daunou argued for constitutional limits to state power in order to protect the individual in Essai sur la constitution (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1793) and Essai sur les garanties individuelles que réclame l'état actuel de la société (Paris: A. Bobée, 1822); whilst Antoine-Louis-Claude Destutt de Tracy applied psychological theory to the study of society and especially the economy in A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws (New York: Burt Franklin, 1969) and A Treatise on Political Economy trans. Thomas Jefferson (Georgetown, 1817). See Cheryl B. Welch, Liberty and Utility: The French Idéologues and the Transformation of Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984); Emmet Kennedy, "'Ideology' from Destutt de Tracy to Marx," Journal of the History of Ideas, 1979, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 353-68; Emmet Kennedy, A Philosophe in the Age of Revolution: Destutt de Tracy and the Origins of "Ideology" (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1978); Daniel Klein, "Deductive Economic Methodology in the French Enlightenment: Condillac and Destutt de Tracy," History of Political Economy, 1985, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 51-71; Franco Venturi, "Destutt de Tracy and the Liberal Revolutions," in Studies in Free Russia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 59-93; and Thomas E. Kaiser, "Politics and Political Economy in the Thought of the Ideologues," History of Political Economy, 1980, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 141-60.

The Coppet Circle

Another private circle of liberal thought was the group which gathered around Anne Louise Germaine Necker (better known as Madame de Staël) at her château of Coppet near Geneva. Mme de Staël was the center of liberal opposition to the arbitrary and despotic rule of Emperor Napoleon. She encouraged the work of the political philosopher and novelist Benjamin Constant and the political economist and historian Simonde de Sismondi, as well as writing several important works herself. In the field of literature Mme de Staël was one of the first feminist novelists with Corinne ou l'Italie (Une édition féministe de Claudinne Herrmann, Paris: Editions des Femmes, 1979). She also introduced the French reading public to the importance of German culture with her essay De l'Allemagne, ed. J. de Pange et S. Balayé (1958-60).

De Staël is also famous as an historian. Her influential liberal history of the Revolution, the Considérations sur la Révolution française ed. Jacques Godechot (Paris: Tallandier, 1983), is extremely important as is her De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales ed. P. Van Tieghem (1959). The latter is a pathbreaking attempt to understand the complicated connections between literature and politics. De Staël's liberal republican political sympathies and her skill as a political pamphleteer are revealed in her essay on Des circonstances actuelles qui peuvent terminer la révolution et des principes qui doivent fonder la république en France ed. L. Omanici (1979). On Mme de Staël see Renee Winegarten, Mme de Staël (Leamington Spa, Dover: Berg, 1985); G. E. Gwynne, Madame de Staël et la Révolution française: politique, philosophie, littérature (Paris: A.G. Nizet, 1969); and Ghislain de Diesbach, Madame de Staël (Paris: Librairie Académique Perrin, 1983).

Benjamin Constant, like Madame de Staël, was a novelist of some note with Adolphe (1816) but is best known for his work on constitutional theory, the theory of individual liberty, and militarism. Less known is his important work on political economy where Constant vigorously defended the free market and the policy of laissez-faire. As a staunch opponent of the dictator Napoleon Constant made a clear distinction between the "spirit of conquest", which was typified in the military and imperialist policies of Napoleon, and the productive possibilities of the market in an important work entitled De l'esprit de conquête et de l'usurpation dans leurs rapports avec le civilsation européene (1814).

Constant thought that the modern era, with the benefits provided by industrialization and constitutional limits to arbitrary rule, had made a fundamental break with the ancient world with its limited political freedom granted only to citizens and its martial spirit so hostile to trade. His views on the distinction between ancient and modern liberty can be found in De la liberté des anciens comparée à celle des modernes (1819) and his constitutional plan for limited government in Principes de politique appliquables à tous les gouvernements représentatifs, et particulièrement à la Constitution actuelle de la France (1818-20). Constant's radical economic views can be found in Commentaire sur l'ouvrage de Filangieri (1822). Constant has recently again come to the attention of historians. See Guy Howard Dodge, Benjamin Constant's Philosophy of Liberalism: A Study in Politics and Religion (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980); Stephen Holmes, Benjamin Constant and the Making of Modern Liberalism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984); Kurt Kloocke, Benjamin Constant: Une Biographie intellectuelle (Genève: Librairie Droz, 1984); Carlo Violi, Benjamin Constant: per una storia della riscoperta politica e religione (Roma: G. Gangemi, 1985); and the collection of his works in De la liberté chez les modernes ed. Marcel Gauchet (Paris: Livre de Poche, 1980).

