[1] (Note by the French editor Paillottet.) This pamphlet, published in July 1850, was the last one written by Bastiat. It had been promised to the public for more than a year. The following is the reason for its delayed publication. The author lost the manuscript when he moved house from the rue de Choiseul to the rue d’Alger. After a long and fruitless search, he decided to rewrite the work completely and selected as the principal basis for his arguments speeches recently made in the National Assembly. Once he had completed this task, he blamed himself for being too serious, threw the second manuscript into the fire, and wrote the one we are publishing here. (Editor's Note.) The subtitle was part of the first edition, but it was usually dispensed with in the later editions.

[2] DMH: Bastiat’s first use of the concept of “the seen” and “the unseen” is most likely in "Travail humain, travail national" (c. late 1845), ES1 20, I-136 Online and (CW3, p. 90), where he contrasts “effets immédiats et transitoires" (immediate and transitory effects) and “conséquences générales et définitives" (general and definitive consequences).See also my essay on "Bastiat on the Seen and The Unseen: An Intellectual History" (2022) Online.

[3] The American journalist Henry Hazlitt played an important role in bringing the work of Bastiat to the attention of Americans in the immediate post–World War II period. In his preface to his book Economics in One Lesson (1946), he acknowledged his debt to Bastiat’s pamphlet What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen: “My greatest debt, with respect to the kind of expository framework on which the present argument is being hung, is to Frédéric Bastiat’s essay Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas, now nearly a century old. The present work may, in fact, be regarded as a modernization, extension, and generalization of the approach found in Bastiat’s pamphlet” (Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson (1974), p. 9). Hazlitt’s first chapter was titled “The Broken Window”; thus with the very title and the first chapter he pays his respects to the work of Bastiat.

[4] Jacques Bonhomme" (literally Jack Goodfellow) is the name used by the French to refer to "everyman," sometimes with the connotation that he is the archetype of the wise French peasant. Bastiat uses the character of Jacques Bonhomme frequently in his constructed dialogues in the Economic Sophisms as a foil to criticise protectionists and advocates of government regulation. In England at this time the phrase used to refer to the average Englishman was "John Bull"; in the late 19th and early 20th century English judges used to refer to "the man on the Clapham Omnibus" to refer to the average British citizen with common sense; a more colloquial contemporary American expression for the average man would be "Joe Six Pack". In the FEE translation it has been translated as "John Goodfellow" which is a close literal translation of the French. It should be noted that the name "Jacques Bonhomme" was given to the small magazine that Bastiat and Molinari published and handed out on the street corners of Paris in June and July 1848. They were forced to close it down following the bloody riots in Paris known as the "June Days."

[5] In flagrante delicto is a Latin phrase which means literally “in blazing offense.” It is used in legal circles to mean that someone has been caught in the act of committing an offense.

[6] One of Bastiat's wittiest Economic Sophisms was "Un chemin de fer négatif" (A negative railway) ES1 17 (c. late 1845) Online in which he made fun of the argument that forcing a railway to stop at various locations to unload its goods and let out passengers to eat and drink was "good for business".

[7] In “drawing up this account,” Bastiat was keen to introduce some mathematical precision into his calculations. His first attempt to do so resulted in his theory of “the double incidence of loss,” which involved only three parties. He realized that this was inadequate and appealed to the physicist François Arago for help in using mathematics to calculate the gains and losses of the many more parties who might be impacted. See my essay on “The Double Incidence of Loss” in CW3, pp. 456-57.In a lecture he gave in 1852 Bastiat's close friend and colleague Gustave de Molinari talked about the importance of economists being "the bookkeepers of government policy" who would tally up the balance sheet of profits and losses of government actions. See my paper on "Gustave de Molinari on Economists as the Bookkeepers of Politics: 'Unfortunately, no one listens to economists'" (23 April, 2020) Online.

[8] He says simply "la jouissance" which could mean the "enjoyment of any good or service". Central to Bastiat's theory of exchange was the idea that all exchanges were an exchange of "service for service". See my essay on "Service for Service."

[9] *Le Moniteur industriel (1839–) was the journal of the protectionist Association pour la défense du travail national (Association for the Defense of National Employment) founded by Mimerel de Roubaix in 1846. It was the intellectual stronghold of the protectionists and became one of Bastiat’s bêtes noires.

[10] Auguste Saint-Chamans (1777–1860) was a Deputy (1824–27) and a councilor of state. He advocated protectionism and a mercantilist theory of the balance of trade. He is author of Du système d’impôt fondé sur les principes de l’économie politique (1820). Other works include Nouvel essai sur la richesse des nations (1821) and Traité d’économie publique, suivi d’un aperçu sur les finances de France (1852).

[11] Bastiat misremembers Saint-Chamans’s argument in this passage. In his Traité d’économie publique (1852), which was a reworking of a previous work, Nouvel essai sur la richesse des nations (1824), Saint-Chamans argues against the free-market economist Joseph Droz (1773–1850), who stated that a sudden loss of a large amount of accumulated capital in Europe would cause severe hardship and would take considerable time to overcome. Saint-Chamans countered this by arguing that the Great Fire of London (so not Paris), in 1666, destroyed a huge amount of the capital stock which was quickly replaced and was thus a net gain for the nation of some one million pounds sterling (or 25 million francs). See Saint-Chamans, Traité d’économie politique 1:339.

[12] Here we have a little "drama" involving Jacques Bonhomme and his sone which is one of the many stories Bastiat devised in his writing to explain complex economic ideas to ordinary people. He very successfully used these stories, parables, dialogs, and dramas to explain economic ideas, especially in his Economic Sophisms, which made him one of the greatest economic journalists and popularizers of economic ideas. He often used characters and scenes from classic works like Molière's plays, and very importantly, stories about Robinson Crusoe and Friday to explain basic economic concepts such as the division or labour, saving, tool making, and the benefits of exchange. And of course his frequent use of the character "Jacques Bonhomme." See my essays, "Economic Stories used to explain Economic Ideas" and “Crusoe Economics: Robinson Crusoe in the Economic Thought of Bastiat"; and my papers "Bastiat's use of Literature in Defense of Free Markets and his Rhetoric of Economic Liberty" (2015) Online; "The Economics of Robinson Crusoe from Defoe to Rothbard by way of Bastiat" (2015) Online; and "Negative Railways, Turtle Soup, talking Pencils, and House owning Dogs: ‘The French Connection’ and the Popularization of Economics from Say to Jasay" (2014) Online.

