World History

Aristotle concedes too much to those who discriminate in favor of the purely intellectual, and he tends to denigrate the practical life.

Free trade and free markets, through the harmony of reciprocal benefits, advance the interest and happiness of all by each seeking his own personal

So the basic strategy of trying to convert the king led inexorably to at least a broadly utilitarian approach to the problems of freedom and government intervention.

As Barnes noted, there were a number of "middle-class writers" who took more or less this line, but "by far the most influential" of them "was the 17th-century English philosopher, John Locke. Many of his theories were taken up and popularized in America by Thomas Jefferson."

Raico provides a detailed reading of their work in all these respects and shows that one need not embrace statism, and that one can be a consistent and full-blown liberal in the classical tradition, and not come anywhere near fulfilling the stereotype that conservatives were then creating of libertarians.

The truth is that capitalism has poured a horn of plenty upon the masses of wage earners, who frequently did all they could to sabotage the adoptio

When Jean-Baptiste Colbert died on September 6, 1683, there was celebration throughout France.

Recorded at Mises University 2010.

The imposition of Colbert's regime of statism, monopoly, and prohibitive tariffs, combined with Louis XIV's high taxation and centralization, gave rise, by the late 1660s, to a growing tide of opposition by merchants and nobility alike.

The rebels’ overriding grievance was against the tax farmers and tax officials: “It is they who have forced [the peasants] to take up a