Kautilya on Public Goods and Taxation
通过分析公元前4世纪印度思想家考底利耶的《政事论》，反驳熊彼特对古代经济思想的负面评价，展示其在公共品和税收方面的现代洞见。
In times of trouble, the fort provides a haven to the people and the king himself. —Kautilya, The Arthashastra, 7.14.20 (4th century BCE) Joseph Schumpeter (1954) offered a very unflattering view of the con-tributions of ancient Chinese and Greek thinkers to economic analy-sis. It is apparent by now that he committed many errors of omission and commission. For example, Young Back Choi (1989) points out that Schumpeter discussed the contributions only of Chinese moral philoso-phers and omitted the contributions of the legalist Han Feitzu (280–233 BCE), who advanced many modern ideas related to “public choice vari-ety. ” Similarly, the pioneering work of S. Todd Lowry (1987) has refuted the judgments of Schumpeter regarding the contributions of the Greeks and also has challenged his views on the methodology and scope of eco-nomics, such as his exclusion of ethical and administrative issues from economics.1