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FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT (30 June 1801 - 24 December 1850)

[Created 13 July, 2010]
[Updated January 21, 2011]

 

This image comes from a magazine showing what Bastiat's monument in Mugron looked like before the Nazis desecrated it in 1942. The figure in front of the column was in bronze ("Fame" writing the titles of Bastiat's best known works) and was seized in order to make munitions for the Nazi war effort.

 

Tbale of Contents

 

Biography

Frédéric Bastiat was a pivotal figure in French classical liberalism in the mid-19th century. He suddenly emerged from the south west province of Les Landes to assume leadership of the fledgling French free trade movement in 1844 which he modelled on that of Richard Cobden’s Anti-Corn Law League in England.  Bastiat then turned to a brilliant career as an economic journalist, debunking the myths and misconceptions people held on protectionism in particular and government intervention in general, which he called “sophisms” or “fallacies”. When revolution broke out in February 1848 Bastiat was elected twice to the Chamber of Deputies where he served on the powerful Finance Committee where he struggled to bring government expenditure under control. He confounded his political opponents on the left and the right with his consistent libertarianism: on the one hand he denounced the socialists for their economic policies, but took to the streets to prevent the military from shooting them during the riots which broke out in June 1848. In the meantime he was suffering from a debilitating throat condition which severely weakened him and led to his early death on Christmas Eve in 1850. Knowing he was dying, Bastiat attempted to complete his magnum opus on economic theory, his Economic Harmonies. In this work he showed the very great depth of his economic thinking and made advances which heralded the Austrian school of economics which emerged later in the century. Bastiat to the end was an indefatigable foe of political privilege, unaccountable monarchical power, the newly emergent socialist movement, and above all, the vested interests who benefited from economic protectionism. He was a giant of 19th century classical liberalism.

Timeline and Chronology of Bastiat

The World of French Political Economy in which Bastiat moved in the 1830s and 1840s.

Obituaries and Contemporary Biographies of Bastiat:

Bastiat's Works

1. Oeuvres complètes de Frédéric Bastiat, mises en ordre, revues et annotées d’après les manuscrits de l’auteur. Ed. Prosper Paillottet and biographical essay by Roger de Fontenay. (Paris: Guillaumin, 1st ed. 1854-55, 6 vols; 2nd ed. 1862-64, 7 vols; 3rd ed. 1870-73; 4th ed. 1878-79; 5th ed. 1881-84; 6th ed. 1907).

Table of Contents of the Complete Editions:

Table of Contents and Texts of individual volumes:

2. Frédéric Bastiat, Lettres d'un habitant des Landes (Paris: A. Quantin, 1877). [PDF text external file].

3. A list of the articles by Bastiat in the Journal des Économistes, from Table alphabétique générale des matières contenues dans les deux premières séries (Années 1841-1865) du Journal des Économistes (Paris: Guillaumin, 1883). [PDF external file].

4. Articles by Bastiat in the Dictionnaire de l'économie politique (1852-53). Bastiat was one of the guiding lights of the Dictionnaire de l'économie politique. As he died during the writing of the project his direct contribution was rather small. His editor Paillottet states that the article "Abondance" was probably the last thing Bastiat ever wrote before he left Paris to spend his last days in Italy. The article "L'État", although nominally written by Charles Coquelin one of the editors of the Dictionary, consisted largely of long quotations taken from Bastiat's essay on L'État which had been first published in the Journal des Débats in September 1848 and then as a pamphlet. Likewise with the article on "La Loi" which was a large extract from Bastiat's pamphlet which appeared in June 1850. The editors ended this article with a footnote which summed up their respect for Bastiat and how his ideas had inspired the editors and writers of the Dictionary: "we weren't able to think of anything better than to reproduce in large part here the essay which the illustrious economist had published under the same title: The Law, and which appered to us to fulfill perfectly the aim of this Dictionary."

5. Other Books and Pamphlets by Bastiat

6. Translations

 

Books and Articles about Bastiat

Adolphe Imbert, Frédéric Bastiat et le socialisme de son temps (Marseille: Barlatier, 1913). [6.8 MB PDF].

François Bidet, Frédéric Bastiat. L'homme, l'économiste (Paris: V. Giard et E. Brière, 1906). [6.2 MB PDF]

Hermann von Leesen, Frédéric Bastiat. Sein Leben. Seine freihändlerischen Bestrebungen und sozialökonomischen Anschauungen (München: F. Straub, 1904). [4.2 MB PDF].

[The Académie des Sciences morales et politiques offered a prize (the Léon Faucher prize) in 1904 to anybody who wrote a book-length work on "La vie et l'oeuvre de Bastiat" (The Life and Work of Bastiat). The works by Ronce and Nouvion won the prize and that by Bidet was written in the hope of winning it.]

P. Ronce, Frédéric Bastiat. Sa vie, son oeuvre (Paris: Guillaumin, 1905). [4.9 MB PDF]

Georges de Nouvion, Monopole et liberté. Frédéric Bastiat. Sa Vie - Ses Oeuvres - Ses Doctrines (Paris: Guillaumin, 1905). [7.3 MB PDF].

Centennaire de la naissance de Bastiat (Paris: Guillaumin, 1901). The Journal des économistes published a report of a meeting of the Société d'économie politique held on 5 July 1901 to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of FB. This was later published as a brochure by Guillaumin. This copy comes from the JDE, 1901, T. 47, July-September, pp. 134-151. [830 KB PDF].

Charles Brunel, Bastiat et la réaction contre le pessimisme économique (Paris: A. Pedone, 1901). [3.6 MB PDF].

Édouard Bondurant, Économie politique. Frédéric Bastiat (Paris: Guillaumin, 1879). [3.5 MB PDF].

A. Bouchié de Belle, Bastiat et le libre-échange (Paris: Guillaumin, 1878). [11.4 MB PDF].

Jules Martinelle, Harmonies et perturbations sociales. Esquisse des oeuvres de F. Bastiat suivie de quelques considérations (Paris: Guillaumin, 1852). [5.7 MB PDF].