The Free Market and Its Enemies Quotes

“Money is like any other commodity. As there is no custom line between Manhattan and Brooklyn, prices increase between the two boroughs only by the amount of transportation charges. If there were a custom barrier, conditions would be different. So it is with money. If Brooklyn had a separate coin system from Manhattan, the exchange ratio between these two moneys would be established at such a height that it would make no difference whether the commodity was bought in one place or the other, with one money or the other. Should a difference appear, immediately there would arise an opportunity to make an advantageous deal. This advantage would continue until the difference disappeared.”
― Ludwig von Mises, The Free Market and Its Enemies: Pseudo Science, Socialism, and Inflation

“When you introduce figures into economics you are no longer in the field of economic theory, but in the field of economic history. Economic history is also, of course, a very important field. Statistics in the field of human action is a method of historical study. Statistics give a description of a fact, but they cannot prove any more than that fact. (It is true that some statisticians are “swindlers” and, as a matter of fact, some statisticians in the government were probably appointed merely for that purpose.)”
― Ludwig von Mises, The Free Market and Its Enemies: Pseudo Science, Socialism, and Inflation