The Political Economy of Sentiment
Subtitle: Paper Credit And the Scottish Enlightenment in Early Republic Boston 1780-1820 (Financial History)
Publisher: Pickering & Chatto Publishers
Published: February 19, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 251
ISBN-13: 9781851968855
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; Economic History; c 1700 to c 1800; Business & Economics; Business/Economics; USA
Description: "This new monograph repositions the financial revolution at the heart of the Enlightenment project. Jose R. Torre argues that the Scottish philosophers' transference of value from commodities to signs established an economy based on human imagination. This radical recalculation of value opened the door to a new social order based on emotions and desires. It undermined the empiricist world view and precipitated a fundamental shift in human psychology." "Torre focuses on Boston during the early years of the American Republic: a time of violent social flux. The widespread acceptance of paper money is a unique opportunity to document the role of nominal economic value in the construction of national personality."--Jacket.