Of Strawberries and Buttons

Abstract

Smith’s political economy is a study in contrast. A natural mechanism, operating under impartial competition and the total absence of monopoly, in the long run produces opulence beneficial to all mankind.¹ In contrast, imperfect people populate a real world, where private monopolistic interests interfere in the natural order to produce above-optimal results for themselves and sub-optimal results for customers. Essentially, the contrast between what an economy could be and what it was in practice, informed his critique of a commercial society lumbered with the policy distortions of mercantile politics and the spirit of monopoly.