to inquire whether that distress has not proceeded from the very fact that this principle in a certain form has been realized already? Before seeking a remedy in new disturbances of the natural social laws, should you not make sure that such perturbations do not themselves constitute the very evil from which society suffers, and which it is your object to cure? To take from one in order to give to another! Just allow me to mark here the danger and the absurdity, from an economical point of view, of this so-called social aspiration, which, fer- menting among the masses of our population, broke forth with so terrific a force in the revolution of February. Where society consists of several grades, we are apt to think that people of the highest rank enjoy Privileges or Monopolies at the expense of all the other members of the community. This is odious, but it is not absurd. The second grade, the class immediately below the first, will not fail to attack and batter down monopolies; and, with the assistance of the masses, they will succeed sooner or later in bringing about a Revolution. In that case, power passes into their hands, and they still think that power implies Monopoly. This is still odious, but it is not absurd, at least it is not impracticable; for Monopolies are impossible as long as there is, below the grade that enjoys them, a lower stratum—namely, the public at large, that supports and feeds them. If the third and fourth grade suc- ceed, in their turn, in effecting a revolution, they will, if they can, so arrange as to make the most of the masses, by means of privi- leges or monopolies skillfully combined. But then the masses, emaciated, ground down, trampled upon, must also have their revolution. Why? What are they going to do? You think, perhaps, that they are going to abolish all monopolies and privileges, and to inaugurate the reign of universal justice; that they are about to exclaim—away with restrictions—away with shackles and tram- mels—away with monopolies—away with Government interfer- ences for the profit of certain classes; begone taxes and grinding impositions; down with political and diplomatic intrigues? Not at all. They have quite another aim. They become their own solicitors, Harmonies of Political Economy—Book One 115 Harmonies Chap Four.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 115 and in their turn demand to be privileged! The public at large, imitating their superiors, ask for monopolies! They urge their right to employment, their right to credit, their right to educa- tion, their right to assistance! But at whose expense? They are easy on that score. They feel only that, if they are ensured employment, credit, education for their children, repose for their old days, and all gratis, they will be exceedingly happy; and, truly, no one disputes it. But is it possible? Alas! no; and this is the rea- son why I say that here the odious disappears, and the absurd has reached its climax. Monopolies to the masses! Good people, reflect a little on the vicious circle in which you are placing yourselves. Monopoly implies someone to enjoy it, and someone to pay for it. We can understand a privileged man, or a privileged class, but not a priv- ileged people. Is there below you a still lower stratum of society upon which you can throw back the burden? Will you never com- prehend the whimsical mystification of which you are the dupes? Will you never understand that the State can give you nothing with the one hand but what it has taken from you with the other? that, far from there being for you in this combination any possible increase of prosperity, the final result of the operation must be an arbitrary Government, more vexatious, more exacting, more uncer- tain, more expensive; heavier taxes—more injustice, more offensive favoritism—liberty more restrained—power thrown away—occupa- tions, labor and capital displaced—covetousness excited—discon- tent provoked—and individual energy extinguished? The upper classes have gotten alarmed, and not without rea- son, at this unhappy disposition of the masses. They see in it the germ of incessant revolutions; for what Government can hold together that has ventured to say—“I am in possession of force, and I will employ it to support everybody at the expense of every- body? I undertake to become responsible for the general happi- ness.” But is not the alarm that has seized these classes a just and merited punishment? Have they not themselves set the people the fatal example of that grasping disposition of which they now complain? Have they not had their own eyes perpetually turned 116 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies Chap Four.