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“AN INTRODUCTION TO A NEW TRANSLATION OF MOLINARI'S
A SKETCH OF THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ORGANISATION OF THE SOCIETY OF THE FUTURE (1899)”

By David M. Hart

[Created: 15 July, 2025]
[Revised: 16 July, 2025]

This is part of a collection of Papers by David M. Hart

Introduction

I have done a new translation of Gustave de Molinari's late work Esquisse de l’organisation politique et économique de la Société future (Paris: Guillaumin, 1899) and the essay which follows should be read as an introduction to that work. See the French original in facs. PDF and enhanced HTML. My English translation needs a final edit.

 

It was first translated in 1904 as The Society of Tomorrow: A Forecast of its Political and Economic Organization, ed. Hodgson Pratt and Frederic Passy, trans. P.H. Lee Warner (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904).

 

 

Abbreviations:

  • JDE = Journal des Économistes
  • DEP = Dictionnaire de l'économie politique
  • JDD = Journal des Débats
  • CPE = Collection des Principaux Économistes (1840-48)
  • Soirées = Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare (1849)
  • Cours = Cours d’économie politique (1863)
  • EE = L’évolution économique du XIXe siècle: théorie du progrès (1880)
  • EP = L’évolution politique et la Révolution* (1884)
  • Lois naturelles = Les Lois naturelles de l’économie politique (1887)
  • Notions = Notions fondamentales d'économie politique et programme économique (1891)
  • Question sociale = Comment se résoudra la question sociale (1896)
  • Grandeur = Grandeur et décadence de la guerre (1898)
  • Esquisse = Esquisse de l’organisation politique et économique de la Société future (Paris: Guillaumin, 1899)
  • PoS = production of security

 

 

 

 

Opening Remarks↩

The Franco-Belgian Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912) was one of the longest-lived, most productive, and original political economists from any school of thought in the 19th century. [1] He also just so happens to have been a leading figure in the radical free market group which was centred in Paris around the Guillaumin publishing firm for over 50 years. [2]

Among his important contributions to classical liberal political and economic thought are

  1. his arguments defending the private provision of ALL public goods (including that of police and national defence); [3]
  2. that competition whether of the "productive" (economic) kind or the "destructive" (political) kind has been the driving force behind the political and economic evolution of societies;
  3. that all institutions such as business enterprises as well as the state, the church, and the family should be seen as profit-seeking and loss-avoiding organisations or "firms" ("les sociétés");
  4. that government activity is "anti-economic" because it is wasteful and inefficient when compared to private, market provided goods and services [4]
  5. that the role of the economists is to act as "les teneurs de livres de la politique" (the bookkeepers of history) who draw up a balance sheet of the costs and benefits of government policies (such as the provision of "public goods") and actions (such as war) on behalf of consumers and tax-payers; [5]
  6. and that all societies are controlled by a ruling class ("la classe dominante") and an "oligarchy" which exploits "the conquered class" [6] or the "industrious classes" [7] for their own benefit, with the assistance of other politically favoured groups such as the legally priviliged "corporations" (such as the military, the clergy, and the guilds), lesser government officials and bureacrats (functionaries), and the larger "protected" and subsidised industries in agriculture, manufacturing, and banking.

To understand these important ideas we believe his work is still very much worth reading, as this book, we hope, will prove to the present-day reader. It is a pity that the work of his contemporary Karl Marx (1818-1883), who was wrong on so many issues, is still read and highly regarded in some circles (as the celebrations of the bicentennial of his birth in 2018 showed) and Molinari's is not. As part of the bicentennial celebrations of Molinari's birth in 1819, the Paris-based Institut Coppet began in 2019 the mammoth task of republishing his Complete Works. As of mid-2025 they have reached the year 1868 with 22 volumes published so far. [8]

The Guillaumin publishing firm and its connection with Molinari↩

Over the course of his long and productive life Moliari wrote 44 books (plus 8 introductions to books written by others) and hundreds of journal and magazine articles. Just over half of these books (25) were published by the Guillaumin firm (and its successor Alcan) which was founded by Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (1801-1864) in 1837 and run by the Guillaumin family for 70 years. [9] After his death his oldest daughter Félicité managed the firm for 20 years (1865-85), and after her death it was handed over to his youngest daughter Pauline who managed it for another 20 years (1886-1905). The firm of Guillaumin continued in one form or another from 1835 until 1907 when it was taken over by Alcan. It published 2,359 books on economics during this period, including the monumental Dictionnaire de l'économie politique (1852-53), and was the centre of the very free market "Paris School" of political economy. [10] Molinari played a large and important part in what has been called "le réseau Guillaumin" (the Guillaumin network) which was the backbone of the classical liberal movement in France during this period. [11]

One of the centre pieces of the Guillaumin firm was the Journal des économistes which appeared for nearly 100 years (1842-1940) until it was forced to shut down when the Nazis occupied Paris and took over the Guillaumin building in the rue de Richelieu. It was the main organ for the publication of major articles of both a theoretical nature and policy analysis, as well as book reviews, and commentaries on current events. Molinari was the editor from 1881 until his retirement in 1909.

The first article Molinari wrote for the JDE appeared in 1847 on "De l’agriculture en Angleterre" (Agriculture in England) [12] and his last one on "L’accaparement," (Hoarding) was published in 1910. [13] In all he wrote 230 articles for the JDE and served as its editor for 28 years between 1881-1909. Before he became editor he had written 129 articles for the JDE (1847-1880); while he was the editor he wrote another 131, including an annual survey of the state of the economy and of economic liberty in the world. [14]

The first book by Molinari published by Gullaumin also appeared in 1847 on the History of Tariffs; [15] the last one by him was published in 1908 (actually by Alcan) which was yet another volume in his series of works on the economic sociology of the state and the evolution of markets, entitled Économie de l’histoire: Théorie de l’Évolution. [16] The book you are now reading [17] was the 22nd book by Molinari published by Guillaumin (his 40th book in total), when he was 80 years old. This was an extraordinary achievement in anyone's language. It was not however his "last book". He lived to be 92 (he died in 1912) and he wittily entitled his actual last book which was published the year before he died Ultima Verba: Mon dernier ouvrage (Final Words: My Last Work). [18]

An Overview of Molinari's Life and Work↩

Since Molinari lived such a long life (the average life expectancy of someone born in 1819 was about 45 years but he lived to be 93) it is necesary to divide it up for analytical purposes into the following 5 parts according to where he was living and what he was doing. [19]

  • 1819-1840: his childhood and youth spent in Liège
  • 1840-1851: he moved to Paris to work as an economic journalist, free trade activist, and began his long association with the Guillaumin publishing firm and the JDE
  • 1852-1867: after the coming to power of Napoleon III he moved to Brussels were he worked as an academic economist, a journalist, and a free market lobbyist
  • 1867-1881: he returned to journalism in Paris, where he wrote for the prestigious JDD serving as chief editor 1871-1876; he also wrote several books on his international travels with interesting economic analyses of the countries he visited
  • 1881-1909: he was appointed editor of JDE, and wrote on economics, moral philosophy, and historical sociology;
  • he retired in 1909 at the age of 90 and died in 1912

Molinari was a smart and an ambitious young man who was imbued with protectionist and interventionist ideas like most of his generation and came to Paris in the early 1840s to be a journalist. He found a job first writing mainly biographical pieces on famous individuals for la Revue générale biographique, politique et littéraire (1842-43), [20] and then on the plight of workers who were being tried in court for trying to start a trade union, which was banned under French law, for Le Courrier Français (1844-46). [21] It is not clear how or when, but he came across the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Say [22] and Frédéric Bastiat [23] and became an ardent supporter of free trade and free markets. Under the influence of this new way of thinking, he began to specialise in economic journalism, writing on free trade and the economics of slavery, thus coming to the attention of the Guillaumin firm and the group of political economists which had gathered around it. They would publish his first book on the history of tariffs in 1847.

