...the network. The power to sanction competitors reinforces its monopoly position. As Adam Smith notes, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even...conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public" ([1776] 1937, 128). The reasonable argument that protection firms would cooperate to avoid violence...

...which it did not have a monopoly.1'' Smith had no faith that businessmen believed in the free market. "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even...the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices." Wealth of Nations contains repeated criticisms of...

...Virtue HARMFUL Vice Negligence referred to as people who "seldom meet together, even for merriment or diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy...the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." 43 Yet, despite his repeatedly negative depictions of capitalists, 44 unrivaled among economists until...

...free-market economics and author of The Wealth of Nations, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against...the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." From time immemorial, businesses have tried to control prices and output, formally and informally....

...recognized as being of nationwide importance? The famous sentence about the 'People of the same trade, [who] seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,...the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices' appears in the middle of an extended discussion of...

...againft th« public, or in fame contrivance to raife prices, It is impofhble indeed to prevent fuch meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be eonfiftent with liberty and juftice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the fame trade from...

...1976, 4 Smith (1937, p. 128): "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment or diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy...the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. ...The law ... ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."...

...preferences of the parties and the costs of fulfilling those preferences. As Smith had so famously warned, "people of the same trade seldom meet together, even...merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices" ([1776] 1937, 128). However,...

...respect, the significance of Smith's observation that "people of the same trade seldom meet together, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some diversion to raise prices." After all, those pursuing self-interest to the exclusion of all else will,...