State must not claim all trades
" The entrusting of all trade activity to the totalitarian hands of public authorities is clearly in opposition to the Christian concept of social economy," the Pope told delegates who attended the World Congress of Chambers of Commerce, which closed in Rome last week.
"Commerce is fundamentally an activity of the individual," said the Holy Father. " and it is this private activity which gives commerce its first impulse.
"It is not a question of revindicating an unlimited liberty, which would be incompatible with the interests of national economy and with the permanent concern of the material prosperity of all. It is in the light of this prosperity that you delegates are working towards obtaining a greater freedom of commerce."
The Holy Father told the delegates that they were fully justified in demanding greater liberty of trade among nations.
But the desire of the delegates to obtain greater freedom of trade will be difficult to achieve, he added, as long as " motives of a purely political character exist to hamper the circulation and movement of people and goods."