1. On Morellet and the Gournay circle as liberals see Clark and Meysonnier in the next note. Morellet’s statements much exceed Montesquieu’s position, who is still most commonly hailed as the founding figure of French liberalism, despite recent caveats by Céline Spector. See Raf Geenens and Helena Rosenblatt (eds), French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day (Cambridge University Press, 2012), especially ibid., Céline Spector, ‘Was Montesquieu Liberal? The Spirit of the Laws in the History of Liberalism’, pp. 57–72.
2. This obligation, characteristic of the type of liberalism advocated by Gournay and many of his associates, including Morellet, was what made Simone Meysonnier summarise it as ‘egalitarian liberalism’ and what led Henry C. Clark to consider it ‘democratising’ in its assumptions: Meysonnier, La Balance et l’Horloge. La Genèse de la pensée libérale en France au XVIIIe siècle (Montreuil: Editions de la Passion, 1989), pp. 137–152; and
3. Clark, Compass of Society: Commerce and Absolutism in Old-Regime France (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007), pp. 133–35.
4. Daniel Roche, Histoire des choses banales. Naissance de la consommation dans les sociétés traditionnelles (XVIIe-XIXe siècle) (Paris: Fayard, 1997), and idem, La culture des apparences: une histoire du vêtement, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles (Paris: Fayard, 1989).
5. Madeleine Ferrières, Le Bien des Pauvres. La Consommation populaire en Avignon (1600–1800) (Seyssel: champ Vallon, 2004).