Economic Calculation

We’re ready to start talking about economic calculation. Economic calculation is, if you will, the center around which Mises constructs his theory of social cooperation. The term “calculation” derives from the Latin calx, calcis, and the limestone pebbles that were used in abacuses were called calculi. Calculation … to calculate. How is it possible (and this is the key question the analysis of economic calculation must answer) … how is it possible that if all action and exchanges in society spring from subjective valuations and comparisons that cannot be measured, as we have seen, that in the market, constantly, every day, at every moment, at this very instant, human beings, economic agents, are nevertheless making numerical calculations to carry out and direct their actions?