Economics

About this Collection

Classic works in the discipline are joined by explorations of how economic reasoning applies to political science and other social sciences, as well as the relevance of economics as moral philosophy. A consistent theme is the view that economics is the study of human choice and its consequences, both intended and unintended.

Key People

Titles & Essays

A – Z List

America

Loading...

Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources (General)

Loading...

Christianity

Loading...

Collections

Loading...

Collections. Series. Collected Works

Loading...

Commerce

Loading...

Communities. Classes. Races

Loading...

Economic History And Conditions

Loading...

Economic Theory. Demography

Loading...

English Literature

Loading...

Ethics

Loading...

Fiction And Juvenile Belles Lettres

Loading...

Finance

Loading...

France Andorra Monaco

Loading...

General Works

Loading...

Great Britain

Loading...

History Of Scholarship And Learning. The Humanities

Loading...

History Of The Americas

Loading...

Industries. Land Use. Labor

Loading...

Language And Literature

Loading...

Law

Loading...

Philosophy (General)

Loading...

Philosophy, Psychology, And Religion

Loading...

Political Institutions And Public Administration (Europe)

Loading...

Political Institutions And Public Administration (United States)

Loading...

Political Science

Loading...

Political Theory

Loading...

Public Finance

Loading...

Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics.

Loading...

Science

Loading...

Social History And Conditions. Social Problems. Social Reform

Loading...

Social Pathology. Social And Public Welfare. Criminology

Loading...

Social Sciences

Loading...

Socialism. Communism. Anarchism

Loading...

Sociology

Loading...

Technology

Loading...

United States

Loading...

United States

Loading...

World History

Loading...

Not Categorized

LIBERTY MATTERS

Adam Smith’s Emergent Rules of Justice (June/July 2023)

By: Vernon L. Smith, Brianne Wolf, Leonidas Montes, Caroline Breashears, and Peter S. Onuf

June 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith's birth. Celebrations of this tercentenary abound, notably at our sister site, AdamSmithWorks. Most often known as the father or modern economics, OLL readers know that Smith's…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Adam Smith’s Emergent Rules of Justice (June/July 2023)

Vernon L. Smith (contributor)

June 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith's birth. Celebrations of this tercentenary abound, notably at our sister site, AdamSmithWorks. Most often known as the father or modern economics, OLL readers know...

Author Guide: Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)

David M. Hart (editor)

This is a guide to the material on the economist Ludwig von Mises in the OLL collection.

LIBERTY MATTERS

An Introduction to the Major Writings of Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)

The Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) wrote widely on matters such as highly technical works on monetary theory as well as journalistic pieces designed for a broader audience. Here is an…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Armonias Economicas

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

A Spanish translation of Bastiat’s best known work on “economic harmonies” in which he explains in simple terms how the free market operates to everybody’s benefit.

The Best of Bastiat

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s 6 volume edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). They are chapter length extracts and have been edited as pamphlets for…

The Best of Bastiat 1.1: A Life in Letters

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s 6 volume edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). They are chapter length extracts and have been edited as pamphlets for…

The Best of Bastiat 2.1: The State

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s 6 volume edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). They are chapter length extracts and have been formatted as pamphlets for…

The Best of Bastiat 2.2: Property Plunder

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s 6 volume edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). They are chapter length extracts and have been edited as pamphlets for…

The Best of Bastiat 2.3: The Law

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s 6 volume edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). They are chapter length extracts and have been edited as pamphlets for…

The Best of Bastiat 3.1: Petition of the Manufacturers of Candles

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s 6 volume edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). They are chapter length extracts and have been edited as pamphlets for…

The Best of Bastiat 3.2: The Broken Window

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s 6 volume edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). They are chapter length extracts and have been edited as pamphlets for…

The Best of Bastiat 3.3: The Utopian

Frédéric Bastiat (author)

The Best of Bastiat (BOB) is a collection of some of the best material in Liberty Fund’s edition of The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-). These extracts should be useful in the classroom, or discussion groups. This…

THE READING ROOM

BOLL 10: James M. Buchanan, “The Threat of Leviathan” (1975)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This one comes from James Buchanan’s book The Limits of Liberty in which he warns of the dangers…

THE READING ROOM

BOLL 1: John Locke, “Of Property” (1689)

