==================== HES POSTING ==================== 
 
Mark Brady of the Institute for Humane Studies had the following query 
and asked if I would forward it on to this list.  I will forward all 
public replies to him, or you may reach him privately at [log in to unmask] 
 
Thanks! 
 
Mark asks: 
 
Do you have any idea who first used the expression "market forces" or, at 
least, any leads as to how I might find out? 
 
I have approached a few economists.  David Levy at Public Choice points 
out that the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. uses "market forces" to 
define "administered prices".  Did the phrase perhaps originate in the 
1930s or does it go back (much) further? 
 
I suspect that the expression "market forces" is roughly contemporaneous 
with the phrase "the (iron) law of supply and demand".  Which raises 
another question.  When was the latter phrase first used?  By Charles 
Dickens perhaps? 
 
Steve Horwitz 
Dept. of Economics 
St. Lawrence University 
 
============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ 
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]