Posted Thursday, June 14, 2001
Happy Birthday Frederic Bastiat!
2001 is the Year of Bastiat! His 200th anniversary will be celebrated throughout the year by the Cercle Frederic Bastiat, the International Society for Individual Liberty and Libertarians International. The culmination of the festivities will be the July meeting in Dax France. For more info, visit their website. You can also read Sheldon Richman's celebration of Bastiat in our Library of Liberty.
The Frenchman Bastiat (1801-1850) was enormously effective expressing the freedom philosophy in popular
terms. Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek called him "a publicist of genius." Bastiat wrote brilliant essays and satires
showing why protectionism is plunder. His most famous satire is a petition by candlemakers who want the
government to prevent unfair competition from the sun by forcing everybody to block out sunlight.
Bastiat, who became a good friend of the English free traders Richard Cobden and John Bright, launched the
free trade movement in France. The result was the historic 1860 trade liberalization agreement between France and
England, countries which had fought each other for more than two hundred years. This agreement, in turn, led to
trade liberalization with Austria-Hungary, German states, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and
Switzerland.
Bastiat displayed extraordinary insight when he showed why socialism must lead to tyranny. Incredibly, he
began publishing his critiques of socialism before Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had written The
Communist Manifesto (1848).
In his beloved little book The Law (1850) and other writings,
Bastiat exposed the folly of relying on government to solve problems. He wrote, "The state opens a road, builds a
palace, repairs a street, digs a canal; with these projects it gives jobs to certain workers. That is what is seen. But it
deprives certain other laborers of employment. That is what is not seen . . . do millions of francs
descend miraculously on a moonbeam into the coffers of [politicians]? For the process to be complete, does not the
state have to organize the collection of funds as well as their expenditure? Does it not have to get its tax collectors
into the country and its taxpayers to make their contributions?"
Any Idea which Authors Frederic Bastiat liked? Here are a few...
Introduced to the world of economics by Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments), Jean-Baptiste Say, Charles Dunoyer, Charles Comte and Destutt de Tracy -- Bastiat considered them to be among his favorite writers. Bastiat also enjoyed the works of thinkers like John Bright and his long time and close friend Richard Cobden. Benjamin Franklin, for the man he was, also earned Bastiat's admiration.
Bastiat lovers may find texts of their favorite author electronically, in original
French, or in English.
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