The English ‘Cato’ cautioned that sabre-rattling sanctions and other forms of coercion are never in the country’s economic interest.

Peoples of another culture or region will not long tolerate a Government that uses guns and soldiers to secure their obedience.

William Cobbett was delighted with one young woman’s protest against Mr Pitt’s ingenious ways of raising money.

Thorold Rogers looks at how Governments have tried to make trade ‘fair’, and concludes that they would have been better ensuring it was free.

Adam Smith contrasted the Government’s handling of the national economy with the way most families handled theirs.

In January 1807, newspapers breathlessly reported that Napoleon Bonaparte’s rampage across Europe was at an end — but was it true?