As the economic aspect of state absolutism, mercantilism was of necessity a system of state-building, of big government, of heavy royal expenditure, of high taxes, of (especially after the late 17th century) inflation and deficit finance, of war, imperialism, and the aggrandizing of the nation-state. FULL ARTICLE by Murray N. Rothbard
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/12644/mercantilism-as-the-economic-aspect-of-absolutism/
Mercantilism as the Economic Aspect of Absolutism
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A bit unnerving how closely this describes the current situation.
Todd S., when hasn’t it been the situation?
“By the beginning of the 17th century, royal absolutism had emerged victorious all over Europe” is wrong; Rothbard should have written “By the last quarter of the 17th century, royal absolutism had emerged victorious all over continental Europe”. Absolutism had already waned in England after Henry VIII, and apart from in Denmark it had not yet been adopted on the continent by the beginning of the 17th century. France was most famous for absolutism, but it did not reach there until comparatively late.
“But a king… must rule through a hierarchical bureaucracy. And so the rule of absolutism was created through a series of alliances between the king, his nobles (who were mainly large feudal or postfeudal landlords), and various segments of large-scale merchants or traders” is wrong too. Many new French nobles were ennobled from among merchants, lawyers, etc. as part of squaring them with noble privileges and paid state offices, and had little land until they acquired it separately. And Prussia used the lesser nobility, the Junker class, giving them such offices.
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