Dimitrie Cantemir’s Economic Perspectives

Abstract

Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), one of the most erudite scholars of his times, was a historian, a philosopher, a geographer, a theologian and a musicologist. A world-class encyclopedian scientist, Dimitrie Cantemir was the first great Romanian intellectual to have been acknowledged as a member of the European culture. The purpose of this paper is to point out the economic ideas that emerge from his writings, as well as the patriotic layer of his views on economic issues. The specific historical conditions and his background as a humanist made Cantemir focus on the issue of creating an independent centralized nation by creating a national market imposed by the logic of economic progress.

Keywords

• mercantilism
• boyars
• peasants
• land property
• orient