Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. ON GOVERNMENT… It is the highest impertinence and presumption… in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense. The Wealth Of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI, Conclusion of the Chapter, p.267, para. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers…The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. The Wealth Of Nations, Book IV Chapter VIII, p. The majority of a corporation can enact a bye-law, with proper penalties, which will limit the competition more effectually and more durably than any voluntary combination whaever.
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In a free trade, an effectual combination cannot be established but by the unanimous consent of every single trader, and it cannot last longer than every single trader continues of the same mind. An incorporation not only renders them necessary, but makes the act of the majority binding upon the whole. A regulation which enables those of the same trade to tax themselves in order to provide for their poor, their sick, their widows and orphans…renders such assemblies necessary. A regulation which obliges all those of the same trade in a particular town to enter their names and places of abode in a public register, facilitates such assemblies….
But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies, much less to render them necessary. …AND THE DISTORTION OF TRADE People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices…. The Wealth Of Nations, Book IV Chapter VIII, v. Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer. The Wealth Of Nations, Book II, Chapter II, p.329, para. ON COMPETITION… In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more so.
The Wealth Of Nations, Book IV, Chapter II, p. Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines, merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland? …AND TRADE SPECIALISATION By means of glasses, hotbeds, and hotwalls, very good grapes can be raised in Scotland, and very good wine too can be made of them at about thirty times the expense for which at least equally good can be brought from foreign countries. The Wealth Of Nations, Book IV Chapter II, pp. It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy.What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. The Wealth Of Nations, Book I, Chapter I, p. ON THE DIVISION OF LABOUR… It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.
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