In 1691 Sir Dudley North published his _Discourses upon Trade_.

Therein he clearly sees that commercial barriers between Great Britain and France are basically as senseless as would be commercial barriers between Yorkshire and Middlesex.

Indeed, in one sense, North goes even further than Adam Smith, for he argues against the usury laws in terms Bentham would hardly have disowned.

Ten years later an anonymous writer in a tract entitled _Considerations on the East India Trade_ (1701) has no illusions about the evil of monopoly.

He sees with striking clarity that the real problem is not at any cost to maintain the industries a nation actually possesses, but to have the national capital applied in the most efficient channels.