“In reality, the unhampered free-market economy will usually increase the supply of goods and services and thereby bring about a gently falling price level, as happened in most of the nineteenth century except during wartime.”
was the market really unhampered in the 19th century? a first central bank, kaput…a second central bank…until it was removed…fixed gold / silver ratios?
Rothbard never claimed this. What Rothbard claims is the steady price deflation, which did occur during the last two decades of the 19th century, or so.
pg 95 in a history of money an dbanking in the united states…did someone other that rothbard write that book?
It is a matter of relative freedom. Banking reform after the Civil War was pretty sound, by and large. It was a period of gold-standard stability - not perfect but good enough to illustrate MNR’s point.
What are you saying? The USA was hampered, but relatively unhampered compared to today!
You missed my point (or decided to ignore what I wrote). The exact quote is as follows:
In reality, the unhampered free-market economy will usually increase the supply of goods and services and thereby bring about a gently falling price level, as happened in most of the nineteenth century except during wartimes.
It might be confusing, but I don’t think Rothbard is equating “most of the nineteenth century” with “free-market economy”. He is equating “most of the nineteenth century” with “a gently falling price level”, which is true. So, he is not claiming that the majority of the 19th century was a free market in the United States, only that steady price deflation has historically occured.