[13] In 1849 the French Army had about 390,000 men and a budget of fr. 346,319,558 out of a total of fr. 1.573 billion (so 29.6 %). In this chapter Bastiat roughly estimates that100,000 soldiers cost the French state fr. 100 million. A cut in size of 100,000 men would have been about 25.6 percent of the total.See Projet de loi pour la fixation des recettes et des dépenses de l’exercice 1850, pp. 13–14; and Courtois, “Le budget de 1849,” pp. 18–28.

[14] This statement is not true and Bastiat intends this as a humorous statement. Following the February Revolution an election was held on 23 and 24 April 1848. Bastiat was elected to represent the département of the Landes in the Constituent Assembly of the Second Republic. He was the second delegate elected out of seven, with a vote of 56,445. He was then appointed vice president of the Chamber's Finance Committee and subsequently re-appointed 8 times. In both the Chamber and in the Finance Committeehe argued for cuts in expenditure, the drastic reduction in size of the French state, the end of conscription, and the abolition of many taxes such as those on alcohol. He had also written an "economic sophism" called "L'Utopiste" (The Utopian) (LE, 17 Jan. 1847) (published in SE2 11 in early 1848, Online), where he called for the complete disbanding of the French Army, the abolition of conscription, and its replacement by local militias on the American model.

[15] But this sacrifice was not equally shared. To maintain its armed forces at the level of about 400,000 with a five-year period of enlistment, the French state had to recruit or conscript about 80,000 men each year. This consisted of a mixture of volunteers and conscripts who served for seven years. It was a common practice for those conscripted by the drawing of lots (tirage au sort) to pay for a replacement or substitute to take their place in the ranks. The liberal publisher and journalist Émile de Girardin estimated that about one quarter of the entire French army consisted of replacements who had been paid fr. 1,800–2,400 to take the place of some young man who had been called up but did not want to serve. The schedule of payments depended on the type of service: fr. 1,800–2,000 for the infantry; 2,000–2,400 for the artillery, cavalry, and other specialized forces. This meant that only quite well-off men could afford to pay these amounts to avoid army service, thus placing a greater burden on poor agricultural workers and artisans. During the 1848 Revolution there was a pamphlet war, calling for the abolition of conscription, but this was unsuccessful. See A. Legoyt, “Recrutement,” in DEP 2:498–503; and “Conscription,” in Dictionnaire de l’armée de terre 3:1539–42.

[16] No doubt a reference to himself.

[17] Metz is a city in northeast France with an important army garrison.

[18] The phrase "par ricochet" (the ricochet effect) was an important concept for Bastiat. By this he meant the concatenation of effects caused by a single economic event which “rippled” outward from its source, causing indirect flow-on effects to third and other parties. A key insight behind this term is the idea that all economic events are tied together by webs of connectivity and mutual influence. The analogies he liked to use often involved water, such as glisser (to slide or slip over something), or flows of communication through canaux secrets (hidden channels), or lines of force or electricity which stretched out in parallel lines to infinity. See my essay on "The Sophism Bastiat Never Wrote: The Sophism of the Ricochet Effect" in CW3; and my paper "On Ricochets, Hidden Channels, and Negative Multipliers: Bastiat on calculating the Economic Costs of ‘The Unseen’ " (2013). Online.

[19] This is a reference to a play by Beaumarchais. In act 4 of the The Barber of Seville (1775), Don Basile, a singing teacher, says to Dr. Bartholo that when he is unable to understand an argument he resorts to using proverbs such as “What is good to take, is good to keep.” He then says, “Yes, I arrange several little proverbs with variations, just like that” (Beaumarchais, Théâtre de Beaumarchais, p. 254).

[20] In Bastiat's theory of plunder there were several historical stages through which organised plunder evolved, one of which was exploitation by the government or “Functionaryism” (rule by functionaries or government officials and bureaucrats). This stage was different from the others in that the government itself, and “les fonctionnaires” (functionaries, state bureaucrats, civil servants) or the people who work for its bureaucracy, have become a special interest or “plunderer” in its own right. It is not just the tool of some other class or small group of plunderers (although it might be this as well). The state functionaries act to protect and expand the benefits they personally get from the access they have to the legislature, the legal system, and the tax system which provide them with “plunder” of various kinds: “la spoliation légale” (legal plunder),“la spoliation par abus et excès du gouvernement” (plunder by abusive and excessive government), and “la spoliation par l’impôt” (plunder by means of taxation). See my essay on "Rule by Functionaries".

[21] He says "crève les yeux du corps". Bastiat developed a complex vocabulary of "seeing" and "not seeing" which he uses in this pamphlet and elsewhere in his writings. I have created a "concept map" to show the variety of these terms and their interconnections which I discuss in my paper "Bastiat on the Seen and The Unseen: An Intellectual History" (2022) Online. See also my paper on "Vocabulary Clusters in the Thought of Frédéric Bastiat" (2022, 2024). A collection of "concept maps" or "vocabulary clusters" of some of Bastiat's key ideas such as Class, Disturbing Factors, Harmony and Disharmony, Human Action, Plunder, and the Seen and the Unseen. Online. A small image of "The Seen and the Unseen" vocabulary cluster can be "seen" at the top of this page. A larger one (3,000 px wide) in available [here] (SeenUnseen3000.jpg).

[22] Bastiat is punning on the phrase "se libérer" (to liberate or free oneself). Tax payers "make available" their taxes to the state but only under threat of coercion.

[23] He says "sauter aux yeux de l'esprit". Here he makes the distinction between "les yeux de l'esprit" (the eyes of the mind) and "les yeux du corps" (the eyes of the body). When the former have been trained by the study of political economy they can "see" things which the latter cannot.

[24] A "sous" was a small denomination coin. 20 sous were equal to 1 franc. So 100 sous were equal to 5 francs.