By: John Locke

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This one comes from John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” and is the chapter in which he…

THE READING ROOM

BOLL 3: Ludwig von Mises, “Economics of War” (1949)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This one comes from Ludwig von Mises’ book Human Action which was published soon after the end of…

THE READING ROOM

BOLL 4: Ludwig von Mises, “Liberty and Property” (1958)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This one comes from a lecture Ludwig von Mises gave to the Mont Pelerin Society in October 1958 in…

THE READING ROOM

BOLL 7: Adam Smith, “On Free Trade” (1776)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This one comes from Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” in which he defends the idea of free trade. It…

THE READING ROOM

BOLL 8: J.B. Say, “Of the Right of Property” (1819)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This one comes from Jean-Baptiste Say’s Treatise on Political Economy in which very early on in the…
Catalogue of the Guillaumin Librairie (1847)

Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (editor)

This catalogue is 16 pages long and contains an announcement of the massive Collection des Principaux Économistes which was a multi-volume collection of the classic works of political economy, Bastiat’s Sophismes économiques and

Catalogue of the Guillaumin Librairie (1849)

Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (editor)

This catalogue is 5 pages long and contains Dunoyer’s book on the February Revolution of 1848, the collection of Petits Pamphlets of Bastiat, a work collecting the debates in the National Assembly on the right to work issue, an…

Catalogue of the Guillaumin Librairie (May 1866)

Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (editor)

This catalogue is 33 pages long and contains a large number of works by French political economists and lawyers. It also contains a French translation of J.S. Mill’s Considerations on Representative Government and On Liberty, a…

Catalogue of the Félix Alcan and Guillaumin Librairies (August 1907)

Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (editor)

The family owned publishing firm of Guillaumin was eventually taken over by Félix Alcan. This catalogue is a joint catalogue of the two firms and is 32 pages long. It contains works of science, medicine, social science, history,…

LIBERTY MATTERS

An Interview with Henry C. Clark

Henry C. Clark (author)

Liberty Fund author Henry C. Clark, discusses his book Commerce, Culture, and Liberty: Readings on Capitalism before Adam Smith (2003). He discusses the rich intellectual history of capitalism in the 17th and 18th centuries, the…

Colony

James Mill (author)

One of the articles James Mill wrote for the Encyclopedia Britannica.

LIBERTY MATTERS

Classics of Liberty: The Enhanced Editions

David M. Hart (editor)

This is a collection of classic works on liberty from the Online Library of Liberty collection which have been “enhanced” to assist readers is learning more about these important works. The enhancements include, in addition to the…

Essays (Glamorgan Pamphlets)

Jane Haldimand Marcet (author)

These economic fairy tales and parables published by Jane Marcet in the 1830s charm with their light-hearted wit. IMarcet illustrates such topics as the economics of wages and income distribution. The John Hopkins series reprinted…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Feminist Economics: The Conversation

Giandomenica Becchio (contributor)

The Conversation

Giandomenica Becchio,Response

Mikayla Novak, Response

Arnold Kling, Response

Jayme Lemke,Are there better ways to understand gender norms?

Giandomenica Becchio, Final Response:Do we need feminist...

The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Richard Cornuelle

Richard Cornuelle (author)

Cornuelle talks about the vital role voluntary institutions have played in American society and how they might be further encouraged to solve social problems without resorting to the state.

Watch the video on our YouTube channel.

The…

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

Liberty Matters: James Buchanan: An Assessment (March, 2013)

Geoffrey Brennan (author)

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” Geoffrey Brennan assesses the work of the Nobel Prize winning economist James Buchanan with responses and…

Liberty Matters: Gustave de Molinari’s Legacy for Liberty (May, 2013)

Roderick T. Long (author)

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” Roderick T. Long assesses the work of the French political economist Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912) with…

Liberty Matters: Bastiat and Political Economy (July, 2013)

Robert Leroux (author)

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” Robert Leroux discusses the work of the French political economist Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) with…

Liberty Matters: Arthur Seldon and the IEA (November, 2013)

John Blundell (author)

This online discussion addresses the contribution of Arthur Seldon ((1916-2005) to the success of the London based Institute of Economic Affairs in spreading free market ideas in Britain. Much of its success can be attributed to…

