Foreword

by Felix Morley

Faustino Ballvé was one of those rare scholars who instinctively avoid the pitfalls of specialization; who have the gift of integrating the divisions of learning simply, yet without oversimplification. This was the talent that gave the leaders of the Renaissance their stature. Of Professor Ballvé it could be said, as in the characterization that gives a contemporary play about Sir Thomas More its title, that he was indeed “a Man for All Seasons.”

Like Erasmus before him, Professor Ballvé spoke not for any narrow, nationalistic culture, but for the spirit of Western Civilization as a whole. Born in Barcelona, in 1887, he trained first as a lawyer, took his doctorate in Madrid, and then proceeded for further study first to Berlin and then to London. It was in England that, with a seasoned juristic background, he first specialized in the study of economics.

The practitioners of that science, whether of the left or the right, have done all too much to justify the adjective “dismal” that was applied to it in Ballvé’s youth. The more credit to him for bringing to the subject not only the clarity and precision of a first-class legal mind, but also the spiritual warmth of a political idealist.

While still in his ‘teens the young Ballvé had edited a republican paper, and in the stormy thirties, as the clouds of civil war closed over Spain, he was elected a deputy of that party. But there was no place for this true liberal when the struggle degenerated into a power contest between Fascism and Communism. Leaving his native land forever, Ballvé went first to France and then to Mexico, where he acquired citizenship in 1943 and lived until his death in 1959.

In Mexico City, in addition to the active practice of law, Dr. Ballvé soon took over two professorial chairs—of law and of economics. In both fields his interest was always in the underlying values. He never viewed either law or economics as self-supporting subjects, or suggested that they could be made so by pseudoscientific techniques. He was no positivist, but, in both fields, an exponent of classical liberalism at its best.

It is the depth of the author’s personal philosophy, plus the unusually luminous quality of his thought, that makes his Essentials of Economics, for all its brevity, an outstanding book. Originally written in Spanish, as Diez lecciones de economía, then published in French as L’Économie vivante, it appears now for the first time in an English edition. The general reader, who may have been alienated by pretentious texts on economics, will soon see for himself how quickly, cleanly, and clearly Professor Ballvé reaches the heart of his subject.

Moreover, something of the warmth and cheerfulness of the author’s personality comes through, to make the reader feel that he is listening to the conversation of an old and cherished friend. In his lifetime, unfortunately, Dr. Ballvé was not as well known in this country as in Europe and Latin America. That has been our loss, now compensated by this translation of a study encouraging to all who fear that western man no longer has the individual stature to meet the challenge of our times.

Felix Morley