Apropos of the Hayekian "the market knows many things that no individual knows": In the fifth century BC those casting the statue of Athena-Fighting-in-Front in Attica had no clue that the tin from which they made their bronze came from Cornwall; and those mining the tin in Cornwall had no clue that its highest-and-best market use would be to make a giant statue of Athens's patron goddess:
James D. Muhly: Sources of Tin and the Beginnings of Bronze Metallurgy: "Herodotus: 'Of the extreme tracts of Europe towards the west, I cannot speak with any certainty; for I do not... know of any islands called the Tin Islands, whence the tin comes which we use.... I have never been able to get an eye-witness that there is any sea on the further side of Europe. Nevertheless, tin and amber do certainly come to us from the ends of the earth...
...This passage... shows that Herodotus, who seems to have devoted some effort... was unable to learn anything regarding the sources of tin being consumed.... Periclean Athens was importing large amounts of tin. The inscriptions relating to the casting of the Athena Promachos list single purchases of tin as large as 150 talents or almost 4,000 kg. We also learn from these texts that a talent of tin sold for 233 drachmas while the price of copper was just over 35 drachmas per talent.... [yet] Herodotus failed to get beyond the tall stories told by sailors, stories told perhaps more to confuse and to obfuscate than to instruct...
#noted #economicsgoneright #history #teachingeconomichistory
