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diff --git a/4341.txt b/4341.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df96cfd --- /dev/null +++ b/4341.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9584 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Mutual Aid, by kniaz' Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mutual Aid + A Factor of Evolution + +Author: kniaz' Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin + +Posting Date: June 14, 2011 [EBook #4341] +Release Date: August, 2003 +[This file was first posted on January 11, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUTUAL AID *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo Aldarondo@yahoo.com + + + + + + + + +MUTUAL AID + +A FACTOR OF EVOLUTION + +BY P. KROPOTKIN + +1902 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Two aspects of animal life impressed me most during the journeys which I +made in my youth in Eastern Siberia and Northern Manchuria. One of them +was the extreme severity of the struggle for existence which most +species of animals have to carry on against an inclement Nature; the +enormous destruction of life which periodically results from natural +agencies; and the consequent paucity of life over the vast territory +which fell under my observation. And the other was, that even in those +few spots where animal life teemed in abundance, I failed to +find--although I was eagerly looking for it--that bitter struggle for +the means of existence, among animals belonging to the same species, +which was considered by most Darwinists (though not always by Darwin +himself) as the dominant characteristic of struggle for life, and the +main factor of evolution. + +The terrible snow-storms which sweep over the northern portion of +Eurasia in the later part of the winter, and the glazed frost that often +follows them; the frosts and the snow-storms which return every year in +the second half of May, when the trees are already in full blossom and +insect life swarms everywhere; the early frosts and, occasionally, the +heavy snowfalls in July and August, which suddenly destroy myriads of +insects, as well as the second broods of the birds in the prairies; the +torrential rains, due to the monsoons, which fall in more temperate +regions in August and September--resulting in inundations on a scale +which is only known in America and in Eastern Asia, and swamping, on the +plateaus, areas as wide as European States; and finally, the heavy +snowfalls, early in October, which eventually render a territory as +large as France and Germany, absolutely impracticable for ruminants, and +destroy them by the thousand--these were the conditions under which I +saw animal life struggling in Northern Asia. They made me realize at an +early date the overwhelming importance in Nature of what Darwin +described as "the natural checks to over-multiplication," in comparison +to the struggle between individuals of the same species for the means of +subsistence, which may go on here and there, to some limited extent, but +never attains the importance of the former. Paucity of life, +under-population--not over-population--being the distinctive feature of +that immense part of the globe which we name Northern Asia, I conceived +since then serious doubts--which subsequent study has only confirmed--as +to the reality of that fearful competition for food and life within each +species, which was an article of faith with most Darwinists, and, +consequently, as to the dominant part which this sort of competition was +supposed to play in the evolution of new species. + +On the other hand, wherever I saw animal life in abundance, as, for +instance, on the lakes where scores of species and millions of +individuals came together to rear their progeny; in the colonies of +rodents; in the migrations of birds which took place at that time on a +truly American scale along the Usuri; and especially in a migration of +fallow-deer which I witnessed on the Amur, and during which scores of +thousands of these intelligent animals came together from an immense +territory, flying before the coming deep snow, in order to cross the +Amur where it is narrowest--in all these scenes of animal life which +passed before my eyes, I saw Mutual Aid and Mutual Support carried on to +an extent which made me suspect in it a feature of the greatest +importance for the maintenance of life, the preservation of each +species, and its further evolution. + +And finally, I saw among the semi-wild cattle and horses in +Transbaikalia, among the wild ruminants everywhere, the squirrels, and +so on, that when animals have to struggle against scarcity of food, in +consequence of one of the above-mentioned causes, the whole of that +portion of the species which is affected by the calamity, comes out of +the ordeal so much impoverished in vigour and health, that no +progressive evolution of the species can be based upon such periods of +keen competition. + +Consequently, when my attention was drawn, later on, to the relations +between Darwinism and Sociology, I could agree with none of the works +and pamphlets that had been written upon this important subject. They +all endeavoured to prove that Man, owing to his higher intelligence and +knowledge, may mitigate the harshness of the struggle for life between +men; but they all recognized at the same time that the struggle for the +means of existence, of every animal against all its congeners, and of +every man against all other men, was "a law of Nature." This view, +however, I could not accept, because I was persuaded that to admit a +pitiless inner war for life within each species, and to see in that war +a condition of progress, was to admit something which not only had not +yet been proved, but also lacked confirmation from direct observation. + +On the contrary, a lecture "On the Law of Mutual Aid," which was +delivered at a Russian Congress of Naturalists, in January 1880, by the +well-known zoologist, Professor Kessler, the then Dean of the St. +Petersburg University, struck me as throwing a new light on the whole +subject. Kessler's idea was, that besides the law of Mutual Struggle +there is in Nature the law of Mutual Aid, which, for the success of the +struggle for life, and especially for the progressive evolution of the +species, is far more important than the law of mutual contest. This +suggestion--which was, in reality, nothing but a further development of +the ideas expressed by Darwin himself in The Descent of Man--seemed to +me so correct and of so great an importance, that since I became +acquainted with it (in 1883) I began to collect materials for further +developing the idea, which Kessler had only cursorily sketched in his +lecture, but had not lived to develop. He died in 1881. + +In one point only I could not entirely endorse Kessler's views. Kessler +alluded to "parental feeling" and care for progeny (see below, Chapter +I) as to the source of mutual inclinations in animals. However, to +determine how far these two feelings have really been at work in the +evolution of sociable instincts, and how far other instincts have been +at work in the same direction, seems to me a quite distinct and a very +wide question, which we hardly can discuss yet. It will be only after we +have well established the facts of mutual aid in different classes of +animals, and their importance for evolution, that we shall be able to +study what belongs in the evolution of sociable feelings, to parental +feelings, and what to sociability proper--the latter having evidently +its origin at the earliest stages of the evolution of the animal world, +perhaps even at the "colony-stages." I consequently directed my chief +attention to establishing first of all, the importance of the Mutual Aid +factor of evolution, leaving to ulterior research the task of +discovering the origin of the Mutual Aid instinct in Nature. + +The importance of the Mutual Aid factor--"if its generality could only +be demonstrated"--did not escape the naturalist's genius so manifest in +Goethe. When Eckermann told once to Goethe--it was in 1827--that two +little wren-fledglings, which had run away from him, were found by him +next day in the nest of robin redbreasts (Rothkehlchen), which fed the +little ones, together with their own youngsters, Goethe grew quite +excited about this fact. He saw in it a confirmation of his pantheistic +views, and said:--"If it be true that this feeding of a stranger goes +through all Nature as something having the character of a general +law--then many an enigma would be solved." He returned to this matter on +the next day, and most earnestly entreated Eckermann (who was, as is +known, a zoologist) to make a special study of the subject, adding that +he would surely come "to quite invaluable treasuries of results" +(Gesprache, edition of 1848, vol. iii. pp. 219, 221). Unfortunately, +this study was never made, although it is very possible that Brehm, who +has accumulated in his works such rich materials relative to mutual aid +among animals, might have been inspired by Goethe's remark. + +Several works of importance were published in the years 1872-1886, +dealing with the intelligence and the mental life of animals (they are +mentioned in a footnote in Chapter I of this book), and three of them +dealt more especially with the subject under consideration; namely, Les +Societes animales, by Espinas (Paris, 1877); La Lutte pour l'existence +et l'association pout la lutte, a lecture by J.L. Lanessan (April 1881); +and Louis Buchner's book, Liebe und Liebes-Leben in der Thierwelt, of +which the first edition appeared in 1882 or 1883, and a second, much +enlarged, in 1885. But excellent though each of these works is, they +leave ample room for a work in which Mutual Aid would be considered, not +only as an argument in favour of a pre-human origin of moral instincts, +but also as a law of Nature and a factor of evolution. Espinas devoted +his main attention to such animal societies (ants, bees) as are +established upon a physiological division of labour, and though his work +is full of admirable hints in all possible directions, it was written at +a time when the evolution of human societies could not yet be treated +with the knowledge we now possess. Lanessan's lecture has more the +character of a brilliantly laid-out general plan of a work, in which +mutual support would be dealt with, beginning with rocks in the sea, and +then passing in review the world of plants, of animals and men. As to +Buchner's work, suggestive though it is and rich in facts, I could not +agree with its leading idea. The book begins with a hymn to Love, and +nearly all its illustrations are intended to prove the existence of love +and sympathy among animals. However, to reduce animal sociability to +love and sympathy means to reduce its generality and its importance, +just as human ethics based upon love and personal sympathy only have +contributed to narrow the comprehension of the moral feeling as a whole. +It is not love to my neighbour--whom I often do not know at all--which +induces me to seize a pail of water and to rush towards his house when I +see it on fire; it is a far wider, even though more vague feeling or +instinct of human solidarity and sociability which moves me. So it is +also with animals. It is not love, and not even sympathy (understood in +its proper sense) which induces a herd of ruminants or of horses to form +a ring in order to resist an attack of wolves; not love which induces +wolves to form a pack for hunting; not love which induces kittens or +lambs to play, or a dozen of species of young birds to spend their days +together in the autumn; and it is neither love nor personal sympathy +which induces many thousand fallow-deer scattered over a territory as +large as France to form into a score of separate herds, all marching +towards a given spot, in order to cross there a river. It is a feeling +infinitely wider than love or personal sympathy--an instinct that has +been slowly developed among animals and men in the course of an +extremely long evolution, and which has taught animals and men alike the +force they can borrow from the practice of mutual aid and support, and +the joys they can find in social life. + +The importance of this distinction will be easily appreciated by the +student of animal psychology, and the more so by the student of human +ethics. Love, sympathy and self-sacrifice certainly play an immense part +in the progressive development of our moral feelings. But it is not love +and not even sympathy upon which Society is based in mankind. It is the +conscience--be it only at the stage of an instinct--of human solidarity. +It is the unconscious recognition of the force that is borrowed by each +man from the practice of mutual aid; of the close dependency of every +one's happiness upon the happiness of all; and of the sense of justice, +or equity, which brings the individual to consider the rights of every +other individual as equal to his own. Upon this broad and necessary +foundation the still higher moral feelings are developed. But this +subject lies outside the scope of the present work, and I shall only +indicate here a lecture, "Justice and Morality" which I delivered in +reply to Huxley's Ethics, and in which the subject has been treated at +some length. + +Consequently I thought that a book, written on Mutual Aid as a Law of +Nature and a factor of evolution, might fill an important gap. When +Huxley issued, in 1888, his "Struggle-for-life" manifesto (Struggle for +Existence and its Bearing upon Man), which to my appreciation was a very +incorrect representation of the facts of Nature, as one sees them in the +bush and in the forest, I communicated with the editor of the Nineteenth +Century, asking him whether he would give the hospitality of his review +to an elaborate reply to the views of one of the most prominent +Darwinists; and Mr. James Knowles received the proposal with fullest +sympathy. I also spoke of it to W. Bates. "Yes, certainly; that is true +Darwinism," was his reply. "It is horrible what 'they' have made of +Darwin. Write these articles, and when they are printed, I will write to +you a letter which you may publish." Unfortunately, it took me nearly +seven years to write these articles, and when the last was published, +Bates was no longer living. + +After having discussed the importance of mutual aid in various classes +of animals, I was evidently bound to discuss the importance of the same +factor in the evolution of Man. This was the more necessary as there are +a number of evolutionists who may not refuse to admit the importance of +mutual aid among animals, but who, like Herbert Spencer, will refuse to +admit it for Man. For primitive Man--they maintain--war of each against +all was the law of life. In how far this assertion, which has been too +willingly repeated, without sufficient criticism, since the times of +Hobbes, is supported by what we know about the early phases of human +development, is discussed in the chapters given to the Savages and the +Barbarians. + +The number and importance of mutual-aid institutions which were +developed by the creative genius of the savage and half-savage masses, +during the earliest clan-period of mankind and still more during the +next village-community period, and the immense influence which these +early institutions have exercised upon the subsequent development of +mankind, down to the present times, induced me to extend my researches +to the later, historical periods as well; especially, to study that most +interesting period--the free medieval city republics, of which the +universality and influence upon our modern civilization have not yet +been duly appreciated. And finally, I have tried to indicate in brief +the immense importance which the mutual-support instincts, inherited by +mankind from its extremely long evolution, play even now in our modern +society, which is supposed to rest upon the principle: "every one for +himself, and the State for all," but which it never has succeeded, nor +will succeed in realizing. + +It may be objected to this book that both animals and men are +represented in it under too favourable an aspect; that their sociable +qualities are insisted upon, while their anti-social and self-asserting +instincts are hardly touched upon. This was, however, unavoidable. We +have heard so much lately of the "harsh, pitiless struggle for life," +which was said to be carried on by every animal against all other +animals, every "savage" against all other "savages," and every civilized +man against all his co-citizens--and these assertions have so much +become an article of faith--that it was necessary, first of all, to +oppose to them a wide series of facts showing animal and human life +under a quite different aspect. It was necessary to indicate the +overwhelming importance which sociable habits play in Nature and in the +progressive evolution of both the animal species and human beings: to +prove that they secure to animals a better protection from their +enemies, very often facilities for getting food and (winter provisions, +migrations, etc.), longevity, therefore a greater facility for the +development of intellectual faculties; and that they have given to men, +in addition to the same advantages, the possibility of working out those +institutions which have enabled mankind to survive in its hard struggle +against Nature, and to progress, notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of +its history. It is a book on the law of Mutual Aid, viewed at as one of +the chief factors of evolution--not on all factors of evolution and +their respective values; and this first book had to be written, before +the latter could become possible. + +I should certainly be the last to underrate the part which the +self-assertion of the individual has played in the evolution of mankind. +However, this subject requires, I believe, a much deeper treatment than +the one it has hitherto received. In the history of mankind, individual +self-assertion has often been, and continually is, something quite +different from, and far larger and deeper than, the petty, unintelligent +narrow-mindedness, which, with a large class of writers, goes for +"individualism" and "self-assertion." Nor have history-making +individuals been limited to those whom historians have represented as +heroes. My intention, consequently, is, if circumstances permit it, to +discuss separately the part taken by the self-assertion of the +individual in the progressive evolution of mankind. I can only make in +this place the following general remark:--When the Mutual Aid +institutions--the tribe, the village community, the guilds, the medieval +city--began, in the course of history, to lose their primitive +character, to be invaded by parasitic growths, and thus to become +hindrances to progress, the revolt of individuals against these +institutions took always two different aspects. Part of those who rose +up strove to purify the old institutions, or to work out a higher form +of commonwealth, based upon the same Mutual Aid principles; they tried, +for instance, to introduce the principle of "compensation," instead of +the lex talionis, and later on, the pardon of offences, or a still +higher ideal of equality before the human conscience, in lieu of +"compensation," according to class-value. But at the very same time, +another portion of the same individual rebels endeavoured to break down +the protective institutions of mutual support, with no other intention +but to increase their own wealth and their own powers. In this +three-cornered contest, between the two classes of revolted individuals +and the supporters of what existed, lies the real tragedy of history. +But to delineate that contest, and honestly to study the part played in +the evolution of mankind by each one of these three forces, would +require at least as many years as it took me to write this book. + +Of works dealing with nearly the same subject, which have been published +since the publication of my articles on Mutual Aid among Animals, I must +mention The Lowell Lectures on the Ascent of Man, by Henry Drummond +(London, 1894), and The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, by A. +Sutherland (London, 1898). Both are constructed chiefly on the lines +taken in Buchner's Love, and in the second work the parental and +familial feeling as the sole influence at work in the development of the +moral feelings has been dealt with at some length. A third work dealing +with man and written on similar lines is The Principles of Sociology, by +Prof. F.A. Giddings, the first edition of which was published in 1896 at +New York and London, and the leading ideas of which were sketched by the +author in a pamphlet in 1894. I must leave, however, to literary critics +the task of discussing the points of contact, resemblance, or divergence +between these works and mine. + +The different chapters of this book were published first in the +Nineteenth Century ("Mutual Aid among Animals," in September and +November 1890; "Mutual Aid among Savages," in April 1891; "Mutual Aid +among the Barbarians," in January 1892; "Mutual Aid in the Medieval +City," in August and September 1894; and "Mutual Aid amongst Modern +Men," in January and June 1896). In bringing them out in a book form my +first intention was to embody in an Appendix the mass of materials, as +well as the discussion of several secondary points, which had to be +omitted in the review articles. It appeared, however, that the Appendix +would double the size of the book, and I was compelled to abandon, or, +at least, to postpone its publication. The present Appendix includes the +discussion of only a few points which have been the matter of scientific +controversy during the last few years; and into the text I have +introduced only such matter as could be introduced without altering the +structure of the work. + +I am glad of this opportunity for expressing to the editor of the +Nineteenth Century, Mr. James Knowles, my very best thanks, both for the +kind hospitality which he offered to these papers in his review, as soon +as he knew their general idea, and the permission he kindly gave me to +reprint them. + +Bromley, Kent, 1902. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MUTUAL AID AMONG ANIMALS + +Struggle for existence. Mutual Aid a law of Nature and chief factor of +progressive evolution. Invertebrates. Ants and Bees. Birds, hunting and +fishing associations. Sociability. Mutual protection among small birds. +Cranes, parrots. + + +The conception of struggle for existence as a factor of evolution, +introduced into science by Darwin and Wallace, has permitted us to +embrace an immensely wide range of phenomena in one single +generalization, which soon became the very basis of our philosophical, +biological, and sociological speculations. An immense variety of +facts:--adaptations of function and structure of organic beings to their +surroundings; physiological and anatomical evolution; intellectual +progress, and moral development itself, which we formerly used to +explain by so many different causes, were embodied by Darwin in one +general conception. We understood them as continued endeavours--as a +struggle against adverse circumstances--for such a development of +individuals, races, species and societies, as would result in the +greatest possible fulness, variety, and intensity of life. It may be +that at the outset Darwin himself was not fully aware of the generality +of the factor which he first invoked for explaining one series only of +facts relative to the accumulation of individual variations in incipient +species. But he foresaw that the term which he was introducing into +science would lose its philosophical and its only true meaning if it +were to be used in its narrow sense only--that of a struggle between +separate individuals for the sheer means of existence. And at the very +beginning of his memorable work he insisted upon the term being taken in +its "large and metaphorical sense including dependence of one being on +another, and including (which is more important) not only the life of +the individual, but success in leaving progeny."(1) + +While he himself was chiefly using the term in its narrow sense for his +own special purpose, he warned his followers against committing the +error (which he seems once to have committed himself) of overrating its +narrow meaning. In The Descent of Man he gave some powerful pages to +illustrate its proper, wide sense. He pointed out how, in numberless +animal societies, the struggle between separate individuals for the +means of existence disappears, how struggle is replaced by co-operation, +and how that substitution results in the development of intellectual and +moral faculties which secure to the species the best conditions for +survival. He intimated that in such cases the fittest are not the +physically strongest, nor the cunningest, but those who learn to combine +so as mutually to support each other, strong and weak alike, for the +welfare of the community. "Those communities," he wrote, "which included +the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best, +and rear the greatest number of offspring" (2nd edit., p. 163). The +term, which originated from the narrow Malthusian conception of +competition between each and all, thus lost its narrowness in the mind +of one who knew Nature. + +Unhappily, these remarks, which might have become the basis of most +fruitful researches, were overshadowed by the masses of facts gathered +for the purpose of illustrating the consequences of a real competition +for life. Besides, Darwin never attempted to submit to a closer +investigation the relative importance of the two aspects under which the +struggle for existence appears in the animal world, and he never wrote +the work he proposed to write upon the natural checks to +over-multiplication, although that work would have been the crucial test +for appreciating the real purport of individual struggle. Nay, on the +very pages just mentioned, amidst data disproving the narrow Malthusian +conception of struggle, the old Malthusian leaven reappeared--namely, in +Darwin's remarks as to the alleged inconveniences of maintaining the +"weak in mind and body" in our civilized societies (ch. v). As if +thousands of weak-bodied and infirm poets, scientists, inventors, and +reformers, together with other thousands of so-called "fools" and +"weak-minded enthusiasts," were not the most precious weapons used by +humanity in its struggle for existence by intellectual and moral arms, +which Darwin himself emphasized in those same chapters of Descent of +Man. + +It happened with Darwin's theory as it always happens with theories +having any bearing upon human relations. Instead of widening it +according to his own hints, his followers narrowed it still more. And +while Herbert Spencer, starting on independent but closely allied lines, +attempted to widen the inquiry into that great question, "Who are the +fittest?" especially in the appendix to the third edition of the Data of +Ethics, the numberless followers of Darwin reduced the notion of +struggle for existence to its narrowest limits. They came to conceive +the animal world as a world of perpetual struggle among half-starved +individuals, thirsting for one another's blood. They made modern +literature resound with the war-cry of woe to the vanquished, as if it +were the last word of modern biology. They raised the "pitiless" +struggle for personal advantages to the height of a biological principle +which man must submit to as well, under the menace of otherwise +succumbing in a world based upon mutual extermination. Leaving aside the +economists who know of natural science but a few words borrowed from +second-hand vulgarizers, we must recognize that even the most authorized +exponents of Darwin's views did their best to maintain those false +ideas. In fact, if we take Huxley, who certainly is considered as one of +the ablest exponents of the theory of evolution, were we not taught by +him, in a paper on the 'Struggle for Existence and its Bearing upon +Man,' that, + + "from the point of view of the moralist, the animal world is on + about the same level as a gladiators' show. The creatures are + fairly well treated, and set to, fight hereby the strongest, the + swiftest, and the cunningest live to fight another day. The + spectator has no need to turn his thumb down, as no quarter is + given." + +Or, further down in the same article, did he not tell us that, as among +animals, so among primitive men, + + "the weakest and stupidest went to the wall, while the toughest and + shrewdest, those who were best fitted to cope with their + circumstances, but not the best in another way, survived. Life was + a continuous free fight, and beyond the limited and temporary + relations of the family, the Hobbesian war of each against all was + the normal state of existence."(2) + +In how far this view of nature is supported by fact, will be seen from +the evidence which will be here submitted to the reader as regards the +animal world, and as regards primitive man. But it may be remarked at +once that Huxley's view of nature had as little claim to be taken as a +scientific deduction as the opposite view of Rousseau, who saw in nature +but love, peace, and harmony destroyed by the accession of man. In fact, +the first walk in the forest, the first observation upon any animal +society, or even the perusal of any serious work dealing with animal +life (D'Orbigny's, Audubon's, Le Vaillant's, no matter which), cannot +but set the naturalist thinking about the part taken by social life in +the life of animals, and prevent him from seeing in Nature nothing but a +field of slaughter, just as this would prevent him from seeing in Nature +nothing but harmony and peace. Rousseau had committed the error of +excluding the beak-and-claw fight from his thoughts; and Huxley +committed the opposite error; but neither Rousseau's optimism nor +Huxley's pessimism can be accepted as an impartial interpretation of +nature. + +As soon as we study animals--not in laboratories and museums only, but +in the forest and the prairie, in the steppe and the mountains--we at +once perceive that though there is an immense amount of warfare and +extermination going on amidst various species, and especially amidst +various classes of animals, there is, at the same time, as much, or +perhaps even more, of mutual support, mutual aid, and mutual defence +amidst animals belonging to the same species or, at least, to the same +society. Sociability is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle. Of +course it would be extremely difficult to estimate, however roughly, the +relative numerical importance of both these series of facts. But if we +resort to an indirect test, and ask Nature: "Who are the fittest: those +who are continually at war with each other, or those who support one +another?" we at once see that those animals which acquire habits of +mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest. They have more chances to +survive, and they attain, in their respective classes, the highest +development of intelligence and bodily organization. If the numberless +facts which can be brought forward to support this view are taken into +account, we may safely say that mutual aid is as much a law of animal +life as mutual struggle, but that, as a factor of evolution, it most +probably has a far greater importance, inasmuch as it favours the +development of such habits and characters as insure the maintenance and +further development of the species, together with the greatest amount of +welfare and enjoyment of life for the individual, with the least waste +of energy. + +Of the scientific followers of Darwin, the first, as far as I know, who +understood the full purport of Mutual Aid as a law of Nature and the +chief factor of evolution, was a well-known Russian zoologist, the late +Dean of the St. Petersburg University, Professor Kessler. He developed +his ideas in an address which he delivered in January 1880, a few months +before his death, at a Congress of Russian naturalists; but, like so +many good things published in the Russian tongue only, that remarkable +address remains almost entirely unknown.(3) + +"As a zoologist of old standing," he felt bound to protest against the +abuse of a term--the struggle for existence--borrowed from zoology, or, +at least, against overrating its importance. Zoology, he said, and those +sciences which deal with man, continually insist upon what they call the +pitiless law of struggle for existence. But they forget the existence of +another law which may be described as the law of mutual aid, which law, +at least for the animals, is far more essential than the former. He +pointed out how the need of leaving progeny necessarily brings animals +together, and, "the more the individuals keep together, the more they +mutually support each other, and the more are the chances of the species +for surviving, as well as for making further progress in its +intellectual development." "All classes of animals," he continued, "and +especially the higher ones, practise mutual aid," and he illustrated his +idea by examples borrowed from the life of the burying beetles and the +social life of birds and some mammalia. The examples were few, as might +have been expected in a short opening address, but the chief points were +clearly stated; and, after mentioning that in the evolution of mankind +mutual aid played a still more prominent part, Professor Kessler +concluded as follows:-- + +"I obviously do not deny the struggle for existence, but I maintain that +the progressive development of the animal kingdom, and especially of +mankind, is favoured much more by mutual support than by mutual +struggle.... All organic beings have two essential needs: that of +nutrition, and that of propagating the species. The former brings them +to a struggle and to mutual extermination, while the needs of +maintaining the species bring them to approach one another and to +support one another. But I am inclined to think that in the evolution of +the organic world--in the progressive modification of organic +beings--mutual support among individuals plays a much more important +part than their mutual struggle."(4) + +The correctness of the above views struck most of the Russian zoologists +present, and Syevertsoff, whose work is well known to ornithologists and +geographers, supported them and illustrated them by a few more examples. +He mentioned sone of the species of falcons which have "an almost ideal +organization for robbery," and nevertheless are in decay, while other +species of falcons, which practise mutual help, do thrive. "Take, on the +other side, a sociable bird, the duck," he said; "it is poorly organized +on the whole, but it practises mutual support, and it almost invades the +earth, as may be judged from its numberless varieties and species." + +The readiness of the Russian zoologists to accept Kessler's views seems +quite natural, because nearly all of them have had opportunities of +studying the animal world in the wide uninhabited regions of Northern +Asia and East Russia; and it is impossible to study like regions without +being brought to the same ideas. I recollect myself the impression +produced upon me by the animal world of Siberia when I explored the +Vitim regions in the company of so accomplished a zoologist as my friend +Polyakoff was. We both were under the fresh impression of the Origin of +Species, but we vainly looked for the keen competition between animals +of the same species which the reading of Darwin's work had prepared us +to expect, even after taking into account the remarks of the third +chapter (p. 54). We saw plenty of adaptations for struggling, very often +in common, against the adverse circumstances of climate, or against +various enemies, and Polyakoff wrote many a good page upon the mutual +dependency of carnivores, ruminants, and rodents in their geographical +distribution; we witnessed numbers of facts of mutual support, +especially during the migrations of birds and ruminants; but even in the +Amur and Usuri regions, where animal life swarms in abundance, facts of +real competition and struggle between higher animals of the same species +came very seldom under my notice, though I eagerly searched for them. +The same impression appears in the works of most Russian zoologists, and +it probably explains why Kessler's ideas were so welcomed by the Russian +Darwinists, whilst like ideas are not in vogue amidst the followers of +Darwin in Western Europe. + +The first thing which strikes us as soon as we begin studying the +struggle for existence under both its aspects--direct and +metaphorical--is the abundance of facts of mutual aid, not only for +rearing progeny, as recognized by most evolutionists, but also for the +safety of the individual, and for providing it with the necessary food. +With many large divisions of the animal kingdom mutual aid is the rule. +Mutual aid is met with even amidst the lowest animals, and we must be +prepared to learn some day, from the students of microscopical +pond-life, facts of unconscious mutual support, even from the life of +micro-organisms. Of course, our knowledge of the life of the +invertebrates, save the termites, the ants, and the bees, is extremely +limited; and yet, even as regards the lower animals, we may glean a few +facts of well-ascertained cooperation. The numberless associations of +locusts, vanessae, cicindelae, cicadae, and so on, are practically quite +unexplored; but the very fact of their existence indicates that they +must be composed on about the same principles as the temporary +associations of ants or bees for purposes of migration. As to the +beetles, we have quite well-observed facts of mutual help amidst the +burying beetles (Necrophorus). They must have some decaying organic +matter to lay their eggs in, and thus to provide their larvae with food; +but that matter must not decay very rapidly. So they are wont to bury in +the ground the corpses of all kinds of small animals which they +occasionally find in their rambles. As a rule, they live an isolated +life, but when one of them has discovered the corpse of a mouse or of a +bird, which it hardly could manage to bury itself, it calls four, six, +or ten other beetles to perform the operation with united efforts; if +necessary, they transport the corpse to a suitable soft ground; and they +bury it in a very considerate way, without quarrelling as to which of +them will enjoy the privilege of laying its eggs in the buried corpse. +And when Gleditsch attached a dead bird to a cross made out of two +sticks, or suspended a toad to a stick planted in the soil, the little +beetles would in the same friendly way combine their intelligences to +overcome the artifice of Man. The same combination of efforts has been +noticed among the dung-beetles. + +Even among animals standing at a somewhat lower stage of organization we +may find like examples. Some land-crabs of the West Indies and North +America combine in large swarms in order to travel to the sea and to +deposit therein their spawn; and each such migration implies concert, +co-operation, and mutual support. As to the big Molucca crab (Limulus), +I was struck (in 1882, at the Brighton Aquarium) with the extent of +mutual assistance which these clumsy animals are capable of bestowing +upon a comrade in case of need. One of them had fallen upon its back in +a corner of the tank, and its heavy saucepan-like carapace prevented it +from returning to its natural position, the more so as there was in the +corner an iron bar which rendered the task still more difficult. Its +comrades came to the rescue, and for one hour's time I watched how they +endeavoured to help their fellow-prisoner. They came two at once, pushed +their friend from beneath, and after strenuous efforts succeeded in +lifting it upright; but then the iron bar would prevent them from +achieving the work of rescue, and the crab would again heavily fall upon +its back. After many attempts, one of the helpers would go in the depth +of the tank and bring two other crabs, which would begin with fresh +forces the same pushing and lifting of their helpless comrade. We stayed +in the Aquarium for more than two hours, and, when leaving, we again +came to cast a glance upon the tank: the work of rescue still continued! +Since I saw that, I cannot refuse credit to the observation quoted by +Dr. Erasmus Darwin--namely, that "the common crab during the moulting +season stations as sentinel an unmoulted or hard-shelled individual to +prevent marine enemies from injuring moulted individuals in their +unprotected state."(5) + +Facts illustrating mutual aid amidst the termites, the ants, and the +bees are so well known to the general reader, especially through the +works of Romanes, L. Buchner, and Sir John Lubbock, that I may limit my +remarks to a very few hints.(6) If we take an ants' nest, we not only +see that every description of work-rearing of progeny, foraging, +building, rearing of aphides, and so on--is performed according to the +principles of voluntary mutual aid; we must also recognize, with Forel, +that the chief, the fundamental feature of the life of many species of +ants is the fact and the obligation for every ant of sharing its food, +already swallowed and partly digested, with every member of the +community which may apply for it. Two ants belonging to two different +species or to two hostile nests, when they occasionally meet together, +will avoid each other. But two ants belonging to the same nest or to the +same colony of nests will approach each other, exchange a few movements +with the antennae, and "if one of them is hungry or thirsty, and +especially if the other has its crop full ... it immediately asks for +food." The individual thus requested never refuses; it sets apart its +mandibles, takes a proper position, and regurgitates a drop of +transparent fluid which is licked up by the hungry ant. Regurgitating +food for other ants is so prominent a feature in the life of ants (at +liberty), and it so constantly recurs both for feeding hungry comrades +and for feeding larvae, that Forel considers the digestive tube of the +ants as consisting of two different parts, one of which, the posterior, +is for the special use of the individual, and the other, the anterior +part, is chiefly for the use of the community. If an ant which has its +crop full has been selfish enough to refuse feeding a comrade, it will +be treated as an enemy, or even worse. If the refusal has been made +while its kinsfolk were fighting with some other species, they will fall +back upon the greedy individual with greater vehemence than even upon +the enemies themselves. And if an ant has not refused to feed another +ant belonging to an enemy species, it will be treated by the kinsfolk of +the latter as a friend. All this is confirmed by most accurate +observation and decisive experiments.(7) + +In that immense division of the animal kingdom which embodies more than +one thousand species, and is so numerous that the Brazilians pretend +that Brazil belongs to the ants, not to men, competition amidst the +members of the same nest, or the colony of nests, does not exist. +However terrible the wars between different species, and whatever the +atrocities committed at war-time, mutual aid within the community, +self-devotion grown into a habit, and very often self-sacrifice for the +common welfare, are the rule. The ants and termites have renounced the +"Hobbesian war," and they are the better for it. Their wonderful nests, +their buildings, superior in relative size to those of man; their paved +roads and overground vaulted galleries; their spacious halls and +granaries; their corn-fields, harvesting and "malting" of grain;(8) +their, rational methods of nursing their eggs and larvae, and of +building special nests for rearing the aphides whom Linnaeus so +picturesquely described as "the cows of the ants"; and, finally, their +courage, pluck, and, superior intelligence--all these are the natural +outcome of the mutual aid which they practise at every stage of their +busy and laborious lives. That mode of life also necessarily resulted in +the development of another essential feature of the life of ants: the +immense development of individual initiative which, in its turn, +evidently led to the development of that high and varied intelligence +which cannot but strike the human observer.(9) + +If we knew no other facts from animal life than what we know about the +ants and the termites, we already might safely conclude that mutual aid +(which leads to mutual confidence, the first condition for courage) and +individual initiative (the first condition for intellectual progress) +are two factors infinitely more important than mutual struggle in the +evolution of the animal kingdom. In fact, the ant thrives without having +any of the "protective" features which cannot be dispensed with by +animals living an isolated life. Its colour renders it conspicuous to +its enemies, and the lofty nests of many species are conspicuous in the +meadows and forests. It is not protected by a hard carapace, and its +stinging apparatus, however dangerous when hundreds of stings are +plunged into the flesh of an animal, is not of a great value for +individual defence; while the eggs and larvae of the ants are a dainty +for a great number of the inhabitants of the forests. And yet the ants, +in their thousands, are not much destroyed by the birds, not even by the +ant-eaters, and they are dreaded by most stronger insects. When Forel +emptied a bagful of ants in a meadow, he saw that "the crickets ran +away, abandoning their holes to be sacked by the ants; the grasshoppers +and the crickets fled in all directions; the spiders and the beetles +abandoned their prey in order not to become prey themselves;" even the +nests of the wasps were taken by the ants, after a battle during which +many ants perished for the safety of the commonwealth. Even the swiftest +insects cannot escape, and Forel often saw butterflies, gnats, flies, +and so on, surprised and killed by the ants. Their force is in mutual +support and mutual confidence. And if the ant--apart from the still +higher developed termites--stands at the very top of the whole class of +insects for its intellectual capacities; if its courage is only equalled +by the most courageous vertebrates; and if its brain--to use Darwin's +words--"is one of the most marvellous atoms of matter in the world, +perhaps more so than the brain of man," is it not due to the fact that +mutual aid has entirely taken the place of mutual struggle in the +communities of ants? + +The same is true as regards the bees. These small insects, which so +easily might become the prey of so many birds, and whose honey has so +many admirers in all classes of animals from the beetle to the bear, +also have none of the protective features derived from mimicry or +otherwise, without which an isolatedly living insect hardly could escape +wholesale destruction; and yet, owing to the mutual aid they practise, +they obtain the wide extension which we know and the intelligence we +admire, By working in common they multiply their individual forces; by +resorting to a temporary division of labour combined with the capacity +of each bee to perform every kind of work when required, they attain +such a degree of well-being and safety as no isolated animal can ever +expect to achieve however strong or well armed it may be. In their +combinations they are often more successful than man, when he neglects +to take advantage of a well-planned mutual assistance. Thus, when a new +swarm of bees is going to leave the hive in search of a new abode, a +number of bees will make a preliminary exploration of the neighbourhood, +and if they discover a convenient dwelling-place--say, an old basket, or +anything of the kind--they will take possession of it, clean it, and +guard it, sometimes for a whole week, till the swarm comes to settle +therein. But how many human settlers will perish in new countries simply +for not having understood the necessity of combining their efforts! By +combining their individual intelligences they succeed in coping with +adverse circumstances, even quite unforeseen and unusual, like those +bees of the Paris Exhibition which fastened with their resinous propolis +the shutter to a glass-plate fitted in the wall of their hive. Besides, +they display none of the sanguinary proclivities and love of useless +fighting with which many writers so readily endow animals. The sentries +which guard the entrance to the hive pitilessly put to death the robbing +bees which attempt entering the hive; but those stranger bees which come +to the hive by mistake are left unmolested, especially if they come +laden with pollen, or are young individuals which can easily go astray. +There is no more warfare than is strictly required. + +The sociability of the bees is the more instructive as predatory +instincts and laziness continue to exist among the bees as well, and +reappear each time that their growth is favoured by some circumstances. +It is well known that there always are a number of bees which prefer a +life of robbery to the laborious life of a worker; and that both periods +of scarcity and periods of an unusually rich supply of food lead to an +increase of the robbing class. When our crops are in and there remains +but little to gather in our meadows and fields, robbing bees become of +more frequent occurrence; while, on the other side, about the sugar +plantations of the West Indies and the sugar refineries of Europe, +robbery, laziness, and very often drunkenness become quite usual with +the bees. We thus see that anti-social instincts continue to exist +amidst the bees as well; but natural selection continually must +eliminate them, because in the long run the practice of solidarity +proves much more advantageous to the species than the development of +individuals endowed with predatory inclinations. The cunningest and the +shrewdest are eliminated in favour of those who understand the +advantages of sociable life and mutual support. + +Certainly, neither the ants, nor the bees, nor even the termites, have +risen to the conception of a higher solidarity embodying the whole of +the species. In that respect they evidently have not attained a degree +of development which we do not find even among our political, +scientific, and religious leaders. Their social instincts hardly extend +beyond the limits of the hive or the nest. However, colonies of no less +than two hundred nests, belonging to two different species (Formica +exsecta and F. pressilabris) have been described by Forel on Mount +Tendre and Mount Saleve; and Forel maintains that each member of these +colonies recognizes every other member of the colony, and that they all +take part in common defence; while in Pennsylvania Mr. MacCook saw a +whole nation of from 1,600 to 1,700 nests of the mound-making ant, all +living in perfect intelligence; and Mr. Bates has described the hillocks +of the termites covering large surfaces in the "campos"--some of the +nests being the refuge of two or three different species, and most of +them being connected by vaulted galleries or arcades.(10) Some steps +towards the amalgamation of larger divisions of the species for purposes +of mutual protection are thus met with even among the invertebrate +animals. + +Going now over to higher animals, we find far more instances of +undoubtedly conscious mutual help for all possible purposes, though we +must recognize at once that our knowledge even of the life of higher +animals still remains very imperfect. A large number of facts have been +accumulated by first-rate observers, but there are whole divisions of +the animal kingdom of which we know almost nothing. Trustworthy +information as regards fishes is extremely scarce, partly owing to the +difficulties of observation, and partly because no proper attention has +yet been paid to the subject. As to the mammalia, Kessler already +remarked how little we know about their manners of life. Many of them +are nocturnal in their habits; others conceal themselves underground; +and those ruminants whose social life and migrations offer the greatest +interest do not let man approach their herds. It is chiefly upon birds +that we have the widest range of information, and yet the social life of +very many species remains but imperfectly known. Still, we need not +complain about the lack of well-ascertained facts, as will be seen from +the following. + +I need not dwell upon the associations of male and female for rearing +their offspring, for providing it with food during their first steps in +life, or for hunting in common; though it may be mentioned by the way +that such associations are the rule even with the least sociable +carnivores and rapacious birds; and that they derive a special interest +from being the field upon which tenderer feelings develop even amidst +otherwise most cruel animals. It may also be added that the rarity of +associations larger than that of the family among the carnivores and the +birds of prey, though mostly being the result of their very modes of +feeding, can also be explained to some extent as a consequence of the +change produced in the animal world by the rapid increase of mankind. At +any rate it is worthy of note that there are species living a quite +isolated life in densely-inhabited regions, while the same species, or +their nearest congeners, are gregarious in uninhabited countries. +Wolves, foxes, and several birds of prey may be quoted as instances in +point. + +However, associations which do not extend beyond the family bonds are of +relatively small importance in our case, the more so as we know numbers +of associations for more general purposes, such as hunting, mutual +protection, and even simple enjoyment of life. Audubon already mentioned +that eagles occasionally associate for hunting, and his description of +the two bald eagles, male and female, hunting on the Mississippi, is +well known for its graphic powers. But one of the most conclusive +observations of the kind belongs to Syevertsoff. Whilst studying the +fauna of the Russian Steppes, he once saw an eagle belonging to an +altogether gregarious species (the white-tailed eagle, Haliactos +albicilla) rising high in the air for half an hour it was describing its +wide circles in silence when at once its piercing voice was heard. Its +cry was soon answered by another eagle which approached it, and was +followed by a third, a fourth, and so on, till nine or ten eagles came +together and soon disappeared. In the afternoon, Syevertsoff went to the +place whereto he saw the eagles flying; concealed by one of the +undulations of the Steppe, he approached them, and discovered that they +had gathered around the corpse of a horse. The old ones, which, as a +rule, begin the meal first--such are their rules of propriety-already +were sitting upon the haystacks of the neighbourhood and kept watch, +while the younger ones were continuing the meal, surrounded by bands of +crows. From this and like observations, Syevertsoff concluded that the +white-tailed eagles combine for hunting; when they all have risen to a +great height they are enabled, if they are ten, to survey an area of at +least twenty-five miles square; and as soon as any one has discovered +something, he warns the others.(11) Of course, it might be argued that a +simple instinctive cry of the first eagle, or even its movements, would +have had the same effect of bringing several eagles to the prey. But in +this case there is strong evidence in favour of mutual warning, because +the ten eagles came together before descending towards the prey, and +Syevertsoff had later on several opportunities of ascertaining that the +whitetailed eagles always assemble for devouring a corpse, and that some +of them (the younger ones first) always keep watch while the others are +eating. In fact, the white-tailed eagle--one of the bravest and best +hunters--is a gregarious bird altogether, and Brehm says that when kept +in captivity it very soon contracts an attachment to its keepers. + +Sociability is a common feature with very many other birds of prey. The +Brazilian kite, one of the most "impudent" robbers, is nevertheless a +most sociable bird. Its hunting associations have been described by +Darwin and other naturalists, and it is a fact that when it has seized +upon a prey which is too big, it calls together five or six friends to +carry it away. After a busy day, when these kites retire for their +night-rest to a tree or to the bushes, they always gather in bands, +sometimes coming together from distances of ten or more miles, and they +often are joined by several other vultures, especially the percnopters, +"their true friends," D'Orbigny says. In another continent, in the +Transcaspian deserts, they have, according to Zarudnyi, the same habit +of nesting together. The sociable vulture, one of the strongest +vultures, has received its very name from its love of society. They live +in numerous bands, and decidedly enjoy society; numbers of them join in +their high flights for sport. "They live in very good friendship," Le +Vaillant says, "and in the same cave I sometimes found as many as three +nests close together."(12) The Urubu vultures of Brazil are as, or +perhaps even more, sociable than rooks.(13) The little Egyptian vultures +live in close friendship. They play in bands in the air, they come +together to spend the night, and in the morning they all go together to +search for their food, and never does the slightest quarrel arise among +them; such is the testimony of Brehm, who had plenty of opportunities of +observing their life. The red-throated falcon is also met with in +numerous bands in the forests of Brazil, and the kestrel (Tinnunculus +cenchris), when it has left Europe, and has reached in the winter the +prairies and forests of Asia, gathers in numerous societies. In the +Steppes of South Russia it is (or rather was) so sociable that Nordmann +saw them in numerous bands, with other falcons (Falco tinnunculus, F. +oesulon, and F. subbuteo), coming together every fine afternoon about +four o'clock, and enjoying their sports till late in the night. They set +off flying, all at once, in a quite straight line, towards some +determined point, and, having reached it, immediately returned over the +same line, to repeat the same flight.(14) + +To take flights in flocks for the mere pleasure of the flight, is quite +common among all sorts of birds. "In the Humber district especially," +Ch. Dixon writes, "vast flights of dunlins often appear upon the +mud-flats towards the end of August, and remain for the winter.... The +movements of these birds are most interesting, as a vast flock wheels +and spreads out or closes up with as much precision as drilled troops. +Scattered among them are many odd stints and sanderlings and +ringed-plovers."(15) + +It would be quite impossible to enumerate here the various hunting +associations of birds; but the fishing associations of the pelicans are +certainly worthy of notice for the remarkable order and intelligence +displayed by these clumsy birds. They always go fishing in numerous +bands, and after having chosen an appropriate bay, they form a wide +half-circle in face of the shore, and narrow it by paddling towards the +shore, catching all fish that happen to be enclosed in the circle. On +narrow rivers and canals they even divide into two parties, each of +which draws up on a half-circle, and both paddle to meet each other, +just as if two parties of men dragging two long nets should advance to +capture all fish taken between the nets when both parties come to meet. +As the night comes they fly to their resting-places--always the same for +each flock--and no one has ever seen them fighting for the possession of +either the bay or the resting place. In South America they gather in +flocks of from forty to fifty thousand individuals, part of which enjoy +sleep while the others keep watch, and others again go fishing.(16) And +finally, I should be doing an injustice to the much-calumniated +house-sparrows if I did not mention how faithfully each of them shares +any food it discovers with all members of the society to which it +belongs. The fact was known to the Greeks, and it has been transmitted +to posterity how a Greek orator once exclaimed (I quote from +memory):--"While I am speaking to you a sparrow has come to tell to +other sparrows that a slave has dropped on the floor a sack of corn, and +they all go there to feed upon the grain." The more, one is pleased to +find this observation of old confirmed in a recent little book by Mr. +Gurney, who does not doubt that the house sparrows always inform each +other as to where there is some food to steal; he says, "When a stack +has been thrashed ever so far from the yard, the sparrows in the yard +have always had their crops full of the grain."(17) True, the sparrows +are extremely particular in keeping their domains free from the +invasions of strangers; thus the sparrows of the Jardin du Luxembourg +bitterly fight all other sparrows which may attempt to enjoy their turn +of the garden and its visitors; but within their own communities they +fully practise mutual support, though occasionally there will be of +course some quarrelling even amongst the best friends. + +Hunting and feeding in common is so much the habit in the feathered +world that more quotations hardly would be needful: it must be +considered as an established fact. As to the force derived from such +associations, it is self-evident. The strongest birds of prey are +powerless in face of the associations of our smallest bird pets. Even +eagles--even the powerful and terrible booted eagle, and the martial +eagle, which is strong enough to carry away a hare or a young antelope +in its claws--are compelled to abandon their prey to bands of those +beggars the kites, which give the eagle a regular chase as soon as they +see it in possession of a good prey. The kites will also give chase to +the swift fishing-hawk, and rob it of the fish it has captured; but no +one ever saw the kites fighting together for the possession of the prey +so stolen. On the Kerguelen Island, Dr. Coues saw the gulls to +Buphogus--the sea-hen of the sealers--pursue make them disgorge their +food, while, on the other side, the gulls and the terns combined to +drive away the sea-hen as soon as it came near to their abodes, +especially at nesting-time.(18) The little, but extremely swift lapwings +(Vanellus cristatus) boldly attack the birds of prey. "To see them +attacking a buzzard, a kite, a crow, or an eagle, is one of the most +amusing spectacles. One feels that they are sure of victory, and one +sees the anger of the bird of prey. In such circumstances they perfectly +support one another, and their courage grows with their numbers."(19) +The lapwing has well merited the name of a "good mother" which the +Greeks gave to it, for it never fails to protect other aquatic birds +from the attacks of their enemies. But even the little white wagtails +(Motacilla alba), whom we well know in our gardens and whose whole +length hardly attains eight inches, compel the sparrow-hawk to abandon +its hunt. "I often admired their courage and agility," the old Brehm +wrote, "and I am persuaded that the falcon alone is capable of capturing +any of them.... When a band of wagtails has compelled a bird of prey to +retreat, they make the air resound with their triumphant cries, and +after that they separate." They thus come together for the special +purpose of giving chase to their enemy, just as we see it when the whole +bird-population of a forest has been raised by the news that a nocturnal +bird has made its appearance during the day, and all together--birds of +prey and small inoffensive singers--set to chase the stranger and make +it return to its concealment. + +What an immense difference between the force of a kite, a buzzard or a +hawk, and such small birds as the meadow-wagtail; and yet these little +birds, by their common action and courage, prove superior to the +powerfully-winged and armed robbers! In Europe, the wagtails not only +chase the birds of prey which might be dangerous to them, but they chase +also the fishing-hawk "rather for fun than for doing it any harm;" while +in India, according to Dr. Jerdon's testimony, the jackdaws chase the +gowinda-kite "for simple matter of amusement." Prince Wied saw the +Brazilian eagle urubitinga surrounded by numberless flocks of toucans +and cassiques (a bird nearly akin to our rook), which mocked it. "The +eagle," he adds, "usually supports these insults very quietly, but from +time to time it will catch one of these mockers." In all such cases the +little birds, though very much inferior in force to the bird of prey, +prove superior to it by their common action.(20) + +However, the most striking effects of common life for the security of +the individual, for its enjoyment of life, and for the development of +its intellectual capacities, are seen in two great families of birds, +the cranes and the parrots. The cranes are extremely sociable and live +in most excellent relations, not only with their congeners, but also +with most aquatic birds. Their prudence is really astonishing, so also +their intelligence; they grasp the new conditions in a moment, and act +accordingly. Their sentries always keep watch around a flock which is +feeding or resting, and the hunters know well how difficult it is to +approach them. If man has succeeded in surprising them, they will never +return to the same place without having sent out one single scout first, +and a party of scouts afterwards; and when the reconnoitring party +returns and reports that there is no danger, a second group of scouts is +sent out to verify the first report, before the whole band moves. With +kindred species the cranes contract real friendship; and in captivity +there is no bird, save the also sociable and highly intelligent parrot, +which enters into such real friendship with man. "It sees in man, not a +master, but a friend, and endeavours to manifest it," Brehm concludes +from a wide personal experience. The crane is in continual activity from +early in the morning till late in the night; but it gives a few hours +only in the morning to the task of searching its food, chiefly +vegetable. All the remainder of the day is given to society life. "It +picks up small pieces of wood or small stones, throws them in the air +and tries to catch them; it bends its neck, opens its wings, dances, +jumps, runs about, and tries to manifest by all means its good +disposition of mind, and always it remains graceful and beautiful."(21) +As it lives in society it has almost no enemies, and though Brehm +occasionally saw one of them captured by a crocodile, he wrote that +except the crocodile he knew no enemies of the crane. It eschews all of +them by its proverbial prudence; and it attains, as a rule, a very old +age. No wonder that for the maintenance of the species the crane need +not rear a numerous offspring; it usually hatches but two eggs. As to +its superior intelligence, it is sufficient to say that all observers +are unanimous in recognizing that its intellectual capacities remind one +very much of those of man. + +The other extremely sociable bird, the parrot, stands, as known, at the +very top of the whole feathered world for the development of its +intelligence. Brehm has so admirably summed up the manners of life of +the parrot, that I cannot do better than translate the following +sentence:-- + +"Except in the pairing season, they live in very numerous societies or +bands. They choose a place in the forest to stay there, and thence they +start every morning for their hunting expeditions. The members of each +band remain faithfully attached to each other, and they share in common +good or bad luck. All together they repair in the morning to a field, or +to a garden, or to a tree, to feed upon fruits. They post sentries to +keep watch over the safety of the whole band, and are attentive to their +warnings. In case of danger, all take to flight, mutually supporting +each other, and all simultaneously return to their resting-place. In a +word, they always live closely united." + +They enjoy society of other birds as well. In India, the jays and crows +come together from many miles round, to spend the night in company with +the parrots in the bamboo thickets. When the parrots start hunting, they +display the most wonderful intelligence, prudence, and capacity of +coping with circumstances. Take, for instance, a band of white cacadoos +in Australia. Before starting to plunder a corn-field, they first send +out a reconnoitring party which occupies the highest trees in the +vicinity of the field, while other scouts perch upon the intermediate +trees between the field and the forest and transmit the signals. If the +report runs "All right," a score of cacadoos will separate from the bulk +of the band, take a flight in the air, and then fly towards the trees +nearest to the field. They also will scrutinize the neighbourhood for a +long while, and only then will they give the signal for general advance, +after which the whole band starts at once and plunders the field in no +time. The Australian settlers have the greatest difficulties in +beguiling the prudence of the parrots; but if man, with all his art and +weapons, has succeeded in killing some of them, the cacadoos become so +prudent and watchful that they henceforward baffle all stratagems.(22) + +There can be no doubt that it is the practice of life in society which +enables the parrots to attain that very high level of almost human +intelligence and almost human feelings which we know in them. Their high +intelligence has induced the best naturalists to describe some species, +namely the grey parrot, as the "birdman." As to their mutual attachment +it is known that when a parrot has been killed by a hunter, the others +fly over the corpse of their comrade with shrieks of complaints and +"themselves fall the victims of their friendship," as Audubon said; and +when two captive parrots, though belonging to two different species, +have contracted mutual friendship, the accidental death of one of the +two friends has sometimes been followed by the death from grief and +sorrow of the other friend. It is no less evident that in their +societies they find infinitely more protection than they possibly might +find in any ideal development of beak and claw. Very few birds of prey +or mammals dare attack any but the smaller species of parrots, and Brehm +is absolutely right in saying of the parrots, as he also says of the +cranes and the sociable monkeys, that they hardly have any enemies +besides men; and he adds: "It is most probable that the larger parrots +succumb chiefly to old age rather than die from the claws of any +enemies." Only man, owing to his still more superior intelligence and +weapons, also derived from association, succeeds in partially destroying +them. Their very longevity would thus appear as a result of their social +life. Could we not say the same as regards their wonderful memory, which +also must be favoured in its development by society--life and by +longevity accompanied by a full enjoyment of bodily and mental faculties +till a very old age? + +As seen from the above, the war of each against all is not the law of +nature. Mutual aid is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle, and +that law will become still more apparent when we have analyzed some +other associations of birds and those of the mammalia. A few hints as to +the importance of the law of mutual aid for the evolution of the animal +kingdom have already been given in the preceding pages; but their +purport will still better appear when, after having given a few more +illustrations, we shall be enabled presently to draw therefrom our +conclusions. + +NOTES: + +1. Origin of Species, chap. iii, p. 62 of first edition. + +2. Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1888, p. 165. + +3. Leaving aside the pre-Darwinian writers, like Toussenel, Fee, and +many others, several works containing many striking instances of mutual +aid--chiefly, however, illustrating animal intelligence were issued +previously to that date. I may mention those of Houzeau, Les facultes +etales des animaux, 2 vols., Brussels, 1872; L. Buchner's Aus dem +Geistesleben der Thiere, 2nd ed. in 1877; and Maximilian Perty's Ueber +das Seelenleben der Thiere, Leipzig, 1876. Espinas published his most +remarkable work, Les Societes animales, in 1877, and in that work he +pointed out the importance of animal societies, and their bearing upon +the preservation of species, and entered upon a most valuable discussion +of the origin of societies. In fact, Espinas's book contains all that +has been written since upon mutual aid, and many good things besides. If +I nevertheless make a special mention of Kessler's address, it is +because he raised mutual aid to the height of a law much more important +in evolution than the law of mutual struggle. The same ideas were +developed next year (in April 1881) by J. Lanessan in a lecture +published in 1882 under this title: La lutte pour l'existence et +l'association pour la lutte. G. Romanes's capital work, Animal +Intelligence, was issued in 1882, and followed next year by the Mental +Evolution in Animals. About the same time (1883), Buchner published +another work, Liebe und Liebes-Leben in der Thierwelt, a second edition +of which was issued in 1885. The idea, as seen, was in the air. + +4. Memoirs (Trudy) of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, vol. +xi. 1880. + +5. George J. Romanes's Animal Intelligence, 1st ed. p. 233. + +6. Pierre Huber's Les fourmis indigees, Geneve, 1861; Forel's Recherches +sur les fourmis de la Suisse, Zurich, 1874, and J.T. Moggridge's +Harvesting Ants and Trapdoor Spiders, London, 1873 and 1874, ought to be +in the hands of every boy and girl. See also: Blanchard's Metamorphoses +des Insectes, Paris, 1868; J.H. Fabre's Souvenirs entomologiques, Paris, +1886; Ebrard's Etudes des moeurs des fourmis, Geneve, 1864; Sir John +Lubbock's Ants, Bees, and Wasps, and so on. + +7. Forel's Recherches, pp. 244, 275, 278. Huber's description of the +process is admirable. It also contains a hint as to the possible origin +of the instinct (popular edition, pp. 158, 160). See Appendix II. + +8. The agriculture of the ants is so wonderful that for a long time it +has been doubted. The fact is now so well proved by Mr. Moggridge, Dr. +Lincecum, Mr. MacCook, Col. Sykes, and Dr. Jerdon, that no doubt is +possible. See an excellent summary of evidence in Mr. Romanes's work. +See also Die Pilzgaerten einiger Sud-Amerikanischen Ameisen, by Alf. +Moeller, in Schimper's Botan. Mitth. aus den Tropen, vi. 1893. + +9. This second principle was not recognized at once. Former observers +often spoke of kings, queens, managers, and so on; but since Huber and +Forel have published their minute observations, no doubt is possible as +to the free scope left for every individual's initiative in whatever the +ants do, including their wars. + +10. H.W. Bates, The Naturalist on the River Amazons, ii. 59 seq. + +11. N. Syevertsoff, Periodical Phenomena in the Life of Mammalia, Birds, +and Reptiles of Voroneje, Moscow, 1855 (in Russian). + +12. A. Brehm, Life of Animals, iii. 477; all quotations after the French +edition. + +13. Bates, p. 151. + +14. Catalogue raisonne des oiseaux de la faune pontique, in Demidoff's +Voyage; abstracts in Brehm, iii. 360. During their migrations birds of +prey often associate. One flock, which H. Seebohm saw crossing the +Pyrenees, represented a curious assemblage of "eight kites, one crane, +and a peregrine falcon" (The Birds of Siberia, 1901, p. 417). + +15. Birds in the Northern Shires, p. 207. + +16. Max. Perty, Ueber das Seelenleben der Thiere (Leipzig, 1876), pp. +87, 103. + +17. G. H. Gurney, The House-Sparrow (London, 1885), p. 5. + +18. Dr. Elliot Coues, Birds of the Kerguelen Island, in Smithsonian +Miscellaneous Collections, vol. xiii. No. 2, p. 11. + +19. Brehm, iv. 567. + +20. As to the house-sparrows, a New Zealand observer, Mr. T.W. Kirk, +described as follows the attack of these "impudent" birds upon an +"unfortunate" hawk.--"He heard one day a most unusual noise, as though +all the small birds of the country had joined in one grand quarrel. +Looking up, he saw a large hawk (C. gouldi--a carrion feeder) being +buffeted by a flock of sparrows. They kept dashing at him in scores, and +from all points at once. The unfortunate hawk was quite powerless. At +last, approaching some scrub, the hawk dashed into it and remained +there, while the sparrows congregated in groups round the bush, keeping +up a constant chattering and noise" (Paper read before the New Zealand +Institute; Nature, Oct. 10, 1891). + +21. Brehm, iv. 671 seq. + +22. R. Lendenfeld, in Der zoologische Garten, 1889. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MUTUAL AID AMONG ANIMALS (continued) + +Migrations of birds. Breeding associations. Autumn societies. Mammals: +small number of unsociable species. Hunting associations of wolves, +lions, etc. Societies of rodents; of ruminants; of monkeys. Mutual Aid +in the struggle for life. Darwin's arguments to prove the struggle for +life within the species. Natural checks to over-multiplication. Supposed +extermination of intermediate links. Elimination of competition in +Nature. + + +As soon as spring comes back to the temperate zone, myriads and myriads +of birds which are scattered over the warmer regions of the South come +together in numberless bands, and, full of vigour and joy, hasten +northwards to rear their offspring. Each of our hedges, each grove, each +ocean cliff, and each of the lakes and ponds with which Northern +America, Northern Europe, and Northern Asia are dotted tell us at that +time of the year the tale of what mutual aid means for the birds; what +force, energy, and protection it confers to every living being, however +feeble and defenceless it otherwise might be. Take, for instance, one of +the numberless lakes of the Russian and Siberian Steppes. Its shores are +peopled with myriads of aquatic birds, belonging to at least a score of +different species, all living in perfect peace--all protecting one +another. + +"For several hundred yards from the shore the air is filled with gulls +and terns, as with snow-flakes on a winter day. Thousands of plovers and +sand-coursers run over the beach, searching their food, whistling, and +simply enjoying life. Further on, on almost each wave, a duck is +rocking, while higher up you notice the flocks of the Casarki ducks. +Exuberant life swarms everywhere."(1) + +And here are the robbers--the strongest, the most cunning ones, those +"ideally organized for robbery." And you hear their hungry, angry, +dismal cries as for hours in succession they watch the opportunity of +snatching from this mass of living beings one single unprotected +individual. But as soon as they approach, their presence is signalled by +dozens of voluntary sentries, and hundreds of gulls and terns set to +chase the robber. Maddened by hunger, the robber soon abandons his usual +precautions: he suddenly dashes into the living mass; but, attacked from +all sides, he again is compelled to retreat. From sheer despair he falls +upon the wild ducks; but the intelligent, social birds rapidly gather in +a flock and fly away if the robber is an erne; they plunge into the lake +if it is a falcon; or they raise a cloud of water-dust and bewilder the +assailant if it is a kite.(2) And while life continues to swarm on the +lake, the robber flies away with cries of anger, and looks out for +carrion, or for a young bird or a field-mouse not yet used to obey in +time the warnings of its comrades. In the face of an exuberant life, the +ideally-armed robber must be satisfied with the off-fall of that life. + +Further north, in the Arctic archipelagoes, + +"you may sail along the coast for many miles and see all the ledges, all +the cliffs and corners of the mountain-sides, up to a height of from two +to five hundred feet, literally covered with sea-birds, whose white +breasts show against the dark rocks as if the rocks were closely +sprinkled with chalk specks. The air, near and far, is, so to say, full +with fowls."(3) + +Each of such "bird-mountains" is a living illustration of mutual aid, as +well as of the infinite variety of characters, individual and specific, +resulting from social life. The oyster-catcher is renowned for its +readiness to attack the birds of prey. The barge is known for its +watchfulness, and it easily becomes the leader of more placid birds. The +turnstone, when surrounded by comrades belonging to more energetic +species, is a rather timorous bird; but it undertakes to keep watch for +the security of the commonwealth when surrounded by smaller birds. Here +you have the dominative swans; there, the extremely sociable +kittiwake-gulls, among whom quarrels are rare and short; the +prepossessing polar guillemots, which continually caress each other; the +egoist she-goose, who has repudiated the orphans of a killed comrade; +and, by her side, another female who adopts any one's orphans, and now +paddles surrounded by fifty or sixty youngsters, whom she conducts and +cares for as if they all were her own breed. Side by side with the +penguins, which steal one another's eggs, you have the dotterels, whose +family relations are so "charming and touching" that even passionate +hunters recoil from shooting a female surrounded by her young ones; or +the eider-ducks, among which (like the velvet-ducks, or the coroyas of +the Savannahs) several females hatch together in the same nest, or the +lums, which sit in turn upon a common covey. Nature is variety itself, +offering all possible varieties of characters, from the basest to the +highest: and that is why she cannot be depicted by any sweeping +assertion. Still less can she be judged from the moralist's point of +view, because the views of the moralist are themselves a result--mostly +unconscious--of the observation of Nature. + +Coming together at nesting-time is so common with most birds that more +examples are scarcely needed. Our trees are crowned with groups of +crows' nests; our hedges are full of nests of smaller birds; our +farmhouses give shelter to colonies of swallows; our old towers are the +refuge of hundreds of nocturnal birds; and pages might be filled with +the most charming descriptions of the peace and harmony which prevail in +almost all these nesting associations. As to the protection derived by +the weakest birds from their unions, it is evident. That excellent +observer, Dr. Coues, saw, for instance, the little cliff-swallows +nesting in the immediate neighbourhood of the prairie falcon (Falco +polyargus). The falcon had its nest on the top of one of the minarets of +clay which are so common in the canons of Colorado, while a colony of +swallows nested just beneath. The little peaceful birds had no fear of +their rapacious neighbour; they never let it approach to their colony. +They immediately surrounded it and chased it, so that it had to make off +at once.(4) + +Life in societies does not cease when the nesting period is over; it +begins then in a new form. The young broods gather in societies of +youngsters, generally including several species. Social life is +practised at that time chiefly for its own sake--partly for security, +but chiefly for the pleasures derived from it. So we see in our forests +the societies formed by the young nuthatchers (Sitta caesia), together +with tit-mouses, chaffinches, wrens, tree-creepers, or some +wood-peckers.(5) In Spain the swallow is met with in company with +kestrels, fly-catchers, and even pigeons. In the Far West of America the +young horned larks live in large societies, together with another lark +(Sprague's), the skylark, the Savannah sparrow, and several species of +buntings and longspurs.(6) In fact, it would be much easier to describe +the species which live isolated than to simply name those species which +join the autumnal societies of young birds--not for hunting or nesting +purposes, but simply to enjoy life in society and to spend their time in +plays and sports, after having given a few hours every day to find their +daily food. + +And, finally, we have that immense display of mutual aid among +birds-their migrations--which I dare not even enter upon in this place. +Sufficient to say that birds which have lived for months in small bands +scattered over a wide territory gather in thousands; they come together +at a given place, for several days in succession, before they start, and +they evidently discuss the particulars of the journey. Some species will +indulge every afternoon in flights preparatory to the long passage. All +wait for their tardy congeners, and finally they start in a certain well +chosen direction--a fruit of accumulated collective experience--the +strongest flying at the head of the band, and relieving one another in +that difficult task. They cross the seas in large bands consisting of +both big and small birds, and when they return next spring they repair +to the same spot, and, in most cases, each of them takes possession of +the very same nest which it had built or repaired the previous year.(7) + +This subject is so vast, and yet so imperfectly studied; it offers so +many striking illustrations of mutual-aid habits, subsidiary to the main +fact of migration--each of which would, however, require a special +study--that I must refrain from entering here into more details. I can +only cursorily refer to the numerous and animated gatherings of birds +which take place, always on the same spot, before they begin their long +journeys north or south, as also those which one sees in the north, +after the birds have arrived at their breeding-places on the Yenisei or +in the northern counties of England. For many days in +succession--sometimes one month--they will come together every morning +for one hour, before flying in search of food--perhaps discussing the +spot where they are going to build their nests.(8) And if, during the +migration, their columns are overtaken by a storm, birds of the most +different species will be brought together by common misfortune. The +birds which are not exactly migratory, but slowly move northwards and +southwards with the seasons, also perform these peregrinations in +flocks. So far from migrating isolately, in order to secure for each +separate individual the advantages of better food or shelter which are +to be found in another district--they always wait for each other, and +gather in flocks, before they move north or south, in accordance with +the season.(9) + +Going now over to mammals, the first thing which strikes us is the +overwhelming numerical predominance of social species over those few +carnivores which do not associate. The plateaus, the Alpine tracts, and +the Steppes of the Old and New World are stocked with herds of deer, +antelopes, gazelles, fallow deer, buffaloes, wild goats and sheep, all +of which are sociable animals. When the Europeans came to settle in +America, they found it so densely peopled with buffaloes, that pioneers +had to stop their advance when a column of migrating buffaloes came to +cross the route they followed; the march past of the dense column +lasting sometimes for two and three days. And when the Russians took +possession of Siberia they found it so densely peopled with deer, +antelopes, squirrels, and other sociable animals, that the very conquest +of Siberia was nothing but a hunting expedition which lasted for two +hundred years; while the grass plains of Eastern Africa are still +covered with herds composed of zebra, the hartebeest, and other +antelopes. + +Not long ago the small streams of Northern America and Northern Siberia +were peopled with colonies of beavers, and up to the seventeenth century +like colonies swarmed in Northern Russia. The flat lands of the four +great continents are still covered with countless colonies of mice, +ground-squirrels, marmots, and other rodents. In the lower latitudes of +Asia and Africa the forests are still the abode of numerous families of +elephants, rhinoceroses, and numberless societies of monkeys. In the far +north the reindeer aggregate in numberless herds; while still further +north we find the herds of the musk-oxen and numberless bands of polar +foxes. The coasts of the ocean are enlivened by flocks of seals and +morses; its waters, by shoals of sociable cetaceans; and even in the +depths of the great plateau of Central Asia we find herds of wild +horses, wild donkeys, wild camels, and wild sheep. All these mammals +live in societies and nations sometimes numbering hundreds of thousands +of individuals, although now, after three centuries of gunpowder +civilization, we find but the debris of the immense aggregations of old. +How trifling, in comparison with them, are the numbers of the +carnivores! And how false, therefore, is the view of those who speak of +the animal world as if nothing were to be seen in it but lions and +hyenas plunging their bleeding teeth into the flesh of their victims! +One might as well imagine that the whole of human life is nothing but a +succession of war massacres. + +Association and mutual aid are the rule with mammals. We find social +habits even among the carnivores, and we can only name the cat tribe +(lions, tigers, leopards, etc.) as a division the members of which +decidedly prefer isolation to society, and are but seldom met with even +in small groups. And yet, even among lions "this is a very common +practice to hunt in company."(10) The two tribes of the civets +(Viverridae) and the weasels (Mustelidae) might also be characterized by +their isolated life, but it is a fact that during the last century the +common weasel was more sociable than it is now; it was seen then in +larger groups in Scotland and in the Unterwalden canton of Switzerland. +As to the great tribe of the dogs, it is eminently sociable, and +association for hunting purposes may be considered as eminently +characteristic of its numerous species. It is well known, in fact, that +wolves gather in packs for hunting, and Tschudi left an excellent +description of how they draw up in a half-circle, surround a cow which +is grazing on a mountain slope, and then, suddenly appearing with a loud +barking, make it roll in the abyss.(11) Audubon, in the thirties, also +saw the Labrador wolves hunting in packs, and one pack following a man +to his cabin, and killing the dogs. During severe winters the packs of +wolves grow so numerous as to become a danger for human settlements, as +was the case in France some five-and-forty years ago. In the Russian +Steppes they never attack the horses otherwise than in packs; and yet +they have to sustain bitter fights, during which the horses (according +to Kohl's testimony) sometimes assume offensive warfare, and in such +cases, if the wolves do not retreat promptly, they run the risk of being +surrounded by the horses and killed by their hoofs. The prairie-wolves +(Canis latrans) are known to associate in bands of from twenty to thirty +individuals when they chase a buffalo occasionally separated from its +herd.(12) Jackals, which are most courageous and may be considered as +one of the most intelligent representatives of the dog tribe, always +hunt in packs; thus united, they have no fear of the bigger +carnivores.(13) As to the wild dogs of Asia (the Kholzuns, or Dholes), +Williamson saw their large packs attacking all larger animals save +elephants and rhinoceroses, and overpowering bears and tigers. Hyenas +always live in societies and hunt in packs, and the hunting +organizations of the painted lycaons are highly praised by Cumming. Nay, +even foxes, which, as a rule, live isolated in our civilized countries, +have been seen combining for hunting purposes.(14) As to the polar fox, +it is--or rather was in Steller's time--one of the most sociable +animals; and when one reads Steller's description of the war that was +waged by Behring's unfortunate crew against these intelligent small +animals, one does not know what to wonder at most: the extraordinary +intelligence of the foxes and the mutual aid they displayed in digging +out food concealed under cairns, or stored upon a pillar (one fox would +climb on its top and throw the food to its comrades beneath), or the +cruelty of man, driven to despair by the numerous packs of foxes. Even +some bears live in societies where they are not disturbed by man. Thus +Steller saw the black bear of Kamtchatka in numerous packs, and the +polar bears are occasionally found in small groups. Even the +unintelligent insectivores do not always disdain association. + +However, it is especially with the rodents, the ungulata, and the +ruminants that we find a highly developed practice of mutual aid. The +squirrels are individualist to a great extent. Each of them builds its +own comfortable nest, and accumulates its own provision. Their +inclinations are towards family life, and Brehm found that a family of +squirrels is never so happy as when the two broods of the same year can +join together with their parents in a remote corner of a forest. And yet +they maintain social relations. The inhabitants of the separate nests +remain in a close intercourse, and when the pine-cones become rare in +the forest they inhabit, they emigrate in bands. As to the black +squirrels of the Far West, they are eminently sociable. Apart from the +few hours given every day to foraging, they spend their lives in playing +in numerous parties. And when they multiply too rapidly in a region, +they assemble in bands, almost as numerous as those of locusts, and move +southwards, devastating the forests, the fields, and the gardens; while +foxes, polecats, falcons, and nocturnal birds of prey follow their thick +columns and live upon the individuals remaining behind. The +ground-squirrel--a closely-akin genus--is still more sociable. It is +given to hoarding, and stores up in its subterranean halls large amounts +of edible roots and nuts, usually plundered by man in the autumn. +According to some observers, it must know something of the joys of a +miser. And yet it remains sociable. It always lives in large villages, +and Audubon, who opened some dwellings of the hackee in the winter, +found several individuals in the same apartment; they must have stored +it with common efforts. + +The large tribe, of the marmots, which includes the three large genuses +of Arctomys, Cynomys, and Spermophilus, is still more sociable and still +more intelligent. They also prefer having each one its own dwelling; but +they live in big villages. That terrible enemy of the crops of South +Russia--the souslik--of which some ten millions are exterminated every +year by man alone, lives in numberless colonies; and while the Russian +provincial assemblies gravely discuss the means of getting rid of this +enemy of society, it enjoys life in its thousands in the most joyful +way. Their play is so charming that no observer could refrain from +paying them a tribute of praise, and from mentioning the melodious +concerts arising from the sharp whistlings of the males and the +melancholic whistlings of the females, before--suddenly returning to his +citizen's duties--he begins inventing the most diabolic means for the +extermination of the little robbers. All kinds of rapacious birds and +beasts of prey having proved powerless, the last word of science in this +warfare is the inoculation of cholera! The villages of the prairie-dogs +in America are one of the loveliest sights. As far as the eye can +embrace the prairie, it sees heaps of earth, and on each of them a +prairie-dog stands, engaged in a lively conversation with its neighbours +by means of short barkings. As soon as the approach of man is signalled, +all plunge in a moment into their dwellings; all have disappeared as by +enchantment. But if the danger is over, the little creatures soon +reappear. Whole families come out of their galleries and indulge in +play. The young ones scratch one another, they worry one another, and +display their gracefulness while standing upright, and in the meantime +the old ones keep watch. They go visiting one another, and the beaten +footpaths which connect all their heaps testify to the frequency of the +visitations. In short, the best naturalists have written some of their +best pages in describing the associations of the prairie-dogs of +America, the marmots of the Old World, and the polar marmots of the +Alpine regions. And yet, I must make, as regards the marmots, the same +remark as I have made when speaking of the bees. They have maintained +their fighting instincts, and these instincts reappear in captivity. But +in their big associations, in the face of free Nature, the unsociable +instincts have no opportunity to develop, and the general result is +peace and harmony. + +Even such harsh animals as the rats, which continually fight in our +cellars, are sufficiently intelligent not to quarrel when they plunder +our larders, but to aid one another in their plundering expeditions and +migrations, and even to feed their invalids. As to the beaver-rats or +musk-rats of Canada, they are extremely sociable. Audubon could not but +admire "their peaceful communities, which require only being left in +peace to enjoy happiness." Like all sociable animals, they are lively +and playful, they easily combine with other species, and they have +attained a very high degree of intellectual development. In their +villages, always disposed on the shores of lakes and rivers, they take +into account the changing level of water; their domeshaped houses, which +are built of beaten clay interwoven with reeds, have separate corners +for organic refuse, and their halls are well carpeted at winter time; +they are warm, and, nevertheless, well ventilated. As to the beavers, +which are endowed, as known, with a most sympathetic character, their +astounding dams and villages, in which generations live and die without +knowing of any enemies but the otter and man, so wonderfully illustrate +what mutual aid can achieve for the security of the species, the +development of social habits, and the evolution of intelligence, that +they are familiar to all interested in animal life. Let me only remark +that with the beavers, the muskrats, and some other rodents, we already +find the feature which will also be distinctive of human +communities--that is, work in common. + +I pass in silence the two large families which include the jerboa, the +chinchilla, the biscacha, and the tushkan, or underground hare of South +Russia, though all these small rodents might be taken as excellent +illustrations of the pleasures derived by animals from social life.(15) +Precisely, the pleasures; because it is extremely difficult to say what +brings animals together--the needs of mutual protection, or simply the +pleasure of feeling surrounded by their congeners. At any rate, our +common hares, which do not gather in societies for life in common, and +which are not even endowed with intense parental feelings, cannot live +without coming together for play. Dietrich de Winckell, who is +considered to be among the best acquainted with the habits of hares, +describes them as passionate players, becoming so intoxicated by their +play that a hare has been known to take an approaching fox for a +playmate.(16) As to the rabbit, it lives in societies, and its family +life is entirely built upon the image of the old patriarchal family; the +young ones being kept in absolute obedience to the father and even the +grandfather.(17) And here we have the example of two very closely-allied +species which cannot bear each other--not because they live upon nearly +the same food, as like cases are too often explained, but most probably +because the passionate, eminently-individualist hare cannot make friends +with that placid, quiet, and submissive creature, the rabbit. Their +tempers are too widely different not to be an obstacle to friendship. + +Life in societies is again the rule with the large family of horses, +which includes the wild horses and donkeys of Asia, the zebras, the +mustangs, the cimarrones of the Pampas, and the half-wild horses of +Mongolia and Siberia. They all live in numerous associations made up of +many studs, each of which consists of a number of mares under the +leadership of a male. These numberless inhabitants of the Old and the +New World, badly organized on the whole for resisting both their +numerous enemies and the adverse conditions of climate, would soon have +disappeared from the surface of the earth were it not for their sociable +spirit. When a beast of prey approaches them, several studs unite at +once; they repulse the beast and sometimes chase it: and neither the +wolf nor the bear, not even the lion, can capture a horse or even a +zebra as long as they are not detached from the herd. When a drought is +burning the grass in the prairies, they gather in herds of sometimes +10,000 individuals strong, and migrate. And when a snow-storm rages in +the Steppes, each stud keeps close together, and repairs to a protected +ravine. But if confidence disappears, or the group has been seized by +panic, and disperses, the horses perish and the survivors are found +after the storm half dying from fatigue. Union is their chief arm in the +struggle for life, and man is their chief enemy. Before his increasing +numbers the ancestors of our domestic horse (the Equus Przewalskii, so +named by Polyakoff) have preferred to retire to the wildest and least +accessible plateaus on the outskirts of Thibet, where they continue to +live, surrounded by carnivores, under a climate as bad as that of the +Arctic regions, but in a region inaccessible to man.(18) + +Many striking illustrations of social life could be taken from the life +of the reindeer, and especially of that large division of ruminants +which might include the roebucks, the fallow deer, the antelopes, the +gazelles, the ibex, and, in fact, the whole of the three numerous +families of the Antelopides, the Caprides, and the Ovides. Their +watchfulness over the safety of their herds against attacks of +carnivores; the anxiety displayed by all individuals in a herd of +chamois as long as all of them have not cleared a difficult passage over +rocky cliffs, the adoption of orphans; the despair of the gazelle whose +mate, or even comrade of the same sex, has been killed; the plays of the +youngsters, and many other features, could be mentioned. But perhaps the +most striking illustration of mutual support is given by the occasional +migrations of fallow deer, such as I saw once on the Amur. When I +crossed the high plateau and its border ridge, the Great Khingan, on my +way from Transbaikalia to Merghen, and further travelled over the high +prairies on my way to the Amur, I could ascertain how thinly-peopled +with fallow deer these mostly uninhabited regions are.(19) Two years +later I was travelling up the Amur, and by the end of October reached +the lower end of that picturesque gorge which the Amur pierces in the +Dousse-alin (Little Khingan) before it enters the lowlands where it +joins the Sungari. I found the Cossacks in the villages of that gorge in +the greatest excitement, because thousands and thousands of fallow deer +were crossing the Amur where it is narrowest, in order to reach the +lowlands. For several days in succession, upon a length of some forty +miles up the river, the Cossacks were butchering the deer as they +crossed the Amur, in which already floated a good deal of ice. Thousands +were killed every day, and the exodus nevertheless continued. Like +migrations were never seen either before or since, and this one must +have been called for by an early and heavy snow-fall in the Great +Khingan, which compelled the deer to make a desperate attempt at +reaching the lowlands in the east of the Dousse mountains. Indeed, a few +days later the Dousse-alin was also buried under snow two or three feet +deep. Now, when one imagines the immense territory (almost as big as +Great Britain) from which the scattered groups of deer must have +gathered for a migration which was undertaken under the pressure of +exceptional circumstances, and realizes the difficulties which had to be +overcome before all the deer came to the common idea of crossing the +Amur further south, where it is narrowest, one cannot but deeply admire +the amount of sociability displayed by these intelligent animals. The +fact is not the less striking if we remember that the buffaloes of North +America displayed the same powers of combination. One saw them grazing +in great numbers in the plains, but these numbers were made up by an +infinity of small groups which never mixed together. And yet, when +necessity arose, all groups, however scattered over an immense +territory, came together and made up those immense columns, numbering +hundreds of thousands of individuals, which I mentioned on a preceding +page. + +I also ought to say a few words at least about the "compound families" +of the elephants, their mutual attachment, their deliberate ways in +posting sentries, and the feelings of sympathy developed by such a life +of close mutual support.(20) I might mention the sociable feelings of +those disreputable creatures the wild boars, and find a word of praise +for their powers of association in the case of an attack by a beast of +prey.(21) The hippopotamus and the rhinoceros, too, would occupy a place +in a work devoted to animal sociability. Several striking pages might be +given to the sociability and mutual attachment of the seals and the +walruses; and finally, one might mention the most excellent feelings +existing among the sociable cetaceans. But I have to say yet a few words +about the societies of monkeys, which acquire an additional interest +from their being the link which will bring us to the societies of +primitive men. + +It is hardly needful to say that those mammals, which stand at the very +top of the animal world and most approach man by their structure and +intelligence, are eminently sociable. Evidently we must be prepared to +meet with all varieties of character and habits in so great a division +of the animal kingdom which includes hundreds of species. But, all +things considered, it must be said that sociability, action in common, +mutual protection, and a high development of those feelings which are +the necessary outcome of social life, are characteristic of most monkeys +and apes. From the smallest species to the biggest ones, sociability is +a rule to which we know but a few exceptions. The nocturnal apes prefer +isolated life; the capuchins (Cebus capucinus), the monos, and the +howling monkeys live but in small families; and the orang-outans have +never been seen by A.R. Wallace otherwise than either solitary or in +very small groups of three or four individuals, while the gorillas seem +never to join in bands. But all the remainder of the monkey tribe--the +chimpanzees, the sajous, the sakis, the mandrills, the baboons, and so +on--are sociable in the highest degree. They live in great bands, and +even join with other species than their own. Most of them become quite +unhappy when solitary. The cries of distress of each one of the band +immediately bring together the whole of the band, and they boldly +repulse the attacks of most carnivores and birds of prey. Even eagles do +not dare attack them. They plunder our fields always in bands--the old +ones taking care for the safety of the commonwealth. The little +tee-tees, whose childish sweet faces so much struck Humboldt, embrace +and protect one another when it rains, rolling their tails over the +necks of their shivering comrades. Several species display the greatest +solicitude for their wounded, and do not abandon a wounded comrade +during a retreat till they have ascertained that it is dead and that +they are helpless to restore it to life. Thus James Forbes narrated in +his Oriental Memoirs a fact of such resistance in reclaiming from his +hunting party the dead body of a female monkey that one fully +understands why "the witnesses of this extraordinary scene resolved +never again to fire at one of the monkey race."(22) In some species +several individuals will combine to overturn a stone in order to search +for ants' eggs under it. The hamadryas not only post sentries, but have +been seen making a chain for the transmission of the spoil to a safe +place; and their courage is well known. Brehm's description of the +regular fight which his caravan had to sustain before the hamadryas +would let it resume its journey in the valley of the Mensa, in +Abyssinia, has become classical.(23) The playfulness of the tailed apes +and the mutual attachment which reigns in the families of chimpanzees +also are familiar to the general reader. And if we find among the +highest apes two species, the orang-outan and the gorilla, which are not +sociable, we must remember that both--limited as they are to very small +areas, the one in the heart of Africa, and the other in the two islands +of Borneo and Sumatra have all the appearance of being the last remnants +of formerly much more numerous species. The gorilla at least seems to +have been sociable in olden times, if the apes mentioned in the Periplus +really were gorillas. + + +We thus see, even from the above brief review, that life in societies is +no exception in the animal world; it is the rule, the law of Nature, and +it reaches its fullest development with the higher vertebrates. Those +species which live solitary, or in small families only, are relatively +few, and their numbers are limited. Nay, it appears very probable that, +apart from a few exceptions, those birds and mammals which are not +gregarious now, were living in societies before man multiplied on the +earth and waged a permanent war against them, or destroyed the sources +from which they formerly derived food. "On ne s'associe pas pour +mourir," was the sound remark of Espinas; and Houzeau, who knew the +animal world of some parts of America when it was not yet affected by +man, wrote to the same effect. + +Association is found in the animal world at all degrees of evolution; +and, according to the grand idea of Herbert Spencer, so brilliantly +developed in Perrier's Colonies Animales, colonies are at the very +origin of evolution in the animal kingdom. But, in proportion as we +ascend the scale of evolution, we see association growing more and more +conscious. It loses its purely physical character, it ceases to be +simply instinctive, it becomes reasoned. With the higher vertebrates it +is periodical, or is resorted to for the satisfaction of a given +want--propagation of the species, migration, hunting, or mutual defence. +It even becomes occasional, when birds associate against a robber, or +mammals combine, under the pressure of exceptional circumstances, to +emigrate. In this last case, it becomes a voluntary deviation from +habitual moods of life. The combination sometimes appears in two or more +degrees--the family first, then the group, and finally the association +of groups, habitually scattered, but uniting in case of need, as we saw +it with the bisons and other ruminants. It also takes higher forms, +guaranteeing more independence to the individual without depriving it of +the benefits of social life. With most rodents the individual has its +own dwelling, which it can retire to when it prefers being left alone; +but the dwellings are laid out in villages and cities, so as to +guarantee to all inhabitants the benefits and joys of social life. And +finally, in several species, such as rats, marmots, hares, etc., +sociable life is maintained notwithstanding the quarrelsome or otherwise +egotistic inclinations of the isolated individual. Thus it is not +imposed, as is the case with ants and bees, by the very physiological +structure of the individuals; it is cultivated for the benefits of +mutual aid, or for the sake of its pleasures. And this, of course, +appears with all possible gradations and with the greatest variety of +individual and specific characters--the very variety of aspects taken by +social life being a consequence, and for us a further proof, of its +generality.(24) + +Sociability--that is, the need of the animal of associating with its +like--the love of society for society's sake, combined with the "joy of +life," only now begins to receive due attention from the zoologists.(25) +We know at the present time that all animals, beginning with the ants, +going on to the birds, and ending with the highest mammals, are fond of +plays, wrestling, running after each other, trying to capture each +other, teasing each other, and so on. And while many plays are, so to +speak, a school for the proper behaviour of the young in mature life, +there are others, which, apart from their utilitarian purposes, are, +together with dancing and singing, mere manifestations of an excess of +forces--"the joy of life," and a desire to communicate in some way or +another with other individuals of the same or of other species--in +short, a manifestation of sociability proper, which is a distinctive +feature of all the animal world.(26) Whether the feeling be fear, +experienced at the appearance of a bird of prey, or "a fit of gladness" +which bursts out when the animals are in good health and especially when +young, or merely the desire of giving play to an excess of impressions +and of vital power--the necessity of communicating impressions, of +playing, of chattering, or of simply feeling the proximity of other +kindred living beings pervades Nature, and is, as much as any other +physiological function, a distinctive feature of life and +impressionability. This need takes a higher development and attains a +more beautiful expression in mammals, especially amidst their young, and +still more among the birds; but it pervades all Nature, and has been +fully observed by the best naturalists, including Pierre Huber, even +amongst the ants, and it is evidently the same instinct which brings +together the big columns of butterflies which have been referred to +already. + +The habit of coming together for dancing and of decorating the places +where the birds habitually perform their dances is, of course, well +known from the pages that Darwin gave to this subject in The Descent of +Man (ch. xiii). Visitors of the London Zoological Gardens also know the +bower of the satin bower-bird. But this habit of dancing seems to be +much more widely spread than was formerly believed, and Mr. W. Hudson +gives in his master-work on La Plata the most interesting description, +which must be read in the original, of complicated dances, performed by +quite a number of birds: rails, jacanas, lapwings, and so on. + +The habit of singing in concert, which exists in several species of +birds, belongs to the same category of social instincts. It is most +strikingly developed with the chakar (Chauna chavarris), to which the +English have given the most unimaginative misnomer of "crested +screamer." These birds sometimes assemble in immense flocks, and in such +cases they frequently sing all in concert. W.H. Hudson found them once +in countless numbers, ranged all round a pampas lake in well-defined +flocks, of about 500 birds in each flock. + +"Presently," he writes, "one flock near me began singing, and continued +their powerful chant for three or four minutes; when they ceased the +next flock took up the strains, and after it the next, and so on, until +once more the notes of the flocks on the opposite shore came floating +strong and clear across the water--then passed away, growing fainter and +fainter, until once more the sound approached me travelling round to my +side again." + +On another occasion the same writer saw a whole plain covered with an +endless flock of chakars, not in close order, but scattered in pairs and +small groups. About nine o'clock in the evening, "suddenly the entire +multitude of birds covering the marsh for miles around burst forth in a +tremendous evening song.... It was a concert well worth riding a hundred +miles to hear."(27) It may be added that like all sociable animals, the +chakar easily becomes tame and grows very attached to man. "They are +mild-tempered birds, and very rarely quarrel"--we are told--although +they are well provided with formidable weapons. Life in societies +renders these weapons useless. + +That life in societies is the most powerful weapon in the struggle for +life, taken in its widest sense, has been illustrated by several +examples on the foregoing pages, and could be illustrated by any amount +of evidence, if further evidence were required. Life in societies +enables the feeblest insects, the feeblest birds, and the feeblest +mammals to resist, or to protect themselves from, the most terrible +birds and beasts of prey; it permits longevity; it enables the species +to rear its progeny with the least waste of energy and to maintain its +numbers albeit a very slow birth-rate; it enables the gregarious animals +to migrate in search of new abodes. Therefore, while fully admitting +that force, swiftness, protective colours, cunningness, and endurance to +hunger and cold, which are mentioned by Darwin and Wallace, are so many +qualities making the individual, or the species, the fittest under +certain circumstances, we maintain that under any circumstances +sociability is the greatest advantage in the struggle for life. Those +species which willingly or unwillingly abandon it are doomed to decay; +while those animals which know best how to combine, have the greatest +chances of survival and of further evolution, although they may be +inferior to others in each of the faculties enumerated by Darwin and +Wallace, save the intellectual faculty. The highest vertebrates, and +especially mankind, are the best proof of this assertion. As to the +intellectual faculty, while every Darwinist will agree with Darwin that +it is the most powerful arm in the struggle for life, and the most +powerful factor of further evolution, he also will admit that +intelligence is an eminently social faculty. Language, imitation, and +accumulated experience are so many elements of growing intelligence of +which the unsociable animal is deprived. Therefore we find, at the top +of each class of animals, the ants, the parrots, and the monkeys, all +combining the greatest sociability with the highest development of +intelligence. The fittest are thus the most sociable animals, and +sociability appears as the chief factor of evolution, both directly, by +securing the well-being of the species while diminishing the waste of +energy, and indirectly, by favouring the growth of intelligence. + +Moreover, it is evident that life in societies would be utterly +impossible without a corresponding development of social feelings, and, +especially, of a certain collective sense of justice growing to become a +habit. If every individual were constantly abusing its personal +advantages without the others interfering in favour of the wronged, no +society--life would be possible. And feelings of justice develop, more +or less, with all gregarious animals. Whatever the distance from which +the swallows or the cranes come, each one returns to the nest it has +built or repaired last year. If a lazy sparrow intends appropriating the +nest which a comrade is building, or even steals from it a few sprays of +straw, the group interferes against the lazy comrade; and it is evident +that without such interference being the rule, no nesting associations +of birds could exist. Separate groups of penguins have separate +resting-places and separate fishing abodes, and do not fight for them. +The droves of cattle in Australia have particular spots to which each +group repairs to rest, and from which it never deviates; and so on.(28) +We have any numbers of direct observations of the peace that prevails in +the nesting associations of birds, the villages of the rodents, and the +herds of grass-eaters; while, on the other side, we know of few sociable +animals which so continually quarrel as the rats in our cellars do, or +as the morses, which fight for the possession of a sunny place on the +shore. Sociability thus puts a limit to physical struggle, and leaves +room for the development of better moral feelings. The high development +of parental love in all classes of animals, even with lions and tigers, +is generally known. As to the young birds and mammals whom we +continually see associating, sympathy--not love--attains a further +development in their associations. Leaving aside the really touching +facts of mutual attachment and compassion which have been recorded as +regards domesticated animals and with animals kept in captivity, we have +a number of well certified facts of compassion between wild animals at +liberty. Max Perty and L. Buchner have given a number of such facts.(29) +J.C. Wood's narrative of a weasel which came to pick up and to carry +away an injured comrade enjoys a well-merited popularity.(30) So also +the observation of Captain Stansbury on his journey to Utah which is +quoted by Darwin; he saw a blind pelican which was fed, and well fed, by +other pelicans upon fishes which had to be brought from a distance of +thirty miles.(31) And when a herd of vicunas was hotly pursued by +hunters, H.A. Weddell saw more than once during his journey to Bolivia +and Peru, the strong males covering the retreat of the herd and lagging +behind in order to protect the retreat. As to facts of compassion with +wounded comrades, they are continually mentioned by all field +zoologists. Such facts are quite natural. Compassion is a necessary +outcome of social life. But compassion also means a considerable advance +in general intelligence and sensibility. It is the first step towards +the development of higher moral sentiments. It is, in its turn, a +powerful factor of further evolution. + +If the views developed on the preceding pages are correct, the question +necessarily arises, in how far are they consistent with the theory of +struggle for life as it has been developed by Darwin, Wallace, and their +followers? and I will now briefly answer this important question. First +of all, no naturalist will doubt that the idea of a struggle for life +carried on through organic nature is the greatest generalization of our +century. Life is struggle; and in that struggle the fittest survive. But +the answers to the questions, "By which arms is this struggle chiefly +carried on?" and "Who are the fittest in the struggle?" will widely +differ according to the importance given to the two different aspects of +the struggle: the direct one, for food and safety among separate +individuals, and the struggle which Darwin described as +"metaphorical"--the struggle, very often collective, against adverse +circumstances. No one will deny that there is, within each species, a +certain amount of real competition for food--at least, at certain +periods. But the question is, whether competition is carried on to the +extent admitted by Darwin, or even by Wallace; and whether this +competition has played, in the evolution of the animal kingdom, the part +assigned to it. + +The idea which permeates Darwin's work is certainly one of real +competition going on within each animal group for food, safety, and +possibility of leaving an offspring. He often speaks of regions being +stocked with animal life to their full capacity, and from that +overstocking he infers the necessity of competition. But when we look in +his work for real proofs of that competition, we must confess that we do +not find them sufficiently convincing. If we refer to the paragraph +entitled "Struggle for Life most severe between Individuals and +Varieties of the same Species," we find in it none of that wealth of +proofs and illustrations which we are accustomed to find in whatever +Darwin wrote. The struggle between individuals of the same species is +not illustrated under that heading by even one single instance: it is +taken as granted; and the competition between closely-allied animal +species is illustrated by but five examples, out of which one, at least +(relating to the two species of thrushes), now proves to be +doubtful.(32) But when we look for more details in order to ascertain +how far the decrease of one species was really occasioned by the +increase of the other species, Darwin, with his usual fairness, tells +us: + +"We can dimly see why the competition should be most severe between +allied forms which fill nearly the same place in nature; but probably in +no case could we precisely say why one species has been victorious over +another in the great battle of life." + +As to Wallace, who quotes the same facts under a slightly-modified +heading ("Struggle for Life between closely-allied Animals and Plants +often most severe"), he makes the following remark (italics are mine), +which gives quite another aspect to the facts above quoted. He says: + +"In some cases, no doubt, there is actual war between the two, the +stronger killing the weaker. But this is by no means necessary, and +there may be cases in which the weaker species, physically, may prevail +by its power of more rapid multiplication, its better withstanding +vicissitudes of climate, or its greater cunning in escaping the attacks +of common enemies." + +In such cases what is described as competition may be no competition at +all. One species succumbs, not because it is exterminated or starved out +by the other species, but because it does not well accommodate itself to +new conditions, which the other does. The term "struggle for life" is +again used in its metaphorical sense, and may have no other. As to the +real competition between individuals of the same species, which is +illustrated in another place by the cattle of South America during a +period of drought, its value is impaired by its being taken from among +domesticated animals. Bisons emigrate in like circumstances in order to +avoid competition. However severe the struggle between plants--and this +is amply proved--we cannot but repeat Wallace's remark to the effect +that "plants live where they can," while animals have, to a great +extent, the power of choice of their abode. So that we again are asking +ourselves, To what extent does competition really exist within each +animal species? Upon what is the assumption based? The same remark must +be made concerning the indirect argument in favour of a severe +competition and struggle for life within each species, which may be +derived from the "extermination of transitional varieties," so often +mentioned by Darwin. It is known that for a long time Darwin was worried +by the difficulty which he saw in the absence of a long chain of +intermediate forms between closely-allied species, and that he found the +solution of this difficulty in the supposed extermination of the +intermediate forms.(33) However, an attentive reading of the different +chapters in which Darwin and Wallace speak of this subject soon brings +one to the conclusion that the word "extermination" does not mean real +extermination; the same remark which Darwin made concerning his +expression: "struggle for existence," evidently applies to the word +"extermination" as well. It can by no means be understood in its direct +sense, but must be taken "in its metaphoric sense." If we start from the +supposition that a given area is stocked with animals to its fullest +capacity, and that a keen competition for the sheer means of existence +is consequently going on between all the inhabitants--each animal being +compelled to fight against all its congeners in order to get its daily +food--then the appearance of a new and successful variety would +certainly mean in many cases (though not always) the appearance of +individuals which are enabled to seize more than their fair share of the +means of existence; and the result would be that those individuals would +starve both the parental form which does not possess the new variation +and the intermediate forms which do not possess it in the same degree. +It may be that at the outset, Darwin understood the appearance of new +varieties under this aspect; at least, the frequent use of the word +"extermination" conveys such an impression. But both he and Wallace knew +Nature too well not to perceive that this is by no means the only +possible and necessary course of affairs. + +If the physical and the biological conditions of a given area, the +extension of the area occupied by a given species, and the habits of all +the members of the latter remained unchanged--then the sudden appearance +of a new variety might mean the starving out and the extermination of +all the individuals which were not endowed in a sufficient degree with +the new feature by which the new variety is characterized. But such a +combination of conditions is precisely what we do not see in Nature. +Each species is continually tending to enlarge its abode; migration to +new abodes is the rule with the slow snail, as with the swift bird; +physical changes are continually going on in every given area; and new +varieties among animals consist in an immense number of cases-perhaps in +the majority--not in the growth of new weapons for snatching the food +from the mouth of its congeners--food is only one out of a hundred of +various conditions of existence--but, as Wallace himself shows in a +charming paragraph on the "divergence of characters" (Darwinism, p. +107), in forming new habits, moving to new abodes, and taking to new +sorts of food. In all such cases there will be no extermination, even no +competition--the new adaptation being a relief from competition, if it +ever existed; and yet there will be, after a time, an absence of +intermediate links, in consequence of a mere survival of those which are +best fitted for the new conditions--as surely as under the hypothesis of +extermination of the parental form. It hardly need be added that if we +admit, with Spencer, all the Lamarckians, and Darwin himself, the +modifying influence of the surroundings upon the species, there remains +still less necessity for the extermination of the intermediate forms. + +The importance of migration and of the consequent isolation of groups of +animals, for the origin of new varieties and ultimately of new species, +which was indicated by Moritz Wagner, was fully recognized by Darwin +himself. Consequent researches have only accentuated the importance of +this factor, and they have shown how the largeness of the area occupied +by a given species--which Darwin considered with full reason so +important for the appearance of new varieties--can be combined with the +isolation of parts of the species, in consequence of local geological +changes, or of local barriers. It would be impossible to enter here into +the discussion of this wide question, but a few remarks will do to +illustrate the combined action of these agencies. It is known that +portions of a given species will often take to a new sort of food. The +squirrels, for instance, when there is a scarcity of cones in the larch +forests, remove to the fir-tree forests, and this change of food has +certain well-known physiological effects on the squirrels. If this +change of habits does not last--if next year the cones are again +plentiful in the dark larch woods--no new variety of squirrels will +evidently arise from this cause. But if part of the wide area occupied +by the squirrels begins to have its physical characters altered--in +consequence of, let us say, a milder climate or desiccation, which both +bring about an increase of the pine forests in proportion to the larch +woods--and if some other conditions concur to induce the squirrels to +dwell on the outskirts of the desiccating region--we shall have then a +new variety, i.e. an incipient new species of squirrels, without there +having been anything that would deserve the name of extermination among +the squirrels. A larger proportion of squirrels of the new, better +adapted variety would survive every year, and the intermediate links +would die in the course of time, without having been starved out by +Malthusian competitors. This is exactly what we see going on during the +great physical changes which are accomplished over large areas in +Central Asia, owing to the desiccation which is going on there since the +glacial period. + +To take another example, it has been proved by geologists that the +present wild horse (Equus Przewalski) has slowly been evolved during the +later parts of the Tertiary and the Quaternary period, but that during +this succession of ages its ancestors were not confined to some given, +limited area of the globe. They wandered over both the Old and New +World, returning, in all probability, after a time to the pastures which +they had, in the course of their migrations, formerly left.(34) +Consequently, if we do not find now, in Asia, all the intermediate links +between the present wild horse and its Asiatic Post-Tertiary ancestors, +this does not mean at all that the intermediate links have been +exterminated. No such extermination has ever taken place. No exceptional +mortality may even have occurred among the ancestral species: the +individuals which belonged to intermediate varieties and species have +died in the usual course of events--often amidst plentiful food, and +their remains were buried all over the globe. + +In short, if we carefully consider this matter, and, carefully re-read +what Darwin himself wrote upon this subject, we see that if the word +"extermination" be used at all in connection with transitional +varieties, it must be used in its metaphoric sense. As to "competition," +this expression, too, is continually used by Darwin (see, for instance, +the paragraph "On Extinction") as an image, or as a way-of-speaking, +rather than with the intention of conveying the idea of a real +competition between two portions of the same species for the means of +existence. At any rate, the absence of intermediate forms is no argument +in favour of it. + +In reality, the chief argument in favour of a keen competition for the +means of existence continually going on within every animal species +is--to use Professor Geddes' expression--the "arithmetical argument" +borrowed from Malthus. + +But this argument does not prove it at all. We might as well take a +number of villages in South-East Russia, the inhabitants of which enjoy +plenty of food, but have no sanitary accommodation of any kind; and +seeing that for the last eighty years the birth-rate was sixty in the +thousand, while the population is now what it was eighty years ago, we +might conclude that there has been a terrible competition between the +inhabitants. But the truth is that from year to year the population +remained stationary, for the simple reason that one-third of the +new-born died before reaching their sixth month of life; one-half died +within the next four years, and out of each hundred born, only seventeen +or so reached the age of twenty. The new-comers went away before having +grown to be competitors. It is evident that if such is the case with +men, it is still more the case with animals. In the feathered world the +destruction of the eggs goes on on such a tremendous scale that eggs are +the chief food of several species in the early summer; not to, say a +word of the storms, the inundations which destroy nests by the million +in America, and the sudden changes of weather which are fatal to the +young mammals. Each storm, each inundation, each visit of a rat to a +bird's nest, each sudden change of temperature, take away those +competitors which appear so terrible in theory. + +As to the facts of an extremely rapid increase of horses and cattle in +America, of pigs and rabbits in New Zealand, and even of wild animals +imported from Europe (where their numbers are kept down by man, not by +competition), they rather seem opposed to the theory of over-population. +If horses and cattle could so rapidly multiply in America, it simply +proved that, however numberless the buffaloes and other ruminants were +at that time in the New World, its grass-eating population was far below +what the prairies could maintain. If millions of intruders have found +plenty of food without starving out the former population of the +prairies, we must rather conclude that the Europeans found a want of +grass-eaters in America, not an excess. And we have good reasons to +believe that want of animal population is the natural state of things +all over the world, with but a few temporary exceptions to the rule. The +actual numbers of animals in a given region are determined, not by the +highest feeding capacity of the region, but by what it is every year +under the most unfavourable conditions. So that, for that reason alone, +competition hardly can be a normal condition. But other causes intervene +as well to cut, down the animal population below even that low standard. +If we take the horses and cattle which are grazing all the winter +through in the Steppes of Transbaikalia, we find them very lean and +exhausted at the end of the winter. But they grow exhausted not because +there is not enough food for all of them--the grass buried under a thin +sheet of snow is everywhere in abundance--but because of the difficulty +of getting it from beneath the snow, and this difficulty is the same for +all horses alike. Besides, days of glazed frost are common in early +spring, and if several such days come in succession the horses grow +still more exhausted. But then comes a snow-storm, which compels the +already weakened animals to remain without any food for several days, +and very great numbers of them die. The losses during the spring are so +severe that if the season has been more inclement than usual they are +even not repaired by the new breeds--the more so as all horses are +exhausted, and the young foals are born in a weaker condition. The +numbers of horses and cattle thus always remain beneath what they +otherwise might be; all the year round there is food for five or ten +times as many animals, and yet their population increases extremely +slowly. But as soon as the Buriate owner makes ever so small a provision +of hay in the steppe, and throws it open during days of glazed frost, or +heavier snow-fall, he immediately sees the increase of his herd. Almost +all free grass-eating animals and many rodents in Asia and America being +in very much the same conditions, we can safely say that their numbers +are not kept down by competition; that at no time of the year they can +struggle for food, and that if they never reach anything approaching to +over-population, the cause is in the climate, not in competition. + +The importance of natural checks to over-multiplication, and especially +their bearing upon the competition hypothesis, seems never to have been +taken into due account. The checks, or rather some of them, are +mentioned, but their action is seldom studied in detail. However, if we +compare the action of the natural checks with that of competition, we +must recognize at once that the latter sustains no comparison whatever +with the other checks. Thus, Mr. Bates mentions the really astounding +numbers of winged ants which are destroyed during their exodus. The dead +or half-dead bodies of the formica de fuego (Myrmica saevissima) which +had been blown into the river during a gale "were heaped in a line an +inch or two in height and breadth, the line continuing without +interruption for miles at the edge of the water."(35) Myriads of ants +are thus destroyed amidst a nature which might support a hundred times +as many ants as are actually living. Dr. Altum, a German forester, who +wrote a very interesting book about animals injurious to our forests, +also gives many facts showing the immense importance of natural checks. +He says, that a succession of gales or cold and damp weather during the +exodus of the pine-moth (Bombyx pini) destroy it to incredible amounts, +and during the spring of 1871 all these moths disappeared at once, +probably killed by a succession of cold nights.(36) Many like examples +relative to various insects could be quoted from various parts of +Europe. Dr. Altum also mentions the bird-enemies of the pine-moth, and +the immense amount of its eggs destroyed by foxes; but he adds that the +parasitic fungi which periodically infest it are a far more terrible +enemy than any bird, because they destroy the moth over very large areas +at once. As to various species of mice (Mus sylvaticus, Arvicola +arvalis, and A. agrestis), the same author gives a long list of their +enemies, but he remarks: "However, the most terrible enemies of mice are +not other animals, but such sudden changes of weather as occur almost +every year." Alternations of frost and warm weather destroy them in +numberless quantities; "one single sudden change can reduce thousands of +mice to the number of a few individuals." On the other side, a warm +winter, or a winter which gradually steps in, make them multiply in +menacing proportions, notwithstanding every enemy; such was the case in +1876 and 1877.(37) Competition, in the case of mice, thus appears a +quite trifling factor when compared with weather. Other facts to the +same effect are also given as regards squirrels. + +As to birds, it is well known how they suffer from sudden changes of +weather. Late snow-storms are as destructive of bird-life on the English +moors, as they are in Siberia; and Ch. Dixon saw the red grouse so +pressed during some exceptionally severe winters, that they quitted the +moors in numbers, "and we have then known them actually to be taken in +the streets of Sheffield. Persistent wet," he adds, "is almost as fatal +to them." + +On the other side, the contagious diseases which continually visit most +animal species destroy them in such numbers that the losses often cannot +be repaired for many years, even with the most rapidly-multiplying +animals. Thus, some sixty years ago, the sousliks suddenly disappeared +in the neighbourhood of Sarepta, in South-Eastern Russia, in consequence +of some epidemics; and for years no sousliks were seen in that +neighbourhood. It took many years before they became as numerous as they +formerly were.(38) + +Like facts, all tending to reduce the importance given to competition, +could be produced in numbers. Of course, it might be replied, in +Darwin's words, that nevertheless each organic being "at some period of +its life, during some season of the year, during each generation or at +intervals, has to struggle for life and to suffer great destruction," +and that the fittest survive during such periods of hard struggle for +life. But if the evolution of the animal world were based exclusively, +or even chiefly, upon the survival of the fittest during periods of +calamities; if natural selection were limited in its action to periods +of exceptional drought, or sudden changes of temperature, or +inundations, retrogression would be the rule in the animal world. Those +who survive a famine, or a severe epidemic of cholera, or small-pox, or +diphtheria, such as we see them in uncivilized countries, are neither +the strongest, nor the healthiest, nor the most intelligent. No progress +could be based on those survivals--the less so as all survivors usually +come out of the ordeal with an impaired health, like the Transbaikalian +horses just mentioned, or the Arctic crews, or the garrison of a +fortress which has been compelled to live for a few months on half +rations, and comes out of its experience with a broken health, and +subsequently shows a quite abnormal mortality. All that natural +selection can do in times of calamities is to spare the individuals +endowed with the greatest endurance for privations of all kinds. So it +does among the Siberian horses and cattle. They are enduring; they can +feed upon the Polar birch in case of need; they resist cold and hunger. +But no Siberian horse is capable of carrying half the weight which a +European horse carries with ease; no Siberian cow gives half the amount +of milk given by a Jersey cow, and no natives of uncivilized countries +can bear a comparison with Europeans. They may better endure hunger and +cold, but their physical force is very far below that of a well-fed +European, and their intellectual progress is despairingly slow. "Evil +cannot be productive of good," as Tchernyshevsky wrote in a remarkable +essay upon Darwinism.