Mises was more explicit about the brutal state violence necessary to uphold 'peaceful' commerce. He justified the wars waged by England to expand her empire by arguing that, had India and China not been forcefully opened to trade, not only 'each Chinese and each Hindu, but also each European and each American would be considerably worse off'. Depicting the extension of the international division of labour as being in the interests of all of humanity, he argued that developed nations could not remain indifferent to those who wished to maintain their independence at a lower level of civilisation. Mises developed a 'just war' argument for postcolonial times: any country that deprived others of access to its natural resources did an injury to all of humanity, he argued, and could legitimately be compelled to trade.

Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, loc. 261