Guillaumin spotted very quickly the potential this young journalist had and gave him the opportunity to work on one of their early and most significant publishing projects, the Collection des Principaux Économistes, for which Molinari edited and wrote introductions to the two last volumes in the series in 1847 and 1848, thus establishing his academic credentials. [24]

During the 1848 Revolution he worked closely with them writing regular monthly unsigned columns ("Chronique") for the JDE on the events of the revolution as well as a number of significant theoretical articles. These included a critique of the left-anarchist Joseph Proudhon and the conservative politician and historian Adolphe Thiers, especially the latter's poor defence of private property in the light of socialist criticism, [25] the ground breaking article on the private and competitive "production of security", [26] and the economics of the highly regulated theatre industry. [27] He also wrote an unsigned article, using the nom de plume of "le Réveur" (the Dreamer), [28] calling upon the socialists to join forces with the liberals in pursuing their shared goals of peace, freedom, and prosperity (or what he termed "the utopia of liberty") against their common enemy of oppression and reaction. The article was published the week before the bloody "June Days" uprising which was brutally put down by the army. It is signifcant that it was 50 years later, in the Appedix to this book, that he revealed for the first time that he had been the author.

Not content with just writing about the revolution Molinari and some of his friends took an active part in the revolution helping found, write for, and hand out on the streets, two magazines, La République française (26 February - 28 March 1848) and Jacques Bonhomme (11 June - 13 July, 1848), as well as founding and speaking at a political club, "Le Club de la Liberté du Travail" (Club for the Liberty of Working), where they debated face to face with the socialists on the streets of Paris. Just down the road from their club a socialist club hosted Karl Marx who had just finished writing The Communist Manifesto which they too were distributing on the streets of Paris. It is not known whether Molinari and his friends ever met Marx but Molinari later said that their club was forced to close because "communist thugs" broke into their meeting and beat them up. He regretted later that the liberals did not stand up to the communists and meet force with force. [29]

He would later witness and write about another revolution in Paris, namely the Paris Commune of 1871. He visited the socialist "Red Clubs" which sprang up to debate the demands of the revolutionaries and published two books about this experience and the economic problems faced by Paris as it was surrounded by troops thus making food supplies very scarce in the city. [30]

Molinari also tried his hand at writing more popular works on economics in the vein of his close friend and colleague Frédéric Bastiat and the English woman populariser of economic ideas Harriet Martineau whose work he had reviewed in the JDE. [31] His first effort in this area was his radical and provocative book of "conversations" between a "Conservative", a "Socialist", and an "Economist", entitled Les Soirées. [32]

This was the first of three early works from this formative period in Molinari's intellectual development which would lay the intellectual foundations for his later work. He was remarkably consistent over the years, pursuing the topics first broached here in ever greater detail and adapting them as changing historical circumstances required. These works are all from the period 1849-1852 when he was in his early 30s, and are:

  1. Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare (1849)
  2. his 25 entries in the DEP (1852-53)
  3. the lecture on Les Révolutions et le despotisme envisagés au point de vue des intérêts matérie (1852) [33]

1.) In Les Soirées he methodically went chapter by chapter arguing for the ending of all restrictions oneconomic activity and the privatisation of all public goods. The most controversial chapter was "Soirée 11" which built upon his earlier essay on "La production de la securité" (Feb. 1849, JDE) where he argued that even police and national defense could be supplied by privately owned "property insurance companies" who would charge "consumers of securtity" an annual premium for protection services based upon the type and amount of coverage they wanted.

The competitive and private production of security is a theme he would return to repeatedly in later works, albeit with modifications and different emphases in each book, including the Esquisse written some 50 years later.

2.) A second early work in which important themes in his later work would first be expressed was the collection of articles he wrote for the DEP project. [34] The DEP is a vast compendium of the state of knowledge of French political economy which was published in 1852-53 for which Molinari wrote 25 substantial articles and 5 biographical articles, and served as a senior editor. Even though he was fairly new to the Guillaumin network he was asked to write the important articles on free trade, protectionism, and tariffs. But importantly for what was to come later he also began to develop his ideas on classical liberal class analysis and the economic and political evolution of the state and the emergence of free markets in the articles on civilisation, nations, the nobility, war, and towns and cities. [35] These articles were the foundation for his series of long works on economic sociology which would appear 30 or 50 years later, namely L’évolution économique du XIXe siècle: théorie du progrès (1880); L’évolution politique et la Révolution (1884); and Grandeur et décadence de la guerre (1898), and which would be summarised in the Esquisse.

3.) A third book from this early formative period which would set the stage for much of his later work was a lecture he gave in Belgium at the end of 1852 on Les Révolutions et le despotisme envisagés au point de vue des intérêts matériel.

Here is not the place to provide a detailed list or examination of the nearly 40 books he published after working on the DEP. All we will say in summary is that he dealt with a broad range of topics many of which he would return to in the Esquisse, such as the following:

  1. free trade and protectionism
  2. the economics of slavery and serfdom
  3. trade unions and labour exchanges
  4. war and peace
  5. Thomas Malthus and population growth
  6. the natural laws of political economy
  7. natural rights, moral philosophy and religion
  8. economic travel writing
  9. the evolution of free markets, governments, and classes
  10. economic theory
  11. political theory, especially concerning the proper role of the government
  12. socialism

The Esquisse de l'organisation politique et économique de la Société future (1899)↩

Introduction↩

Because he was so prolific and lived so long, towards the end of his life Molinari felt obliged to summarise his thinking and to make it more understandable for a new audience who had not read his earlier often long and very detailed books. He did this twice in the early 1890s (when he was in his early 70s) with Notions fondamentales d'économie politique et programme économique (1891) and the Précis d'économie politique et de morale (1893). And again a few years later with a book directed at a different audience, namely socialist critics of the free market, in Comment se résoudra la question sociale (1896) when he was 77. And finally in 1908 with Économie de l'histoire which was published by the successor to the Guillaumin firm, Alcan, and thus might be seen as an attempt on his part to reach a new audience. The Esquisse of 1899 came in the middle of this activity of summarising and re-presenting his ideas in a more popular form when he was 80 years old.

