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1 results

  • 7 - Adam Smith in the British Empire

  • Edited by Sankar Muthu, University of Chicago
  • Book:
    Empire and Modern Political Thought
    Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    17 September 2012, pp 184-198

  • Summary

    Florentine republican imperialism was premised on the idea that the republic had two ends: to preserve its liberty at home and to pursue empire abroad. This chapter builds on this research by inquiring into the role of liberty, empire, and justice in the Florentine tradition in general and in the political theory of Niccolò Machiavelli in particular. Inspired by the example of the ancient Roman republic, most Florentine humanists of the early fifteenth century refused to view liberty and empire as contradictory values or pursuits. The connection between Roman and Florentine justice is also prominent in the writings produced in the aftermath of the city's conquest of Pisa in 1406. In Machiavelli's theory it is the virtue of prudence, and not that of justice, that takes on the role of binding liberty and empire together.