Another Interesting Excerpt from Adam Smith's Writings
"Smith criticized how the British Parliament had passed laws that crippled free trade and hindered the expansion of national wealth. These laws imposed high import duties, gave subsidies to favored companies, and granted monopolies to powerful special interests like the East India Company.
These laws harmed society by limiting competition and keeping prices high. Such measures, Smith wrote, were "extorted from our legislature" and "written in blood" since they served the interest of only a small class of privileged manufacturers and merchants.
Smith reserved his greatest criticism for the British colonial empire. He concluded it was "hurtful to the general interest of society." He focused especially on trade restrictions placed on the colonies in America.
Smith opposed mercantilist policies that required Americans to export certain products like fur pelts only to England. The Americans also had to ship their exports on British ships. Regulations prohibited transporting woolen products from one colony to another. Laws made it illegal for Americans to operate steel-making furnaces. Government-licensed monopolies like the East India Company held the exclusive right to sell goods like tea to the Americans.
According to Smith, these and hundreds of other restrictions benefited British special interests. But they slowed production and international trade, the sources of a nation’s "real wealth." To Smith, the mercantilist system was self-defeating and resulted from "the monopolizing spirit of merchants and manufacturers." Their greed flowed from "an interest to deceive and even oppress the public."
Multi-national corporations have consistently de-regulated themselves purely for the benefit of increased profits, and sorely limiting "free market trade".
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