Guilds, the Gold Standard, and Modern International Cooperation as Vital Institutions

* Books: Ideology and the Evolution of Vital Institutions: Guilds, The Gold Standard, and Modern International Cooperation. By Earl A. Thompson and Charles R. Hickson

URL = Synopsis

Discussion

Matthew McNatt:

"Earl A. Thompson and Charles R. Hickson note that at the beginning of the age of mercantilism, the governments of every country that followed free-market economists' advice and eliminated their guilds without establishing a standing army fell within a generation. Governments' enforcement of guilds' trade restrictions and barriers to professional entry (they make the case) provided young men the incentive they needed to defend the status quo—that is, to perpetuate the system under which they reasonably expected their continued labor to eventually net a decent living. Eliminate the guilds, and young men had scant reason to care who ruled over them, since taxes to this government or taxes to the next government were, in either case, still taxes. In the end, guilds' ostensible inefficiencies may not have been so inefficient, since in response to gains from increased market efficiencies, governments implemented higher taxes in order to pay for the creation of standing armies.

Thompson and Hickson's primary thesis is that, far from being an independent science, economics is primarily a tool of oligarchs with political power, who grant the demands of the common people only when the common people are necessary to what they want. (Their analysis of the success of Twentieth Century labor movements in light of standing armies' need for soldiers in WWII is truly depressing.) Thompson took the unusual step of posting a free summary of their work to his Academia.edu profile not long before his passing." (Discord, August 2020)