“To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.”

Source: (1776), Book IV, Chapter VII, Part Third, p. 667.

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Adam Smith175

Scottish moral philosopher and political economist 1723–1790

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