In the mirror of Rome. Commerce, conquest and civilisation between Venice, Spain and France (1781–1800)

This edited collection explores the histories of trade, a peculiar literary genre that emerged in the context of the historiographical and cultural changes promoted by the histoire philosophique movement. It marked a discontinuity with erudition and antiquarianism, and interacted critically with universal history. By comparing and linking the histories of individual peoples within a common historical process, this genre enriched the reflection on civilisation that emerged during the long eighteenth century. Those who looked to the past wanted to understand the political constitutions and manners most appropriate to commerce, and grasp the recurring mechanisms underlying economic development. In this sense, histories of trade constituted a declination of eighteenth-century political economy, and thus became an invaluable analytical and practical tool for a galaxy of academic scholars, journalists, lawyers, administrators, diplomats and government ministers whose ambition was to reform t...

When studying the economy of ancient Rome, the men of the eighteenth century projected their questions and beliefs onto the past, in doing so outlining a true field of tension in which multiple and even divergent intellectual and political orientations confronted each other. To demonstrate the remarkable discursive potential of this real construction of the past, this chapter will focus on the European adventure of Francesco Mengotti’s Del Commercio dei Romani dalla prima guerra punica a Costantino (1787). In fact, through the analysis of this work, its translations and also its refutations, it will be possible to trace the development of a lively debate in which ancient history offered an opportunity not only to reflect on international competition but also to consider the relationship between the “spirit of commerce” and the “spirit of conquest” and its implications for commercial civilisation.