Malcolm Rutherford wrote: I don't think the common law was entirely spontaneous, as the central government of the time was involved in the effort to have local courts adopt a common set of rules..... Fred Carstensen responds: Actually, the centralization of authority in the Common Law courts was at first largely the work of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), who, as Chief Justice of Kings Bench, sought to suppress competing courts. He also fought for the independence of the judiciary, for which James I removed him from the Court. The ultimate supremacy of the Common Law courts came in two stages. First, in1642, Parliament abolished Star Chamber, the highest of the prerogative (royal) courts and the last remaining significant competitor. In 1701, the Act of Settlement established the principle of the independence of the judiciary. I take as a result 1701 as the historical point at which both constitutional limited government and capitalism was born. For this discussion, what I would point to is the framework that this established was one in which individuals (firms) could formulate reasonably stable expectations about the future consequences of current (economic) decisions--and thus engaged in micro-planned activities that at the macro level appeared spontaneous. Fred Carstensen