"Mercantilism is the system in which politicians gain control over the state, and then use the state to grant monopolies of trade to special interest groups."
"To the extent that people say they believe in Adam Smith's concept of the free market, they ought to oppose mercantilism. The problem is this: the mercantilist mentality is best represented in the defense of tariffs. Tariffs are sales taxes imposed on imports of foreign-made goods. Yet most people who insist that they are defenders of the free market, meaning defenders of Adam Smith's economics, are overwhelmingly in favor of tariffs. They think they are free marketers, but they are mercantilist. They think they are defenders of private property, when they are in fact defenders of the welfare state."
- Gary North
"How is it that people who claim to be free market advocates, and who even claim to be libertarians, join with the special-interest groups to persuade Congress to pass sales taxes on imported goods? How is it that all of this is done in the name of the free market, when it is clearly a form of mercantilism, which was the target of Adam Smith's critique in 1776? How is it that modern mercantilists have deluded themselves to such an extent that they deny that they are mercantilists, and insist they are defenders of the free market, when in fact they hold the position that Adam Smith rejected? (As for someone who argues this way in the name of Austrian school economics, my mind boggles. But there is at least one such person.)"
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