Simonde de Sismondi is less clearly part of the radical liberal movement. He shared Mme de Staël's interest in literature writing a monumental history of literature in southern Europe, De la littérature du midi de l'europe (1813). He also engaged in lengthy studies on the nature of free constitutions, Recherches sur les Constitutions des Peuples Libres (1796-99), particularly as they developed in the Italian republics of the early modern period, Histoire des Républiques Italiennes (1807-18). Sismondi became interested in the poverty of the peasants of Tuscany where he lived, writing a Tableau de l'agriculture de la Toscane (1801). This led him to the study of political economy and Adam Smith.

Sismondi's first writings on political economy were orthodox in their adherence to Smith's ideas, La richesse commerciale (1803), but the problems of periodic economic crises, the difficulties peasants experienced in the transition to industrial capitalism, and the conditions of factory workers in the new industrial towns led Sismondi to question orthodox Smithian economics in Nouveau principes d'économie politique (1819). His doubt encouraged later socialist writers such as Karl Marx but Sismondi himself never abandoned liberal policies. He was just concerned that orthodox liberal political economy had not adequately treated these above-mentioned problems. In other matters Sismondi was extremely liberal. For example his denunciation of slavery in Etudes sur économie politique (1837-38) and his multi-volume history of France. See H.O. Pappé, "Sismondi's System of Liberty," The Journal of the History of Ideas, 1979, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 251-66; and Alfred Berchtold, "Sismondi et le groupe de Coppet face à l'esclavage et au colonialisme," Sismondi européen. Actes du Colloque international tenu à Genève les 14 et 15 septembre 1973 sous la présidence de Sven Stelling-Michaud (Genève: Slatkine, 1976), pp. 169-98.

Restoration Liberalism

Following the defeat of Napoleon it appeared that some kind of constitutionally limited monarchy would be created. Liberals took this opportunity to introduce their own ideas on constitutions and the protection of individual rights. Unfortunately the promise of a constitutional monarchy was short-lived. Censorship and political reaction drove the liberal movement underground once again. The only avenue open to them was the careful publication of theoretical works which could not offend those in power. For many critics of the restored monarchy, among whom many were liberals, history became the best way of indirectly attacking the monarchy. See Stanley Mellon, The Political Uses of History: A Study of Historians in the French Restoration (Stanford University Press, 1958).

The most important liberals in this period from 1816 to 1830 were the economic liberals around Jean-Baptiste Say and the political liberals around François Guizot. The work of Jean-Baptiste Say and his colleagues Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer were discussed in a previous issue of the Humane Studies Review (vol. 3 no. 1). We dealt with their theories of class and their insight that the state and its dependents unproductively live off the productive activities of those trading in the market place. Their theories were based upon the economic ideas of Jean-Baptiste Say which were first presented in the Traité d'économie politique (1803).

This seminal economic work is the most important text of nineteenth-century French liberal thought. Say not only presented a coherent account of Adam Smith's ideas for a French audience but he also modernized Smith to take account of the incredible economic changes which were taking place as part of the industrial revolution. Say also added important new insights into the role of entrepreneurs in economic activity and the productive nature of much economic activity which Smith and others had not recognized. In addition to Say's contribution to economic theory is his many important historical and sociological asides which deal with the problem of slavery and serfdom, the harmful consequences of Napoleon's economic interventionism, and the self-seeking (or rent-seeking as we would now call it) of those in political office. Say's Treatise went through many editions, the most authoritative being that published as vol. 9 of the Collection des principaux économistes ed. Horace Say (1841). His other major work is the Cours complet d'économie politque pratique, ed. Horace Say (Paris: Guilaumin, 1840) which is more a work of sociology and theoretical history than a pure work of economics. On Say see Michael James, "Pierre-Louis Roederer, Jean-Baptiste Say, and the Concept of Industrie," History of Political Economy, 1977, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 455-75; Thomas Sowell, Say's Law: An Historical Introduction (Princeton University Press, 1972); Edgar Allix, "J.-B. Say et les origines de l'industrialisme," Revue d'économie politique, 1910, vol. 24, pp. 303-13, 341-63; Patricia J. Euzent and Thomas L. Martin, "Classical Roots of the Emerging Theory of Rent Seeking: The Contribution of Jean-Baptiste Say," History of Political Economy, 1984, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 255-62.

