Gustave de Molinari

1819–1912

Nationality: Belgian

Historical Period: The 19th Century

Gustave de Molinari was born in Liège on March 3, 1819 and died in Adinkerque on January 28, 1912. He was the leading representative of the laissez-faire school of classical liberalism in France in the second half of the 19 th century and was still campaigning against protectionism, statism, militarism, colonialism, and socialism into his 90s on the eve of the First World War. As he said shortly before his death, his classical liberal views had remained the same throughout his long life but the world around him had managed to turn full circle in the meantime.

See also our collection of extracts, essays, and other resources on Molinari.

See the Liberty Matters online discussion of Gustave de Molinari’s Legacy for Liberty

For additional information about Gustave de Molinari see the following:

• A working draft of Liberty Fund’s translation of Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare (Evenings on Saint Lazarus Street) (1849).
• Other essays by or about Molinari.

See Quotes from Gustave de Molinari:

• Gustave de Molinari on mankind’s never-ending struggle for liberty
• Gustave de Molinari on elites benefiting from war
• Gustave de Molinari on using tariffs to promote a nation’s economy
• Gustave de Molinari defends the right to property against socialists and conservatives
• Gustave de Molinari appeals to socialists to join him down the “highway of liberty”
• Gustave de Molinari argues that political parties are like “actual armies”

Titles from Gustave de Molinari:

• Author: BOLL 53: Gustave de Molinari, “Of the Liberty of Government” (1849)
• Author: Cours d’Economie Politique
• Author: Notions fondamentales d’Économie politique et programme économique
• Author: The Society of Tomorrow
• Author: Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare (1849)