2. The Spread of Humans Around the World: The Extension and Intensification of the Division of Labor
Humans across the globe develop the division of labor. Hunter gatherers had limited association with each other. Languages were many and varied. Division of labor was only within their tribes. Agricultural life allowed many more people to live in settlements and capital could be accumulated for the first time.
Innovation gets transported from place to place. Mises explains why more and more specialization occurs. Social evolution develops subjectively and objectively, enlarging membership and broadening aims. Division of labor eventually includes all men around the globe. Purely agricultural societies have limitations, despite utopian dreams.
Lecture 2 of 10 from Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Economy, Society, and History.