(39) + +Happily enough, competition is not the rule either in the animal world +or in mankind. It is limited among animals to exceptional periods, and +natural selection finds better fields for its activity. Better +conditions are created by the elimination of competition by means of +mutual aid and mutual Support.(40) In the great struggle for life--for +the greatest possible fulness and intensity of life with the least waste +of energy--natural selection continually seeks out the ways precisely +for avoiding competition as much as possible. The ants combine in nests +and nations; they pile up their stores, they rear their cattle--and thus +avoid competition; and natural selection picks out of the ants' family +the species which know best how to avoid competition, with its +unavoidably deleterious consequences. Most of our birds slowly move +southwards as the winter comes, or gather in numberless societies and +undertake long journeys--and thus avoid competition. Many rodents fall +asleep when the time comes that competition should set in; while other +rodents store food for the winter, and gather in large villages for +obtaining the necessary protection when at work. The reindeer, when the +lichens are dry in the interior of the continent, migrate towards the +sea. Buffaloes cross an immense continent in order to find plenty of +food. And the beavers, when they grow numerous on a river, divide into +two parties, and go, the old ones down the river, and the young ones up +the river and avoid competition. And when animals can neither fall +asleep, nor migrate, nor lay in stores, nor themselves grow their food +like the ants, they do what the titmouse does, and what Wallace +(Darwinism, ch. v) has so charmingly described: they resort to new kinds +of food--and thus, again, avoid competition. + +"Don't compete!--competition is always injurious to the species, and you +have plenty of resources to avoid it!" That is the tendency of nature, +not always realized in full, but always present. That is the watchword +which comes to us from the bush, the forest, the river, the ocean. +"Therefore combine--practise mutual aid! That is the surest means for +giving to each and to all the greatest safety, the best guarantee of +existence and progress, bodily, intellectual, and moral." That is what +Nature teaches us; and that is what all those animals which have +attained the highest position in their respective classes have done. +That is also what man--the most primitive man--has been doing; and that +is why man has reached the position upon which we stand now, as we shall +see in the subsequent chapters devoted to mutual aid in human societies. + +NOTES: + +1. Syevettsoff's Periodical Phenomena, p. 251. + +2. Seyfferlitz, quoted by Brehm, iv. 760. + +3. The Arctic Voyages of A.E. Nordenskjold, London, 1879, p. 135. See +also the powerful description of the St. Kilda islands by Mr. Dixon +(quoted by Seebohm), and nearly all books of Arctic travel. + +4. Elliot Coues, in Bulletin U.S. Geol. Survey of Territories, iv. No. +7, pp. 556, 579, etc. Among the gulls (Larus argentatus), Polyakoff saw +on a marsh in Northern Russia, that the nesting grounds of a very great +number of these birds were always patrolled by one male, which warned +the colony of the approach of danger. All birds rose in such case and +attacked the enemy with great vigour. The females, which had five or six +nests together on each knoll of the marsh, kept a certain order in +leaving their nests in search of food. The fledglings, which otherwise +are extremely unprotected and easily become the prey of the rapacious +birds, were never left alone ("Family Habits among the Aquatic Birds," +in Proceedings of the Zool. Section of St. Petersburg Soc. of Nat., Dec. +17, 1874). + +5. Brehm Father, quoted by A. Brehm, iv. 34 seq. See also White's +Natural History of Selborne, Letter XI. + +6. Dr. Coues, Birds of Dakota and Montana, in Bulletin U.S. Survey of +Territories, iv. No. 7. + +7. It has often been intimated that larger birds may occasionally +transport some of the smaller birds when they cross together the +Mediterranean, but the fact still remains doubtful. On the other side, +it is certain that some smaller birds join the bigger ones for +migration. The fact has been noticed several times, and it was recently +confirmed by L. Buxbaum at Raunheim. He saw several parties of cranes +which had larks flying in the midst and on both sides of their migratory +columns (Der zoologische Garten, 1886, p. 133). + +8. H. Seebohm and Ch. Dixon both mention this habit. + +9. The fact is well known to every field-naturalist, and with reference +to England several examples may be found in Charles Dixon's Among the +Birds in Northern Shires. The chaffinches arrive during winter in vast +flocks; and about the same time, i.e. in November, come flocks of +bramblings; redwings also frequent the same places "in similar large +companies," and so on (pp. 165, 166). + +10. S.W. Baker, Wild Beasts, etc., vol. i. p. 316. + +11. Tschudi, Thierleben der Alpenwelt, p. 404. + +12. Houzeau's Etudes, ii. 463. + +13. For their hunting associations see Sir E. Tennant's Natural History +of Ceylon, quoted in Romanes's Animal Intelligence, p. 432. + +14. See Emil Huter's letter in L. Buchner's Liebe. + +15. With regard to the viscacha it is very interesting to note that +these highly-sociable little animals not only live peaceably together in +each village, but that whole villages visit each other at nights. +Sociability is thus extended to the whole species--not only to a given +society, or to a nation, as we saw it with the ants. When the farmer +destroys a viscacha-burrow, and buries the inhabitants under a heap of +earth, other viscachas--we are told by Hudson--"come from a distance to +dig out those that are buried alive" (l.c., p. 311). This is a +widely-known fact in La Plata, verified by the author. + +16. Handbuch fuer Jaeger und Jagdberechtigte, quoted by Brehm, ii. 223. + +17. Buffon's Histoire Naturelle. + +18. In connection with the horses it is worthy of notice that the quagga +zebra, which never comes together with the dauw zebra, nevertheless +lives on excellent terms, not only with ostriches, which are very good +sentries, but also with gazelles, several species of antelopes, and +gnus. We thus have a case of mutual dislike between the quagga and the +dauw which cannot be explained by competition for food. The fact that +the quagga lives together with ruminants feeding on the same grass as +itself excludes that hypothesis, and we must look for some +incompatibility of character, as in the case of the hare and the rabbit. +Cf., among others, Clive Phillips-Wolley's Big Game Shooting (Badminton +Library), which contains excellent illustrations of various species +living together in East Africa. + +19. Our Tungus hunter, who was going to marry, and therefore was +prompted by the desire of getting as many furs as he possibly could, was +beating the hill-sides all day long on horseback in search of deer. His +efforts were not rewarded by even so much as one fallow deer killed +every day; and he was an excellent hunter. + +20. According to Samuel W. Baker, elephants combine in larger groups +than the "compound family." "I have frequently observed," he wrote, "in +the portion of Ceylon known as the Park Country, the tracks of elephants +in great numbers which have evidently been considerable herds that have +joined together in a general retreat from a ground which they considered +insecure" (Wild Beasts and their Ways, vol. i. p. 102). + +21. Pigs, attacked by wolves, do the same (Hudson, l.c.). + +22. Romanes's Animal Intelligence, p. 472. + +23. Brehm, i. 82; Darwin's Descent of Man, ch. iii. The Kozloff +expedition of 1899-1901 have also had to sustain in Northern Thibet a +similar fight. + +24. The more strange was it to read in the previously-mentioned article +by Huxley the following paraphrase of a well-known sentence of Rousseau: +"The first men who substituted mutual peace for that of mutual +war--whatever the motive which impelled them to take that step--created +society" (Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1888, p. 165). Society has not been +created by man; it is anterior to man. + +25. Such monographs as the chapter on "Music and Dancing in Nature" +which we have in Hudson's Naturalist on the La Plata, and Carl Gross' +Play of Animals, have already thrown a considerable light upon an +instinct which is absolutely universal in Nature. + +26. Not only numerous species of birds possess the habit of assembling +together--in many cases always at the same spot--to indulge in antics +and dancing performances, but W.H. Hudson's experience is that nearly +all mammals and birds ("probably there are really no exceptions") +indulge frequently in more or less regular or set performances with or +without sound, or composed of sound exclusively (p. 264). + +27. For the choruses of monkeys, see Brehm. + +28. Haygarth, Bush Life in Australia, p. 58. + +29. To quote but a few instances, a wounded badger was carried away by +another badger suddenly appearing on the scene; rats have been seen +feeding a blind couple (Seelenleben der Thiere, p. 64 seq.). Brehm +himself saw two crows feeding in a hollow tree a third crow which was +wounded; its wound was several weeks old (Hausfreund, 1874, 715; +Buchner's Liebe, 203). Mr. Blyth saw Indian crows feeding two or three +blind comrades; and so on. + +30. Man and Beast, p. 344. + +31. L.H. Morgan, The American Beaver, 1868, p. 272; Descent of Man, ch. +iv. + +32. One species of swallow is said to have caused the decrease of +another swallow species in North America; the recent increase of the +missel-thrush in Scotland has caused the decrease of the song-thrush; +the brown rat has taken the place of the black rat in Europe; in Russia +the small cockroach has everywhere driven before it its greater +congener; and in Australia the imported hive-bee is rapidly +exterminating the small stingless bee. Two other cases, but relative to +domesticated animals, are mentioned in the preceding paragraph. While +recalling these same facts, A.R. Wallace remarks in a footnote relative +to the Scottish thrushes: "Prof. A. Newton, however, informs me that +these species do not interfere in the way here stated" (Darwinism, p. +34). As to the brown rat, it is known that, owing to its amphibian +habits, it usually stays in the lower parts of human dwellings (low +cellars, sewers, etc.), as also on the banks of canals and rivers; it +also undertakes distant migrations in numberless bands. The black rat, +on the contrary, prefers staying in our dwellings themselves, under the +floor, as well as in our stables and barns. It thus is much more exposed +to be exterminated by man; and we cannot maintain, with any approach to +certainty, that the black rat is being either exterminated or starved +out by the brown rat and not by man. + +33. "But it may be urged that when several closely-allied species +inhabit the same territory, we surely ought to find at the present time +many transitional forms.... By my theory these allied species are +descended from a common parent; and during the process of modification, +each has become adapted to the conditions of life of its own region, and +has supplanted and exterminated its original parent-form and all the +transitional varieties between its past and present states" (Origin of +Species, 6th ed. p. 134); also p. 137, 296 (all paragraph "On +Extinction"). + +34. According to Madame Marie Pavloff, who has made a special study of +this subject, they migrated from Asia to Africa, stayed there some time, +and returned next to Asia. Whether this double migration be confirmed or +not, the fact of a former extension of the ancestor of our horse over +Asia, Africa, and America is settled beyond doubt. + +35. The Naturalist on the River Amazons, ii. 85, 95. + +36. Dr. B. Altum, Waldbeschadigungen durch Thiere und Gegenmittel +(Berlin, 1889), pp. 207 seq. + +37. Dr. B. Altum, ut supra, pp. 13 and 187. + +38. A. Becker in the Bulletin de la Societe des Naturalistes de Moscou, +1889, p. 625. + +39. Russkaya Mysl, Sept. 1888: "The Theory of Beneficency of Struggle +for Life, being a Preface to various Treatises on Botanics, Zoology, and +Human Life," by an Old Transformist. + +40. "One of the most frequent modes in which Natural Selection acts is, +by adapting some individuals of a species to a somewhat different mode +of life, whereby they are able to seize unappropriated places in Nature" +(Origin of Species, p. 145)--in other words, to avoid competition. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MUTUAL AID AMONG SAVAGES + +Supposed war of each against all. Tribal origin of human society. Late +appearance of the separate family. Bushmen and Hottentots. Australians, +Papuas. Eskimos, Aleoutes. Features of savage life difficult to +understand for the European. The Dayak's conception of justice. Common +law. + + +The immense part played by mutual aid and mutual support in the +evolution of the animal world has been briefly analyzed in the preceding +chapters. We have now to cast a glance upon the part played by the same +agencies in the evolution of mankind. We saw how few are the animal +species which live an isolated life, and how numberless are those which +live in societies, either for mutual defence, or for hunting and storing +up food, or for rearing their offspring, or simply for enjoying life in +common. We also saw that, though a good deal of warfare goes on between +different classes of animals, or different species, or even different +tribes of the same species, peace and mutual support are the rule within +the tribe or the species; and that those species which best know how to +combine, and to avoid competition, have the best chances of survival and +of a further progressive development. They prosper, while the unsociable +species decay. + +It is evident that it would be quite contrary to all that we know of +nature if men were an exception to so general a rule: if a creature so +defenceless as man was at his beginnings should have found his +protection and his way to progress, not in mutual support, like other +animals, but in a reckless competition for personal advantages, with no +regard to the interests of the species. To a mind accustomed to the idea +of unity in nature, such a proposition appears utterly indefensible. And +yet, improbable and unphilosophical as it is, it has never found a lack +of supporters. There always were writers who took a pessimistic view of +mankind. They knew it, more or less superficially, through their own +limited experience; they knew of history what the annalists, always +watchful of wars, cruelty, and oppression, told of it, and little more +besides; and they concluded that mankind is nothing but a loose +aggregation of beings, always ready to fight with each other, and only +prevented from so doing by the intervention of some authority. + +Hobbes took that position; and while some of his eighteenth-century +followers endeavoured to prove that at no epoch of its existence--not +even in its most primitive condition--mankind lived in a state of +perpetual warfare; that men have been sociable even in "the state of +nature," and that want of knowledge, rather than the natural bad +inclinations of man, brought humanity to all the horrors of its early +historical life,--his idea was, on the contrary, that the so-called +"state of nature" was nothing but a permanent fight between individuals, +accidentally huddled together by the mere caprice of their bestial +existence. True, that science has made some progress since Hobbes's +time, and that we have safer ground to stand upon than the speculations +of Hobbes or Rousseau. But the Hobbesian philosophy has plenty of +admirers still; and we have had of late quite a school of writers who, +taking possession of Darwin's terminology rather than of his leading +ideas, made of it an argument in favour of Hobbes's views upon primitive +man, and even succeeded in giving them a scientific appearance. Huxley, +as is known, took the lead of that school, and in a paper written in +1888 he represented primitive men as a sort of tigers or lions, deprived +of all ethical conceptions, fighting out the struggle for existence to +its bitter end, and living a life of "continual free fight"; to quote +his own words--"beyond the limited and, temporary relations of the +family, the Hobbesian war of each against all was the normal state of +existence."(1) + +It has been remarked more than once that the chief error of Hobbes, and +the eighteenth-century philosophers as well, was to imagine that mankind +began its life in the shape of small straggling families, something like +the "limited and temporary" families of the bigger carnivores, while in +reality it is now positively known that such was not the case. Of +course, we have no direct evidence as to the modes of life of the first +man-like beings. We are not yet settled even as to the time of their +first appearance, geologists being inclined at present to see their +traces in the pliocene, or even the miocene, deposits of the Tertiary +period. But we have the indirect method which permits us to throw some +light even upon that remote antiquity. A most careful investigation into +the social institutions of the lowest races has been carried on during +the last forty years, and it has revealed among the present institutions +of primitive folk some traces of still older institutions which have +long disappeared, but nevertheless left unmistakable traces of their +previous existence. A whole science devoted to the embryology of human +institutions has thus developed in the hands of Bachofen, MacLennan, +Morgan, Edwin Tylor, Maine, Post, Kovalevsky, Lubbock, and many others. +And that science has established beyond any doubt that mankind did not +begin its life in the shape of small isolated families. + +Far from being a primitive form of organization, the family is a very +late product of human evolution. As far as we can go back in the +palaeo-ethnology of mankind, we find men living in societies--in tribes +similar to those of the highest mammals; and an extremely slow and long +evolution was required to bring these societies to the gentile, or clan +organization, which, in its turn, had to undergo another, also very long +evolution, before the first germs of family, polygamous or monogamous, +could appear. Societies, bands, or tribes--not families--were thus the +primitive form of organization of mankind and its earliest ancestors. +That is what ethnology has come to after its painstaking researches. And +in so doing it simply came to what might have been foreseen by the +zoologist. None of the higher mammals, save a few carnivores and a few +undoubtedly-decaying species of apes (orang-outans and gorillas), live +in small families, isolatedly straggling in the woods. All others live +in societies. And Darwin so well understood that isolately-living apes +never could have developed into man-like beings, that he was inclined to +consider man as descended from some comparatively weak but social +species, like the chimpanzee, rather than from some stronger but +unsociable species, like the gorilla.(2) Zoology and palaeo-ethnology +are thus agreed in considering that the band, not the family, was the +earliest form of social life. The first human societies simply were a +further development of those societies which constitute the very essence +of life of the higher animals.(3) + +If we now go over to positive evidence, we see that the earliest traces +of man, dating from the glacial or the early post-glacial period, afford +unmistakable proofs of man having lived even then in societies. Isolated +finds of stone implements, even from the old stone age, are very rare; +on the contrary, wherever one flint implement is discovered others are +sure to be found, in most cases in very large quantities. At a time when +men were dwelling in caves, or under occasionally protruding rocks, in +company with mammals now extinct, and hardly succeeded in making the +roughest sorts of flint hatchets, they already knew the advantages of +life in societies. In the valleys of the tributaries of the Dordogne, +the surface of the rocks is in some places entirely covered with caves +which were inhabited by palaeolithic men.(4) Sometimes the +cave-dwellings are superposed in storeys, and they certainly recall much +more the nesting colonies of swallows than the dens of carnivores. As to +the flint implements discovered in those caves, to use Lubbock's words, +"one may say without exaggeration that they are numberless." The same is +true of other palaeolithic stations. It also appears from Lartet's +investigations that the inhabitants of the Aurignac region in the south +of France partook of tribal meals at the burial of their dead. So that +men lived in societies, and had germs of a tribal worship, even at that +extremely remote epoch. + +The same is still better proved as regards the later part of the stone +age. Traces of neolithic man have been found in numberless quantities, +so that we can reconstitute his manner of life to a great extent. When +the ice-cap (which must have spread from the Polar regions as far south +as middle France, middle Germany, and middle Russia, and covered Canada +as well as a good deal of what is now the United States) began to melt +away, the surfaces freed from ice were covered, first, with swamps and +marshes, and later on with numberless lakes.(5) Lakes filled all +depressions of the valleys before their waters dug out those permanent +channels which, during a subsequent epoch, became our rivers. And +wherever we explore, in Europe, Asia, or America, the shores of the +literally numberless lakes of that period, whose proper name would be +the Lacustrine period, we find traces of neolithic man. They are so +numerous that we can only wonder at the relative density of population +at that time. The "stations" of neolithic man closely follow each other +on the terraces which now mark the shores of the old lakes. And at each +of those stations stone implements appear in such numbers, that no doubt +is possible as to the length of time during which they were inhabited by +rather numerous tribes. Whole workshops of flint implements, testifying +of the numbers of workers who used to come together, have been +discovered by the archaeologists. + +Traces of a more advanced period, already characterized by the use of +some pottery, are found in the shell-heaps of Denmark. They appear, as +is well known, in the shape of heaps from five to ten feet thick, from +100 to 200 feet wide, and 1,000 feet or more in length, and they are so +common along some parts of the sea-coast that for a long time they were +considered as natural growths. And yet they "contain nothing but what +has been in some way or other subservient to the use of man," and they +are so densely stuffed with products of human industry that, during a +two days' stay at Milgaard, Lubbock dug out no less than 191 pieces of +stone-implements and four fragments of pottery.(6) The very size and +extension of the shell heaps prove that for generations and generations +the coasts of Denmark were inhabited by hundreds of small tribes which +certainly lived as peacefully together as the Fuegian tribes, which also +accumulate like shellheaps, are living in our own times. + +As to the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, which represent a still further +advance in civilization, they yield still better evidence of life and +work in societies. It is known that even during the stone age the shores +of the Swiss lakes were dotted with a succession of villages, each of +which consisted of several huts, and was built upon a platform supported +by numberless pillars in the lake. No less than twenty-four, mostly +stone age villages, were discovered along the shores of Lake Leman, +thirty-two in the Lake of Constance, forty-six in the Lake of Neuchatel, +and so on; and each of them testifies to the immense amount of labour +which was spent in common by the tribe, not by the family. It has even +been asserted that the life of the lake-dwellers must have been +remarkably free of warfare. And so it probably was, especially if we +refer to the life of those primitive folk who live until the present +time in similar villages built upon pillars on the sea coasts. + +It is thus seen, even from the above rapid hints, that our knowledge of +primitive man is not so scanty after all, and that, so far as it goes, +it is rather opposed than favourable to the Hobbesian speculations. +Moreover, it may be supplemented, to a great extent, by the direct +observation of such primitive tribes as now stand on the same level of +civilization as the inhabitants of Europe stood in prehistoric times. + +That these primitive tribes which we find now are not degenerated +specimens of mankind who formerly knew a higher civilization, as it has +occasionally been maintained, has sufficiently been proved by Edwin +Tylor and Lubbock. However, to the arguments already opposed to the +degeneration theory, the following may be added. Save a few tribes +clustering in the less-accessible highlands, the "savages" represent a +girdle which encircles the more or less civilized nations, and they +occupy the extremities of our continents, most of which have retained +still, or recently were bearing, an early post-glacial character. Such +are the Eskimos and their congeners in Greenland, Arctic America, and +Northern Siberia; and, in the Southern hemisphere, the Australians, the +Papuas, the Fuegians, and, partly, the Bushmen; while within the +civilized area, like primitive folk are only found in the Himalayas, the +highlands of Australasia, and the plateaus of Brazil. Now it must be +borne in mind that the glacial age did not come to an end at once over +the whole surface of the earth. It still continues in Greenland. +Therefore, at a time when the littoral regions of the Indian Ocean, the +Mediterranean, or the Gulf of Mexico already enjoyed a warmer climate, +and became the seats of higher civilizations, immense territories in +middle Europe, Siberia, and Northern America, as well as in Patagonia, +Southern Africa, and Southern Australasia, remained in early postglacial +conditions which rendered them inaccessible to the civilized nations of +the torrid and sub-torrid zones. They were at that time what the +terrible urmans of North-West Siberia are now, and their population, +inaccessible to and untouched by civilization, retained the characters +of early post-glacial man. Later on, when desiccation rendered these +territories more suitable for agriculture, they were peopled with more +civilized immigrants; and while part of their previous inhabitants were +assimilated by the new settlers, another part migrated further, and +settled where we find them. The territories they inhabit now are still, +or recently were, sub-glacial, as to their physical features; their arts +and implements are those of the neolithic age; and, notwithstanding +their racial differences, and the distances which separate them, their +modes of life and social institutions bear a striking likeness. So we +cannot but consider them as fragments of the early post-glacial +population of the now civilized area. + +The first thing which strikes us as soon as we begin studying primitive +folk is the complexity of the organization of marriage relations under +which they are living. With most of them the family, in the sense we +attribute to it, is hardly found in its germs. But they are by no means +loose aggregations of men and women coming in a disorderly manner +together in conformity with their momentary caprices. All of them are +under a certain organization, which has been described by Morgan in its +general aspects as the "gentile," or clan organization.(7) + +To tell the matter as briefly as possible, there is little doubt that +mankind has passed at its beginnings through a stage which may be +described as that of "communal marriage"; that is, the whole tribe had +husbands and wives in common with but little regard to consanguinity. +But it is also certain that some restrictions to that free intercourse +were imposed at a very early period. Inter-marriage was soon prohibited +between the sons of one mother and her sisters, granddaughters, and +aunts. Later on it was prohibited between the sons and daughters of the +same mother, and further limitations did not fail to follow. The idea of +a gens, or clan, which embodied all presumed descendants from one stock +(or rather all those who gathered in one group) was evolved, and +marriage within the clan was entirely prohibited. It still remained +"communal," but the wife or the husband had to be taken from another +clan. And when a gens became too numerous, and subdivided into several +gentes, each of them was divided into classes (usually four), and +marriage was permitted only between certain well-defined classes. That +is the stage which we find now among the Kamilaroi-speaking Australians. +As to the family, its first germs appeared amidst the clan organization. +A woman who was captured in war from some other clan, and who formerly +would have belonged to the whole gens, could be kept at a later period +by the capturer, under certain obligations towards the tribe. She may be +taken by him to a separate hut, after she had paid a certain tribute to +the clan, and thus constitute within the gens a separate family, the +appearance of which evidently was opening a quite new phase of +civilization. + +Now, if we take into consideration that this complicated organization +developed among men who stood at the lowest known degree of development, +and that it maintained itself in societies knowing no kind of authority +besides the authority of public opinion, we at once see how deeply +inrooted social instincts must have been in human nature, even at its +lowest stages. A savage who is capable of living under such an +organization, and of freely submitting to rules which continually clash +with his personal desires, certainly is not a beast devoid of ethical +principles and knowing no rein to its passions. But the fact becomes +still more striking if we consider the immense antiquity of the clan +organization. It is now known that the primitive Semites, the Greeks of +Homer, the prehistoric Romans, the Germans of Tacitus, the early Celts +and the early Slavonians, all have had their own period of clan +organization, closely analogous to that of the Australians, the Red +Indians, the Eskimos, and other inhabitants of the "savage girdle."(9) +So we must admit that either the evolution of marriage laws went on on +the same lines among all human races, or the rudiments of the clan rules +were developed among some common ancestors of the Semites, the Aryans, +the Polynesians, etc., before their differentiation into separate races +took place, and that these rules were maintained, until now, among races +long ago separated from the common stock. Both alternatives imply, +however, an equally striking tenacity of the institution--such a +tenacity that no assaults of the individual could break it down through +the scores of thousands of years that it was in existence. The very +persistence of the clan organization shows how utterly false it is to +represent primitive mankind as a disorderly agglomeration of +individuals, who only obey their individual passions, and take advantage +of their personal force and cunningness against all other +representatives of the species. Unbridled individualism is a modern +growth, but it is not characteristic of primitive mankind.(10) + +Going now over to the existing savages, we may begin with the Bushmen, +who stand at a very low level of development--so low indeed that they +have no dwellings and sleep in holes dug in the soil, occasionally +protected by some screens. It is known that when Europeans settled in +their territory and destroyed deer, the Bushmen began stealing the +settlers' cattle, whereupon a war of extermination, too horrible to be +related here, was waged against them. Five hundred Bushmen were +slaughtered in 1774, three thousand in 1808 and 1809 by the Farmers' +Alliance, and so on. They were poisoned like rats, killed by hunters +lying in ambush before the carcass of some animal, killed wherever met +with.(11) So that our knowledge of the Bushmen, being chiefly borrowed +from those same people who exterminated them, is necessarily limited. +But still we know that when the Europeans came, the Bushmen lived in +small tribes (or clans), sometimes federated together; that they used to +hunt in common, and divided the spoil without quarrelling; that they +never abandoned their wounded, and displayed strong affection to their +comrades. Lichtenstein has a most touching story about a Bushman, nearly +drowned in a river, who was rescued by his companions. They took off +their furs to cover him, and shivered themselves; they dried him, rubbed +him before the fire, and smeared his body with warm grease till they +brought him back to life. And when the Bushmen found, in Johan van der +Walt, a man who treated them well, they expressed their thankfulness by +a most touching attachment to that man.(12) Burchell and Moffat both +represent them as goodhearted, disinterested, true to their promises, +and grateful,(13) all qualities which could develop only by being +practised within the tribe. As to their love to children, it is +sufficient to say that when a European wished to secure a Bushman woman +as a slave, he stole her child: the mother was sure to come into slavery +to share the fate of her child.(14) + +The same social manners characterize the Hottentots, who are but a +little more developed than the Bushmen. Lubbock describes them as "the +filthiest animals," and filthy they really are. A fur suspended to the +neck and worn till it falls to pieces is all their dress; their huts are +a few sticks assembled together and covered with mats, with no kind of +furniture within. And though they kept oxen and sheep, and seem to have +known the use of iron before they made acquaintance with the Europeans, +they still occupy one of the lowest degrees of the human scale. And yet +those who knew them highly praised their sociability and readiness to +aid each other. If anything is given to a Hottentot, he at once divides +it among all present--a habit which, as is known, so much struck Darwin +among the Fuegians. He cannot eat alone, and, however hungry, he calls +those who pass by to share his food. And when Kolben expressed his +astonishment thereat, he received the answer. "That is Hottentot +manner." But this is not Hottentot manner only: it is an all but +universal habit among the "savages." Kolben, who knew the Hottentots +well and did not pass by their defects in silence, could not praise +their tribal morality highly enough. + +"Their word is sacred," he wrote. They know "nothing of the corruptness +and faithless arts of Europe." "They live in great tranquillity and are +seldom at war with their neighbours." They are "all kindness and +goodwill to one another.. One of the greatest pleasures of the +Hottentots certainly lies in their gifts and good offices to one +another." "The integrity of the Hottentots, their strictness and +celerity in the exercise of justice, and their chastity, are things in +which they excel all or most nations in the world."(15) + +Tachart, Barrow, and Moodie(16) fully confirm Kolben's testimony. Let me +only remark that when Kolben wrote that "they are certainly the most +friendly, the most liberal and the most benevolent people to one another +that ever appeared on the earth" (i. 332), he wrote a sentence which has +continually appeared since in the description of savages. When first +meeting with primitive races, the Europeans usually make a caricature of +their life; but when an intelligent man has stayed among them for a +longer time, he generally describes them as the "kindest" or "the +gentlest" race on the earth. These very same words have been applied to +the Ostyaks, the Samoyedes, the Eskimos, the Dayaks, the Aleoutes, the +Papuas, and so on, by the highest authorities. I also remember having +read them applied to the Tunguses, the Tchuktchis, the Sioux, and +several others. The very frequency of that high commendation already +speaks volumes in itself. + +The natives of Australia do not stand on a higher level of development +than their South African brothers. Their huts are of the same character: +very often simple screens are the only protection against cold winds. In +their food they are most indifferent: they devour horribly putrefied +corpses, and cannibalism is resorted to in times of scarcity. When first +discovered by Europeans, they had no implements but in stone or bone, +and these were of the roughest description. Some tribes had even no +canoes, and did not know barter-trade. And yet, when their manners and +customs were carefully studied, they proved to be living under that +elaborate clan organization which I have mentioned on a preceding +page.(17) + +The territory they inhabit is usually allotted between the different +gentes or clans; but the hunting and fishing territories of each clan +are kept in common, and the produce of fishing and hunting belongs to +the whole clan; so also the fishing and hunting implements.(18) The +meals are taken in common. Like many other savages, they respect certain +regulations as to the seasons when certain gums and grasses may be +collected.(19) As to their morality altogether, we cannot do better than +transcribe the following answers given to the questions of the Paris +Anthropological Society by Lumholtz, a missionary who sojourned in North +Queensland:(20)-- + +"The feeling of friendship is known among them; it is strong. Weak +people are usually supported; sick people are very well attended to; +they never are abandoned or killed. These tribes are cannibals, but they +very seldom eat members of their own tribe (when immolated on religious +principles, I suppose); they eat strangers only. The parents love their +children, play with them, and pet them. Infanticide meets with common +approval. Old people are very well treated, never put to death. No +religion, no idols, only a fear of death. Polygamous marriage, quarrels +arising within the tribe are settled by means of duels fought with +wooden swords and shields. No slaves; no culture of any kind; no +pottery; no dress, save an apron sometimes worn by women. The clan +consists of two hundred individuals, divided into four classes of men +and four of women; marriage being only permitted within the usual +classes, and never within the gens." + +For the Papuas, closely akin to the above, we have the testimony of G.L. +Bink, who stayed in New Guinea, chiefly in Geelwink Bay, from 1871 to +1883. Here is the essence of his answers to the same questioner:(21)-- + +"They are sociable and cheerful; they laugh very much. Rather timid than +courageous. Friendship is relatively strong among persons belonging to +different tribes, and still stronger within the tribe. A friend will +often pay the debt of his friend, the stipulation being that the latter +will repay it without interest to the children of the lender. They take +care of the ill and the old; old people are never abandoned, and in no +case are they killed--unless it be a slave who was ill for a long time. +War prisoners are sometimes eaten. The children are very much petted and +loved. Old and feeble war prisoners are killed, the others are sold as +slaves. They have no religion, no gods, no idols, no authority of any +description; the oldest man in the family is the judge. In cases of +adultery a fine is paid, and part of it goes to the negoria (the +community). The soil is kept in common, but the crop belongs to those +who have grown it. They have pottery, and know barter-trade--the custom +being that the merchant gives them the goods, whereupon they return to +their houses and bring the native goods required by the merchant; if the +latter cannot be obtained, the European goods are returned.(22) They are +head-hunters, and in so doing they prosecute blood revenge. 'Sometimes,' +Finsch says, 'the affair is referred to the Rajah of Namototte, who +terminates it by imposing a fine.'" + +When well treated, the Papuas are very kind. Miklukho-Maclay landed on +the eastern coast of New Guinea, followed by one single man, stayed for +two years among tribes reported to be cannibals, and left them with +regret; he returned again to stay one year more among them, and never +had he any conflict to complain of. True that his rule was never--under +no pretext whatever--to say anything which was not truth, nor make any +promise which he could not keep. These poor creatures, who even do not +know how to obtain fire, and carefully maintain it in their huts, live +under their primitive communism, without any chiefs; and within their +villages they have no quarrels worth speaking of. They work in common, +just enough to get the food of the day; they rear their children in +common; and in the evenings they dress themselves as coquettishly as +they can, and dance. Like all savages, they are fond of dancing. Each +village has its barla, or balai--the "long house," "longue maison," or +"grande maison"--for the unmarried men, for social gatherings, and for +the discussion of common affairs--again a trait which is common to most +inhabitants of the Pacific Islands, the Eskimos, the Red Indians, and so +on. Whole groups of villages are on friendly terms, and visit each other +en bloc. + +Unhappily, feuds are not uncommon--not in consequence of "Overstocking +of the area," or "keen competition," and like inventions of a mercantile +century, but chiefly in consequence of superstition. As soon as any one +falls ill, his friends and relatives come together, and deliberately +discuss who might be the cause of the illness. All possible enemies are +considered, every one confesses of his own petty quarrels, and finally +the real cause is discovered. An enemy from the next village has called +it down, and a raid upon that village is decided upon. Therefore, feuds +are rather frequent, even between the coast villages, not to say a word +of the cannibal mountaineers who are considered as real witches and +enemies, though, on a closer acquaintance, they prove to be exactly the +same sort of people as their neighbours on the seacoast.(23) + +Many striking pages could be written about the harmony which prevails in +the villages of the Polynesian inhabitants of the Pacific Islands. But +they belong to a more advanced stage of civilization. So we shall now +take our illustrations from the far north. I must mention, however, +before leaving the Southern Hemisphere, that even the Fuegians, whose +reputation has been so bad, appear under a much better light since they +begin to be better known. A few French missionaries who stay among them +"know of no act of malevolence to complain of." In their clans, +consisting of from 120 to 150 souls, they practise the same primitive +communism as the Papuas; they share everything in common, and treat +their old people very well. Peace prevails among these tribes.(24) With +the Eskimos and their nearest congeners, the Thlinkets, the Koloshes, +and the Aleoutes, we find one of the nearest illustrations of what man +may have been during the glacial age. Their implements hardly differ +from those of palaeolithic man, and some of their tribes do not yet know +fishing: they simply spear the fish with a kind of harpoon.(25) They +know the use of iron, but they receive it from the Europeans, or find it +on wrecked ships. Their social organization is of a very primitive kind, +though they already have emerged from the stage of "communal marriage," +even under the gentile restrictions. They live in families, but the +family bonds are often broken; husbands and wives are often +exchanged.(26) The families, however, remain united in clans, and how +could it be otherwise? How could they sustain the hard struggle for life +unless by closely combining their forces? So they do, and the tribal +bonds are closest where the struggle for life is hardest, namely, in +North-East Greenland. The "long house" is their usual dwelling, and +several families lodge in it, separated from each other by small +partitions of ragged furs, with a common passage in the front. Sometimes +the house has the shape of a cross, and in such case a common fire is +kept in the centre. The German Expedition which spent a winter close by +one of those "long houses" could ascertain that "no quarrel disturbed +the peace, no dispute arose about the use of this narrow space" +throughout the long winter. "Scolding, or even unkind words, are +considered as a misdemeanour, if not produced under the legal form of +process, namely, the nith-song."(27) Close cohabitation and close +interdependence are sufficient for maintaining century after century +that deep respect for the interests of the community which is +characteristic of Eskimo life. Even in the larger communities of +Eskimos, "public opinion formed the real judgment-seat, the general +punishment consisting in the offenders being shamed in the eyes of the +people."(28) + +Eskimo life is based upon communism. What is obtained by hunting and +fishing belongs to the clan. But in several tribes, especially in the +West, under the influence of the Danes, private property penetrates into +their institutions. However, they have an original means for obviating +the inconveniences arising from a personal accumulation of wealth which +would soon destroy their tribal unity. When a man has grown rich, he +convokes the folk of his clan to a great festival, and, after much +eating, distributes among them all his fortune. On the Yukon river, Dall +saw an Aleonte family distributing in this way ten guns, ten full fur +dresses, 200 strings of beads, numerous blankets, ten wolf furs, 200 +beavers, and 500 zibelines. After that they took off their festival +dresses, gave them away, and, putting on old ragged furs, addressed a +few words to their kinsfolk, saying that though they are now poorer than +any one of them, they have won their friendship.(29) Like distributions +of wealth appear to be a regular habit with the Eskimos, and to take +place at a certain season, after an exhibition of all that has been +obtained during the year.(30) In my opinion these distributions reveal a +very old institution, contemporaneous with the first apparition of +personal wealth; they must have been a means for re-establishing +equality among the members of the clan, after it had been disturbed by +the enrichment of the few. The periodical redistribution of land and the +periodical abandonment of all debts which took place in historical times +with so many different races (Semites, Aryans, etc.), must have been a +survival of that old custom. And the habit of either burying with the +dead, or destroying upon his grave, all that belonged to him +personally--a habit which we find among all primitive races--must have +had the same origin. In fact, while everything that belongs personally +to the dead is burnt or broken upon his grave, nothing is destroyed of +what belonged to him in common with the tribe, such as boats, or the +communal implements of fishing. The destruction bears upon personal +property alone. At a later epoch this habit becomes a religious +ceremony. It receives a mystical interpretation, and is imposed by +religion, when public opinion alone proves incapable of enforcing its +general observance. And, finally, it is substituted by either burning +simple models of the dead man's property (as in China), or by simply +carrying his property to the grave and taking it back to his house after +the burial ceremony is over--a habit which still prevails with the +Europeans as regards swords, crosses, and other marks of public +distinction.(31) + +The high standard of the tribal morality of the Eskimos has often been +mentioned in general literature. Nevertheless the following remarks upon +the manners of the Aleoutes--nearly akin to the Eskimos--will better +illustrate savage morality as a whole. They were written, after a ten +years' stay among the Aleoutes, by a most remarkable man--the Russian +missionary, Veniaminoff. I sum them up, mostly in his own words:-- + +Endurability (he wrote) is their chief feature. It is simply colossal. +Not only do they bathe every morning in the frozen sea, and stand naked +on the beach, inhaling the icy wind, but their endurability, even when +at hard work on insufficient food, surpasses all that can be imagined. +During a protracted scarcity of food, the Aleoute cares first for his +children; he gives them all he has, and himself fasts. They are not +inclined to stealing; that was remarked even by the first Russian +immigrants. Not that they never steal; every Aleoute would confess +having sometime stolen something, but it is always a trifle; the whole +is so childish. The attachment of the parents to their children is +touching, though it is never expressed in words or pettings. The Aleoute +is with difficulty moved to make a promise, but once he has made it he +will keep it whatever may happen. (An Aleoute made Veniaminoff a gift of +dried fish, but it was forgotten on the beach in the hurry of the +departure. He took it home. The next occasion to send it to the +missionary was in January; and in November and December there was a +great scarcity of food in the Aleoute encampment. But the fish was never +touched by the starving people, and in January it was sent to its +destination.) Their code of morality is both varied and severe. It is +considered shameful to be afraid of unavoidable death; to ask pardon +from an enemy; to die without ever having killed an enemy; to be +convicted of stealing; to capsize a boat in the harbour; to be afraid of +going to sea in stormy weather; to be the first in a party on a long +journey to become an invalid in case of scarcity of food; to show +greediness when spoil is divided, in which case every one gives his own +part to the greedy man to shame him; to divulge a public secret to his +wife; being two persons on a hunting expedition, not to offer the best +game to the partner; to boast of his own deeds, especially of invented +ones; to scold any one in scorn. Also to beg; to pet his wife in other +people's presence, and to dance with her to bargain personally: selling +must always be made through a third person, who settles the price. For a +woman it is a shame not to know sewing, dancing and all kinds of woman's +work; to pet her husband and children, or even to speak to her husband +in the presence of a stranger.(32) + +Such is Aleoute morality, which might also be further illustrated by +their tales and legends. Let me also add that when Veniaminoff wrote (in +1840) one murder only had been committed since the last century in a +population of 60,000 people, and that among 1,800 Aleoutes not one +single common law offence had been known for forty years. This will not +seem strange if we remark that scolding, scorning, and the use of rough +words are absolutely unknown in Aleoute life. Even their children never +fight, and never abuse each other in words. All they may say is, "Your +mother does not know sewing," or "Your father is blind of one eye."(33) + +Many features of savage life remain, however, a puzzle to Europeans. The +high development of tribal solidarity and the good feelings with which +primitive folk are animated towards each other, could be illustrated by +any amount of reliable testimony. And yet it is not the less certain +that those same savages practise infanticide; that in some cases they +abandon their old people, and that they blindly obey the rules of +blood-revenge. We must then explain the coexistence of facts which, to +the European mind, seem so contradictory at the first sight. I have just +mentioned how the Aleoute father starves for days and weeks, and gives +everything eatable to his child; and how the Bushman mother becomes a +slave to follow her child; and I might fill pages with illustrations of +the really tender relations existing among the savages and their +children. Travellers continually mention them incidentally. Here you +read about the fond love of a mother; there you see a father wildly +running through the forest and carrying upon his shoulders his child +bitten by a snake; or a missionary tells you the despair of the parents +at the loss of a child whom he had saved, a few years before, from being +immolated at its birth, you learn that the "savage" mothers usually +nurse their children till the age of four, and that, in the New +Hebrides, on the loss of a specially beloved child, its mother, or aunt, +will kill herself to take care of it in the other world.(34) And so on. + +Like facts are met with by the score; so that, when we see that these +same loving parents practise infanticide, we are bound to recognize that +the habit (whatever its ulterior transformations may be) took its origin +under the sheer pressure of necessity, as an obligation towards the +tribe, and a means for rearing the already growing children. The +savages, as a rule, do not "multiply without stint," as some English +writers put it. On the contrary, they take all kinds of measures for +diminishing the birth-rate. A whole series of restrictions, which +Europeans certainly would find extravagant, are imposed to that effect, +and they are strictly obeyed. But notwithstanding that, primitive folk +cannot rear all their children. However, it has been remarked that as +soon as they succeed in increasing their regular means of subsistence, +they at once begin to abandon the practice of infanticide. On the whole, +the parents obey that obligation reluctantly, and as soon as they can +afford it they resort to all kinds of compromises to save the lives of +their new-born. As has been so well pointed out by my friend Elie +Reclus,(35) they invent the lucky and unlucky days of births, and spare +the children born on the lucky days; they try to postpone the sentence +for a few hours, and then say that if the baby has lived one day it must +live all its natural life.(36) They hear the cries of the little ones +coming from the forest, and maintain that, if heard, they forbode a +misfortune for the tribe; and as they have no baby-farming nor creches +for getting rid of the children, every one of them recoils before the +necessity of performing the cruel sentence; they prefer to expose the +baby in the wood rather than to take its life by violence. Ignorance, +not cruelty, maintains infanticide; and, instead of moralizing the +savages with sermons, the missionaries would do better to follow the +example of Veniaminoff, who, every year till his old age, crossed the +sea of Okhotsk in a miserable boat, or travelled on dogs among his +Tchuktchis, supplying them with bread and fishing implements. He thus +had really stopped infanticide. + +The same is true as regards what superficial observers describe as +parricide. We just now saw that the habit of abandoning old people is +not so widely spread as some writers have maintained it to be. It has +been extremely exaggerated, but it is occasionally met with among nearly +all savages; and in such cases it has the same origin as the exposure of +children. When a "savage" feels that he is a burden to his tribe; when +every morning his share of food is taken from the mouths of the +children--and the little ones are not so stoical as their fathers: they +cry when they are hungry; when every day he has to be carried across the +stony beach, or the virgin forest, on the shoulders of younger people +there are no invalid carriages, nor destitutes to wheel them in savage +lands--he begins to repeat what the old Russian peasants say until +now-a-day. "Tchujoi vek zayedayu, Pora na pokoi!" ("I live other +people's life: it is time to retire!") And he retires. He does what the +soldier does in a similar case. When the salvation of his detachment +depends upon its further advance, and he can move no more, and knows +that he must die if left behind, the soldier implores his best friend to +render him the last service before leaving the encampment. And the +friend, with shivering hands, discharges his gun into the dying body. So +the savages do. The old man asks himself to die; he himself insists upon +this last duty towards the community, and obtains the consent of the +tribe; he digs out his grave; he invites his kinsfolk to the last +parting meal. His father has done so, it is now his turn; and he parts +with his kinsfolk with marks of affection. The savage so much considers +death as part of his duties towards his community, that he not only +refuses to be rescued (as Moffat has told), but when a woman who had to +be immolated on her husband's grave was rescued by missionaries, and was +taken to an island, she escaped in the night, crossed a broad sea-arm, +swimming and rejoined her tribe, to die on the grave.(37) It has become +with them a matter of religion. But the savages, as a rule, are so +reluctant to take any one's life otherwise than in fight, that none of +them will take upon himself to shed human blood, and they resort to all +kinds of stratagems, which have been so falsely interpreted. In most +cases, they abandon the old man in the wood, after having given him more +than his share of the common food. Arctic expeditions have done the same +when they no more could carry their invalid comrades. "Live a few days +more, maybe there will be some unexpected rescue!" West European men of +science, when coming across these facts, are absolutely unable to stand +them; they can not reconcile them with a high development of tribal +morality, and they prefer to cast a doubt upon the exactitude of +absolutely reliable observers, instead of trying to explain the parallel +existence of the two sets of facts: a high tribal morality together with +the abandonment of the parents and infanticide. But if these same +Europeans were to tell a savage that people, extremely amiable, fond of +their own children, and so impressionable that they cry when they see a +misfortune simulated on the stage, are living in Europe within a stone's +throw from dens in which children die from sheer want of food, the +savage, too, would not understand them. I remember how vainly I tried to +make some of my Tungus friends understand our civilization of +individualism: they could not, and they resorted to the most fantastical +suggestions. The fact is that a savage, brought up in ideas of a tribal +solidarity in everything for bad and for good, is as incapable of +understanding a "moral" European, who knows nothing of that solidarity, +as the average European is incapable of understanding the savage. But if +our scientist had lived amidst a half-starving tribe which does not +possess among them all one man's food for so much as a few days to come, +he probably might have understood their motives. So also the savage, if +he had stayed among us, and received our education, may be, would +understand our European indifference towards our neighbours, and our +Royal Commissions for the prevention of "babyfarming." "Stone houses +make stony hearts," the Russian peasants say. But he ought to live in a +stone house first. + +Similar remarks must be made as regards cannibalism. Taking into account +all the facts which were brought to light during a recent controversy on +this subject at the Paris Anthropological Society, and many incidental +remarks scattered throughout the "savage" literature, we are bound to +recognize that that practice was brought into existence by sheer +necessity. But that it was further developed by superstition and +religion into the proportions it attained in Fiji or in Mexico. It is a +fact that until this day many savages are compelled to devour corpses in +the most advanced state of putrefaction, and that in cases of absolute +scarcity some of them have had to disinter and to feed upon human +corpses, even during an epidemic. These are ascertained facts. But if we +now transport ourselves to the conditions which man had to face during +the glacial period, in a damp and cold climate, with but little +vegetable food at his disposal; if we take into account the terrible +ravages which scurvy still makes among underfed natives, and remember +that meat and fresh blood are the only restoratives which they know, we +must admit that man, who formerly was a granivorous animal, became a +flesh-eater during the glacial period. He found plenty of deer at that +time, but deer often migrate in the Arctic regions, and sometimes they +entirely abandon a territory for a number of years. In such cases his +last resources disappeared. During like hard trials, cannibalism has +been resorted to even by Europeans, and it was resorted to by the +savages. Until the present time, they occasionally devour the corpses of +their own dead: they must have devoured then the corpses of those who +had to die. Old people died, convinced that by their death they were +rendering a last service to the tribe. This is why cannibalism is +represented by some savages as of divine origin, as something that has +been ordered by a messenger from the sky. But later on it lost its +character of necessity, and survived as a superstition. Enemies had to +be eaten in order to inherit their courage; and, at a still later epoch, +the enemy's eye or heart was eaten for the same purpose; while among +other tribes, already having a numerous priesthood and a developed +mythology, evil gods, thirsty for human blood, were invented, and human +sacrifices required by the priests to appease the gods. In this +religious phase of its existence, cannibalism attained its most +revolting characters. Mexico is a well-known example; and in Fiji, where +the king could eat any one of his subjects, we also find a mighty cast +of priests, a complicated theology,(38) and a full development of +autocracy. Originated by necessity, cannibalism became, at a later +period, a religious institution, and in this form it survived long after +it had disappeared from among tribes which certainly practised it in +former times, but did not attain the theocratical stage of evolution. +The same remark must be made as regards infanticide and the abandonment +of parents. In some cases they also have been maintained as a survival +of olden times, as a religiously-kept tradition of the past. + +I will terminate my remarks by mentioning another custom which also is a +source of most erroneous conclusions. I mean the practice of +blood-revenge. All savages are under the impression that blood shed must +be revenged by blood. If any one has been killed, the murderer must die; +if any one has been wounded, the aggressor's blood must be shed. There +is no exception to the rule, not even for animals; so the hunter's blood +is shed on his return to the village when he has shed the blood of an +animal. That is the savages' conception of justice--a conception which +yet prevails in Western Europe as regards murder. Now, when both the +offender and the offended belong to the same tribe, the tribe and the +offended person settle the affair.(39) But when the offender belongs to +another tribe, and that tribe, for one reason or another, refuses a +compensation, then the offended tribe decides to take the revenge +itself. Primitive folk so much consider every one's acts as a tribal +affair, dependent upon tribal approval, that they easily think the clan +responsible for every one's acts. Therefore, the due revenge may be +taken upon any member of the offender's clan or relatives.(40) It may +often happen, however, that the retaliation goes further than the +offence. In trying to inflict a wound, they may kill the offender, or +wound him more than they intended to do, and this becomes a cause for a +new feud, so that the primitive legislators were careful in requiring +the retaliation to be limited to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, +and blood for blood.(41) + +It is remarkable, however, that with most primitive folk like feuds are +infinitely rarer than might be expected; though with some of them they +may attain abnormal proportions, especially with mountaineers who have +been driven to the highlands by foreign invaders, such as the +mountaineers of Caucasia, and especially those of Borneo--the Dayaks. +With the Dayaks--we were told lately--the feuds had gone so far that a +young man could neither marry nor be proclaimed of age before he had +secured the head of an enemy. This horrid practice was fully described +in a modern English work.(42) It appears, however, that this affirmation +was a gross exaggeration. Moreover, Dayak "head-hunting" takes quite +another aspect when we learn that the supposed "headhunter" is not +actuated at all by personal passion. He acts under what he considers as +a moral obligation towards his tribe, just as the European judge who, in +obedience to the same, evidently wrong, principle of "blood for blood," +hands over the condemned murderer to the hangman. Both the Dayak and the +judge would even feel remorse if sympathy moved them to spare the +murderer. That is why the Dayaks, apart from the murders they commit +when actuated by their conception of justice, are depicted, by all those +who know them, as a most sympathetic people. Thus Carl Bock, the same +author who has given such a terrible picture of head-hunting, writes: + + "As regards morality, I am bound to assign to the Dayaks a high + place in the scale of civilization.... Robberies and theft are + entirely unknown among them. They also are very truthful.... If I + did not always get the 'whole truth,' I always got, at least, + nothing but the truth from them. I wish I could say the same of the + Malays" (pp. 209 and 210). + +Bock's testimony is fully corroborated by that of Ida Pfeiffer. "I fully +recognized," she wrote, "that I should be pleased longer to travel among +them. I usually found them honest, good, and reserved ... much more so +than any other nation I know."(43) Stoltze used almost the same language +when speaking of them. The Dayaks usually have but one wife, and treat +her well. They are very sociable, and every morning the whole clan goes +out for fishing, hunting, or gardening, in large parties. Their villages +consist of big huts, each of which is inhabited by a dozen families, and +sometimes by several hundred persons, peacefully living together. They +show great respect for their wives, and are fond of their children; and +when one of them falls ill, the women nurse him in turn. As a rule they +are very moderate in eating and drinking. Such is the Dayak in his real +daily life. + +It would be a tedious repetition if more illustrations from savage life +were given. Wherever we go we find the same sociable manners, the same +spirit of solidarity. And when we endeavour to penetrate into the +darkness of past ages, we find the same tribal life, the same +associations of men, however primitive, for mutual support. Therefore, +Darwin was quite right when he saw in man's social qualities the chief +factor for his further evolution, and Darwin's vulgarizers are entirely +wrong when they maintain the contrary. + +The small strength and speed of man (he wrote), his want of natural +weapons, etc., are more than counterbalanced, firstly, by his +intellectual faculties (which, he remarked on another page, have been +chiefly or even exclusively gained for the benefit of the community). +and secondly, by his social qualities, which led him to give and receive +aid from his fellow men.(44) + +In the last century the "savage" and his "life in the state of nature" +were idealized. But now men of science have gone to the opposite +extreme, especially since some of them, anxious to prove the animal +origin of man, but not conversant with the social aspects of animal +life, began to charge the savage with all imaginable "bestial" features. +It is evident, however, that this exaggeration is even more unscientific +than Rousseau's idealization. The savage is not an ideal of virtue, nor +is he an ideal of "savagery." But the primitive man has one quality, +elaborated and maintained by the very necessities of his hard struggle +for life--he identifies his own existence with that of his tribe; and +without that quality mankind never would have attained the level it has +attained now. + +Primitive folk, as has been already said, so much identify their lives +with that of the tribe, that each of their acts, however insignificant, +is considered as a tribal affair. Their whole behaviour is regulated by +an infinite series of unwritten rules of propriety which are the fruit +of their common experience as to what is good or bad--that is, +beneficial or harmful for their own tribe. Of course, the reasonings +upon which their rules of propriety are based sometimes are absurd in +the extreme. Many of them originate in superstition; and altogether, in +whatever the savage does, he sees but the immediate consequences of his +acts; he cannot foresee their indirect and ulterior consequences--thus +simply exaggerating a defect with which Bentham reproached civilized +legislators. But, absurd or not, the savage obeys the prescriptions of +the common law, however inconvenient they may be. He obeys them even +more blindly than the civilized man obeys the prescriptions of the +written law. His common law is his religion; it is his very habit of +living. The idea of the clan is always present to his mind, and +self-restriction and self-sacrifice in the interest of the clan are of +daily occurrence. If the savage has infringed one of the smaller tribal +rules, he is prosecuted by the mockeries of the women. If the +infringement is grave, he is tortured day and night by the fear of +having called a calamity upon his tribe. If he has wounded by accident +any one of his own clan, and thus has committed the greatest of all +crimes, he grows quite miserable: he runs away in the woods, and is +ready to commit suicide, unless the tribe absolves him by inflicting +upon him a physical pain and sheds some of his own blood.(45) Within the +tribe everything is shared in common; every morsel of food is divided +among all present; and if the savage is alone in the woods, he does not +begin eating before he has loudly shouted thrice an invitation to any +one who may hear his voice to share his meal.