[1] Bastiat uses the word "pervertie" which could mean "perverted" or "corrupted." Further on in the text Bastiat uses a key word "la perturbation" which FEE translated as "perversion" which we believe misses the important role the concept of "la perturbation" (disturbance) plays in Bastiat's broader theory about the causes of "harmony" and "disharmony."

[2] Throughout the essay Bastiat uses terms such as "la force collective," "la force publique," or "la force commune" to refer to the coercive powers of the state. Here, we have translated it as "the collective or common or public use of force" according to the context.

[3] In the French version of "The Law" Bastiat uses the word "dieu" (god) 12 times. There are also references to "He" (2), "the gods" (2), and "providence" or "providential" (3). He refers to "nature" 16 times (not counting "natural" or "naturally.") The FEE translator inserted 5 references to "god" which were not in the original - 2 in the subtitles he inserted, and 3 in the text itself. He also translated one use of the word "providence" as "God" and one reference to "celui" (he who) as "The Creator." We indicate in the footnotes where these changes occur.

[4] Bastiat says "Celui qui nous l'a donnée" (He who has given it to us) which FEE translated as "The Creator."

[5] By "assimilation" Bastiat seems to mean the process by which the body has to absorb or "assimilate" directly the food, water, and air it needs in order to survive. He contrasts this with "appropriation" or the turning of other things into property which are also needed for survival. FEE translates "l'assimilation et l'appropriation" as "we convert them (natural resources) into products, and use them."

[6] Bastiat uses both the word "la personne" and "la personnalité" frequently throughout the essay. We have translated "la personne" as "person"; and "la personnalité" as "personality," "individuality," or "person" depending upon the context. FEE translated "la personnalité" as "individuality". Bastiat uses the trio of terms "Personnalité, Liberté, Propriété" throughout the pamphlet.

[7] Bastiat states "ces trois choses" which FEE translated as "these three gifts from God."

[8] Bastiat says "Chacun de nous tient certainement de la nature, de Dieu, le droit de défendre sa personne …" which FEE says "each of us has a natural right - from God". This changes the meaning from, "this right to self defence comes from nature (first) and then from God" to "this natural right to self defence comes from God (alone)."

[9] Shortly before this essay was written Louis Leclerc presented similar ideas about property being an extension of the self (or "le Moi" as he termed it). This essay had a big impact on Gustave de Molinari and fits in quite closely with what Bastiat is arguing here. See Louis Leclerc, "Simple observation sur le droit de propriété," (Some Simple Observations on the rights of property) JDE, vol. 21, no. 90, 15 October 1848, pp. 304-305.

[10] Bastiat uses the word "un peuple" which can be translated as "a people" or "a nation" depending upon the context.

[11] The relationship between "Besoins, Efforts, Satisfactions" (Needs, Efforts, and Satisfactions) is central to his economic theory and it is explained in chapter 2 in EH.

[12] To account for the fact that the free market was not always able to create a "harmonious" social order Bastiat developed a theory of "disturbing factors," which included things such as wars, the imposition of slavery, organised plunder by the state or the church, tariffs and other government interventions in the economy. Among the disturbing factors was "le déplacement" (displacement, dislocation) of capital and labor caused by government intervention such as a tariff which distorted the French economy by causing new factories to be build within the country which would otherwise not have been built if there had been free trade. See the unfinished chapter XVIII on "Disturbing Factors" in EH2 and my essay on "Disturbing and Restorative Factors".

[13] Bastiat makes a distinction between "l'égoisme" (egoism), which he regarded as harmful, and "l'intérêt" (self-interest) and "l'individualité" (individualism) which he regarded in a very positive light as the source of individual self-improvement and as the foundation of free market exchange.

[14] Bastiat planned to have a chapter on "la fausse philanthropie" in the complete version of EH. See the sketch of his plan at the end of his conclusion to the 1850 edition of EH which was inserted by his editor Prosper Paillottet in the second, expanded edition in July 1851.

[15] Bastiat uses the phrase "les oppressions sacerdotales" (oppression by priests) which FEE translates as "religious persecutions" which has a more general meaning. It is difficult to determine how religious Bastiat was. We know he had a "crisis of faith" when he was 19 and probably was not a practicing Catholic for most of his life. He reveals this in two letters to his friend Victor Calmètes in September and October 1820. See letters 4 and 5 in CW1, pp. 13-14. He refers to "God" many times in his writings, but also to "Providence" which suggests a deistic perspective. He is often very hostile to the plunderous and fraudulent behaviour of the Church as this expression "les oppressions sacerdotales" (oppression by priests) here demonstrates. It should be seen alongside his critique of "theocratic plunder" and "theocratic fraud" in ES (ES2 1. "The Physiology of plunder," CW2, pp. 114 ff.) and his idea of "theocratic sophisms" which used to delude the people (Conclusion to ES1, CW2, p. 110). In the conclusion to EH1 (written in late 1849 and published in January 1850) he talks about "l'exploitation des théocraties sacerdotales" (the exploitation by priestly theocracies), "spoliateurs de tous costumes et de toutes dénominations" (plunders (who wear) all kinds of robes and (who come from) all kinds of denominations), and who impose on people "l'esclavage mental" (mental slavery). However, as he approached his death he does seem to refer to God more frequently in his last writings and he did accept the last rites on his deathbed from his cousin who was a priest.

[16] Bastiat planned to write a History of plunder after he had finished writing Economic Harmonies. He sketched out the plan of the book in "The Physiology of plunder" and it would deal in chronological order with plunder, war, slavery, theocracy, monopoly, governmental exploitation, and false fraternity or communism. See Section 4 "The Unfinished Treatises: The Social and Economic Harmonies and The History of plunder (1850–51)" of the Readers Guide to the Works of Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850).

[17] As Bastiat noted in "The Two Moral Philosophies" (ES2 2, CW2, p134) "religious moral philosophy" which appealed to the plunderers' conscience was insufficient to end plundering. It also required "economic moral philosophy" which appealed to the victims and encouraged them to resist those who were plundering them.

[18] He even went so far as to describe the Chamber of Deputies which passed legislation benefiting one class at the expense of another as "la grande fabrique de lois" (the great law factory). See, VII. "Trade Restrictions" in WSWNS, CW3, p. 428.

[19] Bastiat here uses the phrase "les classes spoliées" (the plundered classes) which is central to his theory of plunder. He called those who do the plundering "la classe spoliatrice". See my essay on "Bastiat's theory of plunder."

[20] Bastiat uses some quite martial language to describe how people go about getting the "political rights" which will enable them to take part in plundering others "legally". He says here "elles poursuivent ainsi la conquête de leurs droits politiques" (so they hunt down or chase after the conquest of their political rights).

