French economist Bastiat completely devasted the proponents of protectionism and made allegations on the candlemakers by calling them self-centered and caring for the interest of producers only. By extending their reasoning to its logical and absurd conclusions, Bastiat, in the fictional petition, argued that the candlemakers desire to emancipate them from external competition and reserve the national market for national industry.
He satirically called the ‘Sun’ a foreign rival as it inundates the French market and makes the consumers completely rely on it once it appears in the sky. In his own words in the petition, one can find Bastiat sarcastically condemning the candlemakers and calling them meritorious manufacturers of France forpassing a law that orders shutting up of all openings like holes and fissures, by or through which the light of the sun enters the houses.
In short, in his petition, Bastiat advocates for access to natural light and discourages the candlemakers from manufacturing artificial sources of light, which heavily require tallow to save the agricultural wealth of France.
