Bastiat's The Law: His Person, His Liberty, and His Property

By Claude Frédéric Bastiat

Discover the timeless manifesto that ignited a revolution in economic thought.

Frederic Bastiat masterfully argues for the preservation of individual liberty and the limitation of government intervention. With piercing clarity, he exposes the inherent dangers of using law as a tool for plunder and coercion, urging readers to champion the principles of justice, freedom, and the rule of law.

Bastiat's significance in the realm of economics lies in his unparalleled ability to distill complex economic concepts into clear, accessible prose. A seminal work that remains as relevant today as it was in Bastiat's time, The Law is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the foundations of a just society and the perils of unchecked government power.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read & Co. Books
• Release date: Apr 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9781528799249

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BASTIAT'S THE LAW

His Person, His Liberty, and His Property

by

CLAUDE FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT

First published in 1850

Published by Read & Co. Books,

an imprint of Read & Co.

This edition published by Read & Co. in 2024.

Extra material © 2024 Read & Co. Books.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher in writing.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 9781528799249

Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.

For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk

Contents

Claude Frédéric Bastiat

The Law

Claude Frédéric Bastiat

Claude Frédéric Bastiat was born on 30 June 1801, and is best known as a political economist and member of the French assembly. He developed the important economic concept of ‘opportunity cost’, a key concept in microeconomic theory which enumerates the cost of a choice, utilising the value of the best foregone alternative. Bastiat also wrote the influential Parable of the Broken Window, which appeared in his 1850 essay Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas (That Which is Seen and That Which is Unseen). This parable essentially demonstrated why destruction, and the money spent to recover from destruction, is actually not a net-benefit to society.

Bastiat was born in Bayonne, Aquitaine; a port town in the South of France, but moved with his father to the town of Mugron in 1808. Sadly, Bastiat’s mother died in 1808, and his father in 1810, leaving the care of the young boy in the hands of his paternal grandfather and his maiden aunt, Justine Bastiat. After attending schools in Bayonne and Saint-Sever, Bastiat took up employment in his uncle’s export business; the same firm where his father had been a partner. This experience was crucial to the young man’s thinking, as it allowed him to gain first-hand knowledge of how regulation could affect markets. Bastiat craved a more intellectual lifestyle however, and when his grandfather died, leaving him the family estate in Mugron, he utilised the money to pursue his wide-ranging interests in philosophy, history, politics, religion, poetry and political economy. Soon after this time, Bastiat became politically active and was elected justice of the peace of Mugron in 1831, and to the Council General (county level assembly) in 1832. His political successes continued, and after the French Revolution of 1848, Bastiat was elected to the national legislative assembly. It was only in 1844 that Bastiat started his career as an economist though; his first article was published in the Journal des Economistes in October of that year. His works were famed for their clear organisation, forceful argumentation and acerbic wit, and Bastiat has been described by the economist Murray Rothbard as ‘a lucid and superb writer, whose brilliant and witty essays and fables to this day are remarkable and devastating demolitions of protectionism and of all forms of government subsidy and control.’

One of Bastiat’s best known works is Economic Sophisms (1845-48), which most notably contains the Candle Maker’s Petition; a parable in which French candle makers lobby the Chamber of Deputies to block out the sun—to prevent its unfair competition with their products. However, Bastiat’s most influential publication was The Law (1850), a pamphlet which defined a just system of laws, and subsequently demonstrated how such laws would facilitate a free society. This was followed by his 1850 essay, What is Seen and What is Unseen, containing the aforementioned Parable of the Broken Window.

Bastiat also engaged in a widely publicised debate with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, which took place between 1849 and 1850, about the legitimacy of interest. The great French thinker famously lost his temper with Bastiat, declaring; ‘you are without philosophy, without science, without humanity . . . Your ability to reason, like your ability to pay attention and make comparisons is zero . . . Scientifically, Mr. Bastiat, you are a dead man!’ Unfortunately, Proudhon’s words became a literal reality, and on the 24 December 1850, Bastiat’s economic career was cut short by his untimely death. He had contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Italy in the autumn of 1850, and it was here, in Rome, that Bastiat died. He is buried at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in the centre of the city.

This essay was first published as a pamphlet in 1850.

This edition was published in Essays on Political Economy, 1873.

The Law

The law perverted! The law—and, in its wake, all the collective forces of the nation—the law, I say, not only diverted from its proper direction, but made to pursue one entirely contrary! The law become the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of being its check! The law guilty of that very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! Truly, this is a serious fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to call the attention of my fellow-citizens.