Starving for Candy

Abstract

In the case of Corsica, Rousseau proposes a policy of national self-sufficiency. This policy is legitimised by the specific situation of Corsica at the time. But what does he have to say about international trade more generally? How does he, for instance, treat this issue in his other case study, that of Poland? The answer is that, again, international exchange is rejected. If Poland were to apply the same internationalist economic policy as the other nations of Europe, then violence, greed, servility, inequality and other social problems would result.¹Such a policy would be infantile:

• and then, like Pyrrhus, like the Russians, which is to say like little children — you will be able to say: “When the world is mine, I am going to eat lots and lots of candy”.²