![]() ![]() When his grandfather died, Bastiat, at age twenty-five, inherited the family estate in Mugron, which enabled him to live the life of a gentleman farmer and scholar for the next twenty years. At age seventeen, he left school to become more involved with his family's business. When he was nine years old, he was orphaned and became a ward of his father's parents. Government intervention, thus, Bastiat regarded as likely to disturb the natural harmony in society unless it was limited to protecting its citizens from those who would deliberately do them harm.Ĭlaude Frédéric Bastiat was born in Bayonne, Aquitaine, France, on June 30, 1801. While Bastiat regarded human beings as naturally driven by self-interest, he distinguished this from selfishness, and rather saw human economic exchanges as naturally tending towards that which benefits everyone. Bastiat is also seen as a forerunner of the Austrian School of economics in his works showing the significance of the subjective, human factors in economics. The main underlying theme of Bastiat's writings was that the free market was inherently a source of "economic harmony" among individuals, as long as government was restricted to the function of protecting the lives, liberties, and property of citizens from theft or aggression. His well known "Candlemakers' petition" cleverly highlights basic flaws in protectionism and has been used by economists since in defense of free trade. Claude Frédéric Bastiat (JDecember 24, 1850) was a French economist, legislator, and writer who championed private property, free markets, and limited government.
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