Gustave de Molinari (March 3, 1819 - January 28, 1912) is considered the first anarcho-capitalist theoretician, due to his essay The Production of Security, and a book, Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare, describing how a free market in justice and protection could advantageously replace the state. He was a Belgian-born economist associated with French laissez-faire liberal economists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Hippolyte Castille.

Throughout his life, together with the other Économistes, Molinari defended peace, free trade, freedom of speech, freedom of association (including voluntary trade unions), and liberty in all its forms. (read more...)