Hegel's critique of the enlightenment

Franco Venturi famously emphasised the importance of the ‘English Model’ for Italian reformist culture in his Settecento riformatore. This essay contributes to the history of the development and evolution of the ‘English Model’ beginning with its influential appearance in Antonio Genovesi's 1757–1758 translation of John Cary's 1695 Essay on the State of England. The ‘English Model’ was not a stable concept and, in fact, one tradition inverted the model's meaning, rejecting the need for protectionism and instead embracing a providential faith in laissez-faire. This tradition began with an important, but falsified footnote in Carlo Denina's 1769–1770 Rivoluzioni d’Italia. In this note and the tradition that adopted it, Lorenzo de’ Medici's imagined English wool factories became the locus of this inversion, and, through a reading of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, blaming the Medici as agents of Italy's aberrant historical development became an alternative to blaming English economic imperialism in late eighteenth-century Italy. The narrative of Medici involvement in the decline of Italy was finally realigned with Genovesi's original intention under the auspice of Pope Pius VI in 1794.     

英国旧殖民体制的特征及其瓦解的原因

17—18世纪是重商主义盛行时期,重商主义成了英国的国策。整个第一英帝国就是在重商主义理论指导下产生、发展、壮大的,重商主义成了旧帝国最主要的特征。因而,英国旧的殖民体制的特点就表现为政治上控制松弛、经济上严格限制。1763年“七年战争”结束之前,英国与殖民地的关系比较融洽。然而战争结束不久,蕴藏于旧的殖民体制之中的危机便迅即爆发。旧的帝国殖民统治体制越来越难以维持,旧的帝国体制已经解决不了帝国的危机,英国与美洲殖民地发生了激烈的冲突,最终导致了帝国的瓦解。     

转型时期普鲁士官僚的经济改革思想和国家企业促进政策

作为欧洲相对落后的国家,普鲁士在19世纪初的工业化进程中实行了国家企业促进政策。但区别于早期由国家大包大揽的重商主义政策,这个时期的国家经济政策在吸收自由经济思想的基础上,结合了本国化传统的一些特点和经济发展的实际状况。其核心内容是通过各种教育手段,转变企业主观念,焕发人们从事工业活动的巨大热情,营造企业化的氛围。普鲁士后来工业化的成功正是这一政策推行的结果。     

Blaming the Medici: Footnotes, falsification, and the fate of the ‘English Model’ in eighteenth-century Italy

Franco Venturi famously emphasised the importance of the ‘English Model’ for Italian reformist culture in his Settecento riformatore. This essay contributes to the history of the development and evolution of the ‘English Model’ beginning with its influential appearance in Antonio Genovesi's 1757–1758 translation of John Cary's 1695 Essay on the State of England. The ‘English Model’ was not a stable concept and, in fact, one tradition inverted the model's meaning, rejecting the need for protectionism and instead embracing a providential faith in laissez-faire. This tradition began with an important, but falsified footnote in Carlo Denina's 1769–1770 Rivoluzioni d’Italia. In this note and the tradition that adopted it, Lorenzo de’ Medici's imagined English wool factories became the locus of this inversion, and, through a reading of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, blaming the Medici as agents of Italy's aberrant historical development became an alternative to blaming English economic imperialism in late eighteenth-century Italy. The narrative of Medici involvement in the decline of Italy was finally realigned with Genovesi's original intention under the auspice of Pope Pius VI in 1794.