Doux commerce

{{Short description|Enlightenment theory linking trade to peaceful behavior}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} [[File:Charles Montesquieu.jpg|thumb|right|French Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu has been credited as one of the chief proponents of the doux commerce theory.]] '''Doux commerce''' (lit. ''sweet commerce'') is a concept originating from the Age of Enlightenment stating that commerce tends to civilize people, making them less likely to resort to violent or irrational behaviors.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Movsesian|first=Mark|date=10 January 2018|title=Markets and Morals: The Limits of Doux Commerce|journal=William and Mary Business Law Review|language=en|location=Rochester, NY|volume=9|issue=2|pages=449–475|ssrn=3099712}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter J. |last2=Smith |first2=Daniel J. |title=The Theory of Social Cooperation Historically Contemplated |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |date=2014 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2173338}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schilpzand |first1=Annemiek |last2=de Jong |first2=Eelke |title=Do market societies undermine civic morality? An empirical investigation into market societies and civic morality across the globe |journal=Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization |date=2023 |volume=208 |pages=39–60 |doi=10.1016/j.jebo.2023.01.020 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Colin |last2=Myers |first2=Andrew |last3=Kaiser |first3=Adam |title=The humanizing effect of market interaction |journal=Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization |date=2023 |volume=205 |pages=489–507 |doi=10.1016/j.jebo.2022.11.028}}</ref> This theory has also been referred to as '''commercial republicanism'''.<ref name="SchabasWennerlind2008">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DbiDmYwNF7EC&pg=PA65|title=David Hume's Political Economy|author1=Margaret Schabas|author2=Carl Wennerlind|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|isbn=978-1-134-36250-9|page=65}}</ref>

==Origin and meaning== Proponents of the doux commerce theory argued that the spread of trade and commerce will decrease violence, including open warfare.<ref name="PomeranzTopik1999">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JiB9G2TiftIC&pg=PA141|title=The World that Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400-the Present|author1=Kenneth Pomeranz|author2=Steven Topik|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=1999|isbn=978-0-7656-2849-7|pages=141}}</ref><ref name="Saadia2016">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lns3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT173|title=Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek|author=Manu Saadia|date=31 May 2016|publisher=Inkshares|isbn=978-1-941758-76-2|pages=173–175}}</ref> Montesquieu wrote, for example, that "wherever the ways of man are gentle, there is commerce; and wherever there is commerce, there the ways of men are gentle"<ref name="Maneschi1998">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vu_igwzgYzoC&pg=PA29|title=Comparative Advantage in International Trade: A Historical Perspective|author=Andrea Maneschi|date=1 January 1998|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=978-1-78195-624-3|page=29}}</ref> and "The natural effect of commerce is to lead to peace".<ref name=":0" /> Thomas Paine argued that "If commerce were permitted to act to the universal extent it is capable, it would extirpate the system of war".<ref name=":0" /> Engaging in trade has been described as "civilizing" people, which has been related to virtues such as being "reasonable and prudent; less given to political and, especially, religious enthusiasm; more reliable, honest, thrifty, and industrious".<ref name=":0" /> In the greater scheme of things, trade was seen as responsible for ensuring stability, tolerance, reciprocity and fairness.<ref name=":0" />

