Papers I am working on:

1. A revised version of my "An Introduction to the Theory and History of the Classical Liberal Tradition".
2. "Trump the "Tariff Man" and his Critics: An Intellectual History of the ongoing battle between (neo-)Mercantilism and Free Trade"
3. "The Seven Pillars of (Economic) Wisdom of the Paris School of Political Economy: Part 1 - Gustave de Molinari and the Dictionnaire de l'Économie politique"

Additions to the Library:

• new: My translation of Molinari's pathbreaking book of 1849 in which he argues that ALL public goods can and should be provided by the free market, including police and defense services: Evenings on Saint Lazarus Street: Discussions about Economic Laws and a Defence of Property. It is bare bones draft with only Molinari's footnotes included. In enhanced HTML. See also the French original in enhanced HTML and facs. PDF.
• new: A Comparative and Bi-Lingual Edition of Frédéric Bastiat's essay on "The State" (1848-49). I analyse the changes and additions Bastiat made to the three versions of his famous essay published between June 1848 and April 1849 in order to counter the growing appeal of the socialist groups in the elections in the first year or so of the Second Republic. It also includes a translation of the manifesto of the Montagnard party which was the main socialist group in the Chamber of Deputies and therefore a focus of Bastiat's criticism in April 1849. In enhanced HTML.
• new: a translation of Frédéric Bastiat, La Loi (1850): The Law: The Students Edition (2025) with copious notes; in enhanced HTML
• new: a translation of Molinari's important lecture given in Brussels in 1852 on the "material interests" of class. It is here that he coins the wonderful term "les mangeurs de taxes" (tax eaters) who exploit and live off "les payeurs de taxes" (the payers of taxes): "Revolutions and Despotism considered from the Perspective of Material Interests" (1852) in enhanced HTML. See aslso the original French version in facs. PDF and enhanced HTML.
• There are several anthologies I have edited of French classical liberal thinkers which I would like to see translated into English. Most of them are accompanied by a lengthy introduction explaining why they are important and the intellectual context in which they were written. They are:
1. Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer, An Anthology of Articles from Le Censeur (1814-1815) and Le Censeur européen (1817-1819) (2022). 35 essays in French in enhanced HTML
   1. translated: Charles Comte, "On Social Organisation and its Relationship with the Means of Subsistance of Nations", Le Censeur européen, T.2 (March 1817), pp. 1-66. In enhanced HTML
   2. translated: Charles Dunoyer, "On the Influence exerted on Government by the Salaries paid for carrying out Pubic Functions", Le Censeur européen T.11 (Feb. 1819), pp. 75-118. In enhanced HTML.
2. Frédéric Bastiat, La Spoliation, la Classe, et l’État (Plunder, Class, and State): An Anthology of Texts (1845-1851) (2023)
   1. 12 items plus some letters in French in enhanced HTML
   2. editor's introduction: "Bastiat's Theory of Plunder, Class, and the State" (2021) in HTML
3. Gustave de Molinari, The Bicentennial Anthology of His Writings on the State (1846-1911) (2023)
   1. 24 items in French in enhanced HTML (the texts are preceded by my introduction)
   2. editor's introduction: just my introductions to the above texts in HTML
   3. see also my paper, “Was Molinari a true Anarcho-Capitalist?: An Intellectual History of the Private and Competitive Production of Security” (2019) in HTML
   4. translated so far:
      1. "On the Production of Security", JDE (Feb. 1849) in HTML
      2. "Soirée 11", Les Soirées de l'a rue Saint-Lazare (1849) in HTML
      3. Chap. 10 "Les gouvernements de l'avenir" (The Governments of the Future) from L’évolution politique et la Révolution (1884) enhanced HTML
4. Gustave de Molinari, Thoughts on the Future of Liberty (1901-1911) (2023)
   1. 3 items in French in enhanced HTML
   2. an English translation of these in enhanced HTML
   3. editor's introduction: "Gustave de Molinari and the Future of Liberty: ‘Fin de Siècle, Fin de la Liberté'?" (2000) in HTML
5. Gustave de Molinari, The Collected Articles from the Dictionnaire de l'Économie politique (1852-53) (2015)
   1. 33 items in French in enhanced HTML
   2. 33 items translated into English (draft) in enhanced HTML
   3. editor's introduction: “The Struggle against Protectionism, Socialism, and the Bureaucratic State: The Economic Thought of Gustave de Molinari, 1845-1855” (2016) in HTML
• new: Gustave de Molinari, The Collected Articles from the Dictionnaire de l'Économie politique (1852-53) translated into English, most for the first time (7 were translated and published in the late 19th century in the US). I put online this collection of 30 entries in French originally in 2019 as part of my celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Molinari's birth. It was updated in December 2023 in enhanced HTML. My translation is a first draft and is available in enhanced HTML. It includes three additional pieces written by the publisher Guillaumin, the editor Clément, and Molinari who was one of the senior editors, which explain why the DEP project was undertaken and what they hoped to achieve. The Coppet Institute in Paris has recently republished Molinari's entries as part of their Œuvres complètes de Gustave de Molinari (2019-). They were split across two volumes which were published in 2022 and 2023, and are only available for downoad in PDF. My edition includes them all in one volume and will be available in multiple electronic formats. It will also include an expanded introduction to the collection by yours truly. See the Coppet Institute's edition here

• entries in DEP T1 (1852): OC vol. 9 "En exil dans son propre pays (1852)", no. 062, pp. 49ff. [PDF elsewhere]
• entries in DEP T2 (1853): OC vol. 10 "Deux années de transition (1853-1854)", no. 069, pp. 127 ff. [PDF elsewhere]

