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[ The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848)]   Petition of Jacques Bonhomme, Carpenter, to Mr. Cuningridaine, Minister of Commerce Mr. Manufacturer Minister, I am a carpenter by trade, as was St. Joseph of old, and I handle the hatchet and adze for your benefit. Now, while engaged in hewing and

[ The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848) ] I think it necessary to submit to the reader some theoretical remarks on the illusions to which the words dearness and cheapness give rise. At first sight, these remarks may, I feel, be regarded as subtle, but the question is not whether they are

[ The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848)]   There is nothing that is not pretended by the writers in favor of protection to be established as an aid to the working classes — there is positively no exception, not even the custom house. You fancy, perhaps, that the custom house is merely an

[ The Bastiat Collection (2011). This piece was written in December 1846.] “Liberty acts on the same principle as insurance. When an accident, like a fire, happens, insurance spreads over a great number of men and a great number of years losses that, in the absence of insurance, would have fallen all at once upon one individual. But will anyone

[ The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848)] This little book of fallacies is found to be too theoretical, scientific, and metaphysical. Be it so. Let us try the effect of a more trivial and hackneyed, and if necessary, a ruder style. Convinced that the public is duped in this matter of

[ The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848)]   JACQUES BONHOMME, a vintner. Mr. LASOUCHE, tax gatherer. L.: You have secured 20 tuns of wine? J.: Yes, by dint of my own skill and labor. L.: Have the goodness to deliver up to me six of the best. J.: Six tuns out of 20! Good Heaven! you are going to

[ The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848)] If anyone tells you that there are no absolute principles, no inflexible rules; that prohibition may be bad and yet that restriction may be good, reply, “Restriction prohibits all that it hinders from being imported.” If anyone says that agriculture is

[ The Bastiat Collection (2011); originally from the second series of Economic Sophisms (1848), this “Report Addressed to the King” was written in 1847.]   Sire — When we observe these free trade advocates boldly disseminating their doctrines, and maintaining that the right of buying and selling is implied in the right of property (as has been

[From “That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen,” included in The Bastiat Collection .] It is the same with a people as it is with a man. If it wishes to give itself some gratification, it naturally considers whether it is worth what it costs. To a nation, security is the greatest of advantages. If, in order to obtain it, it is necessary to

In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — it is seen . The others unfold in succession — they are not seen : it is well for us if they are foreseen . Between a