David Hume's "Mercenary Strangers"

• In Event: Hume and the "Vulgar": Commercial Citizens in the Global Eighteenth Century

Abstract

In his 1741 essay, “Of Liberty and Despotism,” Hume criticized Machiavelli for failing to recognize that trade is an “affair of state.” Given Hume’s reputation for commercial liberalism, we might expect this to be Hume’s last word on Machiavelli. After all, what could a writer who overlooked trade have to offer modern statesmanship? However, Hume owned Machiavelli’s Opere in Italian and continued to cite Machiavelli throughout his career. In particular, this paper highlights Machiavelli’s presence in the 1752 Political Discourses. Hume enlisted Machiavelli as a fellow theorist of the “balance of power” and the “jealousy of trade.” There are surprising parallels between Hume’s Discourses and Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, in addition to overlaps with Machiavelli’s discussions of taxation and public credit in “The Portrait on French Affairs” (Ritracto di cose di Francia) and The Florentine Histories. Machiavelli had more to say about economics than has commonly been supposed, and Machiavelli’s legacy remained instructive for Hume when it came to such issues as inter-state alliances, “mercenary” soldiers, and public debt.

Author

• Danielle Charette, University of Chicago