The Law Merchant system of judges and reputations was eventually replaced by a system of state enforcement, typically in the late middle ages or the early modern era in Western Europe. Enforcement of the private codes by the state added a new dimension to enforcement, especially in later periods when nationstates exercised extensive geographic control. Rather than depend for punishment upon the decentralized behavior of merchants, state enforcement could seize the property of individuals who resisted paying judgments, or put them into jail.

XREF: Relates to North's work on institutions and the shift from private-order to public-order enforcement. Builds on: "Medieval merchant institutions scaffolded reputation mechanisms for distant trade."

PAUL R. MILGRO, PAUL R. MILGRO - THE ROLE O…, loc. 173