y the result of voluntary demands" of the consumers, and since the exchange (at the higher prices) is completely "voluntary" anyway, there is no way to conclude that consumers or their "welfare" have been injured.29 Thus, for Rothbard there is no social "problem" associated with monopoly in a free market. Monopoly prices cannot be defined logically, let alone established in a free market.
CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUSTRIAN MONOPOLY THEORY
The views of Kirzner and Mises that monopoly consists of exclusive control over the whole supply of some specific resource create a number of familiar difficulties. In the first place, there would appear to be no objective way to define beforehand some "homogeneous" stock of resources that might be monopolized. All individually owned stocks of a resource could be differentiated at least with respect to location; in addition, the private-property system itself necessarily imparts a "differentiation" to all privately owned stocks. Further, even identical units of some given stock might be regarded differently by potential users, and there would be no way to determine this beforehand. Hence, this view of monopoly could reduce logically to the notion that each and every unit of everyone's property stock is owned "monopolistically."
Rothbard, it will be recalled, was critical of this definition of monopoly because its all-inclusiveness made it "impractical," confusing, and, ultimately, "absurd." But we can be critical of it on different grounds, employing Professor Kirzner's own (correct) view of the competitive market process. It will be recalled that Kirzner had argued that the key to competition was freedom of entry and that entry was impossible if potential entrepreneurs could not gain access to monopolized resources.30 Yet, as has been noted above, if all individual stocks of resources are, in fact, monopolized, it would seem to follow that Kirzner's definition of monopoly would completely negate his own views on competition and market process. Indeed, it is difficult to understand how any competition or market process would even be possible with this definitional approach. How could any competition occur if all resources are monopolized?
Even if it were to be assumed for the moment that resources are not uniquely specific and are, instead, completely homogeneous, additional difficulties remain. Why, for instance, ought monopoly ownership to preclude the possibility of competition from potentially rivalrous entrepreneurs that purchase needed resources? Indeed, Kirzner himself has already stated that the market process is "always" competitive so long as there is freedom to buy and sell in the market.31 Even monopoly ownership does not erase the freedom to buy and sell since it is possible that access to resources could be obtained, say, through purchase. Yet Kirzner argues that the "very possibilities themselves" of competition may be eliminated by monopoly ownership of a resource.32
Another difficulty with Professor Kirzner's approach is his use of the qualifying term, "current endowment of a certain resource."33 Obviously, nothing prevents potentially rivalrous entrepreneurs from exploring for and exploiting new supplies of a specific resource. Indeed, "current endowment" of a resource is an ambiguous phrase since supplies of resources are normally classified as "proved," "probable," and "possible."
If Kirzner means to imply that a monopoly over the current proved endowment of a particular resource precludes the possibility of competition and allows the resource owner to be "immune from entrepreneurial competition," 34 he would be arguing a tenuous point at best. Clearly such a "monopoly" allows no such thing. In this example, future 35 entry is clearly possible and cannot be precluded a priori. And since the entire Austrian tradition in this area is to treat the competitive process as one that unfolds through time anyway, how are the potential entrepreneurs effectively blocked from "discovering unexploited opportunities for profit"?
As a final point, monopoly over a resource would appear to 