Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Mercantilism (The Regulated Market)

If the free market is the greatest force of good in Adam Smith's mind, it makes sense that the regulated market would be the force of evil (or at least inefficient).

But again, that doesn't mean that the regulated market is a character in the traditional sense. It doesn't "want" anything or have dreams of its own. Rather, Smith thinks of the regulated market as the result of ignorance and selfishness on behalf of the government folks and wealthy people who try to control it.

In Smith's mind, the regulated market isn't about making things work more smoothly. It's about protecting the private interests of a few crooked business people, like the colonizers we discuss in the "Character Analysis" section of this module. If the government just let the market do its own thing, prices would go down, products would be better, and everyone would be a lot happier. Or at least that's what Smith argues. There are still more than a few people who would disagree.