CONTENTS.

Page
Notice of the Life and Writings of Frédéric Bastiat,[9]
To the Youth of France,[33]
Chapter I.Natural and Artificial Organization,[47]
II.Wants, Efforts, Satisfactions,[63]
III.Wants of Man,[75]
IV.Exchange,[97]
V.Of Value,[131]
VI.Wealth,[180]
VII.Capital,[196]
VIII.Property—Community,[218]
IX.Landed Property,[249]
X.Competition,[288]
XI.Producer—Consumer,[323]
XII.The Two Aphorisms,[339]
XIII.Rent,[347]
XIV.Wages,[352]
XV.Saving,[393]
XVI.Population,[397]
XVII.Private and Public Services,[425]
XVIII.Disturbing Causes,[446]
XIX.War,[454]
XX.Responsibility,[465]
XXI.Solidarity,[488]
XXII.Social Motive Force,[495]
XXIII.Existence of Evil,[504]
XXIV.Perfectibility,[508]
XXV.Relations of Political Economy with Religion,[513]
Index,[518]

NOTICE OF THE
LIFE AND WRITINGS OF FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT.

[TOC]

Frédéric Bastiat, whose last and greatest, though, alas! unfinished work—the Harmonies Économiques—I now venture to introduce to the English public, was born at Bayonne, on the 19th of June 1801. His father, an eminent merchant of Bayonne, died young, and his wife having died before him, Frédéric, their only child, was left an orphan at the early age of nine years.

The care of his education devolved on his paternal grandfather, who was proprietor of a land estate near Mugron, in the arrondissement of Saint-Sever. His aunt, Mademoiselle Justine Bastiat, acted towards him the part of a mother, and her affection was warmly reciprocated by Bastiat, who, to the day of his death, never ceased to regard her with filial love and reverence.

Bastiat’s education was begun at Bayonne, continued at Saint-Sever, and finished at the College of Sorèze. Here his course of study was occasionally interrupted by indisposition; but, on his recovery, his quick parts and steady application soon enabled him to overtake and keep pace with his fellow-students. At Sorèze. Bastiat formed a boyish friendship with M. Calmètes, to whom his earliest letters are addressed. The attachment of the youths was so remarkable, that the masters permitted them to prepare their exercises together, and sign them with their joint names. In this way they gained a prize for poetry. The prize was a gold medal, which, of course, could not be divided. “Keep it,” said Bastiat to his friend: “I am an orphan; you have both father and mother, and the medal of right falls to them.”

In 1818, Bastiat left College, and, in compliance with the wishes of his family, entered his uncle’s counting-house at Bayonne. His [p010] tastes, however, were for study rather than for business, and while at Bayonne he devoted his leisure hours by turns to French, English, and Italian literature. “I aim at nothing less,” he said, “than to become acquainted with politics, history, geography, mathematics, mechanics, natural history, botany, and four or five languages.” He was fond of music, sang agreeably, and played well on the violoncello.