Economistes and the Reinvention of Empire: France in the Americas and Africa, c.17501802 [Hardcover]

A rich intellectual history of the reinvention of France's colonial empire in the second half of the eighteenth century.This history of the struggles to regenerate France's colonial empire in the eighteenth century reveals how political economists, colonial administrators and planters shaped the recalibration of empire in the Americas and Africa, unearthing connections between Ancien R?gime colonial innovation and the French Revolution's republican imperial agenda.This history of the struggles to regenerate France's colonial empire in the eighteenth century reveals how political economists, colonial administrators and planters shaped the recalibration of empire in the Americas and Africa, unearthing connections between Ancien R?gime colonial innovation and the French Revolution's republican imperial agenda.Exploring the myriad efforts to strengthen colonial empire that unfolded in response to France's imperial crisis in the second half of the eighteenth century, Pernille R?ge examines how political economists, colonial administrators, planters, and entrepreneurs shaped the recalibration of empire in the Americas and in Africa alongside the intensification of the French Caribbean plantation complex. Emphasising the intellectual contributions of the Economistes (also known as the Physiocrats) to formulate a new colonial doctrine, the book highlights the advent of an imperial discourse of commercial liberalisation, free labour, agricultural development, and civilisation. With her careful documentation of the reciprocal impacts of economic ideas, colonial policy and practices, R?ge also details key connections between Ancien R?gime colonial innovation and the French Revolution's republican imperial agenda. The result is a novel perspective on the struggles to reinvent colonial empire in the final decades of the Ancien R?gime and its influences on the French Revolution and beyond.Introduction; 1. A colonial empire in crisis; 2. Empire beyond the mercantile system; 3. Betl¢