Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

lender would be el iminated, resulting in the virtual
elimination of interest. Further, since everyone would
be able to issue his own notes, there would be "plenty
of cirCUlating .medium always at hand." Hence, "exchange
and d i vis i on of labor would not be I imi ted for
want of money."(35) The result would be constant
prosperity.
s uchi s t he 0 uti i n e 0 f J 0 s i a h Wa r r en's a I t erna t i ve
to government. As Stephen Pearl Andrews sums up
Warren's outlook, the basis of social harmony is human
Ii ber ty. And human I iberty is grounded in "the Sovereignty
of the Individual; and the sole basis upon which
the e x e r cise 0 f t ha t S 0 vere i gn t y can res t .i sEq u i t y, - ­
the render i ng to each of that which is his. The Cost
Principle furnishes the law of that rendering. That,
and t h-a t a Ion e, a d min i s t e r sEqu i t Y• Hen ce, i t PI aces
all in a condition of independence. It dissolves the
re I a t i on of protectors and protected by render i ng prot
e c t ion un nee e s s a r y • " ( 3 6 ) Itsh0 u ld a Iso be po i n ted
out that while they felt that free competition tended
to reduce pr ice to cos t, it would not do so in every
case. And while they argued that the only just determinant
of price was that of cost, they could find no
way other than persuasion to enforce the cost principle.
Every individual, said Andrews, "must be left
absolutely free to commit every conceivable
breach of the principle itself, since absolute freedom
is another of the essential principles of harmonious
society."(37)
Wh i let h e soc i a - e conom i c ideas 0 f Wa r r en eX e r ted
an immense influence on later philosophical anarchists,
by 1862 all of the Equitable communities had been terminated.
Moreover, Warren's "labor check" system, with
1abo r not e s s i g ned by the iss u e r, and his "wa n t - ad"
method of balancing supply and demand were suitable
only for small, non-industrialized communities populated
by jacks-of-all trades. While Warren's philosophical
principles -- the "sovereignty of the individual,"
"cost the 1 imi t of pr ice ,n private property and free
compet i t ion -- remained at the heart of philosophical
anarchism throughout the nineteenth century, it quickly
became ev i dent to Warren's successors that in order to
make them relevant in the age of industrialization and
urban life, the practical aspects of his proposals required
modification.
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