… is from is from Book IV, Chapter viii – on page 660, Vol. 2, of the 1981 Liberty Fund edition – of Adam Smith’s 1776 masterwork, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:
It is unnecessary, I imagine, to observe, how contrary such regulations [occupational, emigration, and trade restrictions] are to the boasted liberty of the subject, of which we affect to be so very jealous; but which, in this case, is so plainly sacrificed to the futile interests of our merchants and manufacturers.
