Profile Major Works Resources

Frédéric Bastiat, 1801-1850

Portrait of C.F. Bastiat.

French liberal journalist, economist and wit. 


Claude Frédéric Bastiat originated from Bayonne, in the Pyrenées region of southern France, the son of local merchant. Frédéric was orphaned at 1810 and raised under the guardianship of an aunt. In 1818, Bastiat left school without completing his formal education and went to work for his uncle in Bayonne. He got interested in the issue of trade in relation to the business, and at some early point, Bastiat read the works of Jean-Baptiste Say and Adam Smith. In 1825, Bastiat inherited a landed estate in nearby Mugron from his grandfather. Although not finding much success as a farmer, Bastiat was an enthusiast for new agricultural technology. Bastiat struck up a critical friendship with a neighboring farmer, Felix Coudroy, of socialist inclinations, who would become Bastiat's debating partner and study companion in political economy for the next two decades. In 1831, Bastiat married Marie Hiard, but apparently the marriage was not a success and the two became estranged shortly after.

After the July Revolution of 1830, Bastiat put his toe into politics.  He became a justice of the peace (juge de paix) in the district of Mugron in 1831 and was elected member of the local council, the Conseil général des Landes, in 1832. But his attempts to get elected to the national Council of Deputies did not succeed.

Bastiat's first writings were a series of pamphlets (one in 1834, three more in the early 1840s), mainly pertinent to taxes and the local economy  - notably the wine trade.  In the early 1840s, Bastiat became a subscriber to the English paper, The Globe & Traveller, through which he became acquainted with the Anti-Corn Law League, the vigorous British free trade movement of Richard Cobden and John Bright

In 1844, Bastiat submitted his first article to the Journal des economistes, the major French economics journal of the day, which drew considerable attention.  Encouraged, Bastiat took to writing a book on Cobden and the British free trade movement, as well as more articles for the Journal, including the series "Sophismes économiques" in 1845, which contained the famous "Petition of the Candlemakers" and numerous other satirical pieces that have since become classics of economic commentary.   The toast of the free trade economists, Bastiat visited Paris in May, 1845 and proceeded to London and Manchester in July 1845, returning to Mugron in October.

Frédéric Bastiat moved to Paris permanently in 1846.  Later that year, Bastiat and other members of the Société d'économie politique, founded the Paris branch of the French free trade association (Association pour la Liberté des Échanges, orig. est. in Bordeaux in February 1846), serving as its general secretary and editor of its journal, Libre Échange.  Through his writings and activities, Bastiat agitated against the protectionist tendencies of the Orleanist July Monarchy and in particular Adolphe Thiers.  The "people's revolution" of February 1848 prompted a change of direction.  Bastiat launched a new paper, the République française, and put out of series of pamphlets directed against the socialists.  Significant among them was Bastiat's Capital et Rente (1849) ruminating over the nature of capital and interest, which had been assailed by socialists. It provoked  a literary duel with Michel Proudhon in the pages of the Voix du Peuple.

In August 1848, Frédéric Bastiat  was elected to the French constituent assembly for the department of Landes, and was selected for the finance committee.  Although the weakness of his voice did not let him stand out as an orator, Bastiat was nonetheless returned the next year for the legislative assembly,  Moreover, ill health (tuberclosis) soon began to plague Bastiat, and he gave up more active editing duties.  Following up on a few articles, in 1850, with some difficulty, Bastiat put out the first volume of his Economic Harmonies, articulating an optimistic laissez-faire position and repudiating the concept of class conflict. It contained Bastiat's rejection of Malthus's population doctrine and the more ambitious goal of displacing the classical Ricardian labor theory of value with an exchange (or "service") theory of value.  Bastiat may be regarded as a proto-marginalist in line with the catllacticists of the Oxford-Dublin school.  Bastiat's theory in the Harmonies was lauded by H.D. Macleod as coincident with his own, and Arthur L. Perry would credit Bastiat as the primary source for his own catallactic theory.  But Bastiat's theoretical work was not well-received by others, and he was severely criticized by, among others, CournotLassalle, Cairnes, Marshall and Bohm-Bawerk.