(46) + +In short, within the tribe the rule of "each for all" is supreme, so +long as the separate family has not yet broken up the tribal unity. But +that rule is not extended to the neighbouring clans, or tribes, even +when they are federated for mutual protection. Each tribe, or clan, is a +separate unity. Just as among mammals and birds, the territory is +roughly allotted among separate tribes, and, except in times of war, the +boundaries are respected. On entering the territory of his neighbours +one must show that he has no bad intentions. The louder one heralds his +coming, the more confidence he wins; and if he enters a house, he must +deposit his hatchet at the entrance. But no tribe is bound to share its +food with the others: it may do so or it may not. Therefore the life of +the savage is divided into two sets of actions, and appears under two +different ethical aspects: the relations within the tribe, and the +relations with the outsiders; and (like our international law) the +"inter-tribal" law widely differs from the common law. Therefore, when +it comes to a war the most revolting cruelties may be considered as so +many claims upon the admiration of the tribe. This double conception of +morality passes through the whole evolution of mankind, and maintains +itself until now. We Europeans have realized some progress--not immense, +at any rate--in eradicating that double conception of ethics; but it +also must be said that while we have in some measure extended our ideas +of solidarity--in theory, at least--over the nation, and partly over +other nations as well, we have lessened the bonds of solidarity within +our own nations, and even within our own families. + +The appearance of a separate family amidst the clan necessarily disturbs +the established unity. A separate family means separate property and +accumulation of wealth. We saw how the Eskimos obviate its +inconveniences; and it is one of the most interesting studies to follow +in the course of ages the different institutions (village communities, +guilds, and so on) by means of which the masses endeavoured to maintain +the tribal unity, notwithstanding the agencies which were at work to +break it down. On the other hand, the first rudiments of knowledge which +appeared at an extremely remote epoch, when they confounded themselves +with witchcraft, also became a power in the hands of the individual +which could be used against the tribe. They were carefully kept in +secrecy, and transmitted to the initiated only, in the secret societies +of witches, shamans, and priests, which we find among all savages. By +the same time, wars and invasions created military authority, as also +castes of warriors, whose associations or clubs acquired great powers. +However, at no period of man's life were wars the normal state of +existence. While warriors exterminated each other, and the priests +celebrated their massacres, the masses continued to live their daily +life, they prosecuted their daily toil. And it is one of the most +interesting studies to follow that life of the masses; to study the +means by which they maintained their own social organization, which was +based upon their own conceptions of equity, mutual aid, and mutual +support--of common law, in a word, even when they were submitted to the +most ferocious theocracy or autocracy in the State. + +NOTES: + +1. Nineteenth Century, February 1888, p. 165. + +2. The Descent of Man, end of ch. ii. pp. 63 and 64 of the 2nd edition. + +3. Anthropologists who fully endorse the above views as regards man +nevertheless intimate, sometimes, that the apes live in polygamous +families, under the leadership of "a strong and jealous male." I do not +know how far that assertion is based upon conclusive observation. But +the passage from Brehm's Life of Animals, which is sometimes referred +to, can hardly be taken as very conclusive. It occurs in his general +description of monkeys; but his more detailed descriptions of separate +species either contradict it or do not confirm it. Even as regards the +cercopitheques, Brehm is affirmative in saying that they "nearly always +live in bands, and very seldom in families" (French edition, p. 59). As +to other species, the very numbers of their bands, always containing +many males, render the "polygamous family" more than doubtful further +observation is evidently wanted. + +4. Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, fifth edition, 1890. + +5. That extension of the ice-cap is admitted by most of the geologists +who have specially studied the glacial age. The Russian Geological +Survey already has taken this view as regards Russia, and most German +specialists maintain it as regards Germany. The glaciation of most of +the central plateau of France will not fail to be recognized by the +French geologists, when they pay more attention to the glacial deposits +altogether. + +6. Prehistoric Times, pp. 232 and 242. + +7. Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht, Stuttgart, 1861; Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient +Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery +through Barbarism to Civilization, New York, 1877; J.F. MacLennan, +Studies in Ancient History, 1st series, new edition, 1886; 2nd series, +1896; L. Fison and A.W. Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, Melbourne. These +four writers--as has been very truly remarked by Giraud +Teulon,--starting from different facts and different general ideas, and +following different methods, have come to the same conclusion. To +Bachofen we owe the notion of the maternal family and the maternal +succession; to Morgan--the system of kinship, Malayan and Turanian, and +a highly gifted sketch of the main phases of human evolution; to +MacLennan--the law of exogeny; and to Fison and Howitt--the cuadro, or +scheme, of the conjugal societies in Australia. All four end in +establishing the same fact of the tribal origin of the family. When +Bachofen first drew attention to the maternal family, in his +epoch-making work, and Morgan described the clan-organization,--both +concurring to the almost general extension of these forms and +maintaining that the marriage laws lie at the very basis of the +consecutive steps of human evolution, they were accused of exaggeration. +However, the most careful researches prosecuted since, by a phalanx of +students of ancient law, have proved that all races of mankind bear +traces of having passed through similar stages of development of +marriage laws, such as we now see in force among certain savages. See +the works of Post, Dargun, Kovalevsky, Lubbock, and their numerous +followers: Lippert, Mucke, etc. + +8. None + +9. For the Semites and the Aryans, see especially Prof. Maxim +Kovalevsky's Primitive Law (in Russian), Moscow, 1886 and 1887. Also his +Lectures delivered at Stockholm (Tableau des origines et de l'evolution +de la famille et de la propriete, Stockholm, 1890), which represents an +admirable review of the whole question. Cf. also A. Post, Die +Geschlechtsgenossenschaft der Urzeit, Oldenburg 1875. + +10. It would be impossible to enter here into a discussion of the origin +of the marriage restrictions. Let me only remark that a division into +groups, similar to Morgan's Hawaian, exists among birds; the young +broods live together separately from their parents. A like division +might probably be traced among some mammals as well. As to the +prohibition of relations between brothers and sisters, it is more likely +to have arisen, not from speculations about the bad effects of +consanguinity, which speculations really do not seem probable, but to +avoid the too-easy precocity of like marriages. Under close cohabitation +it must have become of imperious necessity. I must also remark that in +discussing the origin of new customs altogether, we must keep in mind +that the savages, like us, have their "thinkers" and savants-wizards, +doctors, prophets, etc.--whose knowledge and ideas are in advance upon +those of the masses. United as they are in their secret unions (another +almost universal feature) they are certainly capable of exercising a +powerful influence, and of enforcing customs the utility of which may +not yet be recognized by the majority of the tribe. + +11. Col. Collins, in Philips' Researches in South Africa, London, 1828. +Quoted by Waitz, ii. 334. + +12. Lichtenstein's Reisen im sudlichen Afrika, ii. Pp. 92, 97. Berlin, +1811. + +13. Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvoelker, ii. pp. 335 seq. See also +Fritsch's Die Eingeboren Sued-Afrika's, Breslau, 1872, pp. 386 seq.; and +Drei Jahre in Sued-Afrika. Also W. Bleck, A Brief Account of Bushmen +Folklore, Capetown, 1875. + +14. Elisee Reclus, Geographie Universelle, xiii. 475. + +15. P. Kolben, The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope, translated +from the German by Mr. Medley, London, 1731, vol. i. pp. 59, 71, 333, +336, etc. + +16. Quoted in Waitz's Anthropologie, ii. 335 seq. + +17. The natives living in the north of Sidney, and speaking the +Kamilaroi language, are best known under this aspect, through the +capital work of Lorimer Fison and A.W. Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnaii, +Melbourne, 1880. See also A.W. Howitt's "Further Note on the Australian +Class Systems," in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1889, vol. +xviii. p. 31, showing the wide extension of the same organization in +Australia. + +18. The Folklore, Manners, etc., of Australian Aborigines, Adelaide, +1879, p. 11. + +19. Grey's Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and +Western Australia, London, 1841, vol. ii. pp. 237, 298. + +20. Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie, 1888, vol. xi. p. 652. I +abridge the answers. + +21. Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie, 1888, vol. xi. p. 386. + +22. The same is the practice with the Papuas of Kaimani Bay, who have a +high reputation of honesty. "It never happens that the Papua be untrue +to his promise," Finsch says in Neuguinea und seine Bewohner, Bremen, +1865, p. 829. + +23. Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, 1880, pp. 161 seq. Few +books of travel give a better insight into the petty details of the +daily life of savages than these scraps from Maklay's notebooks. + +24. L.F. Martial, in Mission Scientifique au Cap Horn, Paris, 1883, vol. +i. pp. 183-201. + +25. Captain Holm's Expedition to East Greenland. + +26. In Australia whole clans have been seen exchanging all their wives, +in order to conjure a calamity (Post, Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte +des Familienrechts, 1890, p. 342). More brotherhood is their specific +against calamities. + +27. Dr. H. Rink, The Eskimo Tribes, p. 26 (Meddelelser om Gronland, vol. +xi. 1887). + +28. Dr. Rink, loc. cit. p. 24. Europeans, grown in the respect of Roman +law, are seldom capable of understanding that force of tribal authority. +"In fact," Dr. Rink writes, "it is not the exception, but the rule, that +white men who have stayed for ten or twenty years among the Eskimo, +return without any real addition to their knowledge of the traditional +ideas upon which their social state is based. The white man, whether a +missionary or a trader, is firm in his dogmatic opinion that the most +vulgar European is better than the most distinguished native."--The +Eskimo Tribes, p. 31. + +29. Dall, Alaska and its Resources, Cambridge, U.S., 1870. + +30. Dall saw it in Alaska, Jacobsen at Ignitok in the vicinity of the +Bering Strait. Gilbert Sproat mentions it among the Vancouver indians; +and Dr. Rink, who describes the periodical exhibitions just mentioned, +adds: "The principal use of the accumulation of personal wealth is for +periodically distributing it." He also mentions (loc. cit. p. 31) "the +destruction of property for the same purpose," (of maintaining +equality). + +31. See Appendix VIII. + +32. Veniaminoff, Memoirs relative to the District of Unalashka +(Russian), 3 vols. St. Petersburg, 1840. Extracts, in English, from the +above are given in Dall's Alaska. A like description of the Australians' +morality is given in Nature, xlii. p. 639. + +33. It is most remarkable that several writers (Middendorff, Schrenk, O. +Finsch) described the Ostyaks and Samoyedes in almost the same words. +Even when drunken, their quarrels are insignificant. "For a hundred +years one single murder has been committed in the tundra;" "their +children never fight;" "anything may be left for years in the tundra, +even food and gin, and nobody will touch it;" and so on. Gilbert Sproat +"never witnessed a fight between two sober natives" of the Aht Indians +of Vancouver Island. "Quarrelling is also rare among their children." +(Rink, loc. cit.) And so on. + +34. Gill, quoted in Gerland and Waitz's Anthropologie, v. 641. See also +pp. 636-640, where many facts of parental and filial love are quoted. + +35. Primitive Folk, London, 1891. + +36. Gerland, loc. cit. v. 636. + +37. Erskine, quoted in Gerland and Waitz's Anthropologie, v. 640. + +38. W.T. Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences, London, 1866, p. 363. + +39. It is remarkable, however, that in case of a sentence of death, +nobody will take upon himself to be the executioner. Every one throws +his stone, or gives his blow with the hatchet, carefully avoiding to +give a mortal blow. At a later epoch, the priest will stab the victim +with a sacred knife. Still later, it will be the king, until +civilization invents the hired hangman. See Bastian's deep remarks upon +this subject in Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. Die Blutrache, pp. +1-36. A remainder of this tribal habit, I am told by Professor E. Nys, +has survived in military executions till our own times. In the middle +portion of the nineteenth century it was the habit to load the rifles of +the twelve soldiers called out for shooting the condemned victim, with +eleven ball-cartridges and one blank cartridge. As the soldiers never +knew who of them had the latter, each one could console his disturbed +conscience by thinking that he was not one of the murderers. + +40. In Africa, and elsewhere too, it is a widely-spread habit, that if a +theft has been committed, the next clan has to restore the equivalent of +the stolen thing, and then look itself for the thief. A. H. Post, +Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, Leipzig, 1887, vol. i. p. 77. + +41. See Prof. M. Kovalevsky's Modern Customs and Ancient Law (Russian), +Moscow, 1886, vol. ii., which contains many important considerations +upon this subject. + +42. See Carl Bock, The Head Hunters of Borneo, London, 1881. I am told, +however, by Sir Hugh Law, who was for a long time Governor of Borneo, +that the "head-hunting" described in this book is grossly exaggerated. +Altogether, my informant speaks of the Dayaks in exactly the same +sympathetic terms as Ida Pfeiffer. Let me add that Mary Kingsley speaks +in her book on West Africa in the same sympathetic terms of the Fans, +who had been represented formerly as the most "terrible cannibals." + +43. Ida Pfeiffer, Meine zweite Weltriese, Wien, 1856, vol. i. pp. 116 +seq. See also Muller and Temminch's Dutch Possessions in Archipelagic +India, quoted by Elisee Reclus, in Geographie Universelle, xiii. + +44. Descent of Man, second ed., pp. 63, 64. + +45. See Bastian's Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. p. 7. Also Grey, loc. +cit. ii. p. 238. + +46. Miklukho-Maclay, loc. cit. Same habit with the Hottentots. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MUTUAL AID AMONG THE BARBARIANS + +The great migrations. New organization rendered necessary. The village +community. Communal work. Judicial procedure. Inter-tribal law. +Illustrations from the life of our contemporaries. Buryates. Kabyles. +Caucasian mountaineers. African stems. + + +It is not possible to study primitive mankind without being deeply +impressed by the sociability it has displayed since its very first steps +in life. Traces of human societies are found in the relics of both the +oldest and the later stone age; and, when we come to observe the savages +whose manners of life are still those of neolithic man, we find them +closely bound together by an extremely ancient clan organization which +enables them to combine their individually weak forces, to enjoy life in +common, and to progress. Man is no exception in nature. He also is +subject to the great principle of Mutual Aid which grants the best +chances of survival to those who best support each other in the struggle +for life. These were the conclusions arrived at in the previous +chapters. + +However, as soon as we come to a higher stage of civilization, and refer +to history which already has something to say about that stage, we are +bewildered by the struggles and conflicts which it reveals. The old +bonds seem entirely to be broken. Stems are seen to fight against stems, +tribes against tribes, individuals against individuals; and out of this +chaotic contest of hostile forces, mankind issues divided into castes, +enslaved to despots, separated into States always ready to wage war +against each other. And, with this history of mankind in his hands, the +pessimist philosopher triumphantly concludes that warfare and oppression +are the very essence of human nature; that the warlike and predatory +instincts of man can only be restrained within certain limits by a +strong authority which enforces peace and thus gives an opportunity to +the few and nobler ones to prepare a better life for humanity in times +to come. + +And yet, as soon as the every-day life of man during the historical +period is submitted to a closer analysis and so it has been, of late, by +many patient students of very early institutions--it appears at once +under quite a different aspect. Leaving aside the preconceived ideas of +most historians and their pronounced predilection for the dramatic +aspects of history, we see that the very documents they habitually +peruse are such as to exaggerate the part of human life given to +struggles and to underrate its peaceful moods. The bright and sunny days +are lost sight of in the gales and storms. Even in our own time, the +cumbersome records which we prepare for the future historian, in our +Press, our law courts, our Government offices, and even in our fiction +and poetry, suffer from the same one-sidedness. They hand down to +posterity the most minute descriptions of every war, every battle and +skirmish, every contest and act of violence, every kind of individual +suffering; but they hardly bear any trace of the countless acts of +mutual support and devotion which every one of us knows from his own +experience; they hardly take notice of what makes the very essence of +our daily life--our social instincts and manners. No wonder, then, if +the records of the past were so imperfect. The annalists of old never +failed to chronicle the petty wars and calamities which harassed their +contemporaries; but they paid no attention whatever to the life of the +masses, although the masses chiefly used to toil peacefully while the +few indulged in fighting. The epic poems, the inscriptions on monuments, +the treaties of peace--nearly all historical documents bear the same +character; they deal with breaches of peace, not with peace itself. So +that the best-intentioned historian unconsciously draws a distorted +picture of the times he endeavours to depict; and, to restore the real +proportion between conflict and union, we are now bound to enter into a +minute analysis of thousands of small facts and faint indications +accidentally preserved in the relics of the past; to interpret them with +the aid of comparative ethnology; and, after having heard so much about +what used to divide men, to reconstruct stone by stone the institutions +which used to unite them. + +Ere long history will have to be re-written on new lines, so as to take +into account these two currents of human life and to appreciate the part +played by each of them in evolution. But in the meantime we may avail +ourselves of the immense preparatory work recently done towards +restoring the leading features of the second current, so much neglected. +From the better-known periods of history we may take some illustrations +of the life of the masses, in order to indicate the part played by +mutual support during those periods; and, in so doing, we may dispense +(for the sake of brevity) from going as far back as the Egyptian, or +even the Greek and Roman antiquity. For, in fact, the evolution of +mankind has not had the character of one unbroken series. Several times +civilization came to an end in one given region, with one given race, +and began anew elsewhere, among other races. But at each fresh start it +began again with the same clan institutions which we have seen among the +savages. So that if we take the last start of our own civilization, when +it began afresh in the first centuries of our era, among those whom the +Romans called the "barbarians," we shall have the whole scale of +evolution, beginning with the gentes and ending in the institutions of +our own time. To these illustrations the following pages will be +devoted. + +Men of science have not yet settled upon the causes which some two +thousand years ago drove whole nations from Asia into Europe and +resulted in the great migrations of barbarians which put an end to the +West Roman Empire. One cause, however, is naturally suggested to the +geographer as he contemplates the ruins of populous cities in the +deserts of Central Asia, or follows the old beds of rivers now +disappeared and the wide outlines of lakes now reduced to the size of +mere ponds. It is desiccation: a quite recent desiccation, continued +still at a speed which we formerly were not prepared to admit.(1) +Against it man was powerless. When the inhabitants of North-West +Mongolia and East Turkestan saw that water was abandoning them, they had +no course open to them but to move down the broad valleys leading to the +lowlands, and to thrust westwards the inhabitants of the plains.(2) +Stems after stems were thus thrown into Europe, compelling other stems +to move and to remove for centuries in succession, westwards and +eastwards, in search of new and more or less permanent abodes. Races +were mixing with races during those migrations, aborigines with +immigrants, Aryans with Ural-Altayans; and it would have been no wonder +if the social institutions which had kept them together in their mother +countries had been totally wrecked during the stratification of races +which took place in Europe and Asia. But they were not wrecked; they +simply underwent the modification which was required by the new +conditions of life. + +The Teutons, the Celts, the Scandinavians, the Slavonians, and others, +when they first came in contact with the Romans, were in a transitional +state of social organization. The clan unions, based upon a real or +supposed common origin, had kept them together for many thousands of +years in succession. But these unions could answer their purpose so long +only as there were no separate families within the gens or clan itself. +However, for causes already mentioned, the separate patriarchal family +had slowly but steadily developed within the clans, and in the long run +it evidently meant the individual accumulation of wealth and power, and +the hereditary transmission of both. The frequent migrations of the +barbarians and the ensuing wars only hastened the division of the gentes +into separate families, while the dispersing of stems and their mingling +with strangers offered singular facilities for the ultimate +disintegration of those unions which were based upon kinship. The +barbarians thus stood in a position of either seeing their clans +dissolved into loose aggregations of families, of which the wealthiest, +especially if combining sacerdotal functions or military repute with +wealth, would have succeeded in imposing their authority upon the +others; or of finding out some new form of organization based upon some +new principle. + +Many stems had no force to resist disintegration: they broke up and were +lost for history. But the more vigorous ones did not disintegrate. They +came out of the ordeal with a new organization--the village +community--which kept them together for the next fifteen centuries or +more. The conception of a common territory, appropriated or protected by +common efforts, was elaborated, and it took the place of the vanishing +conceptions of common descent. The common gods gradually lost their +character of ancestors and were endowed with a local territorial +character. They became the gods or saints of a given locality; "the +land" was identified with its inhabitants. Territorial unions grew up +instead of the consanguine unions of old, and this new organization +evidently offered many advantages under the given circumstances. It +recognized the independence of the family and even emphasized it, the +village community disclaiming all rights of interference in what was +going on within the family enclosure; it gave much more freedom to +personal initiative; it was not hostile in principle to union between +men of different descent, and it maintained at the same time the +necessary cohesion of action and thought, while it was strong enough to +oppose the dominative tendencies of the minorities of wizards, priests, +and professional or distinguished warriors. Consequently it became the +primary cell of future organization, and with many nations the village +community has retained this character until now. + +It is now known, and scarcely contested, that the village community was +not a specific feature of the Slavonians, nor even of the ancient +Teutons. It prevailed in England during both the Saxon and Norman times, +and partially survived till the last century;(3) it was at the bottom of +the social organization of old Scotland, old Ireland, and old Wales. In +France, the communal possession and the communal allotment of arable +land by the village folkmote persisted from the first centuries of our +era till the times of Turgot, who found the folkmotes "too noisy" and +therefore abolished them. It survived Roman rule in Italy, and revived +after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was the rule with the +Scandinavians, the Slavonians, the Finns (in the pittaya, as also, +probably, the kihla-kunta), the Coures, and the lives. The village +community in India--past and present, Aryan and non-Aryan--is well known +through the epoch-making works of Sir Henry Maine; and Elphinstone has +described it among the Afghans. We also find it in the Mongolian oulous, +the Kabyle thaddart, the Javanese dessa, the Malayan kota or tofa, and +under a variety of names in Abyssinia, the Soudan, in the interior of +Africa, with natives of both Americas, with all the small and large +tribes of the Pacific archipelagoes. In short, we do not know one single +human race or one single nation which has not had its period of village +communities. This fact alone disposes of the theory according to which +the village community in Europe would have been a servile growth. It is +anterior to serfdom, and even servile submission was powerless to break +it. It was a universal phase of evolution, a natural outcome of the clan +organization, with all those stems, at least, which have played, or play +still, some part in history.(4) + +It was a natural growth, and an absolute uniformity in its structure was +therefore not possible. As a rule, it was a union between families +considered as of common descent and owning a certain territory in +common. But with some stems, and under certain circumstances, the +families used to grow very numerous before they threw off new buds in +the shape of new families; five, six, or seven generations continued to +live under the same roof, or within the same enclosure, owning their +joint household and cattle in common, and taking their meals at the +common hearth. They kept in such case to what ethnology knows as the +"joint family," or the "undivided household," which we still see all +over China, in India, in the South Slavonian zadruga, and occasionally +find in Africa, in America, in Denmark, in North Russia, and West +France.(5) With other stems, or in other circumstances, not yet well +specified, the families did not attain the same proportions; the +grandsons, and occasionally the sons, left the household as soon as they +were married, and each of them started a new cell of his own. But, joint +or not, clustered together or scattered in the woods, the families +remained united into village communities; several villages were grouped +into tribes; and the tribes joined into confederations. Such was the +social organization which developed among the so-called "barbarians," +when they began to settle more or less permanently in Europe. + +A very long evolution was required before the gentes, or clans, +recognized the separate existence of a patriarchal family in a separate +hut; but even after that had been recognized, the clan, as a rule, knew +no personal inheritance of property. The few things which might have +belonged personally to the individual were either destroyed on his grave +or buried with him. The village community, on the contrary, fully +recognized the private accumulation of wealth within the family and its +hereditary transmission. But wealth was conceived exclusively in the +shape of movable property, including cattle, implements, arms, and the +dwelling house which--"like all things that can be destroyed by +fire"--belonged to the same category(6). As to private property in land, +the village community did not, and could not, recognize anything of the +kind, and, as a rule, it does not recognize it now. The land was the +common property of the tribe, or of the whole stem, and the village +community itself owned its part of the tribal territory so long only as +the tribe did not claim a re-distribution of the village allotments. The +clearing of the woods and the breaking of the prairies being mostly done +by the communities or, at least, by the joint work of several +families--always with the consent of the community--the cleared plots +were held by each family for a term of four, twelve, or twenty years, +after which term they were treated as parts of the arable land owned in +common. Private property, or possession "for ever" was as incompatible, +with the very principles and the religious conceptions of the village +community as it was with the principles of the gens; so that a long +influence of the Roman law and the Christian Church, which soon accepted +the Roman principles, were required to accustom the barbarians to the +idea of private property in land being possible.(7) And yet, even when +such property, or possession for an unlimited time, was recognized, the +owner of a separate estate remained a co-proprietor in the waste lands, +forests, and grazing-grounds. Moreover, we continually see, especially +in the history of Russia, that when a few families, acting separately, +had taken possession of some land belonging to tribes which were treated +as strangers, they very soon united together, and constituted a village +community which in the third or fourth generation began to profess a +community of origin. + +A whole series of institutions, partly inherited from the clan period, +have developed from that basis of common ownership of land during the +long succession of centuries which was required to bring the barbarians +under the dominion of States organized upon the Roman or Byzantine +pattern. The village community was not only a union for guaranteeing to +each one his fair share in the common land, but also a union for common +culture, for mutual support in all possible forms, for protection from +violence, and for a further development of knowledge, national bonds, +and moral conceptions; and every change in the judicial, military, +educational, or economical manners had to be decided at the folkmotes of +the village, the tribe, or the confederation. The community being a +continuation of the gens, it inherited all its functions. It was the +universitas, the mir--a world in itself. + +Common hunting, common fishing, and common culture of the orchards or +the plantations of fruit trees was the rule with the old gentes. Common +agriculture became the rule in the barbarian village communities. True, +that direct testimony to this effect is scarce, and in the literature of +antiquity we only have the passages of Diodorus and Julius Caesar +relating to the inhabitants of the Lipari Islands, one of the +Celt-Iberian tribes, and the Sueves. But there is no lack of evidence to +prove that common agriculture was practised among some Teuton tribes, +the Franks, and the old Scotch, Irish, and Welsh.(8) As to the later +survivals of the same practice, they simply are countless. Even in +perfectly Romanized France, common culture was habitual some five and +twenty years ago in the Morbihan (Brittany).(9) The old Welsh cyvar, or +joint team, as well as the common culture of the land allotted to the +use of the village sanctuary are quite common among the tribes of +Caucasus the least touched by civilization,(10) and like facts are of +daily occurrence among the Russian peasants. Moreover, it is well known +that many tribes of Brazil, Central America, and Mexico used to +cultivate their fields in common, and that the same habit is widely +spread among some Malayans, in New Caledonia, with several Negro stems, +and so on.(11) In short, communal culture is so habitual with many +Aryan, Ural-Altayan, Mongolian, Negro, Red Indian, Malayan, and +Melanesian stems that we must consider it as a universal--though not as +the only possible--form of primitive agriculture.(12) + +Communal cultivation does not, however, imply by necessity communal +consumption. Already under the clan organization we often see that when +the boats laden with fruits or fish return to the village, the food they +bring in is divided among the huts and the "long houses" inhabited by +either several families or the youth, and is cooked separately at each +separate hearth. The habit of taking meals in a narrower circle of +relatives or associates thus prevails at an early period of clan life. +It became the rule in the village community. Even the food grown in +common was usually divided between the households after part of it had +been laid in store for communal use. However, the tradition of communal +meals was piously kept alive; every available opportunity, such as the +commemoration of the ancestors, the religious festivals, the beginning +and the end of field work, the births, the marriages, and the funerals, +being seized upon to bring the community to a common meal. Even now this +habit, well known in this country as the "harvest supper," is the last +to disappear. On the other hand, even when the fields had long since +ceased to be tilled and sown in common, a variety of agricultural work +continued, and continues still, to be performed by the community. Some +part of the communal land is still cultivated in many cases in common, +either for the use of the destitute, or for refilling the communal +stores, or for using the produce at the religious festivals. The +irrigation canals are digged and repaired in common. The communal +meadows are mown by the community; and the sight of a Russian commune +mowing a meadow--the men rivalling each other in their advance with the +scythe, while the women turn the grass over and throw it up into +heaps--is one of the most inspiring sights; it shows what human work +might be and ought to be. The hay, in such case, is divided among the +separate households, and it is evident that no one has the right of +taking hay from a neighbour's stack without his permission; but the +limitation of this last rule among the Caucasian Ossetes is most +noteworthy. When the cuckoo cries and announces that spring is coming, +and that the meadows will soon be clothed again with grass, every one in +need has the right of taking from a neighbour's stack the hay he wants +for his cattle.(13) The old communal rights are thus re-asserted, as if +to prove how contrary unbridled individualism is to human nature. + +When the European traveller lands in some small island of the Pacific, +and, seeing at a distance a grove of palm trees, walks in that +direction, he is astonished to discover that the little villages are +connected by roads paved with big stones, quite comfortable for the +unshod natives, and very similar to the "old roads" of the Swiss +mountains. Such roads were traced by the "barbarians" all over Europe, +and one must have travelled in wild, thinly-peopled countries, far away +from the chief lines of communication, to realize in full the immense +work that must have been performed by the barbarian communities in order +to conquer the woody and marshy wilderness which Europe was some two +thousand years ago. Isolated families, having no tools, and weak as they +were, could not have conquered it; the wilderness would have overpowered +them. Village communities alone, working in common, could master the +wild forests, the sinking marshes, and the endless steppes. The rough +roads, the ferries, the wooden bridges taken away in the winter and +rebuilt after the spring flood was over, the fences and the palisaded +walls of the villages, the earthen forts and the small towers with which +the territory was dottedall these were the work of the barbarian +communities. And when a community grew numerous it used to throw off a +new bud. A new community arose at a distance, thus step by step bringing +the woods and the steppes under the dominion of man. The whole making of +European nations was such a budding of the village communities. Even +now-a-days the Russian peasants, if they are not quite broken down by +misery, migrate in communities, and they till the soil and build the +houses in com mon when they settle on the banks of the Amur, or in +Manitoba. And even the English, when they first began to colonize +America, used to return to the old system; they grouped into village +communities.(14) + +The village community was the chief arm of the barbarians in their hard +struggle against a hostile nature. It also was the bond they opposed to +oppression by the cunningest and the strongest which so easily might +have developed during those disturbed times. The imaginary +barbarian--the man who fights and kills at his mere caprice--existed no +more than the "bloodthirsty" savage. The real barbarian was living, on +the contrary, under a wide series of institutions, imbued with +considerations as to what may be useful or noxious to his tribe or +confederation, and these institutions were piously handed down from +generation to generation in verses and songs, in proverbs or triads, in +sentences and instructions. The more we study them the more we recognize +the narrow bonds which united men in their villages. Every quarrel +arising between two individuals was treated as a communal affair--even +the offensive words that might have been uttered during a quarrel being +considered as an offence to the community and its ancestors. They had to +be repaired by amends made both to the individual and the community;(15) +and if a quarrel ended in a fight and wounds, the man who stood by and +did not interpose was treated as if he himself had inflicted the +wounds.(16) The judicial procedure was imbued with the same spirit. +Every dispute was brought first before mediators or arbiters, and it +mostly ended with them, the arbiters playing a very important part in +barbarian society. But if the case was too grave to be settled in this +way, it came before the folkmote, which was bound "to find the +sentence," and pronounced it in a conditional form; that is, "such +compensation was due, if the wrong be proved," and the wrong had to be +proved or disclaimed by six or twelve persons confirming or denying the +fact by oath; ordeal being resorted to in case of contradiction between +the two sets of jurors. Such procedure, which remained in force for more +than two thousand years in succession, speaks volumes for itself; it +shows how close were the bonds between all members of the community. +Moreover, there was no other authority to enforce the decisions of the +folkmote besides its own moral authority. The only possible menace was +that the community might declare the rebel an outlaw, but even this +menace was reciprocal. A man discontented with the folkmote could +declare that he would abandon the tribe and go over to another tribe--a +most dreadful menace, as it was sure to bring all kinds of misfortunes +upon a tribe that might have been unfair to one of its members.(17) A +rebellion against a right decision of the customary law was simply +"inconceivable," as Henry Maine has so well said, because "law, +morality, and fact" could not be separated from each other in those +times.(18) The moral authority of the commune was so great that even at +a much later epoch, when the village communities fell into submission to +the feudal lord, they maintained their judicial powers; they only +permitted the lord, or his deputy, to "find" the above conditional +sentence in accordance with the customary law he had sworn to follow, +and to levy for himself the fine (the fred) due to the commune. But for +a long time, the lord himself, if he remained a co-proprietor in the +waste land of the commune, submitted in communal affairs to its +decisions. Noble or ecclesiastic, he had to submit to the folkmote--Wer +daselbst Wasser und Weid genusst, muss gehorsam sein--"Who enjoys here +the right of water and pasture must obey"--was the old saying. Even when +the peasants became serfs under the lord, he was bound to appear before +the folkmote when they summoned him.(19) + +In their conceptions of justice the barbarians evidently did not much +differ from the savages. They also maintained the idea that a murder +must be followed by putting the murderer to death; that wounds had to be +punished by equal wounds, and that the wronged family was bound to +fulfil the sentence of the customary law. This was a holy duty, a duty +towards the ancestors, which had to be accomplished in broad daylight, +never in secrecy, and rendered widely known. Therefore the most inspired +passages of the sagas and epic poetry altogether are those which glorify +what was supposed to be justice. The gods themselves joined in aiding +it. However, the predominant feature of barbarian justice is, on the one +hand, to limit the numbers of persons who may be involved in a feud, +and, on the other hand, to extirpate the brutal idea of blood for blood +and wounds for wounds, by substituting for it the system of +compensation. The barbarian codes which were collections of common law +rules written down for the use of judges--"first permitted, then +encouraged, and at last enforced," compensation instead of revenge.(20) +The compensation has, however, been totally misunderstood by those who +represented it as a fine, and as a sort of carte blanche given to the +rich man to do whatever he liked. The compensation money (wergeld), +which was quite different from the fine or fred,(21) was habitually so +high for all kinds of active offences that it certainly was no +encouragement for such offences. In case of a murder it usually exceeded +all the possible fortune of the murderer "Eighteen times eighteen cows" +is the compensation with the Ossetes who do not know how to reckon above +eighteen, while with the African tribes it attains 800 cows or 100 +camels with their young, or 416 sheep in the poorer tribes.(22) In the +great majority of cases, the compensation money could not be paid at +all, so that the murderer had no issue but to induce the wronged family, +by repentance, to adopt him. Even now, in the Caucasus, when feuds come +to an end, the offender touches with his lips the breast of the oldest +woman of the tribe, and becomes a "milk-brother" to all men of the +wronged family.(23) With several African tribes he must give his +daughter, or sister, in marriage to some one of the family; with other +tribes he is bound to marry the woman whom he has made a widow; and in +all cases he becomes a member of the family, whose opinion is taken in +all important family matters.(24) + +Far from acting with disregard to human life, the barbarians, moreover, +knew nothing of the horrid punishments introduced at a later epoch by +the laic and canonic laws under Roman and Byzantine influence. For, if +the Saxon code admitted the death penalty rather freely even in cases of +incendiarism and armed robbery, the other barbarian codes pronounced it +exclusively in cases of betrayal of one's kin, and sacrilege against the +community's gods, as the only means to appease the gods. + +All this, as seen is very far from the supposed "moral dissoluteness" of +the barbarians. On the contrary, we cannot but admire the deeply moral +principles elaborated within the early village communities which found +their expression in Welsh triads, in legends about King Arthur, in +Brehon commentaries,(25) in old German legends and so on, or find still +their expression in the sayings of the modern barbarians. In his +introduction to The Story of Burnt Njal, George Dasent very justly sums +up as follows the qualities of a Northman, as they appear in the +sagas:-- + + To do what lay before him openly and like a man, without fear of + either foes, fiends, or fate; ... to be free and daring in all his + deeds; to be gentle and generous to his friends and kinsmen; to be + stern and grim to his foes [those who are under the lex talionis], + but even towards them to fulfil all bounden duties.... To be no + truce-breaker, nor tale-bearer, nor backbiter. To utter nothing + against any man that he would not dare to tell him to his face. To + turn no man from his door who sought food or shelter, even though + he were a foe.(26) + +The same or still better principles permeate the Welsh epic poetry and +triads. To act "according to the nature of mildness and the principles +of equity," without regard to the foes or to the friends, and "to repair +the wrong," are the highest duties of man; "evil is death, good is +life," exclaims the poet legislator.(27) "The World would be fool, if +agreements made on lips were not honourable"--the Brehon law says. And +the humble Shamanist Mordovian, after having praised the same qualities, +will add, moreover, in his principles of customary law, that "among +neighbours the cow and the milking-jar are in common;" that, "the cow +must be milked for yourself and him who may ask milk;" that "the body of +a child reddens from the stroke, but the face of him who strikes reddens +from shame;"(28) and so on. Many pages might be filled with like +principles expressed and followed by the "barbarians." + +One feature more of the old village communities deserves a special +mention. It is the gradual extension of the circle of men embraced by +the feelings of solidarity. Not only the tribes federated into stems, +but the stems as well, even though of different origin, joined together +in confederations. Some unions were so close that, for instance, the +Vandals, after part of their confederation had left for the Rhine, and +thence went over to Spain and Africa, respected for forty consecutive +years the landmarks and the abandoned villages of their confederates, +and did not take possession of them until they had ascertained through +envoys that their confederates did not intend to return. With other +barbarians, the soil was cultivated by one part of the stem, while the +other part fought on or beyond the frontiers of the common territory. As +to the leagues between several stems, they were quite habitual. The +Sicambers united with the Cherusques and the Sueves, the Quades with the +Sarmates; the Sarmates with the Alans, the Carpes, and the Huns. Later +on, we also see the conception of nations gradually developing in +Europe, long before anything like a State had grown in any part of the +continent occupied by the barbarians. These nations--for it is +impossible to refuse the name of a nation to the Merovingian France, or +to the Russia of the eleventh and twelfth century--were nevertheless +kept together by nothing else but a community of language, and a tacit +agreement of the small republics to take their dukes from none but one +special family. + +Wars were certainly unavoidable; migration means war; but Sir Henry +Maine has already fully proved in his remarkable study of the tribal +origin of International Law, that "Man has never been so ferocious or so +stupid as to submit to such an evil as war without some kind of effort +to prevent it," and he has shown how exceedingly great is "the number of +ancient institutions which bear the marks of a design to stand in the +way of war, or to provide an alternative to it."(29) In reality, man is +so far from the warlike being he is supposed to be, that when the +barbarians had once settled they so rapidly lost the very habits of +warfare that very soon they were compelled to keep special dukes +followed by special scholae or bands of warriors, in order to protect +them from possible intruders. They preferred peaceful toil to war, the +very peacefulness of man being the cause of the specialization of the +warrior's trade, which specialization resulted later on in serfdom and +in all the wars of the "States period" of human history. + +History finds great difficulties in restoring to life the institutions +of the barbarians. At every step the historian meets with some faint +indication which he is unable to explain with the aid of his own +documents only. But a broad light is thrown on the past as soon as we +refer to the institutions of the very numerous tribes which are still +living under a social organization almost identical with that of our +barbarian ancestors. Here we simply have the difficulty of choice, +because the islands of the Pacific, the steppes of Asia, and the +tablelands of Africa are real historical museums containing specimens of +all possible intermediate stages which mankind has lived through, when +passing from the savage gentes up to the States' organization. Let us, +then, examine a few of those specimens. + +If we take the village communities of the Mongol Buryates, especially +those of the Kudinsk Steppe on the upper Lena which have better escaped +Russian influence, we have fair representatives of barbarians in a +transitional state, between cattle-breeding and agriculture.(30) These +Buryates are still living in "joint families"; that is, although each +son, when he is married, goes to live in a separate hut, the huts of at +least three generations remain within the same enclosure, and the joint +family work in common in their fields, and own in common their joint +households and their cattle, as well as their "calves' grounds" (small +fenced patches of soil kept under soft grass for the rearing of calves). +As a rule, the meals are taken separately in each hut; but when meat is +roasted, all the twenty to sixty members of the joint household feast +together. Several joint households which live in a cluster, as well as +several smaller families settled in the same village--mostly debris of +joint households accidentally broken up--make the oulous, or the village +community; several oulouses make a tribe; and the forty-six tribes, or +clans, of the Kudinsk Steppe are united into one confederation. Smaller +and closer confederations are entered into, as necessity arises for +special wants, by several tribes. They know no private property in +land--the land being held in common by the oulous, or rather by the +confederation, and if it becomes necessary, the territory is re-allotted +between the different oulouses at a folkmote of the tribe, and between +the forty-six tribes at a folkmote of the confederation. It is worthy of +note that the same organization prevails among all the 250,000 Buryates +of East Siberia, although they have been for three centuries under +Russian rule, and are well acquainted with Russian institutions. + +With all that, inequalities of fortune rapidly develop among the +Buryates, especially since the Russian Government is giving an +exaggerated importance to their elected taishas (princes), whom it +considers as responsible tax-collectors and representatives of the +confederations in their administrative and even commercial relations +with the Russians. The channels for the enrichment of the few are thus +many, while the impoverishment of the great number goes hand in hand, +through the appropriation of the Buryate lands by the Russians. But it +is a habit with the Buryates, especially those of Kudinsk--and habit is +more than law--that if a family has lost its cattle, the richer families +give it some cows and horses that it may recover. As to the destitute +man who has no family, he takes his meals in the huts of his congeners; +he enters a hut, takes--by right, not for charity--his seat by the fire, +and shares the meal which always is scrupulously divided into equal +parts; he sleeps where he has taken his evening meal. Altogether, the +Russian conquerors of Siberia were so much struck by the communistic +practices of the Buryates, that they gave them the name of +Bratskiye--"the Brotherly Ones"--and reported to Moscow. "With them +everything is in common; whatever they have is shared in common." Even +now, when the Lena Buryates sell their wheat, or send some of their +cattle to be sold to a Russian butcher, the families of the oulous, or +the tribe, put their wheat and cattle together, and sell it as a whole. +Each oulous has, moreover, its grain store for loans in case of need, +its communal baking oven (the four banal of the old French communities), +and its blacksmith, who, like the blacksmith of the Indian +communities,(31) being a member of the community, is never paid for his +work within the community. He must make it for nothing, and if he +utilizes his spare time for fabricating the small plates of chiselled +and silvered iron which are used in Buryate land for the decoration of +dress, he may occasionally sell them to a woman from another clan, but +to the women of his own clan the attire is presented as a gift. Selling +and buying cannot take place within the community, and the rule is so +severe that when a richer family hires a labourer the labourer must be +taken from another clan or from among the Russians. This habit is +evidently not specific to the Buryates; it is so widely spread among the +modern barbarians, Aryan and Ural-Altayan, that it must have been +universal among our ancestors. + +The feeling of union within the confederation is kept alive by the +common interests of the tribes, their folkmotes, and the festivities +which are usually kept in connection with the folkmotes. The same +feeling is, however, maintained by another institution, the aba, or +common hunt, which is a reminiscence of a very remote past. Every +autumn, the forty-six clans of Kudinsk come together for such a hunt, +the produce of which is divided among all the families. Moreover, +national abas, to assert the unity of the whole Buryate nation, are +convoked from time to time. In such cases, all Buryate clans which are +scattered for hundreds of miles west and east of Lake Baikal, are bound +to send their delegate hunters. Thousands of men come together, each one +bringing provisions for a whole month. Every one's share must be equal +to all the others, and therefore, before being put together, they are +weighed by an elected elder (always "with the hand": scales would be a +profanation of the old custom). After that the hunters divide into bands +of twenty, and the parties go hunting according to a well-settled plan. +In such abas the entire Buryate nation revives its epic traditions of a +time when it was united in a powerful league. Let me add that such +communal hunts are quite usual with the Red Indians and the Chinese on +the banks of the Usuri (the kada).(32) + +With the Kabyles, whose manners of life have been so well described by +two French explorers,(33) we have barbarians still more advanced in +agriculture. Their fields, irrigated and manured, are well attended to, +and in the hilly tracts every available plot of land is cultivated by +the spade. The Kabyles have known many vicissitudes in their history; +they have followed for sometime the Mussulman law of inheritance, but, +being adverse to it, they have returned, 150 years ago, to the tribal +customary law of old. Accordingly, their land-tenure is of a mixed +character, and private property in land exists side by side with +communal possession. Still, the basis of their present organization is +the village community, the thaddart, which usually consists of several +joint families (kharoubas), claiming a community of origin, as well as +of smaller families of strangers. Several villages are grouped into +clans or tribes (arch); several tribes make the confederation +(thak'ebilt); and several confederations may occasionally enter into a +league, chiefly for purposes of armed defence. + +The Kabyles know no authority whatever besides that of the djemmaa, or +folkmote of the village community. All men of age take part in it, in +the open air, or in a special building provided with stone seats. And +the decisions of the djemmaa are evidently taken at unanimity: that is, +the discussions continue until all present agree to accept, or to submit +to, some decision. There being no authority in a village community to +impose a decision, this system has been practised by mankind wherever +there have been village communities, and it is practised still wherever +they continue to exist, i.e. by several hundred million men all over the +world. The djemmaa nominates its executive--the elder, the scribe, and +the treasurer; it assesses its own taxes; and it manages the repartition +of the common lands, as well as all kinds of works of public utility. A +great deal of work is done in common: the roads, the mosques, the +fountains, the irrigation canals, the towers erected for protection from +robbers, the fences, and so on, are built by the village community; +while the high-roads, the larger mosques, and the great market-places +are the work of the tribe. Many traces of common culture continue to +exist, and the houses continue to be built by, or with the aid of, all +men and women of the village. Altogether, the "aids" are of daily +occurrence, and are continually called in for the cultivation of the +fields, for harvesting, and so on. As to the skilled work, each +community has its blacksmith, who enjoys his part of the communal land, +and works for the community; when the tilling season approaches he +visits every house, and repairs the tools and the ploughs, without +expecting any pay, while the making of new ploughs is considered as a +pious work which can by no means be recompensed in money, or by any +other form of salary. + +As the Kabyles already have private property, they evidently have both +rich and poor among them. But like all people who closely live together, +and know how poverty begins, they consider it as an accident which may +visit every one. "Don't say that you will never wear the beggar's bag, +nor go to prison," is a proverb of the Russian peasants; the Kabyles +practise it, and no difference can be detected in the external behaviour +between rich and poor; when the poor convokes an "aid," the rich man +works in his field, just as the poor man does it reciprocally in his +turn.(34) Moreover, the djemmaas set aside certain gardens and fields, +sometimes cultivated in common, for the use of the poorest members. Many +like customs continue to exist. As the poorer families would not be able +to buy meat, meat is regularly bought with the money of the fines, or +the gifts to the djemmaa, or the payments for the use of the communal +olive-oil basins, and it is distributed in equal parts among those who +cannot afford buying meat themselves. And when a sheep or a bullock is +killed by a family for its own use on a day which is not a market day, +the fact is announced in the streets by the village crier, in order that +sick people and pregnant women may take of it what they want. Mutual +support permeates the life of the Kabyles, and if one of them, during a +journey abroad, meets with another Kabyle in need, he is bound to come +to his aid, even at the risk of his own fortune and life; if this has +not been done, the djemmaa of the man who has suffered from such neglect +may lodge a complaint, and the djemmaa of the selfish man will at once +make good the loss. We thus come across a custom which is familiar to +the students of the mediaeval merchant guilds. Every stranger who enters +a Kabyle village has right to housing in the winter, and his horses can +always graze on the communal lands for twenty-four hours. But in case of +need he can reckon upon an almost unlimited support. Thus, during the +famine of 1867-68, the Kabyles received and fed every one who sought +refuge in their villages, without distinction of origin. In the district +of Dellys, no less than 12,000 people who came from all parts of +Algeria, and even from Morocco, were fed in this way. While people died +from starvation all over Algeria, there was not one single case of death +due to this cause on Kabylian soil. The djemmaas, depriving themselves +of necessaries, organized relief, without ever asking any aid from the +Government, or uttering the slightest complaint; they considered it as a +natural duty. And while among the European settlers all kind of police +measures were taken to prevent thefts and disorder resulting from such +an influx of strangers, nothing of the kind was required on the Kabyles' +territory: the djemmaas needed neither aid nor protection from +without.(35) + +I can only cursorily mention two other most interesting features of +Kabyle life; namely, the anaya, or protection granted to wells, canals, +mosques, marketplaces, some roads, and so on, in case of war, and the +cofs. In the anaya we have a series of institutions both for diminishing +the evils of war and for preventing conflicts. Thus the market-place is +anaya, especially if it stands on a frontier and brings Kabyles and +strangers together; no one dares disturb peace in the market, and if a +disturbance arises, it is quelled at once by the strangers who have +gathered in the market town. The road upon which the women go from the +village to the fountain also is anaya in case of war; and so on. As to +the cof it is a widely spread form of association, having some +characters of the mediaeval Burgschaften or Gegilden, as well as of +societies both for mutual protection and for various +purposes--intellectual, political, and emotional--which cannot be +satisfied by the territorial organization of the village, the clan, and +the con federation. The cof knows no territorial limits; it recruits its +members in various villages, even among strangers; and it protects them +in all possible eventualities of life. Altogether, it is an attempt at +supplementing the territorial grouping by an extra-territorial grouping +intended to give an expression to mutual affinities of all kinds across +the frontiers. The free international association of individual tastes +and ideas, which we consider as one of the best features of our own +life, has thus its origin in barbarian antiquity. + +The mountaineers of Caucasia offer another extremely instructive field +for illustrations of the same kind. In studying the present customs of +the Ossetes--their joint families and communes and their judiciary +conceptions--Professor Kovalevsky, in a remarkable work on Modern Custom +and Ancient Law was enabled step by step to trace the similar +dispositions of the old barbarian codes and even to study the origins of +feudalism. With other Caucasian stems we occasionally catch a glimpse +into the origin of the village community in those cases where it was not +tribal but originated from a voluntary union between families of +distinct origin. Such was recently the case with some Khevsoure +villages, the inhabitants of which took the oath of "community and +fraternity."(36) In another part of Caucasus, Daghestan, we see the +growth of feudal relations between two tribes, both maintaining at the +same time their village communities (and even traces of the gentile +"classes"), and thus giving a living illustration of the forms taken by +the conquest of Italy and Gaul by the barbarians. The victorious race, +the Lezghines, who have conquered several Georgian and Tartar villages +in the Zakataly district, did not bring them under the dominion of +separate families; they constituted a feudal clan which now includes +12,000 households in three villages, and owns in common no less than +twenty Georgian and Tartar villages. The conquerors divided their own +land among their clans, and the clans divided it in equal parts among +the families; but they did not interfere with the djemmaas of their +tributaries which still practise the habit mentioned by Julius Caesar; +namely, the djemmaa decides each year which part of the communal +territory must be cultivated, and this land is divided into as many +parts as there are families, and the parts are distributed by lot. It is +worthy of note that although proletarians are of common occurrence among +the Lezghines (who live under a system of private property in land, and +common ownership of serfs(37)) they are rare among their Georgian serfs, +who continue to hold their land in common. As to the customary law of +the Caucasian mountaineers, it is much the same as that of the +Longobards or Salic Franks, and several of its dispositions explain a +good deal the judicial procedure of the barbarians of old. Being of a +very impressionable character, they do their best to prevent quarrels +from taking a fatal issue; so, with the Khevsoures, the swords are very +soon drawn when a quarrel breaks out; but if a woman rushes out and +throws among them the piece of linen which she wears on her head, the +swords are at once returned to their sheaths, and the quarrel is +appeased. The head-dress of the women is anaya. If a quarrel has not +been stopped in time and has ended in murder, the compensation money is +so considerable that the aggressor is entirely ruined for his life, +unless he is adopted by the wronged family; and if he has resorted to +his sword in a trifling quarrel and has inflicted wounds, he loses for +ever the consideration of his kin. In all disputes, mediators take the +matter in hand; they select from among the members of the clan the +judges--six in smaller affairs, and from ten to fifteen in more serious +matters--and Russian observers testify to the absolute incorruptibility +of the judges. An oath has such a significance that men enjoying general +esteem are dispensed from taking it: a simple affirmation is quite +sufficient, the more so as in grave affairs the Khevsoure never +hesitates to recognize his guilt (I mean, of course, the Khevsoure +untouched yet by civilization). The oath is chiefly reserved for such +cases, like disputes about property, which require some sort of +appreciation in addition to a simple statement of facts; and in such +cases the men whose affirmation will decide in the dispute, act with the +greatest circumspection. Altogether it is certainly not a want of +honesty or of respect to the rights of the congeners which characterizes +the barbarian societies of Caucasus. + +The stems of Africa offer such an immense variety of extremely +interesting societies standing at all intermediate stages from the early +village community to the despotic barbarian monarchies that I must +abandon the idea of giving here even the chief results of a comparative +study of their institutions.(38) Suffice it to say, that, even under the +most horrid despotism of kings, the folkmotes of the village communities +and their customary law remain sovereign in a wide circle of affairs. +The law of the State allows the king to take any one's life for a simple +caprice, or even for simply satisfying his gluttony; but the customary +law of the people continues to maintain the same network of institutions +for mutual support which exist among other barbarians or have existed +among our ancestors. And with some better-favoured stems (in Bornu, +Uganda, Abyssinia), and especially the Bogos, some of the dispositions +of the customary law are inspired with really graceful and delicate +feelings. + +The village communities of the natives of both Americas have the same +character. The Tupi of Brazil were found living in "long houses" +occupied by whole clans which used to cultivate their corn and manioc +fields in common. The Arani, much more advanced in civilization, used to +cultivate their fields in common; so also the Oucagas, who had learned +under their system of primitive communism and "long houses" to build +good roads and to carry on a variety of domestic industries,(39) not +inferior to those of the early medieval times in Europe. All of them +were also living under the same customary law of which we have given +specimens on the preceding pages. At another extremity of the world we +find the Malayan feudalism, but this feudalism has been powerless to +unroot the negaria, or village community, with its common ownership of +at least part of the land, and the redistribution of land among the +several negarias of the tribe.(40) With the Alfurus of Minahasa we find +the communal rotation of the crops; with the Indian stem of the Wyandots +we have the periodical redistribution of land within the tribe, and the +clan-culture of the soil; and in all those parts of Sumatra where Moslem +institutions have not yet totally destroyed the old organization we find +the joint family (suka) and the village community (kota) which maintains +its right upon the land, even if part of it has been cleared without its +authorization.(41) But to say this, is to say that all customs for +mutual protection and prevention of feuds and wars, which have been +briefly indicated in the preceding pages as characteristic of the +village community, exist as well. More than that: the more fully the +communal possession of land has been maintained, the better and the +gentler are the habits. De Stuers positively affirms that wherever the +institution of the village community has been less encroached upon by +the conquerors, the inequalities of fortunes are smaller, and the very +prescriptions of the lex talionis are less cruel; while, on the +contrary, wherever the village community has been totally broken up, +"the inhabitants suffer the most unbearable oppression from their +despotic rulers."