Frédéric Bastiat

1801 - 1850

Titles on this disk:

• author: Economic Harmonies (Boyers trans.)
• author: Economic Sophisms
• author: The Law
• author: Oeuvres complètes de Frédéric Bastiat, vol. 4 (Sophismes économiques et Petits pamphlets I)
• author: Oeuvres complètes de Frédéric Bastiat, vol. 6 (Harmonies économiques)
• author: Selected Essays on Political Economy

Quotations:

• (9 March, 2009) Frédéric Bastiat on the state as the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else (1848)
• (4 October, 2007) Frédéric Bastiat and the state as “la grande fiction à travers laquelle Tout Le Monde s’efforce de vivre aux dépens de Tout Le Monde (1848)
• (16 January, 2006) Frédéric Bastiat, while pondering the nature of war, concluded that society had always been divided into two classes - those who engaged in productive work and those who lived off their backs (1850)

About this person:

Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was one of the leading advocates of free markets and free trade in the mid-19 century. He was inspired by the activities of Richard Cobden and the organization of the Anti-Corn Law League in Britain in the 1840s and tried to mimic their success in France. Bastiat was an elected member of various French political bodies and opposed both protection and the rise of socialist ideas in these forums. His writings for a broader audience were very popular and were quickly translated and republished in the U.S. and throughout Europe. His incomplete magnum opus, Economic Harmonies, is full of insights into the operation of the market and is still of great interest to economists. He died at a young age from cancer of the throat. [The image comes from “The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.”]

For additional information about Frédéric Bastiat see the following:

• in the Forum: Essays on Bastiat
• at our sister website Econlib: the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics entry on Bastiat

See the Timeline of the Life and Work of Frédéric Bastiat:

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• PDF (45 KB) (highest quality)

Key: events in the author’s life (blue); historical events (green); books & organisations (red).