1767-Jan.-28: M.

1767-Jan.-28: M. de Montaudouin of Nantes published a memoir defending the profession of merchant against contemporary critics who favored agriculture exclusively. He posited that commerce is to agriculture and the arts what movement is to nature, serving as the essential circulation of production between men. Montaudouin argued that without merchants to calculate global needs and open markets, cultivators would find themselves impoverished despite their abundance. He concluded that the power of a nation should be measured by the number of its merchants, sailors, and ships rather than its isolation.