Much of the confusion prevailing in the historical study of liberalism can be traced to John Stuart Mill, who occupies a vastly inflated position in the conception of liberalism entertained by English-speaking peoples. This “saint of rationalism” is responsible for key distortions in the liberal doctrine on a number of fronts. In economics, Mill’s opinion that “the principle of individual liberty is not involved in the doctrine of free trade,” provided ammunition for the protectionist arsenal, and accepted and even elaborated socialist arguments (Mill 1977: p. 293; Mises 1978a: p. 195; Raeder 2002: p. 357 n. 76 and p. 374 n. 23; and especially Rothbard 1995 2: pp. 277–85).
Mill rejected the liberal notion of the long-run harmony of the interests of all social classes, including entrepreneurs and workers, on the grounds that “to say that they have same interest … is to say that it is the same thing to a person’s interest whether a sum of money belongs to him or to someone else” (Ashcraft 1989: p. 114). Following that odd and shortsighted reasoning would reveal a very large number of hitherto unsuspected conflicts of interest in society (e.g., between any two people who passed each other in the street). Indeed, in arguing that anticapitalism is one of the hallmarks of liberalism, Alan Ryan (1993: p. 302) invokes none other than John Stuart Mill, who wrote (1965: p. 209), “The generality of laborers in this and most other countries have as little choice of occupation and freedom of locomotion … as they could … on any system short of actual slavery” — this at a time when English and other “serfs” were migrating in the millions to the towns and cities and even to foreign lands.
In international affairs, Mill…