In France during the 18th century, discussions on social theory were based on the concept of commerce-including not only trade but social relations. Such discussions were formed around topics such as self-interest, natural sociability and civilization. In this article, I examine many major French works on society and commerce written between the 1670s and the 1780s and the debates surrounding reform proposals in the age of Enlightenment. I argue that economists and philosophers did not formally recognize socializing-in the sense of interactions separate from the supervision of law and religion-as consisting a self-sustaining layer of in itself. In their view, no important forms of exchange could exist without the devotion to the public interest as a new principle of society. I conclude with a discussion of how attempts to redefi ne social interaction as a type of commerce collapsed under an orchestrated disdain for self-interest.