Current projects
A Global History of Free Ports: Capitalism, Commerce and Geopolitics
Between the late sixteenth and early twentieth century, the free port – as a specific fiscal, cultural, political and economic entity with different local functions and characteristics – developed from an Italian into a global phenomenon. While a general history of free ports – from their first emergence, their Asian, Caribbean Atlantic and African proliferation to the present-day Special Economic Zones – has never been written, this research network focuses on this specific institution and its impact on wider social, cultural, ecological and economic factors, to shed new light on the history of capitalism [in cooperation with Corey Tazzara, Antonio Trampus and network members]
Carthage must be preserved: Global trade and the Dutch state
The Dutch Republic was the archetypal modern trading state, paving the way for new forms of wealth creation, as well as the excesses and abuses of global capitalism, slavery and colonial exploitation. How did this small anomalous republic trigger global trade, change international politics and influence state formation? This academic monograph project - the research for which was funded through the Dutch National research council (NWO) and the Academy of Finland - reconstructs Dutch ideas about wealth, justice and the state alongside international perceptions and political reactions, from the early seventeenth to the early twentieth century. Its real aim, however, is to provide a new outlook on the historical relation between global trade regulation and the development of the modern state.
The Freedom of trade
Where did the idea of ‘free trade’ come from, and who was it for? How was trade supposed to enhance the perception of ‘freedom’ by people, generally or in certain states or parts of the world? Before the rise of classical political economic thought and the formation of ideological oppositions, ‘free trade’ already for a long time had been considered in foreign trade policy, in moral philosophical and legal treatises, in state development, as well as in the establishment of institutions like free ports and the usage of commercial treaties. This research brings together these different early dimensions of the idea of free trade to provide a new ‘pre-history of capitalism’ and connects to the writing of two chapters for the Cambridge History of International Law, an individual monograph and a book co-authored with Keith Tribe.
Commerce vs Conquest: The Political Economy of Jean-François Melon
Melon’s Essai politique sur le commerce (1734) was arguably the most influential text on economic ideas and policies of its time. Offering strategies to the French state to manage colonial trade, govern the money supply, and foster a broad-based prosperity, Melon speculated on how France might triumph over Britain in the emergent global competition for markets among other territorial monarchies. This volume explores the context from which Melon’s work emerged, explains why it was so widely read and translated in the eighteenth century, and analyses its legacy beyond eighteenth-century political economic thought [in cooperation with John Shovlin]
The Serenissima and modern politics
By the early eighteenth century, the Venetian Republic had lost most of its former luster, wealth and territorial aspirations, even as the political economic world around it turned global. Rather than passively accepting ‘decline’, between the Peace of Passarowitz of 1718 and the Napoleonic invasion of 1797, Venetian patrician families engaged with and responded to the new reality of global rivalry between dominant commercial monarchies in order to avert the end of the Republic. This academic monograph project reconstructs the Venetian perspective onto eighteenth-century diplomacy, institutional renewal and global political economy, both through its references to the glorious past of the Serenissima and in its policies that responded to the perceived changes and expanded horizons of modern politics.
‘True Liberalism’: the wealth & freedom of the north
The early nineteenth century saw a debate about the ideas of ‘true’ and ‘false’ liberalism. Processes of constitutional state formation touched upon national economic policy and the international order: taking care of the nation and preserving peace were sides of the same coin. This project both adopts a Nordic and a general perspective. Its starting point is the Swedish debate of the 1820/30s about ‘true’ and ‘false’ liberalism. Yet, understanding the ancestry and diffusion of those ideas requires a wider perspective. The project also engages with the context, ca. 1900, of the acquisition of the Naumann eighteenth-century Riksdag pamphlet collection by the Finnish National Library. Texts in this collection were used by statesmen and intellectuals as proxies for the future identity of the state of Finland. Tracing Nordic political discourse and focusing on the question ‘what should the state do?’ a distinct perspective on the pre-history of the welfare state emerges [partly in cooperation with Jussi Kurunmäki & Jani Marjanen].