J.-F. Melon’€™s Essai politique sur le commerce (1734) was a crucial work in the context of the European 18th Century. Amongst its outstanding and remarkable characteristics, the Essai embraces some of the main topics of the “€˜economic imaginary of otherness”€™ which were used in the treatises on Political Economy during the Age of Enlightenment. This article inquiries into the nature of such topics and their transcendence in order to explain the noticeable reception of the treatise in Spain during the 18th Century. The article analyses in detail the similitudes and divergences between the original French Essai and its Spanish versions by T.V. de Argumosa (1743) and L. Normante (1786). The article demonstrates that Argumosa and Normante made a conservative read of the Essai as they tried to interpret it in terms of “€˜rich countries-poor countries”€™ dialectics in order to inspire new policies to remove poorness and commercial dependency from Spain.