The "Education" Of Prince William

I watched a programme on BBC TV last night on the next "royal wedding" - between Prince William and Kate Middleton, who studied together in St. Andrew's, Scotland. Much of the programme was devoted to the education and training that the young prince had undergone in order to be fit to perform his future duties.

First: At St. Andrew's, Prince William studied "Art History." Later, he also studied Geography.

Second: The prince received military training. There was a clip of his "passing out parade" at Sandhurst. Of course, he also served briefly in Afghanistan.

Third: The prince was attached to an "international charity" for a while. This took him to Chile, where he spent a few months in a camp, with onerous duties. There was clip of him cleaning toilets!

Let us look into the relevance of all three above:

First: To my mind, neither Art History nor Geography are relevant "knowledge" for a future monarch. What is most essential, however, is that such a prince receive sound grounding in "political economy" - and, thereby, be possessed of a guiding political philosophy. In this context, I think the then Emperor and Empress of Austria-Hungary did extremely well by placing the young Crown Prince Rudolf under the tutelage of Carl Menger, and it is goes further to their credit that Menger was selected as teacher because of his strong "classical liberal" leanings. Rudolf's notes from these lectures (1876) are now available in print, with an English translation, from Edward Elgar - and I hope someone in Britain will recommend them to the young Prince William. This blog contains quite a few posts on these lectures, which you can find by clicking on the label "Carl Menger" on the right-hand bar.

Second: It is a matter of historical record that the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle was George II, in 1743, at the Battle of Dettingen. During the battle, George II's horse "ran off with him." The battle was won, fortuitously. On the other hand, it is also highly instructive that Carl Menger's lectures on political economy to Prince Rudolf followed Adam Smith - but with a crucial difference. In Adam Smith's "three duties of the sovereign," the first duty had been "the duty of protecting the society from violence and invasion of other independent societies." Since Austria had already suffered enough wars, Menger decided to OMIT teaching the prince this duty - and only taught the other two! The lectures emphasise the importance of the "international division of labour" - and how this requires international peace.

Third: The Third World can never "develop" through either "foreign aid" or the work of "international charities." Prince William went to Chile - where what has actually worked miracles is the Free Market. On the problems and prospects of the Third World, Prince William should read Peter, Lord Bauer - whose mantra remained: property rights, free trade and sound money.

Let me conclude with some words on the soundness of the British pound:

The Bank of England was established in 1694, shortly after the "Glorious Revolution," with a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, with the specific purpose of financing the government's war effort. However, from 1797 - 1821, it was unable to redeem its notes in gold - and, by then, the "National Debt" had also grown. Peel's Banking Act of 1844 attempted to set things right - but failed. The Bank of England is the world's "model" central bank - with clones everywhere. Today, it is engaged in "quantitative easing."

Interestingly, Carl Menger's lectures to Crown Prince Rudolf include two lectures on money - the first on coinage, in which the lesson imparted is that gold coins constitute true money; and the second on paper banknotes, in which the lesson imparted is that the future prosperity of Austria-Hungary depend on making these banknotes redeemable in gold on demand. At the time of the lectures, 1876, because of repeated wars, redemption had been suspended. This, as Menger painstakingly explained, was a very bad thing.

In India, you can buy the book containing Menger's lectures to Rudolf here.

It is an ancient tradition of the City of London that the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths conducts an annual ritual in which they engage in the "testing of the coinage." Today, this annual ceremony is still held - but the Lord Mayor no longer attends.