These frequent revisions and reformulations of his ideas, often using slightly different terms and expressions, make it difficult at times for the editor. However there is a strong current of thinking about these concepts which remained constant over the decades. Thus in our discussion of the Esquisse we will not hesitate to refer to his earlier works where he goes into more detail on certain topics, or expressed himself differently. The major works he was attempting to revise, restate, or summarise in the Esquisse were the following:

  1. on economic theory:
    1. Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare; entretiens sur les lois économiques et défense de la propriété (1849)
    2. Cours d’économie politique, professé au Musée royal de l’industrie belge (1863)
    3. Les Lois naturelles de l'économie politique (1887)
  2. on the evolution of states and the economy:
    1. his entries in the DEP (1852)
    2. L’évolution économique du XIXe siècle: théorie du progrès (1880)
    3. L’évolution politique et la Révolution (1884)
    4. Grandeur et décadence de la guerre (1898)
  3. on morale theory:
    1. La Morale économique (1888)

In the Esquisse, Molinari began with a summary of his views on the natural laws of political economy in a 27 page "Introduction." He then simplified his theory of the evolution of states and markets through several stages into two stages or "states", that of "the State of War" and that of "the State of Peace". He ended the book, as he often did, with an Appendix which included some data and other shorter pieces he had written before, including a long quote from his "Letter to the Socialists" by "The Dreamer".

The Natural Laws of Political Economy↩

A fundamental belief of the political economists was that the world is governed by natural economic laws which operated independently of human will and if they are ignored or violated by government policies these laws will still continue to operate and will produce harmful consequences for those who attempted to do this. They thought that these laws were the economic equivalent of physical natural laws such as the law of gravitation. The inspiration behind this idea goes back to the 18th century Physiocrats such as François Quesnay who wrote the influential essay "Le droit naturel" (Natural Law) (1765) which was republished by Guillaumin in 1846 in a large collection of classic texts of political economy, the Collection des Principaux Économistes, a project which Molinari had also worked on. Molinari quoted Quesnay on the title page of his book Les Soirées, which also had as its subtitle the revealing statement, "entretiens sur les lois économiques et défense de la propriété" (discussions on economic laws and the defence of property). He quoted the same passage again at the end of the section on "The Natural Laws" in the Esquisse: [36]

Il faut bien se garder d’attribuer aux lois physiques les maux qui sont la juste et inévitable punition de la violation de l’order même de ces lois, instituées pour opérer le bien. It is necessary to refrain from attributing to the physical laws which have been instituted in order to produce good, the evils which are the just and inevitable punishment for the violation of this very order of laws.

The most detailed discussion of the natural laws of political economy can be found in three books which he published in the late 1880s, Les Lois naturelles de l’économie politique (1887); La Morale économique (1888), and Notions fondamentales économie politique et programme économique. (1891). [37]

In summary, Molinari thought that there were six "natural laws of economics" which governed the operation of the economy and which could not be ignored with impunity by individuals or by governments. They were:

  1. "la loi naturelle de l’économie des forces ou du moindre effort" (the natural law of the economizing of forces, or the law of the least effort) - by this he meant that individuals attempted to gain the most that they could with the least amount of effort.
  2. "la loi naturelle de la concurrence" (the natural law of competition) which he also expressed as"la loi de libre concurrence" (the law of free competition) - Molinari thought that there was a Darwinian struggle for survival by all living creatures. In the case of human beings, this competition could be either "productive competition" in the case of industrial or economic activity, or "destructive competition" in the case of war or politics.
  3. "la loi naturelle de la valeur" (the natural law of value) or sometimes also as "la loi de progression des valeurs" (the law of the progress or increase of values) - by this Molinari meant that in a free market the quantity of valuable things will steadily increase and that the prices of these valuable things will gradually fall as a result of competition to their "natural value" or cost of production.
  4. "la loi de l’offre et de la demande" (the law of supply and demand) which he also sometimes called "la loi des quantités et des prix" (the law of supply and prices) - this was short hand for saying that prices vary according to their supply and demand in the market place and that both consumers and producers alter their behavior as a result.
  5. "la loi de l’équilibre" (the law of economic equilibrium) - which is Molinari’s version of Bastiat’s theory of Harmony, [38] that if markets are left free to function they will tend to produce order not chaos, and there will arise a balance between the demand for products by consumers and the supply of those products by producers.
  6. "Malthus’ law of population growth" - Molinari accepted the orthodox Malthusian view that populations everywhere and always have a tendency to grow beyond the means of subsistence which could lead to starvation and death if they did not control the size of their families. [39]

When markets were left free to operate according to these laws the result, he thought, would be a steady increase in the prosperity of all groups within society, as a result of the increases in productivity caused by the division of labour, and the greater abundance of goods and services caused by international free trade. It was the refusal of both conservatives and socialists to acknowledge the vital role these laws played that made their economic policies both ineffective and harmful to the very people they were trying to help. He made thius point particularly clear in his book directed specifically to socialists, Comment se résoudra la question sociale (How to solve the Social Problem) (1896). [40]

Natural Rights and "Economic Moral Theory"↩

In addition to there being natural laws in the economic realm, most of the French political economists believed that there were natural laws in the realm of politics and morality, most notably in the form of natural rights to life, liberty, and property. One of the things which made French political economy different from the English school was the persistence of natural law and natural rights thinking in the French tradition, while the English were moving further in the direction of utilitarianism as formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. In Molinari's case he had severely criticised the historian and politician Adolphe Thiers's conservative defence of property in his widely circulated book De la propriété (1848) [41] for not basing his defense sufficiently firmly on the grounds of natural right which opened the door for the kinds of violations of property rights desired by the socialists. A more consistent, and thus more radical, defence of property rights was provided by the philosopher Victor Cousin (1792-1867), [42] whose ideas were brought to the attention of the political economists by Louis Leclerc in an article in the JDE also in 1848, [43] and quickly adopted by Molinari. The key concept in the Cousin-Leclerc view was the right of "self-ownership", whereby "le moi" (the self) had the right of ownership of itself (the person's body and mind) and by extension the ownership of the external things which this "self" created. This idea was the foundation stone of Molinari's theory of rights which underlay his book of 1849, Les Soirées and all the others which followed. In this he was remarkably consistent over his lifetime. He wrote on property rights in works such as Cours d'économie politique (1855, 2nd ed. 1863), La Morale économique (1888), and Notions fondamentales économie politique et programme économique. (1891). [44]

What he added to his thinking of the 1840s in his later writings was a religious dimension which he dealt with at some length in his book simply called Religion in 1892. [45] In a long footnote in this book he provides one of his clearest statements about natural rights. [46]

The right to own property implied the existence of other rights, such as the liberty to create, use, or exchange property with others. He was very meticulous in listing the different forms "liberty" could take, depending upon the kind of activity in which individuals were involved. In Les Soirées he listed 9 such kinds of liberty. In the second edition of his treatise Cours d'économie politique (1863) his list had expanded to 15. In addition to the standard liberties of trade, expression, and religion, he included a number of unusual "liberties" which show how radical his thinking had become, such as:

  1. “la liberté de se gouverner” (the liberty of governing oneself)
  2. “la liberté de la reproduction” (the liberty of reproducing, or reproductive rights)
  3. “la liberté du monnayage” (the liberty of minting coins or free banking)
  4. “la liberté du gouvernement” (the liberty of government, i.e. competing companies which offer police and defense services)

His vision of "the society of the future" was one where there is the most complete liberty possible in all its dimensions. As he often did, he used different expressions at different times to describe this future society. The following is a sample of these expressions:

  • “un régime de pleine liberté” (a society of complete liberty) (S6 and Esquisse)
  • “un milieu libre” (a liberal milieu, or a liberal society) - many instances and possibly his favourite term
  • "la concurrence illimitée" (unlimited competition) (EE)
  • "un marché d'une étendue illimitée" (a market of unlimited extent) (EP and Grandeur and Esquisse)
  • "la concurrence universalisée" (competition which has been made universal) (EP)
  • "la liberté de gouvernement" (liberty of government, which was his term for competing governments) (Lois naturelles and Esquisse)
  • "un régime de liberté politique" (a regime based upon political liberty) (Lois naturelles)

The Economic Evolution of Society through Stages: Industry, Competition, and War↩

As we mentioned above, because the Esquisse was a summary of some of the long books he had written before on what can be called "economic sociology", he presented a simplified version of his theory of the evolution of states and markets through various historical stages or eras. Here he only mentions "the state of war" and "the state of peace". In previous works he presented a more complex picture where the following stages through which societies progressed played an important role:

1.) The size and scope of economic activity.

