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In the Liberal TraditionAnders Chydenius [1729–1803]“The more opportunities there are in a Society for somepersons to live upon the toil of others, and the less thoseothers may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, themore is diligence killed, the former become insolent, thelatter despairing, and both negligent.”Known as the Adam Smith of the North, Anders Chydeniuslaid out his economic prescription for mercantilist [Sweden-Finland] in The National Gain in 1765, suggesting a concept ofspontaneous order eleven years before Adam Smith in TheWealth of Nations: “Every individual spontaneously tries to findthe place and the trade in which he can best increase Nationalgain, if laws do not prevent him from doing so.”For Chydenius, freedom and diligence were the foundations ofan economically prosperous nation; direction from the governmentonly gummed up the gears of a natural system of humaninteraction.Thus the wealth of a Nationconsists in the multitude ofproducts or, rather, in theirvalue; but the multitude ofproducts depends on twochief causes, namely, thenumber of workmen andtheir diligence. Naturewill produce both,when she is left untrammeled… If eitheris lacking, the faultshould be sought inthe laws of the Nation, hardly, however,in any want of laws, but in the impediments that are put in theway of Nature.“Every individual spontaneously tries tofind the place and the trade in which hecan best increase National gain, if lawsdo not prevent him from doing so.”Pastor, politician, writer, doctor, scholar, scientist, experimenterin plant and animal husbandry, economist, musician, proponentof freedom and enterprise—Chydenius was a renaissanceman in the Age of Enlightenment, careful to root his ideas onhuman dignity in divine providence. Chydenius asked:Would the Great Master, who adorns the valley with flowersand covers the cliff itself with grass and mosses, exhibit such agreat mistake in man, his masterpiece, that man should not beable to enrich the globe with as many inhabitants as it can support?That would be a mean thought even in a Pagan, but blasphemyin a Christian, when reading the Almighty’s precept:‘Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.’The National Gain, written originally for the Stockholm Diet in1765–66, caused Chydenius’s own party to exclude him fromfuture representation. Chydenius retreated into his parishwork until 1778 where once again he challenged the Diet withhis advocacy for workers’ rights, later set down in a letter to theRoyal Economic Society:The Creator only put people to work, but did not stipulate thetype of work each of them should do. Stealing was the onlything that the Almighty prohibited, but no target was set fordiligence, how far it was allowed to go or what sort of thingssuch diligence produced. He did not tie anyone to the ploughnor did He tie anyone to trade guilds but merely when andwhere each one perceived how best to make a living where hecould better himself.14 Religion&Liberty