Deniz

This talk of French vs British readings of WN has a whiff of postmodernism
about it for me.  I would be inclined stress the importance of varying
personal reading of the book, as against say national ones.

In that regard, I recently looked at some doings of Cochrane, (after Nelson,
the best remembered British Naval hero)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cochrane,_10th_Earl_of_Dundonald

I formed the conclusion that he was very probably strongly influenced by
readings of WN, most likely during his time as a student at Edinburgh around
1800. The evidence for this is the sort of pamphlets he produced as part of
his subsequent successful campaign to liberate Chile from Spanish rule. 
Cochrane’s favourite saying seems to have been a quote from Nelson “Don’t
bother with manoeuvres – just go straight at ‘em” and his (personal)
scholarship perhaps followed similar tactics.  The pamphlets concern his
version of mercantilism: identifying a clique of merchants who, in league
with the Spanish government, conspired to mulct almost the entire Chilean
population.  Self serving and simplistic perhaps, but part of a memorable
victory all the same

Cochrane, in tandem with such as William Cobbett, followed a similar
philosophy on English soil, arguably being imprisoned here (as Cobbett
certainly was) for his radical and supposedly seditious views.  Both were
key figures in the movement to overturn the Tory administration, and bring
on the Great Reforms of the Whigs.

Thus it’s a curiosity of these postmodern times that when Cochrane was
brought back to life in fiction as ‘Jack Aubrey’, and thereby on the Cinema
screen (played by Russell Crowe: “Master and Commander”) his radical
politics were simply turned on their head.  To make him fit for public
edification today, he is made the very model of a simple minded John Bull
Tory, who despises any hint of radicalism……

Rob Tye