Mercantilism vs. Laissez-faire Essay

commercialism suggested that a countrys goverment should play an active role in the economy by urging more exports than imports, especially through the r knocked out(p)ine of tariffs. A nations wealth, when it comes to mercantilism lays in its gold and silver amounts. Many physiocrats of the succession opposed mercantilism because they saw it as exploition of business. The government collected red-blooded fees from guilds, and other groups. Therefore using them for their own profit. The government also curb economic innovation, and regulated which goods would be made and what regions are to be traded with. This brought out many critics in the aristocratic classes. One of mercantilisms greatest critics was fling Smith.Adam Smith wrote The man who steals, does not always mean to sell again, precisely frequently to use or to consume whereas he who sells, always mean to buy again. (Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations)This basically means th at in order to sell, you must regain what youve sold, and will sell again, but those who buy will use what theyve bought. Adam Smith had laissez-faire ideology which meant that an individuals opportunism is the motor of economic progress. He believed each individual should be unblock to pursue their economic interests freely, without restriction by the government, which he believed should not extend to itself with economic affairs.High tariffs, guild restrictions, and mercantilist restraints just obstructed economic action. Physiocrats who advocated individualism ideology also believed that agriculture is the sole productive economic activity and encouraged the improvement of cultivation. Because they considered land to be the sole source of wealth, they urged the acceptance of a tax on land as the only economically justifiable tax.So essentially Laissez-faire and mercantilist are completely setback in the sense that mercantilism is for the government, for restriction and mon archial control, and Laissez-faire is for the individual, the consumer, the masses, the good of the country.