======================= HES POSTING ================= 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 ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]