Frédéric Bastiat: Liberty, Rights, and The Law

By Tom Malone

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men together in a society, they create for themselves in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it. —Frédéric Bastiat

In the ideological upheaval of 19th-century France, a nation grappling with the disastrous fallout of Napoleon’s wars and economic policies alongside rising socialist and revolutionary fervor, Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) emerged as a beacon of reason. Renowned for his clarity of writing, he explained complex economic ideas to a general audience with incisive logic, sharp wit, and accessible parables. Bastiat championed individual liberty, private property, and free markets while dismantling the fallacies inherent in protectionism, socialism, and rights-violating government intervention in the economy. A merchant, statesman, and economist, Bastiat drew on the ideas of John Locke, Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, and Richard Cobden—ideas he synthesized in many influential articles, essays, and books, including his masterpiece, The Law.

From Mugron to Paris: Bastiat’s Early Life and Intellectual Influences

Born on June 30, 1801, in Bayonne, France, Bastiat faced early tragedy. Orphaned at the age of ten, he was raised by his grandparents in Mugron, a quiet town where agricultural life shaped his perspective by teaching him the values of labor, production, and trade. His education at the Benedictine school in Soreze ended without a degree when he left at seventeen to work for his uncle in the family’s import/export business, likely due to financial pressures and family obligations following his parents’ deaths. In the family business, Bastiat encountered the stifling effects of French trade regulations, a legacy of misguided policies purported to maximize national wealth through state-controlled trade, including high tariffs, export subsidies, and restrictive regulations that favored select industries while raising costs for consumers. This mercantilist system, entrenched in the post-Napoleonic era, disrupted markets and burdened businesses and entrepreneurs.

In 1822, when Bastiat was twenty-one years old, the passage of the Tariff Law had a direct and lasting impact on his life. Although the law ostensibly was intended to protect French manufacturers, particularly in the north, it also harmed agricultural producers and merchants, such as Bastiat. Britain, one of the most important markets for French wine, responded to France’s high tariffs with retaliatory duties of its own, making it far more difficult for vintners to export their goods. Bastiat observed how government intervention, rather than promoting national prosperity, favored one group of producers at the expense of another. He saw the results of these policies firsthand: increased poverty, closed warehouses, and a declining population as people moved elsewhere looking for work. This early personal experience with the destructive consequences of protectionism planted the seeds that would later blossom into his passionate defense of free trade. Although he would not publish his major works until the 1840s, Bastiat never forgot how tariffs crippled the very industry his family depended on—while financially benefiting politically connected manufacturers.

When his grandfather died, Bastiat, then twenty-five, inherited his estate. This allowed him to live the life of a gentleman farmer and pursue extensive self-education, and he immersed himself in classical liberal thought. John Locke’s philosophy of natural rights—life, liberty, and property—laid a foundation for Bastiat’s defense of individual freedom. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations introduced him to the power of free markets, guided by the “invisible hand” (the idea that self-interested actions lead to societal benefits through voluntary exchange). Jean-Baptiste Say’s focus on supply and demand, encapsulated in Say’s Law (that supply creates its own demand through production), shaped his economic reasoning. Richard Cobden’s leadership in Britain’s Anti-Corn Law League inspired Bastiat to challenge protectionist trade barriers. These influences, set against the anti-free-market policies lingering after Napoleon’s reign, fueled his intellectual awakening.

During his thirties, Bastiat remained in Mugron, deepening his study of economics and engaging in local politics. He served as a justice of the peace, gaining insight into legal and administrative systems, which later informed his critique of government overreach. He corresponded with like-minded thinkers such as members of the French Liberal School, a 19th-century movement led by Jean-Baptiste Say. The School championed laissez-faire economics, free trade, and individual liberty while opposing state intervention and socialism. Its dominance in French economic thought and its advocacy through the Journal of Economists influenced global free-market ideas and shaped Bastiat’s intellectual development. His management of the family estate exposed him to the practical challenges of agriculture and trade, reinforcing his belief that mercantilist policies, with their tariffs and subsidies, distort markets and harm people’s lives. These years of study and experience honed his philosophy, preparing him for his public debut.

