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This article is concerned with the interplay between commerce and manners in early eighteenth-century Paris. It examines how the esteemed ‘cultural capital’ of Paris came to be challenged by the model of contra-cultural economic capital observed in London. Against a study of Brice’s description of Paris which de-emphasises trade outside ventures of national benefit, it highlights the incremental counter-narrative in the commentaries on London by Miège and Muralt. It traces the development of this counter-narrative from Miège’s account of trade and English prosperity to Muralt’s construction of an imitable urban model through study of the individualist English character and the socio-economic freedoms it secured.

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