Since we have tried and make a legal prescription of fraternity, capital does not dare to show up.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 423 to 425 (in French)
July 1st, 1848

This letter to Salis Schwabe follows the June Days Uprising, on which Frédéric  Bastiat is reporting here. Fraternity as a “legal prescription” mentionned in today’s quote refers to the National Workshops, the closure of which triggered the uprising. In a letter to Richard Cobden dated 27 June 1848, Frédéric Bastiat was extending his thoughts as to why we ended up in this situation (the experiment of the National Workshops is undoubtedly the most accomplished communist experiment in French history).

What the quote describes is the issue of instable and ill-conceived institutions. In 1848, they tried to mandate charity through legislation (which creates major economic distorsions as well as a constant uncertainty about property rights) but this type of instability and uncertainties can take other forms that will be as devastating as this. Nowadays, we can think of the protectionist policies implemented by Donald Trump, which, beyond the immediate idiocy of imposing tariffs on oneself, is creating such an atmosphere of uncertainty that industrialists are unable to take the necessary decisions to conduct their business and thus the economy in general (which is in my view far worse than the tariffs themselves in harming the American and global economy).

The rule of law is not only necessary to guarantee that individuals are equal before the law but also to implement a legislative and regulatory environment that is stable and clear, allowing entrepreneurs to do their business and for the economy to run.