Adam Smith und die Bankenregulierung. Ein Widerspruch zu einer sonst liberalen Wirtschaftspolitik?

Proponents of liberal economic policies in the financial market often refer to the moral and economic authority of Adam Smith, the founder of economics as a science, to add weight to their recommendations. They think, they can do so, because Adam Smith is in these circles considered a prominent representative of an economically unbridled laissez-faire liberalism. The fact that Adam Smith also advocated several measures of economic policies for the regulation of banking, like a limit for interest rates of 5 %, the prohibition of paper money under a nominal value of £ 5 and the use of option clauses on banknotes, is little known to the recipients. For this reason, this paper wants to give an answer to the question, whether Adam Smith’s advocacy of banking regulation is a contradiction to his otherwise liberal economic policy or not.