In 1841, he published an early essay, The Tax and the Vine, critiquing taxation’s burden on agriculture. He wrote that “the tax, like a parasite, saps the strength of the vine, leaving the vintner with neither the means to cultivate nor the hope to prosper.” This essay foreshadowed his critique of the improper use of government force. In 1844, at forty-three, Bastiat gained national attention with his article On the Influence of French and English Tariffs in the Journal of Economists. This article, one of the most persuasive arguments for free trade ever published in France, caught the eye of Paris’s intellectual elite. He wrote: “Tariffs are a barrier to the natural flow of wealth between nations, impoverishing both by the same act; remove them, and you will see France and England flourish together, as brothers, not rivals.” Bastiat’s eloquent call for free trade captivated the journal’s readers and solidified his reputation. This piece greatly impressed Gilbert Guillaumin, publisher of the journal, who encouraged Bastiat to join Paris’s intellectual circles, prompting his move from Mugron to the capital, where he entered a vibrant world of debates over trade, socialism, and governance.

In Paris, Bastiat found his voice as a classical liberal and advocate of free trade. He helped found the French Free Trade Association in 1846 and wrote prolifically, blending scholarly precision with readability. His early essays, marked by humor and clarity, reflected his belief that “the worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.”

Building toward The Law: Bastiat’s Moral and Economic Defense of Free Markets

As a classical liberal, Bastiat championed free markets, limited government, and individual rights, ideas consistent with America’s founding principles. The U.S. Declaration of Independence influenced Bastiat, who spoke fondly of America, saying, “There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of every person’s liberty and property.” At the same time, he also called out two areas wherein the United States failed to live up to its principles: “Slavery is a violation, by law, of liberty. The protective tariff is a violation, by law, of property.” Bastiat defended liberty on moral grounds, viewing it as essential to human dignity and the pursuit of justice. Echoing America’s founders, he argued that individuals possess inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property—a principle derived from Locke’s philosophy. He saw any violation of these rights as a moral outrage, not merely an economic inefficiency. “When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law,” he wrote, emphasizing that liberty is the foundation of a just society.

Bastiat’s critique of statism culminated in his work The Law, but his earlier writing laid the groundwork for it. Bastiat was well aware that political economy had a reputation for being “dry and dull”; his genius lay in making economics intelligible and relatable through clarity, humor, and parables, which helped spread the ideas of more technical and academic writers such as Smith and Say.

In “The Negative Railroad,” from his first book, Economic Sophisms (1845), he mocked the notion that maintaining older, less efficient ways of doing things could somehow enrich society. He imagined shutting down the Paris-Bordeaux railway to force goods to be unloaded and transported by cart, acknowledging that this would create jobs for carters and innkeepers but pointing out that it would cause more problems than it solves. Through satire, he showed that such artificial interruptions would raise costs and reduce trade, harming the economy by diverting resources from productive uses and ultimately reducing people’s opportunities. His focus on the “unseen” consequences promoted critical thinking. Economic Sophisms also includes his famous “Candlemakers’ Petition,” a mock plea for the government to block sunlight to protect candlemakers, exposing the absurdity of protectionist policies, which do real harm to real people.

Bastiat also tackled the mercantilist fear of a negative “balance of trade,” where a nation imports more than it exports, arguing that these so-called deficits are not detrimental but often beneficial. In Economic Sophisms, he debunked the notion that “trade surpluses” are inherently superior, emphasizing that trade’s purpose is to satisfy needs and wants through voluntary exchange. He argued that importing goods enables people in a nation to acquire highly valued items, enhancing prosperity. “What is the good of these laborious calculations of the balance of trade? What matters is not the inflow of money, but the inflow of enjoyments, of satisfactions, of wealth in the true sense of the word,” he wrote. This insight reinforced his broader critique of protectionist policies—policies that harm consumers under the guise of national interest.

In his essay, “National Independence,” Bastiat critiqued the protectionist argument that nations need to be self-sufficient, particularly in wartime. He highlighted the flawed reasoning of those who fear reliance on foreign nations, quoting the concern, “What will we do in case of war if we are subject to England’s discretion with regard to iron and coal?” and the English politicians’ parallel worry, “What would become of Great Britain in time of war if she were dependent on France for her food?” Bastiat counters that trade creates interdependence, not unilateral vulnerability, stating:

We cannot be dependent on foreigners without these foreigners being dependent on us. This is the very essence of society. Breaking off natural relationships does not make us independent, but isolated. . . . we isolate ourselves because of an expectation of war, but the very act of isolating ourselves is the first step to war.

He argues that severing trade to achieve independence leads to isolation, not strength, emphasizing commerce’s role in fostering peace.

