Frédéric Bastiat

Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) was a French economist, journalist and politician, a leading advocate of free trade and limited government. A landowner in the Landes, he became known through his witty pamphlets against protectionism, among them the satirical Petition of the Candlemakers, and took part in the free trade movement inspired by Richard Cobden. Elected to the National Assembly after the revolution of 1848, he argued against socialism in essays such as The Law and What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen, and wrote Economic Harmonies. He died of tuberculosis in Rome.