Colbert and Smith

/Colbert: minister of finance, minister of marine and colonies; proponent of mercantilism — states regulate economic activities to increase wealth./

• Can't increase French currency supply
• Believes that the king should… Control? trading through the West
• Needs to try to ensure that government is as rich as possible: meaning that one must engage in a world of money
  • Encouraged waging of trade wars
  • Take money from other economies
• Merchantilist: wage trade war, measuring success with the nation's wealth + seizure of trade. Goal = spend less, earn more, monopolize

• The more you spend, the more you get + open trade is encouraged
• Divison of Labor
  • Divison of labor occurs naturally, without human intervention
  • No other species does this — and instead seem to opt for independence + self-sufficiency
  • Humans have the tendency to help others
    • Humans operate no for benevolence, but instead help for self-interest
    • "give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want."
• Trade
  • Monopolies to the domestic industry => useless/hurtful
    • Only serves to tell people what they should do with their money
  • If a foreign country has a commodity that we need, better buy it than to try to make it ourselves
• Duties of Government
  • Three principle Duties
    • Protecting society from violence and invasion
    • Protecting every member of society from injustice
    • Erecting and maintaining public works and public institutions for the interest of the society
• Capitalist: trade is better. Don't measure with how much wealth you haev