What Was The Importance Of Laissez-Faire Economics

The age of the Enlightenment brought about many ideas which were drastically different from the beliefs that many held for hundreds of years prior. It challenged the norm of 18th century society and sought to reshape it into what we now consider Western civilization. One of these revolutionary ideas became known as laissez-faire economics. This shaped the way people saw the role of government in the economy and has continued to do so to a great degree even now. Without the idea of laissez-faire, Western civilization would not have been the same as what we know now. Laissez-faire economics is the theory that business will prosper the most when government does not intervene its affairs. This of course, was completely contrary to what the great European powers had been practicing for so long. In the 16th through 18th century, mercantilism ran rampant across the world. Europe’s global powers began to spread their influence across the world; claiming territory with valuable resources, giving charters to companies which in turn created …show more content…
A surge of new technology paved the way for the industrial revolution all throughout Western Europe and the United States. Products were now able to be mass produced and transported to vast places, people left rural areas and lived in populous urban cities, and daring entrepreneurs were able to making money off of their ideas in a competition market. However, these advances in society were coupled with oppression for many. Factory conditions were brutal; consisting of long hours, little pay, and exploitation of women and children. Politicians were bought in order for big companies to gain an edge over their competitors and start monopolizing an industry. The free market soon became filled with suffering and government intervention, which is exactly from what it was intended to defend