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Hobbes and the Problem of International Trade

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British Modern International Thought in the Making

Part of the book series: International Political Theory ((IPoT))

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Abstract

In this chapter Mikko Jakonen emphasises the importance of economy in Hobbes’ theory of international relations. Economy was a crucial issue for Hobbes’ political theory. Yet, economic activity is not situated solely in the domestic sphere. For Hobbes, the different phenomena involved in international economics, such as free trade, trade corporations, monopolies, and colonies, all raised the question of how the sovereign could regulate international economic activity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Among several examples, the most important may include Morgenthau (1948/1978), which refers only to Leviathan. The same is the case in Carr (1939/2001), which uses many fragments from Hobbes, but they are always from Leviathan. In addition, the neorealists confine themselves mainly to Leviathan. See, for example, Keohane (1986), which refers only to Leviathan, although there are several references to Hobbes. Like others, Hedley Bull (1977) also refers only to Leviathan in his The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics. Donald W. Hanson summarises well the basic problem of the realist interpretation: “…the reading of Hobbes as the supreme realist of (at least) international political theory rests on a handful of his most striking phrases arbitrarily lifted out of a very carefully crafted and interdependent whole” (Hanson, 1984, 331–332). Noel Malcolm also formulates the same point in a very strict way: “It [that is, the standard realist interpretation] appears to be based, for the most part, on a handful of passages in one or two of his works (ignoring many comments on international affairs elsewhere in his writings); and even those few passages have been misunderstood” (Malcolm 2004, 435).

  2. 2.

    It can be figured from Hobbes’s correspondence that Behemoth was published most probably in Netherlands without Hobbes’s permission. The case lead to some sort of trouble between Hobbes and King Charles II. See Hobbes’s correspondence with publisher William Crooke (Hobbes 2005b, 771–775) and Jakonen 2015.

  3. 3.

    Hobbes writes of different peoples and nations such as Egyptians, Assyrians, Saxons, Normans, Gauls, Germans, and so on. On Hobbes’s account and relation history, see Dubos (2004).

  4. 4.

    Hobbes argues that in the state of nature when “…people lived by small families to rob and spoil one another has been a trade” and the bigger the spoil has been, the more honour people have gained from it (L 111–112).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Mikko Jakonen

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  1. Catholic University of Lille, Lille, France

    Benjamin Bourcier

  2. University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Mikko Jakonen

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Jakonen, M. (2024). Hobbes and the Problem of International Trade. In: Bourcier, B., Jakonen, M. (eds) British Modern International Thought in the Making. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45713-5_3

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