Liberty Matters: Ludwig von Mises’s The Theory of Money and Credit at 101 (January, 2014)

Lawrence H. White (author)

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” Lawrence H. White revisits Mises' pathbreaking 1912 book on Mises’ book The Theory of Money and Credit. The…

Liberty Matters: Deirdre McCloskey and Economists’ Ideas about Ideas (July, 2014)

Donald J. Boudreaux (author)

The key issue of this Liberty Matters discussion is to try to explain why “the Great Enrichment” of the past 150 years occurred when and where it did. McCloskey argues that a fundamental change in ideas took place which raised the “…

Liberty Matters: Richard Cobden: Ideas and Strategies in Organizing the Free-Trade Movement in Britain (Jan. 2015)

Stephen Davies (author)

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” Here we examine the career of Richard Cobden and in particular the way that he pioneered forms of advocacy…

Liberty Matters: Assessing Böhm-Bawerk’s Contribution to Economics after a Hundred Years (April, 2015)

Richard Ebeling (author)

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” In this discussion the contributors evaluate the contributions of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914) who was…

Liberty Matters: Reassessing the Political Economy of John Stuart Mill (July 2015)

Steven Kates (author)

In this month’s Liberty Matters online discussion we reassess the economic ideas of John Stuart Mill as found in his classic work Principles of Political Economy and other writings. The Lead Essay by Steven Kates argues that in the…

Liberty Matters: Anthony de Jasay and the Political Economy of the State (Sept. 2015)

Hartmut Kliemt (author)

The Anglo-Hungarian economist Anthony de Jasay turned 90 in 2015. To celebrate this event Liberty Fund organized a Liberty Matters discussion of his work as an economic and political theorist which came to public attention with the…

Liberty Matters: Montesquieu on Liberty and Sumptuary Law (Nov. 2015)

Henry C. Clark (author)

In this discussion of Montesquieu’s economic thought, in particular his ideas about the need for sumptuary laws in republics, Henry Clark of Dartmouth College investigates this little appreciated aspect of Montesquieu’s thinking and…

Liberty Matters: Ludwig von Mises and the Theory of Interventionism (March, 2016)

Sanford Ikeda (author)

ty.” In this discussion Sanford Ikeda returns to the original theory of interventionism posed by Mises in 1940 to examine it in the light of the work done in Austrian economic theory since then.

Liberty Matters: Israel M. Kirzner and the Entrepreneurial Market Process (March 2017)

Peter J. Boettke (author)

This Liberty Matters online discussion examines Israel Kirzner’s insights into the rivalrous nature of competitive behavior and the market process, his analysis of market theory and the operation of the price system, the…

Manifesto of the Communist Party (1888)

Marx and Engels, "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (Feb. 1848, 1888)

Source

The pamphlet was written in late 1847 and first published and distributed in Paris in February 1848.

The original version in German is available…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Perspectives on Mises' Socialism After 100 Years (August 2022)

Virgil Henry Storr (contributor)

In 1922 Ludwig von Mises published his third book,Die Gemeinwirtschaft:Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus, translated into English in 1936 under the titleSocialism. The LibertyClassics edition was published in 1981....

LIBERTY MATTERS

Perspectives on Mises' Socialism After 100 Years (August 2022)

By: Virgil Henry Storr, Alberto Mingardi, Yana Chernyak, and Clemens Schneider

In 1922 Ludwig von Mises published his third book, Die Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus, translated into English in 1936 under the title Socialism. The LibertyClassics edition was published in 1981. It seems…
The Political Writings of James Mill (1815-1836)

James Mill (author)

This is an anthology of James Mill’s writings compiled from The British Review, and London Critical Journal [1815], the Supplement to the 4th, 5th and 6th editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica [1815-1824], Parliamentary History…

Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises, 3 vols

Ludwig von Mises (author)

A three volume collection of Mises’s writings from the so-called “lost papers” found in a Moscow archive in 1996. These were seized by the Gestapo and then taken back to Russia after the war by the Russian government.

LIBERTY MATTERS

LIBERTY MATTERS

La teorica delle produttività marginali

Giovanni Montemartini (author)

An important Italian contribution to the early develoment of the marginal school of economic thought which also influenced the Public Choice school in the US.