[21] Central to this essay is Bastiat's idea of "la spoliation légale" (legal plunder, or plunder sanctioned by the law) to which he contrasts "la spoliation extra-légale" (extra-legal plunder, or plunder which takes outside of the law). The latter term is translated by "illegal plunder." He first used this concept in his long introduction to his book on Cobden and the League (1845) before he moved to Paris with the slightly different phrase "la spoliation légalement exercée" (plunder carried out legally). His next use of a similar term was "une spoliation permanente et légale" (permanent and legal plunder) which appeared in "À monsieur le rédacteur du Courrier Français" (To the Editor of the Courrier français) Courrier français, 11 April 1846. His first use of the term "legal plunder" was in May 1847 in an essay he wrote for the free trade magazine he edited "Subsistances" (Subsistance Farming), Le Libre-Échange, 8 May 1847 and then regularly after the appearance of his article "Justice et fraternité" (Justice and fraternity), JDE, 15 June 1848.

[22] Bastiat coined the term "la classe électorale" (the electoral or voting class) to describe those who controlled the Chamber of Deputies. See, ES3 6 "The People and the Bourgeoisie," CW2, p. 286. Under the July Monarchy (1830-1848) the right to vote was limited to the wealthiest tax-payers who paid a certain amount in direct tax. Towards the end of the July Monarchy this group numbered about 240,000 individuals or about 5% of the population. Bastiat termed them "la classe électorale" (the electoral or voting class)). After the February 1848 Revolution universal manhood suffrage (men over the age of 21) was introduced for the April 1848 elections at which 7.8 million people participated (or 84% of registered voters). In the May 1849 election there were 9.9 million registered voters. By contrast, in England restrictions on voter eligibility were determined by the value of land one owned. The First Reform Bill of 1832 increased the size of the electorate from 435,000 to 652,000 out of a total population of 13 million.

[23] He first used the term "la spoliation universelle" (universal plunder) the previous month in his essay "Spoliation et loi" (Plunder and Law), JDE, 15 May 1850 (see CW2, p. 275.) In his essay "The State" (June, September 1848) he phrased this slightly differently as "le pillage réciproque" (reciprocal pillage) which he noted "il n'en est pas moins criminel parce qu'il s'exécute légalement et avec ordre" (that it is no less criminal because it is carried out legally and in an orderly manner). Also note his definition of the state: "c'est la grande fiction à travers laquelle tout le monde s'efforce de vivre aux dépens de tout le monde" (it is the great fiction by which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else), in CW2, p. 97.

[24] Bastiat states "les unes à cause de leur iniquité, les autres à cause de leur ignorance" which FEE translates as "some for their evilness, and some for their lack of understanding."

[25] Here for the first time in this essay he uses the term "la perturbation" (disturbance) which is part of his theory of disturbing factors (les causes perturbatrice) which he used to explain why "economic harmony" was not more widespread. It was because violence and plunder constantly intervened to disrupt the natural harmonizing process of the free market. See my essay on "Displacement". For some reason both Wells and FEE translated this as "perversion."

[26] Bastiat intended to write such as volume after he had finished Economic Harmonies.

[27] The purpose of his series of short essays called the "economic sophisms" was to expose the deceptive and false arguments ("les sophismes" or sophistical arguments) put forward by protectionists and others to justify government legislation in their favour. Unfortunately, too many people behaved like "les dupes" (dupes) and accepted these arguments at face value. See "Bastiat on Enlightening the 'Dupes' about the Nature of plunder," in the Introduction to CW3, pp. lv-lviii.

[28] See his economic sophism ES2 11 "The Utopian" in which Bastiat is temporarily put in charge of the government and is able to introduce all his proposed reforms. CW3, pp. 187-98.

[29] During the first few months of the revolution after February 1848, Bastiat's friend and colleague Michel Chevalier was sacked from his Chair in Political Economy at the University of Paris because the incoming government disagreed with his free market and free trade ideas. His chair was broken up into 5 separate positions which would teach "applied economics" more useful to bureaucrats and technocrats. After considerable lobbying on his behalf by the Political Economy society, Chevalier was reinstated in November 1848.

[30] (Note by Bastiat.) General Council of manufactures, Agriculture, and Commerce. Session of May 6, 1850.

[31] In early 1850 there were plans to reduce the suffrage by requiring more strict residency requirements for would-be voters. Bastiat had considerable experience with elections as he was elected twice to represent his district of Les Landes. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly in the election of 23 April 1848 to represent the département of Les Landes. He served on the Comité des finances (Finance Committee) and was elected 8 times as vice-president of the committee (such was the regard of his colleagues for his economic knowledge) and he made periodic reports to the Chamber on Finance Committee matters. In the election of 13-14 May 1849 for the Legislative Assembly 6.7 million men voted (out of 9.9 million registered voters). Bastiat was elected to the Legislative Assembly again to represent the département of Les Landes.

[32] In addition to his better known "economic sophisms" Bastiat also wrote several "political sophisms" on voting, elections, the nature of political representation, and the state. See, "Bastiat's Political Sophisms," in the Introduction to CW3, pp. lxvii-lxviii.

[33] Indirect taxes were levied on drink, salt, sugar, tobacco, gun powder, and other goods. According to the budget for 1848 the government raised fr. 307.9 million in indirect taxes which represented 22.4% of its total revenue of fr. 1.37 billion. Bastiat's idea of an ideal tax system was to replace indirect taxes which fell most heavily on the poor with low income tax on everybody and a 5% "fiscal" tariff rate. He thought indirect taxes were a a "trick" or a "hoax" on the poor. See "A Hoax," Jacques Bonhomme, 15-18 June 1848).

[34] Auguste Pierre Mimerel de Roubaix (1786-1872) was a textile manufacturer and politician from Roubaix who was a vigorous advocate of protectionism. In October 1846 he was instrumental in organizing the regional committees to form a national body based in Paris known as the "Association pour la défense du travail national" (Association for the Defense of National Employment). The latter was formed to oppose the French Free Trade Association, in which Bastiat played a crucial role, which became a national body on 10 May, 1846.

[35] The National Assembly sat in the Palais Bourbon. It was built by Louis XIV in 1722 for his daughter Louise Françoise. It is located on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. It was confiscated during the revolution (1791) and has been the location for the Chamber of Deputies since the Restoration. Bastiat uses this term in a mocking way.

[36] Bastiat uses here the word "la discorde" (discord, disharmony) which was the opposite of his famous notion of the essential "harmony" of the free market. See my essay on "Bastiat's Theory of Harmony and Disharmony: An Intellectual History" (2020) and the accompanying concept map of the terms he used to describe this theory.

