PASSAGE: "At a time when the People, engaged in every other Manufacture in the Kingdom, are exerting themselves to bring their Work to Market at reduced Prices, which can alone be effected by the Aid of Machinery, it certainly is not necessary that the Cloth Merchants of Leeds, who depend chiefly on a Foreign Demand, where they have for Competitors the Manufacturers of other Nations, whose Taxes are few, and whose manual Labour is only Half the Price it bears here, should have Occasion to defend a Conduct, which has for its Aim the Advantage of the Kingdom in general, and of the Cloth Trade in particular; yet anxious to prevent Misrepresentations, which have usually attended the Introduction of the most useful Machines, they wish to remind the Inhabitants of this Town, of the Advantages derived to every flourishing Manufacture from the Application of Machinery; they instance that of Cotton in particular, which in its internal and foreign Demand is nearly alike to our own, and has in a few Years by the Means of Machinery advanced to its present Importance, and is still increasing.” Excerpt from a letter from Leeds cloth merchants responding to concerns over factory automation, 1791

QUESTION: The observations about clothing production in late-1800s Britain best reflect which of the following economic theories?

Adam Smith’s theories on capitalism and the specialization of labor
Traditional theories of mercantilism and socioeconomic hierarchy
Karl Marx’s theories on scientific socialism and communal ownership
Alexander Hamilton’s theories on limited government regulation of business