約書亞•塔克論自由貿易與美洲革命：一種對啟蒙思想史的研究

Abstract

約書亞•塔克（Josiah Tucker）是一個十八世紀英格蘭國教會牧師。他雖作為神職人員，但在政治與經濟思想上有一定造詣，並發表眾多作品。過去對他的研究，有學者重視他在經濟思想上的創見，在《國富論》尚未面世前便大力倡議自由貿易，論證廢除重商主義政策對英國更為有利，也有學者因為他在美洲獨立戰爭時支持英國放棄殖民地獨立，視其為殖民地解放運動之先鋒。不過，過去的研究忽略了塔克的宗教思想在其自由貿易或是放棄殖民地主張中發揮的作用，也因為如此，他的經濟與政治主張之間的矛盾以及衝突，便無法被妥善解釋。本篇論文的目的，是要透過考察塔克對於神意、教會等神學議題之見解，並且吸收近二十年來啟蒙運動研究成果，來論證塔克對理性與信仰的調和，是英格蘭啟蒙浪潮下的典型代表，藉此補充過去在討論英格蘭啟蒙時對於塔克的忽略。本文也將指出，由於塔克將自由貿易思想視為上帝的旨意與恩典，因此他積極宣揚自由貿易思想，並且對於未來抱持高度樂觀的態度。要言之，本文希冀透過上述研究，對於塔克其人有更為完整之認識，也更深入理解十八世紀啟蒙思潮與信仰的辯證關係。

Josiah Tucker is a Anglican clergyman in eighteenth-century England. Though as a dean in church, he wrote a certain amount of works concerning economics and politics, and was deemed as of importance. Past articles and monograph dealing with Dean Tucker were either focusing on his pre-Smithian insistence on 'free trade', or on his efforts to persuade the Britons and leaders of government to abandon the North-American colonies during the War of Independence. The past studies, however, did not notice the religious sphere which is not unimportant of Tucker's works and thoughts. The religious part in Dean's political and economic thoughts posed some important questions and even paradoxes which still needed to be solved, and this is one of the themes to be discussed in this thesis. Through mapping out Tucker's thoughts on the theology and ecclesiastical affairs, this study aims to provide a more comprehensive and coherent picture of Dean's mind. In a word, this thesis argues that Dean deemed the idea of free-trade as the benevolence of Province, thus he advocates it with a highly enthusiastic motivation. Besides, the research also combines the above-mentioned argument with the already-abundant studies on the English Enlightenment, tracking Tucker on the map of the Enlightenment world. All in all, through the discussion and examination of Josiah Tucker's works and thoughts, this dissertation provides a deeper understanding of not only Dean himself but the essence of the multi-directional dialogue between the Enlightenment and Christianity.