4.0 Introduction

State governments intervene in the economic affairs of their nation, claiming two objectives: first, to provide or facilitate the materials necessary for the prosperity of their citizens, and second, to generate revenue in order to provide public services of government.

Two differing systems of political economics, a mercantile system or an agricultural system, the former being the more common in Smith's won time, the latter being a remnant of a previous age that was at the time waning, but not altogether vanished.