It is not clear when this term was coined. Writings of Jacques Savary, a 17th-century French merchant, have been suggested as one possible origin<ref name="Maneschi1998" /> but similar use has been traced earlier, for example to a Renaissance-era 16th century work by Michel de Montaigne.<ref name="Terjanian2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NsSBqAPimgsC&pg=PA11|title=Commerce and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century French Political Thought|author=Anoush Fraser Terjanian|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1-107-00564-8|pages=11–14}}</ref> The basic idea that trade lessens the chance for conflict between nations can be traced as far as writings of Ancient Greece.<ref name="TrivellatoHalevi2014">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=emuJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT101|title=Religion and Trade: Cross-Cultural Exchanges in World History, 1000–1900|author1=Francesca Trivellato|author2=Leor Halevi|author3=Catia Antunes|date=20 August 2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-937921-7|page=101}}</ref> It became popular in the 17th century writings of some scholars from the Age of Enlightenment, and has been endorsed by thinkers like Montesquieu, Voltaire, Smith, and Hume, as well as Immanuel Kant.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Garrard2003">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7uH3Nui2DOUC&pg=RA1-PA22|title=Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment: A Republican Critique of the Philosophes|author=Graeme Garrard|date=9 January 2003|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-5604-0|page=17}}</ref><ref name="FlikschuhYpi2014">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TUtVBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA99|title=Kant and Colonialism: Historical and Critical Perspectives|author1=Katrin Flikschuh|author2=Lea Ypi|date=20 November 2014|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-103411-4|page=99}}</ref> It has been discussed in their essays and literary works; for example Voltaire's poem ''Le Mondain'' (1736) has been described as endorsing the doux commerce theory.<ref name="Garrard2003" /> Out of those, Montesquieu has been argued to be the writer most responsible for the spread of this idea in his influential ''Spirit of Law'' (1748),<ref name="Bibby2016">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsAYDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA34|title=Montesquieu's Political Economy|author=Andrew Scott Bibby|date=29 April 2016|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|isbn=978-1-137-47722-4|page=34}}</ref><ref name="Singer2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z_4t4lv9jZQC&pg=PT279|title=Montesquieu and the Discovery of the Social|author=Brian Singer|date=31 January 2013|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-02770-2|page=279}}</ref> and the theory is sometimes described as "Montesquieu's doux commerce." (although Montesquieu did not use the term itself).<ref name="Trivellato20192">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jON8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA343|title=The Promise and Peril of Credit: What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society|author=Francesca Trivellato|date=12 February 2019|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-17859-2|page=343}}</ref><ref name="Stanley2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsH8QoBr1FkC&pg=PA111|title=The French Enlightenment and the Emergence of Modern Cynicism|author=Sharon A. Stanley|date=19 March 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-01464-0|page=111}}</ref><ref name="Muthu2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hzcwo75XnDIC&pg=PA152|title=Empire and Modern Political Thought|author=Sankar Muthu|date=17 September 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-83942-6|page=152}}</ref>

In modern scholarship, the term has been analyzed by the German economist Albert Hirschman in his 1977 work ''The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments For Capitalism Before Its Triumph.'' Hirschman is credited with summarizing the doux commerce argument for the modern readers and popularizing the term in modern discourse.<ref name="Terjanian2013" /><ref name="Maneschi1998" /><ref name="ClagueGrossbard-Shechtman2001">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mul1AAAAIAAJ|title=Culture and development: international perspectives|author1=Christopher K. Clague|author2=Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman|author3=American Academy of Political and Social Science|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Sage Publications|isbn=978-0-7619-2393-0|page=68|quote=Hirschman (1977, 1982) reviews the history of an idea he dubs the "doux-commerce thesis."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dickey|first=Laurence|date=1 January 2001|title=Doux-commerce and humanitarian values: Free Trade, Sociability and Universal Benevolence in Eighteenth-Century Thinking|journal=Grotiana|language=en|volume=22|issue=1|pages=271–317|doi=10.1163/016738312X13397477910549|issn=0167-3831}}</ref>

==Critique== At the same time, even Montesquieu and other proponents of trade from the Enlightenment era have cautioned that some social effects of commerce may be negative, for example commodification, conspicuous consumption, or erosion of interest in non-commercial affairs.<ref name=":0" /> Edmund Burke offered the following critique of the doux commerce idea: that it is not commerce that civilizes humans, it is that humans are civilized through culture, which enables them to engage in commerce.<ref name=":0" />

This theory led to trade becoming associated with peaceful and inoffensive activities representative of the "civilized" West European nations; which has however been criticized by later scholars as omitting the facts that much of the said "gentle" trade and resulting prosperity was built on activities like the slave trade and colonial exploitation.<ref name="Maneschi1998" /><ref name="Saadia2016" />

== Empirical evidence == The doux commerce theory continues to be debated in the modern times. The question of whether commerce's impact on the society is net positive or net negative has no conclusive answer. Mark Movsesian noted that "as Hirschman once suggested, the doux commerce thesis is right and wrong at the same time: the market both promotes and corrupts good morals."<ref name=":0" />