Exhausted and ill after its completion, Bastiat went to Italy in the late summer of 1850 to recuperate his health, but died in Rome on December 24, 1850.

 

  


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Major Works of Frederic Bastiat

  • Aux electeurs du departement des Landes, 1830. [1855 OC, v.1 p.217]
  • Réflexion sur le pétitions de Bordeaux, Le Havre et Lyon, concernant les douanes, 1834 [1855 OC, v.1 p.231]
  • Le Fisc et la Vigne, 1841 [1855 OC, v.1 p.243]
  • Mémoire sur la question vinicole, 1843 [1855 OC, v.1 p.261]
  • Mémoire sur la répartition de l'impôt foncier dans le département des Landes, 1844 [1855 OC, v.1 p.283]
  • "De l'influence des tarifs français et anglais sur l'avenir des deux peoples", 1844, Journal des économistes (Oct), p.244
  • "Un économiste à M. de Lamartine, à l'occasion de son écrit intitulé: 'Du droit de travail', 1845, JdE, (v.10, Feb), p.209
  • Cobden et la Ligue, ou L'agitation anglaise pour la liberté du commerce, 1845 (Apr) [bk]
  • "Sophismes économiques", 1845, Journal des économistes, Pt. 1 (v.11, Apr, p.1), Pt. 2 (Jul, p.345), Pt. 3 (v.12, Oct, p.201, incl. "Petition", p.204, ).
  • "Situation économique de la Grande-Bretagne", 1845, JdE (v.12, Jun)  p.233
  • "De l'avenir du comerce de vins entre la France et la Grande Bretagne", 1845, JdE (v.12, Aug), p.72
  • "Sur les questions soumises aux conseils généraux de l'agricultures, des manufactures et du commerce", 1845, JdE (v.13,  Dec), p.4 (intro by Joseph Garnier,  reply to questions on iron tariffs by Bastiat, p.16)
  • Sophismes Économiques, 1846.[bk]
    • Reprint of 1845 JdE articles, plus some, incl.
    • French editions: original [bk] [1847 2nd ed; 1851 4th ed
    • English translations: 1846 (Porter) trans. as Popular Fallacies regarding general interests, [bk], 1848 (McCord) tans. as Sophisms of Protective Policy, [bk] other trans. Economic Sophisms,   lib]
    • Later English translation Sophisms of the Protectionists, by the late Frederic Bastiat,  by Horace White,1870 [bk, av] [1888 ed, bk, av]
    • "Art VII - Pétition des fabricants de chandelles, bougies, lampes, chandeliers, réverbères, mouchettes, éteignoirs et des producteurs de suif, huile, résine, alcool, et généralement de tout ce qui concerne l'éclairage, a MM. les memebres de la Chambre des députés", 1845, JdE (Oct), p.204, [repr. 1846 Sophismes p.72  [bst] [English trans:  "Petition of the Candlemakers", Porter, p.79; McCord, p.88bst, mis, audio at mis]
    • [English audio of "Sophisms of the Protectionists"
  • "Correspondance: La ligue anglaise et la ligue allemande: réponse", 1846, JdE (v.13, , Jan) p.83
  • "Le vol à la prime", 1846, JdE (v.13, Jan), p.115
  • "Considérations sur le métayage", 1846, JdE (v. 13, Feb), p.225
  • "La tribune et la presse, à propos du traité belge", 1846, JdE (v.14, , Apr), p.1
  • "De la concurrence", 1846, JdE (v.14,  May), p.106
  • "Le sel, le poste, la douane", 1846, JdE (v.14, May), p.142
  • "Review of De la répartition des richesses par M. Vidal", 1846, JdE (v.14, Jun), p.243
  • "A MM. les électeurs de l'arrondissement de Saint Sever", 1846 (Jul) [1855 OC, v.1, p.461]
  • "De la réforme parlemantaire: lettre à M. Larnac, député des Landes", 1846 [1855 OC, v.1, p.480]
  • "Toast de Bastiat, banquet offert à M. Cobden",  1846 JdE (v.15, Aug), p.97
  • "De la population", 1846 JdE (v.15, Sep), p.217
  • "Á M. de Lamartine (à propos de subsistances)", 1846 JdE (v.15, Oct), p.265
  • "Discours à la reunion publique de l'Association pour la Liberté des Échanges,  1846 JdE (v.15, Oct), p.288
  • "De l'influence du régime protecteur sur la situation de l'agriculture en France", 1846, JdE (v.16, Dec) p.6
  • "Organisation et liberté", 1847, JdE, (v.16, Jan) p.106
  • "L'Angleterre et le libre-échange", 1847, Libre Échange (Feb 6) [1855 OC, v.2, p.177]
  • "La guerre aux chaires d'économie politique", 1847,  Libre Échange, (13 Jun) [1854 OC, v.5, p16], [English trans. "Declaration of War against the Professors of Political Economy", lib]
  • "Sur l'éloge de M. Charles Comte par M. Mignet", 1847, Libre Echange (Jul 11) [1855 OC v.1, p.434]
  • "Correspondance: les trois chefs d'accusation du journal l'Atelier", 1847, JdE (v.18, Aug) p.68
