In 1844, Frédéric Bastiat made a business trip to Spain. After staying in Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, and Lisbon, he decided to embark for Southampton and to visit England. In London, he had the opportunity to attend meetings of the Anti-Corn Law League, whose work he had followed from a distance. He met the main leaders of this Association, including Richard Cobden, who would become his friend.

It was there that the course of his life would undergo a radical change. He himself recounts that his vocation as an economist was decided at that moment. Upon returning to France, he had only one idea in mind: to make France aware of the liberal movement stirring England. Frédéric Bastiat was born in Bayonne on June 30, 1801. Orphaned at the age of 9, he pursued his studies at the Catholic college of Sorèze. He was gifted in languages, learning English, Spanish, and even Basque. However, he was not motivated by his studies and decided against taking the Baccalaureate, choosing instead to work in his uncle's import-export business in Bayonne.

In 1825, he inherited an agricultural estate from his grandfather, which he managed as a "gentleman-farmer," in his own words. It was then that he encountered the problems caused by the lack of a clear definition of property rights firsthand. He decided to become a justice of the peace in his town of Mugron, in the heart of the Landes, a commercial and fluvial crossroads between the ports of Bordeaux and Bayonne. Later, he was elected as a member of the General Council of the Landes.

He quickly developed a passion for political economy and studied the works of Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, Destutt de Tracy, Charles Dunoyer, and Charles Comte. He read English newspapers, and it was there that he learned about the existence of an English league for free trade.

Upon his return from England, he wrote an article titled: "On the Influence of English and French Tariffs on the Future of the Two Peoples," which he sent to the Journal des Économistes in Paris. The article appeared in the October 1844 issue, and it was a complete success. Everyone admired his powerful and incisive argumentation, as well as his sober and elegant style.

The Journal des Économistes then asked him for more articles, and several members of the Political Economy Society, notably Horace Say, the son of Jean-Baptiste Say, and Michel Chevalier, a renowned professor, congratulated him, encouraging him to continue working with them to spread economic truths. This marked the beginning of a new life in Paris.

He first published the initial series of Economic Sophisms, in which he attacked protectionists with boldness and irony. In Paris, he even started a course on political economy in a private room, eagerly attended by the student elite.

The following year, he founded the "Association for Free Trade" in France and threw himself into the fight against protectionism in France. He raised funds, created a weekly review, and gave lectures throughout the country. The first meeting took place in Bordeaux on February 23, 1846, during which the Bordeaux Association for Free Trade was established. Soon, the movement spread throughout France. In Paris, an initial core was formed among the members of the Society of Economists, to which deputies, industrialists, and traders joined. Significant groups also formed in Marseille, Lyon, and Le Havre.

The February Revolution of 1848 overthrew the monarchy of Louis-Philippe, known as the July Monarchy (1830-1848), and saw the advent of the Second Republic. Bastiat was then elected as a member of the legislative assembly as a deputy for the Landes department. He sat in the center-left, with Alexis de Tocqueville, between the monarchists and the socialists. There, he endeavored to defend individual liberties such as civil liberties and opposed all restrictive policies, whether they came from the right or the left. He was elected vice-president of the Finance Committee and constantly endeavored to remind his fellow deputies of this simple truth, often forgotten in parliaments:

Almost all of his books and essays were written during the last six years of his life, from 1844 to 1850. In 1850, Bastiat wrote two of his most famous works: "The Law" and a series of pamphlets titled "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen." The Law has been translated into many foreign languages, including English, German, Spanish, Russian, and Italian.

He died in Rome in 1850 from tuberculosis. He is buried at the Saint Louis des Français Church in Rome.