Eighteenth-century economists tied prosperity to virtuous republican rule.

Evidence

For both Genovesi and Doria it was axiomatic that the only kind of society capable of generating and maintaining the high levels of expectation which would render its people prosperous and happy was the virtuous republic, the Ciceronian bene ordinate respublica where all laws were directed towards the public good and the sovereign ruled in the interest of his people (Genovesi 1803: 69-71; Doria 1852: 353-4). — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1746

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘many-little-republics’ framing connects to the reader’s Hardin point that trust needs observable constraints; here the constraint is the law-directed-toward-public-good of a virtuous sovereign.