Historians of political economy have traditionally concentrated on the genesis of modern economics, tracing the emergence of economic models, methods and ideas that are today recognized as 'economics', from 'classical political economy', neo-classicism and on to the present.
Our new departure treats political economy as a discourse oriented to the improvement of conditions for human life and, as such, one of the Enlightenment’s key contributions to Western thought. However, any direct association of Enlightenment discourse with political economy requires qualification. Therefore, this project explores a very extensive contemporary literature about growth, wealth and welfare that has not fitted easily into the conventional retrospective history. Instead of converting past arguments into modern arguments about methods and models, the project investigates eighteenth-century political economy in terms of practical concerns, as measures and policies for betterment and improvement. The Swedish empire – considered by contemporaries as the stronghold of 'oeconomia' – functions as the primary case study, but is constantly compared with other cases, broadening the applicability of the findings.
The aim of the project is to study the ways in which the key concepts of improvement – wealth, growth and welfare – were articulated in the main sites of discursive production: the University, the Diet, local and colonial governments, and academic journals. The study of the five institutions is based on the hypothesis that in each of them activities were directed towards improving the organisation of state and society and the living conditions of the people. This project represents a well-founded reassessment of the rise to predominance of economic argument during the eighteenth century.
The project is particularly timely because it not only has an academic impact, but also a societal one. Today, more urgently than ever before, we need to understand what the long history of political economy and economics really was about. By examining a crucial, though hitherto neglected, aspect of political economy the project offers an entirely novel perspective, not only on the history of economic and political thought but also on the importance and unique character of the early-modern period in history. The project has opened up new horizons and opportunities for research in subfields of history, political science and economics.
Focusing on the neglected Swedish case, the project argues that standard canonical histories have long dominated the history of economic thought. By adopting a collaborative research methodology and engaging in joint data collection the project has been able to generate new knowledge of how eighteenth-century political economy was shaped. The project suggests that the history of political economy must be understood in terms of the institutions in which the discourse was embedded. Drawn together, the five work packages have demonstrated decisively the significance of the measures and practices of improvement to eighteenth century political economy.
