A Socialist Empire

A SocialistEmpire The William Volker Fund Series in the Humane Studies EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF ECONOMICS by Ludwig von Mises THE ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW by Israel M. Kirzner ESSAYS IN EUROPEAN ECONOMIC THOUGHT Edited by Louise Sommer SCIENTISM AND VALUES Edited by Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins A SOCIALIST EMPIRE: THE INCAS OF PERU by Louis Baudin RELATIVISM AND THE STUDY OF MAN Edited by Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins FREEDOM AND THE LAW by Bruno Leoni A Socialist Empire THE INCAS OF PERU by LOUIS BAUDIN Translated from the French by KATHERINE WOODS Edited bry ARTHUR GODDARD D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC. PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY TORONTO NEW YORK LONDON D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC. 120 Alexander St., Princeton, New Jersey (Principal office) 24 West 40 Street, New York 18, New York D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, LTD. 358, Kensington High Street, London, W.14, England D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY (Canada), LTD.

25 Hollinger Road, Toronto 16, Canada Copyright, @, 1961 by WILLIAM VOLKER FUND Published simultaneously in Canada by D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY (Canada), LTD. No reproduction in any form of this book, in whole or in part (except for brief quotation in critical articles or reviews), may be made without written authorization from the publishers. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Foreword I. The inborn inequality of the various individuals of the human species poses the most intricate problem for all interhuman rela tions. In any social system the main issue is how to promote peaceful cooperation among people markedly different from one another not only in bodily characteristics but also in mental ca pacity, will power, and moral strength. For thousands of years people knew only one method of dealing with inborn inequality: to make the superiority of the stronger over the weaker prevail throughout. The stronger beat the weaker into submission. A hierarchical order of hereditary castes was established under which the kings and aristocrats administered all affairs for their own benefit, while the lower strata of the popu lation had no other function than that of toiling for their masters and of making life as agreeable as possible for them.