2025-2026
Commercial Republicanism and the History of Liberty
Saturday, March 28, 2026
The Huntington
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA
Stewart R. Smith Board Room
Martens Economic History Forum Program
Forum Leader: Jacob Soll, University of Southern California
Event Co-Organizer: Dan Edelstein, Stanford University
RSVP to attend this event by Monday, March 23.
Participants
(Discussant)
Forum co-organizer
“Material and Spiritual Welfare: Qing China from the Perspective of Monarchical Republic”
Vanessa Liu, Undergraduate, Philosophy, Politics and Economics, USC
“Daniel Defoe’s Commercial Republicanism”
“Merchants without Country: Quakers, Offshoring, and Republican Compromise in the Business of Light”
“Machiavelli on Popular Rule”
“The Art of Looking Equal: Sumptuary Law and Republican Self-Governance”
“Profits vs. Princes: Commercial Republicanism and the Company-State”
Co-sponsored Events
The Linda and Harlan Martens Economic History Forum is pleased to co-sponsor the following EMSI seminar sessions in 2025-2026:
Saturday, October 18, 2025
American Origins
Dana Velasco Murillo, University of California, San Diego
“Service and Circulation: The Chichimeca Diaspora (New Spain 1570-1600)”
Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA
Steven’s Classroom
10:30 am – 12:00 noon (PT)
RSVP by October 10 to receive pre-circulated materials.
Thursday, December 4, 2025
American Origins
Carla Pestana, University of California, Los Angeles
“Toward a Maritime History of the Caribbean”
USC, University Park Campus
Doheny Memorial Library, DML 241
4:30 – 6:00 pm (PT)
RSVP by November 28 to receive pre-circulated materials.
Saturday, January 17, 2026
American Origins
Mark Peterson, Yale University
“Why the American Revolution must End”
Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA
Steven’s Classroom
10:30 am – 12:00 noon (PT)
RSVP by January 9 to receive pre-circulated materials.
Thursday, February 26, 2026
American Origins
Hannah A. Farber, Columbia University
“How to Sue a Missouri Gambler: Civil Lawsuits in the Federal Territories, 1805-1819”
USC, University Park Campus
Doheny Memorial Library, DML 110C
4:30 – 6:00 pm (PT)
RSVP by February 18 to receive pre-circulated materials.
Friday, April 3, 2026
Long 18th Century
Helen Thompson, Northwestern University, Huntington Library Fellow
“Pawnship, Enslavement, and Literary History: Oroonoko, The Royal African, and the Royal African Company Letters”
Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA
Seaver 1 & 2
10:00 am – 12:00 noon (PT)
Saturday, April 4, 2026
American Origins
Steven Hackel, University of California, Riverside
“The Materiality of Spanish California”
Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA
Roger’s Classroom
10:30 am – 12:00 noon (PT)
RSVP by March 27 to receive pre-circulated materials.
Saturday, April 11, 2026
British History
Brooke Newman, Virginia Commonwealth University
“The Queen’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery”
Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA
Steven’s Classroom
10:00 am – 12:00 noon (PT)
Photos from the Martens Economic History Forum
Image: Jan de Baen, Apotheosis of Cornelis de Witt, oil on canvas, c. 1668. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
