Frédéric Bastiat
| Frédéric Bastiat | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Claude-Frédéric Bastiat 29 June 1801 Bayonne, France |
| Died | 24 December 1850 (aged 49) Rome, Papal States |
| Nationality | French |
| School or tradition |
Classical liberalism |
| Influences | Richard Cobden, Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, Charles Comte, Charles Dunoyer |
| Influenced | Arthur Latham Perry, Gustave de Molinari, Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Thomas Sowell, Mark Spitznagel, Walter E. Williams |
| Contributions | The Law (La Loi) |
| Notes | |
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Religion: Roman Catholicism
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Claude-Frédéric Bastiat (French: [klod fʁedeʁik bastja]; 29 June 1801 – 24 December 1850) was a French economist and author who was a prominent member of the French Liberal School. He developed the economic concept of opportunity cost, and introduced the Parable of the Broken Window. He was also a Freemason, and member of the French National Assembly.
As a strong advocate of classical liberalism and the economics of Adam Smith, his views favouring free trade and opposing protectionism provided a basis for libertarian capitalism and the Austrian School.
Bastiat was born in Bayonne, Aquitaine, a port town in the south of France on the Bay of Biscay, on 29 June 1801. His father, Pierre Bastiat, was a prominent businessman in the town. His mother died in 1808 when Frédéric was seven years old. His father moved inland to the town of Mugron with Frédéric following soon afterward. The Bastiat estate in Mugron had been acquired during the French Revolution and had previously belonged to the Marquis of Poyanne. Pierre Bastiat died in 1810, leaving Frédéric an orphan. He was fostered by his paternal grandfather and his maiden aunt, Justine Bastiat.
He attended a school in Bayonne, but his aunt thought poorly of it and so enrolled him in the school Saint-Sever. At age 17, he left school at Sorèze to work for his uncle in his family's export business. It was the same firm where his father had been a partner. Economist Thomas DiLorenzo suggests that this experience was crucial to Bastiat's later work since it allowed the young Frédéric to acquire first-hand knowledge of how regulation can affect markets.Sheldon Richman notes that "he came of age during the Napoleonic wars, with their extensive government intervention in economic affairs."
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