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The Mystery of Modern Wealth: Mercantilism, Value, and the Social Foundations of Liberal International Order

University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK

Taking its cue from Jacob Viner's classic essay `Power versus Plenty', this article explores the social foundations of one of International Relations' basic analytic categories: `wealth'. An examination of changing notions of economic value in the early-modern period suggests that Viner's assessment of the unenlightened attitudes of mercantilist statesmen needs revision. The rise of a liberal world order presupposes not just a clearer understanding of the nature of value, and how best to obtain it, but a fundamental transformation in the character of value itself — from an attribute of metallic money alone, to an abstract economic property of all human labour. In accounting for this shift we reveal an underlying structure of social relations whose development lies at the root of both our modern notion of value and of the liberal international economy itself.

Key Words: commodity fetishism • historical sociology • mercantilism • money • reification • value

European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 14, No. 3, 405-429 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1354066108092305


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