Abstract
The term laissez-faire has traditionally been used to describe the state’s reluctance to interfere in industrial and social activity. Bentham, J. S. Mill and Smiles emphasised government’s role to be to rule rather than legislate, but the first broadside to mercantilism was delivered by Adam Smith in his work ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’.
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Further reading
A. W. Coats, (ed.) The Classical Economists and Economic Policy (1971);
P. L. Payne, British Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century (1974);
O. MacDonagh, Early Victorian Government 1830–1870 (1977);
A.J. Taylor, Laissez-Faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth-century Britain (1972).
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© 1980 Neil Tonge and Michael Quincey
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Tonge, N., Quincey, M. (1980). Laissez-Faire and State Intervention: The Economy. In: British Social and Economic History 1800–1900. Documents and Debates. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04991-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04991-2_5
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