1730 SAQ Adam Smith Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

First Passage: "Kings reign by Me, says Eternal Wisdom…and from that we must conclude not only that the rights of royalty are established by its laws, but also that the choice of persons [to occupy the throne] is an effect of its providence."

Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Sermon to Louis XIV, 1662

Second Passage: “Our merchants and masters [guild terms] complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people... …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… …Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,1776

Describe one philosophical similarity between the “invisible hand” of free enterprise and divine right of kings theory.

Describe one philosophical difference between Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and Adam Smith concerning the role of government in society.

Explain one way in which Adam Smith dismissed the notion of an “invisible hand” as a virtue of capitalism.