[25] According to Bastiat's theory of exchange things of "equal or equivalent value" were exchanged between two parties who voluntarily entered into an agreement to do so after engaging in "libre débat" (free negotiation) over the terms. The new twists Bastiat gave to the theory was firstly, the "the things" being exchanged could be either physical goods or "services", and secondly, that it was "mutual" or "reciprocal" or in other words that both parties benefited (or thought they would benefit) from making the exchange. See Chapter IV "Échange" (Exchange), Harmonies Économiques (1850) Online.

[26] He says "le parasite extra-légal, ni le parasite légal". Bastiat developed the idea of "la spoliation legal" (legal plunder, that is plunder done with the protection or sanction of the law) to describe the activities of the state which would be normally prohibited to private citizens(la spoliation extra-légale" - extra-legal plunder, that is plunder which is prohibited by law) - but which it could engage in under cover of the legitimacy of the law. He also often used "harsh language" like "le parasitisme" (parasitism) to describe this behaviour, as in “le parasitisme des fonctions publiques” (the parasitism, or parasitic nature of the public sector). See my paper "Frédéric Bastiat on Plunder, Class, and the State" (2021). This essay was written to accompany an anthology of Bastiat's writings on plunder, class, and the state. Online.

[27] Bastiat’s work on the Finance Committee of the National Assembly is a topic which has scarcely been explored in any detail and needs to be more fully researched. We know that he was nominated to be its vice president and was required to present its reports officially to the Chamber of Deputies from time to time. He was reappointed to this position eight times, such was the regard his peers had for his economic knowledge. Needless to say, his advice about cutting taxes and balancing the budget was not often heeded, and he became a bit like the resident “Utopian” on the Committee. See ES2 11, pp. 187–97.

[28] Marcus Porcius Cato (95–46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger (Cato Minor), was a politician in the late Roman Republic and a noted defender of “Roman liberty.” He was a supporter of the Stoic school of philosophy and became renowned for his opposition to political corruption and the growing power of Julius Caesar. He was much admired in the eighteenth century, and his name was used as a nom de plume by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, opponents of the British Empire in the 1720s, in their book Cato’s Letters (1720–23).

[29] According to Bastiat’s theory of “le déplacement” (displacement, distortion, misdirection) when the government intervened in the economy it caused a distortion in its structure through the misallocation of capital, labour, and population, and "artificial" changes in consumer needs, tastes, and interests which producers attempted to satisfy. These “displacements” did nothing to increase the amount of wealth in society and often led to economic fluctuations and periodic crises. See my essay on "Bastiat's Theory of Displacement".

[30] Music, art, theater, and other forms of fine art were heavy regulated by the French state. They could be subsidized, granted a monopoly of performance, the number of venues and prices of tickets were regulated, and they were censored and often shut down for overstepping their bounds. In the 1848 budget the relatively small amount of fr. 2.6 million was spent in the category of “beaux-arts” (within the Ministry of the Interior), which included art, historical monuments, ticket subsidies, payments to authors and composers, subsidies to the royal theaters and the Conservatory of Music (out of a total budget of fr. 1.45 billion). See “Documents extraits de l’enquête sur les théâtres,” JDE 26 (July 1850): 409–12.

[31] Bastiat's young friend and colleague Gustave de Molinari was a keen theater goer and wrote several articles on the political economy of the theater industry. As Bastiat was writing this essay the massive Dictionnaire de l'économiepolitique (Dictionary of Political Economy) (1852-53) project was underway, for which Molinari wrote the entry on "Théatres" (Theatres) and "Beaux-arts" (Fine Arts). See in French, Gustave de Molinari, The Collected Articles from the Dictionnaire de l'Économie politique (1852-53). Edited by David M. Hart (The Pittwater Free Press, 2023), "Théatres", T2, pp. 731-33 Online and "Beaux-arts", T1. pp.149-57 Online; my English translation, Gustave de Molinari, The Collected Articles from the Dictionnaire de l'Économie politique (1852-53). Edited and translated into English by David M. Hart (March, 2025 draft), "Theatres" Online and "Fine Arts" Online. He also has an discussion of this question in the eighth chapter of Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare (Conversations on Saint Lazarus Street) (1849): in French, Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare; entretiens sur les lois économiques et défense de la propriété (Paris: Guillaumin, 1849), S8, pp. 222 ff. Online; and my English translation, Soirées on the rue Saint-Lazare: Discussions about Economic Laws and a Defence of Property. Translated, edited, and with an Introduction by David M. Hart (Pittwater Free Press, 2025) Online.

[32] The Théâtre-Italien (also known as the Opéra-Comique), after several false starts in the seventeenth century, was formally reestablished in 1716 under the patronage of the duc d’Orléans. The Conservatory of Music in Paris has experienced a large number of changes over the centuries as regimes and musical tastes have changed. Louis XIV created the Académie royale de musique by royal patent in 1669, and by 1836 it was known as the Conservatoire de musique et de déclamation. The Comédie-Français (also known as the Théâtre-Français) was founded in 1680 by Louis XIV. He also founded the Opéra de Paris in 1669.

[33] Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) was a poet turned statesman who was a member of the provisional government and Minister of Foreign Affairs in June 1848. This and the following quotations come from Lamartine, “Sur la subvention du Théâtre-Italien (Discussion du Budget) Assemblée National—Séance du 16 avril 1850,” pp. 163, 161, 166.

[34] This is a rather mocking statement by Bastiat. The Civil List was money paid annually by the state for the upkeep of the monarch, the royal family, and their estates. In 1791 Louis XVI received fr. 25 million; in the Restoration Louis XVIII received fr. 34 million and Charles X received fr. 32 million. Louis-Philippe, the new July Monarch after the 1830 Revolution, was granted fr. 12 million per year for himself and fr. 1 million for the prince, by the law of 2 March 1832. According to the budget of 1848 (the last before the February Revolution of 1848 overthrew the monarchy), fr. 13.3 million was set aside for the Civil List. See L’Annuaire de l’économie politique et de la statistique (1848), p. 29.

[35] Bastiat thought that the “means of existence” or the “standard of living” was not static thing but a constantly growing amount. As lower order needs were satisfied by this steady expansion of wealth other higher order needs could be then satisfied, including things like art and culture. He repeatedly referred to this throughout the Economic Harmonies , considering it to be one of his three “great laws” which governed the operation of the economy. In this case, “cette grande loi” (this great law) went as follows: "Approximation constante de tous les hommes vers un niveau qui s’élève toujours, — en d’autres termes : Perfectionnement et égalisation, — en un seul mot : HARMONIE." (There is a steady approach by all men and women towards a standard of living which is always increasing, in other words, improvement and equalization, or in a single word, HARMONY.) See the"Conclusion" to EH1 Online.