In his first two large volumes L'Évolution économique (1880) and L'Évolution politique (1884) he focussed on the transition from "la petite industrie" (small-scale industry) [47] to "la grande industrie" (large-scale industry), where the former had a limited division of labour and a small local market for its products. [48] This existed after settled communities became established but because conflict with invaders and other hostile tribes was common economic development was restricted. They were also hampered by the fact that the community was ruled by a warrior ruling class who srictly regulated industrial activity because of the constant threat of war. Large scale industry with a much more sophisticated division of labout and more wide-spread markets which also included some foreign trade only asppeared after a period of peace had been established and the old warrior ruling class had been replaced by a new class which was more interested in increasing economic output so it could be taxed for their benefit.

2.) The kind and extent of competition.

In Les lois naturelles (1891) and Grandeur et décadence de guerre (1898) his attention shifts to the part played by competition in the evolution of societies.

The first kind is "la concurrence vitale" (competition to live or survive) [49] which was the competition between all species of animals to get food and to ward off predators in order to survive. Humans were part of this struggle but because they were endowed with intelligence they were able to create through their economic activity more effective "artificial weapons" to defeat the "natural weapons" of other predators and competitors, including other human beings.

The second stage of competition was "la concurrence destructive" (destructive competition) which arose as organised groups of humans fought with each other for food and other resources. [50] The strongest group with the best weapons and most skilled warriors (an early form of the specialisation of labour) either killed or conquered the weaker groups and forced them into slavery or to pay the victors tribute. This was the beginning of the first states which were "owned" and ruled by a warrior class. The warrior class gradually learned that they could extract more "tribute" or taxes from the "conquered or subject classes" if they allowed them to keep some of the food they grew or goods they produced. Another aspect of "destructive competiton" was the rivarly between neighbouring states which lead to attempts to expand their territory at the expense of their weaker neighbours, thus removing their political competitors and expanding their tax base.

At the same time, the third form of competition grew and eventually became the dominant one, namely "la concurrence industrielle" (industrial or economic competition). [51] For Molinari this was most important stage in the evolution of society because it was the stage upon which later prosperity and innovation was built. It required however the ruling class to establish peace with its neighbours, to respect property rights to some degree, to lower taxation and reduce regulaton, and to allow free trade within the nation as well as with other nations. This gradual transition from a "régime of political and economic servitude" to a "regime of political and economic liberty" took several centuries to take place. The final stage he thought would be reached when there was "la concurrence illimitée" (unlimited competition) and "un marché d'une étendue illimitée" (a market of unlimited extent) which would the hallmark of "the society of the future".

3.) The role of war.

His most detailed discussion of the role played by war in the evolution of society was in the book Grandeur et décadence de la guerre (1898) which appeared the year before the Esquisse was published. In this work he also divides his theory of evolution into two stages or "states": the state of war and the state of peace.

Molinari thought that originally war had played an important and positive role but had now outlived its usefulness and had become a serious threat to society. He argued that war was essential to the development of society because in the stage of "la concurrence vitale" the most skilled fighters were needed to defend the tribe against predatory animals, and in the stageof "la concurrence destructive" (the destructive competition) the same class of skilled fighters were needed to protect them from "barbarian invaders" or rival tribes who also had their skilled fighters and warriors. The earliest forms of economic activity, the "small-scale industry" described above, could not have survived in his view, without the protection provided by this warrior ruling class.

However, once the threat of barbarian invasion had subsided, war became more of a threat to the growth of industry and prosperity and thus needed to be reduced considerably in order for industry to grow and thrive. The problem faced by the newly emerging market and industrial society was that the warrior class had gradually evolved into a more general "ruling class" which included large land owners and privileged merchants and manufacturers, which did not want to give up the income it received from taxation and the economic privileges they had acquired from the government (monopolies, tariffs, and contracts) and the lucrative positions they had in the army, the church, and government administration.

This was the position Europe was in when Molinari was writing these words and it explains some of the material in the Appendix at the end of the book on the need for disarmament and to end the policy of colonisation.

The Political Evolution of Society through Stages: the State and the Ruling Class↩

At each stage in its economic evolution society had a different political organisation or "state" which reflected the changing structures of power and the methods of wealth creation within that society. The common element in all the different forms of the state which Molinari analysed over a period of several thousand years of human history was the existence at the top of "la classe dominante" (the ruling class) [52] or "la classe gouvernante" (the governing or ruling class) [53] which controlled the coercive powers of the state and used them to further its own interests, and a much larger group underneath them which made up "les classes gouvernées" (the governed classes), [54] "les classes assujetties" (the classes subject to this rule), [55] or "la population assujettie" (the subject population) [56] who were forced to work for them (as slaves or serfs) or who paid the taxes and submitted to other obligations, depending upon the kind of economic activity prevalent in that society.

Thus Molinari was using here a version of a theory of "class anlaysis" which is usually associated with Karl Marx but which had a long pedigree within classical liberal thinking which predated Marxism. He is in fact developing in much more detail a theory of classical liberal class analysis [57] which went back to Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer in the 1810s and 1820s [58] and Frédéric Bastiat in the 1840s. In England, similar work was being done by his contemporary Herbert Spencer, [59] and in Italy by Vifredo Pareto. [60]

What makes Molinari's theory of class different from Marx's is that, 1.) exploitation of one class by another takes place but the source of the exploitation is not "wage labour" per se but the use of physical coercion to transfer resources from one person to another (in the form of slavery, serfdon, confiscation of property, and taxation), and 2.) the institution (the state) and the people (the ruling class) who do the exploitation should be seen as a profit maximising firm (la société) owned and run by its "owners" or "shareholders"; with the important proviso being that this is true even if the state is a democratic or even a socialist one run by politicians and bureaucrats on behalf of the "people" or the "working class".

One of his significant contributions to this liberal theory of class was to see the state as a "firm" (la société), or "la maison" (a family owned business), or "l'établissement " (business enterprise) which "owned" the state (la société propriétaire de l'Etat) [61] and sought profits for its "owners" and "shareholders" (les actionnaires) by means of taxes, monopolies, other privileges, and well-paid and secure jobs in the bureaucracy, church, or the military. Like any business, there was competition within the ruling class as different factions engaged in "la lutte" (struggle) to win supremacy over their rivals and to maintain their power within the firm. There was also a "struggle" against rival "foreign firms" as they tried to expand their "political market" [62] by seizing more territory and the number of serfs and taxpayers which that territoty contained, as well as providing more jobs within the state for its members and their families.

