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GD
19th Century
Gustave de Molinari
1819–1912 · Free market
Why should security be the one good a monopoly supplies?
In The Production of Security, published in 1849, Molinari asked by what right any industry is reserved to the state once competition is permitted in every other trade. He proposed that security and justice could be supplied by competing firms under contract to consumers. It is the first systematic argument for a market in law and protection, and it has been answered only by assertion ever since.
Why it matters for freedom
He asked the question anarchists still ask: if other services improve under competition, why not the service of protection?
Who they stood against
the monopoly on security that made protection a racket