[36] Bastiat distinguished between "artificial" and "natural" forms of social and economic organisation which he developed most fully in Chapter 1 of Economic Harmonies, "Natural and Artificial Organisation". "Artificial" organisations were those imposed by coercion, usually by the state and often to benefit one influential and politically well-connected group of people at the expense of others. "Natural" organisations on the other hand were those which emerged spontaneously,voluntarily, and "harmoniously" by individuals in order to pursue their interests and achieve their goals. The socialist of his day advocated several kinds of "artificial" organisations and associations such as government run workshops to provide taxpayer funded jobs, and "People's Banks" to provide interest free loans to workers.

[37] Bastiat says "la société se développeraient harmonieusement sous l'influence de la liberté". He only mention "harmony" once in this pamphlet which is surprising given that he was also working on his economic treatise Economic Harmonies at the same time.See my paper "Bastiat's Theory of Harmony and Disharmony: An Intellectual History". A paper given to the American Institute for Economic Research, Great Barrington, Mass. (Jan. 2020). Online.

[38] The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (The Great Exhibition, or the Crystal Palace Exhibition) was an international trade and industry exhibition held in Hyde Park, London, between May and October 1851. The Economists were very excited about the Exhibition because of the way it showcased the achievements of the industrial revolution as well as the possibilities which could be opened up by international free trade. The Exhibition was planned and organized privately by the members of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce under the patronage of Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. The French had begun the practice of holding international industrial exhibitions in 1798 and held others in 1819, 1823, 1827, 1834, 1839, and 1844. It was the 1844 exhibition, in Paris, which probably inspired the London Exhibition of 1851. An exhibition was planned for Paris in 1849, but the Revolution in 1848 meant that it was only a shadow of the previous ones. See Blanqui, “Expositions,” in DEP 1:746–51.

[39] In April 1850, a deputy asked for a subsidy of sixty thousand francs for the Théâtre des Italiens. Since 1801, this theater had had a permanent troupe and had performed the masterpieces of Italian music before French audiences. Lamartine strongly supported the proposal.

[40] The Ministry of Finance was located in the rue de Rivoli in Paris, and the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts in the rue de Grenelle.

[41] The subsidy of sixty thousand francs for the Théâtre des Italiens was voted on 16 May and not 16 April as Bastiat mistakenly says.

[42] Bastiat uses another pairing of phrases to make his point about some eyes "seeing" and other eyes "not seeing" - "l'œil gauche" (the left eye) and "l'œil droit" (the right eye).

[43] Bastiat probably had in mind the two biggest public works projects that were being undertaken in the 1840s, namely the construction of the fortifications of Paris (1841–44) and the government’s participation in building the railroads after 1842. The first was an initiative of Thiers, who planned to build a massive military wall around the city of Paris with sixteen surrounding forts. This was completed in 1844 at a cost of fr. 150 million. The total expenditure would have been much higher if the state had not used the labor of thousands of conscripts to dig the ditches and build the wall. See Patricia O’Brien, “L’Embastillement de Paris: The Fortification of Paris during the July Monarchy,” French Historical Studies 9, no. 1 (1975): 63–82. The law of 11 June 1842 authorized the French state to partner with private companies in the building of five railroad networks spreading out from Paris. Between 1842 and the end of 1847, the state had spent about fr. 420 million in subsidies, loan guarantees, and construction costs. Lobet, “Chemins de fer,” Annuaire de l’économie politique (1848), pp. 289–311. Data on p. 294.

[44] Achille Fould (1800–1867) served as Minister of Finance in the Second Republic and then as Minister of State in the Second Empire. He was a personal financial advisor to Napoleon III and played an important part in the imperial household. Jean Martial Bineau (1805–55) was an engineer by training and a politician who served as Minister of Public Works in 1850 and then as Minister of Finance in 1852 during the Second Empire.

[45] The Champs de Mars (Field of Mars) is a large public park in the 7th Arrondissement in Paris. Before the Revolution it had been a military parade ground, but during the Revolution it was used for a variety of purposes, including public ceremonies as well as executions. In May 1848 it was the site for a large revolutionary Festival of Concord. In the latter part of the nineteenth century it was the site for several World Exhibitions, especially that of 1889 for which the Eiffel Tower was built at its northeast corner.

[46] Napoléon did not seem to have a well-thought-out economic theory, but his scattered remarks, recorded in his Mémoires (1821), show him to be an economic nationalist and strong protectionist. See for example “Experience showed that each day the continental system was good, because the State prospered in spite of the burden of the war. . . . The spirit of improvement was shown in agriculture as well as in the factories. New villages were built, as were the streets of Paris. Roads and canals made interior movement much easier. Each week some new improvement was invented: I made it possible to make sugar out of turnips, and soda out of salt. The development of science was at the front along with that of industry” (pp. 95–99).

[47] Bastiat uses the term par prestation (compulsory or required service), which had a powerful connotation to the Economists, as it referred to the common eighteenth-century practice of compulsory community labor (la corvée). Under the old regime the most hated of the taxes imposed on the peasantry were the forced labor obligations or corvées which required local farmers to work a certain number of days (eight) every year for their local lord or on various local and national roadworks. These were repealed and reinstated repeatedly over a period of about sixty years, beginning with Turgot’s ordinances of March 1776. Forced labor obligations were reintroduced by Napoléon in 1802 under a new name, prestations, and were limited to work on local (not national) roads. They were abolished again in 1818 only to be reintroduced in 1824 at two days per year. This was increased to three days per year in 1836 with the further refinement that some individuals were able to buy their way out of service for a money payment. Courcelle Seneuil described the prestations as “vicious” and “like the old debris from feudal times, like the last vestige of barbarism and of the forced communal organization of labor.” See Courcelle Seneuil, “Prestations,” in DEP 2:428–30.

