Pnewtext-04. qxd

the same time setting up a customs barrier at each end.”
5
And
even though Bastiat’s pen was sharp against the protectionist
and collectivist ideas of his time, William Scott emphasized that
the French liberal’s “attitude was calm and dignified and in spite
of the incisiveness of his criticism he showed appreciation of the
motives of his adversaries. He gave them full credit for a desire
to promote the well-being of society, but wished simply to show
that they were on the wrong path and, if possible, to set them
right.”
6
Those qualities led Joseph A. Schumpeter to call Bastiat
“the most brilliant economic journalist who ever lived.”
7
And
Ludwig von Mises praised him as a “brilliant stylist, so that the
reading of his writings affords a quite genuine pleasure. . . .
[H]is critique of all protectionist and related tendencies is even
today unsurpassed. The protectionists and interventionists have
not been able to advance a single word in pertinent and objec-
tive rejoinder.”
8
Other authors have modeled some of their own works after
him. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the French free-
market economist Yves Guyot said that his own little book,
Economic Prejudices, was offered in the footsteps of Frederic
Bastiat, with the purpose of “[setting] forth truths in a handy,
convenient form that is easy to remember, to criticize errors by
means of proof that any one can apply,” as Bastiat had done half
a century earlier.
9
And surely the most famous and influential
adaptation of Bastiat’s method and approach in the twentieth
century was Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, in which
the author said, “The present work may, in fact, be regarded as
xi
pfront-04.qxd  6/8/2004  2:17 PM  Page xi

---

a modernization, extension and generalization of the approach
found in Bastiat’s pamphlet,” known by the title “What Is Seen
and What Is Not Seen.”
10
* * *
Claude Frederic Bastiat was born on June 30, 1801, in
Bayonne, France, the son of a prominent merchant.
11
His moth-
er died when he was seven years old, and his father passed away
two years later, when Frederic was only nine. He was brought
up by an aunt, who also saw to it that he went to the College of
Sorèze beginning when he was 14. But at 17 he left without fin-
ishing the requirements for his degree and entered his uncle’s
commercial firm in Bayonne. Shortly afterward he came across
the writings of the French classical-liberal economist Jean-
Baptiste Say, and they transformed his life and thinking.
12
He
began a serious study of political economy and soon discovered
the works of many of the other classical-liberal writers in France
and Great Britain.
In 1825 he inherited a modest estate in Mugron from his
grandfather and remained there until 1846, when he moved to
Paris. During these 20 years Bastiat devoted almost all his time
to absorbing a vast amount of literature on a wide variety of sub-
jects, sharing books and ideas with his friend Félix Coudroy. It
seems that Coudroy had socialist leanings, and Bastiat began to
refine his skills in clear thinking and writing by formulating the
arguments that finally won over his friend to a philosophy of
freedom.
xii
pfront-04.qxd  6/8/2004  2:17 PM  Page xii

---

In the late 1820s and 1830s he began writing monographs
and essays on a variety of economic topics. But his real reputation
as a writer began in 1844, when he published a lengthy article in
defense of free trade and then a monograph on Cobden and the
League: The English Movement for Free Trade. While writing
these works Bastiat began a correspondence with Richard
Cobden, one of the primary leaders of the British Anti-Corn Law
League, the association working for the repeal of all barriers to
free trade. The two proponents of economic freedom became fast
friends, supporting each other in the cause of liberty.
The success of these writings, and the inspiration from the
success of Cobden’s free-trade activities in bringing about the
end of agricultural protectionism in Great Britain in 1846, result-
ed in Bastiat’s moving to Paris to establish a French free-trade
association and to start Le Libre Échange, a newspaper devoted
to this cause.
13
For two years Bastiat labored to organize and pro-
pagandize for free trade. At first he was able to attract a variety of
people in commerce and industry to support his activities, includ-
ing delivering speeches, designing legislation for the repeal of
French protectionism, and preparing writings to change public
opinion. But it was to no avail. There were too many special inter-
ests benefiting from privileges and favors given by the govern-
ment, and he was unable to arouse a sustained interest in his
cause among the general public. It appeared that Adam Smith
had been right in lamenting the prejudices of the public and the
power of the interests, at least in France. 
Following the revolution of February 1848, Bastiat began a
career in politics, serving first in the French Constituent
xiii
pfront-04.qxd  6/8/2004  2:17 PM  Page xiii

---

Assembly and then in the Legislative Assembly. Having devoted
most of his previous writings to demonstrating the fallacies in
the arguments for protectionism, Bastiat turned his attention to
a new enemy of economic liberty: socialism. In the Legislative
Assembly he delivered powerful speeches against public-works
programs, guaranteed national-employment schemes, wealth-
redistribution proposals, nationalization of industry, and ratio-
nales for the expansion of bureaucratic controls over social and
economic life. But because of a worsening tuberculosis that
weakened his voice, he turned to the written word, producing a
large number of essays detailing the absurdities in the argu-
ments of the socialists.
Bastiat made his last appearance in the Assembly in
February 1850. By spring of that year his health had declined so
dramatically that he was forced to step down from his legislative
responsibilities and spend the summer in the Pyrénées moun-
tains in the south of France. He returned to Paris in September
and visited his friends in the cause for free trade, before setting
out for Italy in search of a cure for his tuberculosis. He died in
Rome on December 24, 1850, at the age of 49.
Frederic Bastiat’s intellectual legacy in the fight for eco-
nomic freedom is contained in three volumes. Two of them are
collections of some of his most biting, witty, and insightful essays
and articles, and are available in English under the titles
Economic Sophisms
14 
and  Selected Essays on Political
Economy.
15
In his last years, Bastiat devoted part of his time to
a general work of social philosophy and economic principles,
published under the name Economic Harmonies.
16
xiv
pfront-04.qxd  6/8/2004  2:17 PM  Page xiv

---