Commerce and manufactures can seldom flourish long in any state which does not enjoy a regular administration of justice
 Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776). copy citation

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Author Adam Smith
Source The Wealth of Nations
Topic justice state
Date 1776
Language English
Reference An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm

Context

“A country abounding with merchants and manufacturers, therefore, necessarily abounds with a set of people, who have it at all times in their power to advance, if they chuse to do so, a very large sum of money to government. Hence the ability in the subjects of a commercial state to lend. Commerce and manufactures can seldom flourish long in any state which does not enjoy a regular administration of justice; in which the people do not feel themselves secure in the possession of their property; in which the faith of contracts is not supported by law; and in which the authority of the state is not supposed to be regularly employed in enforcing the payment of debts from all those who are able to pay.” source