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From French Physiocrat theories of the blood-like circulation of wealth to Adam Smith's "invisible hand" of the market, the body has played a crucial role in Western perceptions of the economic. In Renaissance culture, however, the dominant bodily metaphors for national wealth and economy were derived from the relatively new language of infectious disease. Whereas traditional Galenic medicine had understood illness as a state of imbalance within the body, early modern writers increasingly reimagined disease as an invasive foreign agent. The rapid rise of global trade in the sixteenth century, and the resulting migrations of people, money, and commodities across national borders, contributed to this growing pathologization of the foreign; conversely, the new trade-inflected vocabularies of disease helped writers to represent the contours of national and global economies. Grounded in scrupulous analyses of cultural and economic history, Sick Economies: Drama, Mercantilism, and Disease in Shakespeare's England teases out the double helix of the pathological and the economic in two seemingly disparate spheres of early modern textual production: drama and mercantilist writing. Of particular interest to this study are the ways English playwrights, such as Shakespeare, Jonson, Heywood, Massinger, and Middleton, and mercantilists, such as Malynes, Milles, Misselden, and Mun, rooted their conceptions of national economy in the language of disease. Some of these diseases-syphilis, taint, canker, plague, hepatitis-have subsequently lost their economic connotations; others-most notably consumption-remain integral to the modern economic lexicon but have by and large shed their pathological senses. Breaking new ground by analyzing English mercantilism primarily as a discursive rather than an ideological or economic system, Sick Economies provides a compelling history of how, even in our own time, defenses of transnational economy have paradoxically pathologized the foreign. In the process, Jonathan Gil Harris argues that what we now regard as the discrete sphere of the economic cannot be disentangled from seemingly unrelated domains of Renaissance culture, especially medicine and the theater.

Diseases in literature. --- Economics in literature. --- English drama --- Literature and medicine --- Mercantile system --- History and criticism. --- History --- Cameralism --- Kameralism --- Mercantilism (Mercantile system) --- Balance of trade --- Economic policy --- Shakespeare, William, --- Shakespeare, William --- Shakespear, William, --- Shakspeare, William, --- Šekʻspiri, Uiliam, --- Saixpēr, Gouilliam, --- Shakspere, William, --- Shikisbīr, Wilyam, --- Szekspir, Wiliam, --- Šekspyras, --- Shekspir, Vilʹi︠a︡m, --- Šekspir, Viljem, --- Tsikinya-chaka, --- Sha-shih-pi-ya, --- Shashibiya, --- Sheḳspir, Ṿilyam, --- Shaḳspir, Ṿilyam, --- Syeiksŭpʻio, --- Shekspir, V. --- Szekspir, William, --- Shakespeare, Guglielmo, --- Shake-speare, William, --- Sha-ō, --- Şekspir, --- Shekspir, Uiliam, --- Shekspir, U. --- Šekspir, Vilijam, --- Ṣēkspiyar, Viliyam, --- Shakspir, --- Shekspyr, Vyli︠e︡m, --- Şekspir, Velyam, --- Ṣēkspiyar, Villiyam, --- Shēkʻspʻiyr, Vlilliam, --- Ṣēkspiyar, --- Ṣēkspiyar Mahākavi, --- Ṣēkspiyar Mahākaviya, --- Sheḳspier, Ṿilyam, --- Shēkʻspir, --- Shakespeare, --- Śeksper, --- Шекспир, Вильям, --- Шекспир, Уильям, --- שייקספיר, וויליאם, --- שייקספיר, וו., --- שיקספיר, וויליאם --- שיקספיר, ויליאם --- שיקספיר, ויליאם, --- שכספיר, ויליאם, --- שכספיר, וילים, --- שכספיר, ו׳ --- שעפקספיר, וויליאם, --- שעקספיער, וויליאם --- שעקספיער, וויליאם, --- שעקספיער, ווילליאם --- שעקספיער, וו., --- שעקספיר --- שעקספיר, וו --- שעקספיר, וויליאם, --- שעקספיר, וויליאמ --- שעקספיר, ווילליאם --- שעקספיר, ווילליאם, --- שעקספיר, וו., --- שעקספיר, װיליאם, --- שעקספיר, װילליאם, --- שעקספיר, װ., --- שעקספער --- שעקספער, וויליאמ --- שקספיר --- שקספיר, וו --- שקספיר, וויליאם --- שקספיר, וויליאם, --- שקספיר, ווילים, --- שקספיר, וילאם --- שקספיר, ויליאם --- שקספיר, ויליאם, --- שקספיר, ויליים, --- שקספיר, וילים --- שקספיר, וילים, --- شاكسبير، وليم --- شاكسپير، وليم --- شكسبير، وليام --- شكسبير، وليم --- شكسبير، وليم، --- شكسبير، و. --- شكسپير، وليم --- شكسپير، ويليام --- شيكسبير، وليام --- شيكسبير، وليام.، --- شيكسبير، وليم --- شکسبير، وليم --- وليم شکسبير --- 沙士北亞威廉姆, --- 沙士比亞威廉姆, --- 莎士比亞威廉姆, --- 莎士比亞威廉, --- 莎士比亞, --- Knowledge --- Economics. --- Medicine. --- Great Britain --- England --- Economic conditions --- Cultural Studies. --- Literature. --- Medieval and Renaissance Studies.