The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Anthony de Jasay

Anthony de Jasay (contributor)

The relationship of the individual and the state is the central theme of Anthony de Jasay’s distinguished career. Here he discusses the concepts of power, politics, and freedom that led to such seminal works as The State.

Watch the…

The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Armen A. Alchian

Armen A. Alchian (contributor)

Armen Alchian discusses his contribution to economics as the founder of the “UCLA tradition” of economic thought with its emphasis of the rational, self-seeking behavior of individuals.

Watch the video and explore related resources…

Tracts on Liberty by the Levellers and their Critics Vol. 8 Addendum (1638-1643) (forthcoming)

Ross Kenyon (editor)

The Levellers were a political movement active in England from 1646 to 1649. They were a populist movement that emphasized equal rights, religious toleration, and reformation of political and judicial corruption. They are…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Why Do We Need Feminist Economics? (March 2023)

Giandomenica Becchio (contributor)

What is feminist economics? Is it a complement or subsitute for standard economic analysis? Regardless,why do we need it today? These are the questions that animate this Liberty Matters symposium. Led by Professor...

Loading...

Quotes

Economics

Adam Smith and Loveliness

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith and the Uniform Quest for Betterment

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith argued that the “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange” was inherent in human nature and gave rise to things such as the division of labour (1776)

Adam Smith

Free Trade

Adam Smith argues that retaliation in a trade war can sometimes force the offending country to lower its tariffs, but more often than not the reverse happens (1776)

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith debunks that idea that when it comes to public debt “we owe it to ourselves” (1776)

Adam Smith

Colonies, Slavery & Abolition

Adam Smith notes that colonial governments might exercise relative freedom in the metropolis but impose tyranny in the distant provinces (1776)

Adam Smith

War & Peace

Adam Smith observes that the true costs of war remain hidden from the taxpayers because they are sheltered in the metropole far from the fighting and instead of increasing taxes the government pays for the war by increasing the national debt (1776)

Adam Smith

Education

Adam Smith on compulsory attendance in the classroom (1776)

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith on consumption as the only end and purpose of production

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith on Good Wine and Free Trade

Adam Smith

Free Trade

Adam Smith on how “furious monopolists” will fight to the bitter end to keep their privileges (1776)

Adam Smith

Taxation

Adam Smith on how governments learn from each other the best way of draining money from the pockets of the people (1776)

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith on Inequality Between the Rich and the Poor

Adam Smith

Money & Banking

Adam Smith on money as an instrument of commerce as well as a measure of value

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith on the Butcher, the Brewer, and the Baker

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith on the greater productivity brought about by the division of labor and technological innovation (1760s)

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith on the natural ordering Tendency of Free Markets, or what he called the “Invisible Hand” (1776)

Adam Smith

Free Trade

Adam Smith on the “liberal system” of free trade (1776)

Adam Smith

Education

Adam Smith on who colleges and universities ACTUALLY benefit

Adam Smith

Economics

Adam Smith, Employment, and the Advantages to Society

Adam Smith

Quote

Alchian on Competition and Coordinated Cooperation

Armen A. Alchian

Economics

Anthony de Jasay on the free rider problem (2008)

Anthony de Jasay

Economics

Armen Alchian and the Scarcity of Resources

Armen A. Alchian

Economics

Armen Alchian on Perpetuities

Armen A. Alchian

Economics

Arthur Seldon on the problem of “who guards us from the guardians”? (1990)

Arthur Seldon

Money & Banking

Bagehot on Government, the banking system, and moral hazard (1873)

Walter Bagehot

Money & Banking

Bagehot on the monopoly central bank (1873)

Walter Bagehot

Economics

Bastiat asks the fundamental question of political economy: what should be the size of the state? (1850)

Frédéric Bastiat

Socialism & Interventionism

Bastiat criticizes the socialists of wanting to be the “Great Mechanic” who would run the “social machine” in which ordinary people were merely so many lifeless cogs and wheels (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

War & Peace

Bastiat on disbanding the standing army and replacing it with local militias (1847)

Frédéric Bastiat

Politics & Liberty

Bastiat on the fact that even in revolution there is an indestructible principle of order in the human heart (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Politics & Liberty

Bastiat on the many freedoms that make up liberty (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Free Trade

Bastiat on the most universally useful freedom, namely to work and to trade (1847)

