By Murray N. Rothbard
Mises.org 

January 17, 2026

Editor's note: 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of Murray Rothbard's birth, and throughout the year we will feature many of his most important texts. In this article, taken from his seminal work Power and Market[, Rothbard tackles the question of how a monopolistic state can claim to protect the property rights of its subjects.]

Economists have referred innumerable times to the "free market," the social array of voluntary exchanges of goods and services.