Profits from Power: Readings in Protection Rent and Violence-Controlling Enterprises

"Of the many sources of power, these essays deal with only one: physical violence and the threat of violence exerted by some men over others." Thus Frederic C. Lane introduces his essays on profits and protection rent, or the cost of protecting economic activities from the disruption of violence. With the theme of protection rent, Lane analyzes both particular cases, such as the development of trade in the West Indies and the prosperity of sixteenth-century Venice, and general questions, su...