[37] Here Bastiat is getting back at the socialists who agitated for state support for their plans "to organise" French society along socialist lines, as argued by Louis Blanc in Organisation du travail (1839) which he discusses below. The words "Association" and "Organisation" were two key words used by socialists like Victor Considerant and Louis Blanc to describe how they would like to see industry and labor organized in a socialist system: the "organisation of labour" by the state into "national or social workshops," and the association of workers into cooperative living and working arrangements as opposed to private property, wages, and exchanges on the free market. Bastiat frequently argued that the economists also believed in "association" and "organization" as long as it was done voluntarily. Here he is arguing that the socialists' schemes will in fact lead to "disorganisation" on a massive scale.

[38] In the U.S., in 1832 the protectionist Tariff imposed an average rate of 33%; the Compromise Tariff of 1833 intended to lower rates to a flat 20%; and the 1846 Tariff created 4 tariff schedules for goods which imposed 100%, 40%, 30%, or 20% depending upon the particular kind of good. The average rate in the U.S. in 1849 was about 23% and in 1890 about 40%. France had an average rate of about 12% in 1836 and it was still around 11% in 1848 before it began to drop steadily reaching 5% in 1857, then spiking briefly to 7.5% in 1858, and dropping steadily again to about 1.5% in 1870 (the Anglo-French Free Trade Treaty was signed in 1860), before again moving steadily upwards to about 8% in 1893. In 1849 the rates were about 6% in Britain and 10% in France.

[39] Charles Forbes, comte de Montalembert (1810-70) was a liberal Catholic who supported a free, Catholic alternative to the state monopoly of eduction and was arrested and fined for his activities. During the 1848 revolution he was elected to the Constituent Assembly as a moderate republican. He is known for his work Des devoirs des Catholiques sur la question de la liberté de l'enseignement (1843).

[40] Possibly Pierre Carlier (1794-1858) who was the Chief of Police during the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. He was made Prefect of the Police in Paris in November 1849 and in February 1850 ordered the uprooting of all the liberty trees which had been planed during the Revolution of 1848. He helped Louis Napoléon plan his coup d'état in December 1851.

[41] Charles Dupin (1784-1873) was a naval engineer who later became Minister of the Navy. He taught mathematics at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers and also ran courses for ordinary working people. He served in the Constituent and then the National Assemblies during the Second Republic. Bastiat may be referring to a passage in Dupin's Conseils adressés aux ouvriers parisiens (Paris: Firmin-Didot frères, 1840), pp. 5-6. Here he called the socialist ideal of equality "an equality in name only, a deceitful and bestial equality where you count workers by the number of their heads and not by the number of their minds; where you pay according to the number of their arms and not the strength of their arms; where you count for nothing the dexterity of the hands used by the skilled worker, nor for the dexterity of the ideas used by the skilled industrialist."

[42] By "extra-legal" Bastiat means "plunder which takes place outside the law", that is without the sanction of the law.

[43] Bastiat's use of the term "la spoliation extra-légale" (extra-legal plunder) appeared much later than "legal plunder," for the first time in the article "Justice et fraternité" (Justice and fraternity), JDE, 15 June 1848. See CW2, pp. 60-81.

[44] Bastiat uses the term "l'appareil" (apparatus) to describe two different sets of bureaucratic and social structures. The "apparatus of the state" (the legal system and the military) and the "apparatus of commerce and exchange." See my essay "The 'Apparatus' or Structure of Exchange".

[45] He gives two examples of how those seeking benefits from the state at taxpayer or consumer expence should really use force with their own hands instead of hiding behind "the great law factory" to do their dirty work for them. See the story of M. Prohibant, an iron manufacturer, using his own coercive force to block iron imports from Belgium instead of going to the Chamber, in VII. "Trade Restrictions" in WSWNS, CW3, p. 428. And another similar story "Plunder and the Law" (May 1850), in CW2, p. 269.

[46] Bastiat is referring to an argument commonly used by protectionists to justify their privileges by arguing that the benefits they received from tariff protection will inevitably "trickle down" to other workers in society as those protected individuals spend their wages and profits. He called this "le sophisme des ricochets" (the sophism of the ricochet effect). See "The Sophism Bastiat never wrote: The Sophism of the Ricochet Effect" in Further Aspects of Bastiat's Thought, in CW3, pp. 457-61.

[47] A major political battle was fought between the economists and the socialists over the summer of 1848 over the idea of "le droit au travail" (the right to a job). The right to a job (paid for by tax payers if need be) was a key platform of the socialists like Louis Blanc who tried to implement it in the National Workshops he set up in the wake of the February Revolution. Bastiat opposed this vigorously in the Chamber as the Vice-president of the Finance Committee. The free market politicians in the Chamber tried to stop the socialists inserting a clause in the new constitution to this effect over the summer of 1848, and they were eventually successful. Their preferred alternative was "la liberté du travail" (the liberty of working). See "The right to work vs. the right or freedom of working," in Bastiat's Political Writings: Anecdotes and Reflections, in CW1, pp. 410-12.

[48] Another political battle was fought between Bastiat and the anarchist socialist Proudhon who tried to get the Provisional government to set up "Peoples Banks" which would issue free credit to workers to set up their own businesses. The two had an extended debate on this question at the end of 1849 which was published as Gratuité du crédit. Discussion entre M. Fr. Bastiat et M. Proudhon (Free Credit. A Discussion between M. Fr. Bastiat and M. Proudhon) (Paris: Guillaumin, 1850).

[49] Among the many descriptions of socialism Bastiat gave this one is apt: "In brief, socialism has come to put into practice the theory of plunder." In "Spoliation et loi" (Plunder and Law) JDE, 15 May 1850. See CW2, p. 273. In the last two years of his life wrote a dozen anti-socialist pamphlets, the last of which was "The Law" (June 1850). His most extended discussions of socialism can be found in Free Credit (1850), Baccalaureate and socialism (1850) in CW2, pp. 185-234, and "Plunder and Law" (May 1850) in CW2, pp. 266-76. See my essay "Bastiat's Anti-socialist Pamphlets, or "Mister Bastiat's Little Pamphlets".

[50] In his first book on Cobden and the League (1845) he realised that the "war of ideas," in this case against protectionism, would be a long one. He carefully studied the strategies used by the English Anti-Corn Law League and thought about how to apply them to the conditions in France. He believed radical change would only occur "par une révolution lente et pénible, paisiblement accomplie dans les esprits" (by means of a slow and difficult revolution, (which will be) peacefully achieved in the minds (of men)). In Cobden and the League (1845). He also realised that the same could be said about the war of ideas against socialism and communism which replaced the war against protectionism after the February 1848 Revolution.

