Stapelbroek, Koen (2009) ‘The Proud Epithet of Enlightened': Ferdinando Galiani and the Neapolitan Debate on Colonies, Commerce and Conquest. In: Paquette, Gabriel, (ed.) Enlightened Reform in Southern Europe and its Atlantic Colonies, c. 1750-1830. Empires and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-2000 . Routledge, Abingdon, England, pp. 287-303.

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Abstract

This chapter presents an argument that served as a response to supporters of the then dominant view that colonies robbed the mother-country of its population, were expensive and were a main factor in the demise of empires. Thus the economic portfolio of colonies had to be closely guarded in order to retain unity within the Empire. Besides, although relocating Superfluous labour to external territory was in all Respects useful, the Growth of Colonies was slow. It began to employ funds that were previously spent on arms and destroyed in war for shipbuilding and the establishment of colonies, the construction of ports and fortresses, and for the creation of roads and warehouses. Through the moral philosophy and history of commerce and modern government he simultaneously constructed, Galiani arrived at a position from which he launched predictions about the future of international trade and shifts within international relations.

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