La France des Lumières et l’humanisme commercial. Bilan et perspectives historiographiques

The concept of commercial humanism was built by J. Pocock in order to indicate the transformation of the modern Republican language (or civic humanism) as a response to the rise of merchant capitalism : by reconciling “virtue” and “trade”, public good and private interest, it has helped the rise of political economy. Hitherto confined to the English-speaking area, the use of this category has recently been expanded to French Enlightenment thanks to a set of important (mostly American) contributions. This article is dedicated to a critical review of the historiographical renewal on commercial humanism. It also gives a critical perspective on the assets and limitations of the Cambridge School in intellectual history.