"The king by the frightful and excessive taxes which he levies on all goods has drawn to himself all the money, and commerce has dried up. There are no rigors and cruelties which have not been employed upon the merchants by the farmers of the customs, a thousand trickeries to find grounds for making confiscations...Besides this, certain merchants, through the favour of the Court, put commerce into monopoly and get privileges given to them to exclude all others...And finally the prohibition of foreign goods, far from turning out well for commerce, is, on the contrary, what has ruined it...And all through this the despotic and sovereign power which prides itself on every whim, on reordering everything and reforming all things by absolute power", quoted in Murray Rothbard, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith.
