Famous Exceptions to Free Trade

Abstract

Just as Smith was reticent to employ the words laissez faire, he also did not use the words laissez passer (‘let it pass’), because he was not in favour of unrestricted free international trade, though Smith was quoted with greater authority on free international trade than he was on laissez faire.¹ It comes as a minor shock to some people (it did to me when Professor Andrew Skinner drew my attention to it in 1975 — I was researching the economics of defence) to discover that Smith, contrary to his reputation, adamantly advocated two major breaches of free international trade.