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 116 to the treasury? Have they ever failed to secure some monopoly, some privilege, great or small, to manufactures, to banks, to mines, to landed property, to the arts, even to the means of diver- sion, to the ballet, to the opera, to everything and everybody in short; except to the industry of the people—to manual labor? Have they not multiplied beyond bounds public employments, in order to increase, at the expense of the people, their own resources? and is there at this day a single head of a family in France who is not on the lookout for a place for his son? Have they ever endeavored to get rid of any one of the acknowledged inequalities of taxation? Have they not for a long time turned to account everything, even the electoral franchise? And yet they are astonished and horrified that the people should adopt the same course. When the spirit of mendicity has so long infected the wealthy orders, how can we suppose that it will not penetrate to the heart of the suffering masses? However, a great Revolution has taken place. Political power, the power of making laws, the disposal of the public force, has passed virtually, if not yet in fact, into the hands of the people along with universal suffrage. Thus the people, who have pro- posed the problem for solution, will be called upon to solve it themselves; and woe to the country, if, following the example that has been set them, they seek its solution in Privilege, which is always an invasion of another’s rights. They will find themselves mistaken, and the mistake will bring with it a great lesson; for if it be possible to violate the rights of the many for the benefit of the few, how can we violate the rights of all for the benefit of all? But at what cost will this lesson be taught us? And, in order to obviate so frightful a danger, what ought the upper classes to do? Two things—renounce all privileges and monopolies themselves, and enlighten the masses, for there are only two things that can save society—Justice and Knowledge. They ought to inquire with earnestness whether they do not enjoy some monopoly or other, in order that they may renounce it—whether they do not profit by some artificial inequalities, in order that they may efface them—whether Pauperism is not in some measure attributable to Harmonies of Political Economy—Book One 117 Harmonies Chap Four.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 117 a disturbance of the natural social laws, in order that they may put an end to it. They should be able to hold out their hands to the people, and say to them, These hands are full, but they are clean. Is this what they actually do? If I am not very much mis- taken, they do just the reverse. They begin by guarding their monopolies, and we have seen them even turning the revolution to profit by attempting to extend these monopolies. After having deprived themselves of even the possibility of speaking the truth and appealing to principles, they endeavor to vindicate their con- sistency by engaging to treat the people as they have treated them- selves, and dazzle them with the bait of Privilege. Only, they think themselves very knowing in conceding at present only a small privilege, the right to “assistance,” in the hope of diverting them from demanding a greater one—the right to employment. They do not perceive that to extend and systematize more and more the maxim, “Take from one to give to another,” is only to strengthen the illusion that creates difficulties for the present and dangers for the future. We must not exaggerate, however. When the superior classes seek in privilege a remedy for the evils privilege has caused, they are sincere, and act, I am convinced, rather from ignorance than from any desire to commit injustice. It is an irreparable misfor- tune that the governments that have succeeded each other in France have invariably discouraged the teaching of Political Econ- omy. And it is a still greater misfortune that University Education fills all our heads with Roman prejudices; in other words, with all that is repugnant to social truth. This is what leads the upper classes astray. It is the fashion at present to declaim against these classes. For my own part, I believe that at no period have their intentions been more benevolent. I believe that they ardently desire to solve the social Problem. I believe that they would do more than renounce their privileges—that they would sacrifice willingly, in works of charity, a part of the property they have acquired, if by that means they were satisfied that an end could be put to the sufferings of the working classes. It may be said, no doubt, that they are actuated by interest or fear, and that it is no 118 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies Chap Four.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 118 great generosity to abandon a part of their fortune to save the remainder—that it is, in fact, but the vulgar prudence of a man who insures his property against fire. But let us not thus calumni- ate human nature. Why should we refuse to recognize a motive less selfish? Is it not very natural that the democratic sentiments that prevail in our country should render men alive to the suffer- ings of their brethren? But whatever may be the dominant senti- ment, it cannot be denied that everything by which public opin- ion is influenced—philosophy, literature, poetry, the drama, the pulpit, the tribune, the daily press—all these organs of opinion reveal not only a desire, but an ardent longing on the part of the wealthier classes to resolve the great problem. Why, then, is there no movement on the part of our Legislative Assemblies? Because they are ignorant. Political Economy proposes to them this solu- tion—PUBLIC JUSTICE—PRIVATE CHARITY. But they got off upon the wrong scent, and, obeying socialist influences, without being aware of the fact, they give charity