The Law
The Classic Blueprint For A Just Society
By Frederic Bastiat
(c) 1998
When a reviewer wishes to give special recognition to a book,
he predicts that it will still be read "a hundred years from now."The Law, first published as a pamphlet in June, 1850,
is already more than a hundred years old.
And because its truths are eternal,
it will still be read when another century has passed.
Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist, statesman, and author.
He did most of his writing during the years just before
— and immediately following — the Revolution of February 1848.
This was the period when France was rapidly turning to complete socialism.
As a Deputy to the Legislative Assembly,
Mr. Bastiat was studying and explaining
each socialist fallacy as it appeared.
And he explained how socialism must inevitably degenerate into communism.
But most of his countrymen chose to ignore his logic.The Law is here presented again
because the same situation exists in America today
as in the France of 1848.
The same socialist-communist ideas and plans that were then adopted in France
are now sweeping America.
The explanations and arguments then advanced against socialism by Mr. Bastiat
are — word for word — equally valid today.
His ideas deserve a serious hearing.
Frédéric Bastiat
The Law
The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc.
Irvington-on-Hudson, New York 10533
Frederic Bastiat, who was born two hundred years ago, was a leader of
the French laissez-faire tradition in the first half of the nineteenth
century. He was influenced by Cobden's Anti-Corn Law League and became a
convinced free trader. Joseph Schumpeter described Bastiat as 'the most
brilliant economic journalist who ever lived'.
In The Law,
written in 1850, the year of his death, Bastiat recognises the central
importance of the law and morality in a free society. He was concerned
that government was using the 'law' to become too active a participant
in the economy whilst devoting too little attention to protecting life
and liberty.
Paperback book, 85 pages
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