The Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the Metaphysics of Capitalism: A Reading of Joseph de la Vega’s Confusión de confusiones

I offer a critical and contextual reading of Joseph de la Vega’s 1688 dialogue, the Confusión de confusiones, which portrays the workings of the Amsterdam stock exchange. This work offers a sustained philosophical reflection on the workings of the market, on the nature of various speculative financial instruments, and on the consequences for philosophy itself of the rise of global capitalism. I argue that de la Vega’s work represents a “baroque philosophy of economics,” to the extent that it understands the emergent economic system as one of vast instability and diversity compensated by a central unifying and stabilizing force. I argue further that de la Vega believes that the rise of this new economic system is directly responsible for a significant and unprecedent rupture in the history of philosophy.