The Bastiat Institute

Preface Liberty is the central element of human nature. It is the essence of will, the source of creativity, and a prerequisite of virtue. As such, it is also the driving force of civilization and the foundation of any working society. And yet, being an abstract concept, its precise nature is often inadequately understood. This is unfortunate, since, while liberty can work its miracles when used by those who understand it only on an intuitive level, it remains fragile until it is comprehended on a deeper, philosophical level as well. Luckily, there exists a substantial literature whose aim is to...

By Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski Vote5 0

Preface Liberty is the central element of human nature. It is the essence of will, the source of creativity, and a prerequisite of virtue. As such, it is also the driving force of civilization and the foundation of any working society. And yet, being an abstract concept, its precise nature is often inadequately understood. This is unfortunate, since, while liberty can work its miracles when used by those who understand it only on an intuitive level, it remains fragile until it is comprehended on a deeper, philosophical level as well. Luckily, there exists a substantial literature whose aim is to...

By Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski Vote5 0

Preface Liberty is the central element of human nature. It is the essence of will, the source of creativity, and a prerequisite of virtue. As such, it is also the driving force of civilization and the foundation of any working society. And yet, being an abstract concept, its precise nature is often inadequately understood. This is unfortunate, since, while liberty can work its miracles when used by those who understand it only on an intuitive level, it remains fragile until it is comprehended on a deeper, philosophical level as well. Luckily, there exists a substantial literature whose aim is to...

By Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski Vote5 0

JAMES GOODFELLOW, a Vineyardist. CLODPATE, a Tax Collector. CLODPATE: You have laid in twenty tuns of wine? JAMES GOODFELLOW: Yes, by dint of much toil and sweat. C.: Be so kind as to give me six of the best. J.G.: Six tuns out of twenty! Good heavens! You're trying to ruin me. And, if you please, what do you intend to do with them? C.: The first will be given to the creditors of the state. When one has debts, the very least one can do is to pay the interest on them. J.G.: And what has become of the...

By Bastiat Institute Vote5 2

People are finding my little book of Sophisms too theoretical, scientific, and metaphysical. Very well. Let us try the effect of a trivial, banal, and, if need be, a ruder style of writing. Convinced that the public has been duped into accepting the policy of protectionism, I have tried to prove it by an appeal to reason.

By Bastiat Institute Vote7 0

This is the most common and the most deceptive of all fallacies. Real suffering is taking place in England. It comes in the train of two other events: 1. The tariff reform. 2. Two bad harvests in succession. To which of these last two circumstances is the first to be attributed? The protectionists have not failed to cry out: "It is this accursed free trade that is causing all the trouble. It promised us no end of blessings, we accepted it, and here the factories have closed, and the people are suffering: Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc." Free trade distributes...

By Bastiat Institute Vote11 0

People bewail the greed and selfishness of our age! I, for my part, find the world, especially Paris, peopled with Deciuses. Open the thousand books, the thousand newspapers, the thousand pamphlets, that the Parisian presses spew forth every day over the country. Are they not all the work of little saints? What animation in the painting of the vices of our day! What moving concern for the masses! With what liberality the rich are invited to share with the poor, if not the poor with the rich! What a host of plans for social reforms, social improvements, social organizations! Is...

By Bastiat Institute Vote12 0

Several newspapers have attacked me in your presence. Won't you please read my defense? I am not a distrustful person. When a man writes or speaks, I take it for granted that he believes what he is saying. And yet, as I read and reread the newspapers that have attacked me, I seem to find in them unfortunate evidence to the contrary. What is the question at issue? It is that of determining which is more advantageous for you, protectionism or free trade.

By Bastiat Institute Vote11 0

I feel it my duty to present to the reader certain—alas, theoretical—comments on the illusions to which the expressions high prices and low prices give rise. At first glance, I know, people may be inclined to consider these comments a little abstruse; but the question is, not whether they are abstruse, but whether they are true. Now, I believe that they are not only perfectly true but particularly well suited to raise some doubts in the minds of those—by no means few in number—who have a sincere faith in the efficacy of protectionism.

By Bastiat Institute Vote4 0

"What! You have the effrontery to demand for all citizens the right to buy, sell, barter, and exchange, to render and receive service for service, and settle on the price among themselves, on the sole condition that they carry on these transactions honestly and pay their taxes? What are you trying to do—deprive workingmen of their jobs, their wages, and their bread?"

By Bastiat Institute Vote5 0

Petition of Jacques Bonhomme, Carpenter, to M. Cunin-Gridaine, Minister of Commerce Mr. Manufacturer and Cabinet Minister: I am a carpenter, as Jesus was; I wield the hatchet and the adze to serve you.

