The making of the "invisible hand": Economic interests, socio-political conflicts and the idea of free competition in the 18th century

• Applicant: Dr. Moritz Isenmann
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 267355747

The idea that a market economy based on free competition would be superior and more efficient than any other form of political economy is one of the most influential concepts handed down to modernity from the Ancien Régime. The emergence of this concept has mostly been explained with intellectual progress in the analysis of economic phenomena, supposedly achieved while the discipline of Economics was being established during the 18th century. Taking into account recent trends in economic scholarship, however, which have called into question the classical and neo-classical theories of trade, this narrative of progress no longer appears tenable.In this project, I will attempt a fundamental re-interpretation of the origins of liberalist economic thought from a perspective of cultural history by combining the history of economic ideas with an actor-centered approach. The analysis will thus focus upon the specific economic and socio-political interests of economic actors as well as on their influence on the formation of economic theory. Making use of archival material, whose importance for the subject has generally been overlooked, I will first lay out the origins of liberalist theorems in a context dominated by vested mercantile interests in early 18th-century France in order to then show how they were subsequently merged with philosophical ideas and developed into full-blown economic theories.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants