Project Gutenberg 2005-06-22 Public domain in the USA. 218 Bastiat, Frédéric 1801 1850 Bastiat, Frederic Bastiat, Claude Frédéric Del Mar, Alexander 1836 1926 Kwang Chang Ling Walter, Emile Delmar, Alexander Mar, Alexander del 06003449 What Is Free Trade? An Adaptation of Frederic Bastiat's "Sophismes Éconimiques" Designed for the American Reader E-text prepared by Sankar Viswanathan and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by the Making of America Collection of the University of Michigan Library (http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/) "What Is Free Trade?" by Frédéric Bastiat is a political and economic treatise written in the mid-19th century. This work explores the principles and implications of free trade, contrasting it with protectionist policies that aim to restrict commerce for the sake of domestic producers. Bastiat argues that such restrictions ultimately harm consumers and hinder overall economic prosperity. At the start of the text, the author introduces the concept of abundance versus scarcity, questioning why many advocate for policies that create artificial scarcity through tariffs despite the clear benefits of a plentiful supply of goods. He critiques the notion that limiting imports serves the public good and illustrates how protective measures often backfire, benefiting certain industries at the expense of broader economic health. Through a series of thought-provoking arguments, Bastiat lays the groundwork for a detailed examination of free trade's advantages, setting the stage for further discussions in subsequent chapters. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 55.7 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read. en Free trade Tariff -- United States HF Text Category: Politics Category: Economics 268362 2025-08-07T05:37:10.739498 text/html 271089 2020-12-11T09:10:49 text/html 181659 2025-08-07T05:37:17.923481 application/epub+zip 182622 2025-08-07T05:37:13.660514 application/epub+zip 162307 2025-08-07T05:37:12.419511 application/epub+zip 340834 2025-08-07T05:37:21.215476 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 303010 2025-08-07T05:37:17.112487 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 300613 2022-09-08T03:32:00.584681 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 240515 2025-08-07T05:37:10.073530 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 240224 2020-12-11T09:10:49 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 240233 2020-12-11T09:10:49 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 21663 2025-08-07T05:37:21.360470 application/rdf+xml 12710 2025-08-07T05:37:12.925491 image/jpeg 3305 2025-08-07T05:37:12.666476 image/jpeg 88388 2020-12-11T09:10:49 application/octet-stream application/zip 101399 2020-12-11T09:10:49 application/octet-stream application/zip 88364 2020-12-11T09:10:49 application/octet-stream application/zip 169638 2025-08-07T05:37:10.763513 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia en.wikipedia fr.wikipedia