strongly to a belief in the virtues ascribed to her sex, such as ‘sympathy and affection,sociability and conversation, and innate delicacy of taste’. Coleman claims that in the1770s, under the influence of an emerging culture of sentiment, Barbauld attemptedto ‘soften and temper Priestley’s masculine rigour by subjecting it to an aestheticdiscourse of beauty and sentimental standards of morality’. Crucially, Colemanargues that Barbauld’s critique of Priestleyan rationalism anticipated that of EdmundBurke, in Reflections upon the Revolution in France, fifteen years later.

One of the most illuminating aspects of this essay is the account of Barbauld’sfriendship with Mary Priestley, who, Coleman speculates, is likely to have been thesubject of ‘To a Lady, With Some Painted Flowers’, the poem that was famouslyattacked by Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft cites the poem in full in her A Vindication ofthe Rights of Woman (1792), emphasising and underscoring what she finds mostoffensive in its sentimental comparisons between women and flowers. Interestingly,given Coleman’s observations, Wollstonecraft accuses Barbauld of conforming to asupposed sexual character, which the sentimental language of men such as Burkeperpetuated. Coleman argues that Mary Priestley was central to definitions offemininity and sociability for Barbauld, whereas her husband’s rationality sometimesseemed at odds with the habits of social existence.

Clara Tuite’s engaging essay on Anne Lister’s style provides an alternative textualmodel of sociability and sexuality. Elsewhere, Gillian Russell emphasises theimportance of the founding of the Royal Institution in 1799, which led to anexpansion in sociable Romantic lecturing across Britain in the early nineteenthcentury. Julia Carlson explores Hazlitt and the sociability of the theatre, James Epsteinfocuses on John Frost to explore sociability and sedition, and Deirdre Shauna Lynchinvokes the concept of a ‘counter public’ in an exploration of women and shopping.The sociable contract of writing is the subject of Judith Barbour’s essay on Godwin,whereas John Mee discusses the limits of sociability through Robert Merry’s DellaCruscanism, and Margaret Jacob locates a new kind of sociability in internationalrepublican conversation. This compelling book is commendable for the way in whichit seeks to engage the topic of Romantic sociability in a spirit of open dialogue anddiscussion, conversation being a predominant trope of the volume.

Sam GeorgeUniversity of Hertfordshire

Commerce and Government Considered in their Mutual Relationship. EtienneBonnot, Abbé de Condillac. Translated by Shelagh Eltis, with introductions byShelagh Eltis and Walter Eltis. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. 2008. viii + 347. $24/£16.95. hb. 978-0-86597-702-0. $12/£8.95. pb. 978-0-86597-703-7.

Etienne Bonnot, Abbé de Condillac (1714-1780), is an important figure in the FrenchEnlightenment, known best for his sensationist psychology. His contribution toeconomics, mainly found in the work translated here, Le Commerce et le gouvernementconsiderés relativement l’un à l’autre, has been relatively neglected, perhaps because itwas originally published in 1776, the same year as Adam Smith’s magisterial Wealthof Nations, and thus does not fit into either of the obvious categories, ‘before’ or ‘after’Adam Smith. This excellent translation may start to right the balance.

Condillac turned to economics late in life. The Cours d’études, which arose out of hisspell as tutor to the Prince of Parma, argues that it is impossible for any individual to

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know enough to direct every aspect of economic life, and that it is therefore unwisefor a ruler to try to do so. Adam Smith had a very similar argument for laissez-faire.Commerce and Government takes the argument much further and was publishedduring the brief ministry of Turgot, when economic issues were at the centre of publicdebate and there seemed to be a real possibility of reform. Apart from anythingelse, there seemed a good prospect of getting a case for reform past censorship(although in the event the censors still held it up for months).

Condillac had already argued in general terms that it is impossible to talk about anysubject without first defining an appropriate language, and that is what he set out todo, starting with a definition of value derived from his sensationist psychology. It isthe first few chapters, focused on the concept of value, that are the most original andimportant part of the book. The utility of something is based on the extent to whichit satisfies our needs, natural or ‘artificial’ – artificial needs are needs (or wants)created by economic and cultural progress. ‘Value’ represents our ‘esteem’ for a good,or the use we can make of it. Goods that are surplus to needs to such an extent that wecan make no use of them have no value, so value depends on utility and scarcity. Thisis an old refrain, although Condillac developed it in a new and distinctive way. The keypoint is that value is subjective and specific to the individual. When two individualstrade, each trades something that has a low subjective value for something that hasa higher value for him. Trade therefore adds to value. Agriculture and industry bothcreate goods that serve people’s needs, so both are productive of value.

The remainder of Commerce and Government is less original, often drawing onCantillon (as Condillac acknowledged) and, I suspect, Hume. There is, for example,a rather peculiar discussion of progress, in which artificial needs multiply over time(this is reminiscent of Hume), but the resulting higher standard of living means alower population (this is clearly based on Cantillon), so progress leads to fallingpopulation, a conclusion reached by neither Cantillon nor Hume.

Market prices are governed by supply and demand, the relative abundance orscarcity of one good compared with another. Condillac emphasised what he called the‘true price’ (vrai prix), which seems to mean whatever price emerges from unfetteredfree trade. Free entry into every industry ensures that earnings just cover neces-sary living costs, including conventionally accepted ‘artificial’ needs. The profits ofentrepreneurs and merchants are counted as a special kind of wage, as in Cantillon orQuesnay. Free trade in grain allows areas that can produce a surplus to do so and toexport it to areas where supplies are inadequate. Good harvests in some areas balancebad harvests elsewhere. These were not wholly new arguments, but it is hard to thinkof any other writer of the time, even Adam Smith, who expressed such unqualifiedsupport for laissez-faire and freedom of trade.

In addition to the translation, the volume under review has a biographicalintroduction by Shelagh Eltis and a discussion of Condillac’s economics by WalterEltis. It was originally published in 1997 but is now reissued by the admirable LibertyFund in a well-produced edition at a very reasonable price and can be consulted freeat the on-line Library of Liberty. Specialists in eighteenth-century France may preferto use the French original, but for those historians of economics (the majority, I think)who are more comfortable reading English than French, this translation can berecommended without reservation. Even those who prefer the French original shouldconsult the very valuable introductions.

Anthony BrewerUniversity of Bristol

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© 2010 British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies