• The “Conclusion” to Economic Sophisms I (dated November 1845)
• “The Working Class and the Bourgeoisie” 22 May 1847, Sophisms from Le
Libre-Échange
• From Economic Sophisms Series II (published early 1848, probably written in
late 1847)
• Physiologie de la Plunder [The Physiology of Plunder] [no details given].
• Deux morales [Two Moralities] [no details given].
• “Propriété et loi” (Property and Law). Originally published in the 15 May
1848 issue of Le Journal des économistes.
• “Propriété et spoliation” (Property and Plunder). Originally published in
the 24 July 1848 issue of Le Journal des débats.
• “Spoliation et loi” (Plunder and Law). This pamphlet was first published in
the 15 May 1850 issue of Le Journal des économistes.
• “III. Taxes”, in What is Seen and What is Not Seen (1850)
• “La Loi” (The Law). Bastiat wrote this pamphlet while vacationing with his
family in Mugron. June 1850.
The following definition of what he meant by plunder has been compiled from
the first chapter of his second series of Economic Sophisms which appeared in early
1848, “The Physiology of Plunder” (these are Bastiat’s words):
• There are only two ways of acquiring the things that are necessary for the
preservation, embellishing and amelioration of life: PRODUCTION and
Plunder.
• Plunder is exercised on a vast scale in this world and is too universally
woven into all the major events in the annals of humanity for any moral
science, and above all Political Economy, to feel justified in disregarding it.
• What separates the social order from perfection (at least from the degree of
perfection it can attain) is the constant effort of its members to live and
progress at the expense
of one another.
• When Plunder has become the means of existence of a large group of men
mutually linked by a social connection, they soon contrive to pass a law that
sanctions it and a moral code that glorifies it.
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• [stages of plunder in history]. First of all, there is WAR... SLAVERY...
THEOCRACY... MONOPOLY.
• The genuine and equitable law governing man is “The exchange
freely discussed
of one service for another.” Plunder consists in banishing by cunning or force
the freedom to discuss in order to receive a service without returning it.
Plunder by force is exercised as follows: People wait for a man to produce
something and then seize it from him with weapons. This is formally
condemned by the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not steal. When it
takes place between individuals, it is called theft and leads to prison; when it
takes place between nations, it is called conquest and leads to glory.
• [in summary] Plunder consists in banishing by deception or force the
freedom to negotiate in order to receive a service without receiving another
in return.
I would like to emphasize a few key points in this definition to help us better
understand Bastiat’s perspective:
• he believes in an absolute moral philosophy based upon natural law
• these natural laws are partly discovered through the scientific, empirical
observation of human societies (economics and history) and partly through
divine revelation (Bastiat’s deism and his moral Christianity)
• this moral philosophy applies to all human beings without exception
• he believes that there are only two ways by which wealth (property) can be
acquired: firstly by voluntary individual activity and by freely negotiated
exchange with others (“service for service”), by indviduals called the
“Producers”; secondly, by theft (coercion or fraud) by a third party, also
called “the Plunderers”
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• the existence of plunder is a scientific, empirical matter which is revealed by
the study of history (this was to be his great next unfulfilled research
project)
2
• the Plunderers have historically organised themselves into States and have
tried to make their activities an exception to the universal moral principles
by introducing laws that “sanction” plunder and a moral code that
“glorifies” it
• the Plunderers also deceive their victims by means of “la Ruse” (trickery,
deception, fraud) and the use of “sophisms” (fallacies) to justifying and
disguise what they are doing
With this working definition in mind I would like to explore in more detail what
Bastiat thought about the history of plunder and what part it plays in his social and
economic theory.
iii.The Unwritten “History of Plunder”
Had Bastiat lived longer there are at least two more books he would have
written: the first would have been to complete his main theoretical work on political
economy, the Economic Harmonies (1850), which he left incomplete at his death; the
second would have been to write “A History of Plunder”. The latter was mentioned
by the editor of his Oeuvres complètes (Collected Works), Prosper Paillottet, as
something that was very much on Bastiat’s mind in his last days in Rome on the eve
of his death (Christmas eve 1850). Paillottet quotes Bastiat in an aside:
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The issue of intent might be raised here. The fact that some individuals acquire their property
by force or fraud at the expence of other individuals is an empirical mater to be determined by
the study of history. The purpose or intent of those using plunder (to save souls, or to promote
the “public good”) might be a legal matter for lawyers and judges to determine in a court of law.
Lord Acton’s historian acting as a “hanging judge” would probably not see any grounds for
mitigation - as would Bastiat.
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