What began as a small band of warriors ("la société conquérante" (the conquering firm)) [63] who would periodically invade a territory in order to kill and pillage the inhabitants (what Mancur Olson called "roving bandits") [64] changed when they realised that they could increase their "profits" by remaining in place over time, subjecting the population to slavery or sefdom, letting them keep a small portion of what they produced for themselves, and confiscating the rest for their own benefit (what Olson called "stationary bandits"). The ruling "warrior class" also found it in their own interest to make alliances with other groups in order to manage better their control over the "subject population" and to "buy off" challenges to their rule.

Over time this arrangement evolved into a broader "oligarchie gouvernante" (ruling oligarchy) [65] which also included senior members of the church as well as the privileged members of "les corporations" which controlled industry and commerce. In the modern era when political parties had emerged to compete with each to win office and control of the state, "l'oligarchie gouvernante" expanded again to include politicians (creating what he termed "le politicianisme" (rule by politicians)) [66] and government bureacrats (creating "le fontionnarisme" (rule by functionaries or civil servants)). [67]

When Molinari wrote the Esquisse there was a major shift taking place in the composition of the ruling class as the traditional groups made up of monarchs, the nobility, and senior church and military leaders were being challenged, on the one hand, by new groups of industrialists, manufacturers, and the liberal professions, and on the other hand, by a new working class, socialist political parties, and their intellectual supporters in the unversities and the mass media. He identified some of the major groups who were contending for power and which posed the greatest threat liberty. The system of government policies they were trying to establish he called:

  1. protectionism
  2. militarism
  3. statism
  4. colonialism / imperialism
  5. socialism
  6. politicianism / functionaryism

It was not clear in 1899 how this struggle for control of the state would play out in the coming decades. In spite of this uncertainty, Molinari wrote several papers at the turn of the century outlining his predictions of what might happen, which in retrospect turned out to be quite prescient. [68]

Peace, Competition, and the Society of the Future↩

In the second part of the Esquisse Molinari discusses what will happen when people realise that war has outlived its usefulness to the further development of society, and that instead it now posed one of the greatest threats to the liberty and prosperity of ordinary working people. He had earlier expressed his oppostion to war and his support for peace groups such as "Les Amis de paix" in entries in the DEP in 1852 [69] and in a book on the ideas of "perpetual peace" by Abbé Saint-Pierre in 1857. [70]

In the detailed appendices of one of his recent books (Grandeur et Décadence de Guerre (1898)) he showed how much money states spent on war and armaments. [71] The savings to made by reducing or eliminating military expenditure and the "destructive competition" which it engendered between states was enormous. This could only be achieved, he thought, in two ways. First by reducing the risk of war, especially by a rising military power, by the formation of a "League of Neutral States" which, when combined, their forces would have enough enough military and economic clout to discourage or even prevent a dominant military power from threatending its neighbours and taking control of the continent of Europe. He put forward this suggestion in an article in the London Times in July 1887. [72]

Secondly, by reducing the power of the ruling class, especially the part of the oligarchy made up of military elites whose livelihood was provided by taxpayers. The aim was to use the political process to withhold this tax money and force them to retire or seek employment in some "productive industry". His hope was that the liberal party and the socialist party might form a political alliance to make this happen within the Parliaments and Chambers of Deputies of his day. He first put forward the idea of an alliance between the liberals (the economists) and the socialists in an unsigned article published in the JDE in June 1848 the week before the violent repression of the protesters by the army during the "June Days". [73] It is interesting that he revealed for the first time in an Appendix to the Esquisse (Note E "The Economic and Socialist Conceptions of the Society of the Future") that he had been the author of this unsigned and moving appeal to the socialists of 1848 in which he argued that the radical liberals and the socialists had more in common than they thought. They shared the common ends of freedom and prosperity (what he called "the utopia of liberty") but fundamentally disagreed about the means to achieve these ends. Neverless, the young 29 year old economist of 1848 who called himself then "le Réveur" (the Dreamer) and now also the aging 80 year old economist of 1899, still believed that the liberals and the socialists should join forces to oppose the common enemy of the people in the coming century. Molinari here criticises his younger self for having "la naïveté confiante de la jeunesse," (the confident naivete of youth), but not for being wrong in this hope, only for being 50 years "prématuré" (premature).

Once major cuts could be made to military expenditure this would allow more investments in the productive sectors of the economy which would deepen the division of labour and extend the possibilities for international free trade. He thought this would then open up the floodgates to a new era of "productive industrial competition".

Eliminating the power of the military oligarchy would also make possible other reforms of the expensive and highly regulatory states which had emerged in late 19th century in Europe. He thought the very nature of the state was "anti-economique" which meant that its services were expensive, poorly provided, and open to graft and corruption. [74] The services which states had traditionally provided could be divided into two types: those activities which were "naturellement individuelle" (naturally of an individual nature), such as the vast bulk of goods and serices, which the state should not provide at all but leave completely to private competitive companies. [75] The second kind were a small number of "naturellement collective" goods (of a naturally collective nature) such as roads, paving, street lights, trash collection, and domestic and foreign security, [76] which he thought should be provided "collectively" (although what this meant in practice was hard to pin down). His conclusion was that the size and cost of government could be drastically cut by 95% by eliminating its unncessary functions completely and privatising or outsourcing to private firms those small number of core functions which could only be provided "collectively".

In his vision of the future, competition would be "unlimited", universal, and applied to everything (government services included). [77] However, in the Esquisse he appears to have backtracked somewhat over his more radical views expressed in the JDE artcile on PoS and chapter 11 of the Soirées both published in 1849. There he explicitly called for the ending of the government monopoly of the "production" (i.e. the provision) of security which would be provided by private, competing firms (what he termed "les compagnies d'assurances sur la propriété" (property insurance companies) [78] who would sell "premiums" for their services which were specifically tailored to suit the needs of individual consumers of security for their services. He maintained this radical view for several decades until the Esquisse where he now argued that the production of security was a "naturally collective good" which could not be provided to each consumer via a separate indivualised contract. It had to be provided "collectively", but what he meant exactly by "collectively" is not easy to determine as he is somewhat ambiguous. He does not come out directly to say it should be a rigidly enforced government monopoloy which would not allow any form of competition within the national territory,such as between local governments or between local governments and the central government. Nor does he say that this collectively provided form of security would remain this way forever as markets continued to expand, the division of labour increased, competition became more and more universal and unlimited, and people become more familiar with the responsibilities needed for "self-government". I think that by not making this clear, he was leaving the door open to the possibility of some form of competition in the PoS sometime in the future. As he said about making an alliance with the socialists to fight the present-day class system of exploitation, this idea may have been "premature" in 1899 but maybe not in 1999 or in 2099.

We can track Molinari's evolving ideas about the production of security over the years which shows some innovative and original thinking which is still of interest today.

In L'Évolution politique (1884) he talks about the possibility of "des industries immobilières" or "une société immobilière" (real estate development companies) [79] building housing developments or communities which would bundle security along with other "public goods" such as street lighting, paving of roads, sewerage, and water which the members of the community would pay for in an annual service fee for living in the community.

