Question: Who greatly influenced the thoughts of the Founding Fathers on economics?

Is it a coincidence that in 1776, the same year that the Continental Congress declared independence from England that Adam Smith published his book "The Wealth of Nations?" In the same year two experiments were introduced to the world, one political and the other economic. With the Constitution both experiments were set in law for a newborn nation. Do you know what these principles are and where they are set forth in the Constitution?

A nation's laws, rules and regulations can inhibit or promote the economy. We see clearly in our nation where certain federal laws can effect the prices of certain product and the ease of which a new venture may be begun. Our Founding Fathers were well read with Smith's book. They understood from England that a people could not be wholly free if they did not control their own resources of livelyhood, whether a person's resources included lands, materials, skills or simply the ability to perform manual labor. If a person or people did not have a say in what they could do with these resources they were as much slaves to the controllers of the resources as if they were politically slaves as well.

Smith gave us a conceptual definition of economic freedom that was upheld in our Constitution.

• 1. The Freedom to try.
• 2. The Freedom to buy.
• 3. The Freedom to sell.
• 4. The Freedom to fail.