  • "L'abstraction: l'économie politique d'accord avec le sentiment, a quoi resemble le système protecteur, fécondité de la réforme", 1847, JdE (v.18, Sep), p.163 (abstract of speeches at Association meetings in Marseilles).
  • "Organisation naturelle, organisation artifielle", 1848, JdE (v.19, Jan), p.113.
  • "Account of speech by Bastiat, 1848, JdE, (v.19, Jan) p.214
  • "Pétition d'un économiste", 1848, République française, (Mar 2) [OC v.7, p.227]
  • "Funestes illusions. Les citoyens font vivre l'État - l'État ne peut faire vivre les citoyens", 1848, JdE (v.19, Mar), p.323.
  • "Propriété et loi", 1848, JdE,  (v.20 May 15), p.177 [English trans. "Property and Law", lib]
  • "Justice et fraternité", 1848, JdeE,  (v.20, Jun 15), p.310  [English trans. "Justice and Fraternity, lib]
  • "Propriété et Spoliation", 1848, J des debats (Jul) [offpr Propriété et Spoliation, 1850 [bk]]  [English trans: "Property and Plunder", lib]
  • "Harmonies économiques", 1848, JdE  Pt.1 (v.21 Sep 1, p.105), Pt.2 (v.22, Dec 15, p.1)
  • Propriété et loi - Justice et fraternité, 1848 [bk] [1850 ed]
  • "L'État", 1848, J des debats (Sep 25) [English trans. "The State", lib]
  • Protectionisme et Communisme, 1849 (Jan) [bk] [English trans: "Protectionism and Communism", lib]
  • Capital et Rente, 1849 (Feb) [bk] [1851 ed]
  • Incompatibilités parlementaires, 1849 [bk]
  • Paix et Liberté, ou le budget républicain, 1849 [bk]
  • "Maudit argent!", 1849, JdE (v.23, Apr 15), p.1
  • L'État - Maudit Argent!, 1849 [bk]
  • Intérêt et principal: discussion entre M. Proudhon et M. Bastiat sur l'intérêt des capitaux, 1850 [bk]
  • Gratuité du crédit, discussion entre M. F. Bastiat et M. Poudhon, 1850 [bk] (letters in Voix, Oct, 1849-Mar 1850)
  • "Discours sur la répression des coalitions industrielles", Nov 17, 1849 [1854 OC v.5, p.494. ["Speech on the Suppression of Industrial Combinations", lib]
  • "Discours sur l'impôt des boissons", Dec 12, 1849 [1854, OC v.5, p.468]
  • "Balance du Commerce", Mar 29, 1850  [repr. in 1851 Mélanges v.2, p.242], [English trans: "The Balance of Trade", lib]
  • "Aux démocrates", 1850 (Apr 2) [repr. in 1851 Mélanges v.2, p.219][English trans: "To the Democrats: Reflections on the Amendment of M. Mortimer-Ternaux", lib]
  • Harmonies Économiques, 1850.
    • French editions: 1850 original ed.[bk] [1851 2nd ed] [bst]
    • English trans. Economic harmonies [lib]
  • "Nouvelle politique coloniale de l'Angleterre: plan de Lord John Russell", 1850, JdE (v.26, Apr 15), p.8
  • "A MM. les protectionnistes du Conseil général des manufactures", 1850 ,JdE (May 15), p.160 [repr. as Spoliation et Loi, 1850 [bk]] [English trans: "Plunder and the Law", lib]
  • Baccalauréat et Socialisme, 1850 [bk] [English trans. "Academic degrees and socialism", lib]
  • La Loi, 1850 [bk] [English trans. The Law, lib, jim, mis]
  • Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas: ou l'économie politique en une leçon, 1850 (Jul) [bk] [OC, v.5, p.336][English trans. ""That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen", lib, jim, mis, audio at mis]
  • "Abondance", 1850 (unpub) [ in C. Coquelin and G.U. Guillaumin, editors, 1852, Dictionnaire de l'économie politique, v.1: p.2], [1854 OC v.5, p.393]
  • "Les Harmonies économiques: lettre de M. Carey, réponse de MM. Bastiat et A. Clément", 1851, JdE (Jan 15), p.38
  • "Producteur-Consommateur" 1851, JdE (v.29, Jun), p.97
  • "Lettre de Bastiat sur la question de rente du sol, 6 Dec 1850", 1851, JdE  (v.30, Nov)  p.288
  • Mélanges d'économie politique, 1851, v.1 (Soph, Cap & Rent, Grat d Credit), v.2
  • Ouevres complètes de Frédéric Bastiat, 1854-55
    • v.1 (ct) (1855) - Melanges, correspondence
    • v.2 (ct) (1855) - articles in Le Libre-Échange (May 1846-Mar 1848)
    • v.3 (ct) (1854) - Cobden et la ligue
    • v.4 (ct) (1854) Sophismes, pamphlets I
    • v.5 (ct) (1854) pamphlets II
    • v.6 (ct) (1854), Harmonies (3rd ed)
    • v.7 (ct) (1864) essais, ebouches, corresponances
    • [1881 3rd ed. v.1,
  • Selected Essays on Political Economy,  [lib] [English audio of "Essays on Political Economy"]
  • The Bastiat Collection, 2011 [mis]

