The existence of modern political-economy dates from precisely those

reforms institutionalized by the Fifteenth-Century Renaissance, and

brought to a concrete form of realization under Louis XI and Henry

VI. The modern state begins when that state ceases to tolerate the

degradation of large sections of the population to the status of human

cattle, such as slaves or serfs. It is the perfectly sovereign state's

assumption of inalienable responsibility for the general welfare of all

the living population and its posterity, which creates the indispensable

natural-law basis for sovereign nation-states and for all doctrine of

political-economy. Unless the government assumes its accountability

for the maintenance and improvement of the general welfare of all its

people and their posterity, that government is not acting as a legitimate

nation-state under moral, e.g., natural law.