Commerce, Finance and Statecraft : Histories of England, 1600–1780

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, historians of England pioneered a series of new approaches to the history of economic policy. Commerce, Finances and Statecraft charts the development of these forms of writing and explores the role they played in the period's economic, political and historiographical thought. Through doing so, the book makes a significant intervention in the study of historiography, and provides an original account of early-modern and Enlightenment history. A broad selection of historical writing is discussed, ranging from the work of Francis Bacon and William Camden in the Jacobean-era, through a series of accounts shaped by the English Civil War and the party-political conflicts that followed it, to the eighteenth-century's major account of British history: David Hume's History of England. Particular attention is paid to the historiographical context in which historians worked and the various ways they copied, adapted and contested one another's narratives. Such an approach enables the study to demonstrate that historical writing was the site of a wide-ranging, politically-charged debate concerning the relationship which existed – and should have existed – between government and commerce at various moments in England’s past. Commerce, finance and statecraft charts the emergence of new approaches to England's economic history in the historical writing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book explores the work of the period's most influential historians ­- among them Francis Bacon, William Camden, Paul de Rapin-Thoyras and David Hume - and shows how these writers, and their contemporaries, were engaged in a series of hotly contested, politically-charged debates concerning the management of England's commercial and financial interests. This book will be essential reading for historians and literary critics working on Restoration and eighteenth-century historical writing, and historians, economists, political scientists, and philosophers interested in historiographical theory. -- Provided by publisher Commerce, finance and statecraft charts the emergence of new approaches to England's economic history in the historical writing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book explores the work of the period's most influential historians Ư- among them Francis Bacon, William Camden, Paul de Rapin-Thoyras and David Hume - and shows how these writers, and their contemporaries, were engaged in a series of hotly contested, politically-charged debates concerning the management of England's commercial and financial interests. This book will be essential reading for historians and literary critics working on Restoration and eighteenth-century historical writing, and historians, economists, political scientists, and philosophers interested in historiographical theory In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, historians of England pioneered a series of new approaches to the nation's economic history. Commerce, finances and statecraft charts the development of these forms of writing and examines their importance for the economic, political and historical thought of the period. -- . In the 17th and 18th centuries, historians of England pioneered a series of new approaches to the nation's economic history. This text charts the development of these forms of writing and examines their importance for the economic, political and historical thought of the period