Economistes and the Reinvention of Empire: France in the Americas and Africa, c.1750–1802 (New Studies in European History)

On 15 Messidor Year V Of The Revolutionary Calendar (3 July 1797), Citizen Talleyrand, Known In His Pre-revolutionary Days As Charles Maurice De Talleyrand-perigord, Addressed The Institut National Des Sciences Et Arts In Paris On The 'advantages To Be Gained From New Colonies In The Current Circumstances'. To His Listeners In The Institute, The Intellectual Powerhouse Of The French Republic, 'current Circumstances' Was A Recognisable Shorthand For The Cascade Of Events That Had Brought The Ancien Regime Colonial Empire To Its Knees-- A Colonial Empire In Crisis -- Empire Beyond The Mercantile System -- Between Enslaved Territories And Overseas Provinces -- Supplying Or Supplanting The Americas -- A Revolutionary Crescendo -- Conclusion: Ancien Regime Legacies. Pernille Røge. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. La jaquette indique : "Exploring the myriad efforts to strengthen colonial empire that unfolded in response to France's imperial crisis in the second half of the eighteenth century, Pernille Røge examines how political economists, colonial administrators, planters, and entrepreneurs shaped the recalibration of empire in the Americas and in Africa alongside the intensification of the French Caribbean plantation complex. Emphasising the intellectual contributions of the Economistes (also known as the Physiocrats) to formulate a new colonial doctrine, the book highlights the advent of an imperial discourse of commercial liberalisation, free labour, agricultural development, and civilisation. With her careful documentation of the reciprocal impacts of economic ideas, colonial policy and practices, Røge also details key connections between Ancien Régime colonial innovation and the French Revolution's republican imperial agenda. The result is a novel perspective on the struggles to reinvent colonial empire in the final decades of the Ancien Régime and its influences on the French Revolution and beyond." "On 15 Messidor year V of the Revolutionary Calendar (3 July 1797), Citizen Talleyrand, known in his pre-revolutionary days as Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, addressed the Institut National des Sciences et Arts in Paris on the 'advantages to be gained from new colonies in the current circumstances'. To his listeners in the Institute, the intellectual powerhouse of the French Republic, 'current circumstances' was a recognisable shorthand for the cascade of events that had brought the Ancien Regime colonial empire to its knees"-- Provided by publisher This history of the struggles to regenerate France's colonial empire in the eighteenth century reveals how political economists, colonial administrators and planters shaped the recalibration of empire in the Americas and Africa, unearthing connections between Ancien Regime colonial innovation and the French Revolution's republican imperial agenda.