Portraits of Women in Business: Mercantilism and Gender in Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders and Roxana

[[abstract]]Abstract This dissertation aims to discuss mercantilism and the construction of tradesman mentality in Daniel Defoe (1660-1731). Defoe straddles an era of striking economic changes, in which the residual of feudalism still has its influence on conceptions of economics, while the rise of capitalism begins to impact on business operations in society. Concerns for economic issues distinguish Defoe’s works from other eighteenth-century novelists. Although his imaginative characters are pursuers of money and are businessman-like, not until the publication of The Complete English Tradesman in 1725 does he clearly proffer his definition of a “complete tradesman.” Defoe regards The Complete English Tradesman as an instruction for a young tradesman and advocates business as the readiest way to enrich England. He not only attempts to construct a tradesman mentality but tries to apply this idea to his characters, including his intriguingly controversial female protagonists in Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724). The content is divided into three main chapters. In Chapter One, based on Max Weber’s sociology of religion, the core of discussion centers on the justification of Defoe as a progressive mercantilist of a capitalistic mind, and the definition of a true tradesman discussed in The Complete English Tradesman. In the following chapters, instead of regarding Moll and Roxana as dishonorable women, the study tends to emphasize more on these women’s money-oriented inclination and defines them as “women in business.” Defoe’s women characters are subversive figures who tend to transgress social norms with their capability of property management, and therefore construct a female subjectivity by means of success in business. By placing Moll and Roxana in context, the study also attempts to discuss Defoe’s sympathy for women in distress and identifies Defoe’s position with regard to gender. Through his works, Defoe intends to establish a systematic theory on economic issues. The dissertation writer hopes to offer deeper interpretations of Defoe’s economic contentions as well as a different reading of his most disputable characters.