Rothbard's Forgotten America: Five Radical Insights from Conceived in Liberty on Early American Decentralization

The most revealing features of early America were not created by Founding Fathers drafting constitutions. They emerged from radical decentralization documented by Murray Rothbard in Conceived in Liberty (1975–1979):

1. Proprietary Colonies as Competing Governments (1630s–1680s).
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Carolina operated as private enterprises with competitive governance. William Penn’s Frame of Government (1682) allowed settlers to choose among multiple legal codes, creating judicial competition. Result: lower taxes, faster dispute resolution, and higher immigration than in royal colonies. Pennsylvania grew from 0 to 20,000 inhabitants in twenty years through voluntary attraction, not coercion (Vol. 1, Ch. 45). This refutes the myth that governance requires monopoly.

2. Town Meetings as Pure Democracy (1620s–1770s).
New England townships operated without representatives: every freeman voted directly on laws, taxes, and expenditures. Dedham, Massachusetts (1636) required unanimous consent for new settlers and for taxation. No law passed without physical presence and voice vote. Result: tax burdens of only 1–2% of income (vs. 25–40% in England) because each levy demanded persuading one’s neighbors face to face (Vol. 2, Ch. 51). This showed that radical local control functioned in practice.

3. Paper Money as Competitive Currency (1690–1750).
Colonies issued competing paper monies without a central bank or legal-tender laws. Pennsylvania’s land-backed notes held value for forty years, while Massachusetts’ depreciated 90% through over-issuance. Result: market discipline through monetary competition—settlers chose the sounder currency, forcing Massachusetts to reform (Vol. 2, Ch. 56). It demonstrates that Hayek’s Denationalization of Money had a colonial precedent 250 years earlier.

4. Militia System as Decentralized Defense (1620–1775).
No professional army existed until the Revolution. Each town organized its own militia, elected officers, and decided when to fight. Connecticut militias refused to fight outside their own townships during King Philip’s War (1675), forcing negotiation rather than central command. Result: 150 years without a standing army, preventing the military centralization that dominated Europe (Vol. 1, Ch. 48). The Founders’ “well-regulated militia” was a libertarian institution.

5. Salutary Neglect as Evidence of Anarchism (1720–1763).
The British Crown de facto abandoned colonial governance. Navigation Acts went unenforced, taxes uncollected, and appeals to London ignored. Colonial assemblies functioned as sovereign parliaments without British interference. Result: the highest growth period in colonial history—per capita output grew 0.6% annually (vs. 0.2% in England), and population doubled every twenty-five years through immigration (Vol. 3, Ch. 61). When Britain tried to reassert control in 1763, Revolution became inevitable. This demonstrated that the absence of central authority produced prosperity, not chaos.

Pattern: Rothbard argued that American liberty originated in decentralization and competitive governance, not in the Constitution or the wisdom of the Founders. The Revolution centralized power compared to the colonial era. These five institutions—competitive colonies, municipal direct control, monetary competition, local militias, and salutary neglect—were gradually destroyed after 1789. Modern America is institutionally less free than America in 1750. Conceived in Liberty is radical because it shows that America’s real Golden Age was pre-Constitutional, not post-Constitutional.