[51] In his pamphlet "Protectionism and communism" (Jan. 1849) he accused the protectionists of using the same methods to get benefits from the state as the communists planned to do; and in Baccalaureate and socialism (early 1850) he accused the conservatives who wanted to keep the old education system based on the teaching of Latin of spreading the values of slave owners and plunderers which encouraged the youth of France to move closer to communist ideology. See "Protectionism and communism" (Jan. 1849), in CW2, pp. 235-65, and Baccalaureate and socialism (early 1850), in CW2, pp. 185-234.

[52] During the June Days uprising in 1848 (23-26 June) the Constituent Assembly authorised General Cavaignac to use the army to crush the rebellion which had sprung up to oppose the closing of Blanc's National Workshops. Artillery was used to break up the hundreds of street barricades which had been erected throughout Paris resulting in the deaths of hundreds perhaps thousands of people. He then declared martial law which remained in effect until October. Bastiat said in a letter he was an eye-witness to this activity. See Letter 104 "To Julie Marsan" (29 June, 1848), CW1, pp. 156-57.

[53] In a speech to the Legislative Assembly in May 1850 he stated: "Je vous demande, Messieurs, si, en présence de ce progrès flagrant du socialisme, vous voulez rester impuissants et silencieux, si vous ne voulez apporter aucun remède au progrès du mal tel que je viens de vous le signaler par cet exemple éclatant, je le répète et je le constate, incontesté. Eh bien, non! Quant à moi, je soutiens que vous ne le devez pas, et je suis sûr que vous ne le voudrez pas. Il faut donc faire, à ce mal qui croît tous les jours, la guerre la plus énergique, la guerre que permet la Constitution, par tous les moyens que ne réprouvent pas la justice, l'honneur et les lois qui nous gouvernent." See "Discours sur la Réforme électorale" (Assemblé Nationale Législative. Séance du 22 mai 1850), pp. 427-53, in Oeuvres de M. le Comte de Montalembert (Paris: Lecoffre, 1860), Volume 3, p. 440.

[54] See Bastiat's speech on ""On the Allocation of the Land Tax in the Department of Les Landes" (July 1844) to his Local General Council on how local workers might turn to revolution if they did not get political representation and a more equal tax burden.

[55] He had begun making the distinction between "la Spoliation partielle" (partial plunder) and "la Spoliation universelle" (universal plunder) only the previous month in his article "Plunder and Law," JDE, 15 May 1850, in CW2, pp. 266-76.

[56] By this he meant a political system dominated by a very limited franchise, or what he called "la classe électorale." See note above.

[57] With the re-introduction of universal manhood in the Second Republic in February 1848. Elsewhere he talked about "reciprocal" or "mutual" plunder or theft, as in his essay "The state" (September 1848) where he warned of the danger of the coercive power of the state being use as "un instrument d'oppression et de spoliation réciproque" (an instrument of reciprocal oppression and plunder), CW2, p. 104.

[58] This is a reference to his fast failing health. His throat condition (possibly cancer not tuberculosis) would kill him six months after this essay was written (Christmas Eve1850).

[59] The phrase "la plus illogique perturbation sociale" is his second use in this essay of the word "la perturbation" (disturbance or disruption) which is caused by government intervention. For some reason both FEE and Wells translated this as "perversion." See note above on "Disturbing Factors."

[60] Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) was a poet and statesman and as an immensely popular romantic poet, he used his talent to promote liberal ideas. Lamartine was elected Deputy representing Nord (1833-37), Saône et Loire (1837-Feb. 1848), Bouches-du-Rhône (April 1848-May 1849), and Saône et Loire (July 1849- Dec. 1851). During the campaign for free trade organised by the French Free Trade Association between 1846 and 1847 Lamartine often spoke at their large public meetings and was a big draw card. He was a member of the Provisional government in February 1848 (offering Bastiat a position in the government, which he declined) and Minister of Foreign Affairs in June 1848. After he lost the presidential elections of December 1848 against Louis-Napoléon, he gradually retired from political life and went back to writing.

[61] We do not have this letter, but there a similar one, Letter 25 To Lamartine (7 March 1845), in CW1, p. 56-57.Bastiat wrote two public letters to Lamartine criticising him his for his stand on the right to job (which was a socialist demand) and price controls on food during periods of food shortage. See "Letter from an Economist to M. de Lamartine. On the occasion of his article entitled: The right to a Job," JDE, February 1845, and "Second Letter to M. de Lamartine (on price controls on food)," JDE, Oct. 1846.

[62] Bastiat discusses his views on fraternity and how they differed from that of the socialists in more detail in two of his pamphlets published in June 1848: "Justice and fraternity" (JDE, 15 June 1848), in CW2, pp. 60-81; and "Individualism and fraternity" (c. June 1848), in CW2, pp. 82-92.

[63] In early 1846 Bastiat decided that it was time to use "brutal" (brutal, violent, rough, harsh) language instead of euphemisms in the battle against the protectionists. He used the word "theft" to describe the policy of giving subsidies to industry at taxpayer expence, and gave a similar apology to the reader as he does here. See ES2 9 "Theft by Subsidy" (JDE, January 1846), in CW3, p. 170.

[64] Bastiat devoted a section at the end of Chap. X "Private property and Community" in EH1 to attacking communism. He defined this as a new kind of plunder, "la spoliation systématique" (systematic plunder), as "Communism is based on systematic plunder, since it consists in handing over to one person the labor of another with no compensation." During 1850 he wrote two pamphlets pointing out to conservatives that their policies were "communist" in their effects: to conservative supporters of teaching Latin in the schools he argued in Baccalaureate and socialism (early 1850) (CW2, pp. 185-234) that "classical conventionalism" was preparing the minds of young people for socialism or worse; and to conservative supporters of protectionism in "Protectionism and communism" (Jan. 1849) (CW2, pp. 235-65) that they were using the same methods to benefit themselves as the socialists intended to do for the working class.

[65] (Note by Bastiat.) If protection were granted in France to only one class, for example, to ironmasters, it would be so absurdly plunderous that it could not be maintained. This is why we see all protected industries banding together, making common cause, and even expanding their ranks to appear as if they encompass the entirety of national labor. They instinctively sense that plunder becomes less visible when it is generalized.

[66] Bastiat regarded "former acts of plunder carried out by means of the law" as classic examples of the "disturbing factors" which upset the free market's tendency to produce "harmonious" outcomes.

[67] Bastiat distinguishes between two types of societies and organisatons those that are "natural" (i.e. voluntary and spontaneous) and those that are "artificial" (i.e. created coercively or by acts of law (by force). He also uses the adjective "légal" to describe something which is state funded or state created, as in "la charité légale" (state funded charity, as opposed to voluntary charity). Here, in the expression "des organisations légales ou factices" (legal and artificial organisations), he is using legal in the latter, negativesense.

[68] Bastiat says something similar about communism towards the end of EH Chap VIII "Private property and Community."

