Good piece. There are plenty of other good ones. Re: Monopolies & Cartels. People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but

Good piece. There are plenty of other good ones. Re: Monopolies & Cartels. People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. "Mercantilism" is often rendered mostly as "preference for export.." left at that. That's one chapter out of many. If you look at some other chapters describing Mercantilism or "the commercial system," they sometimes seem to be describing modern (post 1980s) western conservatives. (1) Mercs obsess about "trade imbalances" (2) Merc obsess about "gold stock" in domestic circulation^ (3) Merc's trade deals fleece their own home countries... there are a surprising similarities between Smith's complaints about the incumbent Mercantilists and modern complaints against post 1980s conservative economics. ^Roughly equivalent to modern conservative obsession with public debt