Bastiat’s essay “The State” is probably his best-known work aside from The Law. It first appeared in the June 1848 issue of the economic journal Jacque Bonhomme about a week before rioters were shot on the streets of Paris during the June Days Uprising. In 1848, France was engulfed by revolutionary fervor, with the February Revolution toppling the monarchy of King Louis Philippe and sparking the June Days Uprising, events that profoundly shaped Bastiat’s intellectual mission. Driven by economic hardship and political corruption, the February Revolution established the Second French Republic. Universal male suffrage, enacted shortly thereafter, expanded the French electorate from a wealthy elite to all adult males, enabling Bastiat’s election to the National Assembly in April 1848.

There, he challenged socialist policies such as the National Workshops (“make-work” programs for the unemployed), which he critiqued as inefficient and coercive. The violent uprising in June, triggered by the Workshops’ closure, resulted in 1,500 killed and 12,000 arrested. Bastiat’s essay “The State” was an attempt to appeal to the people of France and pull them away from socialist ideas amid the ongoing turmoil. In his essay, Bastiat brilliantly portrayed how socialists had come to view the state—as an all-powerful, godlike deity:

This bountiful and inexhaustible being that calls itself the State, which has bread for every mouth, work for every arm, capital for every enterprise, succor for every misfortune, bandages for every wound, wisdom for every mind, truth for every intelligence, credit for every need—this marvelous and prodigal being, which we are assured is to dry every tear and make an Eden of the earth—is, alas! only a fiction, a dream, a utopia, which exists only in the heated imaginations of those who invoke it.

Bastiat then offers his own characterization of the state—a critique of collectivism that remains timeless: “The state is the great fiction by which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.” He believed that the 1848 revolutions in France and across Europe resulted from destructive economic policies and false expectations that there is “at hand, and outside the French people, a being that is virtuous, enlightened, and rich that can and ought to pour benefits over them.” He contrasted the paternalism of the French with the individualism of Americans, saying, “The Americans had another concept of the relationship between the citizens and the state. . . . They place no expectations on anything other than themselves and their own energy.”

Bastiat was also outspoken in the National Assembly. In a December 1849 speech on the state budget, he urged restraint in public expenditure, warning, “When the state becomes a machine for plunder, it undermines the very justice it is meant to uphold.” He also advocated for free trade as the best path to peace, declaring, “It is impossible not to recognize that the protective system has been the cause of wars.” His speeches, though often eclipsed by such protectionist advocates as socialist Louis Blanc and conservative Adolphe Thiers, showcased his courage in defending unpopular principles.

Tuberculosis, however, was eroding Bastiat’s health. Writing and speaking through pain, he raced against time, heroically producing in the last year of his life many influential works that would shape future economic and political discourse.

Economic Harmonies, the first part of which was published in early 1850 (the book was left unfinished due to his declining health), was intended to be Bastiat’s magnum opus on economic theory. In it, he explored how individual interests align in free markets to create wealth. Inspired by Say’s emphasis on voluntary exchange, the work reflected Bastiat’s optimism about human potential and his belief in spontaneous order, prefiguring Austrian School ideas that emerged later in the 19th century. He wrote, “The solution of the social problem lies in liberty. When each man is free to develop his faculties to their fullest extent, subject only to the condition that he respect the equal rights of others, then harmony is achieved, and the general interest is served by the individual interest.” Economic Harmonies explained:

Let us suppose two men, one of whom has an abundance of wheat, and the other an abundance of wine. The first says to the second: “I have more wheat than I can consume, and I should like some wine.” The second, who is in the same situation with respect to his wine, replies: “I have more wine than I need, and I should like some wheat.” They come to an agreement, and each gives a portion of his surplus to the other. Both are satisfied, and both have gained, because each preferred what he received to what he gave up.

Bastiat went on to explain how the same principle applied to services and labor, and he extended his wheat-wine example to nations, arguing that free trade aligns interests by allowing each to specialize and gain: “When two nations exchange freely, they both prosper.”

In the preface to Economic Harmonies, Bastiat explained why he was so committed to free trade:

I love all forms of freedom; and among these, the one that is the most universally useful to mankind, the one you enjoy at each moment of the day and in all of life’s circumstances, is the freedom to work and to trade. I know that making things one’s own is the fulcrum of society and even of human life.

Economic Harmonies deepened his critique of government intervention, setting the stage for the philosophic clarity of The Law.

