It is not well known that Bastiat planned to write a multi-volume treatise on “the harmonies” and “the disharmonies” which he observed at work both in the economy and in the broader society which surrounded it. This treatise would have a volume or volumes on the “social harmonies,” the “economic harmonies”, and the various “disharmonies” which disturbed, or prevented from appearing, these social and economic harmonies. The volume on “the disharmonies” would also have included a “history of plunder” where Bastiat would analyze how the practice of plunder (la spoliation) had emerged in Europe and how it evolved into the system of “legal plunder” which existed in his own day.

Sadly, Bastiat was not able to even complete the first part of this ambitious project before he died at the age of 49, probably from throat cancer. What we know as the book Economic Harmonies was only half finished – he himself published a volume with the first 10 chapters in early 1850, and his fiends cobbled together an expanded edition using drafts and sketches of chapters they found among Bastiat’s papers which they published posthumously in mid-1851. The latter is the edition readers today know. He never wrote the volume on the Social Harmonies and left several essays and sketches of his theory and history of plunder.

I discuss the ideas behind this ambitious project and attempt a reconstruction of what it might have looked like (also see the list of chapters below), had he been able to finish it, in a new “paper” on “Bastiat on Harmony and Disharmony” which is available online. It is actually more like a “short book” than a paper at 114K words, 316 pp.! See

1. HTML version: <davidmhart.com/liberty/Papers/Bastiat/HarmonyDisharmony/index.html>
2. PDF version: <davidmhart.com/liberty/Papers/Bastiat/HarmonyDisharmony/DMH-BastiatHarmonyDisharmony.pdf> [5.9MB]

I have also drawn up some “concept maps” to show the very original and specific vocabulary Bastiat developed to discuss his thoughts on these topics. This vocabulary was sometimes hidden or glossed over in the two previous translations of Economic Harmonies which we have (the Stirling translation of the 1860s and the FEE translation of the 1960s). These concept maps can be found in an Appendix to the above paper. I include the one on “Harmony and Disharmony” here.

A Reconstruction of what might have been

I have tried to reorganize Bastiat’s chapters and other writings into something more coherent which follows his plan for a three volume work which dealt with “Social Harmonies,” “Economic Harmonies,” and “The Disharmonies” or “A History of Plunder.”

EH1 = 1st edition of Economic Harmonies (1850)
EH2 = 2nd edition of 1851
WSWNS = What is Seen and What is Not Seen (1850)
ES1 = Economic Sophisms (1st series) (1846)
ES2 = Economic Sophisms (2nd series) (1848)

Volume 1: Social Harmonies:

1. The two mottoes/sayings [EH2 XII] – one for all (the principle of fellow feeling) and everyone for themselves (the principle of individualism)
2. Responsibility – solidarity [EH2 XX and XXI]
3. Personal/Self interest or the social drive [EH2 XXII]
4. Perfectibility [sketch EH2 XXIV]
5. Public opinion (in chap. XXI “Solidarity”)
6. liberty and equality [draft chap.]
7. The relationship between political economy and morality [sketch EH2 XXV]
8. The relationship between political economy and politics
9. The relationship between political economy and legislation
10. The relationship between political economy and religion. [sketch EH2 XXIII Evil]

Volume 2: Economic Harmonies:

1. theoretical matters
   1. organisation [EH2 I]
   2. needs efforts, satisfactions [EH2 II and III]
   3. exchange [EH2 IV]
   4. value [EH2 V]
   5. wealth [EH2 VI]
   6. capital [EH2 VII]
   7. private property [EH2 VIII]
   8. communal property (the Commons) [EH2 VIII]
   9. property in land [EH2 IX]
   10. competition [EH2 X]
   11. Producer – Consumer [EH2 XI]
   12. The theory of Rent [EH2 XIII]

