Frédéric Bastiat

“ The man who demonstrates that the good of each tends to the good of all, as the good of all tends to the good of each, will have resolved the social problem, 118. Socialists differ from Economists in regarding man's interests as antagonistic, 35. Socialist works referred to, 64, and note. Society, mechanism of, 48. Gives the humblest mechanic more in one day than he could himself produce in many ages, ib. Study of, the business of Political Economy, 51. In social state our powers exceed our wants, 98. Solidarity is collective responsibility, 488. ”

“ Labourer's share of product has a tendency to increase as capital increases, 385. When exchange takes place between capital, or anterior labour, and present labour, it is not on the footing of their duration or intensity, but of their value, 387. Anterior labour has a general tendency to become depreciated, 388, 389. Presence of capital always beneficial to labourer, 390. Groundless outcry against tyranny of capital, 391, 392. Wants, efforts, and satisfactions, constitute the domain of Political Economy, 69-74. ”

“ Competition among capitalists reduces the price of commodities, 301, 302. Progress of civilisation tends to lower the rate of interest, and this effected by competition, 302. If wages are sometimes reduced by competition, the labourers, as consumers, profit by it, 303-307. Competition tends to render services proportional to efforts, 306. Laws of modern society too often cramp competition, 309, 310. Competition essential to progress, and allied with human perfectibility, 313. ”

“ Misunderstood by the Socialists, ib. Value diminishes through the co-operation of natural forces, not of its own accord, but by the pressure exerted by competition, 291, 292. In the absence of competition, society would be constituted on the principle of universal monopoly, ib. Competition enables one country to participate in the natural advantages of another, 293. ”

“ Relations of Political Economy with Morals, Politics, and Legislation, 513, note. Population, laws of, cannot be comprised in a brief formula, 400. Vindication of Malthus, and of the general doctrine of his Essay on Population, 397, 400. If, as wealth increases, the number among whom it is to be divided increases more rapidly, absolute wealth may be greater, but individual wealth will be less, 401. Malthus has reduced the principle to the formula that population tends to keep on a level with the means of subsistence, 402. ”

“ Man has more wants than any other living being, 99. War. Principal thing which imparts to nations their distinctive character is the manner in which they provide for their subsistence, 454. Labour, although little noticed by historians, held as important a place among the ancients as it does with us, 457. War, spoliation, marked difference in the character of a nation which lives by, 458. It presupposes production, ib. Spoliation in the shape of war has its root in selfishness, 459. Personal interest gives rise to harmony, but there are disturbing causes, 460. ”

“ Society, in turn, suffers from the errors or faults of individuals, and the law of solidarity comes to check such actions, 491. Solidarity, like responsibility, is a progressive force, and resolves itself into repercussive or reflected responsibility, ib. ”

“ Without sensibility we should be constantly exposed to death, ib. If, of the consequences following on action, the majority are bad and hurtful, such action tends to limit and restrain itself, 476. Ignorance gives rise to bad habits and bad laws, knowledge and experience to the reverse, ib. Mission of evil is to destroy its own cause and stimulate progress, 477. Responsibility has three sanctions,-natural, religious, and legal, 478. ”

“ Diamond, has great value without appreciable utility, 139. Value of one found accidentally and exchanged arises, not from the effort of the person who renders the service, but the effort saved to the one who receives it, 141, 142. This a new principle not to be found in the works of economists, 141. Disturbing Causes. Political Economy sets out by assuming transactions to be free and voluntary, 446. Liberty is harmony, 447. Economists not optimists, 448, 449. Errors of judgment one disturbing cause, 452, 453. Division of Labour admits of being viewed in a more general light than hitherto, 105. ”

“ Capital and labour both take a share of risk till it can be estimated by experience, ib. This state of things gives place to a bargain which ensure unity of direction and fixity of situation, 362. The capitalist may take risk, paying fixed wages, or labourer may take risk, paying a fixed interest-still there is association, 362, 363. Wages have nothing degrading in them any more than interest, 363. The one is the remuneration of present, the other of anterior labour, ib. ”

“ In the human species, reproductive faculty less powerful than in any other, ib. But, physically, man does not escape the law of a tendency to multiplication beyond the limits of space and nourishment, ib. Difference between the physiological power of multiplying and actual multiplication, ib. Malthus inquired in what period of time mankind would double, if space and food were unlimited, 404. ”

“ Increase of capital is followed by increase of general prosperity, 212. By increase of capital, the capitalist's absolute share of product increased, his relative share diminished, while labourer's share is increased both absolutely and relatively, ib. ”

“ Liberty implies possible error, and error possible evil, ib. Socialists' errors on this subject combated, 470, 471. Political Economy is not concerned to explain origin of evil, 471. Sufficient that evil and suffering exist, and have their mission, 472. Existence of free will proved by our consciousness of possessing it, 472, 473. Dr Johnson's opinion on this subject quoted, 473, note. Every action gives rise to consequences, of which some fall back on the agent, and others on his family or on society, hence responsibility and solidarity, 474. Responsibility applies to the person who acts, ib. ”

“ The term moral restraint, used by Malthus, does not give us a just idea of the domain of foresight, ib. Other obstacles besides fear of poverty aid the action of the law of limitation in its preventive shape, 410, 411. Marriages on an average are probably later than they otherwise would be by eight years in consequence of these preventive obstacles, 411. Supposed advice of an old clergyman regarding too early marriages, 411, 412. Man's perfectibility an important element in resolving the problem of population, 413. ”

