ABSTRACT
I first heard of Murray N. Rothbard in autumn 1973, in the seminar on Austrian Economics which Luis Reig held at his Madrid home every Thursday evening. At that time, Rothbard’s ideas raised heated controversies which took up a good part of our meetings. Specifically, there were detailed discussions on both Rothbard’s contributions and those of his master Ludwig von Mises and the rest of the Austrian School theorists, comparing them with ‘orthodox’ economic theory. The theory of the monopoly which, thanks to Rothbard, had been purged of the imperfections and inconsistencies which it still displayed in Mises Human Action also attracted a great deal of attention. Finally, in the field of political philosophy, there was also a divergence between Rothbard and his master, as the former defended a Natural Law position which was in acute contrast with the clear utilitarianism of Mises. These reasons, among others, led me to undertake a detailed study of two key works which Murray Rothbard had written some years earlier: his treatise Man, Economy, and State2 and his book Power and Market,3 which served as a complement to the former. The fact that Rothbard was able to complete the almost 1,000 pages of his treatise at the age of 36 is admirable. The clearness, depth and acuteness of the analysis, critical spirit and originality are characteristics which exude from every page of Man, Economy, and State. It is not surprising, therefore, that this book had a profound influence on my university years of education in economics, which has also been felt by a whole generation of Austrian economists all over the world. Eight years were to elapse, however, before my first personal encounter
with Murray N. Rothbard, whom I met at his home in Palo Alto in 1980. I had this opportunity due to the happy coincidence that Rothbard was working under the auspices of the Institute for Human Studies, very close to Stanford University, where I had just arrived with a scholarship from the Bank of Spain to complete my studies in Political Economy. Although I already knew Rothbard’s main works and theoretical contributions, my personal contact with him was a memorable experience. His extraordinary personal charm, tireless enthusiasm and surprising erudition made it an indescribable intellectual pleasure to debate and discuss with him not only
the most topical, polemic and interesting issues of Economic Science, but also a multitude of other directly or indirectly related topics, concerning political science, philosophy, history, ethics and even theology.4
