Frédéric Bastiat as a minarchist and forerunner of the Austrian School of thought

I've just finished reading Frédéric Bastiat's The State and The Law, and I must admit that I'm very impressed.

His work is available for free from many sources, here's the link to his page on the Online Library of Liberty where you can find his books in various PDF format and both English and French.

While reading his book, I've discovered that France was falling into Socialism way before the Second World War, and that many of the traits of the current issues were already seeded at that time, and fought against by Bastiat.

Here are a few notes of interests, from Wikipedia:

[...]
Bastiat was the author of many works on economics and political economy, generally characterized by their clear organization, forceful argumentation, and acerbic wit. Among his better known works is Economic Sophisms, which contains many strongly-worded attacks on statist policies
[...]
Bastiat's most famous work, however, is undoubtedly The Law, originally published as a pamphlet in 1850. It defines, through development, a just system of laws and then demonstrates how such law facilitates a free society.
[...]
Bastiat's work is not well known in France, and is rarely found in the French language, as the author is better known in the United States. 

France is a socialist country and it seems like it has been so since Bastiat's time. Although it's sad and depressing, it's no wonder nobody knows about him in France.

Bastiat asserted that the only purpose of government is to defend the right of an individual to life, liberty, and property. From this definition, Bastiat concluded that the law cannot defend life, liberty and property if it promotes socialist policies inherently opposed to these very things. In this way, he says, the law is perverted and turned against the thing it is supposed to defend.

So Bastiat was a libertarian and a minarchist.

[...]
Because of his stress on the role of consumer demand in initiating economic progress, Bastiat has been described by Mark Thornton, Thomas DiLorenzo, and other economists as a forerunner of the Austrian School.
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One of Bastiat's most important contributions to the field of economics was his admonition to the effect that good economic decisions can only be made by taking into account the "full picture." That is, economic truths should be arrived at by observing not only the immediate consequences – that is, benefits or liabilities – of an economic decision, but also by examining the long-term consequences. Additionally, one must examine the decision's effect not only on a single group of people (say candlemakers) or a single industry (say candles), but on all people and all industries in the society as a whole. As Bastiat famously put it, an economist must take into account both "What is Seen and What is Not Seen."

Bastiat's "rule" was later expounded and developed by Henry Hazlitt in his work Economics in One Lesson, in which Hazlitt borrowed Bastiat's trenchant "Broken Window Fallacy" and went on to demonstrate how it applies to a wide variety of economic falsehoods.

Frédéric Bastiat, you were born on the 30th June 1801 and passed away on the 24th December 1850, before even turning 50. Your views are still considered today, during the Dark-Ages 2.0, as avant-gardiste. You will not be forgotten.