(42) This is quite natural. And when Waitz made the +remark that those stems which have maintained their tribal +confederations stand on a higher level of development and have a richer +literature than those stems which have forfeited the old bonds of union, +he only pointed out what might have been foretold in advance. + +More illustrations would simply involve me in tedious repetitions--so +strikingly similar are the barbarian societies under all climates and +amidst all races. The same process of evolution has been going on in +mankind with a wonderful similarity. When the clan organization, +assailed as it was from within by the separate family, and from without +by the dismemberment of the migrating clans and the necessity of taking +in strangers of different descent--the village community, based upon a +territorial conception, came into existence. This new institution, which +had naturally grown out of the preceding one--the clan--permitted the +barbarians to pass through a most disturbed period of history without +being broken into isolated families which would have succumbed in the +struggle for life. New forms of culture developed under the new +organization; agriculture attained the stage which it hardly has +surpassed until now with the great number; the domestic industries +reached a high degree of perfection. The wilderness was conquered, it +was intersected by roads, dotted with swarms thrown off by the +mother-communities. Markets and fortified centres, as well as places of +public worship, were erected. The conceptions of a wider union, extended +to whole stems and to several stems of various origin, were slowly +elaborated. The old conceptions of justice which were conceptions of +mere revenge, slowly underwent a deep modification--the idea of amends +for the wrong done taking the place of revenge. The customary law which +still makes the law of the daily life for two-thirds or more of mankind, +was elaborated under that organization, as well as a system of habits +intended to prevent the oppression of the masses by the minorities whose +powers grew in proportion to the growing facilities for private +accumulation of wealth. This was the new form taken by the tendencies of +the masses for mutual support. And the progress--economical, +intellectual, and moral--which mankind accomplished under this new +popular form of organization, was so great that the States, when they +were called later on into existence, simply took possession, in the +interest of the minorities, of all the judicial, economical, and +administrative functions which the village community already had +exercised in the interest of all. + +NOTES: + +1. Numberless traces of post-pliocene lakes, now disappeared, are found +over Central, West, and North Asia. Shells of the same species as those +now found in the Caspian Sea are scattered over the surface of the soil +as far East as half-way to Lake Aral, and are found in recent deposits +as far north as Kazan. Traces of Caspian Gulfs, formerly taken for old +beds of the Amu, intersect the Turcoman territory. Deduction must surely +be made for temporary, periodical oscillations. But with all that, +desiccation is evident, and it progresses at a formerly unexpected +speed. Even in the relatively wet parts of South-West Siberia, the +succession of reliable surveys, recently published by Yadrintseff, shows +that villages have grown up on what was, eighty years ago, the bottom of +one of the lakes of the Tchany group; while the other lakes of the same +group, which covered hundreds of square miles some fifty years ago, are +now mere ponds. In short, the desiccation of North-West Asia goes on at +a rate which must be measured by centuries, instead of by the geological +units of time of which we formerly used to speak. + +2. Whole civilizations had thus disappeared, as is proved now by the +remarkable discoveries in Mongolia on the Orkhon and in the Lukchun +depression (by Dmitri Clements). + +3. If I follow the opinions of (to name modern specialists only) Nasse, +Kovalevsky, and Vinogradov, and not those of Mr. Seebohm (Mr. Denman +Ross can only be named for the sake of completeness), it is not only +because of the deep knowledge and concordance of views of these three +writers, but also on account of their perfect knowledge of the village +community altogether--a knowledge the want of which is much felt in the +otherwise remarkable work of Mr. Seebohm. The same remark applies, in a +still higher degree, to the most elegant writings of Fustel de +Coulanges, whose opinions and passionate interpretations of old texts +are confined to himself. + +4. The literature of the village community is so vast that but a few +works can be named. Those of Sir Henry Maine, Mr. Seebohm, and Walter's +Das alte Wallis (Bonn, 1859), are well-known popular sources of +information about Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. For France, P. Viollet, +Precis de l'histoire du droit francais. Droit prive, 1886, and several +of his monographs in Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes; Babeau, Le Village +sous l'ancien regime (the mir in the eighteenth century), third edition, +1887; Bonnemere, Doniol, etc. For Italy and Scandinavia, the chief works +are named in Laveleye's Primitive Property, German version by K. Bucher. +For the Finns, Rein's Forelasningar, i. 16; Koskinen, Finnische +Geschichte, 1874, and various monographs. For the Lives and Coures, +Prof. Lutchitzky in Severnyi Vestnil, 1891. For the Teutons, besides the +well-known works of Maurer, Sohm (Altdeutsche Reichs-und +Gerichts-Verfassung), also Dahn (Urzeit, Volkerwanderung, Langobardische +Studien), Janssen, Wilh. Arnold, etc. For India, besides H. Maine and +the works he names, Sir John Phear's Aryan Village. For Russia and South +Slavonians, see Kavelin, Posnikoff, Sokolovsky, Kovalevsky, Efimenko, +Ivanisheff, Klaus, etc. (copious bibliographical index up to 1880 in the +Sbornik svedeniy ob obschinye of the Russ. Geog. Soc.). For general +conclusions, besides Laveleye's Propriete, Morgan's Ancient Society, +Lippert's Kulturgeschichte, Post, Dargun, etc., also the lectures of M. +Kovalevsky (Tableau des origines et de l'evolution de la famille et de +la propriete, Stockholm, 1890). Many special monographs ought to be +mentioned; their titles may be found in the excellent lists given by P. +Viollet in Droit prive and Droit public. For other races, see subsequent +notes. + +5. Several authorities are inclined to consider the joint household as +an intermediate stage between the clan and the village community; and +there is no doubt that in very many cases village communities have grown +up out of undivided families. Nevertheless, I consider the joint +household as a fact of a different order. We find it within the gentes; +on the other hand, we cannot affirm that joint families have existed at +any period without belonging either to a gens or to a village community, +or to a Gau. I conceive the early village communities as slowly +originating directly from the gentes, and consisting, according to +racial and local circumstances, either of several joint families, or of +both joint and simple families, or (especially in the case of new +settlements) of simple families only. If this view be correct, we should +not have the right of establishing the series: gens, compound family, +village community--the second member of the series having not the same +ethnological value as the two others. See Appendix IX. + +6. Stobbe, Beitrag zur Geschichte des deutschen Rechtes, p. 62. + +7. The few traces of private property in land which are met with in the +early barbarian period are found with such stems (the Batavians, the +Franks in Gaul) as have been for a time under the influence of Imperial +Rome. See Inama-Sternegg's Die Ausbildung der grossen Grundherrschaften +in Deutschland, Bd. i. 1878. Also, Besseler, Neubruch nach dem alteren +deutschen Recht, pp. 11-12, quoted by Kovalevsky, Modern Custom and +Ancient Law, Moscow, 1886, i. 134. + +8. Maurer's Markgenossenschaft; Lamprecht's "Wirthschaft und Recht der +Franken zur Zeit der Volksrechte," in Histor. Taschenbuch, 1883; +Seebohm's The English Village Community, ch. vi, vii, and ix. + +9. Letourneau, in Bulletin de la Soc. d'Anthropologie, 1888, vol. xi. p. +476. + +10. Walter, Das alte Wallis, p. 323; Dm. Bakradze and N. Khoudadoff in +Russian Zapiski of the Caucasian Geogr. Society, xiv. Part I. + +11. Bancroft's Native Races; Waitz, Anthropologie, iii. 423; Montrozier, +in Bull. Soc. d'Anthropologie, 1870; Post's Studien, etc. + +12. A number of works, by Ory, Luro, Laudes, and Sylvestre, on the +village community in Annam, proving that it has had there the same forms +as in Germany or Russia, is mentioned in a review of these works by +Jobbe-Duval, in Nouvelle Revue historique de droit francais et etranger, +October and December, 1896. A good study of the village community of +Peru, before the establishment of the power of the Incas, has been +brought out by Heinrich Cunow (Die Soziale Verfassung des Inka-Reichs, +Stuttgart, 1896.) The communal possession of land and communal culture +are described in that work. + +13. Kovalevsky, Modern Custom and Ancient Law, i. 115. + +14. Palfrey, History of New England, ii. 13; quoted in Maine's Village +Communities, New York, 1876, p. 201. + +15. Konigswarter, Etudes sur le developpement des societes humaines, +Paris, 1850. + +16. This is, at least, the law of the Kalmucks, whose customary law +bears the closest resemblance to the laws of the Teutons, the old +Slavonians, etc. + +17. The habit is in force still with many African and other tribes. + +18. Village Communities, pp. 65-68 and 199. + +19. Maurer (Gesch. der Markverfassung, sections 29, 97) is quite +decisive upon this subject. He maintains that "All members of the +community ... the laic and clerical lords as well, often also the +partial co-possessors (Markberechtigte), and even strangers to the Mark, +were submitted to its jurisdiction" (p. 312). This conception remained +locally in force up to the fifteenth century. + +20. Konigswarter, loc. cit. p. 50; J. Thrupp, Historical Law Tracts, +London, 1843, p. 106. + +21. Konigswarter has shown that the fred originated from an offering +which had to be made to appease the ancestors. Later on, it was paid to +the community, for the breach of peace; and still later to the judge, or +king, or lord, when they had appropriated to themselves the rights of +the community. + +22. Post's Bausteine and Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, Oldenburg, 1887, +vol. i. pp. 64 seq.; Kovalevsky, loc. cit. ii. 164-189. + +23. O. Miller and M. Kovalevsky, "In the Mountaineer Communities of +Kabardia," in Vestnik Evropy, April, 1884. With the Shakhsevens of the +Mugan Steppe, blood feuds always end by marriage between the two hostile +sides (Markoff, in appendix to the Zapiski of the Caucasian Geogr. Soc. +xiv. 1, 21). + +24. Post, in Afrik. Jurisprudenz, gives a series of facts illustrating +the conceptions of equity inrooted among the African barbarians. The +same may be said of all serious examinations into barbarian common law. + +25. See the excellent chapter, "Le droit de La Vieille Irlande," (also +"Le Haut Nord") in Etudes de droit international et de droit politique, +by Prof. E. Nys, Bruxelles, 1896. + +26. Introduction, p. xxxv. + +27. Das alte Wallis, pp. 343-350. + +28. Maynoff, "Sketches of the Judicial Practices of the Mordovians," in +the ethnographical Zapiski of the Russian Geographical Society, 1885, +pp. 236, 257. + +29. Henry Maine, International Law, London, 1888, pp. 11-13. E. Nys, Les +origines du droit international, Bruxelles, 1894. + +30. A Russian historian, the Kazan Professor Schapoff, who was exiled in +1862 to Siberia, has given a good description of their institutions in +the Izvestia of the East-Siberian Geographical Society, vol. v. 1874. + +31. Sir Henry Maine's Village Communities, New York, 1876, pp. 193-196. + +32. Nazaroff, The North Usuri Territory (Russian), St. Petersburg, 1887, +p. 65. + +33. Hanoteau et Letourneux, La Kabylie, 3 vols. Paris, 1883. + +34. To convoke an "aid" or "bee," some kind of meal must be offered to +the community. I am told by a Caucasian friend that in Georgia, when the +poor man wants an "aid," he borrows from the rich man a sheep or two to +prepare the meal, and the community bring, in addition to their work, so +many provisions that he may repay the debt. A similar habit exists with +the Mordovians. + +35. Hanoteau et Letourneux, La kabylie, ii. 58. The same respect to +strangers is the rule with the Mongols. The Mongol who has refused his +roof to a stranger pays the full blood-compensation if the stranger has +suffered therefrom (Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. 231). + +36. N. Khoudadoff, "Notes on the Khevsoures," in Zapiski of the +Caucasian Geogr. Society, xiv. 1, Tiflis, 1890, p. 68. They also took +the oath of not marrying girls from their own union, thus displaying a +remarkable return to the old gentile rules. + +37. Dm. Bakradze, "Notes on the Zakataly District," in same Zapiski, +xiv. 1, p. 264. The "joint team" is as common among the Lezghines as it +is among the Ossetes. + +38. See Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, Oldenburg, 1887. Munzinger, +Ueber das Recht und Sitten der Bogos, Winterthur 1859; Casalis, Les +Bassoutos, Paris, 1859; Maclean, Kafir Laws and Customs, Mount Coke, +1858, etc. + +39. Waitz, iii. 423 seq. + +40. Post's Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Familien Rechts +Oldenburg, 1889, pp. 270 seq. + +41. Powell, Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnography, Washington, +1881, quoted in Post's Studien, p. 290; Bastian's Inselgruppen in +Oceanien, 1883, p. 88. + +42. De Stuers, quoted by Waitz, v. 141. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MUTUAL AID IN THE MEDIAEVAL CITY + +Growth of authority in Barbarian Society. Serfdom in the villages. +Revolt of fortified towns: their liberation; their charts. The guild. +Double origin of the free medieval city. Self-jurisdiction, +self-administration. Honourable position of labour. Trade by the guild +and by the city. + + +Sociability and need of mutual aid and support are such inherent parts +of human nature that at no time of history can we discover men living in +small isolated families, fighting each other for the means of +subsistence. On the contrary, modern research, as we saw it in the two +preceding chapters, proves that since the very beginning of their +prehistoric life men used to agglomerate into gentes, clans, or tribes, +maintained by an idea of common descent and by worship of common +ancestors. For thousands and thousands of years this organization has +kept men together, even though there was no authority whatever to impose +it. It has deeply impressed all subsequent development of mankind; and +when the bonds of common descent had been loosened by migrations on a +grand scale, while the development of the separated family within the +clan itself had destroyed the old unity of the clan, a new form of +union, territorial in its principle--the village community--was called +into existence by the social genius of man. This institution, again, +kept men together for a number of centuries, permitting them to further +develop their social institutions and to pass through some of the +darkest periods of history, without being dissolved into loose +aggregations of families and individuals, to make a further step in +their evolution, and to work out a number of secondary social +institutions, several of which have survived down to the present time. +We have now to follow the further developments of the same ever-living +tendency for mutual aid. Taking the village communities of the so-called +barbarians at a time when they were making a new start of civilization +after the fall of the Roman Empire, we have to study the new aspects +taken by the sociable wants of the masses in the middle ages, and +especially in the medieval guilds and the medieval city. + +Far from being the fighting animals they have often been compared to, +the barbarians of the first centuries of our era (like so many +Mongolians, Africans, Arabs, and so on, who still continue in the same +barbarian stage) invariably preferred peace to war. With the exception +of a few tribes which had been driven during the great migrations into +unproductive deserts or highlands, and were thus compelled periodically +to prey upon their better-favoured neighbours--apart from these, the +great bulk of the Teutons, the Saxons, the Celts, the Slavonians, and so +on, very soon after they had settled in their newly-conquered abodes, +reverted to the spade or to their herds. The earliest barbarian codes +already represent to us societies composed of peaceful agricultural +communities, not hordes of men at war with each other. These barbarians +covered the country with villages and farmhouses;(1) they cleared the +forests, bridged the torrents, and colonized the formerly quite +uninhabited wilderness; and they left the uncertain warlike pursuits to +brotherhoods, scholae, or "trusts" of unruly men, gathered round +temporary chieftains, who wandered about, offering their adventurous +spirit, their arms, and their knowledge of warfare for the protection of +populations, only too anxious to be left in peace. The warrior bands +came and went, prosecuting their family feuds; but the great mass +continued to till the soil, taking but little notice of their would-be +rulers, so long as they did not interfere with the independence of their +village communities.(2) The new occupiers of Europe evolved the systems +of land tenure and soil culture which are still in force with hundreds +of millions of men; they worked out their systems of compensation for +wrongs, instead of the old tribal blood-revenge; they learned the first +rudiments of industry; and while they fortified their villages with +palisaded walls, or erected towers and earthen forts whereto to repair +in case of a new invasion, they soon abandoned the task of defending +these towers and forts to those who made of war a speciality. + +The very peacefulness of the barbarians, certainly not their supposed +warlike instincts, thus became the source of their subsequent subjection +to the military chieftains. It is evident that the very mode of life of +the armed brotherhoods offered them more facilities for enrichment than +the tillers of the soil could find in their agricultural communities. +Even now we see that armed men occasionally come together to shoot down +Matabeles and to rob them of their droves of cattle, though the +Matabeles only want peace and are ready to buy it at a high price. The +scholae of old certainly were not more scrupulous than the scholae of +our own time. Droves of cattle, iron (which was extremely costly at that +time(3)), and slaves were appropriated in this way; and although most +acquisitions were wasted on the spot in those glorious feasts of which +epic poetry has so much to say--still some part of the robbed riches was +used for further enrichment. There was plenty of waste land, and no lack +of men ready to till it, if only they could obtain the necessary cattle +and implements. Whole villages, ruined by murrains, pests, fires, or +raids of new immigrants, were often abandoned by their inhabitants, who +went anywhere in search of new abodes. They still do so in Russia in +similar circumstances. And if one of the hirdmen of the armed +brotherhoods offered the peasants some cattle for a fresh start, some +iron to make a plough, if not the plough itself, his protection from +further raids, and a number of years free from all obligations, before +they should begin to repay the contracted debt, they settled upon the +land. And when, after a hard fight with bad crops, inundations and +pestilences, those pioneers began to repay their debts, they fell into +servile obligations towards the protector of the territory. Wealth +undoubtedly did accumulate in this way, and power always follows +wealth.(4) And yet, the more we penetrate into the life of those times, +the sixth and seventh centuries of our era, the more we see that another +element, besides wealth and military force, was required to constitute +the authority of the few. It was an element of law and tight, a desire +of the masses to maintain peace, and to establish what they considered +to be justice, which gave to the chieftains of the scholae--kings, +dukes, knyazes, and the like--the force they acquired two or three +hundred years later. That same idea of justice, conceived as an adequate +revenge for the wrong done, which had grown in the tribal stage, now +passed as a red thread through the history of subsequent institutions, +and, much more even than military or economic causes, it became the +basis upon which the authority of the kings and the feudal lords was +founded. + +In fact, one of the chief preoccupations of the barbarian village +community always was, as it still is with our barbarian contemporaries, +to put a speedy end to the feuds which arose from the then current +conception of justice. When a quarrel took place, the community at once +interfered, and after the folkmote had heard the case, it settled the +amount of composition (wergeld) to be paid to the wronged person, or to +his family, as well as the fred, or fine for breach of peace, which had +to be paid to the community. Interior quarrels were easily appeased in +this way. But when feuds broke out between two different tribes, or two +confederations of tribes, notwithstanding all measures taken to prevent +them,(5) the difficulty was to find an arbiter or sentence-finder whose +decision should be accepted by both parties alike, both for his +impartiality and for his knowledge of the oldest law. The difficulty was +the greater as the customary laws of different tribes and confederations +were at variance as to the compensation due in different cases. It +therefore became habitual to take the sentence-finder from among such +families, or such tribes, as were reputed for keeping the law of old in +its purity; of being versed in the songs, triads, sagas, etc., by means +of which law was perpetuated in memory; and to retain law in this way +became a sort of art, a "mystery," carefully transmitted in certain +families from generation to generation. Thus in Iceland, and in other +Scandinavian lands, at every A11thing, or national folkmote, a +loevsoegmathr used to recite the whole law from memory for the +enlightening of the assembly; and in Ireland there was, as is known, a +special class of men reputed for the knowledge of the old traditions, +and therefore enjoying a great authority as judges.(6) Again, when we +are told by the Russian annals that some stems of North-West Russia, +moved by the growing disorder which resulted from "clans rising against +clans," appealed to Norman varingiar to be their judges and commanders +of warrior scholae; and when we see the knyazes, or dukes, elected for +the next two hundred years always from the same Norman family, we cannot +but recognize that the Slavonians trusted to the Normans for a better +knowledge of the law which would be equally recognized as good by +different Slavonian kins. In this case the possession of runes, used for +the transmission of old customs, was a decided advantage in favour of +the Normans; but in other cases there are faint indications that the +"eldest" branch of the stem, the supposed motherbranch, was appealed to +to supply the judges, and its decisions were relied upon as just;(7) +while at a later epoch we see a distinct tendency towards taking the +sentence-finders from the Christian clergy, which, at that time, kept +still to the fundamental, now forgotten, principle of Christianity, that +retaliation is no act of justice. At that time the Christian clergy +opened the churches as places of asylum for those who fled from blood +revenge, and they willingly acted as arbiters in criminal cases, always +opposing the old tribal principle of life for life and wound for wound. +In short, the deeper we penetrate into the history of early +institutions, the less we find grounds for the military theory of origin +of authority. Even that power which later on became such a source of +oppression seems, on the contrary, to have found its origin in the +peaceful inclinations of the masses. + +In all these cases the fred, which often amounted to half the +compensation, went to the folkmote, and from times immemorial it used to +be applied to works of common utility and defence. It has still the same +destination (the erection of towers) among the Kabyles and certain +Mongolian stems; and we have direct evidence that even several centuries +later the judicial fines, in Pskov and several French and German cities, +continued to be used for the repair of the city walls.(8) It was thus +quite natural that the fines should be handed over to the +sentence-finder, who was bound, in return, both to maintain the schola +of armed men to whom the defence of the territory was trusted, and to +execute the sentences. This became a universal custom in the eighth and +ninth centuries, even when the sentence-finder was an elected bishop. +The germ of a combination of what we should now call the judicial power +and the executive thus made its appearance. But to these two functions +the attributions of the duke or king were strictly limited. He was no +ruler of the people--the supreme power still belonging to the +folkmote--not even a commander of the popular militia; when the folk +took to arms, it marched under a separate, also elected, commander, who +was not a subordinate, but an equal to the king.(9) The king was a lord +on his personal domain only. In fact, in barbarian language, the word +konung, koning, or cyning synonymous with the Latin rex, had no other +meaning than that of a temporary leader or chieftain of a band of men. +The commander of a flotilla of boats, or even of a single pirate boat, +was also a konung, and till the present day the commander of fishing in +Norway is named Not-kong--"the king of the nets."(10) The veneration +attached later on to the personality of a king did not yet exist, and +while treason to the kin was punished by death, the slaying of a king +could be recouped by the payment of compensation: a king simply was +valued so much more than a freeman.(11) And when King Knu (or Canute) +had killed one man of his own schola, the saga represents him convoking +his comrades to a thing where he stood on his knees imploring pardon. He +was pardoned, but not till he had agreed to pay nine times the regular +composition, of which one-third went to himself for the loss of one of +his men, one-third to the relatives of the slain man, and one-third (the +fred) to the schola.(12) In reality, a complete change had to be +accomplished in the current conceptions, under the double influence of +the Church and the students of Roman law, before an idea of sanctity +began to be attached to the personality of the king. + +However, it lies beyond the scope of these essays to follow the gradual +development of authority out of the elements just indicated. Historians, +such as Mr. and Mrs. Green for this country, Augustin Thierry, Michelet, +and Luchaire for France, Kaufmann, Janssen, W. Arnold, and even Nitzsch, +for Germany, Leo and Botta for Italy, Byelaeff, Kostomaroff, and their +followers for Russia, and many others, have fully told that tale. They +have shown how populations, once free, and simply agreeing "to feed" a +certain portion of their military defenders, gradually became the serfs +of these protectors; how "commendation" to the Church, or to a lord, +became a hard necessity for the freeman; how each lord's and bishop's +castle became a robber's nest--how feudalism was imposed, in a word--and +how the crusades, by freeing the serfs who wore the cross, gave the +first impulse to popular emancipation. All this need not be retold in +this place, our chief aim being to follow the constructive genius of the +masses in their mutual-aid institutions. + +At a time when the last vestiges of barbarian freedom seemed to +disappear, and Europe, fallen under the dominion of thousands of petty +rulers, was marching towards the constitution of such theocracies and +despotic States as had followed the barbarian stage during the previous +starts of civilization, or of barbarian monarchies, such as we see now +in Africa, life in Europe took another direction. It went on on lines +similar to those it had once taken in the cities of antique Greece. With +a unanimity which seems almost incomprehensible, and for a long time was +not understood by historians, the urban agglomerations, down to the +smallest burgs, began to shake off the yoke of their worldly and +clerical lords. The fortified village rose against the lord's castle, +defied it first, attacked it next, and finally destroyed it. The +movement spread from spot to spot, involving every town on the surface +of Europe, and in less than a hundred years free cities had been called +into existence on the coasts of the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the +Baltic, the Atlantic Ocean, down to the fjords of Scandinavia; at the +feet of the Apennines, the Alps, the Black Forest, the Grampians, and +the Carpathians; in the plains of Russia, Hungary, France and Spain. +Everywhere the same revolt took place, with the same features, passing +through the same phases, leading to the same results. Wherever men had +found, or expected to find, some protection behind their town walls, +they instituted their "co-jurations," their "fraternities," their +"friendships," united in one common idea, and boldly marching towards a +new life of mutual support and liberty. And they succeeded so well that +in three or four hundred years they had changed the very face of Europe. +They had covered the country with beautiful sumptuous buildings, +expressing the genius of free unions of free men, unrivalled since for +their beauty and expressiveness; and they bequeathed to the following +generations all the arts, all the industries, of which our present +civilization, with all its achievements and promises for the future, is +only a further development. And when we now look to the forces which +have produced these grand results, we find them--not in the genius of +individual heroes, not in the mighty organization of huge States or the +political capacities of their rulers, but in the very same current of +mutual aid and support which we saw at work in the village community, +and which was vivified and reinforced in the Middle Ages by a new form +of unions, inspired by the very same spirit but shaped on a new +model--the guilds. + +It is well known by this time that feudalism did not imply a dissolution +of the village community. Although the lord had succeeded in imposing +servile labour upon the peasants, and had appropriated for himself such +rights as were formerly vested in the village community alone (taxes, +mortmain, duties on inheritances and marriages), the peasants had, +nevertheless, maintained the two fundamental rights of their +communities: the common possession of the land, and self-jurisdiction. +In olden times, when a king sent his vogt to a village, the peasants +received him with flowers in one hand and arms in the other, and asked +him--which law he intended to apply: the one he found in the village, or +the one he brought with him? And, in the first case, they handed him the +flowers and accepted him; while in the second case they fought him.(13) +Now, they accepted the king's or the lord's official whom they could not +refuse; but they maintained the folkmote's jurisdiction, and themselves +nominated six, seven, or twelve judges, who acted with the lord's judge, +in the presence of the folkmote, as arbiters and sentence-finders. In +most cases the official had nothing left to him but to confirm the +sentence and to levy the customary fred. This precious right of +self-jurisdiction, which, at that time, meant self-administration and +self-legislation, had been maintained through all the struggles; and +even the lawyers by whom Karl the Great was surrounded could not abolish +it; they were bound to confirm it. At the same time, in all matters +concerning the community's domain, the folkmote retained its supremacy +and (as shown by Maurer) often claimed submission from the lord himself +in land tenure matters. No growth of feudalism could break this +resistance; the village community kept its ground; and when, in the +ninth and tenth centuries, the invasions of the Normans, the Arabs, and +the Ugrians had demonstrated that military scholae were of little value +for protecting the land, a general movement began all over Europe for +fortifying the villages with stone walls and citadels. Thousands of +fortified centres were then built by the energies of the village +communities; and, once they had built their walls, once a common +interest had been created in this new sanctuary--the town walls--they +soon understood that they could henceforward resist the encroachments of +the inner enemies, the lords, as well as the invasions of foreigners. A +new life of freedom began to develop within the fortified enclosures. +The medieval city was born.(14) + +No period of history could better illustrate the constructive powers of +the popular masses than the tenth and eleventh centuries, when the +fortified villages and market-places, representing so many "oases amidst +the feudal forest," began to free themselves from their lord's yoke, and +slowly elaborated the future city organization; but, unhappily, this is +a period about which historical information is especially scarce: we +know the results, but little has reached us about the means by which +they were achieved. Under the protection of their walls the cities' +folkmotes--either quite independent, or led by the chief noble or +merchant families--conquered and maintained the right of electing the +military defensor and supreme judge of the town, or at least of choosing +between those who pretended to occupy this position. In Italy the young +communes were continually sending away their defensors or domini, +fighting those who refused to go. The same went on in the East. In +Bohemia, rich and poor alike (Bohemicae gentis magni et parvi, nobiles +et ignobiles) took part in the election;(15) while, the vyeches +(folkmotes) of the Russian cities regularly elected their dukes--always +from the same Rurik family--covenanted with them, and sent the knyaz +away if he had provoked discontent.(16) At the same time in most cities +of Western and Southern Europe, the tendency was to take for defensor a +bishop whom the city had elected itself; and so many bishops took the +lead in protecting the "immunities" of the towns and in defending their +liberties, that numbers of them were considered, after their death, as +saints and special patrons of different cities. St. Uthelred of +Winchester, St. Ulrik of Augsburg, St. Wolfgang of Ratisbon, St. +Heribert of Cologne, St. Adalbert of Prague, and so on, as well as many +abbots and monks, became so many cities' saints for having acted in +defence of popular rights.(17) And under the new defensors, whether laic +or clerical, the citizens conquered full self-jurisdiction and +self-administration for their folkmotes.(18) + +The whole process of liberation progressed by a series of imperceptible +acts of devotion to the common cause, accomplished by men who came out +of the masses--by unknown heroes whose very names have not been +preserved by history. The wonderful movement of the God's peace (treuga +Dei) by which the popular masses endeavoured to put a limit to the +endless family feuds of the noble families, was born in the young towns, +the bishops and the citizens trying to extend to the nobles the peace +they had established within their town walls.(19) Already at that +period, the commercial cities of Italy, and especially Amalfi (which had +its elected consuls since 844, and frequently changed its doges in the +tenth century)(20) worked out the customary maritime and commercial law +which later on became a model for all Europe; Ravenna elaborated its +craft organization, and Milan, which had made its first revolution in +980, became a great centre of commerce, its trades enjoying a full +independence since the eleventh century.(21) So also Brugge and Ghent; +so also several cities of France in which the Mahl or forum had become a +quite independent institution.(22) And already during that period began +the work of artistic decoration of the towns by works of architecture, +which we still admire and which loudly testify of the intellectual +movement of the times. "The basilicae were then renewed in almost all +the universe," Raoul Glaber wrote in his chronicle, and some of the +finest monuments of medieval architecture date from that period: the +wonderful old church of Bremen was built in the ninth century, Saint +Marc of Venice was finished in 1071, and the beautiful dome of Pisa in +1063. In fact, the intellectual movement which has been described as the +Twelfth Century Renaissance(23) and the Twelfth Century Rationalism--the +precursor of the Reform(24) date from that period, when most cities were +still simple agglomerations of small village communities enclosed by +walls. + +However, another element, besides the village-community principle, was +required to give to these growing centres of liberty and enlightenment +the unity of thought and action, and the powers of initiative, which +made their force in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. With the +growing diversity of occupations, crafts and arts, and with the growing +commerce in distant lands, some new form of union was required, and this +necessary new element was supplied by the guilds. Volumes and volumes +have been written about these unions which, under the name of guilds, +brotherhoods, friendships and druzhestva, minne, artels in Russia, +esnaifs in Servia and Turkey, amkari in Georgia, and so on, took such a +formidable development in medieval times and played such an important +part in the emancipation of the cities. But it took historians more than +sixty years before the universality of this institution and its true +characters were understood. Only now, when hundreds of guild statutes +have been published and studied, and their relationship to the Roman +collegiae, and the earlier unions in Greece and in India,(25) is known, +can we maintain with full confidence that these brotherhoods were but a +further development of the same principles which we saw at work in the +gens and the village community. + +Nothing illustrates better these medieval brother hoods than those +temporary guilds which were formed on board ships. When a ship of the +Hansa had accomplished her first half-day passage after having left the +port, the captain (Schiffer) gathered all crew and passengers on the +deck, and held the following language, as reported by a contemporary:-- + +"'As we are now at the mercy of God and the waves,' he said, 'each one +must be equal to each other. And as we are surrounded by storms, high +waves, pirates and other dangers, we must keep a strict order that we +may bring our voyage to a good end. That is why we shall pronounce the +prayer for a good wind and good success, and, according to marine law, +we shall name the occupiers of the judges' seats (Schoffenstellen).' +Thereupon the crew elected a Vogt and four scabini, to act as their +judges. At the end of the voyage the Vogt and the scabini abdicated +their functions and addressed the crew as follows:--'What has happened on board ship, we +must pardon to each other and consider as dead (todt +und ab sein lassen). What we have judged right, was for the sake of +justice. This is why we beg you all, in the name of honest justice, to +forget all the animosity one may nourish against another, and to swear +on bread and salt that he will not think of it in a bad spirit. If any +one, however, considers himself wronged, he must appeal to the land Vogt +and ask justice from him before sunset.' On landing, the Stock with the +fredfines was handed over to the Vogt of the sea-port for distribution +among the poor."(26) + +This simple narrative, perhaps better than anything else, depicts the +spirit of the medieval guilds. Like organizations came into existence +wherever a group of men--fishermen, hunters, travelling merchants, +builders, or settled craftsmen--came together for a common pursuit. +Thus, there was on board ship the naval authority of the captain; but, +for the very success of the common enterprise, all men on board, rich +and poor, masters and crew, captain and sailors, agreed to be equals in +their mutual relations, to be simply men, bound to aid each other and to +settle their possible disputes before judges elected by all of them. So +also when a number of craftsmen--masons, carpenters, stone-cutters, +etc.--came together for building, say, a cathedral, they all belonged to +a city which had its political organization, and each of them belonged +moreover to his own craft; but they were united besides by their common +enterprise, which they knew better than any one else, and they joined +into a body united by closer, although temporary, bonds; they founded +the guild for the building of the cathedral.(27) We may see the same +till now in the Kabylian. cof:(28) the Kabyles have their village +community; but this union is not sufficient for all political, +commercial, and personal needs of union, and the closer brotherhood of +the cof is constituted. + +As to the social characters of the medieval guild, any guild-statute may +illustrate them. Taking, for instance, the skraa of some early Danish +guild, we read in it, first, a statement of the general brotherly +feelings which must reign in the guild; next come the regulations +relative to self-jurisdiction in cases of quarrels arising between two +brothers, or a brother and a stranger; and then, the social duties of +the brethren are enumerated. If a brother's house is burned, or he has +lost his ship, or has suffered on a pilgrim's voyage, all the brethren +must come to his aid. If a brother falls dangerously ill, two brethren +must keep watch by his bed till he is out of danger, and if he dies, the +brethren must bury him--a great affair in those times of +pestilences--and follow him to the church and the grave. After his death +they must provide for his children, if necessary; very often the widow +becomes a sister to the guild.(29) + +These two leading features appeared in every brotherhood formed for any +possible purpose. In each case the members treated each other as, and +named each other, brother and sister;(30) all were equals before the +guild. They owned some "chattel" (cattle, land, buildings, places of +worship, or "stock") in common. All brothers took the oath of abandoning +all feuds of old; and, without imposing upon each other the obligation +of never quarrelling again, they agreed that no quarrel should +degenerate into a feud, or into a law-suit before another court than the +tribunal of the brothers themselves. And if a brother was involved in a +quarrel with a stranger to the guild, they agreed to support him for bad +and for good; that is, whether he was unjustly accused of aggression, or +really was the aggressor, they had to support him, and to bring things +to a peaceful end. So long as his was not a secret aggression--in which +case he would have been treated as an outlaw--the brotherhood stood by +him.(31) If the relatives of the wronged man wanted to revenge the +offence at once by a new aggression, the brother-hood supplied him with +a horse to run away, or with a boat, a pair of oars, a knife and a steel +for striking light; if he remained in town, twelve brothers accompanied +him to protect him; and in the meantime they arranged the composition. +They went to court to support by oath the truthfulness of his +statements, and if he was found guilty they did not let him go to full +ruin and become a slave through not paying the due compensation: they +all paid it, just as the gens did in olden times. Only when a brother +had broken the faith towards his guild-brethren, or other people, he was +excluded from the brotherhood "with a Nothing's name" (tha scal han +maeles af brodrescap met nidings nafn).(32) + +Such were the leading ideas of those brotherhoods which gradually +covered the whole of medieval life. In fact, we know of guilds among all +possible professions: guilds of serfs,(33) guilds of freemen, and guilds +of both serfs and freemen; guilds called into life for the special +purpose of hunting, fishing, or a trading expedition, and dissolved when +the special purpose had been achieved; and guilds lasting for centuries +in a given craft or trade. And, in proportion as life took an always +greater variety of pursuits, the variety in the guilds grew in +proportion. So we see not only merchants, craftsmen, hunters, and +peasants united in guilds; we also see guilds of priests, painters, +teachers of primary schools and universities, guilds for performing the +passion play, for building a church, for developing the "mystery" of a +given school of art or craft, or for a special recreation--even guilds +among beggars, executioners, and lost women, all organized on the same +double principle of self-jurisdiction and mutual support.(34) For Russia +we have positive evidence showing that the very "making of Russia" was +as much the work of its hunters', fishermen's, and traders' artels as of +the budding village communities, and up to the present day the country +is covered with artels.(35) + +These few remarks show how incorrect was the view taken by some early +explorers of the guilds when they wanted to see the essence of the +institution in its yearly festival. In reality, the day of the common +meal was always the day, or the morrow of the day, of election of +aldermen, of discussion of alterations in the statutes, and very often +the day of judgment of quarrels that had risen among the brethren,(36) +or of renewed allegiance to the guild. The common meal, like the +festival at the old tribal folkmote--the mahl or malum--or the Buryate +aba, or the parish feast and the harvest supper, was simply an +affirmation of brotherhood. It symbolized the times when everything was +kept in common by the clan. This day, at least, all belonged to all; all +sate at the same table and partook of the same meal. Even at a much +later time the inmate of the almshouse of a London guild sat this day by +the side of the rich alderman. As to the distinction which several +explorers have tried to establish between the old Saxon "frith guild" +and the so-called "social" or "religious" guilds--all were frith guilds +in the sense above mentioned,(37) and all were religious in the sense in +which a village community or a city placed under the protection of a +special saint is social and religious. If the institution of the guild +has taken such an immense extension in Asia, Africa, and Europe, if it +has lived thousands of years, reappearing again and again when similar +conditions called it into existence, it is because it was much more than +an eating association, or an association for going to church on a +certain day, or a burial club. It answered to a deeply inrooted want of +human nature; and it embodied all the attributes which the State +appropriated later on for its bureaucracy and police, and much more than +that. It was an association for mutual support in all circumstances and +in all accidents of life, "by deed and advise," and it was an +organization for maintaining justice--with this difference from the +State, that on all these occasions a humane, a brotherly element was +introduced instead of the formal element which is the essential +characteristic of State interference. Even when appearing before the +guild tribunal, the guild-brother answered before men who knew him well +and had stood by him before in their daily work, at the common meal, in +the performance of their brotherly duties: men who were his equals and +brethren indeed, not theorists of law nor defenders of some one else's +interests.(38) + +It is evident that an institution so well suited to serve the need of +union, without depriving the individual of his initiative, could but +spread, grow, and fortify. The difficulty was only to find such form as +would permit to federate the unions of the guilds without interfering +with the unions of the village communities, and to federate all these +into one harmonious whole. And when this form of combination had been +found, and a series of favourable circumstances permitted the cities to +affirm their independence, they did so with a unity of thought which can +but excite our admiration, even in our century of railways, telegraphs, +and printing. Hundreds of charters in which the cities inscribed their +liberation have reached us, and through all of them--notwithstanding the +infinite variety of details, which depended upon the more or less +greater fulness of emancipation--the same leading ideas run. The city +organized itself as a federation of both small village communities and +guilds. + +"All those who belong to the friendship of the town"--so runs a charter +given in 1188 to the burghesses of Aire by Philip, Count of +Flanders--"have promised and confirmed by faith and oath that they will +aid each other as brethren, in whatever is useful and honest. That if +one commits against another an offence in words or in deeds, the one who +has suffered there from will not take revenge, either himself or his +people ... he will lodge a complaint and the offender will make good for +his offence, according to what will be pronounced by twelve elected +judges acting as arbiters, And if the offender or the offended, after +having been warned thrice, does not submit to the decision of the +arbiters, he will be excluded from the friendship as a wicked man and a +perjuror.(39) + +"Each one of the men of the commune will be faithful to his con-juror, +and will give him aid and advice, according to what justice will dictate +him"--the Amiens and Abbeville charters say. "All will aid each other, +according to their powers, within the boundaries of the Commune, and +will not suffer that any one takes anything from any one of them, or +makes one pay contributions"--do we read in the charters of Soissons, +Compiegne, Senlis, and many others of the same type.(40) And so on with +countless variations on the same theme. + +"The Commune," Guilbert de Nogent wrote, "is an oath of mutual aid +(mutui adjutorii conjuratio) ... A new and detestable word. Through it +the serfs (capite sensi) are freed from all serfdom; through it, they +can only be condemned to a legally determined fine for breaches of the +law; through it, they cease to be liable to payments which the serfs +always used to pay."(41) + +The same wave of emancipation ran, in the twelfth century, through all +parts of the continent, involving both rich cities and the poorest +towns. And if we may say that, as a rule, the Italian cities were the +first to free themselves, we can assign no centre from which the +movement would have spread. Very often a small burg in central Europe +took the lead for its region, and big agglomerations accepted the little +town's charter as a model for their own. Thus, the charter of a small +town, Lorris, was adopted by eighty-three towns in south-west France, +and that of Beaumont became the model for over five hundred towns and +cities in Belgium and France. Special deputies were dispatched by the +cities to their neighbours to obtain a copy from their charter, and the +constitution was framed upon that model. However, they did not simply +copy each other: they framed their own charters in accordance with the +concessions they had obtained from their lords; and the result was that, +as remarked by an historian, the charters of the medieval communes offer +the same variety as the Gothic architecture of their churches and +cathedrals. The same leading ideas in all of them--the cathedral +symbolizing the union of parish and guild in the, city--and the same +infinitely rich variety of detail. + +Self-jurisdiction was the essential point, and self-jurisdiction meant +self-administration. But the commune was not simply an "autonomous" part +of the State--such ambiguous words had not yet been invented by that +time--it was a State in itself. It had the right of war and peace, of +federation and alliance with its neighbours. It was sovereign in its own +affairs, and mixed with no others. The supreme political power could be +vested entirely in a democratic forum, as was the case in Pskov, whose +vyeche sent and received ambassadors, concluded treaties, accepted and +sent away princes, or went on without them for dozens of years; or it +was vested in, or usurped by, an aristocracy of merchants or even +nobles, as was the case in hundreds of Italian and middle European +cities. The principle, nevertheless, remained the same: the city was a +State and--what was perhaps still more remarkable--when the power in the +city was usurped by an aristocracy of merchants or even nobles, the +inner life of the city and the democratism of its daily life did not +disappear: they depended but little upon what may be called the +political form of the State. + +The secret of this seeming anomaly lies in the fact that a medieval city +was not a centralized State. During the first centuries of its +existence, the city hardly could be named a State as regards its +interior organization, because the middle ages knew no more of the +present centralization of functions than of the present territorial +centralization. Each group had its share of sovereignty. The city was +usually divided into four quarters, or into five to seven sections +radiating from a centre, each quarter or section roughly corresponding +to a certain trade or profession which prevailed in it, but nevertheless +containing inhabitants of different social positions and +occupations--nobles, merchants, artisans, or even half-serfs; and each +section or quarter constituted a quite independent agglomeration. In +Venice, each island was an independent political community. It had its +own organized trades, its own commerce in salt, its own jurisdiction and +administration, its own forum; and the nomination of a doge by the city +changed nothing in the inner independence of the units.(42) In Cologne, +we see the inhabitants divided into Geburschaften and Heimschaften +(viciniae), i.e. neighbour guilds, which dated from the Franconian +period. Each of them had its judge (Burrichter) and the usual twelve +elected sentence-finders (Schoffen), its Vogt, and its greve or +commander of the local militia.(43) The story of early London before the +Conquest--Mr. Green says--is that "of a number of little groups +scattered here and there over the area within the walls, each growing up +with its own life and institutions, guilds, sokes, religious houses and +the like, and only slowly drawing together into a municipal union."(44) +And if we refer to the annals of the Russian cities, Novgorod and Pskov, +both of which are relatively rich in local details, we find the section +(konets) consisting of independent streets (ulitsa), each of which, +though chiefly peopled with artisans of a certain craft, had also +merchants and landowners among its inhabitants, and was a separate +community. It had the communal responsibility of all members in case of +crime, its own jurisdiction and administration by street aldermen +(ulichanskiye starosty), its own seal and, in case of need, its own +forum; its own militia, as also its self-elected priests and its, own +collective life and collective enterprise.(45) + +The medieval city thus appears as a double federation: of all +householders united into small territorial unions--the street, the +parish, the section--and of individuals united by oath into guilds +according to their professions; the former being a produce of the +village-community origin of the city, while the second is a subsequent +growth called to life by new conditions. + +To guarantee liberty, self-administration, and peace was the chief aim +of the medieval city; and labour, as we shall presently see when +speaking of the craft guilds, was its chief foundation. But "production" +did not absorb the whole attention of the medieval economist. With his +practical mind, he understood that "consumption" must be guaranteed in +order to obtain production; and therefore, to provide for "the common +first food and lodging of poor and rich alike" (gemeine notdurft und +gemach armer und richer(46)) was the fundamental principle in each city. +The purchase of food supplies and other first necessaries (coal, wood, +etc.) before they had reached the market, or altogether in especially +favourable conditions from which others would be excluded--the +preempcio, in a word--was entirely prohibited. Everything had to go to +the market and be offered there for every one's purchase, till the +ringing of the bell had closed the market. Then only could the retailer +buy the remainder, and even then his profit should be an "honest profit" +only.(47) Moreover, when corn was bought by a baker wholesale after the +close of the market, every citizen had the right to claim part of the +corn (about half-a-quarter) for his own use, at wholesale price, if he +did so before the final conclusion of the bargain; and reciprocally, +every baker could claim the same if the citizen purchased corn for +re-selling it. In the first case, the corn had only to be brought to the +town mill to be ground in its proper turn for a settled price, and the +bread could be baked in the four banal, or communal oven.(48) In short, +if a scarcity visited the city, all had to suffer from it more or less; +but apart from the calamities, so long as the free cities existed no one +could die in their midst from starvation, as is unhappily too often the +case in our own times. + +However, all such regulations belong to later periods of the cities' +life, while at an earlier period it was the city itself which used to +buy all food supplies for the use of the citizens. The documents +recently published by Mr. Gross are quite positive on this point and +fully support his conclusion to the effect that the cargoes of +subsistences "were purchased by certain civic officials in the name of +the town, and then distributed in shares among the merchant burgesses, +no one being allowed to buy wares landed in the port unless the +municipal authorities refused to purchase them. This seem--she adds--to +have been quite a common practice in England, Ireland, Wales and +Scotland."(49) Even in the sixteenth century we find that common +purchases of corn were made for the "comoditie and profitt in all things +of this.... Citie and Chamber of London, and of all the Citizens and +Inhabitants of the same as moche as in us lieth"--as the Mayor wrote in +1565.(50) In Venice, the whole of the trade in corn is well known to +have been in the hands of the city; the "quarters," on receiving the +cereals from the board which administrated the imports, being bound to +send to every citizen's house the quantity allotted to him.(51) In +France, the city of Amiens used to purchase salt and to distribute it to +all citizens at cost price;(52) and even now one sees in many French +towns the halles which formerly were municipal depots for corn and +salt.(53) In Russia it was a regular custom in Novgorod and Pskov. + +The whole matter relative to the communal purchases for the use of the +citizens, and the manner in which they used to be made, seems not to +have yet received proper attention from the historians of the period; +but there are here and there some very interesting facts which throw a +new light upon it. Thus there is, among Mr. Gross's documents, a +Kilkenny ordinance of the year 1367, from which we learn how the prices +of the goods were established. "The merchants and the sailors," Mr. +Gross writes, "were to state on oath the first cost of the goods and the +expenses of transportation. Then the mayor of the town and two discreet +men were to name the price at which the wares were to be sold." The same +rule held good in Thurso for merchandise coming "by sea or land." This +way of "naming the price" so well answers to the very conceptions of +trade which were current in medieval times that it must have been all +but universal. To have the price established by a third person was a +very old custom; and for all interchange within the city it certainly +was a widely-spread habit to leave the establishment of prices to +"discreet men"--to a third party--and not to the vendor or the buyer. +But this order of things takes us still further back in the history of +trade--namely, to a time when trade in staple produce was carried on by +the whole city, and the merchants were only the commissioners, the +trustees, of the city for selling the goods which it exported. A +Waterford ordinance, published also by Mr. Gross, says "that all manere +of marchandis what so ever kynde thei be of ... shal be bought by the +Maire and balives which bene commene biers [common buyers, for the town] +for the time being, and to distribute the same on freemen of the citie +(the propre goods of free citisains and inhabitants only excepted)." +This ordinance can hardly be explained otherwise than by admitting that +all the exterior trade of the town was carried on by its agents. +Moreover, we have direct evidence of such having been the case for +Novgorod and Pskov. It was the Sovereign Novgorod and the Sovereign +Pskov who sent their caravans of merchants to distant lands. + +We know also that in nearly all medieval cities of Middle and Western +Europe, the craft guilds used to buy, as a body, all necessary raw +produce, and to sell the produce of their work through their officials, +and it is hardly possible that the same should not have been done for +exterior trade--the more so as it is well known that up to the +thirteenth century, not only all merchants of a given city were +considered abroad as responsible in a body for debts contracted by any +one of them, but the whole city as well was responsible for the debts of +each one of its merchants. Only in the twelfth and thirteenth century +the towns on the Rhine entered into special treaties abolishing this +responsibility.(54) And finally we have the remarkable Ipswich document +published by Mr. Gross, from which document we learn that the merchant +guild of this town was constituted by all who had the freedom of the +city, and who wished to pay their contribution ("their hanse") to the +guild, the whole community discussing all together how better to +maintain the merchant guild, and giving it certain privileges. The +merchant guild of Ipswich thus appears rather as a body of trustees of +the town than as a common private guild. + +In short, the more we begin to know the mediaeval city the more we see +that it was not simply a political organization for the protection of +certain political liberties. It was an attempt at organizing, on a much +grander scale than in a village community, a close union for mutual aid +and support, for consumption and production, and for social life +altogether, without imposing upon men the fetters of the State, but +giving full liberty of expression to the creative genius of each +separate group of individuals in art, crafts, science, commerce, and +political organization. How far this attempt has been successful will be +best seen when we have analyzed in the next chapter the organization of +labour in the medieval city and the relations of the cities with the +surrounding peasant population. + +NOTES: + +1. W. Arnold, in his Wanderungen und Ansiedelungen der deutschen Stamme, +p. 431, even maintains that one-half of the now arable area in middle +Germany must have been reclaimed from the sixth to the ninth century. +Nitzsch (Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, Leipzig, 1883, vol. i.) shares +the same opinion. + +2. Leo and Botta, Histoire d'Italie, French edition, 1844, t. i., p. 37. + +3. The composition for the stealing of a simple knife was 15 solidii and +of the iron parts of a mill, 45 solidii (See on this subject Lamprecht's +Wirthschaft und Recht der Franken in Raumer's Historisches Taschenbuch, +1883, p. 52.) According to the Riparian law, the sword, the spear, and +the iron armour of a warrior attained the value of at least twenty-five +cows, or two years of a freeman's labour. A cuirass alone was valued in +the Salic law (Desmichels, quoted by Michelet) at as much as thirty-six +bushels of wheat. + +4. The chief wealth of the chieftains, for a long time, was in their +personal domains peopled partly with prisoner slaves, but chiefly in the +above way. On the origin of property see Inama Sternegg's Die Ausbildung +der grossen Grundherrschaften in Deutschland, in Schmoller's +Forschungen, Bd. I., 1878; F. Dahn's Urgeschichte der germanischen und +romanischen Volker, Berlin, 1881; Maurer's Dorfverfassung; Guizot's +Essais sur l'histoire de France; Maine's Village Community; Botta's +Histoire d'Italie; Seebohm, Vinogradov, J. R. Green, etc. + +5. See Sir Henry Maine's International Law, London, 1888. + +6. Ancient Laws of Ireland, Introduction; E. Nys, Etudes de droit +international, t. i., 1896, pp. 86 seq. Among the Ossetes the arbiters +from three oldest villages enjoy a special reputation (M. Kovalevsky's +Modern Custom and Old Law, Moscow, 1886, ii. 217, Russian). + +7. It is permissible to think that this conception (related to the +conception of tanistry) played an important part in the life of the +period; but research has not yet been directed that way. + +8. It was distinctly stated in the charter of St. Quentin of the year +1002 that the ransom for houses which had to be demolished for crimes +went for the city walls. The same destination was given to the Ungeld in +German cities. At Pskov the cathedral was the bank for the fines, and +from this fund money was taken for the wails. + +9. Sohm, Frankische Rechts-und Gerichtsverfassung, p. 23; also Nitzsch, +Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, i. 78. + +10. See the excellent remarks on this subject in Augustin Thierry's +Lettres sur l'histoire de France. 