Frédéric BASTIAT (1801–1850). Letter from the author, Paris, - Lot 1

Frédéric BASTIAT (1801–1850). Letter from the author, Paris, December 26, 1847, [to Victor Considérant]; 3¼ pages, in-8. He plans to include Considérant’s letter in the next issue of *Libre Échange* [the January 2, 1848, issue includes the letter, followed by a lengthy reply from Bastiat]; he regrets “that the Socialist School and the Economic School cannot see eye to eye,” and that the controversy is exacerbating their differences. “We cannot accept Fourier’s cosmogony. But when you retreat to this formula—‘progressive and voluntary association’—political economy can no longer be your adversary.” He wonders how to understand the word “voluntary,” for “Will, in our view, implies freedom.” As for the principle of protection, is it not “the opposite of that of freedom”? If the results of collective efforts are not freely shared, if force or law decrees that “your efforts will be devoted to my satisfaction without voluntary reciprocity,” then we are operating under the principle of slavery, which is the very principle of protection. This is to decide that one man belongs to another […] It is always the effort of one applied against his will, for the satisfaction of another.” If the state had the means, it could “cover the losses of those who undertake ill-advised ventures”; but Bastiat sees this as “nothing more than a means of propping up poor work at the expense of good work. From a moral standpoint, it is plunder; from an economic standpoint, it is a loss.” And he concludes: “The true ground on which we would agree is that of Liberty, which, of course, does not exclude Association”…