Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

producing "monopol istic profit" for the beneficiaries
oft h e s e leg a I p r i viI e ge s; r en t wa s the res uItof the
legal protection of land titles not based on occupancy,
"thereby compelling the non-owning users to pay tribute
to the non-using owners as a condition of admission to
the compet i t i v e mar k e t "; and i n t eres t res u I ted from
denying the right of each individual to issue his own
notes, i.e., by decreeing that only gold and silver
were "legal tender," thereby compelling all non-holders
of go I dan d s i I ve r to pa y t rib ute. ta the ho I der s of
these metals for the privilege of conducting transactions.(83)
Once these legal monopolies were abolished, free
money, free land, and free trade would prevail. And
under the force of the reSUlting competition, "interest,
profit,and rent on buildings will almost entirely
disappear; ground-rents will no longer flow into a few
hands; and practically the only inequality remaining
will be the slight disparity of production due to
"s u per i 0 r i t Y 0 f s 0 i I and ski 1 1 • n ( 84 ) Un dera s y s t em 0 f
free competition, insisted Tucker, the trusts, which
"instead of growing out of competition, as is so genera
I I Y sup p 0 sed, ha ve been rna de pos sibleon I y by the a b ­
sence of competition. only, in short, by those
arb i t r a r y lim ita t ions of compet i t ion wh i ch we find in
those law-created privileges and monopolies of which I
have just spoken,"(85) would be crippled. Further, in
a society governed by free competition, prices would be
determined by their labor-costs, and the wage system
would no longer be a vehicle for exploitation. Under
the influence of free competition, he said,· "it will
make no difference whether men work for themsleves, are
employed or employ others. In any case they can get
nothing but that wage for their labor which free competition
determines. n (86) Thus, according to TUCker,
free compet i tion would eliminate exploitation by elimina
tin g a I I profit, r en tandin t erest. I t wo u I dinsur
e, i·not her .w0 r ds, t hat cos t Wo u I d bethelimit 0 f
price. It was felt that in such a society everyone
would receive his due and the antagonistic struggle
between capital and labor would be replaced by harmonious
cooperat ion. Since wealth would increase dramatically
and economic justice would prevail, crime would
be significantly reduced. Whatever crime remained
could be handled by competitive defense agencies offeri
n g theirse r viceson the f r e e rna r k e t, and the t ria I by
jury, whose decis ions would be guided by the common
law.
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