Although Rüstow, and his closest neoliberal colleague Röpke, are generally – and rightly – understood to have been more concerned than many of their fellow MPS members with the negative impacts of competitive markets on social integration, when it came to imperialism these 'sociological liberals' were great exponents of the 'sweetness of commerce'. Echoing earlier arguments that the virtue of commerce lay in checking the violent passions, Röpke portrayed war as a matter of 'instincts, feelings and passions', while the 'atmosphere created by free market economics, i.e. the principle of economic organisation inherent in "capitalism", serve[d] rather to curb and suppress atavistic, bellicose emotions than to stir them up'.

Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, loc. 281