However, a growing body of empirical research provides support for the ''doux commerce'' hypothesis using historical analysis, cross-cultural experiments, and field studies. Posch and Raz (2025) analyze historical U.S. data from 1850–1920 and find that increased market integration fostered cultural traits that supports cooperation with strangers and shifted cooperation away from kin-based toward broader and more generalized forms.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Posch |first1=Max |last2=Raz |first2=Itzchak Tzachi |date=2025 |title=Doux Commerce: Markets, Culture, and Cooperation in 1850-1920 U.S. |url=https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xydg1vid6a8pw8zmvw8yc/Posch_Raz_Markets.pdf?rlkey=4b4qwrdkdv47ri5721mfwy92v&e=1&dl=0}}</ref> Henrich et al. (2010) show in diverse societies that market reliance is associated with fairer behavior.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Henrich |first1=Joseph |last2=Ensminger |first2=Jean |last3=McElreath |first3=Richard |last4=Barr |first4=Abigail |last5=Barrett |first5=Clark |last6=Bolyanatz |first6=Alexander |last7=Cardenas |first7=Juan Camilo |last8=Gurven |first8=Michael |last9=Gwako |first9=Edwins |last10=Henrich |first10=Natalie |last11=Lesorogol |first11=Carolyn |last12=Marlowe |first12=Frank |last13=Tracer |first13=David |last14=Ziker |first14=John |date=2010 |title=Markets, Religion, Community Size, and the Evolution of Fairness and Punishment |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1182238 |journal=Science |volume=327 |issue=5972 |pages=1480–1484 |doi=10.1126/science.1182238 |pmid=20299588 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Enke (2022) uses folklore data across many societies to demonstrate that market exposure is linked to more impartial moral norms.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Enke |first=Benjamin |date=2022 |title=Market Exposure and Human Morality |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01480-x |journal=Nature Human Behaviour |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=134–141 |doi=10.1038/s41562-022-01480-x |pmid=36411345 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Rustagi (2024) finds a positive relationship between market proximity and civic values in 52 villages in Ethiopia.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rustagi |first=Devesh |date=2024 |title=Market Exposure, Civic Values, and Rules |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o4hLiLGLTYLZAzsSE9JR4GC9hOpi3_xu/view |archive-url=}}</ref> Focusing on small villages in Greenland, Agneman and Chervort-Bianco (2023) find correlation with honesty.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Agneman |first1=Gustav |last2=Chevrot-Bianco |first2=Esther |date=2023-01-13 |title=Market Participation and Moral Decision-Making: Experimental Evidence from Greenland |url=https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/133/650/537/6712329 |journal=The Economic Journal |language=en |volume=133 |issue=650 |pages=537–581 |doi=10.1093/ej/ueac069 |issn=0013-0133|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Other studies find that market participation influences political attitudes, ethnic relationships, and trust.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jha |first=Saumitra |date=2013 |title=Trade, Institutions, and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055413000464 |journal=American Political Science Review |volume=107 |issue=4 |pages=806–832 |doi=10.1017/S0003055413000464 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Saumitra |first1=Jha |last2=Shayo |first2=Moses |date=2019 |title=Valuing peace: the effects of financial market exposure on votes and political attitudes |url=https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA16385 |journal=Econometrica |volume=87 |issue=5 |pages=1561–1588 |doi=10.3982/ECTA16385 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Margalit |first1=Yotam |last2=Shayo |first2=Moses |date=2021 |title=How markets shape values and political preferences: A field experiment |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12517 |journal=American Journal of Political Science |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=473–492 |doi=10.1111/ajps.12517 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Buggle |first1=Johannes |last2=Durante |first2=Ruben |date=2021 |title=Climate risk, cooperation and the co-evolution of culture and institutions |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueaa127 |journal=The Economic Journal |volume=131 |issue=637 |pages=1947–1987 |doi=10.1093/ej/ueaa127 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Grosfeld |first1=Irena |last2=Sakalli |first2=Seyhun Orcan |last3=Zhuravskaya |first3=Ekaterina |date=2020-01-01 |title=Middleman Minorities and Ethnic Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Russian Empire |url=https://academic.oup.com/restud/article/87/1/289/5280103 |journal=The Review of Economic Studies |language=en |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=289–342 |doi=10.1093/restud/rdz001 |issn=0034-6527}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Early modern economic history Category:History of international trade Category:Enlightenment philosophy Category:Peace Category:Montesquieu