HET

 

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Resources on Frederic Bastiat

Contemporary

  • "Notice of Bastiat's Cobden et la ligue", 1845, JdE (Jul), p.446
  • "Rapport de M. Dunoyer sur un ouvrage ayant pour titre Cobden et la ligue par M. Bastiat", by Charles Dunoyer, 1845, Séances et travaux de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques, p.159
  • "De l'agitation anglaise sur la liberté de l'échange" (incl. review of Bastiat's Cobden et la Ligue), by Charles Duonyer, 1845, JdE (v.12, Aug) , p.1
  • "Association pour la Liberté des Échanges, premières manifestations a Bordeaux", 1846, JdE (v.13, May) p.405
  • "Chronique: Bastiat's observation on French ministers", 1849, JdE (v.22, Mar), p.445
  • "Petit pamphlets de Frédéric Bastiat"  by Fonteyraud, 1849, JdE (v.23, May), p.203
  • "Lettre sur le prêt a intérêt" by Gustave de Molinari, 1849, JdE (v.23, Jun), p.231 (on Bastiat's theory of capital and interest)
  • "Trois Meetings des Amis de la Paix, a Londres, Birmingham et Manchester", 1849, JdE (Nov, v.24), p.426 (Bastiat's trip to England)
  • "Chronique: comments on Bastiat's theories and the tax on drinks" 1849, JdE  (v.25, Dec), p.110
  • "Chronique: Bastiat's opinion on the role of the State", 1850, JdE (v.25, Jan), p.204
  • "Chronique: Bastiat's opinion on credit foncier", 1850, JdE (v.26, Apr), p.99
  • "Compte Rendu: Harmonies économique par M. F. Bastiat", by M.A. Clémént, 1850, JdE, (v.26, Jun 15) p.235
  • Chronique: Bastiat's departure for Pisa" 1850, JdE,  (v.27, Sep), p.197
  • "Nouveaux pamphlets de M. Frédéric Bastiat", by M.A. Clémént,1850, JdE, (v.27, Oct) p.289
  • "Chronique: Rumors of death", 1850, JdE, (v.27, Oct) p.304
  • "Chronique: Mort de F. Bastiat", 1851, JdE (v.28, Jan) p.104
  • "Frédéric Bastiat",  by Gustave de Molinari, 1851, JdE (v.28, Feb)  p.180
  • "Chronique: Ferrara on Bastiat", 1851, JdE, p.336
  • "Observations de de M. H.C. Carey sur la dernère note de Frédéric Bastiat", 1851, JdE (v.29, May), p.43
  • "Correspondance: Au sujet des réclamations de M.H. Carey", by M. Paillottet, 1851,  JdE (v.29, Jun),  p.156
  • "Chronique: reception of Bastiat's note on rent", 1851, JdE (v.29, Jun), p.171
  • "La deuxième édition des Harmonies économiques de Frédéric Bastiat" by Joseph Garnier, 1851 JdE (v.29, Aug), p.312
  • "De la théorie de la rente foncière selon Ricardo", by R. de Fontenay, 1851, JdE (v.30) Pt.1 (Oct p.93) Pt.2 (Nov p.206)
  • "Correspondance: Carey reply to Bastiat and Clement", 1851, JdE, (v.30, Oct) p.140
