Frédéric Bastiat

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Frédéric Bastiat

Claude Frédéric Bastiat (born June 30, 1801 in Bayonne , France , † December 24, 1850 in Rome ) was a French economist and politician . He can be counted to the classical economy and is considered an important representative of liberalism and the optimistic idea of ​​harmony .

Life

His family came from Mugron , where he grew up, was orphaned when he was nine and moved in with his grandparents. After school and studies in Saint-Sever and Sorèze , Bastiat first worked in his uncle's shop. In 1825 he returned to Mugron, where he had inherited a considerable property through the death of his grandfather. After the July Revolution of 1830 he was appointed Justice of the Peace of Mugron. As a result of his great interest in political economy, he surrendered to this office with full force, advocating free trade . He published his first essay, Le fisc et la vigne , in 1841. After hearing about the free trade movement ( Manchester liberalism ), which was led by Richard Cobden in England , he began a long correspondence with the latter and introduced the movement to his fellow French citizens numerous translations of works and letters in his work Cobden et la ligue .

With the article L'influence des tarifs anglais et français published in 1844 in the Journal des Économistes , he began his career as an economist. In quick succession, other writings appeared, including the satirical petition of the candle makers , who complained to the government about the sun because, as a foreign competitor, it reduced the consumption of candles.

Bastiat was one of the founders of the Bordeaux Free Trade Association in 1846 and became Secretary of the Board of Directors.

After the February Revolution of 1848 he was elected to the constituent assembly, and later to the legislative assembly. Here he became the relentless enemy of socialism , against which he fought in several writings (including Propriété et loi , Capital et rente , Justice et fraternité , Protectionnisme et communisme ). With Harmonies économiques he published his own economics lesson in 1849, which he could no longer finish due to illness. He died in Rome in 1850.

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Bastiat was a representative of liberalism and devoted his life to educating people about economic myths in works such as the parable of the broken window or the petition of the candle makers.

Many of Bastiat's writings were translated into German by John Prince-Smith during his lifetime .

Today, Frédéric Bastiat is particularly valued in the Anglo-American world and among representatives of the Austrian School : Margaret Thatcher praised Bastiat as her favorite economist on a trip to France, and Henry Hazlitt built his influential book "Economics in One Lesson" on the parable of the broken window on.

literature

Work editions

  • Frédéric Bastiat: Oeuvres économiques . Ed .: Florin Aftalion. PUF, Paris 1983, ISBN 2-13-037861-7 .
  • Frédéric Bastiat: Pamphlets . Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-251-39049-9 .
  • Frédéric Bastiat: Sophismes économiques . Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2005, ISBN 978-2-251-39038-3 .
    • German translation under the title: The fallacies of the protective customs officers ..., Berlin 1847 google books
  • Œuvres complètes . 7 volumes (1851–1884; I. Correspondance, mélange, II. Le libre-échange, III. Richard Cobden et la Ligue, IV. Sophismes, V. Sophismes et querelle avec Proudhon, VI. Les Harmonies économiques, VII. Essais, ébauches, correspondance). Guillaumin (The only complete work edition. The Harmonies économiques were reprinted by Sklatine in 1982 ).
  • Louis Baudin (ed.): Frédéric Bastiat . Dalloz, Paris 1962 (Coll. Des Grands économistes).
  • Pierre Manent (Ed.): Les Libéraux . 2 volumes. Hachette, Paris 1986.
  • Frédéric Bastiat: Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas. Choix de sophismes et de pamphlets économiques . Romillat, Paris 1993.

Secondary literature

  • Maurice Basle, Alain Gélédan: Frédéric Bastiat, 1801–150; Théoricien et militant du libre échange . In: Yves Breton, Michel Lutfalla (eds.): L'économie politique en France au XIXème siècle . Éditions Economia, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-7178-2062-0 .
  • Alfred de Foville: Bastiat . In: Léon Say, Joseph Chailley (ed.): Nouveau dictionnaire de l'économie politiques, Bs. 1: A-H . 2nd ed. Guillaumin, Paris 1900, pp. 170-172.
  • Alfred de Foville: Frédéric Bastiat. Œuvres choisis (Petite bibliothèque économique française et étrangère). Guillaumin, Paris 1889.
  • Jacques Garello: Aimez-vous Bastiat? Romillat, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-87894-066-0 .
  • Robert Leroux: Political Economy and Liberalism in France. The contributions of Frédéric Bastiat (Routledge studies in the history of economics; 126). Routledge, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-58055-7 .
  • Gérard Minart: Bastiat (1801-1850). Le croisé du libre-échange . L'Harmattan, Paris 2004, ISBN 978-2-7475-6030-6 .
  • Jean-Yves Naudet: Digitus Dei est Hic . In: Journal des économistes et des études humaines (JEEH), ISSN  2194-5799 , vol. 11 (2001), pp. 685-691.
  • Portrait. Bastiat (1801-1850) . In: La nouvelle lettre , issue 1067 from February 19, 2011, p. 8.
  • George C. Roche, III .: Frédéric Bastiat. A man alone (Architects of Freedom). Arlington House, New Rochelle NY 1971, ISBN 0-87000-116-7 .
  • Dean Russell: Frédéric Bastiat. Ideas and influence . Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson 1969 (also dissertation, University of Geneva 1959).

Newly translated essays

Web links

Commons : Frédéric Bastiat  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Frédéric Bastiat  - Sources and full texts (French)
Wikiquote: Frédéric Bastiat  - Quotes (German)
Wikiquote: Frédéric Bastiat  - Quotes (French)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cobden et la Ligue ( French ) bastiat.org/. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  2. ↑ Petition from manufacturers of candles, lamps, candlesticks, street lamps, scissors for cleaning lights, candle extinguishers and of tallow, oil, resin, alcohol products and generally everything that is used for lighting . bastiat.de. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  3. ^ Günther Haller: The wrath of the candle makers on the sun. December 3, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Bastiat, Frédéric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bastiat, Claude Frédéric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French economist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Bayonne , France
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1850
Place of death Rome