Laissez Faire

Laissez Faire is a phrase which expresses the attitude towards the State of the school of political economists founded by Adam Smith. The phrase is usually traced to Gournay, merchant and economist of the Physiocratic school. But it is said first of all to have been the remonstrance of French merchants against the system of the great statesman Colbert, who established a minute regulation of industry by the State. They believed that the best thing the State could do for industry was to leave it alone. The phrase therefore embodied the protest of private industrial enterprise against minute, vexatious, and oppressive regulation by a French state, which at that time represented only the court and a narrow privileged class, which was often incapable, and always engrossed in war, intrigue, and other pursuits alien to industry. But in England more than any other country it has been accepted as a watchword of free trade and free industry, as contrasted with the protective system and state regulation generally.