Commercial interests are not national interests

If we could just remind:

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

– The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter X.

250 years later this is still relevant:

UK business leaders have called on the government to build an EU-style “trade bazooka” to protect Britain’s economic interests in response to the latest tariff threats from Donald Trump.

As transatlantic tensions rise, the British Chambers of Commerce said the UK’s “inadequate economic security” was putting growth and jobs at risk.

The lobby group, which represents thousands of firms, urged Keir Starmer to take the lead in protecting Britain from external crises, saying there had been “years of neglect by successive governments”.

If foreign governments are beastly and limit the access of their own citizens to the wondrous goodies proffered by British companies then, and therefore, the British government should punish British citizens by denying them access to the wondrous goodies proffered by foreign businesses.

This is a contrivance to raise prices - obviously it is. It’s a conspiracy against the public for obviously it is - the profits of those domestic capitalists will rise as a result of the higher prices charged to the domestic consumers. Those higher prices, higher profits, being the very purpose of the trade restrictions. This is from a lobby group, a meet of those in that same foreign trade.

Ho well, Adam did tell us, didn’t he?

Brussels’ trade bazooka, more formally known as its anti-coercion instrument, enables the bloc to impose sweeping restrictions on goods and services trade with an aggressor state.

Limit foreign wondrous goodies and every domestic capitalist can raise his prices.

“New legislation should include powers for ministers to use a range of levers, from duties to market access, to enhanced investment scrutiny and subsidy control. But there must also be appropriate safeguards to protect UK commercial interests.”

Here’s the thing, UK commercial interests are not the same as either the national interest or the interests of UK nationals. UK commercial interests are the interests of those capitalists - trade meeting together - who benefit from higher prices and fatter profit margins. UK nationals benefit for the wondrous goodies that foreigners produce and thus lower prices and profit margins. We would insist that the national interest is the interest of nationals, not the domestic capitalists.

There is a simple answer to this sort of impertinence.

No.

Tim Worstall