According to our doctrine, the French would be infinitely rich if their annual products were infinitely abundant, and consequently, without any value at all.

Nominal Prices

by Frederic Bastiat

• Do you desire to be in a situation to decide between liberty and protection? 
• Do you desire to appreciate the impact of an economic phenomenon? 
• Inquire into its effects upon the abundance or scarcity of commodities, and not upon the rise or fall of prices. 
• Distrust nominal prices; they will only land you in an inextricable labyrinth.

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It is to this, the consumer's point of view, that I shall never cease to recall the protectionists, for this is the end and design of all our efforts, and the solution of all problems. I shall never cease to say to them: Is it, or is it not, true that restriction by impeding exchanges, by limiting the division of labor, by forcing labor to connect itself with difficulties of climate and situation, diminishes ultimately the quantity of commodities produced by a determinate amount of efforts? And what does this signify, it will be said, if the smaller quantity produced under the regime of protection has the same nominal value as that produced under the regime of liberty? The answer is obvious. Man does not live upon nominal values, but upon real products, and the more products there are, whatever be their price, the richer he is.

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