Secondly, Bastiat thought that a “Malthusian Law” operated to fatally restrict the
expansion of the plundering class. The Malthusian pressures on the plundering
class were twofold: their plunder provoked opposition on the part of those who
were being plundered who would eventually resist (such as tax revolts, smuggling,
or outright revolution); and the “Despoilers” (of wealth) would gradually realize
that their plunder and regulation created economic inefficiencies and absolute
limits on the amount of wealth they could extract from any given society. Bastiat
developed his ideas on a Malthusian limit of the scale of plunder first in a
discussion of “theocratic plunder” and then in a section on the State in general:
Plunder using this procedure and the clear-sightedness of a people
are always in inverse proportion one to the other, for it is in the nature
of abuse to proceed wherever it finds a path. Not that pure and
devoted priests are not to be found within the most ignorant
population, but how do you prevent a rogue from putting on a cassock
and an ambitious adventurer from assuming a miter? Despoilers obey
Malthus’s law: they multiply in line with the means of existence, and
the means of existence of rogues is the credulity of their dupes. It is no
good searching; you always find that opinion needs to be enlightened.
There is no other panacea... (p. 21)
The State is also subject to Malthus’s Law. It tends to exceed the
level of its means of existence, it expands in line with these means and
what keeps it in existence is the people’s substance. Woe betide those
peoples who cannot limit the sphere of action of the State. Freedom,
private activity, wealth, well-being, independence and dignity will all
disappear there. (p. 24).
21
In the earliest forms of the plundering state, such as the warrior and slave state
of the Roman Empire, the role played by outright violence and coercion in
maintaining the flow of plunder to privileged groups was very important. However,
Page 17
21
“1. The Physiology of Plunder” in Economic Sophisms II, pp. 21, 24.
as populations grew and economies advanced alternative methods were needed by
the elites to protect the continued flow of plunder. It was at this moment in human
history, Bastiat thought (developing Bentham’s idea of “deceptions” and “political
fallacies” to prevent political reform),
22
that ruing elites began to use what he called
“la Ruse” (trickery or cunning) and “les Sophismes” (fallacies, sophisms, and other
forms of ideological deception and confusion) so that they could trick or “dupe”
the citizens into complying with the demands of the elite to hand over their
property. Of course, it was in order to defeat this stage in the evolution of societies
based upon plundering that Bastiat wrote his series of Economic Sophisms between
1845 and 1850.
As he stated in the “Conclusion” of Economic Sophisms I (which served more like
an introduction to his first collection of Economic Sophisms than its conclusion)
Bastiat explains the connection between his rebuttal of commonly held economic
sophisms and the system of plunder he opposed so vigorously:
For them (the plundering classes) to rob the public, the latter have to
be misled. To mislead them is to persuade them that they are being
robbed for their own good; it is to make them accept fictitious services
and often worse in exchange for their possessions. This gives rise to
Sophism. Theocratic Sophism, economic Sophism, political Sophism
and financial Sophism. Therefore, since the time when force has been
held in check, Sophism is not only an evil, it is the very genius of evil. It
must in its turn be held in check. And to do this the public must be
made more shrewd than the shrewd, just as it has become stronger than
the strong.
Page 18
22
See Jeremy Bentham, Handbook of Political Fallacies, revised and edited by Harold A. Larrabee.
Introduction to the Torchbook edition by Crane Brinton (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1962);
and also The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring
(Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 2. THE BOOK OF FALLACIES: FROM
UNFINISHED PAPERS OF JEREMY BENTHAM. EDITED BY A FRIEND.
oll.libertyfund.org/title/1921/114047>.
Good public, it is under the patronage of this thought that I am
addressing this first essay to you, although the Preface has been
strangely transposed and the Dedication is somewhat belated.
23
vii.Theological Plunder
A case study of how trickery and sophistic arguments can be used to ensure
compliance with the demands of the plundering class is provided by Bastiat in his
lengthy discussion about the rule of the Church in European history which he
believed had practised deception and trickery ”on a grand scale”.
24
The Church
had developed an elaborate system of “theological plunder” through its tithing of
income and production and on top of this it created a system of “theological
trickery” based upon the notion that only members of the church could ensure the
peoples’ passage to an afterlife. This and other “theological sophisms” created
“dupes” of the ordinary people who duly handed over their property to the
Church. Bastiat had no squabble with a church in which the priests were the
instrument of the religion, but for hundreds of years religion had become instead
“the instrument of its priest”:
If, on the other hand, Religion is the instrument of its priest, he will treat
it as some
people treat an instrument that is altered, bent and turned
in many ways so as to draw the greatest benefit for themselves. He will
increase the number of questions that are taboo; his moral code will
bend according to the climate, men and circumstances. He will seek to
impose it through studied gestures and attitudes; he will mutter words
Page 19
23
The Conclusion of Economic Sophisms I, p. 198. The last paragraph of this quotation suggests
that Bastiat’s first collection of Economic Sophisms was assembled and printed in some haste, thus
not allowing him to get the Dedication and Preface in the right order.
24
“1. The Physiology of Plunder” in Economic Sophisms II, pp. 16ff.
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