Bastiat’s essay “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,” also published in 1850, includes his formulation of the “broken-window fallacy,” which became a cornerstone of economic thought. In the parable, a broken shop window requires repair. Some claim that this stimulates the economy by providing work for glaziers, who spend their earnings elsewhere. Yet the “unseen” cost is the shopkeeper’s lost opportunity to spend that money on other goods or investments, showing no gain but a loss of the window’s value. As he wrote, “There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.” This insight critiques policies prioritizing visible benefits (short-term) over hidden opportunity costs (long-term). Bastiat’s ability to clearly explain complex economic ideas in a way that was easy for noneconomists to understand strengthened his message and helped to establish him as a master communicator.

The Law: A Philosophic Masterpiece

Published in July 1850, The Law is Bastiat’s crowning achievement, a concise treatise that defines the proper role of government and condemns the perversion of that role. Written as tuberculosis consumed him, the work distills his classical liberal vision in just seventy-five pages. Drawing on Locke’s theory of natural rights, Bastiat argues that law exists to protect life, liberty, and property, not to enable the seizure and redistribution of wealth or state control over individuals and businesses. “The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces,” he wrote. He further clarifies this with a simple question: “Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?”

His concept of “legal plunder”—when the law takes from some for the supposed benefit of others—is a searing critique of socialist policies that were gaining traction in the 1840s: “When a portion of wealth is transferred from the person who owns it—without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud—to anyone who does not own it, then I say that property is violated; that an act of plunder is committed.”

Bastiat emphasized the difference between services provided by private enterprise and those offered by the state. He believed that services such as education, charity, or infrastructure could be provided morally and more efficiently through voluntary, market-driven efforts that respect property rights and foster innovation rather than through state coercion funded by taxation. Addressing this fallacy in The Law, he wrote:

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.

This critique underscored his vision of a free society in which individuals and communities, not the state, drive progress through voluntary cooperation, avoiding the inefficiencies—and most importantly, the injustices—of coercive redistribution.

Bastiat’s critiques in The Law targeted the broader socialist movement, including figures such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Louis Blanc, as well as emerging thinkers such as Karl Marx, whose Communist Manifesto (1848) amplified calls for collective control during the 1848 revolutions. Marx was calling for the abolition of private property, centralized economic planning, and a “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Bastiat’s arguments, though not directly naming Marx, countered the Marxist push for state seizure and redistribution of private property, emphasizing the moral and economic flaws of such systems.

Bastiat elegantly explained the primacy of rights, echoing America’s founders: “Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.” His outrage at the misuse of government authority under socialism is visceral:

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to serve an entirely contrary purpose! The law became the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself became guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

Bastiat’s explanation of the law’s proper role and his critique of those who corrupt it help illuminate the motivations and “dictatorial arrogance” of the self-anointed “rulers” of mankind. He defined the law as “the collective organization of the individual’s right of lawful defense,” tasked solely with protecting life, liberty, and property. Yet he saw this role perverted by “do-gooders” and social engineers who sought to “mold people like clay”—politicians and intellectuals pushing socialist schemes, protectionist tariffs, and wealth confiscation under the guise of benevolence and/or enforced morality. He condemned them for thinking that they had a right to force others and urged them to abandon their hubris:

Away with the whims of governmental administrators, their socialized projects. . . their benevolent institutions. . . . Ah, you miserable creatures! You think you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don’t you reform yourselves! That would be sufficient enough.

This rebuke, rooted in his rejections of “legal plunder,” utopian promises, and false philanthropy, condemned socialists for wanting to “play God” by manipulating and “regimenting” people. Bastiat was an individualist through and through, and he rejected the initiation of force, emphasizing that the law is a “negative concept” designed to prevent injustice, meaning that it imposed no obligation on individuals other than to respect the rights of others by refraining from the initiation of force.

The Law became a cornerstone for later conservative and libertarian thought. Economist Walter Williams credited it with creating “order in my thinking about liberty and just human conduct.” Bastiat’s storytelling made economic principles compelling and accessible. His approach greatly influenced Henry Hazlitt, whose Economics in One Lesson (1946) applied the broken window fallacy to public works, arguing that when the government spends money on anything other than its proper functions, this diverts resources from private and more productive uses. Similarly, Milton Friedman built on Bastiat’s insights, as illustrated by an anecdote from a visit he made in the 1960s to communist China. Observing workers using shovels for construction, Friedman asked why they weren’t using modern machinery; the Chinese official replied that it “created jobs.” Friedman quipped, “Then why don’t you use spoons?” This exchange highlights the unseen costs of inefficiency, mirroring Bastiat’s “Negative Railroad” and broken window fallacies.

