So strong an impression did Smith's book make, that in the minds of men "free trade" became almost identical in thought with political economy, whereas that was but the temporary economic problem of the eighteenth century.
Many men then thought that in "free and unlimited competition" had been found a solution of all economic problems for all time.

But soon, it was apparent that it was no such simple and absolute solution.
Indeed many of the present economic problems--in one sense all of them--center around this one: to determine the proper forms and limits of competition.

The varied aspects that this problem takes will appear in every portion of the following pages.
Sec.14.

#The wage-system.# Viewed in another aspect the present economic and social order is called the wage-system.[9] The wage-contract, like the use of money, is not essential to the existence of a system of private property.

Communities such as the American colonies and as many of the newly settled states, may consist almost entirely of self-employed owners of land.