Empiricist Adam Smith questioned England’s sudden increase in wealth. Too right. If you don’t ask, you don’t know right? He questioned this in his book Wealth of Nations, the first book of economic theory and proclaimed “a manifesto for the private property, free trade and free markets”. The American Revolution in 1776 led to the American Declaration of Independence where the phrase: "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." can be found. The English Civil war was based on freedom of people making their own fortune for themselves not the state, which came from this phrase. The English fought against taxation believing there should be no taxation; people should keep the wealth they earn. Before the Civil War there was a ship tax to build new ships. This meant each ship built was owned by the King and could only be used for his purposes e.g., transporting goods. This also meant these ships were big, heavy and slow. This, along with the fall of mercantilism, was abolished as a result of the English Civil War. This then brings me back to Adam Smith, the founding father of capitalism. Smith argued that, just like in the Civil War that wealth created by an individual should be used by that said individual, rather than giving it to the King and the State. This could possibly be seen as selfish but Smith argued that the natural greed of people would cause the money to flow back into the economy and other parts of the community. He also argued that whatever the government do, no matter how well they mean to do, it never seems to have the public’s best interests at the centre. This applies today, especially with the student finance nonsense. So well said Adam Smith, for predicting to us how our government would be.