[48] Chapter 2, Article 13, of the Constitution of 4 November 1848. This article raises the problem which concerned Bastiat deeply of the difference between the free-market idea of “the liberty of work and industry” (la liberté du travail et de l’industrie) and the socialist idea of the “right to a job” (la liberté au travail), which increasingly became an issue during the Revolution. The Constitution of November 1848 specifically refers to the former but also seems to advocate the latter with the phrase “public works suitable for reemploying the unemployed.” The creation and then the abolition of the National Workshops is an example of this confusion. See Bastiat, “Opinion de M. Frédéric Bastiat,” pp. 373–76.

[49] Here Bastiat is restating a key insight of Destutt de Tracy’s that “la société ne consiste que dans une suite continuelle d’échanges” (society is nothing but a continual succession of exchanges), in Traité d’économie politique (1823), pp. 68-69). He made very similar statements in Economic harmonies chap. IV “Exchange” that “Exchange is political economy; it is society in its entirety, for it is impossible to imagine society without exchange or exchange without society,” and in chap. V “On Value” that “from the economic point of view society is exchange.”

[50] See the chapter on this in Economic Harmonies, chapter XVII "Services Privés, Services Publics" (Private Services and Public Services) Online.

[51] He says "débat contradictoire" (a debate or a discussion between two parties with different views). The term he normally used was "le libre débat" (free negotiation).

[52] This was true for the followers of the socialists Louis Blanc, Charles Fourier, and the Montagnard faction in the Chamber in 1848. It was not true for the socialist anarchist Proudhon.

[53] The Latin phrase malesuada fames (ill-counseling famine) is from Virgil’s Aeneid (VI, 276). In John Dryden’s translation it is rendered as “Famine’s unresisted rage”.

[54] Four factors led to the opening up of world trade in agricultural products after the “Hungry 1840s”: the rise in European prices caused by the crop failures of the late 1840s, the freeing up of grain markets in Britain and then other European countries, the reduction in shipping costs, and the rise of large grain markets in the United States and the port of Odessa in the Crimea. From zero wheat imports from the United States to Britain in 1846, the level rose to 1,000 metric tons per annum by 1862.

[55] Terms like "association" and "organisation" were widely used by socialists like Louis Blanc and Charles Fourier in the 1840s to describe how socialism would overcome the defects they saw in the free market system. By "l’Organisation" they meant the organization of labor in government run workshops or factories; and by "l’Association" they meant cooperative living and working arrangements also run and paid for by the government. Bastiat frequently uses these words in the socialist sense, often with a capital O or A, in order to mock or criticize them, pointing out that supporters of the free market are also firm believers in “organization” and “association,” but only if they result from voluntary actions by individuals and are not the result of government coercion and legislation.

[56] Related to the idea of "sociability" is that of "solidarity" which is a concept Bastiat discusses at some length in Economic Harmonies, chapter XXI "Solidarité", pp. 536 ff. Bastiat believed that “l’homme n’est pas seulement soumis à la loi de la responsabilité, mais encore à celle de la solidarité” (mankind is not only subject to the law of (individual) responsibility but in addition to that (law) of (human) solidarity). This was one of the “grandes lois naturelles” (great natural laws) at work in human society. It consisted of two connected/ related parts, the first of which, “la loi de la responsabilité," focuses on the single individual, while the second, “la loi de la solidarité," focused on a collection of individuals in a society or community. By this, Bastiat had in mind a network of social relationships which spread out from one’s immediate family, friends and relations, and which extended to one’s fellow citizens, and then to humanity in general in a series of expanding concentric circles. Bastiat also calls solidarity “une sorte de Responsabilité collective” (a form of collective responsibility); or shared responsibilitywhich is passed on or transmitted to others. Both laws were tied up with the notion of “l’action humaine” (human action), free will, choosing between alternatives, and the idea that it is the acting individual who reaps the benefits or suffers the harms of the consequences of that action. These natural laws guided individuals and societies away from harm or pain, either in their personal behaviour (in the form of vice) or social practices (in the form of bad government policy). See my essay on The Laws of Individual Responsibility and Human Solidarity".

[57] Bastiat here of course is referring to the division of labour.

[58] Bastiat says "ses associés" (his associates).

[59] He says "ressort" (the spring or mainspring). As a true nineteenth century social theorist Bastiat made use of several mechanical, biological, or astronomical metaphors to describe the structure and operation of social, economic, and political institutions, structures, and processes. These included the idea that society was like a clock or a mechanism (with wheels, springs, and movements), or a machine with an engine or motor (driven by steam or other physical forces), or like a mechanical or scientific apparatus of some kind (with different parts which operated together in a coordinated fashion), or a "celestial mechanism" like orbiting planets which moved under the influence of gravity, normally in a "harmonious" manner but which sometimes could be knocked out of their orbit by some external disturbing factor. See my essay on "The Social Mechanism and its Driving Force".

[60] Saint-Simonians, phalansterians, and Icarians were the followers of the socialists Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Étienne Cabet respectively.

[61] He says "la liberté du travail" (the liberty of working). The term was the opposite of the socialists' demand for "le droit du travail" (the right to a job) which would be provided by the government and paid for with taxpayers' money. This idea was hotly debated over the summer of 1848 when the new constitution of the Republic was being drawn up. Liberal deputies like Bastiat opposed the idea but unfortunately a watered down version of the socialist's demand was included in the final draft of the Constitution. See “Opinion de M. Frédéric Bastiat.” In Le Droit au travail à l’Assemblée nationale: Recueil complet de tous les discours prononcés dans cette mémorable discussion par MM. Fresneau, Hubert-Delisle, Cazalès, Gaulthier de Rumilly, Pelletier, A. de Tocqueville, Ledru-Rollin, Duvergier de Hauranne, Crémieux, M. Barthe, Gaslonde, de Luppé, Arnaud (de l’Ariége), Thiers, Considérant, Bouhier de l’Ecluse, Martin-Bernard, Billault, Dufaure, Goudchaux, et Lagrange (textes revus par les orateurs), suivis de l’opinion de MM. Marrast, Proudhon, Louis Blanc, Ed. Laboulaye et Cormenin; avec des observations inédites par MM. Léon Faucher, Wolowski, Fréd. Bastiat, de Parieu, et une introduction et des notes par M. Joseph Garnier, 373–76. Paris: Guillaumin, 1848. The leading theorist on the question of "the freedom of working" was Charles Dunoyer. See De la liberté du travail, ou simple exposé des conditions dans lesquelles les force humaines s’exercent avec le plus de puissance. 3 vols. (Paris: Guillaumin, 1845).