Bastiat’s ideas also resonated with radicals for capitalism, such as Ayn Rand, whose defense of individual rights shared some of Bastiat’s political principles (such as property rights, free trade, and limited government) while anchoring them in reason instead of the shaky ground of faith (as did Bastiat and Locke). Ludwig von Mises’s critiques of socialism built on Bastiat’s warnings, and many American libertarians, such as Leonard Read, embraced The Law as a blueprint for limiting government. Bastiat’s arguments remain relevant today in debates over welfare, taxation, tariffs, and regulation. Healso foresaw the dangers of cronyism, saying, “When plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter into the making of laws.” The Law’s short length and sparkling clarity amplified its reach. Translated by economists such as Gustave de Molinari, The Law spread globally, with Bastiat’s ideas informing critiques of modern welfare states and defenses of individual rights. In an era of expanding bureaucracies, Bastiat’s call for a body of law that protects rather than plunders remains a potent counterargument to collectivism.

The only notable flaw in The Law is Bastiat’s assertion that rights are given by God. By grounding rights in faith, he takes for granted the existence of a supernatural deity, weakening his argument. The lack of evidence for any supposed “gifts from god” undermines the objective defense of liberty he sought. In fairness to Bastiat, his references to God as the source of rights are more rhetorical than central to his argument. For example, he mentions God as the source of rights at the beginning of The Law but never really revisits that assertion. Instead, he makes rational arguments based on reason, self-interest, individual liberty, and justice. Philosopher Ayn Rand would later offer a stronger, reality-based foundation, arguing that, through reason—a uniquely human faculty—we can discover and validate the idea that “rights are conditions of existence required by man’s nature for his proper survival.” By grounding rights in man’s rational nature, Rand provided a logical, secular basis that aligns with Bastiat’s goals but avoids faith-based vulnerabilities, enhancing the defense of liberty in modern debates.

The Final Years and Enduring Impact

In 1850, Bastiat’s tuberculosis worsened severely. That fall, he traveled to the warmer climate of Italy in a desperate attempt to alleviate his condition, which had left him frail and in constant pain. Yet he continued writing until his final days, aware that his condition was likely terminal. He died in Rome on December 24, 1850, at forty-nine. His brief career produced a legacy belied by its short duration.

Bastiat’s clarity and principled commitment to liberty remain edifying and inspiring. In an era of pervasive economic interventionism, regulatory expansion, and constant other rights violations committed by government officials, his warnings against legal plunder and his advocacy for free trade are more vital than ever. His parables educate new generations, while The Law provides intellectual ammunition to those who advocate individual rights and limited government.

Frédéric Bastiat’s journey from an orphan to a merchant to a global beacon of classical liberal thought is a testament to his resilience, courage, and the enduring power of his ideas. With a pen sharpened by experience and knowledge, he defended free markets and individual liberty against the encroachments of statism and tyranny. His immortal words—“The state is the great fiction by which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else”—stand as a timeless warning against the seductive lure of all forms of collectivism. In today’s battles over free trade, tariffs, taxation, and personal freedom, Bastiat’s voice resonates, urging us to see the unseen, reject legal plunder, and embrace the moral principles of a free society. His works, especially The Law and Economic Sophisms, are not relics but rallying cries for those who cherish liberty and reason. To read Frédéric Bastiat is to arm oneself with the clarity to confront statism in all its forms and to envision a world where freedom flourishes.

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This article appears in the Summer 2025 issue of The Objective Standard.

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1. George Charles Roche III, Frederic Bastiat: A Man Alone (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1971), 22–23. ↑

2. Mercantilism is an economic theory that promotes government regulation of trade to increase national wealth by maximizing exports and minimizing imports, often through tariffs or trade restrictions (and sometimes imperialism). For example, under Napoleon Bonaparte, France practiced mercantilism through the Continental System (1806–1814), which was a large-scale embargo intended to block British goods from entering European markets; Napoleon aimed to weaken Britain’s economy and strengthen France’s by controlling trade and forcing continental Europe to rely on French industry. These policies hurt France more than Britain and contributed to Napoleon’s demise. ↑

