Economic Sophisms. Frederic Bastiat

Economic Sophisms

they augment the difference we have remarked between the price paid by the consumer and the price received by the producer – that very difference, the reduction of which, as far as possible, forms the subject of our problem.

That problem is resolved in three words: Reduce your tariff.

You will then have done what is equivalent to constructing the Northern Railway without cost, and will immediately begin to put money in your pocket.

In truth, I often seriously ask myself how anything so whimsical could ever have entered into the human brain, as first of all to lay out many millions for the purpose of removing the natural obstacles which lie between France and other countries, and then to lay out many more millions for the purpose of substituting artificial obstacles, which have exactly the same effect; so much so, indeed, that the obstacle created and the obstacle removed neutralize each other, and leave things as they were before, the residue of the operation being a double expense.

A Belgian product is worth at Brussels 20 francs, and the cost of carriage would raise the price at Paris to 30 francs. The same article made in Paris costs 40 francs. And how do we proceed?

In the first place, we impose a duty of 10 francs on the Belgian product, in order to raise its cost price at Paris to 40 francs; and we pay numerous officials to see the duty stringently levied, so that, on the road, the commodity is charged 10 francs for the carriage, and 10 francs for the tax.

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1

The first series of the Sophismes Économiques appeared in the end of 1845; the second series in 1848. – Editor.

2

The author has modified somewhat the terms of this proposition in a posterior work. – See HarmoniesÉconomiques, chapter xi. – Editor.

3
1

The first series of the Sophismes Économiques appeared in the end of 1845; the second series in 1848. – Editor.

2

The author has modified somewhat the terms of this proposition in a posterior work. – See HarmoniesÉconomiques, chapter xi. – Editor.

3

We have not in French a substantive to express the idea opposed to that of dearness (cheapness). It is somewhat remarkable that the popular instinct expresses the idea by this periphrase, marche avantageux, bon marche'. The protectionists would do well to reform this locution, for it implies an economic system opposed to theirs.

4

See post, ch. xiv. of second series of SophismesEconomiques, and ch. iii. and xi. of the HarmoniesÉconomiques.

5

For this reason, and for the sake of conciseness, the reader will pardon us for designating this system in the sequel by the name of sisyphism.

6

It is fair to M. d'Argout to say that he put this language in the mouth of the adversaries of beet-root culture. But he adopts it formally, and sanctions it besides, by the law which it was employed to justify.

7

Supposing that 48,000 or 50,000 hectares were sufficient to supply the present consumption, it would require 150,000

for triple that consumption, which M. d'Argout admits as possible. Moreover, if beet-root entered into a six years'

rotation of crops, it would occupy successively 900,000

hectares, or 1-38th of the arable land.

8

See on the same subject, Sophismes Économiques, second series, ch. xvi., post, and Harmonies Économiques, ch. vi.

9

M. le Vicomte de Romanet.

10

Matthieu le Dombasle.

11

The author, here and elsewhere, uses the French word profits; but it is clear from the context that he does not refer to the returns from capital, in which sense alone the

English economists employ the term profits. We have therefore substituted the words earnings or wages. —

Translator,

12

It is true that labour does not receive a uniform remuneration. It may be more or less intense, dangerous, skilled, etc. Competition settles the usual or current price in each department – and this is the fluctuating price of which I speak.

13

The theory sketched in this chapter, is the same which, four years afterwards, was developed in the HarmoniesÉconomiques. Remuneration reserved exclusively for human labour; the gratuitous nature of natural agents; progressive conquest of these agents, to the profit of mankind, whose common property they thus become; elevation of general wellbeing and tendency to relative equalization of conditions; we recognise here the essential elements of the most important of all the works of Bastiat. – Editor.

14

See Harmonies Économiques, ch. xvii.

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