Trading with the Enemy: Britain, France, and the 18th-Century Quest for a Peaceful World Order

by John Shovlin

A ground-breaking account of British and French efforts to channel their eighteenth-century geopolitical rivalry into peaceful commercial competition

Britain and France waged war eight times in the century following the Glorious Revolution, a mutual antagonism long regarded as a “Second Hundred Years’ War.” Yet officials on both sides also initiated ententes, free trade schemes, and colonial bargains intended to avert future conflict. What drove this quest for a more peaceful order?

In this highly original account, John Shovlin reveals the extent to which Britain and France sought to divert their rivalry away from war and into commercial competition. The two powers worked to end future conflict over trade in Spanish America, the Caribbean, and India, and imagined forms of empire-building that would be more collaborative than competitive. They negotiated to cut cross-channel tariffs, recognizing that free trade could foster national power while muting enmity. This account shows that eighteenth-century capitalism drove not only repeated wars and overseas imperialism but spurred political leaders to strive for global stability.

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction

416 pages, Hardcover

Published July 13, 2021

Reviews

[Alex Helling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trade is often seen as being a cause and driver of war in the 18th century. The chartered companies that managed regions of land (like the East India Company) even more so. John Shovlin in Trading with the Enemy sets out to show the more pacific side of trade in the 18th Century; that there was a recognition that war was bad for business, and continual attempts to work out how to best keep the peace. The subtitle Britain, France, and the 18th Century Quest for a Peaceful World Order is a pretty good summary of what the book does. The emphasis should be on the ‘quest’ as this is charting a very successful series of attempts to set Britain and France towards longer term peace.

Trading with the Enemy is about the search for peace. Given that the long 18th century has been called the ‘second hundred years war’ and considerably more time was spent in conflict between France and Britain than peace it is quite a bold move to flip the narrative around from a focus on the competition and conflict to looking at the drivers of peace, where they succeeded and failed. This is perhaps a helpful rebalancing of the narrative, and something Shovlin pushes as far as possible; wars happen in the space of a sentence or two before we get back to the real business of working out how to end it or stop the next one. The downside of this approach is the need for prior knowledge of the warfare side; from this book you would not know what we are trying to avoid. It also means that if just reading this book without the wartime context you would be forgiven for wondering why the whole century was not peaceful; so many people wanted peace and had schemes for bringing it about.

This book encourages, and requires readers to rethink their ideas of what ‘free trade’ means. Of course Adam Smith wrote during this period, and David Ricardo was in the future. So how ‘free trade’ was thought about was different as it involved a much greater role of the state in managing trade. But crucially it did mean dismantling monopolies, and sometimes allowing other countries merchants in. Shovlin shows how thinking on free trade changes through the period and how right from the beginning it was seen as potentially creating ways to cement peace by eliminating the kind of destructive competition in the colonies that leads to war in Europe.

For me the biggest gap was lack of consideration of the continent, and what this might in turn mean if pacific schemes had actually worked. Shovlin does not get into questions about how Britain might react if the French were actually to succeed and get peace with Britain, and use this - as often seems to be supposed by French theorists and proponents - to gain hegemony on the Continent. Surely at this point the old concerns about a balance of power would kick in and we would be back to the starting point! Essentially there is an underlying problem that many of the peace schemes could equally well lead to war. Also largely ignored is nationalism and consideration of each country being the others’ natural enemy during this period which would have needed to be considerably ameliorated if pacific designs were ever to be successful.

Given the lack of success in actually bringing about prolonged peace despite so many schemes being discussed the reader may wonder what is the point in the book. And I think it is unfortunate that Shovlin only really gets to how the ideas he has illuminated went on to form the basis for the policy that kept the 19th century so free of inter-state conflict in the conclusion. Stretching the book to the 1810s/20s would require more space, but would create a clearer progression than one that ends in a thirty year conflict.

Given the book challenges assumptions that we take for granted on trade by requiring us to see how those dealing with the issues in the 18th century saw them this is not always the easiest book to read. However it is worthwhile making the effort. Trading with the Enemy provides an interesting counterpoint perspective to much of the literature on international relations in the 18th century.

[Legens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incisive analysis on the synthesis of violence and commerce in 18th century trading – with both Britain and France chasing relative advantages and market shares (sometimes against each other, sometimes together against others, like the other trading powers, the eastern European powers, or the Indian states) and employing exclusive and free trade as instruments from the toolbox of state power. Decisively adds to the common "second Hundred Years' War" narrative about Britain and France in the 18th century.
The author laudably covers economic, political/diplomatic, and intellectual history and points out where and how the different fields intersected (states pursuing policies to favor their merchants, merchants and scholars advising politicians…). Helpful biographical sketches provided in the beginning of the book.