[This article is a continuation of How Anarchic Market Forces (And Not the State) Created Civilization]
The epoch following the Neolithic Revolution in 10,000 B.C. was characterized by unprecedented growth in human population, culture, technology, and trade unrivaled in all of human history. The natural emergence of ideas and technology through entrepreneurial innovation and market processes over many years of natural selection led to the creation of the necessities of advanced civilization–agriculture, husbandry, pottery, medicine, metallurgy, trade, law, and money. States, as we consider them today, were conspicuously nonexistent.[1]
While some social stratification based on ability, function, or gender existed, on the whole, Neolithic societies were much more egalitarian than those found today. Most societies were centered around the family and the village, with some even looking down on excessive accumulation of wealth. Likely, there were wise elders or elites that emerged in each village based on reputation and respect, who adjudicated any possible disputes between community members; but they were not held to be a separate, superior class. The marvels of archaeological sites like Çatalhöyük, Abu Hureya, and Ain Ghazal in Ancient Mesopotamia are testaments to the success of voluntary relations and market exchanges. Based on the evidence found within these sites, it is accurate to say that human civilization predates the State by 4,000 years.
Some of the earliest States to be established were Arslantepe and Uruk, in the form of powerful cities dominating a surrounding hinterland. The “great” empires of old, Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria would model themselves on these Sumerian structures. Contrary to whatever fashionable methods are proposed today, a State can only arise through a very specific three-step process: through conquest, establishment of institutions, and ex post facto justification.
A.R.J. Turgot as Austrian Grandfather
by Ryan Safner
[This essay was originally written for ECON 3462 - History of Economic Thought]
Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot’s brief but brilliant writings on political economy portray him as a major intellectual precursor to the modern Austrian school of economics. Many of his primitive yet revolutionary insights into the nature of a free market bear striking resemblance to major Austrian tenets. None is so crucial and so well-developed, however, as his vision of a dynamic and emergent market order. Turgot’s shining brilliance and foresight into this area illuminates the voids of the sycophantic mercantilists and the comparative statics of the classical school. This grandiose vision would be lost for a century until it was recovered, quite independently, by the original Austrian, Carl Menger. If Menger is the father of the Austrian school, Turgot would certainly qualify as the estranged grandfather. Turgot’s prolific vision of market-based progress can be seen through a proto-Austrian lens based upon two key concepts he elucidated – the great role of the capitalist-entrepreneur and that of time. Turgot observed that it is the entrepreneur, or “undertaker,” who forecasts future conditions and undertakes a profitable venture in the context of ubiquitous risk and uncertainty. In particular, it is the capitalist-entrepreneur who forwards the money from his saved capital at a future profit to make such an undertaking possible. Since entrepreneurial action necessitates present action based on future speculation, Turgot is one of the first to highlight the immensely important and often neglected role of time in production and investment. Their combination makes for an economy where entrepreneurs act as the great equibrilators to the constant flux of market dynamics. Their actions, as well as their accumulation of capital, allow for the optimistic possibility of an ever-progressing society.
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