Between Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean

by Junko Thérèse Takeda

Overview

Between Crown and Commerce examines the relationship between French royal statecraft, mercantilism, and civic republicanism in the context of the globalizing economy of the early modern Mediterranean world.

This is the story of how the French Crown and local institutions accommodated one another as they sought to forge acceptable political and commercial relationships with one another for the common goal of economic prosperity. Junko Thérèse Takeda tells this tale through the particular experience of Marseille, a port the monarchy saw as key to commercial expansion in the Mediterranean.

At first, Marseille’s commercial and political elites were strongly opposed to the Crown’s encroaching influence. Rather than dismiss their concerns, the monarchy cleverly co-opted their civic traditions, practices, and institutions to convince the city’s elite of their important role in Levantine commerce. Chief among such traditions were local ideas of citizenship and civic virtue. As the city’s stature throughout the Mediterranean grew, however, so too did the dangers of commercial expansion as exemplified by the arrival of the bubonic plague. Marseille’s citizens reevaluated citizenship and merchant virtue during the epidemic, while the French monarchy's use of the crisis as an opportunity to further extend its power reanimated republican vocabulary.

Between Crown and Commerce deftly combines a political and intellectual history of state-building, mercantilism, and republicanism with a cultural history of medical crisis. In doing so, the book highlights the conjoined history of broad transnational processes and local political change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801899829
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2011
Series:	The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science , #129
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Junko Thérèse Takeda is an assistant professor of history at Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Commerce, State-Building, and Republicanism in Old Regime France 1

1 Louis XIV, Marseillais Merchants, and the Problem of Discerning the Public Good 20

2 Between Republic and Monarchy: Debating Commerce and Virtue 50

3 France and the Levantine Merchant: The Challenges of an International Market 78

4 Plague, Commerce, and Centralized Disease Control in Early Modern France 106

5 Virtue Without Commerce: Civic Spirit During the Plague, 1720-1723 131

6 Civic Religiosity and Religious Citizenship in Plague-Stricken Marseille 158

7 Postmortem: Virtue and Commerce Reconsidered 180

Notes 197

Bibliography 225

Index 249

What People are Saying About This

Kent Wright

A superb work of historical investigation and analysis in every respect -- an important and well-conceived topic, thoroughly and expertly researched, and organized and presented in an effective and memorable fashion.

— Kent Wright, Arizona State University

From the Publisher

A superb work of historical investigation and analysis in every respect—an important and well-conceived topic, thoroughly and expertly researched, and organized and presented in an effective and memorable fashion.
—Kent Wright, Arizona State University

Editorial Reviews

Carefully argued and well written, this work in an important addition to academic libraries.
—Choice

Takeda's research is especially original and interesting.
—Gayle K. Brunelle, Reviews of Books

An impressive first monograph.
—Elizabeth Tingle, European History Quarterly

In her insightful and well-researched study, Between Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean Junko Takeda explores the political culture of this highly commercial city with a long republican tradition during the high age of absolutism. . . Takeda has produced a wonderful book that opens new issues and recasts familiar ones in productive directions. Most importantly, by grounding her analysis within a distinct municipal setting, she provides a model of how analysis of discourse is enriched when set in a clear political and social frame.
—David Kammerling Smith, Enterprise and Society

From the Publisher

In her insightful and well-researched study, Between Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean Junko Takeda explores the political culture of this highly commercial city with a long republican tradition during the high age of absolutism. . . Takeda has produced a wonderful book that opens new issues and recasts familiar ones in productive directions. Most importantly, by grounding her analysis within a distinct municipal setting, she provides a model of how analysis of discourse is enriched when set in a clear political and social frame.

Enterprise and Society - David Kammerling Smith

Takeda's research is especially original and interesting.

Reviews of Books - Gayle K. Brunelle

Carefully argued and well written, this work in an important addition to academic libraries.

Choice

An impressive first monograph.

European History Quarterly - Elizabeth Tingle

Takeda has produced a wonderful book that opens new issues and recasts familiar ones in productive directions.

Enterprise and Society - David Smith

Takeda's research is especially original and interesting.

— Gayle K. Brunelle

Reviews of Books