In a Smithian market there are no monopoly rents, by definition. In what passes for a market today rents dominate. Obviously, to a customer the only value of profits is that their suppliers will go out of business without them, so they are in effect a cost comparable to labor. In fact, to a Smithian business profits are basically the labor cost paid to the proprietor, to be reduced as necessary to remain competitive.
Doesn’t sound very much like the “free market” of today, does it?
