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

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.