 The colonial era was dominated by the economic system known as mercantilism, which is when basically the government favors select businesses and other groups in order to achieve its various economic policies, to increase the power of the government, to increase the wealth of the nation, of course, always at the expense of other nations, right? So that's how the dominating, dominant economic philosophy argued for economic prosperity. Basically the government will make one country the prosperous at the expense of other countries. It's sort of a kill or be killed mentality, okay? So then beginning with the Enlightenment, you think of John Locke and then sort of moving further and further, people started to criticize this mercantilist system more broadly just kind of libertarian, you know, just general thrust. Economics was important, but there was no systematic criticism of mercantilist philosophy or mercantilist economics, really until Adam Smith's an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, which came out in 1776. This influenced many of the American founders, particularly Jefferson. He really enjoyed the book. He thought it was a great book on political economy, if not the best. I believe he said this in 1790. Hamilton was different. He didn't really find Adam Smith's prescription for economic growth, basically hands off, just develop the proper institutions that protect private property, as Smith once said in his lecture notes, peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice. That's all you need. If Smith championed the invisible hand, Hamilton championed what I call the visible hand, which is basically you get the government to intervene, to stimulate various industries, because that's how you make those industries great. So Hamilton thought the way you develop manufacturing in the United States is you have the government subsidize it. You don't just let the market decide to develop manufacturing when it wants to. So Hamilton's policies in many ways, everything from the debt assumption to the bank to the society for establishing useful manufacturers and all sorts of other stuff, larger military, et cetera. It really is the United States, it's really American mercantilism on a national scale instead of just individual colonies or independent states. So Hamilton should be understood as a thoroughgoing mercantilism.