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. A thematic list with links to HTML versions of the texts is available here. In this chapter Molinari argues that even the provision of police and defence services could be better supplied competitively on the free market. His solution was to imagine a future society in which insurance companies would charge premiums to their customers to protect their lives and property against violence or theft.

The Best of the OLL No. 52: Condorcet, “Tenth Epoch. Future Progress of Mankind” (1794) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

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. A thematic list with links to HTML versions of the texts is available here. Condorcet wrote this optimistic vision of a future, free, and prosperous society while he was in prison awaiting execution. The tenth and final epoch is where Condorcet tells us what he thinks will be the future of mankind once the principles of individual liberty, free scientific inquiry, and free markets become more widespread.

Political Theories of the Middle Ages, translated with an Introduction by Frederic William Maitland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900).

A translation by F.W. Maitland of part of vol. 3 of Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht (1881) entitled “Die publicistischen Lehren des Mittelalters.” It is a short history of the evolution of modern political thought which emerged during the Middle Ages.

Paper against Gold and Glory against Prosperity. Or, An Account of the Rise, Progress, Extent, and Present State of the Funds and of the Paper-Money of Great Britain; and also of the Situation of that Country as to its Debt and other Expenses; its Taxes, Population, and Paupers; drawn from authentic Documents, and brought down to the end of the Year 1814. In two vols. (London: J. McCreery, 1815). Vol. 2.

Paper against Gold and Glory against Prosperity. Or, An Account of the Rise, Progress, Extent, and Present State of the Funds and of the Paper-Money of Great Britain; and also of the Situation of that Country as to its Debt and other Expenses; its Taxes, Population, and Paupers; drawn from authentic Documents, and brought down to the end of the Year 1814. In two vols. (London: J. McCreery, 1815). Vol. 1.

Cobbett wrote the first volume of 28 Letters while in prison for two years (1810-11) for opposing the flogging of some militia men. It is a history of how Britain funded the war effort against Napoleon by increasing the national debt, suspending the use of gold, and using paper money. Cobbett also chronicles the economic hardships imposed on ordinary working people by the disruption of trade, war taxes, and inflation of the currency.

OLL Information Sheet (June 2013)

Thomas Gordon’s Political Discourses on Tacitus and Sallust: Tyranny, Empire, War, and Corruption (1728-1744), ed. David M. Hart (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).