There was also the possibility that various local or provincial governments would compete against each other and perhaps also with the central national government in order to attract residents, i.e. "taxpayers", with offers of lower prices and better service. [80]

He also thought that secession or the threat of secession from the central government would be a powerful incentive if other options failed or were not permitted. He even talked about the possibility of there being a "double droit de sécession" (double right of secession), that is the right of the commune to secede from the province, as well as the right of the province to seceded from the central state, in Les lois naturelles (1887). [81] The examples he had to draw upon were the American Civil War and the various struggles for national independence which were taking placce in central and eastern Europe. [82]

There was also the hope that the democratic representative system as it had developed under the Third Republic might be used as a half-way house between a completely government owned and bureaucratically run and administerd security industry ("la regie") and a fully private, competitive security industry run like a property insurance company. He thought the "mandataires" - the elected representatives of the people - rather than each individual citizen, could negotiate with private security companies to provide security services under contract for the entire nation for a fixed sum. [83] However, given his strong criticism of government run services as essentially "anti-économique" and his comments about the unreliability of elected politicians who often fail in their duty of care towards the voters, this option seems to be a rather weak one. Perhaps he thought this was a stop-gap solution rather than an ideal one - one that would have to do until conditions changed and his preferred solution of total freedom and unlimited competition became possible.

Perhaps also, after all the criticism he had received from his colleages when he first put forward his ideas in 1849 he had learned to be more cautious in openly expressing his views. He would often say to his readers things like, "consider this hypothesis", "let us make this supposition," or "imagine a town with a single grocer which was considering opening up the trade to competitors," and so on. When he uses expressions like this I believe he is gently suggesting to his readers that his true views had remained unchanged and that they should read between the lines to discover what he really thought.

He was also not reluctant to call himself a utopian or a "dreamer" for holding this and other radical free market views. He was called a "utopian" by the editor of the JDE which nevertheless published his PoS article calling for the private and competitive production of security; he called himself a utopian on several occasions for his views about the possiblility of bringing about "perpetual" (i.e. a permanent) peace between bellicose nations; [84] for thinking that a labour exchange modelled on the stock exchange would help workers find jobs at a good wage anywhere in Europe; [85] for thinking the private issuing of money by competing banks would solve the problem of the devaluation of money and growing government debt; [86] for thinking that the government could drastically lower the cost of providing internal and external security with his plan for contracting out the service to private competing companies; [87] that he was a "dreamer" like the 18th century Physiocrats whom he admired, for wanting to bring about "le gouvernement à bon marché" (government at a low price). [88] But as he concluded in Grandeur et décadence (1898) all his radical liberal ideas, like "toutes les idées nouvelles, elle fut considérée d’abord comme une pure utopie" (all new ideas were at first thought to be a pure utopia). [89]

He returned to the question of "utopia" in one of his last articles in the JDE published in 1904, where he asks "Where is utopia?" [90] Did it lie with the protectionists, statists, militarists, and socialists who were trying to impose their utopian vision for society by force as he was writing these words? Or did it lie with the liberals and economists like Molinari, who had seen some victories during the 19th century, but who now seemed to be very much in retreat intellectually and politically? He ended his book Les Soirées in 1849 with a call for people to "Choisissez!" (choose!) which utopian vision of the future they wanted before it was too late, either the vision of "the communists" or the vision of those who defended private property. [91] He asked the same question again in 1904, but this time the choice was between the vision offered by the "étatistes" (the statists) in the form of militarism, protection, or socialism on one side, and that offered by the small number of liberals who had reained completely faithful to their principles. Unfortunately, he concluded that the number of these had become so small that "ils tiendraient sur un canapé" (they could all fit on one sofa). [92]

In summary then, Molinari envisaged a "future society" which would be "le régime de paix assurée et de liberté de gouvernement" (a regime with guranteed peace and freedom of government), [93] where there would be "un marché d'une étendue illimitée" (a market of unlimited extent) [94] and "la concurrence illimitée et universalisée" (unlimited and universal competition, i.e. competition in all things), [95] and "la suppression des entraves à la liberté du travail, de l'association et de l'échange dans toutes les branches de l'activité humaine" (an end to all restraints on the freedom of working, of association, and of exchange in all branches of human activity). [96]

In other words, we would all be living in "un milieu libre" (a free milieu or society). But as he reminded us, not just yet. [97]

 

 

Endnotes↩

[1] Very little has been written about the life and thought of Molinari. See, David M. Hart, "Gustave de Molinari and the Anti-statist Liberal Tradition" Journal of Libertarian Studies, in three parts, (Summer 1981), V, no. 3: 263-290; (Fall 1981), V. no. 4: 399-434; (Winter 1982), VI, no. 1: 83-104; David M. Hart, "Molinari, Gustave de (1819-1912)," The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, eds. Ronald Hamowy et al. (Los Angeles: Sage, 2008), pp. 336-37; Gérard Minart, Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912), Pour un gouvernement à bon marché dans un milieu libre (Paris: Éditions de l'Institut Coquelin, Charles. 2012); and the Introductions to each volume of the Institut Coppet's edition of the Oeuvres complètes, by the editor Benoît Malbranque: Œuvres complètes de Gustave de Molinari, sous la direction de Mathieu Laine, avec le soutien de M. André de Molinari, et avec des notes et notices par Benoît Malbranque (Paris: Institut Coppet, 2019-).

[2] On the "Paris School" of political economy see David M. Hart, "The Paris School of Liberal Political Economy" in The Cambridge History of French Thought, ed. Michael Moriarty and Jeremy Jennings (Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 301-12. Also, Michel Leter, “Éléments pour une étude de l’École de Paris (1803-1852), in Histoire du libéralisme en Europe, eds. Philippe Nemo and Jean Petitot (Pais: Presses Universitaires de France, 2006), pp. 429-509.

[3] The most extensive discussion of this is in Les Soirées (1849) where each chapter is devoted to how the government provision of public goods can replaced by competitive private provision.

[4] On the “anti-economic” nature of government activity see his discussion in vol. 2 of Cours d’économie politique (1863), 12th Lesson on "Public Consumption", pp. 521-25.

[5] See his lecture at the Musée royal de l'industrie belge in Brussells on Les Révolutions et le despotisme envisagés au point de vue des intérêts matériel (1852), p. 116.

[6] See EE, p. 86; EP, p. 49; Lois naturelles, p. 90; Notions, p. 10; Grandeur, p. 10.

[7] See Grandeur, p. 113.

[8] The texts are available online for download free of charge at the Institut Coppet website https://www.institutcoppet.org/bibliographie-gustave-de-molinari/

[9] On Guillaumin, see Lucette Levan-Lemesle, “Guillaumin, Éditeur d’Économie politique 1801-1864,” Revue d’économie politique, 96e année, No. 2, 1985p ,p. 134-149.

[10] See the list of books published by Guillaumin compiled by Benoît Malbranque for the Institut Coppet in Paris, which I have modified somewhat. Benoît Malbranque, "Liste complète des titres publiés par Guillaumin (1837-1910)", Institut Coppet (janvier 2, 2017) https://www.institutcoppet.org/2017/01/02/liste-complete-titres-publies-guillaumin-1837-1910; and David M. Hart, “Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin (1801-64) and the Guillaumin Publishing Firm (1837-1910)”, with links to the texts which I have on my website http://davidmhart.com/liberty/FrenchClassicalLiberals/Guillaumin/index.html.

