I'm a Political Scientist by schooling.... A Political Scientist has made a nice point about "Markets" and "Economies." The MARKET always exists, one's economy may or may NOT take cognizance of the Market. A market is the interplay of supply and demand for various goods. It always exists... Islam may or may not recognize "interest." Which is a concomitant of a supply and demand for money. The result may be slow or no growth of the economy, OR a societal equivalent that may or may not be as efficient as "interest", e.g., pledges of one's first-born, or vassalage, or support on issues of the day, or monetary "gifts" to the lender, to "reward" him for his altruism.... To me a "market" is the interplay of supply and demand. The economy is how government and society deal with this interplay.
-----Original Message----- From: fabio guillermo rojas [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 1:35 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: What is a market? > A pure market economy exists where all economic activity is voluntary for all > persons in the economy. There are neither restrictions nor imposed arbitrary > costs on peaceful and honest human action. I am trying to think about cultures that don't have the economic institutions that Western countries have. For example, if the people of one nation voluntarily adopted Islamic law and did not charge interest, voluntarily, would that be a market? Basically, I want to get beyond "voluntary interaction" and try to think about the institutions you need in order to have Western style markets. So if people abolish interest rates, they're abolishing one of the key market mechanisms. Although it's voluntary, it's certainly missing something important. Fabio