Mercantilism vs. Laissez-faire Essay

Mercantilism suggested that a countrys goverment should symbolise an active role in the economy by urging more than exports than imports, especially through the use of tariffs. A nations wealth, when it comes to mercantilism lays in its meretricious and silver amounts. Many physiocrats of the time opposed mercantilism because they saw it as exploition of business. The government collected substantial fees from guilds, and other groups. Therefore using them for their take profit. The government also restricted economic innovation, and regulated which goods would be do and what regions are to be traded with. This brought out many critics in the aristocratic classes. integrity of mercantilisms greatest critics was Adam metalworker.Adam Smith wrote The man who buys, does not ever mean to sell again, but frequently to use or to carry out whereas he who sells, always means to buy again. (Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the wealth of Nations)This basically means that in order to sell, you must regain what youve sold, and depart sell again, but those who buy will use what theyve bought. Adam Smith had laissez-faire ideology which meant that an individuals self-interest is the motor of economic progress. He believed each individual should be free to pursue their economic interests freely, without obstruction by the government, which he believed should not concern itself with economic affairs.High tariffs, guild restrictions, and mercantilist restraints right obstructed economic activity. Physiocrats who advocated individualism ideology also believed that agriculture is the doctor productive economic activity and encouraged the improvement of cultivation. Because they considered worldly concern to be the sole source of wealth, they urged the adoption of a tax on land as the only economically justifiable tax.So essentially Laissez-faire and mercantilist are completely opposite in the sense that mercantilism is for the government, for res triction and monarchial control, and Laissez-faire is for the individual, the consumer, the masses, the good of the country.