Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1159060 History of European Ideas 2010 14 Pages PDF
Abstract

The aim of this essay is to survey the logic behind the Tory ministerial decision to bring a quick end to the hostilities with France in the early 1710s by looking at a tri-weekly journal called The Mercator (1713–14). Founded by Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, then Secretary of State, and his economic advisor Charles Davenant, with a view to justifying their grandiose plan to liberalise the Anglo-French trade relationship as part of a new European order initiated by the Peace of Utrecht, this periodical shows us how the so-called neo-Roman synthesis of libertas and imperium was exploited by the Tory administration not only to defend its isolationist outlook, but more interestingly, to reprove the pro-Dutch policy of the previous Whig government.

Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities Arts and Humanities History
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