Regarding Mathew Forstater's post on the origins/history of "spontaneous    
order," I recently addressed this question in the QJAE:  
   
http://www.mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae8_4_2.pdf  
   
I must admit to being unfamiliar with the Polanyi-Lowe connection; more    
evidence on that relationship might change my verdict.  However, I will say  that the
usual evidence presented for Polanyi's having revived the expression is
rather unpersuasive.  Wilhelm Ropke seems to have used the phrase in print    
(_Economics of the Free Society_, 1937) before Polanyi did.  
   
As for Pete Boettke's belief that Polanyi, not J.S. Mill, is the source of    
"spontaneous order," I would simply like to remind everyone that Hayek was an    
accomplished Mill scholar, as well as a classical liberal, and so it would    
certainly be quite possible for Hayek to have gotten the phrase, directly or    
indirectly, from Mill.  
   
Jack Bladel