[nickik]

What are you talking about, he is making my point exactly.

> any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined

He was afraid they would use the state to create laws in their benefit. Not that they could use market power to beat competition. Nothing in this paragraph indicates that he thinks markets by itself were centralized.

The AntiTrust law is an exact example of what Smith is talking about. Its a proposal that looks like it would help markets but actually its a tool for the weak competition to beat the stronger competition.