Foundations of the Market Price System

First, intellectual debts. The greatest of them, and most gratefully acknowledged, are to those thinkers who helped create, shape, and nourish the Austrian tradition in economics. Chief among these men are Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek—who never lost sight of the bridges linking economics with the other sciences of human action—and Murray N. Rothbard and Israel M. Kirzner, current regenerators of the tradition and innovators on their own. The Austrians have taught us to view man as a whole person and not as mere “economic man” geared to a materialist calculus, nor as a figment of abstract mechanical constructs—that is, man in his total reality instead of the foreshortened reality viewed through the prism of mathematical models. Thus they have treated economics as but one facet of the general science of human action.

In this connection I must also mention the late Professor Clyde W. Phelps, who fortunately turned me on to the Austrians in the first place during the final years of my graduate studies, and Henry Hazlitt, whose works feature tributes to the Austrians. Also, like an oasis in the desert was the Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y., whose monthly The Freeman has featured works by the Austrians and on the free-market system, and whose inspired president, the late Leonard E. Read, made sure there was always enough water to refresh the “remnants.”

Other intellectual debts are no less noteworthy. Important insights were provided by Armen A. Alchian and William R. Allen in their pathbreaking texts, University Economics and Exchange and Production. Other of these debts are expressed in my references throughout these pages, while still other debts may regretfully go without specific acknowledgement owing to infirmities of memory.

Gratitude of another sort is extended to those who took time out to review early drafts, particularly Professors Rothbard, Alchian, and Ludwig M. Lachmann. Needless to say, none of the above can be held responsible for any misinterpretation or misuse of their work on my part.

On a more practical level, this book would not have been possible without creative and Sabbatical leaves granted by the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, nor without fellowships and grants from the Institute for Humane Studies, Menlo Park. At the Institute it was my good fortune to receive from the outset the personal encouragement of the late Floyd A. Harper, as well as Kenneth S. Templeton, Jr., both of them dedicated spokesmen for liberty and property rights in a humane society, as well as promoters of research and writing on the free market.

In a similar vein, I am most grateful to the directors of the university Press of America reprint program for their recognition of this book’s merits and for this opportunity to reach a much wider audience.

Finally, but no less deserving of recognition are Karen Meade, for her typing skills and editorial acumen, and Robert M. Marvos, for his bold graphics.