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Authors: Hans-Hermann Hoppe
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(courts) and order (police) for the enforcement of the pre-established private property law. With the sole exception of himself (for the nongovernment public and all of its internal dealings, that is), he will want to enforce the principle that all property and income should be acquired productively and/or contractually, and accordingly, he will want to threaten all private rule-transgressions as crimes with punishment. The less private crime there is, the more private wealth there will be and the higher will be the value of the ruler's monopoly of taxation and expropriation. In fact, a private ruler will not want to lean exclusively on tax revenue to finance his own expenditures. Rather, he will also want to rely on productive activities and allocate part of his estate to the production and provision of "normal" goods and services, with the purpose of earning its owner a "normal" (market) sales revenue. 21
20 Carlo M. Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1980), p. 48, concludes: "All in all, one must admit that the portion of income drawn by the public sector most certainly increased from the eleventh century onward all over Europe, but it is difficult to imagine that, apart from particular times and places, the public power ever managed to draw more than 5 to 8 percent of national income." He notes further that this portion was not systematically exceeded until the second half of the nineteenth century. See also the two following notes.
Moreover, private ownership of government implies moderation for yet another systematic reason. All private property is by definition exclusive property. He who owns property is entitled to exclude everyone else from its use and enjoyment, and he is at liberty to choose with whom, if anyone, he is willing to share in its usage. Typically, a private-property owner will include his family and exclude all others. The property becomes family property with him as the head of the family, and every nonfamily person will be excluded from using family property, except as invited guests or as paid employees or contractors. In the case of government, this exclusive character of private property takes on a special meaning. In this case it implies that everyone but the ruler and his family is excluded from benefiting from nonproductively acquired property and income. Only the ruling family—and to a minor extent its friends, employees, and business partners—shares in the enjoyment of tax revenues and can lead a parasitic life. The position as head of government—and of the government estate—is typically passed on within the ruling family, such that no one outside the king's family can realistically hope to become the next king. While entrance into the ruling family might not be closed entirely, it is highly restrictive. It might be possible to become a family member through marriage. However, the larger the ruling family, the smaller each member's share in the government's total confiscations will be. Hence, marriage typically will be restricted to members of the ruler's extended family. Only in exceptional cases will a member of the ruling family marry a complete "outsider"; even if this occurs, a family member by marriage will not normally become the head of the ruling family.
21 On the recognition of the pre-existing private-property law by monarchs see Bertrand de Jouvenel, Sovereignty, esp. chaps. 10 and 11.
The attitude of the sovereign toward rights is expressed in the oath of the first French kings: "I will honor and preserve each one of you, and I will maintain for each the law and justice pertaining to him." When the king was called "debtor for justice," it was no empty phrase. If his duty was suum cuique tribuere, the suum was a fixed datum. It was not the case of rendering to each what, in the plenitude of his knowledge, he thought would be best for him, but what belonged to him according to custom. Subjective
20 Carlo M. Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1980), p. 48, concludes: "All in all, one must admit that the portion of income drawn by the public sector most certainly increased from the eleventh century onward all over Europe, but it is difficult to imagine that, apart from particular times and places, the public power ever managed to draw more than 5 to 8 percent of national income." He notes further that this portion was not systematically exceeded until the second half of the nineteenth century. See also the two following notes.
Moreover, private ownership of government implies moderation for yet another systematic reason. All private property is by definition exclusive property. He who owns property is entitled to exclude everyone else from its use and enjoyment, and he is at liberty to choose with whom, if anyone, he is willing to share in its usage. Typically, a private-property owner will include his family and exclude all others. The property becomes family property with him as the head of the family, and every nonfamily person will be excluded from using family property, except as invited guests or as paid employees or contractors. In the case of government, this exclusive character of private property takes on a special meaning. In this case it implies that everyone but the ruler and his family is excluded from benefiting from nonproductively acquired property and income. Only the ruling family—and to a minor extent its friends, employees, and business partners—shares in the enjoyment of tax revenues and can lead a parasitic life. The position as head of government—and of the government estate—is typically passed on within the ruling family, such that no one outside the king's family can realistically hope to become the next king. While entrance into the ruling family might not be closed entirely, it is highly restrictive. It might be possible to become a family member through marriage. However, the larger the ruling family, the smaller each member's share in the government's total confiscations will be. Hence, marriage typically will be restricted to members of the ruler's extended family. Only in exceptional cases will a member of the ruling family marry a complete "outsider"; even if this occurs, a family member by marriage will not normally become the head of the ruling family.
21 On the recognition of the pre-existing private-property law by monarchs see Bertrand de Jouvenel, Sovereignty, esp. chaps. 10 and 11.
The attitude of the sovereign toward rights is expressed in the oath of the first French kings: "I will honor and preserve each one of you, and I will maintain for each the law and justice pertaining to him." When the king was called "debtor for justice," it was no empty phrase. If his duty was suum cuique tribuere, the suum was a fixed datum. It was not the case of rendering to each what, in the plenitude of his knowledge, he thought would be best for him, but what belonged to him according to custom. Subjective
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