Frédéric Bastiat

Politics & Liberty

Bastiat on the need for urgent political and economic reform (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Parties & Elections

Bastiat on the scramble for political office (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Free Trade

Bastiat on the spirit of free trade as a reform of the mind itself (1847)

Frédéric Bastiat

Economics

Bastiat on the state vs. laissez-faire (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Economics

Bastiat on trade as a the mutual exchange of “a service for another service” (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Liberty

Bastiat’s has a utopian dream of drastically reducing the size of the French state (1847)

Frédéric Bastiat

The State

Bastiat’s Malthusian theory of the growth of the state (1847)

Frédéric Bastiat

Food & Drink

Bastiat, the 1830 Revolution, and the Spilling of Wine not Blood (1830)

Frédéric Bastiat

Economics

Bentham on the liberty of contracts and lending money at interest (1787)

Jeremy Bentham

Economics

Bernard Mandeville concludes his fable of the bees with a moral homily on the virtues of peace, hard work, and diligence (1705)

Bernard Mandeville

War & Peace

Bernard Mandeville on how the Hardships and Fatigues of War bear most heavily on the “working slaving People” (1732)

Bernard Mandeville

Economics

Bernard Mandeville uses a fable about bees to show how prosperity and good order comes about through spontaneous order (1705)

Bernard Mandeville

Politics & Liberty

Bernhard Knollenberg on the Belief of many colonial Americans that Liberty was lost because the Leaders of the People had failed in their Duty (2003)

Bernhard Knollenberg

Free Trade

Condy Raguet argues that governments cannot create wealth by means of legislation and that individuals are better judges of the best way to use their capital and labor than governments (1835)

Condy Raguet

Taxation

David Ricardo considered taxation to be a “great evil” which hindered the accumulation of productive capital and reduced consumption (1817)

David Ricardo

Property Rights

David Ricardo on how “insecure tenure” of property rights harms the poor (1824)

David Ricardo

Economics

David Ricardo on Taxation

David Ricardo

Money & Banking

David Ricardo on the “mere increase of money” (1809)

David Ricardo

Economics

David Ricardo on Wages and the Deflation of Currency

David Ricardo

Economics

David Ricardo, Paper Money, and the Abuse of Power

David Ricardo

Economics

Destutt de Tracy on society as “nothing but a succession of exchanges” (1817)

Antoine Louis Claude, Comte Destutt de Tracy

Economics

Destutt de Tracy on the damage which government debt and the class which lives off loans to the state cause the industrious classes (1817)

Antoine Louis Claude, Comte Destutt de Tracy

Economics

Destutt de Tracy on the mutually beneficial nature of exchange (1817)

Antoine Louis Claude, Comte Destutt de Tracy

Socialism & Interventionism

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk argues that Marx ignored the fact that the same amount of labor time should be rewarded differently depending upon where along the structure of production it took place (1898)

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk

Origin of Government

Frédéric Bastiat, while pondering the nature of war, concluded that society had always been divided into two classes - those who engaged in productive work and those who lived off their backs (1850)

Frédéric Bastiat

Economics

Frank Taussig argues for the reverse of a common misconception about the relationship between high wages and the use of machinery (1915)

Frank William Taussig

The State

Frédéric Bastiat and the state as “la grande fiction à travers laquelle Tout Le Monde s'efforce de vivre aux dépens de Tout Le Monde (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Law

Frédéric Bastiat asks what came first, property or law? (1850)

Frédéric Bastiat

The State

Frédéric Bastiat on the state as the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else (1848)

Frédéric Bastiat

Free Trade

Frédéric Bastiat’s theory of plunder (1850)

Frédéric Bastiat

Money & Banking

Friedrich Hayek rediscovers the importance of Henry Thornton’s early 19th century work on “paper credit” and its role in financing the British Empire (1802)

Henry Thornton

Economics

Friedrich List and Manufacturing Power

Friedrich List

Free Trade

Guyot on the protectionist tyranny (1906)

Yves Guyot

Economics

Hayek on Spontaneous Order and the Division of Labor

Friedrich August von Hayek

Free Trade

Henry George on a “free trade America” as the real city set on a hill (1886)

Henry George

Free Trade

Henry George on how trade sanctions hurt domestic consumers (1886)

