[This article is excerpted from Conceived in Liberty , volume 1, chapter 6, “The Social Structure of Virginia: Bondservants and Slaves”. An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Floy Lilley, is available for download .] Until the 1670s, the bulk of forced labor in Virginia was indentured service (largely white, but some Negro); Negro slavery
[From Conceived in Liberty , volume 3, part 69, “The Shot Heard Round the World: The Final Conflict Begins.”] Despite the mounting tension in the South, the main focus of potential revolutionary conflict was still Massachusetts. The British authorities, ever more attracted to a hard line, were becoming increasingly disenchanted with the
[ Excerpted from The Case Against The Fed .] By far the most secret and least accountable operation of the federal government is not, as one might expect, the CIA, DIA, or some other super-secret intelligence agency. The CIA and other intelligence operations are under control of the Congress. They are accountable: a Congressional committee
There is no clearer demonstration of the essential identity of the two political parties than their position on the minimum wage. The Democrats proposed to raise the legal minimum wage from $3.35 an hour, to which it had been raised by the Reagan administration during its allegedly free-market salad days in 1981. The Republican counter was to
[”Revolution in Minnesota,” The Libertarian Forum , August 1, 1969.] The idea prevails that to favor gold or silver money is to be a mossback reactionary; nothing could be further from the truth. For gold (as well as silver) is the People’s Money; it is a valuable commodity that has developed, on the free market, as the monetary means of
[This article is featured in chapter 79 of Making Economic Sense by Murray Rothbard and originally appeared in the September, 1985 edition of The Free Market ] It was a scene familiar to any nostalgia buff: all-night lines waiting for the banks (first in Ohio, then in Maryland) to open; pompous but mendacious assurances by the bankers that all
[This article is featured in chapter 78 of Making Economic Sense by Murray Rothbard and originally appeared in the March, 1991 edition of The Free Market. ] There has been a veritable revolution in the attitude of the nation’s economists, as well as the public, toward our banking system. Ever — since 1933, it was a stern dogma a virtual article of
[ The Case Against the Fed , Chapter 8, “Problems for the Fractional-Reserve Banker: Insolvency.” (Slightly edited for publication as a separate article.)] The fractional-reserve banker, even if he violates his contract, cannot be treated as an embezzler and a criminal; but the banker must still face the lesser, but still unwelcome fact of
[This article is featured in chapter 62 of Making Economic Sense by Murray Rothbard and originally appeared in the June, 1990 edition of The Free Market ] Riots in the streets; protest against a hated government; cops arresting protesters. A familiar story these days. But suddenly we find that the protests are directed, not against a hated
[This originally appeared as “The Editor Rebuts,” in the February 1973 edition of The Libertarian Forum .] First, I should like to make it clear, to Dr. Hospers and to his many admirers, that I have nothing but the greatest esteem for him, both as a friend and as the outstanding theorist and spokesman for the “limited archy” wing of the
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
