An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations - 1775

“The policy of Europe, therefore, has very little to boast of, either in the original establishment, or, so far as concerns their internal government, in the subsequent prosperity of the colonies of America...Upon all of these different occasions it was, not the wisdom and policy, but the disorder and injustice of the European governments, which peopled and cultivated America...When those establishments were effectuated, and had become so considerable as to attract the attention of the mother country, the first regulations which she made with regard to them, had always in view to secure herself the monopoly of their commerce; to confine their market, and to enlarge her own at their expense...The maintenance of this monopoly has hitherto been the principal, or more properly, perhaps the sole end and purpose of the dominion which Great Britain assumes over the colonies...monopoly of the great commerce of America naturally seems to be an acquisition of the highest value. To the undiscerning eye of giddy ambition, it naturally presents itself, amidst the confused scramble of politics and war, as a very dazzling object to fight for.”

Except from Adam Smith's “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” - 1775