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
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.
