This article examines the commercial images in Behn's comedies, which abound in examples of sexually connoted mercantile terms to a degree that far exceeds their average use in Restoration comedy. Behn sided with the Court Party against the Whig merchants, but she did not simply juxtapose the feudal ethos of the aristocrats to the mercantile ethos of the middle class. She concurred with contemporary economists who rejected the hoarding of money as detrimental to the national economy and regarded aristocratic prodigality as a driving force for trade. As her rakes well understand, the true utility of money consists in allowing them to acquire desirable goods, whose perceived value is subjective, depending on the difference in usefulness to the consumers. Her rakes frequently speak of themselves as both buyers and sellers of (sexual) merchandise, thereby blurring the difference between the genders and classes. Both women and men in her comedies are commodified and commodify themselves, laying out their charms like luxury wares. In her mercantile imagery, Behn also engages with new forms of commercial ventures and writes about early capitalist economy in a much more differentiated and knowledgeable way than is generally acknowledged.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true,"ui_click":true}; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09699082.2011.646868
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