This paper offers a framework for studying how violence determines political systems and market types in pairs to explain the nature of and road to the (Smithian) market. In the modeled Hobbesian society, parties prepare for war to acquire wealth but end in war or peace depending on their...

The late Middle Ages witnessed the transformation of the county of Holland from a peripheral agrarian region to a highly commercialised and urbanised one. This book examines how the organisation of commodity markets contributed to this remarkable development. Comparing Holland to England and...

This paper studies how an institution such as markets affects the evolution of mankind. My key point is that the forces of natural selection are made weaker because trade allows people to specialize in those activities where they are strong, and to offset their weaknesses by purchasing adequate...