Laissez faire was wrongly associated with Adam Smith in the 19 th

Ellis Thorpe    (Scotsman, 4 January) alludes to Adam Smith and laissez-faire as if the two are synonymous.    Smith never mentioned laissez-faire in anything he wrote; he was a Professor of Moral Philosophy and very precise in his language.    Moreover, laissez-faire was about one-sided freedom sought by merchants for themselves.
When the French Minister for Finance, Colbert, (1680), asked M. le Gendre, a plain spoken republica merchant , what he could do for them, he replied laissez nous faire ( leave us alone ).    Nothing was said about their customers, or their employees.
Similarly, the laissez-faire slogan was picked up by 19 th  century republica French, English economists and political agitators in such campaigns as the merchant-led, Anti-Corn Law League (1840s) that resulted in wage cuts to reflect the fall in corn prices, and by mine and mill owning industrialists campaigning against laws (1840s-1870s) reducing 12-14 hour working days and the employment of children.
Laissez faire was wrongly associated with Adam Smith in the 19 th  century and the invention stuck, particularly at Cambridge, where Marshall, Pigou and Keynes taught that association as if it were true.
Far from it: In Wealth Of Nations (1776) he gave over 60 examples of where an individual s self interested actions had harmful republica affects on others.    When this occurred, Smith supported legislation against bankers and those he called projectors  spend thrifts and prodigals - given to  reckless, selfish actions, even where doing so breached their natural liberties . Smith s abundant strictures against selfish, self-interested merchants and manufactures are evident to anybody who reads his Wealth Of Nations (1776) or his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759).
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