2. policy/applied matters
   1. On money [Damned Money pamphlet]
   2. On credit [Free Credit debate with P]
   3. On wages [EH2 XIV]
   4. On savings [EH2 XV]
   5. On population [EH2 XVI]
   6. Private services, public services [EH2 XVII]
   7. On taxes [WSWNS 3 Taxes]
   8. On machines [WSWNS 8 Machines]
   9. Freedom of exchange – (lecture given at Taranne Hall to students in 1847??)
   10. On intermediaries [WSWNS 6 The Middlemen]
   11. Raw materials – finished products [ ES1 21 “Raw Materials” (c. 1845)]
   12. On luxury [WSWNS 11 Thrift and Luxury]

Volume 3: Disharmonies, or The History of Plunder:

1. Plunder [sketch in EH2 XVIII] (conclusion ES1, ES2 1 and 2)
2. War [sketch in EH2 XIX]
3. Slavery [ES2 1]
4. Theocracy [ES2 1]
5. Monopoly [ES2 1]
6. Governmental exploitation [“functionaryism”]
7. False fraternity or Communism [his anti-socialist pamphlets]

Paris from Above: the Three Barriers around the city in the 1840s

The Inner Circle: the octroi tax wall and barriers

The Octroi gate and wall at Belleville

Pulling down the Octroi Gates and walls in 1859

The Militatry Wall built by Adolphe Thers 1841-44

A photograph of the Military Wall at the Versailles Entry Gate

Cross section of the Wall and surroundings

FB’s life in Mugron 1843-44

Map of Les Landes

Bastiat’s house in Mugron

Place Bastiat in Mugron

A Farmer inspecting his tenants

A shepherd walking of stilts to better observe his sheep in the heathlands

Getting to Paris by Train in the 1840s

Gare chemin de fer Versailles in 1848

The railway station of the Northern Line

A newly constructed railway bridge

FB’s growing success in Paris with the Free Trade movement and Guillaumin circle 1845-47

A Panoramic View of Paris in the 1840s

The Guillaumin Circle

Guillaumin office and the Molière Fountain, rue Richelieu

A Wall Poster advertising a Free Trade meeting

A Political Banquet in July 1847

Revolution and Crisis Feb-June 1848

Lamartine on the steps of the Hotel de ville announcing the Formation of the Provisional Government of the Second Republic

The Hotel de ville in 1840

Street Barricades erected in February 1848

A Barricade in the rue Saint-Martin

The National Assembly (Palais Bourbon)

The exterior of the National Assembly

Interior of Assemblée Nationale in 1848

The Luxembourg Palace and the National Workshops

The Luxembourg Palace and Gardens

Citizens reading wall posters for news

A wall poster announcing the formation of the National Workshops in Feb. 1848

Louis Blanc, the head of the Luxembourg Commission for Labour

The SemiCircle of Famous French Politicians

Turgot the Free Trader and Colbert the Mercantilist

A meeting of workers at the Luxembourg Commission

A wall poster announcing a cut back in hours paid because of too many workers

Political Clubs

Entry Ticket to the Club Lib

A debate in one of the Political Clubs

FB’s Revolutionary Newspapers

Putting up Wall Posters

The title page of the first issue of FB’s revolutionary street paper “Jacques Bonhomme”

Invasion of the National Assembly in z15 May 1848 by Political Clubs supporting Louis Blanc

Street Barricades during the June Days

A Barricade on the rue Saint-Maur

Troops massing to destroy the barricades on rue Sainte-Catherine

The Aftermath of the Revolution June 1848-50

FB’s fight against socialism, the Peace Congress, race to finish his legacy work June 1848 – Dec 1849, worsening health, last months of frantic writing, farewell, and death 1850

The Butard Hunting Lodge where FB wrote Economic Harm

The Friends of Peace Congress

Entry ticket for the Friends of Peace Congress, Aug. 1849

Victor Hugo opening the Peace Congress in Saint-Cecile Hall

Members of the English delegation to the Congress

FB’s Secret Mission to visit Cobden in London

The Reform Club where FB met with Richard Cobden to discuss disarmament

The Upper Level of the Reform Club

FB Leaving Paris for the Last Time – Political graffiti

The “Prince-President” Louis Napoleon was elected President of the Second Republic in Dec. 1848

A Cartoon of Napoleon III as Budget-Eating Vulture

Coda: The Aftermath

The Statue for Bastiat in Mugron 1878

Bastiat’s Theory of Class: The Plunderers vs. the Plundered.”

