ABSTRACT
The term "freedom of trade" carries the impeccable authority of Sir Edward Coke, who employed it on occasion and became a powerful proponent of the principle. The assumed freedom to do 'whatever he himself listeth" was indeed the force that was undermining the principles of moral economy and conditional property. The radical force of the emerging principle was strikingly illustrated in an anonymous tract of the late 1580s, asserting the right of freedom of trade at the most general level. The principle of freedom of trade, far from being advanced as the merchants intended, had suffered a substantial setback. The merchants of Plymouth gratefully preserved a copy of the resolution: Thereupon it is resolved by the same House of Commons that the fishermen of England shall have free liberty of fishing on the said coasts of New England, with all the incidents necessary of drying their nets and salting and packing their fish.
