Abstract
Smith’s book Wealth of Nations is peppered with insights about how some groups conspire together in order to persuade the government to restrict the trade of their competitors in order to benefit themselves. He believes that merchants and manufacturers are particularly susceptible to this, whereas “country gentlemen and farmers” are not. The problem for taxpayers is compounded by the existence of “unproductive hands” who gather in “a numerous and splendid court, a great ecclesiastical establishment, great fleets and armies” and are “all maintained by the produce of other men’s labor.”
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Hart, D.M., Chartier, G., Kenyon, R.M., Long, R.T. (2018). Adam Smith, “On Conspiracies, Monopolies, and Unproductive Labour” (1776). In: Hart, D., Chartier, G., Kenyon, R., Long, R. (eds) Social Class and State Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64894-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64894-1_2
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