[69] Setting up a nation-wide system of "social workshops" which would replace privately owned and profit making factories and workshops which paid workers wages was a dream of the socialist Louis Blanc. In the first few months after the February Revolution he seized control of the Luxembourg Palace and ran the "National Workshops" from there until the Constituent Assembly withdrew funding and closed them down. Bastiat, as Vice-President of the Finance Committee, played a major role in bringing this about. This act triggered the widespread violent protest known as the "June Days."

[70] These were all slogans used by the socialists in their political campaigns.

[71] In the very first chapter of Economic Harmonies Bastiat lays out his distinction between "Natural and Artificial Organisation," namely that the first kind is based on voluntary agreements between individuals and the latter is based on coercion, usually by means of the state.

[72] Bastiat says "Ce n'est pas la solidarité providentielle, mais la solidarité artificielle, qui n'est qu'un déplacement injuste de Responsabilité." which FEE translated as "We repudiate the artificial unity that does nothing more than deprive persons of individual responsibility. We do not repudiate the natural unity of mankind under Providence." This misses the reference to "providential solidarity" as well as to the "displacement of responsibility" caused by coercion by the state.

[73] Scattered throughout Bastiat's writings are many intriguing statements which prefigure some key ideas of the Austrian School of economic thought, such as the "le principe d'action" (the principle of action) which is used here. He also uses the phrases "un être actif" (an acting or active being), "un agent" (an agent, or actor), "un agent intelligent" (an intelligent or thinking actor), and to their behaviour in the economic world as "l'action humaine" (human action) or "l'action de l'homme" (the action of human beings, or human action), and to the guiding principle behind it all as "le principe actif" or "le principe d'activité" (the principle of action). See my essay on "Human Action".

[74] The question whether mankind's behavior was like that of a plant or a creature capable of reason was crucial in Bastiat's rethinking of Malthus's theory of population. He thought it was the latter. See his article "De la population," JDE, October 1846 (in CW4 forthcoming) which was extensively rewritten and became Chapter 16 on Population in the 1851 expanded edition of Economic Harmonies.

[75] Bastiat liked to use the analogy of society being a kind of "mécanisme social" (social mechanism) with its own wheels, springs, and movements (les rouages, les ressorts, and les mobiles). However, unlike the socialists he thought these wheels and cogs were living, acting, and choosing individuals who needed no "mechanic," "organizer," or "legislator" to make them run. See my essay "The Social Mechanism and its Driving force".

[76] A key part of Bastiat's own economic theory is the idea that there is "le Moteur social"(the social driving force) which is properly understood self-interest. See the chapter by this name in Economic Harmonies.

[77] Here he is making fun of the socialists' penchant for naming all the complex hierarchies and subdivisions of their proposed planned societies, especially Fourier. For example, his "serial" or "stepped" method of arranging his categories under the rubric of "Inter, Citer, Ulter, Anter, Poster, Avant, and Final". See, Charles Fourier, La fausse industrie morcelée, répugnante, mensongère, et l'antidote, l'industrie naturelle, combinée, attrayante, véridique, donnant quadruple produit (Paris: Bossange père, 1835), p. 393.

[78] The Commune was a local administrative district.

[79] The socialist Victor Considerant gave a speech in the Chamber on 13 April, 1849 in which he reiterated his demand that the government give his followers 4,000 acres of land and fund an experimental socialist community near Paris in order to demonstrate the viability and even the superiority of socialism. Bastiat immediately responded by saying that a better option would be to set up competing experimental communities, including a laissez-faire free trade zone with minimal taxes and regulations, to show which form of society worked best.

[80] In fact, Bastiat is speaking from personal experience as he tried to introduce a number of reforms in the way his own tenant farmers operated their farms. This was not successful. See "Considérations sur le métayage" (Thoughts on Sharecropping), JDE, Feb. 1846.

[81] Bastiat was very hostile to a classical education based upon learning Latin as he believed the Roman ruling elite were warriors and plunderers whose writings mislead the French youth who studied them and prepared them intellectually to accept socialist ideas. A good example of these sentiments can be found in Baccalaureate and socialism (early 1850), CW2, pp. 185-234. His own education was at an experimental private school where he learned modern languages, music, and poetry.

[82] This insight is central to the modern Public Choice theory of economics which argues that politicians and bureaucrats also pursue their own interests.

[83] The French word "on" has no real equivalent in English and is translated by "one," "we," "you," "they," or "people," depending on the context. We have chosen "one" in this context but will also use "they" where appropriate.

[84] Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704) was Bishop of Meaux, a historian, court priest to King Louis XIV, and tutor to the dauphin (son of Louis XIV). He was a noted orator and writer whose sermons and orations were widely studied as models of French style by generations of French schoolchildren. 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 a multi-volume universal history, Discours sur l'histoire universelle (1681).

[85] In brackets are Bastiat's comments on the quote.

[86] Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Discours sur l'histoire universelle, publié avec la chronologie des Bénédictines et celles de Bossuet et avec notes par A. Olleris (Paris: Hachette, 1847), Part III. "Les empires," Chap. III, pp. 417, 418, 422, 424.

[87] Here Bastiat is punning, as he often does, on the phrase "laisser faire" (leaving people free to go about their own business). He he says "Il ne s'agissait pour eux que de se laisser faire" (It was only a matter of them (the people)letting them (the rulers) do their job).

[88] Bossuet, Discours sur l'histoire universelle, pp. 430-31.

[89] Bossuet, Discours sur l'histoire universelle, p. 447.

[90] Bossuet, Discours sur l'histoire universelle, p. 451.

[91] François Fénelon (1651-1715) was the Archbishop of Cambrai, a theologian, poet, writer, and tutor to the young duke of Burgundy, the grandson of Louis XIV. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (which had granted toleration for Protestants in France), Fénelon was one of several high-ranking clergy sent to convert recalcitrant Protestants to Catholicism. He wrote a collection called Dialogue des morts et fables (1700), and Les Aventures de Télémaque (1699), which was a thinly veiled satire of the reign of Louis XIV and a critique of the notion of the divine right of kings. For example, in the latter the hero Telemachus visits Idomeneus, King of Salente and asks him very pointed and embarrassing questions about the nature of good rulership.

[92] The Adventures of Telemachus is the story of Telemachus's search for his father in the company of Mentor, who instructs the young Telemachus on the virtues required by a prince. They come across the fictitious city of Salentum (Salente in French), which has been corrupted by luxury and military despotism. Only the dictatorship of an enlightened legislator could reform Salentum according to Fénelon. The complete works of Fénelon were published in multi-volume editions in 1830 and again in 1848-52: Oeuvres complètes de Fénelon.

[93] Fénelon, Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse (A. Gand, 1819), Vol. 1, pp. 77-78.

[94] Fénelon, Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse (A. Gand, 1819), Vol. 1, pp. 79-80.

