Essays on Political Economy

The Economic Concept of Opportunity Cost,

Complete New Edition,

By M. Frederic Bastiat,

Claude Frédéric Bastiat; 30 June 1801 - 24 December 1850, was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost, and for penning the influential Parable of the Broken Window. His ideas have gone on to provide a foundational basis for libertarian and the Austrian schools of thought.

Bastiat was born in Bayonne, Aquitaine, a port town in the south of France on the Bay of Biscay, on 30 June 1801. His father, Pierre Bastiat, was a prominent businessman in the town. His mother died in 1808 when Frederic was seven years old. His father moved inland to the town of Mugron with Frederic following soon after. The Bastiat estate in Mugron had been acquired during the French Revolution and had previously belonged to the Marquis of Poyanne. Pierre Bastiat died in 1810, leaving Frederic an orphan. He was taken in by his paternal grandfather and his maiden aunt, Justine Bastiat. He attended a school in Bayonne, but his aunt thought poorly of it and so enrolled him in Saint-Sever. At 17, he left school at Sorèze to work for his uncle in his family's export business. It was the same firm where his father had been a partner. Economist Thomas DiLorenzo suggests that this experience was crucial to Bastiat's later work since it allowed young Frederic to acquire first-hand knowledge of how regulation can affect markets. Sheldon Richman notes that "he came of age during the Napoleonic wars, with their extensive government intervention in economic affairs."