Economic sophisms

FROM the time when the advent of representative government placed the ultimate power to direct the administration of public affairs in the hands of the people, the primary instrument by which the few have managed to plunder the many has been the sophistry that per suades the victims that they are being robbed for their own benefit. The public has been despoiled of a great part of its wealth and has been induced to give up more and more of its freedom of choice because it is unable to detect the error in the delusive sophisms by which pro tectionist demagogues, national social ists, and proponents of government planning exploit its gullibility and its ignorance of economics.
It was with the aim of exposing the most influential and widespread of these economic fallacies that Bastiat began, in 1844, to contribute to the Journal des économistes the brilliant succession of essays that comprise the present volume. The first series appeared in book form in 1845; and the second series, three years later. Increasingly in the years that have elapsed since their first publication, these essays have come to be recognized as among the most cogent and persua sive refutations of the major fallacies of protectionism-fallacies that are still with us today and that will continue to crop up as long as the public remains unin structed: "The introduction of machinery means fewer jobs": "Protective tariffs keep domestic wages high"; "We need laws to equalize the conditions of production": "Imports must be restricted to restore the balance of trade"; "High prices mean a high standard of living": "There are no economic laws or absolute principles"; "We need colonies to provide markets for the products of our industry": "Free trade places us at the mercy of our enemies in case of war"; etc., etc. The great lesson which all these essays teach, in one form or another, is the necessity of always looking at eco nomic questions from the point of view of the consumer, rather than that of the producer.

What gives this work its unique quality and places it among the classics of economic literature is not only the logical rigor with which each fallacy is demolished, but the highly original and strik ing way in which the author uses wit, irony, natire, dialogue, and apologue to reduce erroneous ideas to patent absurd ity, as, for example, in his famous petition of the candlemakers for protection against the competition of the sun.