Bastiat, the approaches of the political economists and the socialists are incompatible with each other because socialism necessarily impinges upon individual rights whenever one wants to redistribute wealth by using constraint. The main criterion for evaluating human actions is to ask whether an act is made freely or whether it is obtained by violence. According to Bastiat, legal violence is the most dangerous of human actions because it is wielded without any risk to the politicians and their supporters; moreover, it is even considered virtuous because politicians use it in the name of brotherhood and solidarity. Bastiat’s consistency in opposing all forms of coercion, whether legal or not, separates him from most of his contemporaries.
FREEDOM TO EXCHANGE
It is not surprising that Bastiat frequently opposes protectionist measures and pleads the case for free trade, but what is surprising is the broad range of arguments he uses to make his case. He draws his arguments from many fields of inquiry, such as economics, history, philosophy, and ethics. He reminds us that he was the founder of the Association pour la liberté des échanges (the free-trade association) and not the “association for commercial freedom” or the “association for the gradual reform of tariffs.” The “association for commercial freedom” would suggest support for only a narrowly based interest group that worked in the area of “commerce.” Likewise, the “association for the gradual reform of tariffs” would be inappropriate in Bastiat’s view because it would imply a willingness to compromise with those groups who benefited from protection at the expense of the broad mass of consumers who suffered from it. Thus, he chose for his organization the more general and somewhat abstract name “Association pour la liberté des échanges,” explaining that “the term free trade implies the freedom to dispose of the fruits of your work, in other words, property,”27 and this property could be in the form of wine, cotton cloth, gold bullion, or ideas.
Bastiat also makes a striking comparison between slavery and protectionism:
[print edition page xxxi]
“If I use force to appropriate all the work of a man for my benefit, this man is my slave. He is also my slave if, while letting him work freely, I find a way through force or guile to take possession of the fruit of his work.”28 In his battle with both conservatives and socialists Bastiat wanted to make the rhetorical and philosophical point that protectionism was just another form of that age-old means of granting privileges to one group at the expense of the liberty and property of another group. Thus he gave “this new form of servitude the fine title of protection.”29
CONCLUSION
Throughout the writings in this volume, we discover the personality of Bastiat. He is a keen observer and analyst of the times and a passionate politician who rushes into many debates with the hope of changing the course of history during the crucial period in which he lived. It is as if he somehow anticipated that he had only a very short time left to live.
The time between his election to the Assembly in early 1848 and his death on Christmas Eve in 1850 was a scant twenty months. During this period he carried out his parliamentary duties, wrote numerous pamphlets, and worked feverishly to complete his magnum opus, Economic Harmonies.30 His aim was to convince as many people as possible that liberal economic theory is the only way to evaluate political decisions rationally and to help bring about the creation of a free, prosperous, and peaceful society.
Pascal Salin
My thanks to David M. Hart for his editorial contributions and his insights into the history of this period.
[print edition page xxxii]
Frédéric Bastiat Chronology
| 1801 | Born in Bayonne, 30 June. |
| 1808 | Death of mother. Moves to Mugron with father, grandfather, and Aunt Justine. |
| 1810 | Death of father. |
| 1814–18 | Attends school at Sorèze. |
| 1819–25 | Works in Bayonne for his Uncle Monclar. |
| 1825 | Death of grandfather. Inherits part of his estate. |
| 1830 | The “three glorious days,” 27–29 July. Louis-Philippe becomes “king of the French.” |
| 1831 | Appointed county judge. |
| 1833 | Elected to the General Council of the Landes. |
| 1840 | Travels to Spain and Portugal. |
| 1844 | On the Influence of French and English Tariff s on the Future of the Two Peoples. |
| 1845 | Travels to Paris and London. |
| Cobden and the League. | |
| Economic Sophisms (first series). | |
| 1846 | Founds the Association pour la liberté des échanges. |
| To the Electors of the District of Saint-Sever. | |
| Founds weekly journal Le Libre-échange. | |
| 1847 | Economic Sophisms (second series). |
| 1848 | Revolution, 22–24 February. The republic is proclaimed. |
| Elected to the Constituent Assembly, 23 April. | |
| Founds La République française and Jacques Bonhomme. | |
| Property and Law. | |
| Justice and Fraternity. | |
| Property and Plunder. | |
| The State. | |
| Louis-Napoléon elected president of the republic, 10 December. | |
| [print edition page xxxiii] | |
| 1849 | Elected to the Legislative Assembly, 13 May. |
| Protectionism and Communism. | |
| Capital and Rent. | |
| Peace and Freedom, or the Republican Budget. | |
| Parliamentary Incompatibilities. | |
| Damned Money. | |
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