very simple but honest conviction, that their
interest, and not his, was the interest of the
public. The interest of the dealers, however,
in any particular branch of trade or manufactures,
is always in some respects different from,
and even opposite to, that of the public. To
widen the market, and to narrow the competition,
is always the interest of the dealers.
To widen the market may frequently be agreeable
enough to the interest of the public; but
to narrow the competition must always be
against it, and can only serve to enable the
dealers, by raising their profits above what
they naturally would be, to levy, for their own
benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their
fellow-citizens. The proposal of any new law
or regulation of commerce which comes from
this order, ought always to be listened to with
great precaution, and ought never to be adopted
till after having been long and carefully
examined, not only with the most scrupulous,
but with the most suspicious attention. It
comes from an order of men, whose interest
is never exactly the same with that of the public,
who have generally an interest to deceive
and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly
have, upon many occasions, both deceived
and oppressed it.