Words of wisdom from the masters

As I was reading something light, purely for entertainment, I ran across this quotation from the writings of one of the major thinkers of the past 300 years:

 

"...the government of an exclusive company of merchants is, perhaps, the worst of all governments for any country whatsoever..."

That's Adam Smith, folks.

...

(From Arthur Herman's "How the Scots Invented the Modern World.")