XI. – NOMINAL PRICES.

Well, what does that prove? Nothing other than that protection moves wealth about uselessly and unjustly. This is just what plunder does.

Frédéric Bastiat
Economic Sophisms First Series.

This pamphlet that follows a controversy on the consequences of protection on prices reminds us to a certain extent some ideas that were touched upon in the first pamphlet and the unfortunate conflation that can be made between money and wealth. 

What is particularly interesting is that, while the focus is on the perverse effects of protectionism on prices, the same effects can be observed when a currency is subject to inflation. Bastiat (with or without realising it) kills two birds with one stone, denouncing plunder coming from protectionism as well as plunder created by inflation and the money printing press.

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