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Essays on Political Economy
Essays on Political Economy
Frederic Bastiat
Essays on Political Economy
Table of Contents
Essays on Political Economy. .............................................................................................................................1
Frederic Bastiat. .......................................................................................................................................1
Capital and Interest.. .............................................................................................................................................2
Capital and Interest.. ................................................................................................................................3
The Sack of Corn.. ...................................................................................................................................8
The House.. ..............................................................................................................................................9
The Plane.. ...............................................................................................................................................9
That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen. ............................................................................................17
I.−−The Broken Window.. .....................................................................................................................18
II.−−The Disbanding of Troops.. ...........................................................................................................19
III.−−Taxes. ...........................................................................................................................................21
IV.−−Theatres, Fine Arts.. .....................................................................................................................23
V.−−Public Works.. ...............................................................................................................................25
VI.−−The Intermediates. .......................................................................................................................27
VII.−−Restrictions.. ...............................................................................................................................29
VIII.−−Machinery. ................................................................................................................................32
IX.−−Credit. ..........................................................................................................................................35
X.−−Algeria.. .........................................................................................................................................37
XI.−−Frugality and Luxury.. .................................................................................................................39
XII.−−He Who Has a Right to Work Has a Right to Profit. .................................................................42
Government. .......................................................................................................................................................43
What Is Money?. .................................................................................................................................................50
The Law.. ............................................................................................................................................................64
Footnotes. ...............................................................................................................................................90
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Essays on Political Economy
Frederic Bastiat
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[Third (People's) Edition]
Essays on Political Economy.
By the late M. Frederic Bastiat, Member of The Institute of France.
New York: G. P. Putnams &Sons, Fourth Avenue, and Twenty−Third Street. 1874.
London: Printed for Provost and Co., Henrietta Street, W. C.
Essays on Political Economy
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Essays on Political Economy
Capital and Interest.
My object in this treatise is to examine into the real nature of the Interest of Capital, for the purpose of
proving that it is lawful, and explaining why it should be perpetual. This may appear singular, and yet, I
confess, I am more afraid of being too plain than too obscure. I am afraid I may weary the reader by a series
of mere truisms. But it is no easy matter to avoid this danger, when the facts with which we have to deal are
known to every one by personal, familiar, and daily experience.
But, then, you will say, "What is the use of this treatise? Why explain what everybody knows?"
But, although this problem appears at first sight so very simple, there is more in it than you might suppose. I
shall endeavour to prove this by an example. Mondor lends an instrument of labour to−day, which will be
entirely destroyed in a week, yet the capital will not produce the less interest to Mondor or his heirs, through
all eternity. Reader, can you honestly say that you understand the reason of this?
It would be a waste of time to seek any satisfactory explanation from the writings of economists. They have
not thrown much light upon the reasons of the existence of interest. For this they are not to be blamed; for at
the time they wrote, its lawfulness was not called in question. Now, however, times are altered; the case is
different. Men, who consider themselves to be in advance of their age, have organised an active crusade
against capital and interest; it is the productiveness of capital which they are attacking; not certain abuses in
the administration of it, but the principle itself.
A journal has been established to serve as a vehicle for this crusade. It is conducted by M. Proudhon, and has,
it is said, an immense circulation. The first number of this periodical contains the electoral manifesto of the
people . Here we read, "The productiveness of capital, which is condemned by Christianity under the name of
usury, is the true cause of misery, the true principle of destitution, the eternal obstacle to the establishment of
the Republic."
Another journal, La Ruche Populaire , after having said some excellent things on labour, adds, "But, above all,
labour ought to be free; that is, it ought to be organised in such a manner, that money−lenders and patrons, or
masters, should not be paid for this liberty of labour, this right of labour, which is raised to so high a price by
the traffickers of men." The only thought that I notice here, is that expressed by the words in italics, which
imply a denial of the right to interest. The remainder of the article explains it.
It is thus that the democratic Socialist, Thore expresses himself:−−
"The revolution will always have to be recommenced, so long as we occupy ourselves with consequences
only, without having the logic or the courage to attack the principle itself. This principle is capital, false
property, interest, and usury, which by the old regime , is made to weigh upon labour.
"Ever since the aristocrats invented the incredible fiction, that capital possesses the power of reproducing
itself , the workers have been at the mercy of the idle.
"At the end of a year, will you find an additional crown in a bag of one hundred shillings? At the end of
fourteen years, will your shillings have doubled in your bag?
"Will a work of industry or of skill produce another, at the end of fourteen years?
"Let us begin, then, by demolishing this fatal fiction."
Capital and Interest.
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Essays on Political Economy
I have quoted the above, merely for the sake of establishing the fact, that many persons consider the
productiveness of capital a false, a fatal, and an iniquitous principle. But quotations are superfluous; it is well
known that the people attribute their sufferings to what they call the trafficking in man by man . In fact, the
phrase, tyranny of capital , has become proverbial.
I believe there is not a man in the world, who is aware of the whole importance of this question:−−
"Is the interest of capital natural, just, and lawful, and as useful to the payer as to the receiver?"
You answer, No; I answer, Yes. Then we differ entirely; but it is of the utmost importance to discover which
of us is in the right, otherwise we shall incur the danger of making a false solution of the question, a matter of
opinion. If the error is on my side, however, the evil would not be so great. It must be inferred that I know
nothing about the true interests of the masses, or the march of human progress; and that all my arguments are
but as so many grains of sand, by which the car of the revolution will certainly not be arrested.
But if, on the contrary, MM. Proudhon and Thore are deceiving themselves, it follows that they are leading
the people astray−−that they are showing them the evil where it does not exist; and thus giving a false
direction to their ideas, to their antipathies, to their dislikes, and to their attacks. It follows that the misguided
people are rushing into a horrible and absurd struggle, in which victory would be more fatal than defeat; since,
according to this supposition, the result would be the realisation of universal evils, the destruction of every
means of emancipation, the consummation of its own misery.
This is just what M. Proudhon has acknowledged, with perfect good faith. "The foundation stone," he told me,
"of my system is the gratuitousness of credit . If I am mistaken in this, Socialism is a vain dream." I add, it is a
dream, in which the people are tearing themselves to pieces. Will it, therefore, be a cause for surprise, if, when
they awake, they find themselves mangled and bleeding? Such a danger as this is enough to justify me fully,
if, in the course of the discussion, I allow myself to be led into some trivialities and some prolixity.
Capital and Interest.
I address this treatise to the workmen of Paris, more especially to those who have enrolled themselves under
the banner of Socialist democracy. I proceed to consider these two questions:−−
1st. Is it consistent with the nature of things, and with justice, that capital should produce interest?
2nd. Is it consistent with the nature of things, and with justice, that the interest of capital should be perpetual?
The working men of Paris will certainly acknowledge that a more important subject could not be discussed.
Since the world began, it has been allowed, at least in part, that capital ought to produce interest. But latterly it
has been affirmed, that herein lies the very social error which is the cause of pauperism and inequality. It is,
therefore, very essential to know now on what ground we stand.
For if levying interest from capital is a sin, the workers have a right to revolt against social order, as it exists.
It is in vain to tell them that they ought to have recourse to legal and pacific means: it would be a hypocritical
recommendation. When on the one side there is a strong man, poor, and a victim of robbery−−on the other, a
weak man, but rich, and a robber−−it is singular enough that we should say to the former, with a hope of
persuading him, "Wait till your oppressor voluntarily renounces oppression, or till it shall cease of itself." This
cannot be; and those who tell us that capital is by nature unproductive, ought to know that they are provoking
a terrible and immediate struggle.
Capital and Interest.
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