[95] Fénelon, Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse (A. Gand, 1819), Vol. 1, pp. 148-49.

[96] Olivier de Serres (1539-1619) was a pioneering French agronomist who is best known for introducing the growing of silk to France. His best-known work is Le Théâtre d'agriculture et mésnage des champs (1600).

[97] Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was one of the most influential legal theorists and political philosophers of the eighteenth century. He trained as a lawyer and practiced in Bordeaux before going to Paris, where he attended an important enlightened salon. His ideas about the separation of powers and checks on the power of the executive had a profound impact on the architects of the American constitution. His most influential works are L'Esprit des lois (1748), Les Lettres persanes (1721), and Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence (1732).

[98] Montesquieu, L'Esprit des lois in Œuvres de Montesquieu. Vol. 1 (Paris: A. Belin, 1817), Livre V, Chap. VI "Comment les lois doivent entretenir la frugalité dans la démocratie," p. 39

[99] Montesquieu, L'Esprit des lois, p. 38.

[100] William Penn (1644-1718) was an English Quaker, writer, and founder of the state of Pennsylvania.

[101] Between 1609 and their expulsion from Latin America in 1767, the Jesuits organized among the native people of Paraguay a community based on Christian and communist principles. The Jesuits aim was to Christianize the native people, organize the social and economic life of the communities, and create "the kingdom of God on earth." Bastiat rejected the idea of these communities, just like he did with the contemporary attempts to create utopian socialist communities in Europe and America in the 1830s and 1840s, on the grounds that the communities owned property, in particular land, in common, sought an equality of ownership, and strictly regulated the free market.

[102] Montesquieu, L'Esprit des lois, Chap. VI "De quelques institutions des Grecs," pp. 29-31.

[103] Said by Alceste to Philinte in Moliére's play "Le Misanthrope," Act I, sc. II in Oeuvres de J. B. Poquelin de Molière (Paris: Th. Dabo, 1820), Vol. 3, p. 173.

[104] Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) was a Swiss philosopher and novelist who was an important figure in the Enlightenment. In his novels and discourses he claimed that civilization had weakened the natural liberty of mankind and that a truly free society would be the expression of the "general will" of all members of that society. He influenced later thinkers on both ends of the political spectrum. Bastiat often criticized Rousseau as he thought he was the inspiration behind much of the interventionist legislation introduction by the revolutionaries during the 1790s (especially Robespierre) and then later in the 1848 Revolution. He is best known for his book Du Contrat Social (The Social Contract) (1761); he was also the author of, among other works, the Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes (Discourse on Inequality) (1755), the autobiographical Les Confessions (1783), and the novels Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse (1761) and Emile, ou l'education (1762).

[105] Rousseau, Du contrat social, in Oeuvres complètes de J.-J. Rousseau; Nouvelle édition, avec des Notes historiques et critiques; augmentée d'un Appendice aux Confessions, par M. Musset-Pathay. Vol. IX. Philosophie. Politique.- Tome 1. (Bruxelles: Th. Lejeune, 1827), Livre II, Chap. VII. "Du Législateur," pp. 119-20.

[106] The edition of Spirit of the Laws that Bastiat might have had access to was Oeuvres de Montesquieu, avec éloges, analyses, commentaires, remarques, notes, réfutations, immitations, par MM. Destut de Tracy, Villemain (Paris, 1827), in eight volumes. The editor was Victor Destutt de Tracy the son of Antoine Destutt de Tracy, who had written an extensive commentary on the Spirit of the Laws for Thomas Jefferson who had it published in 1811, A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's "Spirit of Laws": To which are annexed, Observations on the Thirty First Book by the late M. Condorcet; and Two Letters of Helvetius, on the Merits of the same Work.

[107] Rousseau, Du contrat social, Livre II. Chap. XI "Des diver système de Législation," pp. 135-38.

[108] Rousseau, Du contrat social, Livre II, Chap. VII. "Du Législateur," p. 120.

[109] Guillaume-Thomas-François, abbé Raynal (1713-96) was an enlightened historian who wrote on the Dutch Stadholderate and the English Parliament. His most famous work was the eight-volume Histoire philosophique et politique, des établissements et du commerce des européens dans les deux Indes (1770), which went through some thirty editions by 1789, was put on the Index in 1774, and publicly burned. The book was found objectionable because of its treatment of religion and opposition to colonialism and its advocacy of the popular right to consent to taxation and to revolt, among other things. Its sometimes incendiary treatment of the slave trade became canonical in the debate over abolition of slavery, of which it did much to spur.

[110] Raynal, Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans le deux Indes. Nouvelle édition (Paris: Amable Costes, 1820), T. 9, hap. XXX A quelle degré la population s'est-elle élevée dans l'Amérique septentrionale, pp. 230-33.

[111] Gabriel Bonnot, abbé de Mably (1709–95) was an enormously popular writer on political, legal, and economic matters. He trained as a Jesuit and briefly entered religious orders. Mably was an admirer of Plato and Sparta, both of which he regarded as a model for political and economic institutions. In economics, Mably was an advocate for ending private property and for the redistribution of property by the state in order to achieve equal ownership for all, thus qualifying him as an early communist thinker. Mably was best known for his work Entretiens de Phocion, sur le rapport de la morale avec la politique (1763); and the Observations sur le gouvernement et les lois des États-unis d'Amérique (1784).

[112] Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, "Droits et devoirs du Citoyen," Lettre VIII, in Oeuvres complètes (Lyon: J.B. Delamolliere & Falque, 1796),, Volume 11, pp. 465-66.

[113] The Abbé de Condillac (1714-80) was a priest, philosopher, economist, and member of the Académie française. Condillac was an advocate of the ideas of John Locke and a friend of the encyclopedist Denis Diderot. In his Traité des sensations (1754), Condillac claims that all attributes of the mind, such as judgment, reason, and even will, derive from sensations. His book Le Commerce et le gouvernement, considérés relativement l'un a l'autre (1776) appeared in the same year as Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

[114] Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, Oeuvres complètes (Paris: Lecointe et Durey, 1822), vol. XV, Étude de l'histoire et logique, Chap. II "Des vérités fondamentales auxquelles il faut s'attacher en étudiant l'histoire," pp. 24-25.

[115] Condillac, Oeuvres complètes, vol. XV, Chap. III Seconde vérité, pp. 26-29.

[116] Compare this passage to one in his "Draft Preface for the Economic Harmonies" (late 1847) CW1, p. 318. It is the form of an ironic letter to himself: "Like you I love all forms of freedom; and among these, the one that is the most universally useful to mankind, the one you enjoy at each moment of the day and in all of life's circumstances, is the freedom to work and to trade. I know that making things one's own is the fulcrum of society and even of human life. I know that trade is intrinsic to property and that to restrict the one is to shake the foundations of the other. I approve of your devoting yourself to the defense of this freedom whose triumph will inevitably usher in the reign of international justice and consequently the extinction of hatred, prejudices between one people and another, and the wars that come in their wake."