a place in the statute book, thereby banishing justice from it, and destroying by the same act private charity, which is ever prompt to recede before a compulsory poor-rate. Why, then, do our legislators thus run counter to all sound notions? Why do they not leave things in their proper place— Sympathy in its natural domain, which is Liberty—Justice in its own, which is Law? Why do they not leave law to do its own exclusive work in furthering justice? Is it that they have no love of justice? No; it is that they have no confidence in it. Justice is Liberty and Property. But they are Socialists without knowing it; and, for the progressive diminution of poverty, and the indefinite expansion of wealth, let them say what they will, they have no faith either in liberty or property, nor, consequently, in justice. This is why we see them, in the sincerity of their hearts, seeking the realization of what is Good by the perpetual violation of what is Right. Natural social laws are the phenomena, taken in the aggre- gate, and considered in reference both to their motives and their results, that govern the transactions of men in a state of freedom. Harmonies of Political Economy—Book One 119 Harmonies Chap Four.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 119 That being granted, the question is, Are we to allow these laws to act, or are we to hinder them from acting? The question, in fact, comes to this: Are we to leave every man master of his liberty and property, his right to produce, and exchange his produce, as he chooses, whether to his benefit or detriment; or are we to interfere by means of law, which is Force, for the protection of these rights? Or, can we hope to secure a greater amount of social happiness by violating liberty and property, by interfering with and regulat- ing labor, by disturbing exchanges, and shifting responsibility? In other words: Is Law to enforce rigorous Justice, or to be the instrument of Spoliation, organized with more or less adroitness? It is very evident that the solution of these questions depends upon our knowledge and study of the natural laws of society. We cannot pronounce conclusively upon them until we have discov- ered whether property, liberty, the combination of services freely and voluntarily exchanged, lead to improvement and material prosperity, as the economists believe, or to ruin and degradation, as the socialists affirm. In the first case, social evils must be attributed to disturbances of the natural laws, to legal violations of liberty and property, and these disturbances and violations must be put an end to. In that case Political Economy is right. In the second case, it may be said, we have not yet had enough of Government interference. Forced and factitious combinations have not yet sufficiently superseded free and natural combinations. These three fatal principles, Justice, Liberty, and Property, have still too powerful a sway. Our legislators have not yet attacked them boldly enough. We have not yet acted sufficiently on the maxim of taking from one in order to give to another. Hitherto we have taken from the many to give to the few. Now, we must take from all and give to all. In a word, we must organize Spolia- tion, and from Socialism must come our salvation. 120 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies Chap Four.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 120 5 OF VALUE ll dissertations are wearisome—a dissertation on Value the most wearisome of all. What unpracticed writer, who has had to face an Economic problem, has not tried to resolve it without reference to any def- inition of value? Yet he soon finds he has engaged in a vain attempt. The the- ory of Value is to Political Economy what numbers are to arith- metic. In what inextricable confusion would not Bezout have landed himself if, to save labor to his pupils, he had undertaken to teach them the four rules and proportion, without having pre- viously explained the value the figures derive from their form and position? The truth is, if the reader could only foresee the beautiful consequences deducible from the theory of Value, he would undertake the labor of mastering the first principles of Economi- cal Science with the same cheerfulness that one submits to the 121 A Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 121 drudgery of Geometry, in prospect of the magnificent field it opens to our intelligence. But this intuitive foresight is not to be expected; and the more pains I should take to establish the distinction between Value and Utility, or between Value and labor, in order to show how natural it is that this should form a stumbling-block at the very threshold of the science, the more wearisome I should become. The reader would see in such a discussion only barren and idle subtleties, cal- culated at best to satisfy the curiosity of professional Economists. You are inquiring laboriously, it may be said, whether wealth consists in the Utility of things, or in their Value, or in their rar- ity. Is not this like the question of the schoolmen, Does form reside in the substance or in the accident? Are you not afraid that some street Moliere will hold you up to public ridicule at the The- atre des Varietes? Yet truth obliges me to say that, from an economical point of view, Society