The Hidden Economics of Food - Part 14: The Vitamin Illusion

Why British Sailors Were Called “Limeys”

In the age of sail, scurvy was a nightmare. On long voyages, sailors would develop bleeding gums, loose teeth, reopened wounds, and eventually die.

Scurvy killed more sailors than all other causes combined—more than storms, more than combat, more than accidents.

The cause (vitamin C deficiency) wasn’t understood until the 20th century. But a cure was known long before: citrus fruit. James Lind demonstrated this in 1747 through one of the first clinical trials in history.

Yet despite this knowledge, scurvy continued killing sailors for another 50 years.

Finally, in 1795, the British Navy mandated lime juice rations for all sailors. Scurvy virtually disappeared from the fleet. British sailors became “Limeys.”

Why Markets Didn’t Solve It

This is a puzzle for free-market enthusiasts. If citrus cured scurvy, and scurvy was killing sailors, why didn’t the market provide citrus?

The Information Problem

Sailors didn’t understand vitamin C. They knew citrus helped, sometimes—but the mechanism was unclear, and knowledge was patchy.

Without understanding, demand was uncertain. Sometimes lime juice was provided; often it wasn’t.

The Principal-Agent Problem

Ship captains bore some costs of scurvy (sick crews) but not all costs (dead sailors were replaceable). Their incentives were misaligned with sailors’ interests.

The Public Goods Problem

Knowledge about scurvy prevention was a public good—once discovered, everyone could use it. This reduced incentives for private investment in research.

The Coordination Problem

Even if captains wanted to provide citrus, supply chains weren’t organized to deliver it. Coordination across the fleet required central authority.

What the Government Did

The British Navy solved these problems through state action:

Research

Naval doctors investigated scurvy. They conducted experiments, compiled observations, and tested treatments. This wasn’t profitable—it was a public investment.

Mandates

The Navy didn’t suggest lime juice. It mandated it. Every ship was required to carry and distribute citrus rations.

Supply Chains

The Navy organized supply—contracting with lime producers, establishing distribution systems, ensuring quality.

Enforcement

Requirements without enforcement are wishes. The Navy enforced lime rations through inspections and discipline.

Scaling

Once the system worked, it scaled across the entire fleet. This coordination was only possible through centralized authority.

The General Pattern

Lime mandates illustrate a broader pattern: government creates knowledge and systems that markets won’t produce.

Basic Research

Private companies underinvest in basic research because:

• Returns are uncertain

• Results are hard to appropriate

• Timelines are long

Government fills this gap:

• NIH funds biomedical research

• DARPA created the internet

• NASA developed satellite technology

• National labs produced nuclear and renewable energy research

Every major technology has government research in its family tree.

Public Health

Private markets struggle with public health:

• Disease prevention benefits everyone (public good)

• Individual prevention decisions affect others (externalities)

• Information is complex and uncertain

Government provides:

• Vaccination programs

• Water treatment

• Food safety regulation

• Disease surveillance

The spectacular improvements in human lifespan over the past century owe more to public health than to medical treatment—and public health is overwhelmingly government-provided.

Standards and Coordination

Markets need standards:

• Electrical specifications so devices work together

• Food safety standards so consumers trust products

• Quality certifications so buyers know what they’re getting

Creating standards is a coordination problem. Government—or government-backed bodies—typically solve it.

Infrastructure

Roads, ports, power grids, communications networks—these are classic public goods. Private provision is possible but often inefficient (competing rail gauges, patchy networks).

Government infrastructure investment enabled the modern economy.

The Anti-Government Narrative

Despite this history, anti-government ideology dominates:

• Government is “inherently inefficient”

• Bureaucracy can’t innovate

• The private sector is dynamic; the public sector is stagnant

This narrative serves interests:

• It justifies tax cuts that benefit the wealthy

• It supports privatization that creates profits

• It discredits regulation that constrains business

But it doesn’t match history or evidence.

Government Successes We Forget

The Moon Landing

Apollo was a massive government project—coordinated by NASA, funded by taxes, employing hundreds of thousands. Private enterprise couldn’t have done it.

The Internet

ARPANET was a DARPA project. The World Wide Web was created at CERN (a public research institution). Email, browsers, and protocols were developed in public or academic settings.

Private companies commercialized the internet. They didn’t create it.

Vaccines

mRNA vaccine technology came from publicly funded research over decades. Moderna and Pfizer developed products quickly—but on foundations laid by government.

GPS

The Global Positioning System is a government project—funded, launched, and maintained by the US military. Every navigation app, ride-share service, and delivery optimization depends on it.

Agricultural Research

The Green Revolution—which prevented famines and feeds billions—came from public agricultural research. Land-grant universities, CGIAR research centers, and government extension services developed and distributed improved crops.

State Capacity Matters

The lime story required state capacity:

• Effective bureaucracy to administer mandates

• Scientific institutions to develop knowledge

• Supply chains to deliver products

• Enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance

Weak states can’t do this. That’s why public health varies so much across countries—not because some people don’t want health, but because some governments can’t deliver it.

Building state capacity is a development priority. Markets work better when states work well.

The Boring Heroism

Lime mandates weren’t dramatic. There was no entrepreneurial genius, no celebrated inventor, no Elon Musk of citrus.

There was just:

• Bureaucrats analyzing data

• Officers implementing protocols

• Sailors drinking lime juice

• Deaths not happening

This is how most public goods are provided—through unglamorous, systematic, institutional work.

It’s not a story we celebrate. We prefer heroic individuals to competent systems. But competent systems save more lives.

The Entrepreneur Myth Revisited

The dominant narrative celebrates private innovation:

• Steve Jobs invented the smartphone

• Elon Musk is revolutionizing transportation

• Jeff Bezos built modern retail

These are real achievements. But they rest on:

• Government-funded research (touchscreens, batteries, GPS, internet)

• Government-built infrastructure (roads, airports, spectrum allocation)

• Government-educated workers (public schools and universities)

• Government-enforced property rights

The entrepreneur stands on public shoulders. Pretending otherwise isn’t just historically wrong—it justifies policies (tax cuts, deregulation) that undermine the public foundations of private success.

What Limes Teach

The British Navy’s lime mandate is a small example with large implications:

• Some problems require collective action

• Markets don’t automatically solve public good problems

• Government can be effective when it has capacity and mandate

• The boring bureaucratic work of implementation matters

“Limey” was meant as an insult. But it describes one of history’s great public health victories—achieved not through market forces, but through state action.

Every time we dismiss government as inherently incompetent, we forget the limes.