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JEFFERSON'S VIEWS ON COMMERCE
>My name is ___________ I would like to ask you an important questions about Thomas Jefferson is for my project for friday march 19,1999 I would like to answer me soon as posible please to the fallowing adress ___ and the question is : > * What does Thomas Jefferson related to said "The merchants will manage commerce the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves" this in extarnalities, opportunities cost, regulation in market economy I will like if you can explain this to me . >I appreciate very much The complete quotation to which you refer is as follows: "Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants." --Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800. ME 10:168 This does not mean that merchants should be free from taxes and whatever regulations are necessary for commerce. What it refers to is the MANAGEMENT of commerce, i.e., the operation of their business. Jefferson is saying that the federal government should have as little as possible to do with foreign nations, EXCEPT as to commerce. And the commercial dealings with other nations and their merchants should be left, as much as possible, to the merchants themselves. He did not want to have involved treaties that spell out matters related to the exchange of goods, but rather leave such arrangements up to the merchants involved in trade. "On the subject of treaties, our system is to have none with any nation, as far as can be avoided... We believe that with nations as with individuals, dealings may be carried on as advantageously, perhaps more so, while their continuance depends on a voluntary good treatment as if fixed by contract which, when it becomes injurious to either, is made by forced constructions to mean what suits them and becomes a cause of war instead of a bond of peace... It is against our system to embarrass ourselves with treaties, or to entangle ourselves at all with the affairs of Europe." --Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, 1804. ME 11:38 Jefferson did not oppose certain kinds of regulation of commerce, including the encouragement of necessary home manufactures. "The government of the United States at a very early period, when establishing its tariff on foreign importations, were very much guided in their selection of objects by a desire to encourage manufactures within themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to -----, 1821. ME 15:337 "I do not mean to say that it may not be for the general interest to foster for awhile certain infant manufactures until they are strong enough to stand against foreign rivals; but when evident that they will never be so, it is against right to make the other branches of industry support them." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1823. ME 15:432 Hope that helps, Eyler Coates