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Thanks, Tony, for your response. Tony, Mary, the issue here is more 
complex than it at first appears to be and there are many ways to 
interpret some of the common statements made about the issue. Mary 
correctly points out that laws, passed deliberately by inventive 
government officials can facilitate the development of the market 
economy. Of course, deliberately passed laws can also inhibit the market 
economy's development. By focusing on laws, Mary shows her concern with 
interaction in a situation in which the law pertaining to market 
interaction is variable; it can be changed by government officials. To 
discuss this further, we should have to deal with the relationship 
between culture, tradition, and law. 
 
My interest was in a system in which private property rights are given 
and strictly enforced: Smith's "system of natural liberty." Tony, you 
correctly recognized my interest by using a quote from Smith. You also 
explained your meaning in a way that, at first sight, makes it immune to 
my criticism. However, you still say that the market as a system "was 
the unintended result of individual decisions..." 
 
The quote from Smith is a good reference. But Smith's interpretation 
seems to me to be an exaggeration. Smith would be correct to say that 
_most_ of the great proprietors, artificers, and merchants did not see 
"the big picture." However, I feel confident that a thorough 
investigation of history would reveal that some of them had a much 
clearer vision than others and that those with the clearer vision helped 
to facilitate the system they envisioned (not by causing laws to be 
passed but by creating market institutions). And what of the bankers and 
financiers. 
 
I am not denying the presence of "unintended results." However, 
unintended results may or may not lead to the development of the market 
system. A case in point is the "South Sea Bubble," which surely did not 
contribute to the development of the market economy, except by means of 
the lessons it taught to future financiers. 
 
I am directed back to the questions of (1) what economic history is 
likely to become and (2) what methods are likely to be used;  if we 
assume that the market system is unintended (or not consciously 
constructed). 
-- 
Pat Gunning 
 
http://www.showtower.com.tw/~gunning/welcome.htm 
http://web.nchulc.edu.tw/~gunning/pat/welcome 
 
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