Frédéric Bastiat

Lore & Background

Bastiat was born in Bayonne, Gascony, and orphaned at age nine after both parents died in tuberculosis epidemics. He was raised by his grandfather and aunt, educated at Sorèze Abbey, and later worked as a junior clerk for his uncle's trading firm. He studied the works of Jean-Baptiste Say, Adam Smith, and Antoine Destutt de Tracy, and was admitted to the Masonic lodge La Zélée in 1821. After inheriting the estate of Sengresse in 1825, he withdrew from commerce to become a gentleman farmer and devoted himself to agronomy and theoretical inquiry.

Reader's Guide

Bastiat became politically active after the July Revolution of 1830, serving as justice of the peace of Mugron and on the Council General of Landes. He was elected to the national legislative assembly after the French Revolution of 1848. He developed an enthusiasm for Richard Cobden's Anti-Corn Law League and began a correspondence with Cobden, resulting in a political alliance against protectionism and socialism. Bastiat moved to Paris in 1846 and set up an association in Bordeaux to launch the free trade movement in France. His works, including Economic Sophisms and The Law, argued that law must protect rights such as private property and not plunder others' property. He contracted tuberculosis and died in Rome on 24 December 1850, allegedly murmuring 'the truth, the truth' before his death.

Did You Know?

• Bastiat was orphaned at age nine after both parents died in tuberculosis epidemics during the Peninsular War.
• He was admitted to the Masonic lodge La Zélée in 1821 and became its keeper of the seals in 1822.
• Bastiat's first published works were two short treatises on the winemaking industry of the Landes, blaming excessive taxation for the regional crisis.
• He is buried at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Frédéric Bastiat (30 June 1801 – 24 December 1850) was an early free-market economist and classical liberal French author." — Frédéric Bastiat "L'État c'est la grande fiction à travers laquelle tout le monde s'efforce de vivre aux dépens de tout le monde." — Frédéric Bastiat "The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavours to live at the expense of everyone else." — Frédéric Bastiat "The State in Journal des débats (1848) par. 5.20." — Frédéric Bastiat