[11] The term "le réseau Guillaumin" (the Guillaumin network) was coined by Minart to describe the interlocking network of like-minded individuals, associations, and groups which through their activities and publications had a considerable influence on French political, economic, and intellectual life for over 70 years. Minart, p. 56.

[12] Gustave de Molinari, “De l’agriculture en Angleterre” (Agriculture in England), Journal des Économistes, S. 1, T. 16, N° 62, janvier 1847.

[13] Gustave de Molinari, "L’accaparement" (Hoarding), Journal des économistes, S. 6, T. 28, N° 1, octobre 1910.

[14] For a list of the books and articles Molinari wrote see David M. Hart, "The Works of Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912)" at my website http://davidmhart.com/liberty/FrenchClassicalLiberals/Molinari/Bibliography-2024.html

[15] Gustave de Molinari, Histoire du tarif (Paris: Guillaumin, 1847). Vol. 1: Les fers et les houilles; vol. 2: Les céréales.

[16] Gustave de Molinari, Économie de l’histoire: Théorie de l’Évolution (Paris: F. Alcan, 1908).

[17] Gustave de Molinari, Esquisse de l’organisation politique et économique de la Société future (Paris: Guillaumin, 1899).

[18] Gustave de Molinari, Ultima Verba: Mon dernier ouvrage (Paris: V. Girard et E. Briere, 1911).

[19] See the more detailed "Chronology of his Life and Works" at http://davidmhart.com/liberty/FrenchClassicalLiberals/Molinari/Chronology.html.

[20] See for example, “Lamartine“, Le biographe universel (publié en brochure en 1843), 1842. 2nd ed. Biographie politique de M. A. de Lamartine (Paris : Impr. de Mme Lacombe, 1843 ).

[21] See for example “Appel aux ouvriers,” Courrier français, 20 juillet 1846.

[22] Two works by Say were the first to be published by Guillaumin as part of their Collection des principaux économistes beginning with Cours complet d'économie politique pratique in 1840 and Traité d'économie politiqu (1841). Molinari may well have come across these new editions. See Collection des principaux économistes, Avec Commentaires, Notes, et Notices; par MM. Blanqui et Rossi (de l'Institut), Eugène Daire, H. Dussard, J. Garnier, M. Monjean, H. Say. (Paris: Guillaumin, 1840-48), 15 vols.

[23] Bastiat wrote a long introduction to his first book for Guillaumin on the English free trade movement organised by Richard Cobden called Cobden et la ligue, ou l’Agitation anglaise pour la liberté du commerce (Paris: Guillaumin, 1845) (Cobden and the League, or the English Movement for Free Trade); and shortly afterwards his first collection of essays called Sophismes économiques. Première série (Paris: Guillaumin, 1846) (Economic Sophisms. First Series).

[24] Gustave de Molinari edited the final two volumes, vols. XIV and XV, on 18th century authors such as David Hume, Condillac, Benjamin Franklin, and Jeremy Bentham, Mélanges d'économie politique (1847-48).

[25] “Proudhon et M. Thiers,” Journal des Économistes, S. 1, T. 21, N° 86, 15 août 1848; “De la propriété, par M. Thiers. Compte-rendu,” Journal des Économistes, S. 1, T. 22, N° 94, 15 janvier 1849.

[26] “De la production de la sécurité,” Journal des Économistes, S. 1, T. 22, N° 95, 15 février 1849.

[27] “L’Industrie des théâtres, à propos de la crise actuelle,” Journal des économistes, S. 1, T. 24, N° 101, 15 août 1849. Molinari was a great fan of the theatre and wrote several articles on how heavily it was regulated, subsidised, and censored by the government.

[28] "L'utopie de la liberté (lettre aux socialistes, par un RÉVEUR)" (The Utopia of Liberty: A Letter to the Socialists by a Dreamer), JDE, T. 20 N° 82, 15 juin 1848, pp. 328-32.

[29] See Molinari's Obituary of Joseph Garnier, [nécrologie] "Garnier, Joseph." JDE (October 1881), and "[nécrologie] "Charles Coquelin," JDE (September and October 1852), p. 172.

[30] See Les Clubs rouges pendant le siège de Paris (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1871); and Le Mouvement socialiste et les réunions publiques avant la révolution du 4 septembre 1870, suivi de la Pacification des rapports du capital et du travail (Paris : Garnier frères, 1872).

[31] Molinari, [cr] "Contes sur l'économie politique, par miss Harriet Martineau," JDE (15 avril 1849).

[32] He would write two more popular works, this time on free trade: Conservations familières sur le commerce des grains. (Paris: Guillaumin, 1855); and Conversations sur le commerce des grains et la protection de l’agriculture (Nouvelle édition) (Paris: Guillaumin, 1886).

[33] Les Révolutions et le despotisme envisagés au point de vue des intérêts matériel; précédé d’une lettre à M. le Comte J. Arrivabene, sur les dangers de la situation présente, par M. G. de Molinari, professeur d’économie politique (Brussels: Meline, Cans et Cie, 1852).

[34] Dictionnaire de l’Économie Politique, contenant l’exposition des principes de la science, l’opinion des écrivains qui ont le plus contribué à sa fondation et à ses progrès, la Bibliographie générale de l’économie politique par noms d’auteurs et par ordre de matières, avec des notices biographiques et une appréciation raisonnée des principaux ouvrages, publié sur la direction de MM. Charles Coquelin et Guillaumin. (Paris: Librairie de Guillaumin et Cie, 1852), 2 vols.

[35] It is also important to note that in the DEP he provided an economic analysis of things such as fine arts, emigration, fashion, public buildings and monuments, theatres, and international travel which I would argue are original to him and perhaps the first time they have been analysed in this way.

[36] François Quesnay, "Le droit naturel" (1765), CPE, vol. 1, p.46.

[37] Molinari, Les Lois naturelles de l’économie politique (Paris: Guillaumin, 1887); La Morale économique (Paris: Guillaumin, 1888); and Notions fondamentales économie politique et programme économique. (Paris: Guillaumin, 1891).

[38] See Frédéric Bastiat, Harmonies économiques. 2me Édition. Augmentée des manuscrits laissés par l’auteur. Publiée par la Société des amis de Bastiat. (Paris: Guillaumin, 1851).

[39] Molinari also wrote extensively on Malthus and the issue of population in several of his works. See two chapters in his treatise Cours d'économie politique (Paris: Guillaumin, 1863), 2nd revised edition, vol. 1, Quinzième leçon and Seizième leçon, "Théorie de la population; "Introduction", Du principe de population. 2. éd. précédée d’une introduction et d’une notice par M. G. de Molinari, augmenté de nouvelles notes contenant les faits statistiques récents et les débats relatifs à la question de la population. Avec un portrait de l’Auteur (Paris: Guillaumin, 1885); “Introduction” to Malthus, Essai sur le principe de population de Malthus (Paris: Guillaumin, 1889; Paris: Alcan, 1907); and his late work on La Viriculture. Ralentissemnt du movement de la population. Dégénérescence - Causes et remèdes (Paris: Guillaumin, 1897).

[40] Comment se résoudra la question sociale (Paris: Guillaumin, 1896).

