…in Massachusetts during 1630-50.
From Murray Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty: “Maximum-wage control always aggravates a shortage of labor, as employers will not be able to obtain needed workers at the statutory price. In trying to force labor to be cheaper than its price on the free market, the gentry only made it more difficult for employers to obtain that labor.” (p. 254, Vol. I, Chapter 31).
Listen to Chapter 31 in MP3 audio format: Economics Begins to Dissolve the Theocracy: The Failure of Wage and Price Controls.
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17th century? Try 4th century: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate#Clash_with_Antiochenes
Let’s see who can find the oldest case of price controls failing.
I’m surely no expert, but what about when taxes on wine (‘poundage’) and domestic wool exports were first enforced by the British? That was pretty early on, possibly even the earliest form of the institution of government as we currently know it. There must have been some price controls going on back then too, perhaps shortly after. They created the first monopolies, pretty much kicking off the vile ‘state-capitalism’ we still struggle under today.
Pierre I love that game!
Egyptian corn:
http://mises.org/daily/1962
Funny how it is happenning again today… the pharaohs never learn… or is it the slaves?
Hammurabi’s code was mostly a set of wage and price controls.
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