Benjamin Constant

[C]ommerce inspires in men a vivid love of individual independence. Commerce supplies their needs, satisfies their desires, without the intervention of the authorities. This intervention is almost always — and I do not know why I say almost — this intervention is indeed always a trouble and an embarrassment. Every time collective power wishes to meddle with private speculations, it harasses the speculators. Every time governments pretend to do our own business, they do it more incompetently and expensively than we would.

Benjamin Constant, The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with That of the Moderns (1819). See also: https://thisiscommonsense.org/2021/09/15/benjamin-constant‑5 – 2/