is Exchange. The primary element of Exchange is the notion of Value, so that every truth and every error this word introduces into men’s minds is a social truth or error. I undertake in this work to demonstrate the Harmony of those laws of Prov- idence that govern human society. What makes these laws harmo- nious and not discordant is, that all principles, all motives, all springs of action, all interests, co-operate toward a grand final result, which humanity will never reach by reason of its native imperfection, but to which it will always approximate more and more by reason of its unlimited capability of improvement. And that result is, the indefinite approximation of all classes toward a level, which is always rising; in other words, the equalization of individuals in the general amelioration. But to attain my object, I must explain two things, namely, First, that Utility has a tendency to become more and more gratuitous, more and more common, as it gradually recedes from the domain of individual appropriation. Second, that Value, on the other hand, which alone is capable of appropriation, which alone legitimately constitutes property and in fact, has a tendency to diminish more and more in relation 122 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 122 to the utility to which it is attached. Such a demonstration—founded on Property, but only on the property of which Value is the subject, and on Community, but only on the community of utility—such a demonstration, I say, must satisfy and reconcile all schools, by conceding to them that all have had a glimpse of the truth, but only of partial truth, regarded from different points of view. Economists! you defend property. There is in the social order no other property than that of which Value is the subject, and that is immutable and unassailable. Communists! you dream of Community. You have got it. The social order renders all utilities common, provided the exchange of those values that have been appropriated is unhindered. You are like architects who dispute about a monument of which each has seen only one side. They don’t see ill, but they don’t see all. To make them agree, it is only necessary to ask them to walk round the edifice. But how am I to reconstruct the social edifice so as to exhibit to mankind all its beautiful harmony if I reject its two corner stones, Utility and Value? How can I bring about the desired rec- onciliation of various schools upon the platform of truth if I shun the analysis of these two ideas, although the dissidence has arisen from the unhappy confusion they have caused? I have felt this kind of introduction necessary, in order, if pos- sible, to secure from the reader a moment’s attention and relieve him from fatigue and ennui. I am much mistaken if the consoling beauty of the consequences will not amply make up for the dry- ness of the premises. Had Newton allowed himself to be repulsed at the outset by a distaste for elementary mathematics, never would his heart have beat with rapture on beholding the har- monies of the celestial mechanism; and I maintain that it is only necessary to make our way manfully to an acquaintance with cer- tain first principles in order to be convinced that God has dis- played in the social mechanism goodness no less touching, sim- plicity no less admirable, splendor no less magnificent. Harmonies of Political Economy—Book One 123 Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 123 In the first chapter we viewed man as both active and passive, and we saw that Want and Satisfaction, acting on sensibility alone, were in their own nature personal, peculiar, and intransmissible; that Effort, on the contrary, the connecting link between Want and Satisfaction, the mean term between the motive principle of action and the end we have in view, proceeding from our activity, our spontaneity, our will, was susceptible of conventions and of transmission. I know that, metaphysically, no one can contest this assertion, and maintain that Effort also is personal. I have no desire to enter the territory of ideology, and I hope that my view of the subject will be admitted without controversy when put in this fundamental form: We cannot feel the wants of others—we cannot feel the satisfactions of others; but we can render service one to another. It is this transmission of efforts, this exchange of services, that forms the subject of Political Economy; and since, on the other hand, economic science is condensed and summed up in the word Value, of which it is only a lengthened explanation, it follows that the notion of value would be imperfectly, erroneously conceived if we were to found it upon the extreme phenomena of our sen- sibility—namely, our Wants and Satisfactions—phenomena that are personal, intransmissible, and incommensurable as between two individuals, in place of founding it on the manifestations of our activity, upon efforts, upon reciprocal services, which are interchanged because they are susceptible of being compared, evaluated, estimated, and which are capable of being estimated precisely because they are capable of being interchanged. In the same chapter we arrived at the following formulas: “Utility (the property that certain things and certain acts have of serving us, of being useful to us) is complex—one part we owe to the action of nature, another to the action of man.”