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Capitalism's alter ego : the birth of reciprocity in eighteenth-century France

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Walton, Charles (2018) Capitalism's alter ego : the birth of reciprocity in eighteenth-century France. Critical Historical Studies, 5 (1). pp. 1-43. doi:10.1086/697032 ISSN 2326-4462. [ 🗎 Public]. [ (✓) hoa:511 ]

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/697032

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Abstract

This article traces the concept of reciprocity from its emergence in French philosophy during the Enlightenment to its recent growth in the humanities and social sciences. After charting the term’s accelerated use in French and English in the modern period, the article shows how its meaning has continually wavered between exchange equivalence (barter) and generosity and obligation (the gift, the Golden Rule). During the Enlightenment, these meanings converged in efforts to naturalize commerce and justify liberal economic reforms. A free-market society, it was argued, would be fair and bountiful. Upon the failure of such reforms in the early French Revolution, reciprocity and its new synonym “fraternity” became detached from economic liberalism. As capitalism became increasingly associated with wealth inequality in the nineteenth century, reciprocity became the watchword of capitalism’s critics, who tried to conceptualize social bonds in terms other than those offered by Homo economicus.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Divisions: Faculty of Arts > History
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Capitalism -- France -- 18th century, Reciprocity (Commerce) -- Philosophy
Journal or Publication Title: Critical Historical Studies
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISSN: 2326-4462
Official Date: 20 March 2018
Dates:
DateEvent
24 April 2018Updated
20 March 2018Available
2 December 2017Accepted
Volume: 5
Number: 1
Page Range: pp. 1-43
DOI: 10.1086/697032
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 5 January 2018
Date of first compliant Open Access: 16 May 2018
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