In this highly readable analysis, the authors use positive-economics principles to show how the supply and demand of monopoly rights from the state (rent seeking) provided first the impetus for European mercantilism and later the reasons for its demise in England and entrenchment in France. The balance-of-trade objective, treated by most historians as a primary motive for mercantilism, is shown instead to be the by-product of self-interested parties’ seeking of rents. In addition to questions of the causes and results of economic regulation, this thoughtful book raises issues in the methodology of economic history and history of thought generally. Public-choice theorists, political economists, and economic policy makers will likewise find it instructive and stimulating.