—“With reference to a given result, the more nature has done the less remains for human action to do.”—“The co-operation of nature is essentially gratuitous—the co-operation of man, whether intel- lectual or muscular, exchanged or not, collective or solitary, is essentially onerous, as indeed the word Effort implies.” 124 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 7/6/2007 11:34 AM Page 124 [...]... immense value.” The French school affirms that the foundation of Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 1 32 7/6 /20 07 11 :34 AM Page 1 32 The Bastiat Collection value is utility, and the English school immediately brings forward the diamond in opposition to the illustrations drawn from air, light, and water The air is very useful,” says the English Economist, “but it possesses no value; the utility of the diamond is... Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 134 7/6 /20 07 11 :34 AM Page 134 The Bastiat Collection The result of this dialogue is that Value no more resides in the diamond than in the air or in the water It resides exclusively in the services we suppose to be rendered and received with reference to these things, and is determined by the free bargaining of the parties who make the exchange Take up the Collection des Economistes,... AM Page 126 The Bastiat Collection I say, then, VALUE IS THE RELATION OF TWO SERVICES EXCHANGED The idea of value entered into the world the first time that a man having said to his brother, Do this for me, and I shall do that for you—they have come to an agreement; for then, for the first time, we could say The two services exchanged are worth each other It is singular enough that the true theory of... gives them existence I do not mean to say that it gives existence to the acts and the things that are exchanged, but it imparts to their existence the notion of value Now, when two men transfer to each other their present efforts, or make over mutually the results of their previous efforts, they serve each other; they render each other reciprocal service Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 126 7/6 /20 07 11 :34 AM... They must then adjust the relation of the two services exchanged They would take all circumstances into account the difficulties to be overcome, the dangers to be braved, the time to be spent, the pains to be taken, the skill to be displayed, the risks to be run, the possibility of providing for their wants in some other way, etc., etc When they came to an understanding, the Economist would say, The two... Satisfactions of the community bear to the general efforts Have they Value? They must have it, since we esteem them, appreciate them, estimate their worth, and, in the end, pay for them with other services with which they are compared The form in which this remuneration is stipulated for, the mode of levying it, the process we adopt in adjusting and concluding the arrangement, make no alteration on the principle... according to Storch, in the judgment we form, etc Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 128 7/6 /20 07 11 :34 AM Page 128 The Bastiat Collection The consequence has been what might have been expected These authors have unwittingly injured the authority and dignity of the science by appearing to contradict each other; while in reality each is right, as from his own point of view Besides, they have involved the first principles... our other wants; we might have cited the carpenter, the mason, the manufacturer, the tailor, the physician, the officer of justice, the lawyer, the merchant, the painter, the judge, the president of the republic, and we should have found exactly the same thing Frequently a material substance; sometimes forces furnished gratuitously by nature; always human services interchanged, measuring each other,... Collection Take the case of the diving bell, and consider how the parties to the supposed bargain manage to estimate the value of the service rendered by the one to the other in supplying him with atmospheric air We must have a point of comparison, and that point of comparison can only be in the service the diver renders in return Their reciprocal demands will depend on their relative situation, on the intensity... that the notion of value is excluded, we are answered by an analysis of the price of coal, or some other natural product It is acknowledged, indeed, that the greater part of this price is the remuneration of the services of man One man has excavated the ground, another has drained away the water, another has raised the fuel to the surface, another has transported it to its destination; and it is the . not the less true 1 32 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 7/6 /20 07 11 :34 AM Page 1 32 that it has its principle and foundation less in the effort of the per- son who serves than in the. relation 122 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 7/6 /20 07 11 :34 AM Page 122 to the utility to which it is attached. Such a demonstration—founded on Property, but only on the property. One 133 Harmonies Chap Five.qxd 7/6 /20 07 11 :34 AM Page 133 The result of this dialogue is that Value no more resides in the diamond than in the air or in the water. It resides exclusively in the