This is the Introductory Essay for a bi-lingual edition of Frédéric Bastiat’s writings on class and plunder which is in preparation. It is an attempt to reconstruct from his scattered writings on class the History of Plunder he planned to write but never did. The anthology of around 15 texts is in an early stage of editing and will be added later. See here for details.

Introduction

Frédéric Bastiat’s unwritten “History of Plunder” ranks alongside Lord Acton’s never written (and possibly unwritable) “History of Liberty” and Murray Rothbard’s third volume of his “History of Economic Thought” series as one of the greatest libertarian books never written. Had he lived to a ripe old age, instead of dying at the age of 49 from throat cancer, he might have finished his magnum opus Economic Harmonies and lived to complete his history of plunder. It should be noted that Karl Marx, the founder of Marxism, published the first volume of his magnum opus, Das Capital (1867), when he too was 49 years old but lived another 15 years during which time he wrote but never completed another two large volumes. Given the chance, Bastiat might well have fulfilled his great promise as an economic theorist and historian and have become the Karl Marx of the 19th century classical liberal movement. How history might have been different if he had! Or maybe not, who can tell?

In the 8 years Bastiat was active as a writer and a politician (1843-1850) he produced six large volumes of letters, pamphlets, articles, and books which Liberty Fund is translating as part of its Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat (2011-2015). What emerges from a chronological examination of his writings is his gradual realization that the State is a vast machine which is purposely designed to take the property of some people without their consent and to transfer it to other people. The word which he uses with increasing frequency in this period to describe the actions of the State is “la spoliation” (plunder), although he also uses words like “parasite”, “viol” (rape), “vol” (theft), and “pillage” which are equally harsh and to the point. In his scattered writings on State plunder written before the 1848 Revolution he identifies the particular groups which have had access to State power at different times in history in order to plunder ordinary people, these were warriors, slave owners, the Catholic Church, and more recently commercial and industrial monopolists. Each of these groups and the particular way in which they used State power to exploit ordinary people for their own benefit were to have a separate section in his planned “History of Plunder.” Were he to have defined the State before the 1848 Revolution it might well have been along these lines: “The state is the mechanism by which a small privileged group of people live at the expense of everyone else.”

But the outbreak of Revolution in February 1848 in Paris changed the equation dramatically which forced Bastiat to change his analysis of plunder and the State. Before the Revolution, small privileged minorities were able to seize control of the State and plunder the majority of the people for their own benefit – what he termed “la spoliation partielle” (partial plunder). For example, slave owners were able to exploit their slaves, aristocratic landowners were able to exploit their serfs, privileged monopolists were able to exploit their customers, and thus it made some kind of brutal sense for a small minority to plunder and loot the majority. In Bastiat’s theory before 1848 he identified the special interests who benefited from their access to the State and exposed them to the public via his journalism, often with withering criticism and satire, such as the landed elites who benefited from tariff protection, the industrial elites who benefited from monopolies and state subsidies, and the monarchy and the aristocratic elites who benefited from access to jobs in the government and the army.

The rise to power of socialist groups in 1848 meant that larger groups, perhaps a majority of the voters if the socialist groups were successful in winning office, were now trying to use the same methods used by these privileged minorities but now for the benefit of “everyone” instead of a narrow elite – or, what he termed “la spoliation universelle” (universal plunder) or “la spoliation réciproque” (reciprocal plunder). The problem as Bastiat saw it, was that it was theoretically and practically impossible for the majority to live at the expense of the majority. Somebody had eventually to pay the bills and the majority could not do this if it was paying the taxes as well as receiving the “benefits” of state handouts, with the State and its employees (les fonctionnaires) taking its customary cut along the way. This conundrum led him to put forward his famous definition of the State in mid-1848: “L’État, c’est la grande fiction à travers laquelle tout le monde s’efforce de vivre aux dépens de tout le monde” (The state is the great fiction by which everyone endeavours to live at the expense of everyone else.)[2] Bastiat’s political strategy now had to change to trying to convince ordinary workers that promises of government jobs, state-funded unemployment relief, and price controls were self-defeating and ultimately impossible to achieve.

