Pelegrino Rossi, Michel Chevalier and Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. There was a rather clear division
of labor among French optimists: the journalists were dealing mainly with economic policy
and, occasionally, doctrinal issues while the economist in the academic sphere, restraining
from journalism, were treating the economic ideas of the scientific authorities such as Smith,
Ricardo, Say and the Physiocrats. Both groups selected the ideas worth diffusion and those
that need to be countered in the proper arena be that the newspapers or the University.
Bastiat’s articles in newspapers and books appear in France in a context of decreasing
momentum of the influence of socialist writers. The relative decay of socialist economists and
the rising influence of Bastiat and laissez-faire ultras are at their extreme in the immediate
years following the debacle of 1848 and the creation of the Second Empire with Napoléon III
as monarch. It is a time when Bastiat’s reputation is high and the diffusion of his ideas at its
highest in France.
The case of Bastiat is an interesting one for studying the international diffusion of
economic ideas for a number of reasons. First, Bastiat is an important thread of an
international network of diffusion of liberal economic doctrines. Without entering any dispute
on the originality of Bastiat versus Cobden and other members of the Manchester School,
there is no doubt that Bastiat was influenced by (1) Cobden and the Manchester School, (2)
the general case about free trade, (3) Jean-Baptiste Say and the French idéologues, and (4)
other close collaborators or acquaintances among friends and economic journalists.
The other aspect of the diffusion of Bastiat’s arguments is the exportation across the
frontiers to several countries: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria and the United States (Cossa
1899). In the case of Portugal, the influence of Smith on José da Silva Lisboa, Ricardo,
Malthus on F. S Constancio and Jean-Baptiste Say on Adriano Forjaz Sampaio are evident
(Cossa 1899: 443-444, Cardoso 1989, Almodovar 1995, Cardoso 1997, Almodovar and
Cardoso 1998, Almodovar 2001, Cardoso 2001).
Bastiat’s influence is decaying in the 1880s but can still be found frequently as a
reference for either those advocating free trade or the suppression of strong state regulation or
even more simply against the existence of taxes that impede trade or competitiveness (as it is
the case in the restriction of brandy imports, especially from 1843 to 1865).
The final point about Bastiat is the interest he gave to the wine question in France
during the late 1830s and the 1840s, periods of intense debate over protection and subsidies
for the sector. His opposition to any restrictive measure and state regulation is clear. This