[41] Adolphe Thiers, De la propriété (Paris: Paulin, Lheureux et Cie, 1848). Molinari reviewed this book in in the JDE (January, 1849), pp. 166-67.

[42] Victor Cousin, Justice et Charité. Petits traités publiés par l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques (Paris: Pagnerre, 1848).

[43] Louis Leclerc, "Simple observation sur le droit de propriété," Journal des Économistes, T. 21, no. 90, 15 October 1848, pp. 304-305.

[44] See Molinari, Cours d'économie politique (1855, 2nd ed. 1863), Part I, Quatrième leçon. "La valeur et la propriété," pp. 107-31. Molinari, La Morale économique (1888). Livre II. La matière de la morale. Le droit. Chap. I. "Définition du droit. Liberté et la propriété," p. 33 (and following chaps). Molinari, Notions fondamentales économie politique et programme économique. (1891), I. Lois et phénomène économiques. Chap XI. La propriété et la liberté. Accord de l'économie politique avec la morale," pp. 232-46.

[45] Religion (Paris: Guillaumin et Cie, 1892).

[46] Religion, p. 136.

[47] See the discussion on "small scale industry" and its governments in EP, chapters 1-3.

[48] See the discussion on "large scale industy" and its governments in EP, chapters 1-2.

[49] See Grandeur, pp. 66-67, 71-74.

[50] See Esquisse, pp. ix-x, xv-xvi.

[51] There are many reference to "concurrence industrielle" in EP, Lois naturelles, and Notions.

[52] See for example the many references in EP, p. 88.

[53] This term became his preferred one in later works. See for example EP, p. 41; Lois naturelles, p. 151; Grandeur, p., 85; Esquisse, p. 200.

[54] See EP, p. 163; Lois naturelles, p. 151; Grandeur, p. 99.

[55] See EE, p. 190; EP, p. 47; Grandeur, pp. 101-2.

[56] See EE, p. 87; EP, p. 40; Lois nauterelles, p. 12; Grandeur, p. 20; Esquisse, p. 19.

[57] See my chapter on "Class" in The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism. Edited by Matt Zwolinski and Benjamin Ferguson (Routledge, 2022) , pp. 291-307.

[58] David M. Hart, "Class Analysis, Slavery and the Industrialist Theory of History in French Liberal Thought, 1814-1830: The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer" (PhD thesis, King's College Cambridge, 1994).

[59] See Spencer's discussion of "The Militant Type of Society" and "The Industrial Type of Society" in volume 2 of The Principles of Sociology, in Three Volumes (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1898).

[60] On Pareto's theory of class and "elites", see Vilfredo Pareto, “Un’applicazione di teorie sociologiche,” Rivista Italiana di sociologia, (Luglio 1900), p. 401-456; and the more extended treatment in Traité de sociologie générale. Édition française par Pierre Boven. Revue par l’auteur. Volume I (Paris: Librairie Payot, 1917). Volume II (Paris: Librairie Payot, 1919).

[61] See EP, p. 154; Lois Naturelles, p. 100; Notions, p. 14; Grandeur, p. 26; Esquisse, p. xiii.

[62] See for example, EP, p. 157; LN, p. 166; Notions, p. 12; Grandeur, p. 41; Esquisse, p. 21.

[63] See EP, p. 38; Notions, p. 12; Grandeur, p. 18; Esquisse, p. 59.

[64] Mancur Olson, Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships (New York: Basic Books, 2000). Especially Chapter 1 "The Logic of Power". Diacussion of "The Stationary Bandit" pp. 6ff.

[65] See EP, p. 92; Notions, p. 38.

[66] See Notions, p. 52; Grandeur, p. 139.

[67] See LN, p. 274; Grandeur, Appendix E, pp. 221 ff.

[68] See the pair of articles in the JDE summing up the achievements of the 19th century and the threats liberty would face in the 20th century: "Le XIXe siècle", Journal des Économistes, Janvier 1901, 5e série, T. XLV, pp. 5-19; and "Le XXe siècle", Journal des Économistes, Janvier 1902, 5e série, T. XLIX, pp. 5-14. And his more extended treatment of these matters in the book Les Problèmes du XXe siècle (Paris: Guillaumin, 1901).

[69] Molinari, "Paix, Guerre", DEP, T. 2, pp. 307-14., and "Paix (Société et Congrès de la Paix)"", DEP, T. 2, pp. 314-15.

[70] See also his entry on "Saint-Pierre (abbé de)," DEP, T. 2, pp. 565-66, and his book L’abbé de Saint-Pierre, membre exclu de l’Académie française, sa vie et ses oeuvres, précédées d’une appréciation et d’un précis historique de l’idée de la paix perpétuelle, suivies du jugement de Rousseau sur le projet de paix perpétuelle et la polysynodie ainsi que du projet attribué à Henri IV, et du plan d’Emmanuel Kant pour rendre la paix universelle, etc., etc. (Paris: Guillaumin, 1857).

[71] Grandeur, Appendice III. K. L’augmentation progressive des dépenses de guerre et des dettes publiques en Europe, pp. 237 ff.

[72] The Times, 28 July, 1887, Republished in Grandeur, Appendice III. P. "La ligue des neutres", pp. 258-301.

[73] Molinari, "L’utopie de la liberté (lettre aux socialistes), par un Rêveur," JDE, T. 20 N° 82, 15 juin 1848, pp. 328-32.

[74] Cours (1863), vol. 1, p. 192; vol. 2, pp. 524 ff.

[75] On the distinction between goods which were "naturellement individuelle" and "naturellement collective", Esquisse, pp. 74-75.

[76] On "naturellement collective" goods, Esquisse, p. 93.

[77] On "la concurrence illimitée", see EE (1880), p. 84; on "la concurrence universalisée" see EP (1884), p. 482.

[78] On "les compagnies d'assurances sur la propriété" (property insurance companies), see Les Soirées, no. 11, p. 331, 334. Also Lois naturelles, p. 44.

[79] On "une société immobilière" see EP p. 389.

[80] Molinari, EP, Section IV. "La commune et son avenir," pp. 382-394.

[81] Les lois naturelles (1887), pp. 265-66.

[82] The second edition of the Cours was published in 1863 when the American Civil war was underway and he makes a passing reference to the right of secession here and would return to in later works such as L'Évolution politique (1884) and Lois naturelles (1887). See Cours, vol. 2, pp. 531-32 and Lois naturelles, pp. 264-66.

[83] See Esquisse, pp. 29-30, 97-98.

[84] Lois Naturelles, p. 235.

[85] EE, p. v.

[86] Sociale Question, p. 323-4.

[87] Sociale Question, p. 342.

[88] Sociale Question, p. 342.

[89] Grandeur, p. 78.

[90] “Où est l’utopie ?,” Journal des économistes, S. 6, T. 3, N° 2, août 1904. republished in Questions économiques à l’ordre du jour (Paris: Guillaumin, 1906), pp. 369-87. Quote on pp. 379-80.

[91] Soirées, p. 343.

[92] “Où est l’utopie ?,” p. 387.

[93] Esquisse, p. 173.

[94] EP, p. 450

[95] EE, p. 84; EP, p. 482.

[96] Esquisse, p. 153.

[97] On his use of the term "milieu libre"," see Soirées, p. 357; EP, pp. 70, 450.