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[Excerpted from The Law (1850; 2007). An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Joel Sams, is available for download .] Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates, confounds government and society. And so, every time we object to a thing being done by government, it concludes that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove

Is it quite certain that the mechanism of society, like the mechanism of the heavenly bodies, or that of the human frame, is subject to general laws? Does it form a harmoniously organized whole? Or rather, do we not note in it the absence of all organization? Is not an organization the very thing which all men of heart and of the future, all

[This introduction to Bastiat’s Economic Sophisms (1845) is excerpted from The Bastiat Collection (2011).]   My design in this little volume is to refute some of the arguments that are urged against the freedom of trade. I do not propose to engage in a contest with the protectionists; but rather to instill a principle into the minds of those who

[ The Bastiat Collection ]   Which is best for man and for society, abundance or scarcity? What! you exclaim, can that be a question? Has anyone ever asserted, or is it possible to maintain, that at the foundation of human well-being? Yes, this has been asserted, and is maintained every day; and I do not hesitate to affirm that the theory of

[Included in The Bastiat Collection (2011), this article appeared in Economic Sophisms (1845).]   The obstacle mistaken for the cause — scarcity mistaken for abundance — this is the same fallacy under another aspect; and it is well to study it in all its phases. Man is originally destitute of everything. Between this destitution and the

[Included in The Bastiat Collection (2011), this article appeared in Economic Sophisms (1845).] We have just seen that between our wants and the satisfaction of these wants, obstacles are interposed. We succeed in overcoming these obstacles, or in diminishing their force, by the employment of our faculties. We may say, in a general way, that

[Included in The Bastiat Collection (2011), this article appeared in Economic Sophisms (1845).]   We have here, again, the same fallacy. We demand that foreign products should be taxed to neutralize the effect of the taxes that weigh upon our national products. The object, then, still is to equalize the conditions of production. We have only a

[Included in The Bastiat Collection (2011), this article appeared in Economic Sophisms (1845).] Our adversaries have adopted tactics that are rather embarrassing. Do we establish our doctrine? They admit it with the greatest possible respect. Do we attack their principle? They abandon it with the best grace in the world. They demand only one thing

[Included in The Bastiat Collection (2011), this article appeared in Economic Sophisms (1845).]   At a time when everybody is bent on bringing about a saving in the expense of transport — and when, in order to effect this saving, we are forming roads and canals, improving our steamers, and connecting Paris with all our frontiers by a network of

[This article, originally titled “Reciprocity,” is excerpted from The Bastiat Collection (2011); it appeared in Economic Sophisms (1845).] We have  just seen  that whatever increases the expense of conveying commodities from one country to another — in other words, whatever renders transport more onerous — acts in the same way as a protective