7th Letter. The barbarian translations +of parts of the Bible are extremely instructive on this point. + +11. Thirty-six times more than a noble, according to the Anglo-Saxon +law. In the code of Rothari the slaying of a king is, however, punished +by death; but (apart from Roman influence) this new disposition was +introduced (in 646) in the Lombardian law--as remarked by Leo and +Botta--to cover the king from blood revenge. The king being at that time +the executioner of his own sentences (as the tribe formerly was of its +own sentences), he had to be protected by a special disposition, the +more so as several Lombardian kings before Rothari had been slain in +succession (Leo and Botta, l.c., i. 66-90). + +12. Kaufmann, Deutsche Geschichte, Bd. I. "Die Germanen der Urzeit," p. +133. + +13. Dr. F. Dahn, Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Volker, +Berlin, 1881, Bd. I. 96. + +14. If I thus follow the views long since advocated by Maurer +(Geschichte der Stadteverfassung in Deutschland, Erlangen, 1869), it is +because he has fully proved the uninterrupted evolution from the village +community to the mediaeval city, and that his views alone can explain +the universality of the communal movement. Savigny and Eichhorn and +their followers have certainly proved that the traditions of the Roman +municipia had never totally disappeared. But they took no account of the +village community period which the barbarians lived through before they +had any cities. The fact is, that whenever mankind made a new start in +civilization, in Greece, Rome, or middle Europe, it passed through the +same stages--the tribe, the village community, the free city, the +state--each one naturally evolving out of the preceding stage. Of +course, the experience of each preceding civilization was never lost. +Greece (itself influenced by Eastern civilizations) influenced Rome, and +Rome influenced our civilization; but each of them begin from the same +beginning--the tribe. And just as we cannot say that our states are +continuations of the Roman state, so also can we not say that the +mediaeval cities of Europe (including Scandinavia and Russia) were a +continuation of the Roman cities. They were a continuation of the +barbarian village community, influenced to a certain extent by the +traditions of the Roman towns. + +15. M. Kovalevsky, Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia (Ilchester +Lectures, London, 1891, Lecture 4). + +16. A considerable amount of research had to be done before this +character of the so-called udyelnyi period was properly established by +the works of Byelaeff (Tales from Russian History), Kostomaroff (The +Beginnings of Autocracy in Russia), and especially Professor Sergievich +(The Vyeche and the Prince). The English reader may find some +information about this period in the just-named work of M. Kovalevsky, +in Rambaud's History of Russia, and, in a short summary, in the article +"Russia" of the last edition of Chambers's Encyclopaedia. + +17. Ferrari, Histoire des revolutions d'Italie, i. 257; Kallsen, Die +deutschen Stadte im Mittelalter, Bd. I. (Halle, 1891). + +18. See the excellent remarks of Mr. G.L. Gomme as regards the folkmote +of London (The Literature of Local Institutions, London, 1886, p. 76). +It must, however, be remarked that in royal cities the folkmote never +attained the independence which it assumed elsewhere. It is even certain +that Moscow and Paris were chosen by the kings and the Church as the +cradles of the future royal authority in the State, because they did not +possess the tradition of folkmotes accustomed to act as sovereign in all +matters. + +19. A. Luchaire, Les Communes francaises; also Kluckohn, Geschichte des +Gottesfrieden, 1857. L. Semichon (La paix et la treve de Dieu, 2 vols., +Paris, 1869) has tried to represent the communal movement as issued from +that institution. In reality, the treuga Dei, like the league started +under Louis le Gros for the defence against both the robberies of the +nobles and the Norman invasions, was a thoroughly popular movement. The +only historian who mentions this last league--that is, +Vitalis--describes it as a "popular community" ("Considerations sur +l'histoire de France," in vol. iv. of Aug. Thierry's OEuvres, Paris, +1868, p. 191 and note). + +20. Ferrari, i. 152, 263, etc. + +21. Perrens, Histoire de Florence, i. 188; Ferrari, l.c., i. 283. + +22. Aug. Thierry, Essai sur l'histoire du Tiers Etat, Paris, 1875, p. +414, note. + +23. F. Rocquain, "La Renaissance au XIIe siecle," in Etudes sur +l'histoire de France, Paris, 1875, pp. 55-117. + +24. N. Kostomaroff, "The Rationalists of the Twelfth Century," in his +Monographies and Researches (Russian). + +25. Very interesting facts relative to the universality of guilds will +be found in "Two Thousand Years of Guild Life," by Rev. J. M. Lambert, +Hull, 1891. On the Georgian amkari, see S. Eghiazarov, Gorodskiye Tsekhi +("Organization of Transcaucasian Amkari"), in Memoirs of the Caucasian +Geographical Society, xiv. 2, 1891. + +26. J.D. Wunderer's "Reisebericht" in Fichard's Frankfurter Archiv, ii. +245; quoted by Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, i. 355. + +27. Dr. Leonard Ennen, Der Dom zu Koln, Historische Einleitung, Koln, +1871, pp. 46, 50. + +28. See previous chapter. + +29. Kofod Ancher, Om gamle Danske Gilder og deres Undergang, Copenhagen, +1785. Statutes of a Knu guild. + +30. Upon the position of women in guilds, see Miss Toulmin Smith's +introductory remarks to the English Guilds of her father. One of the +Cambridge statutes (p. 281) of the year 1503 is quite positive in the +following sentence: "Thys statute is made by the comyne assent of all +the bretherne and sisterne of alhallowe yelde." + +31. In medieval times, only secret aggression was treated as a murder. +Blood-revenge in broad daylight was justice; and slaying in a quarrel +was not murder, once the aggressor showed his willingness to repent and +to repair the wrong he had done. Deep traces of this distinction still +exist in modern criminal law, especially in Russia. + +32. Kofod Ancher, l.c. This old booklet contains much that has been lost +sight of by later explorers. + +33. They played an important part in the revolts of the serfs, and were +therefore prohibited several times in succession in the second half of +the ninth century. Of course, the king's prohibitions remained a dead +letter. + +34. The medieval Italian painters were also organized in guilds, which +became at a later epoch Academies of art. If the Italian art of those +times is impressed with so much individuality that we distinguish, even +now, between the different schools of Padua, Bassano, Treviso, Verona, +and so on, although all these cities were under the sway of Venice, this +was due--J. Paul Richter remarks--to the fact that the painters of each +city belonged to a separate guild, friendly with the guilds of other +towns, but leading a separate existence. The oldest guild-statute known +is that of Verona, dating from 1303, but evidently copied from some much +older statute. "Fraternal assistance in necessity of whatever kind," +"hospitality towards strangers, when passing through the town, as thus +information may be obtained about matters which one may like to learn," +and "obligation of offering comfort in case of debility" are among the +obligations of the members (Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1890, and Aug. +1892). + +35. The chief works on the artels are named in the article "Russia" of +the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edition, p. 84. + +36. See, for instance, the texts of the Cambridge guilds given by +Toulmin Smith (English Guilds, London, 1870, pp. 274-276), from which it +appears that the "generall and principall day" was the "eleccioun day;" +or, Ch. M. Clode's The Early History of the Guild of the Merchant +Taylors, London, 1888, i. 45; and so on. For the renewal of allegiance, +see the Jomsviking saga, mentioned in Pappenheim's Altdanische +Schutzgilden, Breslau, 1885, p. 67. It appears very probable that when +the guilds began to be prosecuted, many of them inscribed in their +statutes the meal day only, or their pious duties, and only alluded to +the judicial function of the guild in vague words; but this function did +not disappear till a very much later time. The question, "Who will be my +judge?" has no meaning now, since the State has appropriated for its +bureaucracy the organization of justice; but it was of primordial +importance in medieval times, the more so as self-jurisdiction meant +self-administration. It must also be remarked that the translation of +the Saxon and Danish "guild-bretheren," or "brodre," by the Latin +convivii must also have contributed to the above confusion. + +37. See the excellent remarks upon the frith guild by J.R. Green and +Mrs. Green in The Conquest of England, London, 1883, pp. 229-230. + +38. None + +39. Recueil des ordonnances des rois de France, t. xii. 562; quoted by +Aug. Thierry in Considerations sur l'histoire de France, p. 196, ed. +12mo. + +40. A. Luchaire, Les Communes francaises, pp, 45-46. + +41. Guilbert de Nogent, De vita sua, quoted by Luchaire, l.c., p. 14. + +42. Lebret, Histoire de Venise, i. 393; also Marin, quoted by Leo and +Botta in Histoire de l'Italie, French edition, 1844, t. i 500. + +43. Dr. W. Arnold, Verfassungsgeschichte der deutschen Freistadte, 1854, +Bd. ii. 227 seq.; Ennen, Geschichte der Stadt Koeln, Bd. i. 228-229; +also the documents published by Ennen and Eckert. + +44. Conquest of England, 1883, p. 453. + +45. Byelaeff, Russian History, vols. ii. and iii. + +46. W. Gramich, Verfassungs und Verwaltungsgeschichte der Stadt Wurzburg +im 13. bis zum 15. Jahrhundert, Wurzburg, 1882, p. 34. + +47. When a boat brought a cargo of coal to Wurzburg, coal could only be +sold in retail during the first eight days, each family being entitled +to no more than fifty basketfuls. The remaining cargo could be sold +wholesale, but the retailer was allowed to raise a zittlicher profit +only, the unzittlicher, or dishonest profit, being strictly forbidden +(Gramich, l.c.). Same in London (Liber albus, quoted by Ochenkowski, p. +161), and, in fact, everywhere. + +48. See Fagniez, Etudes sur l'industrie et la classe industrielle a +Paris au XIIIme et XIVme siecle, Paris, 1877, pp. 155 seq. It hardly +need be added that the tax on bread, and on beer as well, was settled +after careful experiments as to the quantity of bread and beer which +could be obtained from a given amount of corn. The Amiens archives +contain the minutes of such experiences (A. de Calonne, l.c. pp. 77, +93). Also those of London (Ochenkowski, England's wirthschaftliche +Entwickelung, etc., Jena, 1879, p. 165). + +49. Ch. Gross, The Guild Merchant, Oxford, 1890, i. 135. His documents +prove that this practice existed in Liverpool (ii. 148-150), Waterford +in Ireland, Neath in Wales, and Linlithgow and Thurso in Scotland. Mr. +Gross's texts also show that the purchases were made for distribution, +not only among the merchant burgesses, but "upon all citsains and +commynalte" (p. 136, note), or, as the Thurso ordinance of the +seventeenth century runs, to "make offer to the merchants, craftsmen, +and inhabitants of the said burgh, that they may have their proportion +of the same, according to their necessitys and ability." + +50. The Early History of the Guild of Merchant Taylors, by Charles M. +Clode, London, 1888, i. 361, appendix 10; also the following appendix +which shows that the same purchases were made in 1546. + +51. Cibrario, Les conditions economiques de l'Italie au temps de Dante, +Paris, 1865, p. 44. + +52. A. de Calonne, La vie municipale au XVme siecle dans le Nord de la +France, Paris, 1880, pp. 12-16. In 1485 the city permitted the export to +Antwerp of a certain quantity of corn, "the inhabitants of Antwerp being +always ready to be agreeable to the merchants and burgesses of Amiens" +(ibid., pp. 75-77 and texts). + +53. A. Babeau, La ville sous l'ancien regime, Paris, 1880. + +54. Ennen, Geschichte der Stadt Koln, i. 491, 492, also texts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MUTUAL AID IN THE MEDIAEVAL CITY (continued) + +Likeness and diversity among the medieval cities. The craftguilds: +State-attributes in each of them. Attitude of the city towards the +peasants; attempts to free them. The lords. Results achieved by the +medieval city: in arts, in learning. Causes of decay. + + +The medieval cities were not organized upon some preconceived plan in +obedience to the will of an outside legislator. Each of them was a +natural growth in the full sense of the word--an always varying result +of struggle between various forces which adjusted and re-adjusted +themselves in conformity with their relative energies, the chances of +their conflicts, and the support they found in their surroundings. +Therefore, there are not two cities whose inner organization and +destinies would have been identical. Each one, taken separately, varies +from century to century. And yet, when we cast a broad glance upon all +the cities of Europe, the local and national unlikenesses disappear, and +we are struck to find among all of them a wonderful resemblance, +although each has developed for itself, independently from the others, +and in different conditions. A small town in the north of Scotland, with +its population of coarse labourers and fishermen; a rich city of +Flanders, with its world-wide commerce, luxury, love of amusement and +animated life; an Italian city enriched by its intercourse with the +East, and breeding within its walls a refined artistic taste and +civilization; and a poor, chiefly agricultural, city in the marsh and +lake district of Russia, seem to have little in common. And +nevertheless, the leading lines of their organization, and the spirit +which animates them, are imbued with a strong family likeness. +Everywhere we see the same federations of small communities and guilds, +the same "sub-towns" round the mother city, the same folkmote, and the +same insigns of its independence. The defensor of the city, under +different names and in different accoutrements, represents the same +authority and interests; food supplies, labour and commerce, are +organized on closely similar lines; inner and outer struggles are fought +with like ambitions; nay, the very formulae used in the struggles, as +also in the annals, the ordinances, and the rolls, are identical; and +the architectural monuments, whether Gothic, Roman, or Byzantine in +style, express the same aspirations and the same ideals; they are +conceived and built in the same way. Many dissemblances are mere +differences of age, and those disparities between sister cities which +are real are repeated in different parts of Europe. The unity of the +leading idea and the identity of origin make up for differences of +climate, geographical situation, wealth, language and religion. This is +why we can speak of the medieval city as of a well-defined phase of +civilization; and while every research insisting upon local and +individual differences is most welcome, we may still indicate the chief +lines of development which are common to all cities.(1) + +There is no doubt that the protection which used to be accorded to the +market-place from the earliest barbarian times has played an important, +though not an exclusive, part in the emancipation of the medieval city. +The early barbarians knew no trade within their village communities; +they traded with strangers only, at certain definite spots, on certain +determined days. And, in order that the stranger might come to the +barter-place without risk of being slain for some feud which might be +running between two kins, the market was always placed under the special +protection of all kins. It was inviolable, like the place of worship +under the shadow of which it was held. With the Kabyles it is still +annaya, like the footpath along which women carry water from the well; +neither must be trodden upon in arms, even during inter-tribal wars. In +medieval times the market universally enjoyed the same protection.(2) No +feud could be prosecuted on the place whereto people came to trade, nor +within a certain radius from it; and if a quarrel arose in the motley +crowd of buyers and sellers, it had to be brought before those under +whose protection the market stood--the community's tribunal, or the +bishop's, the lord's, or the king's judge. A stranger who came to trade +was a guest, and he went on under this very name. Even the lord who had +no scruples about robbing a merchant on the high road, respected the +Weichbild, that is, the pole which stood in the market-place and bore +either the king's arms, or a glove, or the image of the local saint, or +simply a cross, according to whether the market was under the protection +of the king, the lord, the local church, or the folkmote--the vyeche.(3) + +It is easy to understand how the self-jurisdiction of the city could +develop out of the special jurisdiction in the market-place, when this +last right was conceded, willingly or not, to the city itself. And such +an origin of the city's liberties, which can be traced in very many +cases, necessarily laid a special stamp upon their subsequent +development. It gave a predominance to the trading part of the +community. The burghers who possessed a house in the city at the time +being, and were co-owners in the town-lands, constituted very often a +merchant guild which held in its hands the city's trade; and although at +the outset every burgher, rich and poor, could make part of the merchant +guild, and the trade itself seems to have been carried on for the entire +city by its trustees, the guild gradually became a sort of privileged +body. It jealously prevented the outsiders who soon began to flock into +the free cities from entering the guild, and kept the advantages +resulting from trade for the few "families" which had been burghers at +the time of the emancipation. There evidently was a danger of a merchant +oligarchy being thus constituted. But already in the tenth, and still +more during the two next centuries, the chief crafts, also organized in +guilds, were powerful enough to check the oligarchic tendencies of the +merchants. + +The craft guild was then a common seller of its produce and a common +buyer of the raw materials, and its members were merchants and manual +workers at the same time. Therefore, the predominance taken by the old +craft guilds from the very beginnings of the free city life guaranteed +to manual labour the high position which it afterwards occupied in the +city.(4) In fact, in a medieval city manual labour was no token of +inferiority; it bore, on the contrary, traces of the high respect it had +been kept in in the village community. Manual labour in a "mystery" was +considered as a pious duty towards the citizens: a public function +(Amt), as honourable as any other. An idea of "justice" to the +community, of "right" towards both producer and consumer, which would +seem so extravagant now, penetrated production and exchange. The +tanner's, the cooper's, or the shoemaker's work must be "just," fair, +they wrote in those times. Wood, leather or thread which are used by the +artisan must be "right"; bread must be baked "in justice," and so on. +Transport this language into our present life, and it would seem +affected and unnatural; but it was natural and unaffected then, because +the medieval artisan did not produce for an unknown buyer, or to throw +his goods into an unknown market. He produced for his guild first; for a +brotherhood of men who knew each other, knew the technics of the craft, +and, in naming the price of each product, could appreciate the skill +displayed in its fabrication or the labour bestowed upon it. Then the +guild, not the separate producer, offered the goods for sale in the +community, and this last, in its turn, offered to the brotherhood of +allied communities those goods which were exported, and assumed +responsibility for their quality. With such an organization, it was the +ambition of each craft not to offer goods of inferior quality, and +technical defects or adulterations became a matter concerning the whole +community, because, an ordinance says, "they would destroy public +confidence."(5) Production being thus a social duty, placed under the +control of the whole amitas, manual labour could not fall into the +degraded condition which it occupies now, so long as the free city was +living. + +A difference between master and apprentice, or between master and worker +(compayne, Geselle), existed but in the medieval cities from their very +beginnings; this was at the outset a mere difference of age and skill, +not of wealth and power. After a seven years' apprenticeship, and after +having proved his knowledge and capacities by a work of art, the +apprentice became a master himself. And only much later, in the +sixteenth century, after the royal power had destroyed the city and the +craft organization, was it possible to become master in virtue of simple +inheritance or wealth. But this was also the time of a general decay in +medieval industries and art. + +There was not much room for hired work in the early flourishing periods +of the medieval cities, still less for individual hirelings. The work of +the weavers, the archers, the smiths, the bakers, and so on, was +performed for the craft and the city; and when craftsmen were hired in +the building trades, they worked as temporary corporations (as they +still do in the Russian artels), whose work was paid en bloc. Work for a +master began to multiply only later on; but even in this case the worker +was paid better than he is paid now, even in this country, and very much +better than he used to be paid all over Europe in the first half of this +century. Thorold Rogers has familiarized English readers with this idea; +but the same is true for the Continent as well, as is shown by the +researches of Falke and Schonberg, and by many occasional indications. +Even in the fifteenth century a mason, a carpenter, or a smith worker +would be paid at Amiens four sols a day, which corresponded to +forty-eight pounds of bread, or to the eighth part of a small ox +(bouvard). In Saxony, the salary of the Geselle in the building trade +was such that, to put it in Falke's words, he could buy with his six +days' wages three sheep and one pair of shoes.(6) The donations of +workers (Geselle) to cathedrals also bear testimony of their relative +well-being, to say nothing of the glorious donations of certain craft +guilds nor of what they used to spend in festivities and pageants.(7) In +fact, the more we learn about the medieval city, the more we are +convinced that at no time has labour enjoyed such conditions of +prosperity and such respect as when city life stood at its highest. + +More than that; not only many aspirations of our modern radicals were +already realized in the middle ages, but much of what is described now +as Utopian was accepted then as a matter of fact. We are laughed at when +we say that work must be pleasant, but--"every one must be pleased with +his work," a medieval Kuttenberg ordinance says, "and no one shall, +while doing nothing (mit nichts thun), appropriate for himself what +others have produced by application and work, because laws must be a +shield for application and work."(8) And amidst all present talk about +an eight hours' day, it may be well to remember an ordinance of +Ferdinand the First relative to the Imperial coal mines, which settled +the miner's day at eight hours, "as it used to be of old" (wie vor +Alters herkommen), and work on Saturday afternoon was prohibited. Longer +hours were very rare, we are told by Janssen, while shorter hours were +of common occurrence. In this country, in the fifteenth century, Rogers +says, "the workmen worked only forty-eight hours a week."(9) The +Saturday half-holiday, too, which we consider as a modern conquest, was +in reality an old medieval institution; it was bathing-time for a great +part of the community, while Wednesday afternoon was bathing-time for +the Geselle.(10) And although school meals did not exist--probably +because no children went hungry to school--a distribution of bath-money +to the children whose parents found difficulty in providing it was +habitual in several places. As to Labour Congresses, they also were a +regular Feature of the middles ages. In some parts of Germany craftsmen +of the same trade, belonging to different communes, used to come +together every year to discuss questions relative to their trade, the +years of apprenticeship, the wandering years, the wages, and so on; and +in 1572, the Hanseatic towns formally recognized the right of the crafts +to come together at periodical congresses, and to take any resolutions, +so long as they were not contrary to the cities' rolls, relative to the +quality of goods. Such Labour Congresses, partly international like the +Hansa itself, are known to have been held by bakers, founders, smiths, +tanners, sword-makers and cask-makers.(11) + +The craft organization required, of course, a close supervision of the +craftsmen by the guild, and special jurates were always nominated for +that purpose. But it is most remarkable that, so long as the cities +lived their free life, no complaints were heard about the supervision; +while, after the State had stepped in, confiscating the property of the +guilds and destroying their independence in favour of its own +bureaucracy, the complaints became simply countless.(12) On the other +hand, the immensity of progress realized in all arts under the mediaeval +guild system is the best proof that the system was no hindrance to +individual initiative.(13) The fact is, that the medieval guild, like +the medieval parish, "street," or "quarter," was not a body of citizens, +placed under the control of State functionaries; it was a union of all +men connected with a given trade: jurate buyers of raw produce, sellers +of manufactured goods, and artisans--masters, "compaynes," and +apprentices. For the inner organization of the trade its assembly was +sovereign, so long as it did not hamper the other guilds, in which case +the matter was brought before the guild of the guilds--the city. But +there was in it something more than that. It had its own +self-jurisdiction, its own military force, its own general assemblies, +its own traditions of struggles, glory, and independence, its own +relations with other guilds of the same trade in other cities: it had, +in a word, a full organic life which could only result from the +integrality of the vital functions. When the town was called to arms, +the guild appeared as a separate company (Schaar), armed with its own +arms (or its own guns, lovingly decorated by the guild, at a subsequent +epoch), under its own self-elected commanders. It was, in a word, as +independent a unit of the federation as the republic of Uri or Geneva +was fifty years ago in the Swiss Confederation. So that, to compare it +with a modern trade union, divested of all attributes of State +sovereignty, and reduced to a couple of functions of secondary +importance, is as unreasonable as to compare Florence or Brugge with a +French commune vegetating under the Code Napoleon, or with a Russian +town placed under Catherine the Second's municipal law. Both have +elected mayors, and the latter has also its craft corporations; but the +difference is--all the difference that exists between Florence and +Fontenay-les-Oies or Tsarevokokshaisk, or between a Venetian doge and a +modern mayor who lifts his hat before the sous-prefet's clerk. + +The medieval guilds were capable of maintaining their independence; and, +later on, especially in the fourteenth century, when, in consequence of +several causes which shall presently be indicated, the old municipal +life underwent a deep modification, the younger crafts proved strong +enough to conquer their due share in the management of the city affairs. +The masses, organized in "minor" arts, rose to wrest the power out of +the hands of a growing oligarchy, and mostly succeeded in this task, +opening again a new era of prosperity. True, that in some cities the +uprising was crushed in blood, and mass decapitations of workers +followed, as was the case in Paris in 1306, and in Cologne in 1371. In +such cases the city's liberties rapidly fell into decay, and the city +was gradually subdued by the central authority. But the majority of the +towns had preserved enough of vitality to come out of the turmoil with a +new life and vigour.(14) A new period of rejuvenescence was their +reward. New life was infused, and it found its expression in splendid +architectural monuments, in a new period of prosperity, in a sudden +progress of technics and invention, and in a new intellectual movement +leading to the Renaissance and to the Reformation. + +The life of a mediaeval city was a succession of hard battles to conquer +liberty and to maintain it. True, that a strong and tenacious race of +burghers had developed during those fierce contests; true, that love and +worship of the mother city had been bred by these struggles, and that +the grand things achieved by the mediaeval communes were a direct +outcome of that love. But the sacrifices which the communes had to +sustain in the battle for freedom were, nevertheless, cruel, and left +deep traces of division on their inner life as well. Very few cities had +succeeded, under a concurrence of favourable circumstances, in obtaining +liberty at one stroke, and these few mostly lost it equally easily; +while the great number had to fight fifty or a hundred years in +succession, often more, before their rights to free life had been +recognized, and another hundred years to found their liberty on a firm +basis--the twelfth century charters thus being but one of the +stepping-stones to freedom.(15) In reality, the mediaeval city was a +fortified oasis amidst a country plunged into feudal submission, and it +had to make room for itself by the force of its arms. In consequence of +the causes briefly alluded to in the preceding chapter, each village +community had gradually fallen under the yoke of some lay or clerical +lord. His house had grown to be a castle, and his brothers-in-arms were +now the scum of adventurers, always ready to plunder the peasants. In +addition to three days a week which the peasants had to work for the +lord, they had also to bear all sorts of exactions for the right to sow +and to crop, to be gay or sad, to live, to marry, or to die. And, worst +of all, they were continually plundered by the armed robbers of some +neighbouring lord, who chose to consider them as their master's kin, and +to take upon them, and upon their cattle and crops, the revenge for a +feud he was fighting against their owner. Every meadow, every field, +every river, and road around the city, and every man upon the land was +under some lord. + +The hatred of the burghers towards the feudal barons has found a most +characteristic expression in the wording of the different charters which +they compelled them to sign. Heinrich V. is made to sign in the charter +granted to Speier in 1111, that he frees the burghers from "the horrible +and execrable law of mortmain, through which the town has been sunk into +deepest poverty" (von dem scheusslichen und nichtswurdigen Gesetze, +welches gemein Budel genannt wird, Kallsen, i. 307). The coutume of +Bayonne, written about 1273, contains such passages as these: "The +people is anterior to the lords. It is the people, more numerous than +all others, who, desirous of peace, has made the lords for bridling and +knocking down the powerful ones," and so on (Giry, Etablissements de +Rouen, i. 117, Quoted by Luchaire, p. 24). A charter submitted for King +Robert's signature is equally characteristic. He is made to say in it: +"I shall rob no oxen nor other animals. I shall seize no merchants, nor +take their moneys, nor impose ransom. From Lady Day to the All Saints' +Day I shall seize no horse, nor mare, nor foals, in the meadows. I shall +not burn the mills, nor rob the flour ... I shall offer no protection to +thieves," etc. (Pfister has published that document, reproduced by +Luchaire). The charter "granted" by the Besancon Archbishop Hugues, in +which he has been compelled to enumerate all the mischiefs due to his +mortmain rights, is equally characteristic.(16) And so on. + +Freedom could not be maintained in such surroundings, and the cities +were compelled to carry on the war outside their walls. The burghers +sent out emissaries to lead revolt in the villages; they received +villages into their corporations, and they waged direct war against the +nobles. It Italy, where the land was thickly sprinkled with feudal +castles, the war assumed heroic proportions, and was fought with a stern +acrimony on both sides. Florence sustained for seventy-seven years a +succession of bloody wars, in order to free its contado from the nobles; +but when the conquest had been accomplished (in 1181) all had to begin +anew. The nobles rallied; they constituted their own leagues in +opposition to the leagues of the towns, and, receiving fresh support +from either the Emperor or the Pope, they made the war last for another +130 years. The same took place in Rome, in Lombardy, all over Italy. + +Prodigies of valour, audacity, and tenaciousness were displayed by the +citizens in these wars. But the bows and the hatchets of the arts and +crafts had not always the upper hand in their encounters with the +armour-clad knights, and many castles withstood the ingenious +siege-machinery and the perseverance of the citizens. Some cities, like +Florence, Bologna, and many towns in France, Germany, and Bohemia, +succeeded in emancipating the surrounding villages, and they were +rewarded for their efforts by an extraordinary prosperity and +tranquillity. But even here, and still more in the less strong or less +impulsive towns, the merchants and artisans, exhausted by war, and +misunderstanding their own interests, bargained over the peasants' +heads. They compelled the lord to swear allegiance to the city; his +country castle was dismantled, and he agreed to build a house and to +reside in the city, of which he became a co-burgher (com-bourgeois, +con-cittadino); but he maintained in return most of his rights upon the +peasants, who only won a partial relief from their burdens. The burgher +could not understand that equal rights of citizenship might be granted +to the peasant upon whose food supplies he had to rely, and a deep rent +was traced between town and village. In some cases the peasants simply +changed owners, the city buying out the barons' rights and selling them +in shares to her own citizens.(17) Serfdom was maintained, and only much +later on, towards the end of the thirteenth century, it was the craft +revolution which undertook to put an end to it, and abolished personal +servitude, but dispossessed at the same time the serfs of the land.(18) +It hardly need be added that the fatal results of such policy were soon +felt by the cities themselves; the country became the city's enemy. + +The war against the castles had another bad effect. It involved the +cities in a long succession of mutual wars, which have given origin to +the theory, till lately in vogue, namely, that the towns lost their +independence through their own jealousies and mutual fights. The +imperialist historians have especially supported this theory, which, +however, is very much undermined now by modern research. It is certain +that in Italy cities fought each other with a stubborn animosity, but +nowhere else did such contests attain the same proportions; and in Italy +itself the city wars, especially those of the earlier period, had their +special causes. They were (as was already shown by Sismondi and Ferrari) +a mere continuation of the war against the castles--the free municipal +and federative principle unavoidably entering into a fierce contest with +feudalism, imperialism, and papacy. Many towns which had but partially +shaken off the yoke of the bishop, the lord, or the Emperor, were simply +driven against the free cities by the nobles, the Emperor, and Church, +whose policy was to divide the cities and to arm them against each +other. These special circumstances (partly reflected on to Germany also) +explain why the Italian towns, some of which sought support with the +Emperor to combat the Pope, while the others sought support from the +Church to resist the Emperor, were soon divided into a Gibelin and a +Guelf camp, and why the same division appeared in each separate +city.(19) + +The immense economical progress realized by most italian cities just at +the time when these wars were hottest,(20) and the alliances so easily +concluded between towns, still better characterize those struggles and +further undermine the above theory. Already in the years 1130-1150 +powerful leagues came into existence; and a few years later, when +Frederick Barbarossa invaded Italy and, supported by the nobles and some +retardatory cities, marched against Milan, popular enthusiasm was roused +in many towns by popular preachers. Crema, Piacenza, Brescia, Tortona, +etc., went to the rescue; the banners of the guilds of Verona, Padua, +Vicenza, and Trevisa floated side by side in the cities' camp against +the banners of the Emperor and the nobles. Next year the Lombardian +League came into existence, and sixty years later we see it reinforced +by many other cities, and forming a lasting organization which had half +of its federal war-chest in Genoa and the other half in Venice.(21) In +Tuscany, Florence headed another powerful league, to which Lucca, +Bologna, Pistoia, etc., belonged, and which played an important part in +crushing down the nobles in middle Italy, while smaller leagues were of +common occurrence. It is thus certain that although petty jealousies +undoubtedly existed, and discord could be easily sown, they did not +prevent the towns from uniting together for the common defence of +liberty. Only later on, when separate cities became little States, wars +broke out between them, as always must be the case when States struggle +for supremacy or colonies. + +Similar leagues were formed in Germany for the same purpose. When, under +the successors of Conrad, the land was the prey of interminable feuds +between the nobles, the Westphalian towns concluded a league against the +knights, one of the clauses of which was never to lend money to a knight +who would continue to conceal stolen goods.(22) When "the knights and +the nobles lived on plunder, and murdered whom they chose to murder," as +the Wormser Zorn complains, the cities on the Rhine (Mainz, Cologne, +Speier, Strasburg, and Basel) took the initiative of a league which soon +numbered sixty allied towns, repressed the robbers, and maintained +peace. Later on, the league of the towns of Suabia, divided into three +"peace districts" (Augsburg, Constance, and Ulm), had the same purpose. +And even when such leagues were broken,(23) they lived long enough to +show that while the supposed peacemakers--the kings, the emperors, and +the Church-fomented discord, and were themselves helpless against the +robber knights, it was from the cities that the impulse came for +re-establishing peace and union. The cities--not the emperors--were the +real makers of the national unity.(24) + +Similar federations were organized for the same purpose among small +villages, and now that attention has been drawn to this subject by +Luchaire we may expect soon to learn much more about them. Villages +joined into small federations in the contado of Florence, so also in the +dependencies of Novgorod and Pskov. As to France, there is positive +evidence of a federation of seventeen peasant villages which has existed +in the Laonnais for nearly a hundred years (till 1256), and has fought +hard for its independence. Three more peasant republics, which had sworn +charters similar to those of Laon and Soissons, existed in the +neighbourhood of Laon, and, their territories being contiguous, they +supported each other in their liberation wars. Altogether, Luchaire is +of the opinion that many such federations must have come into existence +in France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but that documents +relative to them are mostly lost. Of course, being unprotected by walls, +they could easily be crushed down by the kings and the lords; but in +certain favourable circumstances, when they found support in a league of +towns and protection in their mountains, such peasant republics became +independent units of the Swiss Confederation.(25) + +As to unions between cities for peaceful purposes, they were of quite +common occurrence. The intercourse which had been established during the +period of liberation was not interrupted afterwards. Sometimes, when the +scabini of a German town, having to pronounce judgment in a new or +complicated case, declared that they knew not the sentence (des +Urtheiles nicht weise zu sein), they sent delegates to another city to +get the sentence. The same happened also in France;(26) while Forli and +Ravenna are known to have mutually naturalized their citizens and +granted them full rights in both cities. To submit a contest arisen +between two towns, or within a city, to another commune which was +invited to act as arbiter, was also in the spirit of the times.(27) As +to commercial treaties between cities, they were quite habitual.(28) +Unions for regulating the production and the sizes of casks which were +used for the commerce in wine, "herring unions," and so on, were mere +precursors of the great commercial federations of the Flemish Hansa, +and, later on, of the great North German Hansa, the history of which +alone might contribute pages and pages to illustrate the federation +spirit which permeated men at that time. It hardly need be added, that +through the Hanseatic unions the medieval cities have contributed more +to the development of international intercourse, navigation, and +maritime discovery than all the States of the first seventeen centuries +of our era. + +In a word, federations between small territorial units, as well as among +men united by common pursuits within their respective guilds, and +federations between cities and groups of cities constituted the very +essence of life and thought during that period. The first five of the +second decade of centuries of our era may thus be described as an +immense attempt at securing mutual aid and support on a grand scale, by +means of the principles of federation and association carried on through +all manifestations of human life and to all possible degrees. This +attempt was attended with success to a very great extent. It united men +formerly divided; it secured them a very great deal of freedom, and it +tenfolded their forces. At a time when particularism was bred by so many +agencies, and the causes of discord and jealousy might have been so +numerous, it is gratifying to see that cities scattered over a wide +continent had so much in common, and were so ready to confederate for +the prosecution of so many common aims. They succumbed in the long run +before powerful enemies; not having understood the mutual-aid principle +widely enough, they themselves committed fatal faults; but they did not +perish through their own jealousies, and their errors were not a want of +federation spirit among themselves. + +The results of that new move which mankind made in the medieval city +were immense. At the beginning of the eleventh century the towns of +Europe were small clusters of miserable huts, adorned but with low +clumsy churches, the builders of which hardly knew how to make an arch; +the arts, mostly consisting of some weaving and forging, were in their +infancy; learning was found in but a few monasteries. Three hundred and +fifty years later, the very face of Europe had been changed. The land +was dotted with rich cities, surrounded by immense thick walls which +were embellished by towers and gates, each of them a work of art in +itself. The cathedrals, conceived in a grand style and profusely +decorated, lifted their bell-towers to the skies, displaying a purity of +form and a boldness of imagination which we now vainly strive to attain. +The crafts and arts had risen to a degree of perfection which we can +hardly boast of having superseded in many directions, if the inventive +skill of the worker and the superior finish of his work be appreciated +higher than rapidity of fabrication. The navies of the free cities +furrowed in all directions the Northern and the Southern Mediterranean; +one effort more, and they would cross the oceans. Over large tracts of +land well-being had taken the place of misery; learning had grown and +spread. The methods of science had been elaborated; the basis of natural +philosophy had been laid down; and the way had been paved for all the +mechanical inventions of which our own times are so proud. Such were the +magic changes accomplished in Europe in less than four hundred years. +And the losses which Europe sustained through the loss of its free +cities can only be understood when we compare the seventeenth century +with the fourteenth or the thirteenth. The prosperity which formerly +characterized Scotland, Germany, the plains of Italy, was gone. The +roads had fallen into an abject state, the cities were depopulated, +labour was brought into slavery, art had vanished, commerce itself was +decaying.(29) + +If the medieval cities had bequeathed to us no written documents to +testify of their splendour, and left nothing behind but the monuments of +building art which we see now all over Europe, from Scotland to Italy, +and from Gerona in Spain to Breslau in Slavonian territory, we might yet +conclude that the times of independent city life were times of the +greatest development of human intellect during the Christian era down to +the end of the eighteenth century. On looking, for instance, at a +medieval picture representing Nuremberg with its scores of towers and +lofty spires, each of which bore the stamp of free creative art, we can +hardly conceive that three hundred years before the town was but a +collection of miserable hovels. And our admiration grows when we go into +the details of the architecture and decorations of each of the countless +churches, bell-towers, gates, and communal houses which are scattered +all over Europe as far east as Bohemia and the now dead towns of Polish +Galicia. Not only Italy, that mother of art, but all Europe is full of +such monuments. The very fact that of all arts architecture--a social +art above all--had attained the highest development, is significant in +itself. To be what it was, it must have originated from an eminently +social life. + +Medieval architecture attained its grandeur--not only because it was a +natural development of handicraft; not only because each building, each +architectural decoration, had been devised by men who knew through the +experience of their own hands what artistic effects can be obtained from +stone, iron, bronze, or even from simple logs and mortar; not only +because, each monument was a result of collective experience, +accumulated in each "mystery" or craft(30)--it was grand because it was +born out of a grand idea. Like Greek art, it sprang out of a conception +of brotherhood and unity fostered by the city. It had an audacity which +could only be won by audacious struggles and victories; it had that +expression of vigour, because vigour permeated all the life of the city. +A cathedral or a communal house symbolized the grandeur of an organism +of which every mason and stone-cutter was the builder, and a medieval +building appears--not as a solitary effort to which thousands of slaves +would have contributed the share assigned them by one man's imagination; +all the city contributed to it. The lofty bell-tower rose upon a +structure, grand in itself, in which the life of the city was +throbbing--not upon a meaningless scaffold like the Paris iron tower, +not as a sham structure in stone intended to conceal the ugliness of an +iron frame, as has been done in the Tower Bridge. Like the Acropolis of +Athens, the cathedral of a medieval city was intended to glorify the +grandeur of the victorious city, to symbolize the union of its crafts, +to express the glory of each citizen in a city of his own creation. +After having achieved its craft revolution, the city often began a new +cathedral in order to express the new, wider, and broader union which +had been called into life. + +The means at hand for these grand undertakings were disproportionately +small. Cologne Cathedral was begun with a yearly outlay of but 500 +marks; a gift of 100 marks was inscribed as a grand donation;(31) and +even when the work approached completion, and gifts poured in in +proportion, the yearly outlay in money stood at about 5,000 marks, and +never exceeded 14,000. The cathedral of Basel was built with equally +small means. But each corporation contributed its part of stone, work, +and decorative genius to their common monument. Each guild expressed in +it its political conceptions, telling in stone or in bronze the history +of the city, glorifying the principles of "Liberty, equality, and +fraternity,"(32) praising the city's allies, and sending to eternal fire +its enemies. And each guild bestowed its love upon the communal monument +by richly decorating it with stained windows, paintings, "gates, worthy +to be the gates of Paradise," as Michel Angelo said, or stone +decorations of each minutest corner of the building.(33) Small cities, +even small parishes,(34) vied with the big agglomerations in this work, +and the cathedrals of Laon and St. Ouen hardly stand behind that of +Rheims, or the Communal House of Bremen, or the folkmote's bell-tower of +Breslau. "No works must be begun by the commune but such as are +conceived in response to the grand heart of the commune, composed of the +hearts of all citizens, united in one common will"--such were the words +of the Council of Florence; and this spirit appears in all communal +works of common utility, such as the canals, terraces, vineyards, and +fruit gardens around Florence, or the irrigation canals which +intersected the plains of Lombardy, or the port and aqueduct of Genoa, +or, in fact, any works of the kind which were achieved by almost every +city.(35) + +All arts had progressed in the same way in the medieval cities, those of +our own days mostly being but a continuation of what had grown at that +time. The prosperity of the Flemish cities was based upon the fine +woollen cloth they fabricated. Florence, at the beginning of the +fourteenth century, before the black death, fabricated from 70,000 to +100,000 panni of woollen stuffs, which were valued at 1,200,000 golden +florins.(36) The chiselling of precious metals, the art of casting, the +fine forging of iron, were creations of the mediaeval "mysteries" which +had succeeded in attaining in their own domains all that could be made +by the hand, without the use of a powerful prime motor. By the hand and +by invention, because, to use Whewell's words: + +"Parchment and paper, printing and engraving, improved glass and steel, +gunpowder, clocks, telescopes, the mariner's compass, the reformed +calendar, the decimal notation; algebra, trigonometry, chemistry, +counterpoint (an invention equivalent to a new creation of music); these +are all possessions which we inherit from that which has so +disparagingly been termed the Stationary Period" (History of Inductive +Sciences, i. 252). + +True that no new principle was illustrated by any of these discoveries, +as Whewell said; but medieval science had done something more than the +actual discovery of new principles. It had prepared the discovery of all +the new principles which we know at the present time in mechanical +sciences: it had accustomed the explorer to observe facts and to reason +from them. It was inductive science, even though it had not yet fully +grasped the importance and the powers of induction; and it laid the +foundations of both mechanics and natural philosophy. Francis Bacon, +Galileo, and Copernicus were the direct descendants of a Roger Bacon and +a Michael Scot, as the steam engine was a direct product of the +researches carried on in the Italian universities on the weight of the +atmosphere, and of the mathematical and technical learning which +characterized Nuremberg. + +But why should one take trouble to insist upon the advance of science +and art in the medieval city? Is it not enough to point to the +cathedrals in the domain of skill, and to the Italian language and the +poem of Dante in the domain of thought, to give at once the measure of +what the medieval city created during the four centuries it lived? + +The medieval cities have undoubtedly rendered an immense service to +European civilization. They have prevented it from being drifted into +the theocracies and despotical states of old; they have endowed it with +the variety, the self-reliance, the force of initiative, and the immense +intellectual and material energies it now possesses, which are the best +pledge for its being able to resist any new invasion of the East. But +why did these centres of civilization, which attempted to answer to +deeply-seated needs of human nature, and were so full of life, not live +further on? Why were they seized with senile debility in the sixteenth +century? and, after having repulsed so many assaults from without, and +only borrowed new vigour from their interior struggles, why did they +finally succumb to both? + +Various causes contributed to this effect, some of them having their +roots in the remote past, while others originated in the mistakes +committed by the cities themselves. Towards the end of the fifteenth +century, mighty States, reconstructed on the old Roman pattern, were +already coming into existence. In each country and each region some +feudal lord, more cunning, more given to hoarding, and often less +scrupulous than his neighbours, had succeeded in appropriating to +himself richer personal domains, more peasants on his lands, more +knights in his following, more treasures in his chest. He had chosen for +his seat a group of happily-situated villages, not yet trained into free +municipal life--Paris, Madrid, or Moscow--and with the labour of his +serfs he had made of them royal fortified cities, whereto he attracted +war companions by a free distribution of villages, and merchants by the +protection he offered to trade. The germ of a future State, which began +gradually to absorb other similar centres, was thus laid. Lawyers, +versed in the study of Roman law, flocked into such centres; a tenacious +and ambitious race of men issued from among the burgesses, who equally +hated the naughtiness of the lords and what they called the lawlessness +of the peasants. The very forms of the village community, unknown to +their code, the very principles of federalism were repulsive to them as +"barbarian" inheritances. Caesarism, supported by the fiction of popular +consent and by the force of arms, was their ideal, and they worked hard +for those who promised to realize it.(37) + +The Christian Church, once a rebel against Roman law and now its ally, +worked in the same direction. The attempt at constituting the theocratic +Empire of Europe having proved a failure, the more intelligent and +ambitious bishops now yielded support to those whom they reckoned upon +for reconstituting the power of the Kings of Israel or of the Emperors +of Constantinople. The Church bestowed upon the rising rulers her +sanctity, she crowned them as God's representatives on earth, she +brought to their service the learning and the statesmanship of her +ministers, her blessings and maledictions, her riches, and the +sympathies she had retained among the poor. The peasants, whom the +cities had failed or refused to free, on seeing the burghers impotent to +put an end to the interminable wars between the knights--which wars they +had so dearly to pay for--now set their hopes upon the King, the +Emperor, or the Great Prince; and while aiding them to crush down the +mighty feudal owners, they aided them to constitute the centralized +State. And finally, the invasions of the Mongols and the Turks, the holy +war against the Maures in Spain, as well as the terrible wars which soon +broke out between the growing centres of sovereignty--Ile de France and +Burgundy, Scotland and England, England and France, Lithuania and +Poland, Moscow and Tver, and so on--contributed to the same end. Mighty +States made their appearance; and the cities had now to resist not only +loose federations of lords, but strongly-organized centres, which had +armies of serfs at their disposal. + +The worst was, that the growing autocracies found support in the +divisions which had grown within the cities themselves. The fundamental +idea of the medieval city was grand, but it was not wide enough. Mutual +aid and support cannot be limited to a small association; they must +spread to its surroundings, or else the surroundings will absorb the +association. And in this respect the medieval citizen had committed a +formidable mistake at the outset. Instead of looking upon the peasants +and artisans who gathered under the protection of his walls as upon so +many aids who would contribute their part to the making of the city--as +they really did--a sharp division was traced between the "families" of +old burghers and the newcomers. For the former, all benefits from +communal trade and communal lands were reserved, and nothing was left +for the latter but the right of freely using the skill of their own +hands. The city thus became divided into "the burghers" or "the +commonalty," and "the inhabitants."(38) The trade, which was formerly +communal, now became the privilege of the merchant and artisan +"families," and the next step--that of becoming individual, or the +privilege of oppressive trusts--was unavoidable. + +The same division took place between the city proper and the surrounding +villages. The commune had well tried to free the peasants, but her wars +against the lords became, as already mentioned, wars for freeing the +city itself from the lords, rather than for freeing the peasants. She +left to the lord his rights over the villeins, on condition that he +would molest the city no more and would become co-burgher. But the +nobles "adopted" by the city, and now residing within its walls, simply +carried on the old war within the very precincts of the city. They +disliked to submit to a tribunal of simple artisans and merchants, and +fought their old feuds in the streets. Each city had now its Colonnas +and Orsinis, its Overstolzes and Wises. Drawing large incomes from the +estates they had still retained, they surrounded themselves with +numerous clients and feudalized the customs and habits of the city +itself. And when discontent began to be felt in the artisan classes of +the town, they offered their sword and their followers to settle the +differences by a free fight, instead of letting the discontent find out +the channels which it did not fail to secure itself in olden times. + +The greatest and the most fatal error of most cities was to base their +wealth upon commerce and industry, to the neglect of agriculture. They +thus repeated the error which had once been committed by the cities of +antique Greece, and they fell through it into the same crimes.(39) The +estrangement of so many cities from the land necessarily drew them into +a policy hostile to the land, which became more and more evident in the +times of Edward the Third,(40) the French Jacqueries, the Hussite wars, +and the Peasant War in Germany. On the other hand, a commercial policy +involved them in distant enterprises. Colonies were founded by the +Italians in the south-east, by German cities in the east, by Slavonian +cities in the far northeast. Mercenary armies began to be kept for +colonial wars, and soon for local defence as well. Loans were contacted +to such an extent as to totally demoralize the citizens; and internal +contests grew worse and worse at each election, during which the +colonial politics in the interest of a few families was at stake. The +division into rich and poor grew deeper, and in the sixteenth century, +in each city, the royal authority found ready allies and support among +the poor. + +And there is yet another cause of the decay of communal institutions, +which stands higher and lies deeper than all the above. The history of +the medieval cities offers one of the most striking illustrations of the +power of ideas and principles upon the destinies of mankind, and of the +quite opposed results which are obtained when a deep modification of +leading ideas has taken place. Self-reliance and federalism, the +sovereignty of each group, and the construction of the political body +from the simple to the composite, were the leading ideas in the eleventh +century. But since that time the conceptions had entirely changed. The +students of Roman law and the prelates of the Church, closely bound +together since the time of Innocent the Third, had succeeded in +paralyzing the idea--the antique Greek idea--which presided at the +foundation of the cities. For two or three hundred years they taught +from the pulpit, the University chair, and the judges' bench, that +salvation must be sought for in a strongly-centralized State, placed +under a semi-divine authority;(41) that one man can and must be the +saviour of society, and that in the name of public salvation he can +commit any violence: burn men and women at the stake, make them perish +under indescribable tortures, plunge whole provinces into the most +abject misery. Nor did they fail to give object lessons to this effect +on a grand scale, and with an unheard-of cruelty, wherever the king's +sword and the Church's fire, or both at once, could reach. By these +teachings and examples, continually repeated and enforced upon public +attention, the very minds of the citizens had been shaped into a new +mould. They began to find no authority too extensive, no killing by +degrees too cruel, once it was "for public safety." And, with this new +direction of mind and this new belief in one man's power, the old +federalist principle faded away, and the very creative genius of the +masses died out. The Roman idea was victorious, and in such +circumstances the centralized State had in the cities a ready prey. + +Florence in the fifteenth century is typical of this change. Formerly a +popular revolution was the signal of a new departure. Now, when the +people, brought to despair, insurged, it had constructive ideas no more; +no fresh idea came out of the movement. A thousand representatives were +put into the Communal Council instead of 400; 100 men entered the +signoria instead of 80. But a revolution of figures could be of no +avail. The people's discontent was growing up, and new revolts followed. +A saviour--the "tyran"--was appealed to; he massacred the rebels, but +the disintegration of the communal body continued worse than ever. And +when, after a new revolt, the people of Florence appealed to their most +popular man, Gieronimo Savonarola, for advice, the monk's answer +was:--"Oh, people mine, thou knowest that I cannot go into State affairs +... purify thy soul, and if in such a disposition of mind thou reformest +thy city, then, people of Florence, thou shalt have inaugurated the +reform in all Italy!" Carnival masks and vicious books were burned, a +law of charity and another against usurers were passed--and the +democracy of Florence remained where it was. The old spirit had gone. By +too much trusting to government, they had ceased to trust to themselves; +they were unable to open new issues. The State had only to step in and +to crush down their last liberties. + +And yet, the current of mutual aid and support did not die out in the +masses, it continued to flow even after that defeat. It rose up again +with a formidable force, in answer to the communist appeals of the first +propagandists of the reform, and it continued to exist even after the +masses, having failed to realize the life which they hoped to inaugurate +under the inspiration of a reformed religion, fell under the dominions +of an autocratic power. It flows still even now, and it seeks its way to +find out a new expression which would not be the State, nor the medieval +city, nor the village community of the barbarians, nor the savage clan, +but would proceed from all of them, and yet be superior to them in its +wider and more deeply humane conceptions. + +NOTES: + +1. The literature of the subject is immense; but there is no work yet +which treats of the medieval city as of a whole. For the French +Communes, Augustin Thierry's Lettres and Considerations sur l'histoire +de France still remain classical, and Luchaire's Communes francaises is +an excellent addition on the same lines. For the cities of Italy, the +great work of Sismondi (Histoire des republiques italiennes du moyen +age, Paris, 1826, 16 vols.), Leo and Botta's History of Italy, Ferrari's +Revolutions d'Italie, and Hegel's Geschichte der Stadteverfassung in +Italien, are the chief sources of general information. For Germany we +have Maurer's Stadteverfassung, Barthold's Geschichte der deutschen +Stadte, and, of recent works, Hegel's Stadte und Gilden der germanischen +Volker (2 vols. Leipzig, 1891), and Dr. Otto Kallsen's Die deutschen +Stadte im Mittelalter (2 vols. Halle, 1891), as also Janssen's +Geschichte des deutschen Volkes (5 vols. 1886), which, let us hope, will +soon be translated into English (French translation in 1892). For +Belgium, A. Wauters, Les Libertes communales (Bruxelles, 1869-78, 3 +vols.). For Russia, Byelaeff's, Kostomaroff's and Sergievich's works. +And finally, for England, we posses one of the best works on cities of a +wider region in Mrs. J.R. Green's Town Life in the Fifteenth Century (2 +vols. London, 1894). We have, moreover, a wealth of well-known local +histories, and several excellent works of general or economical history +which I have so often mentioned in this and the preceding chapter. The +richness of literature consists, however, chiefly in separate, sometimes +admirable, researches into the history of separate cities, especially +Italian and German; the guilds; the land question; the economical +principles of the time; the economical importance of guilds and crafts; +the leagues between, cities (the Hansa); and communal art. An incredible +wealth of information is contained in works of this second category, of +which only some of the more important are named in these pages. + +2. Kulischer, in an excellent essay on primitive trade (Zeitschrift fuer +Volkerpsychologie, Bd. x. 380), also points out that, according to +Herodotus, the Argippaeans were considered inviolable, because the trade +between the Scythians and the northern tribes took place on their +territory. A fugitive was sacred on their territory, and they were often +asked to act as arbiters for their neighbours. See Appendix XI. + +3. Some discussion has lately taken place upon the Weichbild and the +Weichbild-law, which still remain obscure (see Zopfl, Alterthumer des +deutschen Reichs und Rechts, iii. 29; Kallsen, i. 316). The above +explanation seems to be the more probable, but, of course, it must be +tested by further research. It is also evident that, to use a Scotch +expression, the "mercet cross" could be considered as an emblem of +Church jurisdiction, but we find it both in bishop cities and in those +in which the folkmote was sovereign. + +4. For all concerning the merchant guild see Mr. Gross's exhaustive +work, The Guild Merchant (Oxford, 1890, 2 vols.); also Mrs. Green's +remarks in Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, vol. ii. chaps. v. viii. +x; and A. Doren's review of the subject in Schmoller's Forschungen, vol. +xii. If the considerations indicated in the previous chapter (according +to which trade was communal at its beginnings) prove to be correct, it +will be permissible to suggest as a probable hypothesis that the guild +merchant was a body entrusted with commerce in the interest of the whole +city, and only gradually became a guild of merchants trading for +themselves; while the merchant adventurers of this country, the Novgorod +povolniki (free colonizers and merchants) and the mercati personati, +would be those to whom it was left to open new markets and new branches +of commerce for themselves. Altogether, it must be remarked that the +origin of the mediaeval city can be ascribed to no separate agency. It +was a result of many agencies in different degrees. + +5. Janssen's Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, i. 315; Gramich's +Wurzburg; and, in fact, any collection of ordinances. + +6. Falke, Geschichtliche Statistik, i. 373-393, and ii. 66; quoted in +Janssen's Geschichte, i. 339; J.D. Blavignac, in Comptes et depenses de +la construction du clocher de Saint-Nicolas a Fribourg en Suisse, comes +to a similar conclusion. For Amiens, De Calonne's Vie Municipale, p. 99 +and Appendix. For a thorough appreciation and graphical representation +of the medieval wages in England and their value in bread and meat, see +G. Steffen's excellent article and curves in The Nineteenth Century for +1891, and Studier ofver lonsystemets historia i England, Stockholm, +1895. + +7. To quote but one example out of many which may be found in +Schonberg's and Falke's works, the sixteen shoemaker workers +(Schusterknechte) of the town Xanten, on the Rhine, gave, for erecting a +screen and an altar in the church, 75 guldens of subscriptions, and 12 +guldens out of their box, which money was worth, according to the best +valuations, ten times its present value. + +8. Quoted by Janssen, l.c. i. 343. + +9. The Economical Interpretation of History, London, 1891, p. 303. + +10. Janssen, l.c. See also Dr. Alwin Schultz, Deutsches Leben im XIV und +XV Jahrhundert, grosse Ausgabe, Wien, 1892, pp. 67 seq. At Paris, the +day of labour varied from seven to eight hours in the winter to fourteen +hours in summer in certain trades, while in others it was from eight to +nine hours in winter, to from ten to twelve in Summer. All work was +stopped on Saturdays and on about twenty-five other days (jours de +commun de vile foire) at four o'clock, while on Sundays and thirty other +holidays there was no work at all. The general conclusion is, that the +medieval worker worked less hours, all taken, than the present-day +worker (Dr. E. Martin Saint-Leon, Histoire des corporations, p. 121). + +11. W. Stieda, "Hansische Vereinbarungen uber stadtisches Gewerbe im XIV +und XV Jahrhundert," in Hansische Geschichtsblatter, Jahrgang 1886, p. +121. Schonberg's Wirthschaftliche Bedeutung der Zunfte; also, partly, +Roscher. + +12. See Toulmin Smith's deeply-felt remarks about the royal spoliation +of the guilds, in Miss Smith's Introduction to English Guilds. In France +the same royal spoliation and abolition of the guilds' jurisdiction was +begun from 1306, and the final blow was struck in 1382 (Fagniez, l.c. +pp. 52-54). + +13. Adam Smith and his contemporaries knew well what they were +condemning when they wrote against the State interference in trade and +the trade monopolies of State creation. Unhappily, their followers, with +their hopeless superficiality, flung medieval guilds and State +interference into the same sack, making no distinction between a +Versailles edict and a guild ordinance. It hardly need be said that the +economists who have seriously studied the subject, like Schonberg (the +editor of the well-known course of Political Economy), never fell into +such an error. But, till lately, diffuse discussions of the above type +went on for economical "science." + +14. In Florence the seven minor arts made their revolution in 1270-82, +and its results are fully described by Perrens (Histoire de Florence, +Paris, 1877, 3 vols.), and especially by Gino Capponi (Storia della +repubblica di Firenze, 2da edizione, 1876, i. 58-80; translated into +German). In Lyons, on the contrary, where the movement of the minor +crafts took place in 1402, the latter were defeated and lost the right +of themselves nominating their own judges. The two parties came +apparently to a compromise. In Rostock the same movement took place in +1313; in Zurich in 1336; in Bern in 1363; in Braunschweig in 1374, and +next year in Hamburg; in Lubeck in 1376-84; and so on. See Schmoller's +Strassburg zur Zeit der Zunftkampfe and Strassburg's Bluthe; Brentano's +Arbeitergilden der Gegenwart, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1871-72; Eb. Bain's +Merchant and Craft Guilds, Aberdeen, 1887, pp. 26-47, 75, etc. As to Mr. +Gross's opinion relative to the same struggles in England, see Mrs. +Green's remarks in her Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, ii. 190-217; +also the chapter on the Labour Question, and, in fact, the whole of this +extremely interesting volume. Brentano's views on the crafts' struggles, +expressed especially in iii. and iv. of his essay "On the History and +Development of Guilds," in Toulmin Smith's English Guilds remain +classical for the subject, and may be said to have been again and again +confirmed by subsequent research. + +15. To give but one example--Cambrai made its first revolution in 907, +and, after three or four more revolts, it obtained its charter in 1076. +This charter was repealed twice (1107 and 1138), and twice obtained +again (in 1127 and 1180). Total, 223 years of struggles before +conquering the right to independence. Lyons--from 1195 to 1320. + +16. See Tuetey, "Etude sur Le droit municipal ... en Franche-Comte," in +Memoires de la Societe d'emulation de Montbeliard, 2e serie, ii. 129 +seq. + +17. This seems to have been often the case in Italy. In Switzerland, +Bern bought even the towns of Thun and Burgdorf. + +18. Such was, at least, the case in the cities of Tuscany (Florence, +Lucca, Sienna, Bologna, etc.), for which the relations between city and +peasants are best known. (Luchitzkiy, "Slavery and Russian Slaves in +Florence," in Kieff University Izvestia for 1885, who has perused +Rumohr's Ursprung der Besitzlosigkeit der Colonien in Toscana, 1830.) +The whole matter concerning the relations between the cities and the +peasants requires much more study than has hitherto been done. + +19. Ferrari's generalizations are often too theoretical to be always +correct; but his views upon the part played by the nobles in the city +wars are based upon a wide range of authenticated facts. + +20. Only such cities as stubbornly kept to the cause of the barons, like +Pisa or Verona, lost through the wars. For many towns which fought on +the barons' side, the defeat was also the beginning of liberation and +progress. + +21. Ferrari, ii. 18, 104 seq.; Leo and Botta, i. 432. + +22. Joh. Falke, Die Hansa Als Deutsche See-und Handelsmacht, Berlin, +1863, pp. 31, 55. + +23. For Aachen and Cologne we have direct testimony that the bishops of +these two cities--one of them bought by the enemy opened to him the +gates. + +24. See the facts, though not always the conclusions, of Nitzsch, iii. +133 seq.; also Kallsen, i. 458, etc. + +25. On the Commune of the Laonnais, which, until Melleville's researches +(Histoire de la Commune du Laonnais, Paris, 1853), was confounded with +the Commune of Laon, see Luchaire, pp. 75 seq. For the early peasants' +guilds and subsequent unions see R. Wilman's "Die landlichen +Schutzgilden Westphaliens," in Zeitschrift fuer Kulturgeschichte, neue +Folge, Bd. iii., quoted in Henne-am-Rhyn's Kulturgeschichte, iii. 249. + +26. Luchaire, p. 149. + +27. Two important cities, like Mainz and Worms, would settle a political +contest by means of arbitration. After a civil war broken out in +Abbeville, Amiens would act, in 1231, as arbiter (Luchaire, 149); and so +on. + +28. See, for instance, W. Stieda, Hansische Vereinbarungen, l.c., p. +114. + +29. Cosmo Innes's Early Scottish History and Scotland in Middle Ages, +quoted by Rev. Denton, l.c., pp. 68, 69; Lamprecht's Deutsches +wirthschaftliche Leben im Mittelalter, review by Schmoller in his +Jahrbuch, Bd. xii.; Sismondi's Tableau de l'agriculture toscane, pp. 226 +seq. The dominions of Florence could be recognized at a glance through +their prosperity. + +30. Mr. John J. Ennett (Six Essays, London, 1891) has excellent pages on +this aspect of medieval architecture. Mr. Willis, in his appendix to +Whewell's History of Inductive Sciences (i. 261-262), has pointed out +the beauty of the mechanical relations in medieval buildings. "A new +decorative construction was matured," he writes, "not thwarting and +controlling, but assisting and harmonizing with the mechanical +construction. Every member, every moulding, becomes a sustainer of +weight; and by the multiplicity of props assisting each other, and the +consequent subdivision of weight, the eye was satisfied of the stability +of the structure, notwithstanding curiously slender aspects of the +separate parts." An art which sprang out of the social life of the city +could not be better characterized. + +31. Dr. L. Ennen, Der Dom zu Koln, seine Construction und Anstaltung, +Koln, 1871. + +32. The three statues are among the outer decorations of Notre Dame de +Paris. + +33. Mediaeval art, like Greek art, did not know those curiosity shops +which we call a National Gallery or a Museum. A picture was painted, a +statue was carved, a bronze decoration was cast to stand in its proper +place in a monument of communal art. It lived there, it was part of a +whole, and it contributed to give unity to the impression produced by +the whole. + +34. Cf. J. T. Ennett's "Second Essay," p. 36. + +35. Sismondi, iv. 172; xvi. 356. The great canal, Naviglio Grande, which +brings the water from the Tessino, was begun in 1179, i.e. after the +conquest of independence, and it was ended in the thirteenth century. On +the subsequent decay, see xvi. 355. + +36. In 1336 it had 8,000 to 10,000 boys and girls in its primary +schools, 1,000 to 1,200 boys in its seven middle schools, and from 550 +to 600 students in its four universities. The thirty communal hospitals +contained over 1,000 beds for a population of 90,000 inhabitants +(Capponi, ii. 249 seq.). It has more than once been suggested by +authoritative writers that education stood, as a rule, at a much higher +level than is generally supposed. Certainly so in democratic Nuremberg. + +37. Cf. L. Ranke's excellent considerations upon the essence of Roman +Law in his Weltgeschichte, Bd. iv. Abth. 2, pp. 20-31. Also Sismondi's +remarks upon the part played by the legistes in the constitution of +royal authority, Histoire des Francais, Paris, 1826, viii. 85-99. The +popular hatred against these "weise Doktoren und Beutelschneider des +Volks" broke out with full force in the first years of the sixteenth +century in the sermons of the early Reform movement. + +38. Brentano fully understood the fatal effects of the struggle between +the "old burghers" and the new-comers. Miaskowski, in his work on the +village communities of Switzerland, has indicated the same for village +communities. + +39. The trade in slaves kidnapped in the East was never discontinued in +the Italian republics till the fifteenth century. Feeble traces of it +are found also in Germany and elsewhere. See Cibrario. Della schiavitu e +del servaggio, 2 vols. Milan, 1868; Professor Luchitzkiy, "Slavery and +Russian Slaves in Florence in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries," +in Izvestia of the Kieff University, 1885. + +40. J.R. Green's History of the English People, London, 1878, i. 455. + +41. See the theories expressed by the Bologna lawyers, already at the +Congress of Roncaglia in 1158. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MUTUAL AID AMONGST OURSELVES + +Popular revolts at the beginning of the State-period. Mutual Aid +institutions of the present time. The village community; its struggles +for resisting its abolition by the State. Habits derived from the +village-community life, retained in our modern villages. Switzerland, +France, Germany, Russia. + + +The mutual-aid tendency in man has so remote an origin, and is so deeply +interwoven with all the past evolution of the human race, that it has +been maintained by mankind up to the present time, notwithstanding all +vicissitudes of history. It was chiefly evolved during periods of peace +and prosperity; but when even the greatest calamities befell men--when +whole countries were laid waste by wars, and whole populations were +decimated by misery, or groaned under the yoke of tyranny--the same +tendency continued to live in the villages and among the poorer classes +in the towns; it still kept them together, and in the long run it +reacted even upon those ruling, fighting, and devastating minorities +which dismissed it as sentimental nonsense. And whenever mankind had to +work out a new social organization, adapted to a new phasis of +development, its constructive genius always drew the elements and the +inspiration for the new departure from that same ever-living tendency. +New economical and social institutions, in so far as they were a +creation of the masses, new ethical systems, and new religions, all have +originated from the same source, and the ethical progress of our race, +viewed in its broad lines, appears as a gradual extension of the +mutual-aid principles from the tribe to always larger and larger +agglomerations, so as to finally embrace one day the whole of mankind, +without respect to its divers creeds, languages, and races. + +After having passed through the savage tribe, and next through the +village community, the Europeans came to work out in medieval times a +new form of organization, which had the advantage of allowing great +latitude for individual initiative, while it largely responded at the +same time to man's need of mutual support. A federation of village +communities, covered by a network of guilds and fraternities, was called +into existence in the medieval cities. The immense results achieved +under this new form of union--in well-being for all, in industries, art, +science, and commerce--were discussed at some length in two preceding +chapters, and an attempt was also made to show why, towards the end of +the fifteenth century, the medieval republics--surrounded by domains of +hostile feudal lords, unable to free the peasants from servitude, and +gradually corrupted by ideas of Roman Caesarism--were doomed to become a +prey to the growing military States. + +However, before submitting for three centuries to come, to the +all-absorbing authority of the State, the masses of the people made a +formidable attempt at reconstructing society on the old basis of mutual +aid and support. It is well known by this time that the great movement +of the reform was not a mere revolt against the abuses of the Catholic +Church. It had its constructive ideal as well, and that ideal was life +in free, brotherly communities. Those of the early writings and sermons +of the period which found most response with the masses were imbued with +ideas of the economical and social brotherhood of mankind. The "Twelve +Articles" and similar professions of faith, which were circulated among +the German and Swiss peasants and artisans, maintained not only every +one's right to interpret the Bible according to his own understanding, +but also included the demand of communal lands being restored to the +village communities and feudal servitudes being abolished, and they +always alluded to the "true" faith--a faith of brotherhood. At the same +time scores of thousands of men and women joined the communist +fraternities of Moravia, giving them all their fortune and living in +numerous and prosperous settlements constructed upon the principles of +communism.(1) Only wholesale massacres by the thousand could put a stop +to this widely-spread popular movement, and it was by the sword, the +fire, and the rack that the young States secured their first and +decisive victory over the masses of the people.(2) + +For the next three centuries the States, both on the Continent and in +these islands, systematically weeded out all institutions in which the +mutual-aid tendency had formerly found its expression. The village +communities were bereft of their folkmotes, their courts and independent +administration; their lands were confiscated. The guilds were spoliated +of their possessions and liberties, and placed under the control, the +fancy, and the bribery of the State's official. The cities were divested +of their sovereignty, and the very springs of their inner life--the +folkmote, the elected justices and administration, the sovereign parish +and the sovereign guild--were annihilated; the State's functionary took +possession of every link of what formerly was an organic whole. Under +that fatal policy and the wars it engendered, whole regions, once +populous and wealthy, were laid bare; rich cities became insignificant +boroughs; the very roads which connected them with other cities became +impracticable. Industry, art, and knowledge fell into decay. Political +education, science, and law were rendered subservient to the idea of +State centralization. It was taught in the Universities and from the +pulpit that the institutions in which men formerly used to embody their +needs of mutual support could not be tolerated in a properly organized +State; that the State alone could represent the bonds of union between +its subjects; that federalism and "particularism" were the enemies of +progress, and the State was the only proper initiator of further +development. By the end of the last century the kings on the Continent, +the Parliament in these isles, and the revolutionary Convention in +France, although they were at war with each other, agreed in asserting +that no separate unions between citizens must exist within the State; +that hard labour and death were the only suitable punishments to workers +who dared to enter into "coalitions." "No state within the State!" The +State alone, and the State's Church, must take care of matters of +general interest, while the subjects must represent loose aggregations +of individuals, connected by no particular bonds, bound to appeal to the +Government each time that they feel a common need. Up to the middle of +this century this was the theory and practice in Europe. Even commercial +and industrial societies were looked at with suspicion. As to the +workers, their unions were treated as unlawful almost within our own +lifetime in this country and within the last twenty years on the +Continent. The whole system of our State education was such that up to +the present time, even in this country, a notable portion of society +would treat as a revolutionary measure the concession of such rights as +every one, freeman or serf, exercised five hundred years ago in the +village folkmote, the guild, the parish, and the city. + +The absorption of all social functions by the State necessarily favoured +the development of an unbridled, narrow-minded individualism. In +proportion as the obligations towards the State grew in numbers the +citizens were evidently relieved from their obligations towards each +other. In the guild--and in medieval times every man belonged to some +guild or fraternity two "brothers" were bound to watch in turns a +brother who had fallen ill; it would be sufficient now to give one's +neighbour the address of the next paupers' hospital. In barbarian +society, to assist at a fight between two men, arisen from a quarrel, +and not to prevent it from taking a fatal issue, meant to be oneself +treated as a murderer; but under the theory of the all-protecting State +the bystander need not intrude: it is the policeman's business to +interfere, or not. And while in a savage land, among the Hottentots, it +would be scandalous to eat without having loudly called out thrice +whether there is not somebody wanting to share the food, all that a +respectable citizen has to do now is to pay the poor tax and to let the +starving starve. The result is, that the theory which maintains that men +can, and must, seek their own happiness in a disregard of other people's +wants is now triumphant all round in law, in science, in religion. It is +the religion of the day, and to doubt of its efficacy is to be a +dangerous Utopian. Science loudly proclaims that the struggle of each +against all is the leading principle of nature, and of human societies +as well. To that struggle Biology ascribes the progressive evolution of +the animal world. History takes the same line of argument; and political +economists, in their naive ignorance, trace all progress of modern +industry and machinery to the "wonderful" effects of the same principle. +The very religion of the pulpit is a religion of individualism, slightly +mitigated by more or less charitable relations to one's neighbours, +chiefly on Sundays. "Practical" men and theorists, men of science and +religious preachers, lawyers and politicians, all agree upon one +thing--that individualism may be more or less softened in its harshest +effects by charity, but that it is the only secure basis for the +maintenance of society and its ulterior progress. + +It seems, therefore, hopeless to look for mutual-aid institutions and +practices in modern society. What could remain of them? And yet, as soon +as we try to ascertain how the millions of human beings live, and begin +to study their everyday relations, we are struck with the immense part +which the mutual-aid and mutual-support principles play even now-a-days +in human life. Although the destruction of mutual-aid institutions has +been going on in practice and theory, for full three or four hundred +years, hundreds of millions of men continue to live under such +institutions; they piously maintain them and endeavour to reconstitute +them where they have ceased to exist. In our mutual relations every one +of us has his moments of revolt against the fashionable individualistic +creed of the day, and actions in which men are guided by their mutual +aid inclinations constitute so great a part of our daily intercourse +that if a stop to such actions could be put all further ethical progress +would be stopped at once. Human society itself could not be maintained +for even so much as the lifetime of one single generation. These facts, +mostly neglected by sociologists and yet of the first importance for the +life and further elevation of mankind, we are now going to analyze, +beginning with the standing institutions of mutual support, and passing +next to those acts of mutual aid which have their origin in personal or +social sympathies. + +When we cast a broad glance on the present constitution of European +society we are struck at once with the fact that, although so much has +been done to get rid of the village community, this form of union +continues to exist to the extent we shall presently see, and that many +attempts are now made either to reconstitute it in some shape or another +or to find some substitute for it. The current theory as regards the +village community is, that in Western Europe it has died out by a +natural death, because the communal possession of the soil was found +inconsistent with the modern requirements of agriculture. But the truth +is that nowhere did the village community disappear of its own accord; +everywhere, on the contrary, it took the ruling classes several +centuries of persistent but not always successful efforts to abolish it +and to confiscate the communal lands. + +In France, the village communities began to be deprived of their +independence, and their lands began to be plundered, as early as the +sixteenth century. However, it was only in the next century, when the +mass of the peasants was brought, by exactions and wars, to the state of +subjection and misery which is vividly depicted by all historians, that +the plundering of their lands became easy and attained scandalous +proportions. "Every one has taken of them according to his powers ... +imaginary debts have been claimed, in order to seize upon their lands;" +so we read in an edict promulgated by Louis the Fourteenth in 1667.(3) +Of course the State's remedy for such evils was to render the communes +still more subservient to the State, and to plunder them itself. In +fact, two years later all money revenue of the communes was confiscated +by the King. As to the appropriation of communal lands, it grew worse +and worse, and in the next century the nobles and the clergy had already +taken possession of immense tracts of land--one-half of the cultivated +area, according to certain estimates--mostly to let it go out of +culture.(4) But the peasants still maintained their communal +institutions, and until the year 1787 the village folkmotes, composed of +all householders, used to come together in the shadow of the bell-tower +or a tree, to allot and re-allot what they had retained of their fields, +to assess the taxes, and to elect their executive, just as the Russian +mir does at the present time. This is what Babeau's researches have +proved to demonstration.(5) + +The Government found, however, the folkmotes "too noisy," too +disobedient, and in 1787, elected councils, composed of a mayor and +three to six syndics, chosen from among the wealthier peasants, were +introduced instead. Two years later the Revolutionary Assemblee +Constituante, which was on this point at one with the old regime, fully +confirmed this law (on the 14th of December, 1789), and the bourgeois du +village had now their turn for the plunder of communal lands, which +continued all through the Revolutionary period. Only on the 16th of +August, 1792, the Convention, under the pressure of the peasants' +insurrections, decided to return the enclosed lands to the communes;(6) +but it ordered at the same time that they should be divided in equal +parts among the wealthier peasants only--a measure which provoked new +insurrections and was abrogated next year, in 1793, when the order came +to divide the communal lands among all commoners, rich and poor alike, +"active" and "inactive." + +These two laws, however, ran so much against the conceptions of the +peasants that they were not obeyed, and wherever the peasants had +retaken possession of part of their lands they kept them undivided. But +then came the long years of wars, and the communal lands were simply +confiscated by the State (in 1794) as a mortgage for State loans, put up +for sale, and plundered as such; then returned again to the communes and +confiscated again (in 1813); and only in 1816 what remained of them, +i.e. about 15,000,000 acres of the least productive land, was restored +to the village communities.(7) Still this was not yet the end of the +troubles of the communes. Every new regime saw in the communal lands a +means for gratifying its supporters, and three laws (the first in 1837 +and the last under Napoleon the Third) were passed to induce the village +communities to divide their estates. Three times these laws had to be +repealed, in consequence of the opposition they met with in the +villages; but something was snapped up each time, and Napoleon the +Third, under the pretext of encouraging perfected methods of +agriculture, granted large estates out of the communal lands to some of +his favourites. + +As to the autonomy of the village communities, what could be retained of +it after so many blows? The mayor and the syndics were simply looked +upon as unpaid functionaries of the State machinery. Even now, under the +Third Republic, very little can be done in a village community without +the huge State machinery, up to the prefet and the ministries, being set +in motion. It is hardly credible, and yet it is true, that when, for +instance, a peasant intends to pay in money his share in the repair of a +communal road, instead of himself breaking the necessary amount of +stones, no fewer than twelve different functionaries of the State must +give their approval, and an aggregate of fifty-two different acts must +be performed by them, and exchanged between them, before the peasant is +permitted to pay that money to the communal council. All the remainder +bears the same character.(8) + +What took place in France took place everywhere in Western and Middle +Europe. Even the chief dates of the great assaults upon the peasant +lands are the same. For England the only difference is that the +spoliation was accomplished by separate acts rather than by general +sweeping measures--with less haste but more thoroughly than in France. +The seizure of the communal lands by the lords also began in the +fifteenth century, after the defeat of the peasant insurrection of +1380--as seen from Rossus's Historia and from a statute of Henry the +Seventh, in which these seizures are spoken of under the heading of +"enormitees and myschefes as be hurtfull ... to the common wele."(9) +Later on the Great Inquest, under Henry the Eighth, was begun, as is +known, in order to put a stop to the enclosure of communal lands, but it +ended in a sanction of what had been done.(10) The communal lands +continued to be preyed upon, and the peasants were driven from the land. +But it was especially since the middle of the eighteenth century that, +in England as everywhere else, it became part of a systematic policy to +simply weed out all traces of communal ownership; and the wonder is not +that it has disappeared, but that it could be maintained, even in +England, so as to be "generally prevalent so late as the grandfathers of +this generation."(11) The very object of the Enclosure Acts, as shown by +Mr. Seebohm, was to remove this system,(12) and it was so well removed +by the nearly four thousand Acts passed between 1760 and 1844 that only +faint traces of it remain now. The land of the village communities was +taken by the lords, and the appropriation was sanctioned by Parliament +in each separate case. + +In Germany, in Austria, in Belgium the village community was also +destroyed by the State. Instances of commoners themselves dividing their +lands were rare,(13) while everywhere the States coerced them to enforce +the division, or simply favoured the private appropriation of their +lands. The last blow to communal ownership in Middle Europe also dates +from the middle of the eighteenth century. In Austria sheer force was +used by the Government, in 1768, to compel the communes to divide their +lands--a special commission being nominated two years later for that +purpose. In Prussia Frederick the Second, in several of his ordinances +(in 1752, 1763, 1765, and 1769), recommended to the Justizcollegien to +enforce the division. In Silesia a special resolution was issued to +serve that aim in 1771. The same took place in Belgium, and, as the +communes did not obey, a law was issued in 1847 empowering the +Government to buy communal meadows in order to sell them in retail, and +to make a forced sale of the communal land when there was a would-be +buyer for it.(14) + +In short, to speak of the natural death of the village communities in +virtue of economical laws is as grim a joke as to speak of the natural +death of soldiers slaughtered on a battlefield. The fact was simply +this: The village communities had lived for over a thousand years; and +where and when the peasants were not ruined by wars and exactions they +steadily improved their methods of culture. But as the value of land was +increasing, in consequence of the growth of industries, and the nobility +had acquired, under the State organization, a power which it never had +had under the feudal system, it took possession of the best parts of the +communal lands, and did its best to destroy the communal institutions. + +However, the village-community institutions so well respond to the needs +and conceptions of the tillers of the soil that, in spite of all, Europe +is up to this date covered with living survivals of the village +communities, and European country life is permeated with customs and +habits dating from the community period. Even in England, +notwithstanding all the drastic measures taken against the old order of +things, it prevailed as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century. +Mr. Gomme--one of the very few English scholars who have paid attention +to the subject--shows in his work that many traces of the communal +possession of the soil are found in Scotland, "runrig" tenancy having +been maintained in Forfarshire up to 1813, while in certain villages of +Inverness the custom was, up to 1801, to plough the land for the whole +community, without leaving any boundaries, and to allot it after the +ploughing was done. In Kilmorie the allotment and re-allotment of the +fields was in full vigour "till the last twenty-five years," and the +Crofters' Commission found it still in vigour in certain islands.(15) In +Ireland the system prevailed up to the great famine; and as to England, +Marshall's works, which passed unnoticed until Nasse and Sir Henry Maine +drew attention to them, leave no doubt as to the village-community +system having been widely spread, in nearly all English counties, at the +beginning of the nineteenth century.(16) No more than twenty years ago +Sir Henry Maine was "greatly surprised at the number of instances of +abnormal property rights, necessarily implying the former existence of +collective ownership and joint cultivation," which a comparatively brief +inquiry brought under his notice.(17) And, communal institutions having +persisted so late as that, a great number of mutual-aid habits and +customs would undoubtedly be discovered in English villages if the +writers of this country only paid attention to village life.(18) + +As to the Continent, we find the communal institutions fully alive in +many parts of France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Scandinavian +lands, and Spain, to say nothing of Eastern Europe; the village life in +these countries is permeated with communal habits and customs; and +almost every year the Continental literature is enriched by serious +works dealing with this and connected subjects. I must, therefore, limit +my illustrations to the most typical instances. Switzerland is +undoubtedly one of them. Not only the five republics of Uri, Schwytz, +Appenzell, Glarus, and Unterwalden hold their lands as undivided +estates, and are governed by their popular folkmotes, but in all other +cantons too the village communities remain in possession of a wide +self-government, and own large parts of the Federal territory.(19) +Two-thirds of all the Alpine meadows and two-thirds of all the forests +of Switzerland are until now communal land; and a considerable number of +fields, orchards, vineyards, peat bogs, quarries, and so on, are owned +in common. In the Vaud, where all the householders continue to take part +in the deliberations of their elected communal councils, the communal +spirit is especially alive. Towards the end of the winter all the young +men of each village go to stay a few days in the woods, to fell timber +and to bring it down the steep slopes tobogganing way, the timber and +the fuel wood being divided among all households or sold for their +benefit. These excursions are real fetes of manly labour. On the banks +of Lake Leman part of the work required to keep up the terraces of the +vineyards is still done in common; and in the spring, when the +thermometer threatens to fall below zero before sunrise, the watchman +wakes up all householders, who light fires of straw and dung and protect +their vine-trees from the frost by an artificial cloud. In nearly all +cantons the village communities possess so-called. Burgernutzen--that +is, they hold in common a number of cows, in order to supply each family +with butter; or they keep communal fields or vineyards, of which the +produce is divided between the burghers, or they rent their land for the +benefit of the community.(20) + +It may be taken as a rule that where the communes have retained a wide +sphere of functions, so as to be living parts of the national organism, +and where they have not been reduced to sheer misery, they never fail to +take good care of their lands. Accordingly the communal estates in +Switzerland strikingly contrast with the miserable state of "commons" in +this country. The communal forests in the Vaud and the Valais are +admirably managed, in conformity with the rules of modern forestry. +Elsewhere the "strips" of communal fields, which change owners under the +system of re-allotment, are very well manured, especially as there is no +lack of meadows and cattle. The high level meadows are well kept as a +rule, and the rural roads are excellent.(21) And when we admire the +Swiss chalet, the mountain road, the peasants' cattle, the terraces of +vineyards, or the school-house in Switzer land, we must keep in mind +that without the timber for the chalet being taken from the communal +woods and the stone from the communal quarries, without the cows being +kept on the communal meadows, and the roads being made and the +school-houses built by communal work, there would be little to admire. + +It hardly need be said that a great number of mutual-aid habits and +customs continue to persist in the Swiss villages. The evening +gatherings for shelling walnuts, which take place in turns in each +household; the evening parties for sewing the dowry of the girl who is +going to marry; the calling of "aids" for building the houses and taking +in the crops, as well as for all sorts of work which may be required by +one of the commoners; the custom of exchanging children from one canton +to the other, in order to make them learn two languages, French and +German; and so on--all these are quite habitual;(22) while, on the other +side, divers modern requirements are met in the same spirit. Thus in +Glarus most of the Alpine meadows have been sold during a time of +calamity; but the communes still continue to buy field land, and after +the newly-bought fields have been left in the possession of separate +commoners for ten, twenty, or thirty years, as the case might be, they +return to the common stock, which is re-allotted according to the needs +of all. A great number of small associations are formed to produce some +of the necessaries for life--bread, cheese, and wine--by common work, be +it only on a limited scale; and agricultural co-operation altogether +spreads in Switzerland with the greatest ease. Associations formed +between ten to thirty peasants, who buy meadows and fields in common, +and cultivate them as co-owners, are of common occurrence; while dairy +associations for the sale of milk, butter, and cheese are organized +everywhere. In fact, Switzerland was the birthplace of that form of +co-operation. It offers, moreover, an immense field for the study of all +sorts of small and large societies, formed for the satisfaction of all +sorts of modern wants. In certain parts of Switzerland one finds in +almost every village a number of associations--for protection from fire, +for boating, for maintaining the quays on the shores of a lake, for the +supply of water, and so on; and the country is covered with societies of +archers, sharpshooters, topographers, footpath explorers, and the like, +originated from modern militarism. + +Switzerland is, however, by no means an exception in Europe, because the +same institutions and habits are found in the villages of France, of +Italy, of Germany, of Denmark, and so on. We have just seen what has +been done by the rulers of France in order to destroy the village +community and to get hold of its lands; but notwithstanding all that +one-tenth part of the whole territory available for culture, i.e. +13,500,000 acres, including one-half of all the natural meadows and +nearly a fifth part of all the forests of the country, remain in +communal possession. The woods supply the communers with fuel, and the +timber wood is cut, mostly by communal work, with all desirable +regularity; the grazing lands are free for the commoners' cattle; and +what remains of communal fields is allotted and re-allotted in certain +parts Ardennes--in the usual of France--namely, in the way.(23) + +These additional sources of supply, which aid the poorer peasants to +pass through a year of bad crops without parting with their small plots +of land and without running into irredeemable debts, have certainly +their importance for both the agricultural labourers and the nearly +three millions of small peasant proprietors. It is even doubtful whether +small peasant proprietorship could be maintained without these +additional resources. But the ethical importance of the communal +possessions, small as they are, is still greater than their economical +value. They maintain in village life a nucleus of customs and habits of +mutual aid which undoubtedly acts as a mighty check upon the development +of reckless individualism and greediness, which small land-ownership is +only too prone to develop. Mutual aid in all possible circumstances of +village life is part of the routine life in all parts of the country. +Everywhere we meet, under different names, with the charroi, i.e. the +free aid of the neighbours for taking in a crop, for vintage, or for +building a house; everywhere we find the same evening gatherings as have +just been mentioned in Switzerland; and everywhere the commoners +associate for all sorts of work. Such habits are mentioned by nearly all +those who have written upon French village life. But it will perhaps be +better to give in this place some abstracts from letters which I have +just received from a friend of mine whom I have asked to communicate to +me his observations on this subject. They come from an aged man who for +years has been the mayor of his commune in South France (in Ariege); the +facts he mentions are known to him from long years of personal +observation, and they have the advantage of coming from one +neighbourhood instead of being skimmed from a large area. Some of them +may seem trifling, but as a whole they depict quite a little world of +village life. + +"In several communes in our neighbourhood," my friend writes, "the old +custom of l'emprount is in vigour. When many hands are required in a +metairie for rapidly making some work--dig out potatoes or mow the +grass--the youth of the neighbourhood is convoked; young men and girls +come in numbers, make it gaily and for nothing; and in the evening, +after a gay meal, they dance. + +"In the same communes, when a girl is going to marry, the girls of the +neighbourhood come to aid in sewing the dowry. In several communes the +women still continue to spin a good deal. When the winding off has to be +done in a family it is done in one evening--all friends being convoked +for that work. In many communes of the Ariege and other parts of the +south-west the shelling of the Indian corn-sheaves is also done by all +the neighbours. They are treated with chestnuts and wine, and the young +people dance after the work has been done. The same custom is practised +for making nut oil and crushing hemp. In the commune of L. the same is +done for bringing in the corn crops. These days of hard work become fete +days, as the owner stakes his honour on serving a good meal. No +remuneration is given; all do it for each other.(24) + +"In the commune of S. the common grazing-land is every year increased, +so that nearly the whole of the land of the commune is now kept in +common. The shepherds are elected by all owners of the cattle, including +women. The bulls are communal. + +"In the commune of M. the forty to fifty small sheep flocks of the +commoners are brought together and divided into three or four flocks +before being sent to the higher meadows. Each owner goes for a week to +serve as shepherd. + +"In the hamlet of C. a threshing machine has been bought in common by +several households; the fifteen to twenty persons required to serve the +machine being supplied by all the families. Three other threshing +machines have been bought and are rented out by their owners, but the +work is performed by outside helpers, invited in the usual way. + +"In our commune of R. we had to raise the wall of the cemetery. Half of +the money which was required for buying lime and for the wages of the +skilled workers was supplied by the county council, and the other half +by subscription. As to the work of carrying sand and water, making +mortar, and serving the masons, it was done entirely by volunteers [just +as in the Kabyle djemmaa]. The rural roads were repaired in the same +way, by volunteer days of work given by the commoners. Other communes +have built in the same way their fountains. The wine-press and other +smaller appliances are frequently kept by the commune." + +Two residents of the same neighbourhood, questioned by my friend, add +the following:-- + +"At O. a few years ago there was no mill. The commune has built one, +levying a tax upon the commoners. As to the miller, they decided, in +order to avoid frauds and partiality, that he should be paid two francs +for each bread-eater, and the corn be ground free. + +"At St. G. few peasants are insured against fire. When a conflagration +has taken place--so it was lately--all give something to the family +which has suffered from it--a chaldron, a bed-cloth, a chair, and so +on--and a modest household is thus reconstituted. All the neighbours aid +to build the house, and in the meantime the family is lodged free by the +neighbours." + +Such habits of mutual support--of which many more examples could be +given--undoubtedly account for the easiness with which the French +peasants associate for using, in turn, the plough with its team of +horses, the wine-press, and the threshing machine, when they are kept in +the village by one of them only, as well as for the performance of all +sorts of rural work in common. Canals were maintained, forests were +cleared, trees were planted, and marshes were drained by the village +communities from time immemorial; and the same continues still. Quite +lately, in La Borne of Lozere barren hills were turned into rich gardens +by communal work. "The soil was brought on men's backs; terraces were +made and planted with chestnut trees, peach trees, and orchards, and +water was brought for irrigation in canals two or three miles long." +Just now they have dug a new canal, eleven miles in length.(25) + +To the same spirit is also due the remarkable success lately obtained by +the syndicats agricoles, or peasants' and farmers' associations. It was +not until 1884 that associations of more than nineteen persons were +permitted in France, and I need not say that when this "dangerous +experiment" was ventured upon--so it was styled in the Chambers--all due +"precautions" which functionaries can invent were taken. Notwithstanding +all that, France begins to be covered with syndicates. At the outset +they were only formed for buying manures and seeds, falsification having +attained colossal proportions in these two branches;(26) but gradually +they extended their functions in various directions, including the sale +of agricultural produce and permanent improvements of the land. In South +France the ravages of the phylloxera have called into existence a great +number of wine-growers' associations. Ten to thirty growers form a +syndicate, buy a steam-engine for pumping water, and make the necessary +arrangements for inundating their vineyards in turn.(27) New +associations for protecting the land from inundations, for irrigation +purposes, and for maintaining canals are continually formed, and the +unanimity of all peasants of a neighbourhood, which is required by law, +is no obstacle. Elsewhere we have the fruitieres, or dairy associations, +in some of which all butter and cheese is divided in equal parts, +irrespective of the yield of each cow. In the Ariege we find an +association of eight separate communes for the common culture of their +lands, which they have put together; syndicates for free medical aid +have been formed in 172 communes out of 337 in the same department; +associations of consumers arise in connection with the syndicates; and +so on.(28) "Quite a revolution is going on in our villages," Alfred +Baudrillart writes, "through these associations, which take in each +region their own special characters." + +Very much the same must be said of Germany. Wherever the peasants could +resist the plunder of their lands, they have retained them in communal +ownership, which largely prevails in Wurttemberg, Baden, Hohenzollern, +and in the Hessian province of Starkenberg.(29) The communal forests are +kept, as a rule, in an excellent state, and in thousands of communes +timber and fuel wood are divided every year among all inhabitants; even +the old custom of the Lesholztag is widely spread: at the ringing of the +village bell all go to the forest to take as much fuel wood as they can +carry.(30) In Westphalia one finds communes in which all the land is +cultivated as one common estate, in accordance with all requirements of +modern agronomy. As to the old communal customs and habits, they are in +vigour in most parts of Germany. The calling in of aids, which are real +fetes of labour, is known to be quite habitual in Westphalia, Hesse, and +Nassau. In well-timbered regions the timber for a new house is usually +taken from the communal forest, and all the neighbours join in building +the house. Even in the suburbs of Frankfort it is a regular custom among +the gardeners that in case of one of them being ill all come on Sunday +to cultivate his garden.(31) + +In Germany, as in France, as soon as the rulers of the people repealed +their laws against the peasant associations--that was only in +1884-1888--these unions began to develop with a wonderful rapidity, +notwithstanding all legal obstacles which were put in their way(32) "It +is a fact," Buchenberger says, "that in thousands of village +communities, in which no sort of chemical manure or rational fodder was +ever known, both have become of everyday use, to a quite unforeseen +extent, owing to these associations" (vol. ii. p. 507). All sorts of +labour-saving implements and agricultural machinery, and better breeds +of cattle, are bought through the associations, and various arrangements +for improving the quality of the produce begin to be introduced. Unions +for the sale of agricultural produce are also formed, as well as for +permanent improvements of the land.(33) + +From the point of view of social economics all these efforts of the +peasants certainly are of little importance. They cannot substantially, +and still less permanently, alleviate the misery to which the tillers of +the soil are doomed all over Europe. But from the ethical point of view, +which we are now considering, their importance cannot be overrated. They +prove that even under the system of reckless individualism which now +prevails the agricultural masses piously maintain their mutual-support +inheritance; and as soon as the States relax the iron laws by means of +which they have broken all bonds between men, these bonds are at once +reconstituted, notwithstanding the difficulties, political, economical, +and social, which are many, and in such forms as best answer to the +modern requirements of production. They indicate in which direction and +in which form further progress must be expected. + +I might easily multiply such illustrations, taking them from Italy, +Spain, Denmark, and so on, and pointing out some interesting features +which are proper to each of these countries. The Slavonian populations +of Austria and the Balkan peninsula, among whom the "compound family," +or "undivided household," is found in existence, ought also to be +mentioned.(34) But I hasten to pass on to Russia, where the same +mutual-support tendency takes certain new and unforeseen forms. +Moreover, in dealing with the village community in Russia we have the +advantage: of possessing an immense mass of materials, collected during +the colossal house-to-house inquest which was lately made by several +zemstvos (county councils), and which embraces a population of nearly +20,000,000 peasants in different parts of the country.(35) + +Two important conclusions may be drawn from the bulk of evidence +collected by the Russian inquests. In Middle Russia, where fully +one-third of the peasants have been brought to utter ruin (by heavy +taxation, small allotments of unproductive land, rack rents, and very +severe tax-collecting after total failures of crops), there was, during +the first five-and-twenty years after the emancipation of the serfs, a +decided tendency towards the constitution of individual property in land +within the village communities. Many impoverished "horseless" peasants +abandoned their allotments, and this land often became the property of +those richer peasants, who borrow additional incomes from trade, or of +outside traders, who buy land chiefly for exacting rack rents from the +peasants. It must also be added that a flaw in the land redemption law +of 1861 offered great facilities for buying peasants' lands at a very +small expense,(36) and that the State officials mostly used their +weighty influence in favour of individual as against communal ownership. +However, for the last twenty years a strong wind of opposition to the +individual appropriation of the land blows again through the Middle +Russian villages, and strenuous efforts are being made by the bulk of +those peasants who stand between the rich and the very poor to uphold +the village community. As to the fertile steppes of the South, which are +now the most populous and the richest part of European Russia, they were +mostly colonized, during the present century, under the system of +individual ownership or occupation, sanctioned in that form by the +State. But since improved methods of agriculture with the aid of +machinery have been introduced in the region, the peasant owners have +gradually begun themselves to transform their individual ownership into +communal possession, and one finds now, in that granary of Russia, a +very great number of spontaneously formed village communities of recent +origin.(37) + +The Crimea and the part of the mainland which lies to the north of it +(the province of Taurida), for which we have detailed data, offer an +excellent illustration of that movement. This territory began to be +colonized, after its annexation in 1783, by Great, Little, and White +Russians--Cossacks, freemen, and runaway serfs--who came individually or +in small groups from all corners of Russia. They took first to +cattle-breeding, and when they began later on to till the soil, each one +tilled as much as he could afford to. But when--immigration continuing, +and perfected ploughs being introduced--land stood in great demand, +bitter disputes arose among the settlers. They lasted for years, until +these men, previously tied by no mutual bonds, gradually came to the +idea that an end must be put to disputes by introducing +village-community ownership. They passed decisions to the effect that +the land which they owned individually should henceforward be their +common property, and they began to allot and to re-allot it in +accordance with the usual village-community rules. The movement +gradually took a great extension, and on a small territory, the Taurida +statisticians found 161 villages in which communal ownership had been +introduced by the peasant proprietors themselves, chiefly in the years +1855-1885, in lieu of individual ownership. Quite a variety of +village-community types has been freely worked out in this way by the +settlers.(38) What adds to the interest of this transformation is that +it took place, not only among the Great Russians, who are used to +village-community life, but also among Little Russians, who have long +since forgotten it under Polish rule, among Greeks and Bulgarians, and +even among Germans, who have long since worked out in their prosperous +and half-industrial Volga colonies their own type of village +community.(39) It is evident that the Mussulman Tartars of Taurida hold +their land under the Mussulman customary law, which is limited personal +occupation; but even with them the European village community has been +introduced in a few cases. As to other nationalities in Taurida, +individual ownership has been abolished in six Esthonian, two Greek, two +Bulgarian, one Czech, and one German village. This movement is +characteristic for the whole of the fertile steppe region of the south. +But separate instances of it are also found in Little Russia. Thus in a +number of villages of the province of Chernigov the peasants were +formerly individual owners of their plots; they had separate legal +documents for their plots and used to rent and to sell their land at +will. But in the fifties of the nineteenth century a movement began +among them in favour of communal possession, the chief argument being +the growing number of pauper families. The initiative of the reform was +taken in one village, and the others followed suit, the last case on +record dating from 1882. Of course there were struggles between the +poor, who usually claim for communal possession, and the rich, who +usually prefer individual ownership; and the struggles often lasted for +years. In certain places the unanimity required then by the law being +impossible to obtain, the village divided into two villages, one under +individual ownership and the other under communal possession; and so +they remained until the two coalesced into one community, or else they +remained divided still. As to Middle Russia, its a fact that in many +villages which were drifting towards individual ownership there began +since 1880 a mass movement in favour of re-establishing the village +community. Even peasant proprietors who had lived for years under the +individualist system returned en masse to the communal institutions. +Thus, there is a considerable number of ex-serfs who have received +one-fourth part only of the regulation allotments, but they have +received them free of redemption and in individual ownership. There was +in 1890 a wide-spread movement among them (in Kursk, Ryazan, Tambov, +Orel, etc.) towards putting their allotments together and introducing +the village community. The "free agriculturists" (volnyie +khlebopashtsy), who were liberated from serfdom under the law of 1803, +and had bought their allotments--each family separately--are now nearly +all under the village-community system, which they have introduced +themselves. All these movements are of recent origin, and non-Russians +too join them. Thus the Bulgares in the district of Tiraspol, after +having remained for sixty years under the personal-property system, +introduced the village community in the years 1876-1882. The German +Mennonites of Berdyansk fought in 1890 for introducing the village +community, and the small peasant proprietors (Kleinwirthschaftliche) +among the German Baptists were agitating in their villages in the same +direction. One instance more: In the province of Samara the Russian +government created in the forties, by way of experiment, 103 villages on +the system of individual ownership. Each household received a splendid +property of 105 acres. In 1890, out of the 103 villages the peasants in +72 had already notified the desire of introducing the village community. +I take all these facts from the excellent work of V.V., who simply +gives, in a classified form, the facts recorded in the above-mentioned +house-to-house inquest. + +This movement in favour of communal possession runs badly against the +current economical theories, according to which intensive culture is +incompatible with the village community. But the most charitable thing +that can be said of these theories is that they have never been +submitted to the test of experiment: they belong to the domain of +political metaphysics. The facts which we have before us show, on the +contrary, that wherever the Russian peasants, owing to a concurrence of +favourable circumstances, are less miserable than they are on the +average, and wherever they find men of knowledge and initiative among +their neighbours, the village community becomes the very means for +introducing various improvements in agriculture and village life +altogether. Here, as elsewhere, mutual aid is a better leader to +progress than the war of each against all, as may be seen from the +following facts. + +Under Nicholas the First's rule many Crown officials and serf-owners +used to compel the peasants to introduce the communal culture of small +plots of the village lands, in order to refill the communal storehouses +after loans of grain had been granted to the poorest commoners. Such +cultures, connected in the peasants' minds with the worst reminiscences +of serfdom, were abandoned as soon as serfdom was abolished but now the +peasants begin to reintroduce them on their own account. In one district +(Ostrogozhsk, in Kursk) the initiative of one person was sufficient to +call them to life in four-fifths of all the villages. The same is met +with in several other localities. On a given day the commoners come out, +the richer ones with a plough or a cart and the poorer ones +single-handed, and no attempt is made to discriminate one's share in the +work. The crop is afterwards used for loans to the poorer commoners, +mostly free grants, or for the orphans and widows, or for the village +church, or for the school, or for repaying a communal debt.(40) + +That all sorts of work which enters, so to say, in the routine of +village life (repair of roads and bridges, dams, drainage, supply of +water for irrigation, cutting of wood, planting of trees, etc.) are made +by whole communes, and that land is rented and meadows are mown by whole +communes--the work being accomplished by old and young, men and women, +in the way described by Tolstoi--is only what one may expect from people +living under the village-community system.(41) They are of everyday +occurrence all over the country. But the village community is also by no +means averse to modern agricultural improvements, when it can stand the +expense, and when knowledge, hitherto kept for the rich only, finds its +way into the peasant's house. + +It has just been said that perfected ploughs rapidly spread in South +Russia, and in many cases the village communities were instrumental in +spreading their use. A plough was bought by the community, experimented +upon on a portion of the communal land, and the necessary improvements +were indicated to the makers, whom the communes often aided in starting +the manufacture of cheap ploughs as a village industry. In the district +of Moscow, where 1,560 ploughs were lately bought by the peasants during +five years, the impulse came from those communes which rented lands as a +body for the special purpose of improved culture. + +In the north-east (Vyatka) small associations of peasants, who travel +with their winnowing machines (manufactured as a village industry in one +of the iron districts), have spread the use of such machines in the +neighbouring governments. The very wide spread of threshing machines in +Samara, Saratov, and Kherson is due to the peasant associations, which +can afford to buy a costly engine, while the individual peasant cannot. +And while we read in nearly all economical treatises that the village +community was doomed to disappear when the three-fields system had to be +substituted by the rotation of crops system, we see in Russia many +village communities taking the initiative of introducing the rotation of +crops. Before accepting it the peasants usually set apart a portion of +the communal fields for an experiment in artificial meadows, and the +commune buys the seeds.(42) If the experiment proves successful they +find no difficulty whatever in re-dividing their fields, so as to suit +the five or six fields system. + +This system is now in use in hundreds of villages of Moscow, Tver, +Smolensk, Vyatka, and Pskov.(43) And where land can be spared the +communities give also a portion of their domain to allotments for +fruit-growing. Finally, the sudden extension lately taken in Russia by +the little model farms, orchards, kitchen gardens, and silkworm-culture +grounds--which are started at the village school-houses, under the +conduct of the school-master, or of a village volunteer--is also due to +the support they found with the village communities. + +Moreover, such permanent improvements as drainage and irrigation are of +frequent occurrence. For instance, in three districts of the province of +Moscow--industrial to a great extent--drainage works have been +accomplished within the last ten years on a large scale in no less than +180 to 200 different villages--the commoners working themselves with the +spade. At another extremity of Russia, in the dry Steppes of Novouzen, +over a thousand dams for ponds were built and several hundreds of deep +wells were sunk by the communes; while in a wealthy German colony of the +south-east the commoners worked, men and women alike, for five weeks in +succession, to erect a dam, two miles long, for irrigation purposes. +What could isolated men do in that struggle against the dry climate? +What could they obtain through individual effort when South Russia was +struck with the marmot plague, and all people living on the land, rich +and poor, commoners and individualists, had to work with their hands in +order to conjure the plague? To call in the policeman would have been of +no use; to associate was the only possible remedy. + +And now, after having said so much about mutual aid and support which +are practised by the tillers of the soil in "civilized" countries, I see +that I might fill an octavo volume with illustrations taken from the +life of the hundreds of millions of men who also live under the +tutorship of more or less centralized States, but are out of touch with +modern civilization and modern ideas. I might describe the inner life of +a Turkish village and its network of admirable mutual-aid customs and +habits. On turning over my leaflets covered with illustrations from +peasant life in Caucasia, I come across touching facts of mutual +support. I trace the same customs in the Arab djemmaa and the Afghan +purra, in the villages of Persia, India, and Java, in the undivided +family of the Chinese, in the encampments of the semi-nomads of Central +Asia and the nomads of the far North. On consulting notes taken at +random in the literature of Africa, I find them replete with similar +facts--of aids convoked to take in the crops, of houses built by all +inhabitants of the village--sometimes to repair the havoc done by +civilized filibusters--of people aiding each other in case of accident, +protecting the traveller, and so on. And when I peruse such works as +Post's compendium of African customary law I understand why, +notwithstanding all tyranny, oppression, robberies and raids, tribal +wars, glutton kings, deceiving witches and priests, slave-hunters, and +the like, these populations have not gone astray in the woods; why they +have maintained a certain civilization, and have remained men, instead +of dropping to the level of straggling families of decaying +orang-outans. The fact is, that the slave-hunters, the ivory robbers, +the fighting kings, the Matabele and the Madagascar "heroes" pass away, +leaving their traces marked with blood and fire; but the nucleus of +mutual-aid institutions, habits, and customs, grown up in the tribe and +the village community, remains; and it keeps men united in societies, +open to the progress of civilization, and ready to receive it when the +day comes that they shall receive civilization instead of bullets. + +The same applies to our civilized world. The natural and social +calamities pass away. Whole populations are periodically reduced to +misery or starvation; the very springs of life are crushed out of +millions of men, reduced to city pauperism; the understanding and the +feelings of the millions are vitiated by teachings worked out in the +interest of the few. All this is certainly a part of our existence. But +the nucleus of mutual-support institutions, habits, and customs remains +alive with the millions; it keeps them together; and they prefer to +cling to their customs, beliefs, and traditions rather than to accept +the teachings of a war of each against all, which are offered to them +under the title of science, but are no science at all. + +NOTES: + +1. A bulky literature, dealing with this formerly much neglected +subject, is now growing in Germany. Keller's works, Ein Apostel der +Wiedertaufer and Geschichte der Wiedertaufer, Cornelius's Geschichte des +munsterischen Aufruhrs, and Janssen's Geschichte des deutschen Volkes +may be named as the leading sources. The first attempt at familiarizing +English readers with the results of the wide researches made in Germany +in this direction has been made in an excellent little work by Richard +Heath--"Anabaptism from its Rise at Zwickau to its Fall at Munster, +1521-1536," London, 1895 (Baptist Manuals, vol. i.)--where the leading +features of the movement are well indicated, and full bibliographical +information is given. Also K. Kautsky's Communism in Central Europe in +the Time of the Reformation, London, 1897. + +2. Few of our contemporaries realize both the extent of this movement +and the means by which it was suppressed. But those who wrote +immediately after the great peasant war estimated at from 100,000 to +150,000 men the number of peasants slaughtered after their defeat in +Germany. See Zimmermann's Allgemeine Geschichte des grossen +Bauernkrieges. For the measures taken to suppress the movement in the +Netherlands see Richard Heath's Anabaptism. + +3. "Chacun s'en est accommode selon sa bienseance ... on les a +partages.. pour depouiller les communes, on s'est servi de dettes +simulees" (Edict of Louis the Fourteenth, of 1667, quoted by several +authors. Eight years before that date the communes had been taken under +State management). + +4. "On a great landlord's estate, even if he has millions of revenue, +you are sure to find the land uncultivated" (Arthur Young). "One-fourth +part of the soil went out of culture;" "for the last hundred years the +land has returned to a savage state;" "the formerly flourishing Sologne +is now a big marsh;" and so on (Theron de Montauge, quoted by Taine in +Origines de la France Contemporaine, tome i. p. 441). + +5. A. Babeau, Le Village sous l'Ancien Regime, 3e edition. Paris, 1892. + +6. In Eastern France the law only confirmed what the peasants had +already done themselves. See my work, The Great French Revolution, +chaps. xlvii and xlviii, London (Heinemann), 1909. + +7. After the triumph of the middle-class reaction the communal lands +were declared (August 24, 1794) the States domains, and, together with +the lands confiscated from the nobility, were put up for sale, and +pilfered by the bandes noires of the small bourgeoisie. True that a stop +to this pilfering was put next year (law of 2 Prairial, An V), and the +preceding law was abrogated; but then the village Communities were +simply abolished, and cantonal councils were introduced instead. Only +seven years later (9 Prairial, An XII), i.e. in 1801, the village +communities were reintroduced, but not until after having been deprived +of all their rights, the mayor and syndics being nominated by the +Government in the 36,000 communes of France! This system was maintained +till after the revolution of 1830, when elected communal councils were +reintroduced under the law of 1787. As to the communal lands, they were +again seized upon by the State in 1813, plundered as such, and only +partly restored to the communes in 1816. See the classical collection of +French laws, by Dalloz, Repertoire de Jurisprudence; also the works of +Doniol, Dareste, Bonnemere, Babeau, and many others. + +8. This procedure is so absurd that one would not believe it possible if +the fifty-two different acts were not enumerated in full by a quite +authoritative writer in the Journal des Economistes (1893, April, p. +94), and several similar examples were not given by the same author. + +9. Dr. Ochenkowski, Englands wirthschaftliche Entwickelung im Ausgange +des Mittelalters (Jena, 1879), pp. 35 seq., where the whole question is +discussed with full knowledge of the texts. + +10. Nasse, Ueber die mittelalterliche Feldgemeinschaft und die +Einhegungen des XVI. Jahrhunderts in England (Bonn, 1869), pp. 4, 5; +Vinogradov, Villainage in England (Oxford, 1892). + +11. Fr. Seebohm, The English Village Community, 3rd ed., 1884, pp. +13-15. + +12. "An examination into the details of an Enclosure Act will make clear +the point that the system as above described [communal ownership] is the +system which it was the object of the Enclosure Act to remove" (Seebohm, +l.c. p. 13). And further on, "They were generally drawn in the same +form, commencing with the recital that the open and common fields lie +dispersed in small pieces, intermixed with each other and inconveniently +situated; that divers persons own parts of them, and are entitled to +rights of common on them ... and that it is desired that they may be +divided and enclosed, a specific share being let out and allowed to each +owner" (p. 14). Porter's list contained 3867 such Acts, of which the +greatest numbers fall upon the decades of 1770-1780 and 1800-1820, as in +France. + +13. In Switzerland we see a number of communes, ruined by wars, which +have sold part of their lands, and now endeavour to buy them back. + +14. A. Buchenberger, "Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik," in A. Wagner's +Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie, 1892, Band i. pp. 280 seq. + +15. G.L. Gomme, "The Village Community, with special reference to its +Origin and Forms of Survival in Great Britain" (Contemporary Science +Series), London, 1890, pp. 141-143; also his Primitive Folkmoots +(London, 1880), pp. 98 seq. + +16. "In almost all parts of the country, in the Midland and Eastern +counties particularly, but also in the west--in Wiltshire, for +example--in the south, as in Surrey, in the north, as in +Yorkshire,--there are extensive open and common fields. Out of 316 +parishes of Northamptonshire 89 are in this condition; more than 100 in +Oxfordshire; about 50,000 acres in Warwickshire; in Berkshire half the +county; more than half of Wiltshire; in Huntingdonshire out of a total +area of 240,000 acres 130,000 were commonable meadows, commons, and +fields" (Marshall, quoted in Sir Henry Maine's Village Communities in +the East and West, New York edition, 1876, pp. 88, 89). See also Dr. G. +Slater's The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common Fields, +London, 1907. + +17. Ibid. p. 88; also Fifth Lecture. + +18. In quite a number of books dealing with English country life which I +have consulted I have found charming descriptions of country scenery and +the like, but almost nothing about the daily life and customs of the +labourers. + +19. In Switzerland the peasants in the open land also fell under the +dominion of lords, and large parts of their estates were appropriated by +the lords in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (cf. A. +Miaskowski, in Schmoller's Forschungen, Bd. ii. 1879, pp. 12 seq.) But +the peasant war in Switzerland did not end in such a crushing defeat of +the peasants as it did in other countries, and a great deal of the +communal rights and lands was retained. The self-government of the +communes is, in fact, the very foundation of the Swiss liberties. (cf. +K. Burtli, Der Ursprung der Eidgenossenschaft aus der +Markgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1891.) + +20. Dr. Reichesberg, Handworterbuch des Schweiz. Volkswirthschaft, Bern, +1903. + +21. See on this subject a series of works, summed up in one of the +excellent and suggestive chapters (not yet translated into English) +which K. Bucher has added to the German translation of Laveleye's +Primitive Ownership. Also Meitzen, "Das Agrar-und Forst-Wesen, die +Allmenden und die Landgemeinden der Deutschen Schweiz," in Jahrbuch fuer +Staatswissenschaft, 1880, iv. (analysis of Miaskowsky's works); O'Brien, +"Notes in a Swiss village," in Macmillan's Magazine, October 1885. + +22. The wedding gifts, which often substantially contribute in this +country to the comfort of the young households, are evidently a +remainder of the communal habits. + +23. The communes own, 4,554,100 acres of woods out of 24,813,000 in the +whole territory, and 6,936,300 acres of natural meadows out of +11,394,000 acres in France. The remaining 2,000,000 acres are fields, +orchards, and so on. + +24. In Caucasia they even do better among the Georgians. As the meal +costs, and a poor man cannot afford to give it, a sheep is bought by +those same neighbours who come to aid in the work. + +25. Alfred Baudrillart, in H. Baudrillart's Les Populations Rurales de +la France, 3rd series (Paris, 1893), p. 479. + +26. The Journal des Economistes (August 1892, May and August 1893) has +lately given some of the results of analyses made at the agricultural +laboratories at Ghent and at Paris. The extent of falsification is +simply incredible; so also the devices of the "honest traders." In +certain seeds of grass there was 32 per cent. of gains of sand, coloured +so as to Receive even an experienced eye; other samples contained from +52 to 22 per cent. only of pure seed, the remainder being weeds. Seeds +of vetch contained 11 per cent. of a poisonous grass (nielle); a flour +for cattle-fattening contained 36 per cent. of sulphates; and so on ad +infinitum. + +27. A. Baudrillart, l.c. p. 309. Originally one grower would undertake +to supply water, and several others would agee to make use of it. "What +especially characterises such associations," A. Baudrillart remarks, "is +that no sort of written agreement is concluded. All is arranged in +words. There was, however, not one single case of difficulties having +arisen between the parties." + +28. A. Baudrillart, l.c. pp. 300, 341, etc. M. Terssac, president of the +St. Gironnais syndicate (Ariege), wrote to my friend in substance as +follows:--"For the exhibition of Toulouse our association has grouped +the owners of cattle which seemed to us worth exhibiting. The society +undertook to pay one-half of the travelling and exhibition expenses; +one-fourth was paid by each owner, and the remaining fourth by those +exhibitors who had got prizes. The result was that many took part in the +exhibition who never would have done it otherwise. Those who got the +highest awards (350 francs) have contributed 10 per cent. of their +prizes, while those who have got no prize have only spent 6 to 7 francs +each." + +29. In Wurttemberg 1,629 communes out of 1,910 have communal property. +They owned in 1863 over 1,000,000 acres of land. In Baden 1,256 communes +out of 1,582 have communal land; in 1884-1888 they held 121,500 acres of +fields in communal culture, and 675,000 acres of forests, i.e. 46 per +cent. of the total area under woods. In Saxony 39 per cent. of the total +area is in communal ownership (Schmoller's Jahrbuch, 1886, p. 359). In +Hohenzollern nearly two-thirds of all meadow land, and in +Hohenzollern-Hechingen 41 per cent. of all landed property, are owned by +the village communities (Buchenberger, Agrarwesen, vol. i. p. 300). + +30. See K. Bucher, who, in a special chapter added to Laveleye's +Ureigenthum, has collected all information relative to the village +community in Germany. + +31. K. Bucher, ibid. pp. 89, 90. + +32. For this legislation and the numerous obstacles which were put in +the way, in the shape of red-tapeism and supervision, see Buchenberger's +Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik, Bd. ii. pp. 342-363, and p. 506, note. + +33. Buchenberger, l.c. Bd. ii. p. 510. The General Union of Agricultural +Co-operation comprises an aggregate of 1,679 societies. In Silesia an +aggregate of 32,000 acres of land has been lately drained by 73 +associations; 454,800 acres in Prussia by 516 associations; in Bavaria +there are 1,715 drainage and irrigation unions. + +34. For the Balkan peninsula see Laveleye's Propriete Primitive. + +35. The facts concerning the village community, contained in nearly a +hundred volumes (out of 450) of these inquests, have been classified and +summed up in an excellent Russian work by "V.V." The Peasant Community +(Krestianskaya Obschina), St. Petersburg, 1892, which, apart from its +theoretical value, is a rich compendium of data relative to this +subject. The above inquests have also given origin to an immense +literature, in which the modern village-community question for the first +time emerges from the domain of generalities and is put on the solid +basis of reliable and sufficiently detailed facts. + +36. The redemption had to be paid by annuities for forty-nine years. As +years went, and the greatest part of it was paid, it became easier and +easier to redeem the smaller remaining part of it, and, as each +allotment could be redeemed individually, advantage was taken of this +disposition by traders, who bought land for half its value from the +ruined peasants. A law was consequently passed to put a stop to such +sales. + +37. Mr. V.V., in his Peasant Community, has grouped together all facts +relative to this movement. About the rapid agricultural development of +South Russia and the spread of machinery English readers will find +information in the Consular Reports (Odessa, Taganrog). + +38. In some instances they proceeded with great caution. In one village +they began by putting together all meadow land, but only a small portion +of the fields (about five acres per soul) was rendered communal; the +remainder continued to be owned individually. Later on, in 1862-1864, +the system was extended, but only in 1884 was communal possession +introduced in full.