 Condillac began with an examination of economic value, which he thought was determined by the utility and relative scarcity of a good (Commerce and Government I.1). Since people in different situations of life estimate goods differently, social cooperation based on the division of labour becomes possible through the market. As Condillac said, thus anticipating by one century the insights of marginalists, in every voluntary market transaction each party gives what he or she values less in exchange for what he or she values more (Commerce and Government I.6). It follows that every free exchange is to the mutual benefit of both parties. Condillac justified property rights in a Lockian fashion by original occupation, appropriation by labour, or voluntary transfer (Commerce and Government I.12). The government’s main task is to maintain the order of society both internally and externally (Commerce and Government I.10), but the welfare of citizens is better guaranteed by the removal of barriers to free enterprise and free trade, as Condillac argued at length in the second part of the work. Government’s various “blows” against the freedom of commerce, such as taxes on consumption, monopolies, cartels, trade barriers, price controls, currency manipulations, public debt, and wars, only benefit a few privileged people who are politically connected. Economic interventionism leads to an unhealthy and “excessive” multiplication of needs in the group of people privileged by these measures. This multiplication of needs is manifested by the rise in the consumption of luxury products (Commerce and Government I.27, preface to Part II, II.16). (This unhealthy and excessive multiplication of needs, manifested by a taste for luxury, should be contrasted with the healthy development of needs that characterizes the rise of humans above the mere level of animal economy described by Condillac in the Treatise of Animals.) On the other hand, economic interventionism pushes back the majority into a sort of animal economy, where they are constantly threatened by poverty and starvation. Thus, policies of economic intervention exacerbate social inequalities. The equilibrating mechanism of the market would mitigate inequalities by lowering the prices of goods thanks to open competition among entrepreneurs (Commerce and Government II.1). Whatever inequalities remain in a free market society would just reflect a difference in talents and would rather be to the benefit of all. Certainly, the desire for human welfare cannot legitimately justify measures such as price controls on goods of first necessity such as wheat. These measures are not only unjust but also turn out to be counterproductive, notwithstanding the best intentions of advocates of restrictions on private property rights: “The rights of humanity opposed to those of property! What gibberish!” (Commerce and Government II.15)