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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
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