In 1776, France appeared peaceful on the surface, but unrest was brewing due to an economic crisis, brought on by French defeat in the Seven Years War (1756-1763), a world war fought on three continents by European powers jostling for imperial control of the Americas and Asia.
Enlightenment ideas of individual liberty and representative government inspired by the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu were already circulating in elite salons and coffeehouses. But in the mounting economic crisis, these ideas found their way to the common people too.
After leaving his post at the University of Glasgow in 1764, Smith spent time in France as a traveling tutor for the Duke of Buccleuch. He met and debated the French philosophes, and gathered information on the state of the French society and economy. The Wealth of Nations makes extensive use of these French examples. The political rivalry between Britain and France, Smith argues, had led both countries to adopt defensive trade barriers that harmed the economies of both countries, and encouraged networks of smugglers. Instead, countries should welcome the economic growth of their neighbours as providing a ready market for their own exports.
‘The wealth of a neighbouring nation, however, though dangerous in war and politicks, is certainly advantageous in trade.’ (WN IV.iii.c.11, 494)
It was only the political prejudices of misguided leaders that prevented a freer mutually beneficial trade across the English Channel.
French readers quickly took up Smith’s critique. Wealth of Nations was published in France in 1778, where its critique of monopolies, the Church and the aristocracy found an enthusiastic audience in radical circles. By 1789, the ferment of radical ideas and economic malaise would give rise to the French Revolution.
Image: ‘Lecture des nouvelles dans un jardin’ by Michel Hennin (1777-1863) from the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France