  • Harmonies et perturbations socials, esquisse des oeuvres de F. Bastiat, by Jules Martinelli, 1852 [bk]
  • "Notice sur la vie et les écrits de Frédéric Bastiat" by Roger de Fontenay, 1862, Oeuvres completes [bst]
  • "Frédéric Bastiat" by Louis Reybaud, 1862, Économistes Modernes, p.108
  • "Bastiat, Frédéric", in Henry Dunning Macleod, 1863, Dictionary of Political Economy, v.1.
  • "Bastiat",  J.E. Cairnes, 1870, Fortnightly Review, p.411
  • "Bastiat, Frédéric" in C. Coquelin and G.U. Guillaumin, editors, 1852, Dictionnaire de l'économie politique [1864 ed.]
  • "Bastiat, Frédéric" in L. Say and J. Chailley-Bert, editors, 1892, Nouveau Dictionnaire de l'économie politique
  • "Bastiat, Frédéric" in R.H. Inglis Palgrave, editor, 1894-1899, Dictionary of Political Economy [1918 ed.]
  • "Bastiat, Frédéric"  in J. Conrad et al, (1891-94) Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften [2nd ed, 1898-1901]
  • "Bastiat, Frédéric" in 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  • Kapital und Zins: Die Polemik zwischen Bastiat und Proudhon, by Arthur Mühlberger, 1896 [bk] (letter exchange with Proudhon, German trans.)

Modern

  • Frédéric Bastiat website (Bastiat.org) by François-René Rideau.
  • Bastiat website by Subir Grewal
  • "Introduction to Bastiat's Economic Sophisms" by Arthur Goddard and Henry Hazlitt [lib]
  • Frédéric Bastiat: An Annotated Bibliography by Sheldon Richman at EconLib, Liberty Fund) [lib]
  • "Preface to Essays of Bastiat" by George B. de Huszar (at EconLib) [Lib]
  • "Introduction to Selected Essays of Bastiat" by Friedrich A. Hayek [lib]
  • Letters to Bastiat on Principal and Interest by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - Letter 1, Letter 2, Letter 3, Letter 4
  • Frédéric Bastiat profile page at Mises Instititute [mis]
  • The Bastiat Collection, 2011 [mis]
  • Frederic Bastiat: a man alone by G.C. Roche, 1971 [mis]
  • "Frédéric Bastiat: Two Hundred Years On" by Joseph R. Stromberg, 2001 [mis]
  • "Bastiat's legacy in Economics" by Jörg Guido Hülsmann, 2001, QJAE [mis]
  • "Frédéric Bastiat's Views on the Nature of Money" by Mark Thornton, 2002, QJAE [mis]
  • "Biography of Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850): Between the French and Marginalist Revolutions" by Thomas di Lorenzo, 2007 [mis]
  • Bastiat page at McMaster
  • Bastiat page at Acton Institute
  • Bastiat entry at Concise Encycl of Economics, LibertyFund.
  • Wiki
  • Journées illustrées de la Révolution de 1848 [bk]
 
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