3. Richard Cobden (1804–1865) was a member of the British Parliament and an advocate of free trade, a noninterventionist foreign policy, peace, and parliamentary reform. He is best remembered for his activity on behalf of the Anti-Corn Law League, which helped reduce British tariffs in 1846, and for negotiating the Anglo-French trade agreement of 1860. ↑

4. Frédéric Bastiat, “The Tax and the Vine,” in Selected Essays on Political Economy, ed. George B. de Huszar, trans. Seymour Cain (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995), 116. ↑

5. Frédéric Bastiat, “On the Influence of French and English Tariffs on the Future of the Two Peoples,” Journal des Économistes 4, no. 10 (October 1844): 225–44. ↑

6. Frédéric Bastiat, “Petition by the Manufacturers of Candles, Tapers, Lanterns, etc.,” in Economic Sophisms, ed. Henry Hazlitt, trans. Arthur Goddard (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996), 60. ↑

7. Frédéric Bastiat, The Law, trans. Dean Russell (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 2007), 36. ↑

8. Bastiat, The Law,23_._ ↑

9. Bastiat, The Law,11. ↑

10. Frédéric Bastiat, “The Negative Railroad,” in Economic Sophisms, ed. Henry Hazlitt, trans. Arthur Goddard (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996), 94–96. ↑

11. Bastiat, “Petition by the Manufacturers of Candles, Tapers, Lanterns, etc.,” 58–63. ↑

12. Frédéric Bastiat, “Balance of Trade,” in Economic Sophisms, ed. Henry Hazlitt, trans. Arthur Goddard (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996), 103. ↑

13. Frédéric Bastiat, “Disastrous Illusions,” in Economic Harmonies, ed. George B. de Huszar, trans. W. Hayden Boyers (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996), 439. ↑

14. Frédéric Bastiat, “The State,” in The Best of Bastiat 2: “The State” (1848), ed. Sheldon Richman, trans. Jacques Bonhomme (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1993), 144. ↑

15. Frédéric Bastiat, “The State,” in Selected Essays on Political Economy, ed. George B. de Huszar, trans. Seymour Cain (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995), 140. ↑

16. Bastiat, The Law,15. ↑

17. Bastiat, The Law,19. ↑

18. Frédéric Bastiat, “Discourse on the Budget in the Legislative Assembly, December 1849,” in The Bastiat Collection: Volume 1 (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007), 412. ↑

19. Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, 231. ↑

20. The Austrian School of economics emphasizes individual choice, subjective value, and the importance of spontaneous market order, rejecting central planning and advocating for free markets grounded in property rights and voluntary exchange. ↑

21. Bastiat, Economic Harmonies, 3. ↑

22. Frédéric Bastiat, “Exchange,” in Economic Harmonies, ed. George B. de Huszar, trans. W. Hayden Boyers (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996), 96–97. ↑

23. Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, 58. ↑

24. Frédéric Bastiat, “To the Youth of France,” preface to Economic Harmonies, ed. George B. de Huszar, trans. W. Hayden Boyers (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996), xxv. ↑

25. Frédéric Bastiat, “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,” in Selected Essays on Political Economy, ed. George B. de Huszar, trans. Seymour Cain (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995), 1. ↑

26. Bastiat, The Law, 2. ↑

27. Bastiat, The Law, 3. ↑

28. Bastiat, The Law, 17. ↑

29. Bastiat, The Law, 21. ↑

30. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848), trans. Samuel Moore (London: Penguin Classics, 2002), 26. ↑

31. Bastiat, The Law, 28. ↑

32. Bastiat, The Law, 51. ↑

33. Bastiat, The Law, 64. ↑

34. Bastiat, The Law, 68. ↑

35. Bastiat, The Law, iii. ↑

36. Alex Tabbarok, “The Lesson of the Spoons,” in Marginal Revolution, August 13, 2019. ↑

37. In 1950, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) introduced American audiences to Bastiat’s classical liberal ideas by publishing The Law, helping to revive interest in individual rights and free-market economics in the postwar era. ↑

38. Bastiat, The Law, 26. ↑

39. Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism (New York: New American Library, 1964), 93. ↑

40. Rand’s Objectivist philosophy grounds rights in reason, arguing that man’s survival depends on his rational faculty, which requires freedom to think and act without coercion. Rights to life, liberty, and property are thus moral principles protecting this capacity, rooted in the law of identity (A is A), making them objective and universal, not dependent on “divine” or state authority. ↑