. Commerce, Stages and the Natural History of Society
. Commerce, Stages and the Natural History of Society
This chapter argues that one of the best known ideas in the thought of the Scottish Enlightenment, namely, their notion of the four-stages (hunting, herding, farming, commerce) is best interpreted as an instance of Dugald Stewart's summary characterization of ‘natural history’. After a close analysis of both the primary and secondary literature the Scots’ account of the emergence of commerce is examined. The focus of this account is their explanation of the break-up of feudalism (3rd stage) and the establishment of commerce as a way of life. This establishes the ‘distinctiveness’ of commerce and situates it within a temporal narrative
Keywords: Four Stages, Feudalism, Commerce, History
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.