Bastiat was not able to win this intellectual or political debate because of his death in December 1850 and the socialist forces were ultimately defeated temporarily by a combination of military and police oppression as the “Party of Order” supported the rise of Louis Napoleon who quickly designated himself as the “Prince-President” of France and then appointed himself Emperor Napoleon III. However, the core weakness of the welfare state was clearly identified by Bastiat in 1848 and we continue to see the consequences of its economic contradictions and possible collapse in the present day.

With this broader picture in mind I would like to examine Bastiat’s theory of plunder and the class analysis which he developed from this, so we can see more clearly what he had in mind and appreciate the power of his analysis.

The Texts for the Anthology

Unfortunately, Bastiat’s ideas remain scattered throughout many of his essays and articles which were written between 1845 and 1850. The most important of these works (some 15 in number) where he provides more extensive discussion of the nature of class and plunder are the following (listed in chronological order), 6 of which come from the Economic Sophisms (1846, 1848), 2 from Economic Harmonies (1850, 1851), and 2 from What is Seen and What is Not Seen (1850):

1. the “Introduction” to Cobden and the League (July 1845), in which he discusses the English “oligarchy” which benefited from the system of tariffs which Cobden and his Anti-Corn Law League were trying to get repealed; the strategy they adopted was to identify the key source of income for the ruling oligarchy (tariffs on imported food) and to eliminate it (by opening the economy to free trade) and thus weaken the oligarchy’s political and economic power
2. ES1 “Conclusion” to Economic Sophisms 1 (dated November 1845), where he reflects on the use of force throughout history to oppress the majority, and the part played by “sophistry” (ideology and false economic thinking) to justify this
3. ES2 9 “Theft by Subsidy” (JDE, January 1846), where he insists on the need to use “harsh language” – like the word “theft” – to describe the policies of governments which give benefits to some at the expence of others[4]
4. ES3 6 “The People and the Bourgeoisie” (LE, 23 May 1847), in which he rejects the idea that there is an inevitable antagonism (“la guerre sociale” (war between social groups or classes)) between the people and the bourgeoisie, while there is one between the people and the aristocracy; he also introduces the idea of “la classe électorale” (the electoral classe) which controls the French state by severely limiting the right to vote to the top 1 or 2% of the population
5. ES2 1 “The Physiology of Plunder” (c. 1847), which is his first detailed discussion of the nature of plunder (which is contrasted with “production”) and his historical progression of stages through which plunder has evolved from war, slavery, theocracy, and monopoly
6. ES2 2 “Two Moral Philosophies” (c. 1847), where he distinguishes between religious moral philosophy, which attempts to persuade the men who live by plundering others (e.g. slave owners and protectionists) to voluntarily refrain from doing so, and economic moral philosophy, which speaks to the victims of plundering and urges them to resist by understanding the true nature of their oppression and making it “increasingly difficult and dangerous” for their oppressors to continue exploiting them
7. ES3 14 “Anglomania, Anglophobia” (c. 1847), where he discusses “the great conflict between democracy and aristocracy, between common law and privilege” and how this class conflict is playing out in England; it is a continuation of his analysis of the British “oligarchy” which he began in the Introduction to Cobden and the League.
8. “Justice and Fraternity” (15 June 1848, JDE), where Bastiat first used the terms“la spoliation extra-légale” (extra-legal plunder) and “la spoliation légale” (legal plunder); he describes the socialist state as “un intermédiaire parasite et dévorant” (a parasitic and devouring intermediary) which embodies “la Spoliation organisée” (organised plunder)
