HARMONIESOF POLITICAL ECONOMY. BYFRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
The favour with which the English public has received theFirst Edition of this translation of Bastiat’s HarmoniesÉconomiques, published originally in separate parts, hasinduced me to have the whole reprinted in a cheaper andmore accessible form, in the hope of giving the work awider circulation, and rendering it more generally useful.
The first ten chapters were all that appeared in the lifetimeof the gifted author, or that had the benefit of hisfinishing touch. It was Bastiat’s intention, had he lived,to recast the work, and to give it a wider and more comprehensivescope; embracing in his design not only the principlesof Political Economy, but their applications to SocialPhilosophy. Prior to his departure for Italy, on what heforesaw might be his last journey, he had communicated tohis friends MM. de Fontenay and Paillottet a list of the newchapters in the order in which they will be found in thesubjoined Notice of his Life.1To the same friends, in hislast moments, he entrusted the manuscripts intended for thecontinuation of the work. The duty thus committed tothem they discharged very judiciously, by arranging thenew portions in the order pointed out, without altering thetext, and, except in a very few instances, without additionsof their own, contenting themselves with adding someexplanatory notes, consisting chiefly of references to theauthor’s other works. [p004]
Some of the chapters thus added are unfortunately merefragments, but most of the others indicate very clearlyBastiat’s opinions on the subjects to which they relate, andseveral of them display a breadth, a vigour, and an originalityworthy of the best days of their lamented author.
Many of the questions purely economical which are discussedin the posthumous portions of the work,—such, forinstance, as those of Wages, Population, and the relations ofLabour and Capital, etc.,—are still deeply engaging publicattention in England, as well as on the other side of theChannel; and on subjects of such vast practical importanceit is surely desirable that the opinions of so profound andfearless a thinker as Bastiat should be as widely disseminatedas possible.
In conclusion, I may perhaps be permitted to refer to thegreat intere