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"Let your science be human": David Hume and the honourable merchant

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  • Margaret Schabas

Abstract

Hume directed his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751) to a wider audience, including the merchant class that he credited with enhancing the freedom, peace, and prosperity of his age. Hume's text offers a vade mecum for the improvement of the merchant's character, a catalogue of virtues that would bolster the fulfilment of contracts and diminish generational decline. In conjunction with his Political Discourses (1752), Hume's Enquiry promotes the image of the honourable merchant, in the tradition set by Thomas Mun, as a means to safeguard modern commerce.

Suggested Citation

  • Margaret Schabas, 2014. ""Let your science be human": David Hume and the honourable merchant," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 977-990, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:21:y:2014:i:6:p:977-990
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2014.966129
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    Cited by:

    1. Erik W. Matson, 2022. "What is liberal about Adam Smith's “liberal plan”?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(2), pages 593-610, October.
    2. Matson, Erik W., 2021. "Satisfaction in action: Hume's endogenous theory of preferences and the virtues of commerce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 849-860.

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