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Source link: http://archive.mises.org/5053/anarchy-in-1896/

Anarchy in 1896

May 16, 2006 by

Francis Tandy’s essay “Defence of Person and Property,” from his 1896 book Voluntary Socialism, is one of the early explorations of the idea that private protection agencies competing on the free market would be preferable to the State. This classic discussion is now online; read it here. Background info available here.

{ 6 comments }

iceberg May 16, 2006 at 4:55 pm

Funny, I thought it was your patron saint, Mssr. Molinari who first developed that idea.

Roderick T. Long May 16, 2006 at 4:59 pm

It was. Molinari came up with it in 1849, nearly five decades before Tandy. That’s why I called Tandy’s essay “one of the early” rather than “the earliest.”

Tandy, in turn, was influenced by Tucker and the other writers associated with _Liberty_, who also advocated the idea. As far as I can tell, they came up with it independently of (but still later than) Molinari.

Kenneth R. Gregg May 16, 2006 at 9:10 pm

Rod,

You might want to add Gustave de Molinari’s L’abbé de Saint-Pierre (in French, sorry), my 2006 online edition of Stephen Pearl Andrews’ The Science of Society (I should have my “Introduction to the 2006 Online Edition: Stephen Pearl Andrews, Southern Abolitionism and the Science of Freedom” added soon) and all of the new google books digital project books. There are a lot of libertarian works now available (which now include all of Herbert Spencer’s writings). As an example:

and many, many more.

Andrews,

Just a thought.
Just Ken
CLASSical Liberalism

franny May 17, 2006 at 5:58 am

i think it has to do with more than that

Rove Blames Bush’s Job Approval Ratings on War in Iraq

Paul Edwards May 17, 2006 at 10:13 am

It was a great article. Thanks Roderick.

Paul

Andrew - Money Supply & Debt Blog May 21, 2006 at 3:48 pm

Here is an interesting thought; in some areas of the world private protection really is the only option, with government completely lacking. In developing countries with police forces, corruption creates serious problems. Imagine the liability private companies would face if their employees did some of the things government police get away with on a routine basis!

Even in the US home security systems and guards fill in the gaps that the government is completely unable to serve.

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