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# Private Interest Monopoly Spirit

## Definition

The tendency of individual merchants and manufacturers to pursue policies that create and maintain monopolies for their own benefit, using government power to restrict competition and secure exclusive privileges at the expense of consumers and overall economic efficiency.

## Source Chapter

Book IV, Chapter 3

## Context

Smith identifies this as the original source of mercantilist doctrine, explaining how private commercial interests invented and propagated these theories to secure protection and monopolies through government intervention.

## Economic Domain

Regulation

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