Business men and public officials for centuries held the view that business could best be conducted if minutely regulated by the government. To that end the various nations granted monopolies of all sorts, regulated the relation between masters and their workmen, and restricted the exportation of money and raw products to foreign lands. This was the period of mercantilism - that is, a period of state regulation of business. There were some leaders, however, who believed that state interference was more detrimental than helpful, and that better industrial results could be attained by permitting each individual to pursue his own economic advantage. The first widely-read expression of this new doctrine, the doctrine of laissez faire, was given to the world by Adam Smith, in 1776, in an epoch-making work entitled the Wealth of Nations.

Since that time these two conflicting views have contested for supremacy in the minds of men. Mercantilism - state regulation of business - has stubbornly given way to its younger rival, though it still lingers in such form as the protective tariff; and it would not be at all surprising if it should regain its second youth. We may say, however, that business in general in the United States is characterized by the principle of laissez faire, or, to use a more common expression, competition. Here each business man is permitted, with a minimum of state

Fac-simile Extract from Smith's Wealth of Nations.