[117] Rousseau, Du contrat social, Livre II, Chap. VII "Du Législateur," p. 123.

[118] Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767-94) was a close friend and colleague of Robespierre. Saint-Just suffered the same fate as did Robespierre, execution by guillotine in July 1794. He served in the National Guard and was elected to the Legislative Assembly (but denied his seat because of his young age), and then to the Convention, where he joined the Montagnard faction. Saint-Just became a member of the Committee of Public Safety in 1793 and was active in military affairs on the Committee's behalf. He was much influenced by Rousseau and supported the creation of an austere and egalitarian republic.

[119] Saint-Just, "Discours sur la Constitution à donner à la France (24 avril, 1793), Œuvres de Saint-Just, represéntant du peuple à la Convention nationale (Paris: Prévot, 1834), p. 74.

[120] Maximilien de Robespierre (1758-94) was a lawyer and one of the best-known figures of the French Revolution. In the National Convention he was an active member of the Société des amis de la constitution (Society of Friends of the Constitution) (the Jacobin Club) and became leader of the Montagnard faction. He was a fierce opponent of the liberal Gironde faction, and in his position as leader of the Committee of Public Safety (1793) he had arrested and executed many members of this group during the Terror. Eventually the Terror turned on its own supporters and Robespierre was himself executed in July 1794. In his political thinking, Robespierre was strongly influenced by the writings of Rousseau, and in 1793 he supported a new declaration of the rights of man that subordinated private property to the needs of "social utility."

[121] Robespierre, "Rapport fait par Robespierre au nom du Comité de salut public sur les principes du gouvernement révolutionnaire (Convention Nationale, Séance du 25 décembre 1793) in Œuvres de Maximilien Robespierre: avec une notice historique, des notes et des commentaires, par Laponneraye (Paris: Chez l'éditeur, 1840), Vol. 3, p. 512.

[122] Jean Billaud-Varennes (1756-1839) was a lawyer, a Montagnard member of the Convention, a leading orator in the Jacobin Club, and a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was at first a supporter of Robespierre, then an opponent who contributed to his downfall and execution.

[123] Convention nationale. Rapport fait a la Convention nationale, au nom du Comité de salut public, par Billaud-Varenne, dans la séance du 1er floréal, l'an 2e de la République une et indivisible ; sur la théorie du gouvernement démocratique, et sa vigueur utile pour contenir l'ambition, et pour tempérer l'essor de l'esprit militaire; sur le but politique de la guerre actuelle; et sur la nécessité d'inspirer l'amour des vertus civile par des fêtes publiques et des institutions morales (de l'Imprimerie de Charpentier, 1794), p. 4.

[124] Louis-Michel Lepeletier, marquis de Saint-Fargeau (1760-1793) was a Councillor at the Parlement de Paris before the Revolution and then President of the National Constituent Assembly in 1790. He was murdered by an ex-Royal Guard for having voted for King Louis XVI's execution.

[125] Michel Lepeletier, "Plan d'Éducation nationale" in Oeuvres de Michel Lepeletier Saint-Fargeau (Bruxelles: Arnold Lacrosse, 1826), p. 268.

[126] Robespierre, Rapport sur les principes de morale politique qui doivent guider la Convention nationale dans l'administration intérieure de la République, fait par Robespierre au nom du Comité de Salut Public (Convention Nationale, Séance du 5 février 1794), p. 542.

[127] The National Convention was a single chamber which ruled France between September 1792 and October 1795. It was the first republican government after the execution of King Louis XVI.

[128] Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was born in Corsica and became a French general, first consul of France (1799–1804), and emperor of the French (1804–15). Although Napoléon's conquests of Europe were ultimately unsuccessful (Spain 1808; Russia 1812; Waterloo, Belgium, 1815), he dramatically altered the face of Europe economically, politically, and legally (the Civil Code of 1804). many European countries suffered huge economic losses from Napoléon's occupation and the looting of museums and churches. Napoléon introduced a new form of economic warfare, the "continental system" (the Berlin Decree of 21 November 1806), which was designed to cripple Britain by denying its goods access to the European market. Napoléon did not seem to have a well thought out economic theory but his scattered remarks recorded in his Mémoires de Napoléon Bonaparte: manuscrit venu de Sainte-Hélène (Paris: Baudouin, 1821) show him to be an economic nationalist and strong protectionist.

[129] These are all French or English socialists: Étienne-Gabriel Morelly (ca. 1717-78), François Babeuf (alias "Gracchus") (1760-97), Robert Owen (1771-1858), Henri Saint-Simon (1760-1825), and Charles Fourier (1772-1837).

[130] Louis Blanc (1811-1882) was a journalist and historian who was active in the socialist movement. Blanc founded the journal Revue du progrès and published therein articles that later became the influential pamphlet L'Organisation du travail (1839). During the 1848 revolution he became a member of the provisional government, headed the National Workshops, and debated Adolphe Thiers on the merits of the right to work in Le socialisme; droit au travail, réponse à M. Thiers (1848). When his supporters invaded the Chamber of Deputies in May 1848 to begin a coup d'état in order to save the national Workshops from closing, they carried him around the room on their shoulders. He was arrested, lost his parliamentary immunity, and was forced into exile in England. Bastiat was one of the few Deputies to oppose the Chamber's treatment of Blanc.

[131] Louis Blanc, Organisation du travail. 4. ed. (Paris: Cauville freres, 1845). First edition 1839.

[132] Blanc, Organisation du travail, p. 126.

[133] Blanc, Organisation du travail, pp. 125-26.

[134] Blanc, Organisation du travail, p. xxiv.

[135] The block of left-wing Deputies called themselves the "dém-socs" short for "les démocrates socialistes" (socialist democrats, or social democrats).

[136] Victor Prosper Considerant (1808-93) was a follower of the socialist Charles Fourier and edited the most successful Fourierist magazine La Démocratie pacifiste (1843-1851). He was elected Deputy to represent Loiret in April 1848 and Paris in May 1849. The Fourierists advocated a utopian, communistic system for the reorganization of society. The population was to be grouped in "phalansteries"of about 1,800 persons, who would live together as one family and hold property and work in common. Considerant on a couple of occasions tried to set up state funded experimental communities based upon Fourierist principles but was unsuccessful. He was also an advocate of the "right to work" (the right to a job), an idea which the Economists opposed

[137] See for example: "Elle (La Révolution) a livré au laissez-faire le plus absolu, à la concurrence la plus anarchique, à la guerre la plus aveugle, et, par suite, au Monopole des grands capitaux l'Atelier social et économique tout entier, c'est-à-dire tout le domaine de la Production et de la Répartition des richesses" (It (the Revolution) has handed over to the most absolute form of laissez-faire, to the most anarchical form of competition, to the the most blind form of war, and as a consequence, to the Monopoly of big capital, the entire social and economic Workshop, that is to say the entire domain of the production and distribution of wealth) in Victor Considérant, Principes du socialisme: manifeste de la démocratie au XIXe siècle (Paris: Librairie phalansterienne, 1847), p. 4.

