Book Club: Liberty and Property, Mises

Studying Mises’ masterful introduction to the 9th meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society

Our book club returned to Ludwig von Mises with “Liberty and Property” (October, 1958), his inauguration of the ninth meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, which was founded to preserve and improve a free society.

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Liberty and Property is an excellent speech which covers pre-capitalistic societies, the history of capitalism, and how capitalism and the free market improved the lives of millions and millions. It is a story that as a world we have forgotten and that we must retell over and over again. The speech also covers what is necessary to preserve capitalism and the free market. My speaking notes introducing Liberty and Property at the Book Club meeting are below.

Introductory note

I Mises opens with the two conceptions of liberty at the end of the 18th century: freedom as privilege with democracy as oligarchy plus another oligarchic conception in which elites seek to preserve their privilege against the rise of absolutism.

II Mises explains that capitalism introduced mass production to serve “the masses”¹, not first and foremost the well to do as in the past. Economic power was transferred to the sovereign consumer and capital must always be reinvested in the service of the public. It is a delusion to think capital serves anyone but the sovereign consumer.