Presents rich and provocative writings on the relationship between commerce and luxury, virtue, nobility, agriculture, the state, religion, civility, and liberty. The book restores the voice of a rich body of reflections on the larger import of the birth of the modern economy that has been largely silent in academic discourse on the topic. Moreover, it presents significant though hard-to-find writings by a host of well-known authors, including a little-known essay by Rousseau. It also presents important writings that have been pre-empted by Adam Smith, writings that say as much about our age...

This text provides a unique window into the mind of one of the undisputed pioneers of modern thought. Montesquieu maintained notebooks in which he wrote and dictated ideas on a wide variety of topics. Some of the contents are early drafts of passages that he eventually placed in his published works; others are outlines or early versions of projected works that were ultimately lost, unfinished, or abandoned.