%0 Journal Article
%T What¡¯s it got to do with the price of bread? Condorcet and Grouchy on freedom and unreasonable laws in commerce
%A Sandrine Berg¨¨s
%J European Journal of Political Theory
%@ 1741-2730
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1474885118782391
%X Istv¨¢n Hont identified a point in the history of political thought at which republicanism and commercialism became separated. According to Hont, Emmanuel Siey¨¨s proposed that a monarchical republic should be formed. By contrast the Jacobins, in favour of a republic led by the people, rejected not only Siey¨¨s¡¯s political proposal, but also the economic ideology that went with it. Siey¨¨s was in favour of a commercial republic; the Jacobins were not. This was, according to Hont, a defining moment in the history of political thought. In this article, I offer a different analysis of that particular moment in the history of the commercial republic, one that instead of focusing on Siey¨¨s and the Jacobins, looks at the thought of Girondins philosophers Nicolas de Condorcet and Sophie de Grouchy. I argue that their arguments provide sound models for a commercial republic, reconciling late 18th century republican ideals in which virtue was central, with the need for a flourishing and internationally active market economy
%K Condorcet
%K De Grouchy
%K French Revolution
%K history of political thought
%K Istvan Hont
%K Jacobins
%K Siey¨¨s
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885118782391