[138] Blanc, Organisation du travail, p. 6.

[139] Blanc, Organisation du travail, p. 60-61.

[140] Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) was a conservative liberal lawyer, historian, politician, and journalist. During the July Monarchy he was briefly Minister for Public Works (1832-34), Minister of the Interior (1832, 1834-36), and Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1840). During the Revolution he wrote a book defending private property from a conservative point of view, De la propriété (1848) which was harshly criticised by Gustave de Molinari for being inadequate.

[141] When proposals to reform the education system came up for discussion in the Chamber in early 1850 Bastiat was unable to speak in the Chamber because of his failing voice, so he published his speech as a pamphlet and circulated it among the Deputies. In it he discusses Thiers' plans in some detail. See, Baccalaureate and socialism, in CW2, pp. 185-234.

[142] The French educational system was placed under the administrative control of the national University by a series of decrees issued by Napoleon in May 1806 and March 1808. These granted the University the power to set the number of schools, the level at which private schools were taxed, the curriculum for entry into professional schools (the Baccalaureate examination), pay rates for teachers and inspectors, and so on.

[143] Between May 1848 and July 1850 Bastiat wrote a series of 12 anti-socialist pamphlets, or what the Guillaumin publishing firm marketed in their Catalog as the "Petits pamphlets de M. Bastiat" (Mister Bastiat's Little Pamphlets), which included several for which Bastiat has become justly famous such as "The state" (Sept. 1848), The Law (July 1850), and What is Seen and What is Not Seen (July 1850). See, my essay "Bastiat's Anti-Socialist Pamphlets".

[144] Another Public Choice insight by Bastiat.

[145] Bastiat might have had in mind the practice of shepherds in his home Department of Les Landes to walk on stilts across the heathland, thus literally putting them far above the level of the sheep they were herding.

[146] He makes a similar point in his speech to the Friends of Peace Congress held in Paris in August 1849 that high taxes on the poor causes further economic misery which is an important factor leading to to revolution. See, "Bastiat's Speech on 'Disarmament and Taxes' (August 1849)," in Addendum: Additional Material by Bastiat, CW3, p. 527.

[147] He chastises the poet and statesman Lamartine in two public letters for having betrayed the classical liberal cause in his statements: "Letter from an Economist to M. de Lamartine. On the occasion of his article entitled: The right to a Job," JDE, February 1845, and "Second Letter to M. de Lamartine (on price controls on food)," JDE, Oct. 1846.

[148] "Déclaration des principes" (21 octobre 1847), (which originally appeared in le Bien public), republished in Alphonse de Lamartine, La politique de Lamartine, choix de discours et écrits politiques: précédé d'une étude sur la vie politique de Lamartine (Paris: Hachette & Cie., 1878), vol. 2, pp. 273-82. Quote on p. 280.

[149] (Note by Bastiat.) Political economy precedes politics; the former determines whether human interests are naturally harmonious or antagonistic, which the latter should understand before defining the functions of government.

[150] Pierre Laurent Barthélemy, comte de Saint Cricq (1772-1854). Saint Cricq was a protectionist Deputy who became Director General of Customs (1815), president of the Trade Council, Minister of Trade and Colonies (1828-29), and then appointed to the Peerage (1833).

[151] In this concluding section it is hard to translate the very terse term "une force publique" to best convey what Bastiat means here. He has in mind a government which is strictly limited in its powers, namely the use of force or coercion; which uses what little power it has solely to defend the rights to person, liberty, and property of each individual; that it never uses force to benefit a person or class at the expense of others. See my essay on Bastiat's idea of "Limited government".

[152] Bastiat was a justice of the Peace in his home town of Mugron in Les Landes He was appointed in May 1831 in spite of the fact he had no legal training, perhaps as a reward for his support of the July Revolution of 1830 which brought Louis Philippe to power. He got a reputation making for quick and fair decisions in local legal disputes.

[153] Armand, vicomte de Melun (1807-77) was a politician, philanthropist, and Catholic social reformer. He was elected deputy in 1843 and took up the cause of improving the social condition of workers by founding the Société d'économie charitable and the journal Les Annales de la charité (1847). Although he was instrumental in establishing private charities to achieve this end, he also was an active proponent of state intervention, because only the state, in his view, "was in a position to reach all miseries."

[154] There are there examples where Bastiat presents his own utopian vision for a liberal society: the first is in an economic sophism, ES2 11 "The Utopian" (LE, 17 Jan., 1847), in CW3, pp. 187-98, where Bastiat is made dictator for a day and is free to reform French society as he sees fit; the second is his response to Considerant in "Petition from an Economist" (March, 1848) in CW1, pp. 426-29 where he challenges Considerant to set up competing utopian, experimental communities (Considerant's is socialist and his is laissez-faire); and "Barataria" (early 1848), which is a parody of Cervantes' Don Quixote where Pancho is made dictator of the island a Barataria and urged to impose socialist reforms which he refuses to do.

[155] Bastiat says "l'humanité accomplira avec ordre, avec calme, lentement sans doute, mais avec certitude, le progrès, qui est sa destinée" which FEE translates as "mankind will achieve—slowly, no doubt, but certainly—God's design for the orderly and peaceful progress of humanity." This converts "progress, which is his destiny" into another reference to God - "God's design for the orderly and peaceful progress of humanity."

[156] Bastiat says "où la pensée de Dieu prévaut le plus sur les inventions des hommes" which FEE translated as "where the inventions of men are most nearly in harmony with the laws of God." This changes "the thought of God" into "the laws of God."

[157] Jacques de Vaucanson (1709–82) was a French inventor who was famous for creating automata that could play musical instruments to entertain the nobility. He was best known for his machines "The Flute Player" and "The Duck." Vaucanson also turned his hand to more-practical subjects by trying to automate the weaving of silk.

[158] Bastiat says "Il y a une physiologie sociale providentielle comme il y a une physiologie humaine providentielle" which FEE translated as "He (God) has provided a social form as well as a human form," leaving out the references to providence and inserting another reference to God.

[159] Fourier was a socialist and founder of the phalansterian school ("Fourierism"). Fourierism advocated a utopian, communistic system for the reorganization of society. The population was to be grouped in "phalansteries"of about 1,800 persons, who would live together as one family and hold property and work in common.