Trade Freedom Quotes
This quotation illustrates two important points. First, that foreign and domestic trade and merchants were very much appreciated at the time and an important component of society that there were special protections for traders and merchants. Second, was the national preemption of jurisdiction and control over business and commerce that would enter and leave the city. On most matters the local authorities would handle things, but intercity and international commerce was historically continuously impaired by individual nobles and other authorities making rules affecting merchants who might come to their town or city. The Crown preempted this authority in the 13th century and the “Commerce Clause” of our Constitution was not an unusual concept and had an extensive legal and economic history.
Sealed under duress and later repudiated by the King with Papal assistance. This was one of the most important freedoms that established free trade as a principle—one of the reasons that England became so prosperous." John Lackland
America’s first political economist
Referring to NAFTA and free trade with Mexico:
“Service” referred to what was then the 7 year time of apprenticeship that a typical American apprentice was required to work for a master tradesman before he was given colonial citizenship and allowed to trade for himself. Under the bill that was passed anyone could come to the British American colonies (except Jews) by taking an oath of allegiance and paying a small fee. Holland and some thought that it discriminated against those apprentices who had come before and apprenticed themselves thus “playing by the rules.” Ever since, immigration and citizenship debates have faced the tension between the need for labor in America and the fairness to the people who had followed the earlier existing rules restricting immigration.