Henry George

Free Trade

Henry George on the scramble to get government favors known as trade “protection” (1886)

Henry George

Society

Herbert Spencer on the idea that society is a spontaneous growth and not artificially put together (1860)

Herbert Spencer

Economics

Horace Say on “I, Pin” and the international division of labor (1852)

Horace Émile Say

Economics

Israel Kirzner on the Individual and the Market

Israel M. Kirzner

Colonies, Slavery & Abolition

J.B. Say argues that colonial slave labor is really quite profitable for the slave owners at the expense of the slaves and the home consumers (1817)

Jean-Baptiste Say

Property Rights

J.B. Say on the self-evident nature of property rights which is nevertheless violated by the state in taxation and slavery (1817)

Jean-Baptiste Say

War & Peace

J.M. Keynes reflected on that “happy age” of international commerce and freedom of travel that was destroyed by the cataclysm of the First World War (1920)

John Maynard Keynes

Economics

James Buchanan on “process” and the market order (1982)

James M. Buchanan

Economics

James Mill’s formulation of “Say’s Law” (1808)

James Mill

Free Trade

Jane Haldimand Marcet, in a popular tale written for ordinary readers, shows the benefits to workers of foreign trade, especially at Christmas time (1833)

Jane Haldimand Marcet

Law

Jasay on the superiority of “spontaneous conventions” over “legal frameworks” (2007)

Anthony de Jasay

Colonies, Slavery & Abolition

Jean-Baptiste Say argues that home-consumers bear the brunt of the cost of maintaining overseas colonies and that they also help support the lavish lifestyles of the planter and merchant classes (1817)

Jean-Baptiste Say

Economics

Jean-Baptiste Say argues that there is a world of difference between private consumption and public consumption; an increase in the latter does nothing to increase public wealth (1803)

Jean-Baptiste Say

Free Trade

Jean-Baptiste Say regards regulations which favor producers as a form of political privilege at the expence of the community (1803)

Jean-Baptiste Say

Economics

Kirzner defines economics as the reconciliation of conflicting ends given the existence of inescapable scarcity (1960)

Israel M. Kirzner

Politics & Liberty

Leggett on the tendency of the government to become “the universal dispenser of good and evil” (1834)

William Leggett

Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

Leonard Read on Ludwig von Mises as the economic dictator of the U.S. (1971)

Leonard E. Read

Economics

Lord Macaulay writes a devastating review of Southey’s Colloquies in which the Poet Laureate’s ignorance of the real condition of the working class in England is exposed (1830)

Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay

Economics

Ludwig Lachmann and the free market as a leveling process in the distribution of wealth (1956)

Ludwig M. Lachmann

Socialism & Interventionism

Ludwig von Mises argues that monopolies are the direct result of government intervention and not the product of any inherent tendency within the capitalist system (1949)

Ludwig von Mises

Economics

Ludwig von Mises argues that the division of labor and human cooperation are the two sides of the same coin and are not antagonistic to each other (1949)

Ludwig von Mises

Money & Banking

Ludwig von Mises lays out five fundamental truths of monetary expansion (1949)

Ludwig von Mises

Socialism & Interventionism

Ludwig von Mises on the impossibility of rational economic planning under Socialism (1922)

Ludwig von Mises

Money & Banking

Ludwig von Mises shows the inevitability of economic slumps after a period of credit expansion (1951)

Ludwig von Mises

Economics

Mandeville on the social cooperation which is required to produce a piece of scarlet cloth (1723)

Bernard Mandeville

Property Rights

McCulloch argues that the right to property extends to “the faculties of (one’s) mind and the powers of (one’s) body” (1864)

John Ramsay McCulloch

Liberty

Milton Friedman and the Free Society

Milton Friedman

The State

Milton Friedman on the Deconcentration of Power

Milton Friedman

Free Trade

Mises on how the “boon” of a tariff privilege is soon dissipated (1949)

Ludwig von Mises

Money & Banking

Mises on the gold standard as the symbol of international peace and prosperity (1949)

Ludwig von Mises

Economics

Mises on the interconnection between economic and political freedom (1949)

Ludwig von Mises

Taxation

Mises on the public sector as “tax eaters” who “feast” on the assets of the ordinary tax payer (1953)

