Summary of the Bastiat Project

[Updated: July 17, 2019]

Claude Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

See also our companion project, the Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912) Project page.

Places to Begin

Good places to begin exploring Bastiat’s ideas:

• Works in the OLL by Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
  • Collected Works vol. 1 | vol. 2 | vol. 3
  • final drafts of vol 4 Misc. Writings | vol 5 Economic Harmonies
• A Reader’s Guide to the Works of Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850).
• A Chronology of Bastiat’s Life and Work (with illustrations)
• Liberty Matters Discussion Forum: Bastiat and Political Economy

Latest Additions: we have put online the following works:

• [April 2019] the final “Editor’s Draft” of the entire volume 5 of the Collected Works of Bastiat which is his treatise on Economic Harmonies
• [June 2018]: a revised and updated version of “The State” (July, 1850). This is a comparative edition of the three different versions of the essay with editorial notes and comments as well as the Manifesto of the Montagnard socialist party which prompted Bastiat’s final extensive changes.
• [February 2018]: a revised and updated version of “The Law” (June, 1850)
• [November 2017] a near final draft of Chapter IV “Exchange” from Economic Harmonies
• [August 2017] Vol. 3: Economic Sophisms and “What is Seen and What is Not Seen” (March, 2017) - published version in HTML and PDF
• [June 2017] the final “Editor’s Draft” of the entire volume 4 of the Collected Works of Bastiat (June 2017) which are his “Miscellaneous Economic Writings, 1830-1850” CW4
• [June 2017] an updated version of an online edition of “Bastiat’s Collected Works in Chronological Order” compiled from the first 4 volumes of the published Collected Works (which are arranged thematically). These are made up of:
  1. The Early Writings: The Bayonne and Mugron Years, 1819-1844 (this is largely complete)
  2. The “Paris” Writings I: Bastiat and the Free Trade Movement (Oct. 1844 - Feb. 1848) (this is quite late but lacks some of the material he wrote for the French free trade movement during 1846-47 - this will be in CW6)
  3. The “Paris” Writings II: Bastiat the Politician, Anti-Socialist, and Economist (Feb. 1848 - Dec. 1850) (this is largely complete)
  4. The Unfinished Treatises: The Social and Economic Harmonies and The History of Plunder (1850-51) (this is under construction, although several chapters were published as journal articles and can be found in earlier sections)
• [June 2017] updated versions of the following guides:
  • the Reader’s Guide to the Works of Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) to incorporate material from CW3 and CW4
  • Further Aspects of Bastiat’s Life and Work
  • A Chronology of Bastiat’s Life and Work - now illustrated!
• [June 2017] - more detailed material on the French economy:
  • The French State and Economy
  • The French Government’s Budgets for Fiscal Years 1848 and 1849 which includes new data on the [growth of the French state in the 19thC]/pages/budget1848#overview)
  • a fictional account of The Life of Jacques Bonhomme, Printer (1819–1865) - who was one of Bastiat’s favorite fictional characters in his economic tales.
• [Nov. 2015] a partially corrected version of Bastiat’s Introduction to his book on Cobden and the League (July 1845) (in CW6 forthcoming).

About Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

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 in the French Free Trade Association. His scores of articles and pamphlets on behalf of free trade reached a wide audience of readers and he is rightly recognized today as one of the best economic journalists who has ever lived.

After the outbreak of Revolution in February 1848, Bastiat turned his attention to politics, becoming an elected member of the Constituent Assembly and then the Vice-President of its Finance Committee. For the next 3 years he was an outspoken critic of excessive government spending, high taxation, and socialist ideas which had spread among many groups during the 1840s and which some were trying to put into practice following the revolution. His writings were very popular and were quickly translated and republished in the U.S. and throughout Europe. His incomplete magnum opus, Economic Harmonies (1850), is full of insights (many of which were Austrian or Public Choice in nature) into the operation of the market and is still of great interest to economists.

