LAISSEZ FAIRE IN COMMERCE 867 
question of its continued applicability to English commerce 
is once fairly raised? 
The entire abandonment of national commercial regula- 
tion, either through Navigation Laws or by means of tariff, 
was an ideal which was hailed with enthusiasm by many 
writers at the close of the eighteenth century. Sir John Laissez 
Sinclair held very decided views on the subject. “It is BR 
unnecessary,” he wrote in advocating a general colonial g¥ i 
emancipation, “ to point out the advantages which Europe in ¢ 2 by 
general would receive were such an important alteration to i 
take place in the situation and circumstances of the most in England 
fertile and valuable provinces which the world contains. My 
breast glows at the idea that a time may possibly soon arrive 
when the ships of Denmark, of Sweden, and of Russia, of 
Holland, of Austria, of France itself, and of Great Britain 
shall no longer be debarred from sailing to the coasts of Chili 
and of Peru, or be precluded by any proud monopolist from 
exchanging the commodities of Europe for the riches of 
America; and when every state, in proportion to the fertility 
of its soil, and to the industry of its inhabitants, may be 
certain of procuring all the necessaries and the conveniences 
of life. With such a new and extensive field opened to the 
exertions of mankind, what discoveries might not be expected, 
what talents might not break forth, to what a height would 
not every art and science be carried ? The mind of a philan- 
thropist need not be overpowered with the magnitude and 
importance of the ideas which present themselves to his view, 
when he can figure, for a moment, mankind united together 
by mutual interest, and bound by the ties of commercial 
intercourse to promote the general happiness of the species.” 
It seemed to many people, however, that the best chance of 
realising this ideal was in a new country, where there was 
less respect for a traditional policy or for vested interests, 
and many economists looked hopefully to the United States nl in 
to be the pioneer of Free Trade. Jefferson, who was much 
influenced by French writers, expressed himself decidedly on 
i Mr Chamberlain's speech on May 15, 1903, marks an epoch, as it recognised 
‘he necessity of bringing our economic policy into accord with Imperial ideas. 
1 Sinclair's History of the Public Revenue, m. 105. 
559