9. “Property and Plunder” (JDD, 24 July 1848), in the “Fifth Letter” Bastiat talks about how transitory plunder gradually became “la spoliation permanente” (permanent plunder) when it became organised and entrenched by the state
10. the “Conclusion” to the first edition of Economic Harmonies (late 1849), where he sketches what his unfinished book should have included, such as the opposite of the factors leading to “harmony”, namely “les dissonances sociales” (the social disharmonies) such as plunder and oppression; or what he also calls “les causes perturbatrices” (disturbing factors); here he concentrates on theocratic and protectionist plunder
11. “Plunder and Law” (JDE, 15 May 1850), where he addresses the protectionists who have turned the law into a “sword” or “un instrument de Spoliation” (a tool of plunder) which the socialists will take advantage of when they get the political opportunity to do so
12. “The Law” (June 1850), Bastiat’s most extended treatment of the natural law basis of property and how it has been “perverted” by the plunderers who have seized control of the state, where the “la loi a pris le caractère spoliateur” (the law has taken on the character of the plunderer); there is a longer discussion of “legal plunder”; and he reminds the protectionists that the system of exploitation they had created before 1848 has been taken over, first by the socialists and soon by the Bonapartists, to be used for their purposes thus creating a new form of plundering by a new kind of class rule by “gouvernementalisme” (government bureaucrats)
13. WSWNS Chap. 3 “Taxes” (July 1850), on the conflict between the tax payers and the payment of civil servants’ salaries whom he likens to so many thieves, who provide no (or very little) benefit in return for the money they receive, and thus create a form of “legal parasitism”
14. WSWNS Chap. 6 “The Middlemen” (July 1850), where he describes the government’s provision of some services as a form of “dreadful parasitism”
15. Economic Harmonies, part 2, chapter 17, “Private Services, Pubic Services” (published posthumously in 1851), an examination of the extent to which “public services” are productive or plunderous; he discusses how in the modern era “la spoliation par l’impôt s’exerce sur une immense échelle” (plunder by means of taxation is excercised to a high degree), but rejects the idea that they are plunderous “par essence” (by their very nature); beyond a very small number of limited activities (such as public security, managing public property) the actions of the state are “autant d’instruments d’oppression et de spoliation légales” (only so many tools of oppression and legal plunder); he warns of the danger of the state serving the private interests of “les fonctionnaires” (state functionaries) who become plunderers in their own right; the plundered class is deceived by sophistry into thinking that that they will benefit from whatever the plundering classes seize as a result of the “ricochet” or trickle down effect as they spend their ill-gotten gains.

[Paris being encircled by the State: “The Fortifications of Paris and its Environs as adopted by the Chambers” (1841)
. The pink area is the old part of the city which is surrounded by a customs wall with entry gates which was build in the 1780s to help the Farmers General collect taxes. The orange area is enclosed by a new wall of fortifications which surrounded the city and was build between 1841-44 and had a circumference of 33 km. The outer ring of red and green shapes are a series of 14 stand-alone forts and barracks which also surrounded the city.]

Molinari: “Liberty! That was the cry of the captives of Egypt, the
slaves of Spartacus, the peasants of the Middle Ages, and more
recently of the bourgeoisie oppressed by the nobility and religious
corporations, of the workers oppressed by masters and guilds. Liberty!
That was the cry of all those who found their property confiscated by
monopoly and privilege. Liberty! That was the burning aspiration of
all those whose natural rights had been forcibly repressed.” (S12)

This is a paper I will be giving at the Austrian Economics Research Conference (31 March to 2 April 2016) at the Mises Institute. The full title is “The Struggle against Protectionism, Socialism, and the Bureaucratic State: The Economic Thought of Gustave de Molinari, 1845-1855”.