[62] Bastiat came to the attention of the economists in Paris with an essay on French and British tariffs which was published in the JDE in October 1844, "De l’influence des tarifs français et anglais sur l’avenir des deux peuples" (On the Influence of French and English Tariffs on the Future of the Two People), Journal des Économistes, T. IX, Oct. 1844, pp. 244-71; OC1, pp. 334-86 [online](FrenchClassicalLiberals/Bastiat/OeuvresCompletes/OC1-1862/index.html#OC1-melanges1). He followed this up with a book which was published in mid-1845, Cobden et la ligue, ou l’Agitation anglaise pour la liberté du commerce (Cobden and the League, or the English Movement for Free Trade)(Paris: Guillaumin, 1845), which contained a long Introduction in which he analysed who benefited and who lost out from British tariffs (the "Corn Laws"). He would later be appointed Secretary of the Board of the "Association pour la liberté des échanges" (the French Free Trade Association) upon it founding in Februart 1846and was the editor and principal writer of its journal Le Libre-échange (November 1846 - April 1848). Many of his articles in that journal were republished in the collection Economic Sophisms I (early 1846) and Economic Sophisms II (early 1848). His younger friend and colleague Gustave de Molinari was also an important player in the French free trade movement, writing a 2 volume history of tariffs in 1847, Histoire du tarif (Paris: Guillaumin, 1847),and the key entries on free trade in the DEP (1852-53) - Céréales (Cereals), T. 1, pp. 301-26; Liberté du commerce, liberté des échanges (Liberty of Commerce, Free Trade), T. 2, pp. 49-63; Tarifs de douane (Customs Tariffs, T. 2, pp. 712-16 Online.

[63] Bastiat borrows the made-up name “M. Prohibant” (from prohiber, to prohibit; prohibant, prohibiting, thus “Mr. Trade Prohibiter” or “Mr. Protectionist”) from a popular work written by Charles Dupin in the late 1820s, Le petit producteur français. This was an early attempt to dispel economic sophisms similar to those Bastiat was addressing from 1845 onward. Dupin states in the “Dedication” to vol. 4 (titled Le petit commerçant français) to the “students of the Business schools of Paris, Lyon, and Bordeaux” that he was dedicating this work to them “with the aim of refuting the long-term and entrenched errors concerning the interests of commerce.” Dupin uses the fictitious M. Prohibant to represent those who continue to cling to anti-free-trade and anti-free-market sentiments (pp. ix–x). It is of course interesting to note that Bastiat also dedicates his Economic Harmonies to the “Youth of France” for similar reasons. Dupin’s work might also be compared to other attempts by free market supporters to appeal to a popular audience, such as Jane Marcet and Harriet Martineau.

[64] Bastiat calls the Chamber la grande fabrique de lois (the great law factory).

[65] Horace Say, like Bastiat, calls those who work for the Customs Service une armée considérable (a sizable army), which numbered 27,727 individuals (1852 figures). This army is composed of two “divisions”—one of administrative personnel (2,536) and the other of “agents on active service” (24,727). See Horace Say, “Douane,” in DEP 1:578–604 (figures from p. 597).

[66] Bastiat uses the expression que Dieu maudisse (what God would damn), which is much stronger than the other occasion where he uses the word “damned,” in the title of his essay “Damned Money!” (April 1849) . In the following chapter, “Machines,” he begins with the exclamation “Malédiction sur les machines!” (a curse on machines!).

[67] A reference to Bastiat's theory of "the ricochet effect".

[68] Under the ancien régime Louis XIII in 1640 replaced the old franc with a system based on three coins: the louis d’or (gold Louis), the louis d’argent (silver Louis) or “silver écu,” and the liard (made of copper). French currency was decimalized (converted to a base 10 system) in 1795 with the introduction of a new French franc, which was divisible into 100 centimes. However, older coins continued to circulate and the older names of the coins were still used.

[69] In the words of the English campaigner against the Corn Laws, Perronet Thompson, who influenced Bastiat in his thinking on this topic, the French tariff laws were tantamount to an order that every Frenchman throw every “third franc into the sea” (Thompson, Letters of a Representative to His Constituents, p. 189).

[70] Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704) was bishop of Meaux, a historian, and tutor to the son of Louis XIV. In politics he was an intransigent Gallican Catholic, an opponent of Protestantism, and a supporter of the idea of the divine right of kings. He wrote Discours sur l’histoire universelle (1681). Bastiat is having a joke here as this book is not what Jacques would probably buy if he had any spare cash.

[71] The city of Paris specialized in producing goods which were known as "les articles de Paris". These were high-priced luxury goods which included such items as leather goods, jewelry, fashion clothing, and perfume, and well as high end forged metal goods such as statuary.

[72] Bastiat says "l'œil sagace".

[73] Bastiat discusses the conflict between human labour, foreign labour, and machine labour in "Travail humain, travail national" (c. late 1845), ES1 20, I-136 Online.

[74] From the first part of Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (1754): “Most of our ills are of our own making, and that we might have avoided nearly all of them if only we had adhered to the simple, unchanging and solitary way of life that nature ordained for us. If nature destined us to be healthy, I would almost venture to assert that the state of reflection is a state contrary to nature, and that the man who meditates is a depraved animal” (Rousseau, A Discourse on Inequality, p. 45).

[75] Bastiat says "le bon marché" (cheap or low prices). The phrase was used by Bastiat and other economists as a slogan in the campaign for free trade. Bastiat was the editor of the journal of the French Free Trade Association Le Libre-échange (1846-48). He and a few other economists like Gustave de Molinari published and distributed on the streets of Paris a magazine called "Jacques Bonhomme" in June 1848 one of whose mottos was "La vie à bon marché" Ilife with low prices). See my essay on "Bastiat: The Revolutionary Journalist".

[76] Another reference to his theory of "the ricochet effect".

[77] This a key passage in which Bastiat summarizes his thoughts on the interdependence of all industries in the economy, and how information is transmitted from one place to another via canaux secrets (secret or hidden channels) in a pre-Hayekian insight into how prices transmit information to dispersed economic actors. It is also another example of the water metaphor, which he often used in his discussion of the ricochet effect.

