But you can't really have Enlightenment without at least some system of trade. From the Italians forward, they were parts of the same phenomenon. Colonial - Mer

But you can't really have Enlightenment without at least some system of trade. From the Italians forward, they were parts of the same phenomenon. Colonial - Mercantilist - trade was consonant with governance at the time. I don't know of anyone prior to Adam Smith who wrote at length decrying it. And it's arguable that Orwell's "Burmese Days" was one of the first treatments of the psychological costs and moral problems of actual colonial subjugation. The rest is just judging those in the past by modern standards. Still, finding sources outside the usual canon is of vital importance. Whiggishness in general is under assault.