Ludwig von Mises

Property Rights

Molinari defends the right to property against the socialists who want to overthrow it, and the conservatives who defend it poorly (1849)

Gustave de Molinari

Rhetoric of Liberty

Molinari on mankind’s never-ending struggle for liberty (1849)

Gustave de Molinari

Economics

Montesquieu thought that commerce improves manners and cures “the most destructive prejudices” (1748)

Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

The State

Nassau Senior argues that government is based upon extortion (1854)

Nassau William Senior

Socialism & Interventionism

Nassau Senior objected to any government regulation of factories which meant that a horde of inspectors would interfere with the organization of production (1837)

Nassau William Senior

Money & Banking

Nassau Senior on how the universal acceptance of gold and silver currency creates a world economy (1830)

Nassau William Senior

Free Trade

Nicholas Barbon on the mutual benefits of free trade even in luxury goods (“wants of the mind”) (1690)

Nicholas Barbon

Sport and Liberty

Nisbet on how violent, contact sports like football redirect people’s energies away from war (1988)

Robert A. Nisbet

Economics

Paul Heyne on THE economic way of thinking (1995)

Paul Heyne

Economics

Philip Wicksteed on how impersonal economic relations help others (1910)

Philip H. Wicksteed

Economics

Philip Wicksteed on “non-tuism” in economic relations (1910)

Philip H. Wicksteed

Economics

Philip Wicksteed’s positive vision of the “cash nexus” (1910)

Philip H. Wicksteed

Free Trade

Richard Cobden on how free trade would unite mankind in the bonds of peace (1850)

Richard Cobden

Free Trade

Richard Cobden’s “I have a dream” speech about a world in which free trade is the governing principle (1846)

Richard Cobden

War & Peace

Robert Nisbet on the Shock the Founding Fathers would feel if they could see the current size of the Military Establishment and the National Government (1988)

Robert A. Nisbet

Economics

Samuel Fortrey, Public Profit, and Public Good

Samuel Fortrey

Property Rights

Say on a person’s property right in their own “industrious faculties” (1819)

Jean-Baptiste Say

Economics

Spooner on the “natural right to labor” and to acquire all one honestly can (1846)

Lysander Spooner

Money & Banking

The 11th Day of Christmas: Mises on the gold standard and peace on earth (1934)

Ludwig von Mises

Free Trade

The 12th Day of Christmas: Frank Chodorov on free trade as the harbinger of goodwill among men and peace on earth (1940)

Frank Chodorov

Taxation

Thomas Hodgskin noted in his journey through the northern German states that the burden of heavy taxation was no better than it had been under the conqueror Napoleon (1820)

Thomas Hodgskin

Property Rights

Thomas Hodgskin on the futility of politicians tinkering with bad laws when the whole political system needed to be changed (1832)

Thomas Hodgskin

Money & Banking

Vera Smith on Central Banking and the Scottish System

Vera C. Smith

Money & Banking

Vera Smith on How the Civil War Changed the US Banking System

Vera C. Smith

Class

William Cobbett on the dangers posed by the “Paper Aristocracy” (1804)

William Cobbett

Money & Banking

William Cobbett opposes the government bail-out at taxpayer expence of those who lent money to the state (1815)

William Cobbett

Free Trade

William Fox on the hypocrisy of those who do not want to be dependent on foreign trade (1844)

William Johnson Fox

Free Trade

William Grampp shows how closely connected Richard Cobden’s desire for free trade was to his desire for peace (1960)

William Dyer Grampp

Free Trade

Yves Guyot accuses all those who seek Protection from foreign competition of being “Socialists” (1893)

Yves Guyot

Socialism & Interventionism

Yves Guyot on the violence and lawlessness inherent in socialism (1910)

Yves Guyot

Notes About This Collection

Adam Smith (1723-1790) Frdric Bastiat (1801-1850) Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)

See also the extracts, chapters, and introductions in the Economics section of the Ideas page.

More material on Economics can be found at our sister website The Library of Economics and Liberty (Econlib). As its name suggests, it specializes in material relating to economics and includes over 120 titles of economic classics, monthly articles on economic topics from around the world, a blog for the discussion of economic ideas (EconLog), a collection of interviews and podcasts (EconTalk), resources for high school teachers of economics, and an Encyclopedia of Economics.