Véron de Forbonnais and Plumard de Dangeul as Translators of Uztáriz and Ulloa

Abstract

SummaryWhen analysing François Véron de Forbonnais's translation of Gerónimo de Uztáriz's Theórica y Práctica de comercio (1724) and Louis-Joseph Plumard de Dangeul's translation of Bernardo de Ulloa's Restablecimiento de las fábricas (1742), the first important point to consider is that the two cousins, who had decided to bring the works to a French public at the suggestion of Vincent de Gournay, were working with a language (Castilian) and within a political and cultural environment (the Spanish monarchy) which they had already experienced in person. A second important consideration concerns the linguistic challenge inherent in the fact that the Spanish did not yet have an economic lexicon equal to that developed by French thinkers. The choices of terminology made by Forbonnais and Plumard bear witness to this different development and reveal the peculiarities of economic epistemology in the two countries. This essay will shed light on the translation strategies adopted by the French writers, focusing on a number of key concepts of the new science of commerce, such as consumption, exportation, importation, population, commerce, trade, money, and work.