Adam Smith’s lesser evil

¡Vamos Argentina! Thus far this week (see here and here), we have explored the penultimate part in Adam Smith’s 1784 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: Addition #12. Here, as we saw in my previous post, Smith surveys Britain’s complex web of mercantilist laws. Among the laws Smith devotes the most space to are the laws against the exportation of wool. After describing these laws in tedious detail, Smith begins his analysis by describing the ostensible rationale of these laws. According to Smith, the rationale for these protectionist laws is twofold. One is quality control: “Our woollen manufactures, in order to justify their demand of such extraordinary restrictions and regulations, confidently asserted that English wool was of a peculiar quality, superior to that of any other country; that the wool of other countries could not, without some mixture of it, be wrought up…