--V.V.'s Peasant Community, pp. 1-14. + +39. On the Mennonite village community see A. Klaus, Our Colonies (Nashi +Kolonii), St. Petersburg, 1869. + +40. Such communal cultures are known to exist in 159 villages out of 195 +in the Ostrogozhsk district; in 150 out of 187 in Slavyanoserbsk; in 107 +village communities in Alexandrovsk, 93 in Nikolayevsk, 35 in +Elisabethgrad. In a German colony the communal culture is made for +repaying a communal debt. All join in the work, although the debt was +contracted by 94 householders out of 155. + +41. Lists of such works which came under the notice of the zemstvo +statisticians will be found in V.V.'s Peasant Community, pp. 459-600. + +42. In the government of Moscow the experiment was usually made on the +field which was reserved for the above-mentioned communal culture. + +43. Several instances of such and similar improvements were given in the +Official Messenger, 1894, Nos. 256-258. Associations between "horseless" +peasants begin to appear also in South Russia. Another extremely +interesting fact is the sudden development in Southern West Siberia of +very numerous co-operative creameries for making butter. Hundreds of +them spread in Tobolsk and Tomsk, without any one knowing wherefrom the +initiative of the movement came. It came from the Danish co-operators, +who used to export their own butter of higher quality, and to buy butter +of a lower quality for their own use in Siberia. After a several years' +intercourse, they introduced creameries there. Now, a great export +trade, carried on by a Union of the Creameries, has grown out of their +endeavours and more than a thousand co-operative shops have been opened +in the villages. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MUTUAL AID AMONGST OURSELVES (continued) + +Labour-unions grown after the destruction of the guilds by the State. +Their struggles. Mutual Aid in strikes. Co-operation. Free associations +for various purposes. Self-sacrifice. Countless societies for combined +action under all possible aspects. Mutual Aid in slum-life. Personal +aid. + + +When we examine the every-day life of the rural populations of Europe, +we find that, notwithstanding all that has been done in modern States +for the destruction of the village community, the life of the peasants +remains honeycombed with habits and customs of mutual aid and support; +that important vestiges of the communal possession of the soil are still +retained; and that, as soon as the legal obstacles to rural association +were lately removed, a network of free unions for all sorts of +economical purposes rapidly spread among the peasants--the tendency of +this young movement being to reconstitute some sort of union similar to +the village community of old. Such being the conclusions arrived at in +the preceding chapter, we have now to consider, what institutions for +mutual support can be found at the present time amongst the industrial +populations. + +For the last three hundred years, the conditions for the growth of such +institutions have been as unfavourable in the towns as they have been in +the villages. It is well known, indeed, that when the medieval cities +were subdued in the sixteenth century by growing military States, all +institutions which kept the artisans, the masters, and the merchants +together in the guilds and the cities were violently destroyed. The +self-government and the self-jurisdiction of both, the guild and the +city were abolished; the oath of allegiance between guild-brothers +became an act of felony towards the State; the properties of the guilds +were confiscated in the same way as the lands of the village +communities; and the inner and technical organization of each trade was +taken in hand by the State. Laws, gradually growing in severity, were +passed to prevent artisans from combining in any way. For a time, some +shadows of the old guilds were tolerated: merchants' guilds were allowed +to exist under the condition of freely granting subsidies to the kings, +and some artisan guilds were kept in existence as organs of +administration. Some of them still drag on their meaningless existence. +But what formerly was the vital force of medieval life and industry has +long since disappeared under the crushing weight of the centralized +State. + +In Great Britain, which may be taken as the best illustration of the +industrial policy of the modern States, we see the Parliament beginning +the destruction of the guilds as early as the fifteenth century; but it +was especially in the next century that decisive measures were taken. +Henry the Eighth not only ruined the organization of the guilds, but +also confiscated their properties, with even less excuse and manners, as +Toulmin Smith wrote, than he had produced for confiscating the estates +of the monasteries.(1) Edward the Sixth completed his work,(2) and +already in the second part of the sixteenth century we find the +Parliament settling all the disputes between craftsmen and merchants, +which formerly were settled in each city separately. The Parliament and +the king not only legislated in all such contests, but, keeping in view +the interests of the Crown in the exports, they soon began to determine +the number of apprentices in each trade and minutely to regulate the +very technics of each fabrication--the weights of the stuffs, the number +of threads in the yard of cloth, and the like. With little success, it +must be said; because contests and technical difficulties which were +arranged for centuries in succession by agreement between +closely-interdependent guilds and federated cities lay entirely beyond +the powers of the centralized State. The continual interference of its +officials paralyzed the trades; bringing most of them to a complete +decay; and the last century economists, when they rose against the State +regulation of industries, only ventilated a widely-felt discontent. The +abolition of that interference by the French Revolution was greeted as +an act of liberation, and the example of France was soon followed +elsewhere. + +With the regulation of wages the State had no better success. In the +medieval cities, when the distinction between masters and apprentices or +journeymen became more and more apparent in the fifteenth century, +unions of apprentices (Gesellenverbande), occasionally assuming an +international character, were opposed to the unions of masters and +merchants. Now it was the State which undertook to settle their griefs, +and under the Elizabethan Statute of 1563 the Justices of Peace had to +settle the wages, so as to guarantee a "convenient" livelihood to +journeymen and apprentices. The Justices, however, proved helpless to +conciliate the conflicting interests, and still less to compel the +masters to obey their decisions. The law gradually became a dead letter, +and was repealed by the end of the eighteenth century. But while the +State thus abandoned the function of regulating wages, it continued +severely to prohibit all combinations which were entered upon by +journeymen and workers in order to raise their wages, or to keep them at +a certain level. All through the eighteenth century it legislated +against the workers' unions, and in 1799 it finally prohibited all sorts +of combinations, under the menace of severe punishments. In fact, the +British Parliament only followed in this case the example of the French +Revolutionary Convention, which had issued a draconic law against +coalitions of workers-coalitions between a number of citizens being +considered as attempts against the sovereignty of the State, which was +supposed equally to protect all its subjects. The work of destruction of +the medieval unions was thus completed. Both in the town and in the +village the State reigned over loose aggregations of individuals, and +was ready to prevent by the most stringent measures the reconstitution +of any sort of separate unions among them. These were, then, the +conditions under which the mutual-aid tendency had to make its way in +the nineteenth century. + +Need it be said that no such measures could destroy that tendency? +Throughout the eighteenth century, the workers' unions were continually +reconstituted.(3) Nor were they stopped by the cruel prosecutions which +took place under the laws of 1797 and 1799. Every flaw in supervision, +every delay of the masters in denouncing the unions was taken advantage +of. Under the cover of friendly societies, burial clubs, or secret +brotherhoods, the unions spread in the textile industries, among the +Sheffield cutlers, the miners, and vigorous federal organizations were +formed to support the branches during strikes and prosecutions.(4) The +repeal of the Combination Laws in 1825 gave a new impulse to the +movement. Unions and national federations were formed in all trades.(5) +and when Robert Owen started his Grand National Consolidated Trades' +Union, it mustered half a million members in a few months. True that +this period of relative liberty did not last long. Prosecution began +anew in the thirties, and the well-known ferocious condemnations of +1832-1844 followed. The Grand National Union was disbanded, and all over +the country, both the private employers and the Government in its own +workshops began to compel the workers to resign all connection with +unions, and to sign "the Document" to that effect. Unionists were +prosecuted wholesale under the Master and Servant Act--workers being +summarily arrested and condemned upon a mere complaint of misbehaviour +lodged by the master.(6) Strikes were suppressed in an autocratic way, +and the most astounding condemnations took place for merely having +announced a strike or acted as a delegate in it--to say nothing of the +military suppression of strike riots, nor of the condemnations which +followed the frequent outbursts of acts of violence. To practise mutual +support under such circumstances was anything but an easy task. And yet, +notwithstanding all obstacles, of which our own generation hardly can +have an idea, the revival of the unions began again in 1841, and the +amalgamation of the workers has been steadily continued since. After a +long fight, which lasted for over a hundred years, the right of +combining together was conquered, and at the present time nearly +one-fourth part of the regularly-employed workers, i.e. about 1,500,000, +belong to trade unions.(7) + +As to the other European States, sufficient to say that up to a very +recent date, all sorts of unions were prosecuted as conspiracies; and +that nevertheless they exist everywhere, even though they must often +take the form of secret societies; while the extension and the force of +labour organizations, and especially of the Knights of Labour, in the +United States and in Belgium, have been sufficiently illustrated by +strikes in the nineties. It must, however, be borne in mind that, +prosecution apart, the mere fact of belonging to a labour union implies +considerable sacrifices in money, in time, and in unpaid work, and +continually implies the risk of losing employment for the mere fact of +being a unionist.(8) There is, moreover, the strike, which a unionist +has continually to face; and the grim reality of a strike is, that the +limited credit of a worker's family at the baker's and the pawnbroker's +is soon exhausted, the strike-pay goes not far even for food, and hunger +is soon written on the children's faces. For one who lives in close +contact with workers, a protracted strike is the most heartrending +sight; while what a strike meant forty years ago in this country, and +still means in all but the wealthiest parts of the continent, can easily +be conceived. Continually, even now, strikes will end with the total +ruin and the forced emigration of whole populations, while the shooting +down of strikers on the slightest provocation, or even without any +provocation,(9) is quite habitual still on the continent. + +And yet, every year there are thousands of strikes and lock-outs in +Europe and America--the most severe and protracted contests being, as a +rule, the so-called "sympathy strikes," which are entered upon to +support locked-out comrades or to maintain the rights of the unions. And +while a portion of the Press is prone to explain strikes by +"intimidation," those who have lived among strikers speak with +admiration of the mutual aid and support which are constantly practised +by them. Every one has heard of the colossal amount of work which was +done by volunteer workers for organizing relief during the London +dock-labourers' strike; of the miners who, after having themselves been +idle for many weeks, paid a levy of four shillings a week to the strike +fund when they resumed work; of the miner widow who, during the +Yorkshire labour war of 1894, brought her husband's life-savings to the +strike-fund; of the last loaf of bread being always shared with +neighbours; of the Radstock miners, favoured with larger +kitchen-gardens, who invited four hundred Bristol miners to take their +share of cabbage and potatoes, and so on. All newspaper correspondents, +during the great strike of miners in Yorkshire in 1894, knew heaps of +such facts, although not all of them could report such "irrelevant" +matters to their respective papers.(10) + +Unionism is not, however, the only form in which the worker's need of +mutual support finds its expression. There are, besides, the political +associations, whose activity many workers consider as more conducive to +general welfare than the trade-unions, limited as they are now in their +purposes. Of course the mere fact of belonging to a political body +cannot be taken as a manifestation of the mutual-aid tendency. We all +know that politics are the field in which the purely egotistic elements +of society enter into the most entangled combinations with altruistic +aspirations. But every experienced politician knows that all great +political movements were fought upon large and often distant issues, and +that those of them were the strongest which provoked most disinterested +enthusiasm. All great historical movements have had this character, and +for our own generation Socialism stands in that case. "Paid agitators" +is, no doubt, the favourite refrain of those who know nothing about it. +The truth, however, is that--to speak only of what I know personally--if +I had kept a diary for the last twenty-four years and inscribed in it +all the devotion and self-sacrifice which I came across in the Socialist +movement, the reader of such a diary would have had the word "heroism" +constantly on his lips. But the men I would have spoken of were not +heroes; they were average men, inspired by a grand idea. Every Socialist +newspaper--and there are hundreds of them in Europe alone--has the same +history of years of sacrifice without any hope of reward, and, in the +overwhelming majority of cases, even without any personal ambition. I +have seen families living without knowing what would be their food +to-morrow, the husband boycotted all round in his little town for his +part in the paper, and the wife supporting the family by sewing, and +such a situation lasting for years, until the family would retire, +without a word of reproach, simply saying: "Continue; we can hold on no +more!" I have seen men, dying from consumption, and knowing it, and yet +knocking about in snow and fog to prepare meetings, speaking at meetings +within a few weeks from death, and only then retiring to the hospital +with the words: "Now, friends, I am done; the doctors say I have but a +few weeks to live. Tell the comrades that I shall be happy if they come +to see me." I have seen facts which would be described as "idealization" +if I told them in this place; and the very names of these men, hardly +known outside a narrow circle of friends, will soon be forgotten when +the friends, too, have passed away. In fact, I don't know myself which +most to admire, the unbounded devotion of these few, or the sum total of +petty acts of devotion of the great number. Every quire of a penny paper +sold, every meeting, every hundred votes which are won at a Socialist +election, represent an amount of energy and sacrifices of which no +outsider has the faintest idea. And what is now done by Socialists has +been done in every popular and advanced party, political and religious, +in the past. All past progress has been promoted by like men and by a +like devotion. + +Co-operation, especially in Britain, is often described as "joint-stock +individualism"; and such as it is now, it undoubtedly tends to breed a +co-operative egotism, not only towards the community at large, but also +among the co-operators themselves. It is, nevertheless, certain that at +its origin the movement had an essentially mutual-aid character. Even +now, its most ardent promoters are persuaded that co-operation leads +mankind to a higher harmonic stage of economical relations, and it is +not possible to stay in some of the strongholds of co-operation in the +North without realizing that the great number of the rank and file hold +the same opinion. Most of them would lose interest in the movement if +that faith were gone; and it must be owned that within the last few +years broader ideals of general welfare and of the producers' solidarity +have begun to be current among the co-operators. There is undoubtedly +now a tendency towards establishing better relations between the owners +of the co-operative workshops and the workers. + +The importance of co-operation in this country, in Holland and in +Denmark is well known; while in Germany, and especially on the Rhine, +the co-operative societies are already an important factor of industrial +life.(11) It is, however, Russia which offers perhaps the best field for +the study of cooperation under an infinite variety of aspects. In +Russia, it is a natural growth, an inheritance from the middle ages; and +while a formally established co-operative society would have to cope +with many legal difficulties and official suspicion, the informal +co-operation--the artel--makes the very substance of Russian peasant +life. The history of "the making of Russia," and of the colonization of +Siberia, is a history of the hunting and trading artels or guilds, +followed by village communities, and at the present time we find the +artel everywhere; among each group of ten to fifty peasants who come +from the same village to work at a factory, in all the building trades, +among fishermen and hunters, among convicts on their way to and in +Siberia, among railway porters, Exchange messengers, Customs House +labourers, everywhere in the village industries, which give occupation +to 7,000,000 men--from top to bottom of the working world, permanent and +temporary, for production and consumption under all possible aspects. +Until now, many of the fishing-grounds on the tributaries of the Caspian +Sea are held by immense artels, the Ural river belonging to the whole of +the Ural Cossacks, who allot and re-allot the fishing-grounds--perhaps +the richest in the world--among the villages, without any interference +of the authorities. Fishing is always made by artels in the Ural, the +Volga, and all the lakes of Northern Russia. Besides these permanent +organizations, there are the simply countless temporary artels, +constituted for each special purpose. When ten or twenty peasants come +from some locality to a big town, to work as weavers, carpenters, +masons, boat-builders, and so on, they always constitute an artel. They +hire rooms, hire a cook (very often the wife of one of them acts in this +capacity), elect an elder, and take their meals in common, each one +paying his share for food and lodging to the artel. A party of convicts +on its way to Siberia always does the same, and its elected elder is the +officially-recognized intermediary between the convicts and the military +chief of the party. In the hard-labour prisons they have the same +organization. The railway porters, the messengers at the Exchange, the +workers at the Custom House, the town messengers in the capitals, who +are collectively responsible for each member, enjoy such a reputation +that any amount of money or bank-notes is trusted to the artel-member by +the merchants. In the building trades, artels of from 10 to 200 members +are formed; and the serious builders and railway contractors always +prefer to deal with an artel than with separately-hired workers. The +last attempts of the Ministry of War to deal directly with productive +artels, formed ad hoc in the domestic trades, and to give them orders +for boots and all sorts of brass and iron goods, are described as most +satisfactory; while the renting of a Crown iron work, (Votkinsk) to an +artel of workers, which took place seven or eight years ago, has been a +decided success. + +We can thus see in Russia how the old medieval institution, having not +been interfered with by the State (in its informal manifestations), has +fully survived until now, and takes the greatest variety of forms in +accordance with the requirements of modern industry and commerce. As to +the Balkan peninsula, the Turkish Empire and Caucasia, the old guilds +are maintained there in full. The esnafs of Servia have fully preserved +their medieval character; they include both masters and journeymen, +regulate the trades, and are institutions for mutual support in labour +and sickness;(12) while the amkari of Caucasia, and especially at +Tiflis, add to these functions a considerable influence in municipal +life.(13) + +In connection with co-operation, I ought perhaps to mention also the +friendly societies, the unities of oddfellows, the village and town +clubs organized for meeting the doctors' bills, the dress and burial +clubs, the small clubs very common among factory girls, to which they +contribute a few pence every week, and afterwards draw by lot the sum of +one pound, which can at least be used for some substantial purchase, and +many others. A not inconsiderable amount of sociable or jovial spirit is +alive in all such societies and clubs, even though the "credit and +debit" of each member are closely watched over. But there are so many +associations based on the readiness to sacrifice time, health, and life +if required, that we can produce numbers of illustrations of the best +forms of mutual support. + +The Lifeboat Association in this country, and similar institutions on +the Continent, must be mentioned in the first place. The former has now +over three hundred boats along the coasts of these isles, and it would +have twice as many were it not for the poverty of the fisher men, who +cannot afford to buy lifeboats. The crews consist, however, of +volunteers, whose readiness to sacrifice their lives for the rescue of +absolute strangers to them is put every year to a severe test; every +winter the loss of several of the bravest among them stands on record. +And if we ask these men what moves them to risk their lives, even when +there is no reasonable chance of success, their answer is something on +the following lines. A fearful snowstorm, blowing across the Channel, +raged on the flat, sandy coast of a tiny village in Kent, and a small +smack, laden with oranges, stranded on the sands near by. In these +shallow waters only a flat-bottomed lifeboat of a simplified type can be +kept, and to launch it during such a storm was to face an almost certain +disaster. And yet the men went out, fought for hours against the wind, +and the boat capsized twice. One man was drowned, the others were cast +ashore. One of these last, a refined coastguard, was found next morning, +badly bruised and half frozen in the snow. I asked him, how they came to +make that desperate attempt? "I don't know myself," was his reply." +There was the wreck; all the people from the village stood on the beach, +and all said it would be foolish to go out; we never should work through +the surf. We saw five or six men clinging to the mast, making desperate +signals. We all felt that something must be done, but what could we do? +One hour passed, two hours, and we all stood there. We all felt most +uncomfortable. Then, all of a sudden, through the storm, it seemed to us +as if we heard their cries--they had a boy with them. We could not stand +that any longer. All at once we said, "We must go!" The women said so +too; they would have treated us as cowards if we had not gone, although +next day they said we had been fools to go. As one man, we rushed to the +boat, and went. The boat capsized, but we took hold of it. The worst was +to see poor drowning by the side of the boat, and we could do nothing to +save him. Then came a fearful wave, the boat capsized again, and we were +cast ashore. The men were still rescued by the D. boat, ours was caught +miles away. I was found next morning in the snow." + +The same feeling moved also the miners of the Rhonda Valley, when they +worked for the rescue of their comrades from the inundated mine. They +had pierced through thirty-two yards of coal in order to reach their +entombed comrades; but when only three yards more remained to be +pierced, fire-damp enveloped them. The lamps went out, and the +rescue-men retired. To work in such conditions was to risk being blown +up at every moment. But the raps of the entombed miners were still +heard, the men were still alive and appealed for help, and several +miners volunteered to work at any risk; and as they went down the mine, +their wives had only silent tears to follow them--not one word to stop +them. + +There is the gist of human psychology. Unless men are maddened in the +battlefield, they "cannot stand it" to hear appeals for help, and not to +respond to them. The hero goes; and what the hero does, all feel that +they ought to have done as well. The sophisms of the brain cannot resist +the mutual-aid feeling, because this feeling has been nurtured by +thousands of years of human social life and hundreds of thousands of +years of pre-human life in societies. + +"But what about those men who were drowned in the Serpentine in the +presence of a crowd, out of which no one moved for their rescue?" it may +be asked. "What about the child which fell into the Regent's Park +Canal--also in the presence of a holiday crowd--and was only saved +through the presence of mind of a maid who let out a Newfoundland dog to +the rescue?" The answer is plain enough. Man is a result of both his +inherited instincts and his education. Among the miners and the seamen, +their common occupations and their every-day contact with one another +create a feeling of solidarity, while the surrounding dangers maintain +courage and pluck. In the cities, on the contrary, the absence of common +interest nurtures indifference, while courage and pluck, which seldom +find their opportunities, disappear, or take another direction. +Moreover, the tradition of the hero of the mine and the sea lives in the +miners' and fishermen's villages, adorned with a poetical halo. But what +are the traditions of a motley London crowd? The only tradition they +might have in common ought to be created by literature, but a literature +which would correspond to the village epics hardly exists. The clergy +are so anxious to prove that all that comes from human nature is sin, +and that all good in man has a supernatural origin, that they mostly +ignore the facts which cannot be produced as an example of higher +inspiration or grace, coming from above. And as to the lay-writers, +their attention is chiefly directed towards one sort of heroism, the +heroism which promotes the idea of the State. Therefore, they admire the +Roman hero, or the soldier in the battle, while they pass by the +fisherman's heroism, hardly paying attention to it. The poet and the +painter might, of course, be taken by the beauty of the human heart in +itself; but both seldom know the life of the poorer classes, and while +they can sing or paint the Roman or the military hero in conventional +surroundings, they can neither sing nor paint impressively the hero who +acts in those modest surroundings which they ignore. If they venture to +do so, they produce a mere piece of rhetoric.(14) + +The countless societies, clubs, and alliances, for the enjoyment of +life, for study and research, for education, and so on, which have +lately grown up in such numbers that it would require many years to +simply tabulate them, are another manifestation of the same everworking +tendency for association and mutual support. Some of them, like the +broods of young birds of different species which come together in the +autumn, are entirely given to share in common the joys of life. Every +village in this country, in Switzerland, Germany, and so on, has its +cricket, football, tennis, nine-pins, pigeon, musical or singing clubs. +Other societies are much more numerous, and some of them, like the +Cyclists' Alliance, have suddenly taken a formidable development. +Although the members of this alliance have nothing in common but the +love of cycling, there is already among them a sort of freemasonry for +mutual help, especially in the remote nooks and corners which are not +flooded by cyclists; they look upon the "C.A.C."--the Cyclists' Alliance +Club--in a village as a sort of home; and at the yearly Cyclists' Camp +many a standing friendship has been established. The Kegelbruder, the +Brothers of the Nine Pins, in Germany, are a similar association; so +also the Gymnasts' Societies (300,000 members in Germany), the informal +brotherhood of paddlers in France, the yacht clubs, and so on. Such +associations certainly do not alter the economical stratification of +society, but, especially in the small towns, they contribute to smooth +social distinctions, and as they all tend to join in large national and +international federations, they certainly aid the growth of personal +friendly intercourse between all sorts of men scattered in different +parts of the globe. + +The Alpine Clubs, the Jagdschutzverein in Germany, which has over +100,000 members--hunters, educated foresters, zoologists, and simple +lovers of Nature--and the International Ornithological Society, which +includes zoologists, breeders, and simple peasants in Germany, have the +same character. Not only have they done in a few years a large amount of +very useful work, which large associations alone could do properly +(maps, refuge huts, mountain roads; studies of animal life, of noxious +insects, of migrations of birds, and so on), but they create new bonds +between men. Two Alpinists of different nationalities who meet in a +refuge hut in the Caucasus, or the professor and the peasant +ornithologist who stay in the same house, are no more strangers to each +other; while the Uncle Toby's Society at Newcastle, which has already +induced over 260,000 boys and girls never to destroy birds' nests and to +be kind to all animals, has certainly done more for the development of +human feelings and of taste in natural science than lots of moralists +and most of our schools. + +We cannot omit, even in this rapid review, the thousands of scientific, +literary, artistic, and educational societies. Up till now, the +scientific bodies, closely controlled and often subsidized by the State, +have generally moved in a very narrow circle, and they often came to be +looked upon as mere openings for getting State appointments, while the +very narrowness of their circles undoubtedly bred petty jealousies. +Still it is a fact that the distinctions of birth, political parties and +creeds are smoothed to some extent by such associations; while in the +smaller and remote towns the scientific, geographical, or musical +societies, especially those of them which appeal to a larger circle of +amateurs, become small centres of intellectual life, a sort of link +between the little spot and the wide world, and a place where men of +very different conditions meet on a footing of equality. To fully +appreciate the value of such centres, one ought to know them, say, in +Siberia. As to the countless educational societies which only now begin +to break down the State's and the Church's monopoly in education, they +are sure to become before long the leading power in that branch. To the +"Froebel Unions" we already owe the Kindergarten system; and to a number +of formal and informal educational associations we owe the high standard +of women's education in Russia, although all the time these societies +and groups had to act in strong opposition to a powerful government.(15) +As to the various pedagogical societies in Germany, it is well known +that they have done the best part in the working out of the modern +methods of teaching science in popular schools. In such associations the +teacher finds also his best support. How miserable the overworked and +under-paid village teacher would have been without their aid!(16) + +All these associations, societies, brotherhoods, alliances, institutes, +and so on, which must now be counted by the ten thousand in Europe +alone, and each of which represents an immense amount of voluntary, +unambitious, and unpaid or underpaid work--what are they but so many +manifestations, under an infinite variety of aspects, of the same +ever-living tendency of man towards mutual aid and support? For nearly +three centuries men were prevented from joining hands even for literary, +artistic, and educational purposes. Societies could only be formed under +the protection of the State, or the Church, or as secret brotherhoods, +like free-masonry. But now that the resistance has been broken, they +swarm in all directions, they extend over all multifarious branches of +human activity, they become international, and they undoubtedly +contribute, to an extent which cannot yet be fully appreciated, to break +down the screens erected by States between different nationalities. +Notwithstanding the jealousies which are bred by commercial competition, +and the provocations to hatred which are sounded by the ghosts of a +decaying past, there is a conscience of international solidarity which +is growing both among the leading spirits of the world and the masses of +the workers, since they also have conquered the right of international +intercourse; and in the preventing of a European war during the last +quarter of a century, this spirit has undoubtedly had its share. + +The religious charitable associations, which again represent a whole +world, certainly must be mentioned in this place. There is not the +slightest doubt that the great bulk of their members are moved by the +same mutual-aid feelings which are common to all mankind. Unhappily the +religious teachers of men prefer to ascribe to such feelings a +supernatural origin. Many of them pretend that man does not consciously +obey the mutual-aid inspiration so long as he has not been enlightened +by the teachings of the special religion which they represent, and, with +St. Augustin, most of them do not recognize such feelings in the "pagan +savage." Moreover, while early Christianity, like all other religions, +was an appeal to the broadly human feelings of mutual aid and sympathy, +the Christian Church has aided the State in wrecking all standing +institutions of mutual aid and support which were anterior to it, or +developed outside of it; and, instead of the mutual aid which every +savage considers as due to his kinsman, it has preached charity which +bears a character of inspiration from above, and, accordingly, implies a +certain superiority of the giver upon the receiver. With this +limitation, and without any intention to give offence to those who +consider themselves as a body elect when they accomplish acts simply +humane, we certainly may consider the immense numbers of religious +charitable associations as an outcome of the same mutual-aid tendency. + +All these facts show that a reckless prosecution of personal interests, +with no regard to other people's needs, is not the only characteristic +of modern life. By the side of this current which so proudly claims +leadership in human affairs, we perceive a hard struggle sustained by +both the rural and industrial populations in order to reintroduce +standing institutions of mutual aid and support; and we discover, in all +classes of society, a widely-spread movement towards the establishment +of an infinite variety of more or less permanent institutions for the +same purpose. But when we pass from public life to the private life of +the modern individual, we discover another extremely wide world of +mutual aid and support, which only passes unnoticed by most sociologists +because it is limited to the narrow circle of the family and personal +friendship.(17) + +Under the present social system, all bonds of union among the +inhabitants of the same street or neighbourhood have been dissolved. In +the richer parts of the large towns, people live without knowing who are +their next-door neighbours. But in the crowded lanes people know each +other perfectly, and are continually brought into mutual contact. Of +course, petty quarrels go their course, in the lanes as elsewhere; but +groupings in accordance with personal affinities grow up, and within +their circle mutual aid is practised to an extent of which the richer +classes have no idea. If we take, for instance, the children of a poor +neighbourhood who play in a street or a churchyard, or on a green, we +notice at once that a close union exists among them, notwithstanding the +temporary fights, and that that union protects them from all sorts of +misfortunes. As soon as a mite bends inquisitively over the opening of a +drain--"Don't stop there," another mite shouts out, "fever sits in the +hole!" "Don't climb over that wall, the train will kill you if you +tumble down! Don't come near to the ditch! Don't eat those +berries--poison! you will die." Such are the first teachings imparted to +the urchin when he joins his mates out-doors. How many of the children +whose play-grounds are the pavements around "model workers' dwellings," +or the quays and bridges of the canals, would be crushed to death by the +carts or drowned in the muddy waters, were it not for that sort of +mutual support. And when a fair Jack has made a slip into the +unprotected ditch at the back of the milkman's yard, or a cherry-cheeked +Lizzie has, after all, tumbled down into the canal, the young brood +raises such cries that all the neighbourhood is on the alert and rushes +to the rescue. + +Then comes in the alliance of the mothers. "You could not imagine" (a +lady-doctor who lives in a poor neighbourhood told me lately) "how much +they help each other. If a woman has prepared nothing, or could prepare +nothing, for the baby which she expected--and how often that +happens!--all the neighbours bring something for the new-comer. One of +the neighbours always takes care of the children, and some other always +drops in to take care of the household, so long as the mother is in +bed." This habit is general. It is mentioned by all those who have lived +among the poor. In a thousand small ways the mothers support each other +and bestow their care upon children that are not their own. Some +training--good or bad, let them decide it for themselves--is required in +a lady of the richer classes to render her able to pass by a shivering +and hungry child in the street without noticing it. But the mothers of +the poorer classes have not that training. They cannot stand the sight +of a hungry child; they must feed it, and so they do. "When the school +children beg bread, they seldom or rather never meet with a refusal"--a +lady-friend, who has worked several years in Whitechapel in connection +with a workers' club, writes to me. But I may, perhaps, as well +transcribe a few more passages from her letter:-- + +"Nursing neighbours, in cases of illness, without any shade of +remuneration, is quite general among the workers. Also, when a woman has +little children, and goes out for work, another mother always takes care +of them. + +"If, in the working classes, they would not help each other, they could +not exist. I know families which continually help each other--with +money, with food, with fuel, for bringing up the little children, in +cases of illness, in cases of death. + +"'The mine' and 'thine' is much less sharply observed among the poor +than among the rich. Shoes, dress, hats, and so on,--what may be wanted +on the spot--are continually borrowed from each other, also all sorts of +household things. + +"Last winter the members of the United Radical Club had brought together +some little money, and began after Christmas to distribute free soup and +bread to the children going to school. Gradually they had 1,800 children +to attend to. The money came from outsiders, but all the work was done +by the members of the club. Some of them, who were out of work, came at +four in the morning to wash and to peel the vegetables; five women came +at nine or ten (after having done their own household work) for cooking, +and stayed till six or seven to wash the dishes. And at meal time, +between twelve and half-past one, twenty to thirty workers came in to +aid in serving the soup, each one staying what he could spare of his +meal time. This lasted for two months. No one was paid." + +My friend also mentions various individual cases, of which the following +are typical:-- + +"Annie W. was given by her mother to be boarded by an old person in +Wilmot Street. When her mother died, the old woman, who herself was very +poor, kept the child without being paid a penny for that. When the old +lady died too, the child, who was five years old, was of course +neglected during her illness, and was ragged; but she was taken at once +by Mrs. S., the wife of a shoemaker, who herself has six children. +Lately, when the husband was ill, they had not much to eat, all of them. + +"The other day, Mrs. M., mother of six children, attended Mrs. M--g +throughout her illness, and took to her own rooms the elder child.... +But do you need such facts? They are quite general.... I know also Mrs. +D. (Oval, Hackney Road), who has a sewing machine and continually sews +for others, without ever accepting any remuneration, although she has +herself five children and her husband to look after.... And so on." + +For every one who has any idea of the life of the labouring classes it +is evident that without mutual aid being practised among them on a large +scale they never could pull through all their difficulties. It is only +by chance that a worker's family can live its lifetime without having to +face such circumstances as the crisis described by the ribbon weaver, +Joseph Gutteridge, in his autobiography.(18) And if all do not go to the +ground in such cases, they owe it to mutual help. In Gutteridge's case +it was an old nurse, miserably poor herself, who turned up at the moment +when the family was slipping towards a final catastrophe, and brought in +some bread, coal, and bedding, which she had obtained on credit. In +other cases, it will be some one else, or the neighbours will take steps +to save the family. But without some aid from other poor, how many more +would be brought every year to irreparable ruin!(19) + +Mr. Plimsoll, after he had lived for some time among the poor, on 7s. +6d. a week, was compelled to recognize that the kindly feelings he took +with him when he began this life "changed into hearty respect and +admiration" when he saw how the relations between the poor are permeated +with mutual aid and support, and learned the simple ways in which that +support is given. After a many years' experience, his conclusion was +that "when you come to think of it, such as these men were, so were the +vast majority of the working classes."(20) As to bringing up orphans, +even by the poorest families, it is so widely-spread a habit, that it +may be described as a general rule; thus among the miners it was found, +after the two explosions at Warren Vale and at Lund Hill, that "nearly +one-third of the men killed, as the respective committees can testify, +were thus supporting relations other than wife and child." "Have you +reflected," Mr. Plimsoll added, "what this is? Rich men, even +comfortably-to-do men do this, I don't doubt. But consider the +difference." Consider what a sum of one shilling, subscribed by each +worker to help a comrade's widow, or 6d. to help a fellow-worker to +defray the extra expense of a funeral, means for one who earns 16s. a +week and has a wife, and in some cases five or six children to +support.(21) But such subscriptions are a general practice among the +workers all over the world, even in much more ordinary cases than a +death in the family, while aid in work is the commonest thing in their +lives. + +Nor do the same practices of mutual aid and support fail among the +richer classes. Of course, when one thinks of the harshness which is +often shown by the richer employers towards their employees, one feels +inclined to take the most pessimist view of human nature. Many must +remember the indignation which was aroused during the great Yorkshire +strike of 1894, when old miners who had picked coal from an abandoned +pit were prosecuted by the colliery owners. And, even if we leave aside +the horrors of the periods of struggle and social war, such as the +extermination of thousands of workers' prisoners after the fall of the +Paris Commune--who can read, for instance, revelations of the labour +inquest which was made here in the forties, or what Lord Shaftesbury +wrote about "the frightful waste of human life in the factories, to +which the children taken from the workhouses, or simply purchased all +over this country to be sold as factory slaves, were consigned"(22)--who +can read that without being vividly impressed by the baseness which is +possible in man when his greediness is at stake? But it must also be +said that all fault for such treatment must not be thrown entirely upon +the criminality of human nature. Were not the teachings of men of +science, and even of a notable portion of the clergy, up to a quite +recent time, teachings of distrust, despite and almost hatred towards +the poorer classes? Did not science teach that since serfdom has been +abolished, no one need be poor unless for his own vices? And how few in +the Church had the courage to blame the children-killers, while the +great numbers taught that the sufferings of the poor, and even the +slavery of the negroes, were part of the Divine Plan! Was not +Nonconformism itself largely a popular protest against the harsh +treatment of the poor at the hand of the established Church? + +With such spiritual leaders, the feelings of the richer classes +necessarily became, as Mr. Pimsoll remarked, not so much blunted as +"stratified." They seldom went downwards towards the poor, from whom the +well-to-do-people are separated by their manner of life, and whom they +do not know under their best aspects, in their every-day life. But among +themselves--allowance being made for the effects of the +wealth-accumulating passions and the futile expenses imposed by wealth +itself--among themselves, in the circle of family and friends, the rich +practise the same mutual aid and support as the poor. Dr. Ihering and L. +Dargun are perfectly right in saying that if a statistical record could +be taken of all the money which passes from hand to hand in the shape of +friendly loans and aid, the sum total would be enormous, even in +comparison with the commercial transactions of the world's trade. And if +we could add to it, as we certainly ought to, what is spent in +hospitality, petty mutual services, the management of other people's +affairs, gifts and charities, we certainly should be struck by the +importance of such transfers in national economy. Even in the world +which is ruled by commercial egotism, the current expression, "We have +been harshly treated by that firm," shows that there is also the +friendly treatment, as opposed to the harsh, i.e. the legal treatment; +while every commercial man knows how many firms are saved every year +from failure by the friendly support of other firms. + +As to the charities and the amounts of work for general well-being which +are voluntarily done by so many well-to-do persons, as well as by +workers, and especially by professional men, every one knows the part +which is played by these two categories of benevolence in modern life. +If the desire of acquiring notoriety, political power, or social +distinction often spoils the true character of that sort of benevolence, +there is no doubt possible as to the impulse coming in the majority of +cases from the same mutual-aid feelings. Men who have acquired wealth +very often do not find in it the expected satisfaction. Others begin to +feel that, whatever economists may say about wealth being the reward of +capacity, their own reward is exaggerated. The conscience of human +solidarity begins to tell; and, although society life is so arranged as +to stifle that feeling by thousands of artful means, it often gets the +upper hand; and then they try to find an outcome for that deeply human +need by giving their fortune, or their forces, to something which, in +their opinion, will promote general welfare. + +In short, neither the crushing powers of the centralized State nor the +teachings of mutual hatred and pitiless struggle which came, adorned +with the attributes of science, from obliging philosophers and +sociologists, could weed out the feeling of human solidarity, deeply +lodged in men's understanding and heart, because it has been nurtured by +all our preceding evolution. What was the outcome of evolution since its +earliest stages cannot be overpowered by one of the aspects of that same +evolution. And the need of mutual aid and support which had lately taken +refuge in the narrow circle of the family, or the slum neighbours, in +the village, or the secret union of workers, re-asserts itself again, +even in our modern society, and claims its rights to be, as it always +has been, the chief leader towards further progress. Such are the +conclusions which we are necessarily brought to when we carefully ponder +over each of the groups of facts briefly enumerated in the last two +chapters. + +NOTES: + +1. Toulmin Smith, English Guilds, London, 1870, Introd. p. xliii. + +2. The Act of Edward the Sixth--the first of his reign--ordered to hand +over to the Crown "all fraternities, brotherhoods, and guilds being +within the realm of England and Wales and other of the king's dominions; +and all manors, lands, tenements, and other hereditaments belonging to +them or any of them" (English Guilds, Introd. p. xliii). See also +Ockenkowski's Englands wirtschaftliche Entwickelung im Ausgange des +Mittelalters, Jena, 1879, chaps. ii-v. + +3. See Sidney and Beatrice Webb, History of Trade-Unionism, London, +1894, pp. 21-38. + +4. See in Sidney Webb's work the associations which existed at that +time. The London artisans are supposed to have never been better +organized than in 1810-20. + +5. The National Association for the Protection of Labour included about +150 separate unions, which paid high levies, and had a membership of +about 100,000. The Builders' Union and the Miners' Unions also were big +organizations (Webb, l.c. p. 107). + +6. I follow in this Mr. Webb's work, which is replete with documents to +confirm his statements. + +7. Great changes have taken place since the forties in the attitude of +the richer classes towards the unions. However, even in the sixties, the +employers made a formidable concerted attempt to crush them by locking +out whole populations. Up to 1869 the simple agreement to strike, and +the announcement of a strike by placards, to say nothing of picketing, +were often punished as intimidation. Only in 1875 the Master and Servant +Act was repealed, peaceful picketing was permitted, and "violence and +intimidation" during strikes fell into the domain of common law. Yet, +even during the dock-labourers' strike in 1887, relief money had to be +spent for fighting before the Courts for the right of picketing, while +the prosecutions of the last few years menace once more to render the +conquered rights illusory. + +8. A weekly contribution of 6d. out of an 18s. wage, or of 1s. out of +25s., means much more than 9l. out of a 300l. income: it is mostly taken +upon food; and the levy is soon doubled when a strike is declared in a +brother union. The graphic description of trade-union life, by a skilled +craftsman, published by Mr. and Mrs. Webb (pp. 431 seq.), gives an +excellent idea of the amount of work required from a unionist. + +9. See the debates upon the strikes of Falkenau in Austria before the +Austrian Reichstag on the 10th of May, 1894, in which debates the fact +is fully recognized by the Ministry and the owner of the colliery. Also +the English Press of that time. + +10. Many such facts will be found in the Daily Chronicle and partly the +Daily News for October and November 1894. + +11. The 31,473 productive and consumers' associations on the Middle +Rhine showed, about 1890, a yearly expenditure of 18,437,500l.; +3,675,000l. were granted during the year in loans. + +12. British Consular Report, April 1889. + +13. A capital research on this subject has been published in Russian in +the Zapiski (Memoirs) of the Caucasian Geographical Society, vol. vi. 2, +Tiflis, 1891, by C. Egiazaroff. + +14. Escape from a French prison is extremely difficult; nevertheless a +prisoner escaped from one of the French prisons in 1884 or 1885. He even +managed to conceal himself during the whole day, although the alarm was +given and the peasants in the neighbourhood were on the look-out for +him. Next morning found him concealed in a ditch, close by a small +village. Perhaps he intended to steal some food, or some clothes in +order to take off his prison uniform. As he was lying in the ditch a +fire broke out in the village. He saw a woman running out of one of the +burning houses, and heard her desperate appeals to rescue a child in the +upper storey of the burning house. No one moved to do so. Then the +escaped prisoner dashed out of his retreat, made his way through the +fire, and, with a scalded face and burning clothes, brought the child +safe out of the fire, and handed it to its mother. Of course he was +arrested on the spot by the village gendarme, who now made his +appearance. He was taken back to the prison. The fact was reported in +all French papers, but none of them bestirred itself to obtain his +release. If he had shielded a warder from a comrade's blow, he would +have been made a hero of. But his act was simply humane, it did not +promote the State's ideal; he himself did not attribute it to a sudden +inspiration of divine grace; and that was enough to let the man fall +into oblivion. Perhaps, six or twelve months were added to his sentence +for having stolen--"the State's property"--the prison's dress. + +15. The medical Academy for Women (which has given to Russia a large +portion of her 700 graduated lady doctors), the four Ladies' +Universities (about 1000 pupils in 1887; closed that year, and reopened +in 1895), and the High Commercial School for Women are entirely the work +of such private societies. To the same societies we owe the high +standard which the girls' gymnasia attained since they were opened in +the sixties. The 100 gymnasia now scattered over the Empire (over 70,000 +pupils), correspond to the High Schools for Girls in this country; all +teachers are, however, graduates of the universities. + +16. The Verein fuer Verbreitung gemeinnutslicher Kenntnisse, although it +has only 5500 members, has already opened more than 1000 public and +school libraries, organized thousands of lectures, and published most +valuable books. + +17. Very few writers in sociology have paid attention to it. Dr. Ihering +is one of them, and his case is very instructive. When the great German +writer on law began his philosophical work, Der Zweck im Rechte +("Purpose in Law"), he intended to analyze "the active forces which call +forth the advance of society and maintain it," and to thus give "the +theory of the sociable man." He analyzed, first, the egotistic forces at +work, including the present wage-system and coercion in its variety of +political and social laws; and in a carefully worked-out scheme of his +work he intended to give the last paragraph to the ethical forces--the +sense of duty and mutual love--which contribute to the same aim. When he +came, however, to discuss the social functions of these two factors, he +had to write a second volume, twice as big as the first; and yet he +treated only of the personal factors which will take in the following +pages only a few lines. L. Dargun took up the same idea in Egoismus und +Altruismus in der Nationalokonomie, Leipzig, 1885, adding some new +facts. Buchner's Love, and the several paraphrases of it published here +and in Germany, deal with the same subject. + +18. Light and Shadows in the Life of an Artisan. Coventry, 1893. + +19. Many rich people cannot understand how the very poor can help each +other, because they do not realize upon what infinitesimal amounts of +food or money often hangs the life of one of the poorest classes. Lord +Shaftesbury had understood this terrible truth when he started his +Flowers and Watercress Girls' Fund, out of which loans of one pound, and +only occasionally two pounds, were granted, to enable the girls to buy a +basket and flowers when the winter sets in and they are in dire +distress. The loans were given to girls who had "not a sixpence," but +never failed to find some other poor to go bail for them. "Of all the +movements I have ever been connected with," Lord Shaftesbury wrote, "I +look upon this Watercress Girls' movement as the most successful.... It +was begun in 1872, and we have had out 800 to 1,000 loans, and have not +lost 50l. during the whole period.... What has been lost--and it has +been very little, under the circumstances--has been by reason of death +or sickness, not by fraud" (The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of +Shaftesbury, by Edwin Hodder, vol. iii. p. 322. London, 1885-86). +Several more facts in point in Ch. Booth's Life and Labour in London, +vol. i; in Miss Beatrice Potter's "Pages from a Work Girl's Diary" +(Nineteenth Century, September 1888, p. 310); and so on. + +20. Samuel Plimsoll, Our Seamen, cheap edition, London, 1870, p. 110. + +21. Our Seamen, u.s., p. 110. Mr. Plimsoll added: "I don't wish to +disparage the rich, but I think it may be reasonably doubted whether +these qualities are so fully developed in them; for, notwithstanding +that not a few of them are not unacquainted with the claims, reasonable +or unreasonable, of poor relatives, these qualities are not in such +constant exercise. Riches seem in so many cases to smother the manliness +of their possessors, and their sympathies become, not so much narrowed +as--so to speak--stratified: they are reserved for the sufferings of +their own class, and also the woes of those above them. They seldom tend +downwards much, and they are far more likely to admire an act of courage +... than to admire the constantly exercised fortitude and the tenderness +which are the daily characteristics of a British workman's life"--and of +the workmen all over the world as well. + +22. Life of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, by Edwin Hodder, vol. i. +pp. 137-138. + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +If we take now the teachings which can be borrowed from the analysis of +modern society, in connection with the body of evidence relative to the +importance of mutual aid in the evolution of the animal world and of +mankind, we may sum up our inquiry as follows. + +In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live +in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the +struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian +sense--not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a +struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The +animal species, in which individual struggle has been reduced to its +narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained the +greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most +prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The mutual protection +which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and +of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development, and the +further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the +species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The +unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay. + +Going next over to man, we found him living in clans and tribes at the +very dawn of the stone age; we saw a wide series of social institutions +developed already in the lower savage stage, in the clan and the tribe; +and we found that the earliest tribal customs and habits gave to mankind +the embryo of all the institutions which made later on the leading +aspects of further progress. Out of the savage tribe grew up the +barbarian village community; and a new, still wider, circle of social +customs, habits, and institutions, numbers of which are still alive +among ourselves, was developed under the principles of common possession +of a given territory and common defence of it, under the jurisdiction of +the village folkmote, and in the federation of villages belonging, or +supposed to belong, to one stem. And when new requirements induced men +to make a new start, they made it in the city, which represented a +double network of territorial units (village communities), connected +with guilds these latter arising out of the common prosecution of a +given art or craft, or for mutual support and defence. + +And finally, in the last two chapters facts were produced to show that +although the growth of the State on the pattern of Imperial Rome had put +a violent end to all medieval institutions for mutual support, this new +aspect of civilization could not last. The State, based upon loose +aggregations of individuals and undertaking to be their only bond of +union, did not answer its purpose. The mutual-aid tendency finally broke +down its iron rules; it reappeared and reasserted itself in an infinity +of associations which now tend to embrace all aspects of life and to +take possession of all that is required by man for life and for +reproducing the waste occasioned by life. + +It will probably be remarked that mutual aid, even though it may +represent one of the factors of evolution, covers nevertheless one +aspect only of human relations; that by the side of this current, +powerful though it may be, there is, and always has been, the other +current--the self-assertion of the individual, not only in its efforts +to attain personal or caste superiority, economical, political, and +spiritual, but also in its much more important although less evident +function of breaking through the bonds, always prone to become +crystallized, which the tribe, the village community, the city, and the +State impose upon the individual. In other words, there is the +self-assertion of the individual taken as a progressive element. + +It is evident that no review of evolution can be complete, unless these +two dominant currents are analyzed. However, the self-assertion of the +individual or of groups of individuals, their struggles for superiority, +and the conflicts which resulted therefrom, have already been analyzed, +described, and glorified from time immemorial. In fact, up to the +present time, this current alone has received attention from the epical +poet, the annalist, the historian, and the sociologist. History, such as +it has hitherto been written, is almost entirely a description of the +ways and means by which theocracy, military power, autocracy, and, later +on, the richer classes' rule have been promoted, established, and +maintained. The struggles between these forces make, in fact, the +substance of history. We may thus take the knowledge of the individual +factor in human history as granted--even though there is full room for a +new study of the subject on the lines just alluded to; while, on the +other side, the mutual-aid factor has been hitherto totally lost sight +of; it was simply denied, or even scoffed at, by the writers of the +present and past generation. It was therefore necessary to show, first +of all, the immense part which this factor plays in the evolution of +both the animal world and human societies. Only after this has been +fully recognized will it be possible to proceed to a comparison between +the two factors. + +To make even a rough estimate of their relative importance by any method +more or less statistical, is evidently impossible. One single war--we +all know--may be productive of more evil, immediate and subsequent, than +hundreds of years of the unchecked action of the mutual-aid principle +may be productive of good. But when we see that in the animal world, +progressive development and mutual aid go hand in hand, while the inner +struggle within the species is concomitant with retrogressive +development; when we notice that with man, even success in struggle and +war is proportionate to the development of mutual aid in each of the two +conflicting nations, cities, parties, or tribes, and that in the process +of evolution war itself (so far as it can go this way) has been made +subservient to the ends of progress in mutual aid within the nation, the +city or the clan--we already obtain a perception of the dominating +influence of the mutual-aid factor as an element of progress. But we see +also that the practice of mutual aid and its successive developments +have created the very conditions of society life in which man was +enabled to develop his arts, knowledge, and intelligence; and that the +periods when institutions based on the mutual-aid tendency took their +greatest development were also the periods of the greatest progress in +arts, industry, and science. In fact, the study of the inner life of the +medieval city and of the ancient Greek cities reveals the fact that the +combination of mutual aid, as it was practised within the guild and the +Greek clan, with a large initiative which was left to the individual and +the group by means of the federative principle, gave to mankind the two +greatest periods of its history--the ancient Greek city and the medieval +city periods; while the ruin of the above institutions during the State +periods of history, which followed, corresponded in both cases to a +rapid decay. + +As to the sudden industrial progress which has been achieved during our +own century, and which is usually ascribed to the triumph of +individualism and competition, it certainly has a much deeper origin +than that. Once the great discoveries of the fifteenth century were +made, especially that of the pressure of the atmosphere, supported by a +series of advances in natural philosophy--and they were made under the +medieval city organization,--once these discoveries were made, the +invention of the steam-motor, and all the revolution which the conquest +of a new power implied, had necessarily to follow. If the medieval +cities had lived to bring their discoveries to that point, the ethical +consequences of the revolution effected by steam might have been +different; but the same revolution in technics and science would have +inevitably taken place. It remains, indeed, an open question whether the +general decay of industries which followed the ruin of the free cities, +and was especially noticeable in the first part of the eighteenth +century, did not considerably retard the appearance of the steam-engine +as well as the consequent revolution in arts. When we consider the +astounding rapidity of industrial progress from the twelfth to the +fifteenth centuries--in weaving, working of metals, architecture and +navigation, and ponder over the scientific discoveries which that +industrial progress led to at the end of the fifteenth century--we must +ask ourselves whether mankind was not delayed in its taking full +advantage of these conquests when a general depression of arts and +industries took place in Europe after the decay of medieval +civilization. Surely it was not the disappearance of the artist-artisan, +nor the ruin of large cities and the extinction of intercourse between +them, which could favour the industrial revolution; and we know indeed +that James Watt spent twenty or more years of his life in order to +render his invention serviceable, because he could not find in the last +century what he would have readily found in medieval Florence or Brugge, +that is, the artisans capable of realizing his devices in metal, and of +giving them the artistic finish and precision which the steam-engine +requires. + +To attribute, therefore, the industrial progress of our century to the +war of each against all which it has proclaimed, is to reason like the +man who, knowing not the causes of rain, attributes it to the victim he +has immolated before his clay idol. For industrial progress, as for each +other conquest over nature, mutual aid and close intercourse certainly +are, as they have been, much more advantageous than mutual struggle. + +However, it is especially in the domain of ethics that the dominating +importance of the mutual-aid principle appears in full. That mutual aid +is the real foundation of our ethical conceptions seems evident enough. +But whatever the opinions as to the first origin of the mutual-aid +feeling or instinct may be whether a biological or a supernatural cause +is ascribed to it--we must trace its existence as far back as to the +lowest stages of the animal world; and from these stages we can follow +its uninterrupted evolution, in opposition to a number of contrary +agencies, through all degrees of human development, up to the present +times. Even the new religions which were born from time to time--always +at epochs when the mutual-aid principle was falling into decay in the +theocracies and despotic States of the East, or at the decline of the +Roman Empire--even the new religions have only reaffirmed that same +principle. They found their first supporters among the humble, in the +lowest, downtrodden layers of society, where the mutual-aid principle is +the necessary foundation of every-day life; and the new forms of union +which were introduced in the earliest Buddhist and Christian +communities, in the Moravian brotherhoods and so on, took the character +of a return to the best aspects of mutual aid in early tribal life. + +Each time, however, that an attempt to return to this old principle was +made, its fundamental idea itself was widened. From the clan it was +extended to the stem, to the federation of stems, to the nation, and +finally--in ideal, at least--to the whole of mankind. It was also +refined at the same time. In primitive Buddhism, in primitive +Christianity, in the writings of some of the Mussulman teachers, in the +early movements of the Reform, and especially in the ethical and +philosophical movements of the last century and of our own times, the +total abandonment of the idea of revenge, or of "due reward"--of good +for good and evil for evil--is affirmed more and more vigorously. The +higher conception of "no revenge for wrongs," and of freely giving more +than one expects to receive from his neighbours, is proclaimed as being +the real principle of morality--a principle superior to mere +equivalence, equity, or justice, and more conducive to happiness. And +man is appealed to to be guided in his acts, not merely by love, which +is always personal, or at the best tribal, but by the perception of his +oneness with each human being. In the practice of mutual aid, which we +can retrace to the earliest beginnings of evolution, we thus find the +positive and undoubted origin of our ethical conceptions; and we can +affirm that in the ethical progress of man, mutual support not mutual +struggle--has had the leading part. In its wide extension, even at the +present time, we also see the best guarantee of a still loftier +evolution of our race. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mutual Aid, by kniaz' Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUTUAL AID *** + +***** This file should be named 4341.txt or 4341.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/4/4341/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo Aldarondo@yahoo.com + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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