Charles Comte, Charles Dunoyer and Augustin Thierry were much influenced by Say's work and applied his insights in their analysis of the problems facing contemporary French society. In particular they were aware that there were profound political and "moral" (i.e. social) consequences to Say's vision of a market society. The political consequences were that an expanding market required a massive decrease in the power and size of the state if trade and industry were to expand. Private property had to be extended to all spheres of life and protected at all costs from military, religious and political intervention. The "moral" or social consequences were that a politically privileged elite would no longer be necessary for the functioning of society. Traditional functions would be replaced by the market thus making the nobility, the established church, the privileged military, slavery and serfdom superfluous. A levelling of power and privilege would result in a new "industrial" class coming to power. By this Comte and Dunoyer did not mean that the new industrial class would seize political power, as many technocratic socialists argued, but that it would be the predominant class in society. The industrial class would be numerous, wealthy, forward-looking and innovative, gradually surpassing all other classes in prestige and wealth. Government policies far from favouring this class would merely remove all political impediments to its economic activity. The best examples of Comte and Dunoyer's vision of the future market society can be found in their journal Le Censeur européen, in particular Charles Comte, "Considérations sur l'état moral de la nation française, et sur les causes de l'instabilité de ses institutions," Le Censeur européen, 1817, vol. 1, pp. 1-92; Charles Comte, "De l'organisation sociale considérée dans ses rapports avec les moyens de subsistance des peuples," ibid, vol. 2, pp. 1-66; Charles Dunoyer, "Considérations sur l'état présent de l' Europe, sur les dangers de cet état, et sur les moyens d'en sortir," ibid, vol. 2, pp. 67-106; Dunoyer, L'industrie et la morale considérées dans leurs rapports avec la liberté (Paris: A. Sautelet, 1825).

In the 1830s and 1840s Comte and Dunoyer wrote lengthy works of sociology and history in which they explored the historical origins of class societies, the nature of slavery as an economic system of exploitation, the nature of property and its changing historical form, the reasons the French revolution betrayed its liberal beginnings and developed into a new and vicious form of class rule, and the confusions of the socialists in opposing the continued growth of laissez-faire capitalism. See Dunoyer, De la liberté du travail (1845) and Comte, Traité de législation (1827) and Traité de la propriété (1834). On Comte and Dunoyer see Shirley M. Gruner, Economic Materialism and Social Moralism (The Hague, 1973); Elie Halévy, "Saint-Simonian Economic Doctrines," in Essays on Socialism and War: The Era of Tyrannies (New York, 1965); Ephraim Harpaz, "Le Censeur européen: histoire d'un journal industrialiste," Revue d'histoire économique et sociale, 1959, vol. 37, pp. 185-218; and Leonard Liggio, "Charles Dunoyer and French Classical Liberalism," Journal of Libertarian Studies, 1977, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 153-78.

Augustin Thierry was a close colleague of Come and Dunoyer who made his reputation as an historian. Thierry wrote many articles for Le Censeur européen, in particular a series on the revolutions which took place in sevententh-century England in which he argued that the limits placed on the power of King William of Orange in 1688 was a useful example for the French people to follow in the present. Thierry's radical free market ideas appeared in Des nations et de leurs rapports mutuels (1817) and his sympathy for the emerging industrial class is apparent in a later history of the revolutionary Third Estate Essai sur l'histoire de la formation et des progrès du Tiers Etat (Paris: Furne, 1853). Thierry became less involved with politics and political journalism and more interested in historical research in which he made some remarkable progress in forging a liberal theory of class and history. His main works are Dix ans d'études historiques (1835); Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Noramnds (1825); Récits des temps mérovigiens (1840). On Thierry see Rulon Nelphi Smithson, Augustin Thierry: Social and Political Consciousness in the Evolution of a Historical Method (Genève: Librairie Droz, 1973); and Kieran Joseph Carroll, Some Aspects of the Historical Thought of Augustin Thierry, 1795-1856 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1951).