英文摘要 |
This essay emphatically argues that Adam Smith’s attitude toward empire can be better understood in the context of the maritime empire long propagated by the political economists before him. Contesting the revisionist views describing Smith as a pluralist theorist against empire, this essay argues that Smith’s political economy enables him to criticize colonial governments and policies within, but not beyond, the parameter of empire. Distancing itself from republican views of anti-imperial politics, the Smithian political economy brings natural affluence and justice, not sympathy and cultural pluralism, to the forefront. Smith’s critique of empire develops around the concern of how to govern a colony in accordance with the principles of justice. Henceforth,“Is a just empire possible?”becomes an emergent question for British intellects and statesmen concerned with British politics at home and abroad. |