It is actually a synopsis of a book-length work I have written which can be found here:

• HTML http://davidmhart.com/liberty/Papers/Molinari/EconomicThought/index.html
• PDF http://davidmhart.com/liberty/Papers/Molinari/EconomicThought/DMH_EconomicThoughtMolinari1845-55_28Mar2016.pdf.

It comes with two translations of essays by Molinari (in the Appendix), which are also available separately:

• “The Production of Security” article PDF http://davidmhart.com/liberty/Papers/Molinari/Molinari_ProductionSecurity.pdf
• “The 11th Soirée” chapter PDF http://davidmhart.com/liberty/Papers/Molinari/Molinari_Soiree11.pdf

Here is the abstract of the paper:

In the late-1840s in Paris there was an extraordinary group of economists who had gathered around the Guillaumin publishing firm to explore and promote free market ideas. One of these was the young Belgian economic journalist Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912) who was just starting out on his career which would lead him to eventually becoming one of the most important and prolific free market economists in Europe in the 19th century. In this paper I explore the first ten years of Molinari’s career as an economic journalist, author of a book on labor issues and slavery, and on the history of tariffs, a free trade activist, editor of classics of 18th century economic thought, lecturer on economics at the Athénée royal, activist in the 1848 Revolution, prolific author of articles in the Journal des Économistes, author of Les Soirées de la rue Saint-Lazare (Conversations on Saint Lazarus Street), contributor to the Dictionnaire de l’Économie politique, and, after going into self-imposed exile to Brussels after the coup d’état of Louis Napoleon in December 1851, professor of economics at the Musée royal de l’industrie belge, author of a treatise on economics, owner-editor of a newsletter L’Économiste belge, author of a book on the class analysis of Bonapartist despotism, and another popular book of “conversations” about free trade.

In the middle of this very hectic period of his life Molinari published a book for Guillaumin as part of their anti-socialist campaign after the February 1848 Revolution saw socialists seize power and attempt to implement some of their ideas, especially that of the “right to a job,” paid for at taxpayer expense, as part of the National Workshops program run by Louis Blanc. Within the new Constituent Assembly politicians like Frédéric Bastiat fought to terminate the National Workshops program and keep the “right to a job” clause out of the new constitution. Outside the Assembly the economists wrote scores of books and pamphlets to intellectually defeat socialist ideas at both the popular and the academic level. Molinari’s book was designed to appeal to educated readers and consisted of a collection of 12 “evenings” or “soirées” at which “a Conservative,” “a Socialist,” and “an Economist” debated important political and economic issues. In these conversations, the economist (Molinari) exposes the folly of both the conservative (who supported tariffs, subsidies, and limited voting rights) and the socialist (who supported government regulation of the economy, the right to a job for all workers, and the end to the “injustice” of profit, interest, and rent).

Molinari begins by arguing that society is governed by natural, immutable and absolute laws which cannot be ignored either by conservatives or socialists, and that the foundation for a peaceful and prosperous society is the right to private property. He then proceeds to explain the free market position on a host of topics to his skeptical audience. Some of the more controversial topics Molinari discusses include the following: intellectual property, eminent domain laws, public goods such as roads, rivers, and canals, inheritance laws, the ban on forming trade unions, free trade, the state monopoly of money, the post office, state subsidies to theaters and libraries, subsidies to religious groups, public education, free banking, government regulated industries, marriage and population growth, the private provision of police and defense, and the nature of rent. On all these issues, Molinari shows himself to be a radical supporter of laissez-faire economic policies.

For modern Austrian economists, what is most interesting about Molinari’s work from this period are the following:

• he believed that once freed from government regulations entrepreneurs would spring up in every industry to supply goods and services to customers
• he offers private and voluntary solutions to the problem of the provision of all so-called “public goods”, from the water supply to police services
• he seems to have inspired Rothbard to come up with his own theory of “anarcho-capitalism” in the 1950s and 1960s when he was writing MES and P&M

For modern libertarians, his book may well be the first ever one volume overview of the classical liberal position – much like an 1849 version of Rothbard’s own For a New Liberty (1973).