By Bastiat Institute Vote5 0

Having arrived—if he does arrive—at the end of the preceding chapter, the reader may well exclaim: "Well, was I wrong to accuse economists of being dry and cold? What a portrait of mankind! Plunder is represented as an omnipresent force, almost a normal phenomenon, assuming every guise, practiced under any pretext, legal or extralegal, perverting to its own purposes all that is most sacred, exploiting weakness and credulity by turns, and constantly growing by what it feeds on! Could any more depressing picture of the world be imagined?"

By Bastiat Institute Vote7 0

Why do I keep dwelling on that dry science, political economy? Why? The question is a reasonable one. All labor by its very nature is so repugnant that one has the right to ask what purpose it serves. Let us investigate and see.

By Bastiat Institute Vote7 0

All the sophisms that I have so far attacked concern only the question of the policy of protectionism; and even of those, out of pity for the reader, "I pass over some of the best": acquired rights, practical difficulties in the way, depletion of the currency, etc., etc. But political economy is not confined within this narrow circle. Fourierism, Saint-Simonianism, communism, mysticism, sentimentalism, false humanitarianism, affected aspirations for an imaginary equality and fraternity; questions relating to luxury, wages, machinery; to the so-called tyranny of capital; to colonies, outlets, conquests, population, emigration, association, taxes, and loans, have crowded the field of...

By Bastiat Institute Vote6 0

Sometimes a sophism expands until it permeates the whole fabric of a long and elaborate theory. More often it contracts and shrinks, assumes the form of a principle, and takes cover behind a word or a phrase.

By Bastiat Institute Vote7 0

It is said that the most advantageous of all branches of trade is that in which one exchanges manufactured goods for raw materials. For these raw materials are the staff of life for domestic labor. Hence, the conclusion is drawn that the best tariff law would be the one that would most facilitate the importation of raw materials and would erect the most obstacles to the entry of finished goods.

By Bastiat Institute Vote6 0

Destroying machinery and interdicting the entry of foreign goods are alike in being both founded on the same doctrine. Those who at the same time applaud the appearance of a great invention and nevertheless advocate protectionism are most inconsistent. What is their objection to free trade? They charge it with encouraging foreigners who are more skillful than we are, or who live under more advantageous economic conditions than we do, to produce things that, in the absence of free trade, we should produce ourselves. In short, they accuse it of injuring domestic labor.

By Bastiat Institute Vote5 0

Among the arguments that have been advanced in favor of the protectionist system, we must not forget the one that is founded on the idea of national independence. "What shall we do in case of war," people ask, "if we have put ourselves at the mercy of England for iron and coal?" The English monopolists for their part do not fail to exclaim: "What will happen to Great Britain in time of war if she makes herself dependent on France for food?"

By Bastiat Institute Vote6 0

We cannot but be astonished at the ease with which men resign themselves to ignorance about what it is most important for them to know; and we may be certain that they are determined to remain invincibly ignorant if they once come to consider it as axiomatic that there are no absolute principles. Attend a session of the legislature and listen to a debate over the question whether the law should prohibit international exchange or permit free trade.

By Bastiat Institute Vote5 0

I have said that as long as one has regard, as unfortunately happens, only to the interest of the producer, it is impossible to avoid running counter to the general interest, since the producer, as such, demands nothing but the multiplication of obstacles, wants, and efforts.

By Bastiat Institute Vote8 1

Money, Greed, Equality, Envy, and Charity Nov 23, 2015

Liberty, Authority, and Power Nov 11, 2015

Entrepreneurship, Business, Economics, and Politics Oct 16, 2015

Economic Sophisms: II.10, The Tax Collector Feb 28, 2015

Economic Sophisms: II.9, Robbery by Subsidy Jan 21, 2015

Economic Sophisms: II.8, Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc Jan 14, 2015

Economic Sophisms: II.7, A Chinese Tale Jan 10, 2015

Economic Sophisms: II.6, To Artisans and Laborers Jan 7, 2015

Economic Sophisms: II.5, High Prices and Low Prices Dec 17, 2014

Economic Sophisms: II.4, Subordinate Labor Council Nov 10, 2014

Economic Sophisms: II.3, The Two Hatchets Nov 7, 2014

Economic Sophisms: II.2, Two Systems of Ethics Nov 3, 2014

Economic Sophisms: II.1, The Physiology of Plunder Oct 31, 2014

Economic Sophisms: First Series, Conclusion Oct 30, 2014

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 22, Metaphors Oct 29, 2014

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 21, Raw Materials Oct 28, 2014

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 20, Human vs. Mechanical Labor and Domestic vs. Foreign Labor Oct 27, 2014

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 19, National Independence Oct 25, 2014

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 18, There Are No Absolute Principles Oct 24, 2014

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 17, A Negative Railroad Oct 23, 2014