Commerce and Government Considered in Their Mutual Relationship

French philosopher Abbé de Condillac produced perhaps the most original contributions to eighteenth-century economics. His conclusions as to the desirability of removing barriers to free trade and of competitive market economies mirrored Smith’s, published three months later.

Commerce and Government has been called “one of the most sustained defenses of economic liberty in the eighteenth century.” In Condillac’s own words, to eliminate the abuses and injustices of government it is necessary “to give trade full, complete, and permanent freedom.” Shelagh...