THE ESSENCE OF THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL AND THE CONCEPT OF DYNAMIC EFFICIENCY

Now let me begin by making a few points on the true origin of the Austrian School of Economics, which should be traced back to the works of the Spanish Scholastics of what is known as the “Siglo de Oro Espa ol” (in english the “Spanish Golden Age”), which ran from the mid 16th century through the 17th century. The great austrian scholar Murray N. Rothbard (one of the brightest followers and pupils of Ludwig von Mises) first developed the thesis that the Austrian School is of spanish origin in 1974. The Nobel Prize winner Friedrich A. Hayek shared this view, particularly after meeting Bruno Leoni, the great italian scholar and author of the book, freedom and the law. The two met in the 1950s, and Leoni convinced Hayek that the intellectual origins of classical economic liberalism lay in Mediterranean Europe and not in Scotland.I have here a letter from Hayek dated january 7, 1979, in which Hayek writes that Rothbard “demonstrates that the basic principles of the theory of the competitive market were worked out by the spanish scholastics of the 16th century and that economic liberalism was not designed by the calvinists but by the spanish jesuits.” Hayek concludes his letter by telling us: “i can assure you from my personal knowledge of the sources that Rothbard’s case is extremely strong.”