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.
Molinari featured as the March 2022 OLL Birthday. Read it here
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: Cours d’Economie Politique
- Author: Cours d’Economie Politique vol. 1
- Author: Cours d’Economie Politique vol. 2
- Author: Notions fondamentales d’Économie politique et programme économique
- Author: The Society of Tomorrow
- Author: Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare (1849)
Associated with:
In The Reading Room:
Liberty Matters:
- Did the American Colonies Pay Too High a Cost for Revolution? (August/September 2023)
- Adam Smith's Emergent Rules of Justice (June/July 2023)
- The Roman Senate in Early Modern Europe (May 2023)
- Did we have a Constitutional Revolution but not reconstruct the South? (April 2023)
- Why Do We Need Feminist Economics? (March 2023)
- Is there a Role for Monarchy in a Free Society (January/February 2023)
- Why Read the Ancients Today? (November/December 2022)
- Systemic Racism in Education and Healthcare (October 2022)
- Perspectives on Mises' Socialism After 100 Years (August 2022)
- The Constitutional Convention and the Peculiar Institution (July 2022)
- Is Machiavelli Friend or Foe to Liberty? (May 2022)
- Why History Matters for 21st Century Liberty (April 2022)
- Remember the Ladies: The Fight for Equality among the Genders (March 2022)
- What Does Liberty Have to Say to Black History? (February 2022)
- The Legacy of Walter Williams (January 2022)
- What Adam Smith Means to Me (November 2021)
- Mustafa Akyol, Liberty was Islam's First Call (October 2021)
- John Locke on Commercial Society (September 2021)
- David French, "Can American Liberty Survive American Animosity?" (August 2021)
- Understanding Jefferson: Slavery, Race, and the Declaration of Independence (July 2021)
- Liberty and Virtue: Frank Meyer's Fusionism (June 2021)
- Humboldt’s State – and Ours (May 2021)
- Daniel B. Klein, "Meanings of Liberty: Aron, Constant, Berlin" (April 2021)
- Keith E. Whittington, "John C. Calhoun, Constitutionalism, and Slavery" (March 2021)
- Reflections on Libraries, Liberty, and Black History (February 2021)
- Judge Glock, "Albert Venn Dicey and the Immunity of the Administrative State" (December 2020)
- Mikko Tolonen, Mandeville, Hayek, and the Politics of Self-Esteem (October 2020)
- Ruth Scurr, "J.S. Mill & Life Writing" (August 2020)
- Sarah Morgan Smith, “To Covenant and Combine Ourselves into a Civil Body Politic”: The Mayflower Compact @ 400 Years (May 2020)
- Daniel B. Klein, "Smith, Hume, and Burke as Policy Liberals and Polity Conservatives" (March 2020)
- Adam J. Macleod, "Bagehot and the Causes of Our Crises" (January 2020)
- Stephen Davies, "The Levellers and the Emergence of (Some) Modern Political Ideas" (November 2019)
- Carlo Lottieri, "Exchanges, Claims, and Powers: About Bruno Leoni's Social Theory" (September 2019)
- Phillip W. Magness, “William Leggett: Free Trade, Hard Money, and Abolitionism” (July 2019)
- David M. Hart, "Reassessing Bastiat's *Economic Harmonies* after 160 Years" (May 2019)
- Aurelian Craiutu, “How to Combat Fanaticism and the Spirit of Party: Germaine de Staël’s Lesson" (March 2019)
- Matthew McCaffrey, “Frank Fetter and the Austrian Tradition in the United States” (January 2019)
- Alberto Mingardi, “Liberty and Cynicism: Was Vilfredo Pareto a Liberal?” (November 2018)
- Virgil Storr, "Marx and the Morality of Capitalism" (October 2018)
- Peter Lewin, "Ludwig Lachmann – Enigmatic and Controversial Austrian Economist" (July 2018)
- Alan Kahan, "Limited Government, Unlimited Liberalism. Or, How Benjamin Constant was a Kantian After All" (May 2018)
- Henry C. Clark, "How Radical Was the Political Thought of the Encyclopédie?" (March 2018)
- Nicholas Capaldi, "The Place of Liberty in David Hume's Project" (January 2018)
- Peter Boettke, "Gordon Tullock and the Rational Choice Commitment" (November 2017)
- Peter Boettke, "Hayek's Epistemic Liberalism" (September 2017)
- Matt Zwolinski, "William Graham Sumner – Liberty's Forgotten Man" (July 2017)
- Nicholas Buccola, “Frederick Douglass on the Right and Duty to Resist” (May 2017)
- Peter J. Boettke, "Israel M. Kirzner on Competitive Behavior, Industrial Structure, and the Entrepreneurial Market Process" (March 2017)
- Knud Haakonssen, "Pufendorf on Power and Liberty" (January 2017)
- David M. Hart, “Classical Liberalism and the Problem of Class” (November 2016)
- David Womersley, "John Trenchard and the Opposition to Standing Armies" (September 2016)
- John E. Alvis, “The Corrupting Influence of Power in Shakespeare's Plays" (July 2016)
- Jacob T. Levy, "Rationalism, Pluralism, and the History of Liberal Ideas" (May 2016)
- Sanford Ikeda,"The Misesian Paradox: Interventionism Is Not Sustainable" (March 2016)
- Randy E. Barnett, “The Significance of Lysander Spooner” (January 2016)
- Henry C. Clark, "Montesquieu on Liberty and Sumptuary Law" (November 2015)
- Hartmut Kliemt, "Anthony de Jasay and the Political Economy of the State" (September 2015)
- Steven Kates, "Reassessing the Political Economy of John Stuart Mill" (July 2015)
- Justin Champion, "Magna Carta after 800 Years: From liber homo to modern freedom." (May 2015)
- Richard M. Ebeling, “Assessing Böhm-Bawerk's Contribution to Economics after a Hundred Years” (April 2015)
- David M. Hart, "On the Spread of (Classical) Liberal Ideas" (March 2015)
- Stephen Davies, "Richard Cobden: Ideas and Strategies in Organizing the Free-Trade Movement in Britain" (January 2015)
- George H. Smith, "Herbert Spencer's Sociology of the State" (November 2014)
- Sandra Peart, "James Mill on Liberty and Governance" (September 2014)
- Donald J. Boudreaux, "Deirdre McCloskey and Economists’ Ideas about Ideas" (July 2014)
- Aurelian Craiutu, "Tocqueville’s New Science of Politics Revisited" (May 2014)
- Fernando R. Tesón, “Hugo Grotius on War and the State” (March 2014)
- Lawrence White, "Ludwig von Mises’s The Theory of Money and Credit at 101" (January 2014)
- John Blundell, "Arthur Seldon and the Institute of Economic Affairs" (November 2013)
- George H. Smith, "The System of Liberty" (September 2013)
- Robert Leroux, "Bastiat and Political Economy" (July 2013)
- Roderick Long, "Gustave de Molinari’s Legacy for Liberty" (May 2013)
- Geoffrey Brennan, "James Buchanan: An Assessment" (March 2013)
- Eric Mack on "John Locke on Property" (January 2013)