Economic theory, reformism, and the emergence of economic rights: models of identification and dissociation in the European corporations of trades during the “long” eighteenth century

Abstract

This study addresses the incompatibility question between the corporate organization of industry and a system based on the general recognition of economic rights and freedoms in Continental Western Europe. A dissociation/identification model based on a comparative analysis verifies the consistency of the premise that makes the emergence of economic rights only possible after suppressing the corporations of trades. The model stems coherently from the ideas of eighteenth-century political economists and crystallizes in reform policies aimed at eliminating corporate elements contrary to economic freedoms. The results directly link the intellectual model and the actual expressions of economic rights within the declarations written at the end of the old regime. While dissociation creates an opportunity for corporate continuity within a framework of recognized economic freedoms, the French identification model implies the suppression of corporations.