Adam Smith and the mercantile system

Thus far these past few weeks (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), we have surveyed the first 11 additions in Adam Smith’s pamphlet Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr. Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1784). Next up, then, is Addition #12, This particular addition to Smith’s 1784 pamphlet is significant for many reasons. In summary, Smith begins Addition #12 by presenting a more nuanced picture of “the mercantile system”. Next, he surveys in tedious details Britain’s many mercantile laws and explains how these protectionist laws got enacted in the first place. And he then concludes with a blistering attack against these laws. (It is also worth noting that Addition #12 is the second-longest part of Smith’s 1784 pamphlet. It contains entirely new chapter to The Wealth of Nations: Chapter 8 of Book IV of Smith’s magnum opus). 1. Smith’s nuanced picture of “the mercantile system” Smith…