welcome to the essential ideas of the enlightenment charles louis de seconda baron de la bred et de montesquieu better known simply as montesquieu was a french nobleman judge novelist and also a decisive figure in the early years of the enlightenment whose impact can still be seen in western democracies around the world born in lebret france in 1689 montesquieu was one of the earlier enlightenment era reformers his major work the spirit of the laws published in 1748 was instrumental in shaping the political thought that has come to be known as liberalism which included promotion of religious
liberty and commerce and a firm commitment to the rule of law one of montesquiou's most lasting legacies is the idea of separating powers within government among different branches legislative executive and judiciary while commonplace among western democracies today in montesquieu's time it was a revolutionary concept to protect liberty the idea was to protect people against unjust punishment requiring that before the executive could put someone in prison there had to be a law that they broke and a fair trial with the law passed and the trial conducted without executive interference but montesquieu's influence in the enlightenment era
wasn't limited to the structure of government and rights he was also a firm believer in the power of commerce and markets the power of supply and demand for montesquiou was yet one more check on the power of government because leaders even monarchs could only exert so much control over commerce but perhaps more importantly montesquieu was one of the first to realize the moral benefits of trade and commerce for montescu trading and commerce encouraged tolerance peace and justice because when people and societies were trading with one another they weren't fighting with each other in fact montesquieu's
views on the benefits of commerce and trade were major influences on scottish enlightenment thinkers such as adam smith and david hume considered the founders of economics montesquieu died in 1755 in paris france to learn more about the enlightenment era visit essentialenlightenment.org and to learn about more essential scholars visit essentialscholars.org you
