ABSTRACT
Classical economists viewed competition as the mechanism through which economic phenomena become independent of “people’s will” and give rise to regularities which are amenable to abstract theorization. For instance, J.S. Mill notes:
only, through the principle of competition has political economy any pretension to the character of science. So far as rents, profits, wages, prices, are determined by competition, laws may be assigned for them. Assume competition to be the exclusive regulator, and principles of broad generality and scientific precision may be laid down, according to which they will be regulated.
(1848, p. 147)