Jealousy of trade : an introduction -- 1. The language of sociability and commerce : Samuel Pufendorf and the theoretical foundations of the "four-stages" theory -- 2. Free trade and the economic limits to national politics : neo-Machiavellian political economy reconsidered -- 3. The "rich country-poor country" debate in the Scottish Enlightenment -- 4. The rhapsody of public debt : David Hume and voluntary state bankruptcy -- 5. Adam Smith and the political economy of the "unnatural and retrograde" order -- 6. Needs and justice in the wealth of nations -- 7. The permanent crisis of a divided mankind : "nation-state" and "nationalism" in historical perspective.