“ Capital et Rente, pamphlet by Bastiat against the Socialists, 22. Capital, in the beginning formed very slowly, 197. Consists of tools, materials, and provisions, 198. The man who furnishes capital renders a service, and is paid for that service, 199, 200. The man who accords delay renders a service, and hence the legitimacy of interest, 203, 204. Principle which governs the returns for capital, 206-211. Progress of mankind coincides with rapid accumulation of capital, 210. Capital has in itself a power of progression, 211. ”

“ Malthus feared that, with so great a power of reproduction, mankind would come to exceed what the earth could maintain but for prudence and foresight, 398. An expression which occurred in the first edition of his Essay on Population, to the effect that population increases in a geometrical, and food in an arithmetical progression, gave rise to misrepresentation, ib. ”

“ Labour is in itself a good, independent of its results, but we do not desire it for its own sake, ib. Man, being placed between two evils, want and labour, seeks to get rid of both, 461. Spoliation then presents itself as a solution of the problem, ib. War a waste of human power, ib. And the spoliator does not get quit of labour, ib. ”

“ Service is rendered by the man who furnishes capital, 199, 200. Private and Public service, 425. Where want so general as to be a public want, may be provided for by the community at large, 426. This does not alter essential principles of exchange, ib.; but modifies them, 429. Process explained, ib. Sophism that money paid to public functionaries comes back like rain on the citizens exposed, 430. Public services always extinguish private services of the same kind, ib. Public services leave no discretion to individuals, 432. ”

“ Legal sanction should only give force and efficacy to natural sanction, ib. Where natural repression sufficient, legal repression should be avoided, 481. Law acts by means of force, and should not be applied to repress any particular form of religion, 481, 482. ”

“ Almsgiving tends to destroy foresight, ib. Improvement in labourers' cottages in England, 422. Rate, of wages in one country influences the rate in others, 423. Population is in itself a force, for increase of productive power results from density of population, 424, note. ”

“ See Individualism; Mankind Agriculture analogy to society, 35 Persian, 26 Antiquity. See Greece; Rome Authority. See Government Beggars, 11 Billaud-Varennes, Jean Nicolas, 38 Blanc, Louis competition, 45 doctrine, 42, 43 force of society, 47, 48 labor, 42 law, 50, 52 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 41 Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 25, 26 Cabetists, 46, 47 Capital displacement, 2 Carlier, Pierre, 13 Carthage, 32 Charity, vii, 5, 17 See also Wealth, equality of ”

“ Both resolve themselves into an exchange of services, 110. Satisfaction of Consumers, the sole end of production, 94, 95, 96. The term satisfaction preferred to the word consumption, as more general, ib. Saving is not to accumulate commodities, but to interpose an interval between time of rendering and receiving services, 393. The demand for labour and the rise of wages depend on augmentation of capital, ib. Difficulties on the subject of saving removed by reference to the principle of value, 391. To interpose delay between services rendered and received is itself to render a service ”

“ Remuneration by wages has the principle of fixity, so much sought after, 357. Opinions of the Socialists on this subject controverted, 357, 358. Wages, their origin, form, and effects, 358. Labour may be remunerated either by share of its product or by fixed wages, 359. Dependence not caused by form of remuneration, but by precarious situation of labourer, ib. No men worse off than fishermen and vine-dressers, though they have the benefits of association, 359, 360. Results of labour applied to the chase, fishing, or agriculture very uncertain, ib. ”

“ See Liberty French Revolution, 38 public services, 10, 11 purpose of, v relaxed, 35 republican, 30, 39 responsibility and, 3, 47, 48, 51 results, 28 stability, 31 virtue, 39 See also Communism, Socialism Greece education, 26 law, 26, 27 republic, 29, 30 Sparta, 32, 36, 38 Greed, 5 Happiness of the governed, 28 History, 5 Humanity lost, 19, 20 Imports. See Trade Individualism, 3 Industry, protected. ”

“ This impulsive force is under direction of our intelligence, and intelligence may err, ib. The laws of responsibility and solidarity lend assistance to repress error and injustice, 497. Attempts of the Socialists to substitute devotion and self-sacrifice for personal interest, as the social motive force, combated, 498, 499. ”

“ Effort a better term than labour, 158. Labour cannot serve as a measure of value, 171. Unskilled labour the best for making a comparison, ib. In exchanging present for anterior labour, the advantage is on the side of present labour, 178. The opposite phenomenon sometimes manifests itself, 179. Laissez-faire, doctrine of, explained, 48, 448, 449. Lamennais, M. de, his opinions on the principle of population combated, 408, 409. Landed Property. The idea of value gives rise to that of property, 249. Confusion caused by Economists mistaking utility for value, 250. ”

“ Friendly Societies admirable means of providing against sickness and old age, 368. Have conferred immense benefits on the working classes, ib. Caisses de Retraite, Friendly Accumulation Societies, 371-378. Anterior labour, or capital, must necessarily have more security than present labour, 377-379. Future of the working classes-tendency to become capitalists, 379-383. ”

“ Germany, usual rate of interest in said to be 5 per cent., 302. Population of, doubles in 76 years, 404. Girardin, M. Saint-Marc, quoted as to the influence of employments on the condition of nations, 455. Gratuité du Credit, pamphlet by Bastiat against Proudhon's doctrine, in 1850, 22. H. Habit, force of, as changing man's wants, an essential element to be taken into account, 84. Transforms desire into want, 85. ”