Papers I am working on:

1. A revised version of my "An Introduction to the Theory and History of the Classical Liberal Tradition".

Additions to the Library:

• new: As a counterpoint to Molinari's and Bastiat's writings on free trade I have a number of mercantilist defences of tariffs, state subsidies to protected national industries, and planned or "directed" national industrial policy. The latest addition is Alexander Hamilton's, then Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, "Report on Manufactures" (1791): a facs. PDF of the 1791 original; and the 1913 reprint in facs. PDF and enhanced HTML. On this see also:
  • updated: the 1909 English trans. of Friedrich List's classic Das nationale System der politischen Oekonomie (The National System of Political Economy) (1841) in enhanced HTML.
• new: After he left Paris to take up residency in Belgium in order to avoid living under the self-appointed "Prince President" Louis Napoleon (later Napoleon III) Molinari wrote several scathing critiques of his economic policies. The first was a lecture he gave in October 1852 on "Les Révolutions et le despotisme envisagés au point de vue des intérêts matériels" (Revolutions and Despotism seen from the perspective of Material Interests) [in facs. PDF and enhanced HTML] and a series of articles in a Russian journal (in Russian) in 1859 called "Napoléon III publiciste". This was later revised slightly and published as a book (in French) which we have here: Napoleon III publiciste; sa pensée cherchée dans ses écrits; analyse et appréciation de ses oeuvres (Napoleon III, the journalist) (1861) in facs. PDF and enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub (to come)
• updated: The Institut Coppet in Paris is in the process of publishing the Oeuvres complètes (Complete Works) of Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912) [brief bio and full bibliography]. They began this enormous task in 2019 (the 200th anniversary of the brith of Molinari) with a volume which covers his first foray into the world of journalism in Paris in 1842 (vol. 1: Avant la conversion (1842-1845)) and have recently published vol. 19: Nationalités et Sécession (1861-1862). In preparing his work for publication they (i.e. the editor Benoît Malbranque) have uncovered a huge number of his hard to find journalism, letters, asnd notes for public talks and lectures. Unfortunately, Coppet does not provide the volumes in HTML but the PDFs are available for download from their website. Nor do they provide a full table of contents. So I have created one myself here. There are 103 "items" according to their cataloguing system.
• new: the follow up set of "conversations" to Gustave de Molinari's Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare (1849) between another group of political and ideological rivals. Then it was between "a conservative", "a socialist", and "an economist". In Conversations familières sur le commerce des grains (1855) it is between "a food rioter," "a trade protectionist," and "an economiste" (i.e. a free trader) on the issue of the grain trade. In facs. PDF and enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub (to come).
• new: François Quesnay (1694-1774), "Observations sur le droit naturel des hommes réunis en société" (Observations on the natural rights of human beings when they are part of society), Journal de l'agriculture, du commerce & des finances, tome II, Première Partie, septembre 1765, p. 4-35. In facs. PDF and enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub [to come]
• new: Gerrard Winstanley called himself a "Digger" or "True Leveller" because he advocated the right of ordinary people to "dig up" or farm common land, especially in times of economic hardship. His work is a darling of the Left because he experimented with communal living and the abolition of private property. The question is whether he was in fact making unowned land his own by "mixing his labour" with it in a Lockean way. See his The Law of Freedom in a Platform (1652) in enhanced HTML and facs. PDF. This is part of the Leveller Tracts Project. which now has 331 items listed, of which 153 are available online.
• new: Marchmont Nedham (1620-1678), The Excellencie of a Free-State: or, The right constitution of a Common-wealth (1656): facs. PDF and enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, ePub [to come]
  • see also the 1767 Hollis edition of this work in facs. PDF. It was one of the key texts in the Commonwealthman tradition.

Papers I am working on:

1. A talk to a meeting of the University of the Third Age, Newport, Sydney (5 Feb. 2025): "Donald Trump: Friend, Foe, or Schmo?" Lecture overheads [PDF] and Lecture notes and images/graphs [HTML]
2. A revised version of my "An Introduction to the Theory and History of the Classical Liberal Tradition"

Additions to the Library:

• updated: my version of the table of contents of the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (Cato, 2008) organised thematically and as a sortable table, with links to the articles on their webisite libertarianism.org
• updated: three tracts by the pro-Leveller author John Warr (1642–1686) about whom very little is known. other than he was a passionate and elegant writer who was a great advocate for liberty:
  • Administrations Civil and Spiritual in Two Treatises. The First Entitled The Dispute betwixt Equity and Form. The Other The Dispute betwixt Form and Power (1648) in enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub [to come]
  • The Priviledges of the People, or Principles of Common Right and Freedome (5 February, 1649) in enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub [to come]
  • The Corruption and Deficiency of the Lawes of England (11 June, 1649) in enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub [to come]
• new: I have combined these three tracts into one file called "The Sparks of Freedom in the Minds of Men": Three Tracts by John Warr (1648-1649) in enhanced HTML; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub [to come]
• see this example of his prose:

  In this designe God co-operates with Man and makes him instrumentall in the work, by clearing his principles, and stirring up his spirit. There are some sparkes of Freedome in the mindes of most, which ordinarily lye deep, and are covered in the Darke, as a spark in the ashes. This spark is the image of Go* in the mind, which is indeed the Man, (for the divine Image makes the Man.) This Man is hid in most persons, onely the Tyrant, the Beast, or the slavish principle appeares, and the whole bulk is hurried about by the motion of that principle, and the Man within us swimmes with the stream.