[78] This is a reference to the debate between Bastiat and the socialist anarchist writer Proudhon on free credit, which took place in Proudhon’s journal La Voix du peuple in thirteen parts between 22 October 1849 and 11 February 1850, when Proudhon ended the discussion. This was later published in book form by Proudhon as Intérêt et principal (1850) and then by Bastiat with an additional concluding chapter as Gratuité du crédit (1850). See OC5, pp. 94-335 Online. After the February Revolution socialists urged the new government to nationalise the Bank of France (which had been a private monopoly) and to use it to expand the money supply and to issue very low or zero interest loans to ease the bad economic recession which followed the Revolution. It was as part of this discussion about the future of the Bank of France and the budgetary problems of the new government that Proudhon put forward his own ideas for an "Exchange Bank" between March and June 1848, culminating in his book Organisation du crédit et de la circulation in July 1848. When this came to nothing, he developed another scheme for a "Peoples' Bank" in January 1849 which would issue very low interest rate loans to ordinary workers. He attempted to raise money to get a People's Bank running with a prospectus for the formation of such a bank through popular subscription. The key features of the bank was that it would use the assets of the French nation to provide very low or zero interest loans to workers to set up their businesses and workshops, that gold coins and other hard currency would be replaced by paper currency, and that the banks would act as a clearing house to cancel out debts among the workers. Proudhon attempted to establish this bank between January and April 1849 but it failed to get the funds it needed and was forced to close. When Proudhon, the anarchist, tried to get government support for his failed bank, he was mocked by economists like Bastiat for his hypocrisy.

[79] Bastiat makes a distinction between two types of “money” here, numéraire (cash or hard money backed by gold or silver) and papier monnaie (paper money). We have translated numéraire as “money” throughout the book except, as in this passage, where a clear distinction has to be made between the two.

[80] Algeria was invaded and conquered by France in 1830, and the occupied parts were annexed to France in 1834. The new constitution of the Second Republic (1848) declared that Algeria was no longer a colony but an integral part of France (with three départements) and that the emigration of French settlers would be officially encouraged and subsidized by the government. Emperor Napoléon III returned Algeria to military control in 1858. In 1848 about 200,000 of the population of 2.5 million were Europeans. The deputy Amédée Desjobertin Le Journal des économistes gives a figure of fr. 125 million which was spent by the government in Algeria in 1847 and makes a very similar argument to that of Bastiat, that the money went to the troops and then into the hands of the merchants who serviced the needs of those troops. In a debate in the National Assembly in 1848 (11 and 19 September) a budget of fr. 50 million was allocated to the Ministry of War for the years 1848–51 to “establish agricultural colonies in the provinces of Algeria and for works of public utility intended to assure their prosperity.” The exact number of colonists was not specified, although a figure of twelve thousand for the year 1848 was mentioned. This subsidy would continue for at least three years, reaching fr. 17.5 million for each of the years 1851 and 1852. Over the four-year period each colonist would have received fr. 4,167 or a family of four some fr. 16,667. Bastiat at one stage mentions the figure of fr. 100 million per year as the level of true expenditure on Algeria. The actual state subsidy granted to French colonists who wished to settle in Algeria is hard to determine. The pro-colonizer Gustave Vesian lobbied for a community of ten thousand colonists living in three towns who would get other state benefits such as irrigated land, a guaranteed market for their grain in the domestic market, seed and food (and wine) for three years to get established, and low-interest loans. See Compte rendu des séances de l’Assemblée Nationale, vol. 3, Du 8 Août au 13 Septembre 1848, Séance du 11 Septembre 1848, pp. 943–44; also vol. 4, Du 14 Septembre au 20 Octobre 1848, p. 117; and Vesian, De la colonisation en Algérie.

[81] This is a reference to the Malthusian notion that there was a “surplus” population which could not be fed at the current rate of agricultural production. Thus, the population had to be “limited” in some way, in the long term by the exercise of “moral restraint” in having smaller families, or in the short term with some people having to be moved elsewhere, such as to the colonies. Bastiat stood out from the other political economists because of his criticism of Malthusian pessimism. He believed that they had underestimated the ability of people to rationally plan the size of their families and the capacity of the market to increase agricultural production. He discusses this in Economic Harmonies, chapter XVI "De la population" Online.

[82] In a debate in the National Assembly on 11 and 19 September 1848, a budget of fr. 50 million was allocated to the Ministry of War for the years 1848–51 to “establish agricultural colonies in the provinces of Algeria and for works of public utility intended to assure their prosperity” (Compte rendu des séances de l’Assemblée Nationale, p. 943).

[83] Marl, or marlstone, is a sedimentary rock consisting of a mixture of clay and limestone which historically had been crushed and used as fertilizer.

[84] The Economists believed that associations des secours mutuels (mutual aid societies, or “friendly societies”) were an important way in which ordinary workers could improve their economic situation without state assistance. Bastiat mentions them in an Economic Sophism "Conseil inférieur du travail" (The Lower Council of Labour), p II-45 Online; ES2 4, pp. 142–46, where he points out the legal impediments to their operation. See also the discussion in Economic Harmonies, chart XIV "Des salaries" (Wages), p. 388 Online. His friend and colleague Gustave de Molinari had championed the idea of labor exchanges as a way in which workers could inform themselves about the availability of jobs and rates of pay all across Europe.

[85] (Note by Bastiat.) The Minister of War recently stated that each individual transported to Algeria has cost the State 8,000 francs. But it is a fact that the poor souls in question could have lived quite well in France on a capital of 4,000 francs. I ask: how does this relieve the French population, when it removes one man and the means of subsistence for two?

[86] The Forest of Bondy is a large forest in the département of Seine-Saint-Denis, about 15 kilometers east of Paris. It was a notorious refuge for thieves and highwaymen. Hence one might translate Bastiat’s expression le régime (légal) de la forêt de Bondy as “the law of the jungle” as does the FEE translator (WSWNS, FEE edition, p. 41).