Some of Bastiat’s writings were published in English in the 19th century, but he did not become well known to Americans until the Foundation for Economic Education undertook a new translation project in the 1950s and 1960s. Even so, less than half of his work was translated. As a result of the activity in promoting the work of Bastiat by the French businessman and president of the Cercle Frédéric Bastiat, Jacques de Guenin (1931-2015) Liberty Fund agreed to translate and publish all of Bastiat’s writings in 2001. This came about because Guenin organized a conference in the south west of France in 2001 to celebrate the bicentennial of Bastiat’s birth. This conference was well attended by a contingent of Americans who knew and highly respected the work of Bastiat and had made the journey almost as a pilgrimage in his honour. The group included members of the Board of Liberty Fund and as soon as they heard Guenin’s proposal they agreed to underwrite the project. The first volume of six appeared in March 2011, the second in 2012, and the third in 2017.

Resources on Bastiat in the OLL

The following is a summary of the resources on Bastiat which can be found in the OLL.

Works by Bastiat:

• Works in the OLL by Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
• A Chronological List of Bastiat’s Complete Works
• A thematic collection (in print and online): The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat. In Six Volumes (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2011-), General Editor Jacques de Guenin. Academic Editor Dr. David M. Hart.
  • Vol. 1: The Man and the Statesman. The Correspondence and Articles on Politics (March 2011) - published version in HTML and PDF
  • Vol. 2: “The Law,” “The State,” and Other Political Writings, 1843-1850 (June 2012) - published version in HTML and PDF
  • Vol. 3: Economic Sophisms and “What is Seen and What is Not Seen” (March, 2017) - published version in HTML and PDF
  • Vol. 4: Miscellaneous Works on Economics (forthcoming) - final draft version in HTML (June 2017)
  • Vol. 5: Economic Harmonies (forthcoming)
  • Vol. 6: The Struggle Against Protectionism: The English and French Free-Trade Movements (forthcoming)
• the older translation by the Foundation for Economic Education done on the mid-1960s:
  • Economic Harmonies, trans. Hayden Boyers
  • Economic Sophisms, trans. Arthur Goddard
  • The Law, trans. Dean Russell
  • Selected Essays on Political Economy, trans. Seymour Cain
• A collection of The Best of Bastiat
  • The Best of Bastiat 1.1: A Life in Letters
  • The Best of Bastiat 1.2: Bastiat the Revolutionary Part 1
  • The Best of Bastiat 1.3: Bastiat the Revolutionary Part 2
  • The Best of Bastiat 2.1: The State
  • The Best of Bastiat 2.2: Property Plunder
  • The Best of Bastiat 2.3: The Law
  • The Best of Bastiat 3.1: Petition of the Manufacturers of Candles
  • The Best of Bastiat 3.2: The Broken Window
  • The Best of Bastiat 3.3: The Utopian
• A Chronological List of Bastiat’s writings
• an edition of Bastiat’s works in chronological order (a work in progress - online only)
  • Part 1: The Early Writings 1819-1844
  • Part 2: The Paris Writings I 1844-1848
  • Part 3: The Paris Writings II 1848-1850
  • Part 4: The Unfinished Treatises
• Bastiat quotations:
  • Quotations by Bastiat on the State and the Free Market
  • Selected Quotations from Bastiat’s Collected Works, vol. 1: The Man and the Statesman: The Correspondence and Articles on Politics (2011)

Works about Bastiat:

• A Reader’s Guide to the Works of Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
• A Chronology of Bastiat’s Life and Work
• Liberty Matters Discussion Forum: Bastiat and Political Economy
• Further Aspects of Bastiat’s Life and Work
• Timeline: The Life and Works of Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
• Cato Book Forum: Bastiat vol. 1 (Oct. 2011)
• Images of Liberty: Monuments to Two 19th Century Free Traders: Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) & Richard Cobden (1804-1865)
• other Essays on and by Bastiat