LE SUFFRAGE ET LE MARCHÉ DANS LA RICHESSE DES NATIONS

Most of the readers of the Wealth of Nations knew that the relations between Smith and economic liberalism are rather distant. Here, those relations are studied from the point of view of Smith's criticism of mercantile system. The mercantile system is inefficient and generates a rate of growth slower than the rate of growth generated by the system of natural liberty. However, the more decisive attack against the mercantile system is a political one. For Smith, the vote of taxation (the trust in the State) was a condition of the positive rate of growth. However the mercantile system itself is the result of the relations between government and merchants, and implies war and increasing public debt. The fatal consequence is public bankruptcy and the end of this relation of confidence in the State.