[87] Bastiat says "duper" (to be duped or fooled). the purpose of writing his series of Economic Sophisms" was to refute the economic errors (sophisms) which were deliberately spread by the protectionists in order to deceive "the dupes", the ignorant and gullible general public. The idea of deception and trickery was central to Bastiat's understanding of economic sophisms. According to him, individuals were deprived of their property directly by means of "la force" (coercion or force) or indirectly by means of "la ruse" (fraud or trickery) or "la duperie" (deception). The beneficiaries of this force and fraud used "les sophismes" (misleading and deceptive arguments) to deceive ordinary people whom he referred to as "les dupes" (dupes). The use of terms like "duperie" was part of Bastiat's "rhetoric of liberty". See my paper on "Bastiat's Rhetoric of Liberty: The Use of Language and Literature in his Economic Writings" (2024) Online.

[88] Bastiat uses the expression déclassée, which literally means “declassed.”

[89] Here is another one of Bastiat's little economic stories. “Mondor” is based on one of the brothers Antoine and Philippe Girard, who were street jugglers and tricksters in Paris in the early seventeenth century who sold patent medicines to passers-by. Philippe Girard’s character was called “Mondor.” “Ariste” was one of the brothers in Molière’s play L’École des maris (The School for Husbands, 1661) who tutored two orphaned sisters.

[90] Bastiat uses the word éclabousser, which means to splash or splatter somebody with something, often with mud. This could be a reference to the reckless way Mondor drives about town in his carriage, splashing pedestrians with mud from the streets. In the pamphlet “Damned Money!” Bastiat refers to the profligate Croesus, who loved to drive his ostentatiously decorated chariots very recklessly, splashing mud on the onlookers. He could be making a similar comment about Mondor here.

[91] Bastiat uses the term le fesse-mathieu, which is a coarse expression for a usurer or moneylender. It is a combination of the term la fesse (buttock) and Matthew, a reference to Saint Matthew’s having been a tax collector and moneylender before he became a disciple of Christ. Molinari wrote the entry on "Usury" in the DEP where he defends usury from its critics. See "Usure (Usury)", DEP, T. 2, pp. 790-95 Online.

[92] Bastiat says "le divin inventeur de l'ordre social". In his religious views Bastiat believed that a harmonious order had been created by design. He referred to this as "the Creater" or "the divine inventer", "the hand or finger of God", or more often simply "Providence". In his writings he does not refer to any religious doctrinal matters so it is hard to gauge the extent of his religious views. He did take the last rights on his death bed but this could have been a kind of "Pascal's wager" given the very harsh things he had said about "theocratic plunder" and the deception used by the Church to get followers.

[93] An "obole" is a coin of little value. it owes its origin to the Greek obelos (obole). In the medieval period the obole was a copper coin officially worth 1/2 denier. In the ancien régime deniers were often divided into eighths; an obole was worth 4/8 denier. Over time, monetary devaluation eroded its value, so that the word “obole” came to mean a coin of minimal worth.

[94] Bastiat makes a mistake here. The amount he stated earlier in the article was fifty thousand francs per year.

[95] The title pairs two things—“le droit au travail” and “le droit au profit.” The first right, “le droit au travail” (the right to a job), was a slogan of the socialists during the Second Republic. They claimed that it was the duty of the government to provide every able-bodied Frenchman with a job, and the job-creation program initiated by the Constituent Assembly in the first days of the revolution, called the National Workshops, was designed to carry this out. Bastiat and the other Economists fiercely opposed this scheme, and Bastiat used his position in the Finance Committee to argue against it. In May 1848 the Constituent Assembly formed a committee to discuss the matter, as the burden of paying for the National Workshops scheme was becoming too much for the government to bear. Bastiat was one of the speakers, and in his speech he distinguished between the right to work (“droit au travail,” where “work” is used as a noun and thus might be rendered as the “right to a job”) and the “right to work” (droit de travailler, where “work” is used as a verb). He was opposed to the former but supported the latter. The government closed down the National Workshops in June, prompting riots in Paris, which were brutally put down by the army with considerable loss of life. Although he had opposed the National Workshops from the very beginning, Bastiat went out on the streets in order to stop the bloodshed and to aid the injured.

[96] Although he does not go into details here, Bastiat may well have had a similar distinction in mind with regard to profit, namely that between le droit au profit (the right to a [guaranteed] profit) and le droit de profiter (the right to seek profits).

[97] The "Ateliers nationaux" (National Workshops) were established on 27 February 1848, in one of the very first legislative acts of the provisional government, to create government-funded jobs for unemployed workers. The workshops were engaged in a variety of public works schemes, and workers got 2 francs a day, which was soon reduced to 1 franc because of the tremendous increase in their numbers (29,000 on March 5; 118,000 on June 15). Workshops were set up in a number of regional centers, but the main workshop was in Paris. The workshops were regarded by socialists as a key part of the revolution and as a model for the future reform of French society. Much of the inspiration for them came from the writings of the socialist Louis Blanc, whose book Organisation du travail (1839) discussed the need for ateliers sociaux (social workshops) which would guarantee employment for all workers. The first director of the National Workshops was a young engineer, Émile Thomas, and Blanc was appointed head of the Luxembourg Commission, which had been set up to study the problems of labor and which gradually became a focal point for labor organizations and activity. In several of the sophisms Bastiat refers to the “Luxembourg Palace,” where the Commission met, as shorthand for the socialist advocates of government wage control and subsidies.

[98] In the immediate aftermath of the February Revolution a new “temporary” tax law was introduced on 16 March 1848, which increased direct taxes on things such as land, movable goods, doors and windows, and trading licenses, by 45 percent. It was known as the taxe de quarante-cinq centimes (the 45-centime tax) and was deeply unpopular.

[99] The Ministry of Finance was located in the rue de Rivoli.

[100] The National Assembly closed down the National Workshops, the government-funded unemployment relief program, on 21 June, since their exploding cost was bankrupting the government. The Workshops had been vigorously opposed by Bastiat in the Finance Committee of which he was the vice president.

[101] François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768–1848), was a novelist, philosopher, and supporter of Charles X. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 1822 to June 1824. He refused to take the oath to King Louis-Philippe after 1830 and spent his retirement writing Mémoires d’outre-tombe (1849–50).

[102] Chateaubriand, “Conclusion. L’idée chrétienne est l’avenir du monde” (The Christian idea is the future of the world).