BASTIAT, FREDERIC (18o1-185o), French economist, was born June 29, 18o1, at Mugron, near Bayonne, where he led the life of a country gentleman, becoming a juge de paix of his canton in 1831, and in 1832 a member of the Conseil general of the Landes. Becoming interested in the English Anti-Corn-Law League against protection, he contributed to the Journal des Economistes in 1844 a number of articles on the subject, includ ing the first series of his brilliant Sophismes Economiques and in 1845 visited Paris to superintend the publication of his Cobden et la Ligue. In 1846 he assisted in organizing at Bordeaux the first French Association pour la Liberte des Echanges and was made secretary of a similar association formed in Paris, where he carried on a vigorous propaganda for Free Trade.
The agitation was brought to an abrupt end by the Revolution of Feb. 1848, which made the socialistic and communistic prin ciples, which had been gathering and spreading during the previous 3o years, temporarily supreme.
Bastiat was returned by the Landes to the constituent assembly of 1849 and the legislative assembly of 1849, but rarely spoke. His real work was done with his pen. He wrote in rapid suc cession a series of brilliant and effective pamphlets and essays, showing how socialism was connected with protection. Within the space of two years there appeared Propriete et Loi, Justice et Fraternite, Propriete et Spoliation, L'Etat, Baccalaureat et Socialisme, Protectionisme et Communisme, Capital et Rente, Maudit Argent, Spoliation et Loi, Gratuite du Credit, and Co qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas. He was meditating the com position of a work on economics. The first volume of this work, Les Harmonies economiques was published in the beginning of 185o. In the autumn ill-health drove him to Italy, and he died at Rome on Christmas Eve, 185o.
Bastiat was unrivalled in his exposure of economic fallacies, for he had extraordinary wit and logical power. Professor Edge worth says (Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy) that "the opinion that Bastiat did not make any considerable con tribution to abstract theory is not inconsistent with gratitude to him for having popularized (in the best sense of the term) the discoveries of his predecessors." The first volume of his Oeuvres completes (1881) contains an in teresting Memoir by M. Paillottet; see also Lettres d'un Habitant des Landes (ed. Cheuvreux, 187o) .