Adam Smith

["RICHARD P.F. HOLT" <holtri@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From James Galbraith

At the conclusion of Chapter XI, "Of the Rent of Land,"  in the
Wealth of Nations, Smith writes as follows:

"The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch
of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from,
and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and narrow
the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen
the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the
public, but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and
can serve only to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above
what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an
absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens. 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. 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 to oppress
the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived
and oppressed it."

--James Galbraith
<wishing you all a sensitive dependence on the initial conditions of
your days...>