When European countries, as well as the American Colonies, began the transitional process from agrarian to …show more content…
In fact, Hume influenced Smith and David Ricardo, as he first argued against the British practice of mercantilism (Henderson 2008). The discussion begins with Hume 's pinpointing the systematic problems created by having a significant import deficit with the hopes of procuring as much gold as possible, summarizing that it does not depict a country’s wealth. Similarly, Smith advocated for an end to mercantilism and proposed free trade as the solution. Smith ultimately played an essential role in the articulation of the absolute advantage theory, which discussed a country ability to mass produce a particular product (Sturgis 1994). David Ricardo later theorizes the comparative advantage theory, which measures the efficiency of a country’s to produce a good, and based his work greatly upon that of Smith’s. Although these thinkers were active during the eighteenth century, the effects of their views shaped the world …show more content…
The values of conservatism center around the control of a monarch or elitist group, such as a theocracy, often having a caste or class base system (Coleman). Within such a system, working class citizens are oppressed, both financially and socially, while the upper class and elites control the economic and political aspects of the country. Rarely is there religious freedom or tolerance, elites attempt to limit change and maintain tradition, and governments assume that humans are imperfect (Heywood 70). As aforementioned, oppression begins when Conservative governments try to resist change and struggle to seclude citizens from foreign influence, hoping that traditions will ward off