Mercantilism is a strange being with an awkward past. The concept ironically owes a far greater debt to its foremost critic, Adam Smith, than to any of its supposed advocates. And, while most recent scholarship agrees that the Wealth of Nations painted a deceptively coherent portrait of 17th-century political economy and the commercial regulations these ideas supposedly engendered, Smith’s interpretation of a “mercantile system” has survived, informing the way we conceive both of early modern history as well as the nature of modern economy and politics.
This conference continues the discussion of recent contributions to the study of mercantilism in its traditional context and period. In addition, it seeks to explore how the notion of “mercantilism” itself has shaped not only our understanding of the early modern era but the political and economic cultures of the modern world, from Smith to Keynes.
November 15, 2013 Friday
9:30am - 10:00pm EDT
10:00am - 11:30am EDT
Partha Chatterjee
Professor of Anthropology
Columbia University
Lars Magnusson
Professor of Economic History
Uppsala University
Steven Pincus
Bradford Durfee Professor of History
Yale University
Philip J. Stern
Associate Professor of History
Duke University
Carl Wennerlind
Associate Professor of History
Barnard College
11:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Martha Howell
Miriam Champion Professor of History
Columbia University
12:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Kathleen Wilson
Professor of History
State University of New York, Stony Brook
Margaret Schabas
Professor of Philosophy
The University of British Columbia
Timothy Alborn
Professor of History
Prasannan Parthasarathi
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Boston College
3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
4:00pm - 5:30pm EDT
Anupama Rao
Associate Professor of History
Barnard College
Fred Block
Research Professor in the Department of Sociology
University of California at Davis
Bradley W. Bateman
President
Randolph College
Timothy Shenk
Jacob K. Javits Fellow in History
Columbia University
5:30pm - 6:30pm EDT
Victoria de Grazia
Moore Collegiate Professor of History
Columbia University