autarkies

Noun

autarky (countable and uncountable, plural autarkies)

1. (uncountable) A personal condition or state of self-reliance; independence.
   • Autarchie, or contentednes, vvhich is a vertue vvhereby vve are contented vvith thoſe things vvhich vve preſently enioy, & haue iuſtly gotten, & meekly ſuffer poverty & other diſcommodities, neither are broken through vvant or penury, nor gape after other mens goods or ſubſtance, nor covet things...1587, Zacharias Ursinus, “Of the Law of God, or, Of the Decalog and Ten Commandements. [The Eight Commandment.]”, in Henry Parry, transl., The Summe of Christian Religion: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire...
2. (specifically, uncountable) (A policy of) national economic self-sufficiency, aimed at ending reliance on foreign imports to sustain a domestic economy.
   • Selfe-ſufficiencie is the end.] To haue all things, and to vvant or deſire nothing, is Selfe-ſufficiencie, Ariſtot: Polit. Lib. 7. Cap. 5. This autarchie or ſelfe-ſufficiencie, is the end and the good contained in the forme of a Citie, and conſequently is the end of all other ſocieties.1598, Aristotle, “What is a Citie: And that It Consisteth by Nature: And that Man is Naturally a Sociable and Ciuill Creature”, in I. D. [i.e., John Dee], transl., Aristotles Politiques, or...
3. (countable, specifically) A self-sufficient country or region which is not dependent on international trade to function economically.
   • Does this mean that the era of autarkies and of economic nationalism is ended?1948 May 13, Robert Lecourt, “L’Aube (Organ of the Popular Republican Movement)”, in [anonymous], transl., News from France, number 8, New York, N.Y.: Information Division, French Embassy, →OCLC...