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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text @@ -0,0 +1,16570 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of The Philosophy of Misery by Proudhon +#2 in our series by Joseph-Pierre Proudhon + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software donated by Caere +Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + + + +THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM + +SYSTEM OF ECONOMICAL CONTRADICTIONS OR, THE PHILOSOPHY OF MISERY. +BY +P. J. PROUDHON + +Destruam et aedificabo. +Deuteronomy: c. 32. + +VOLUME FIRST. + + + +CONTENTS. + +INTRODUCTION + +CHAPTER I. +OF THE ECONOMIC SCIENCE +% 1. Opposition between FACT and RIGHT in Social Economy +% 2. Inadequacy of Theories and Criticisms + +CHAPTER II. +OF VALUE +% 1. Opposition of Value in USE and Value in EXCHANGE +% 2. Constitution of Value; Definition of Wealth +% 3. Application of the Law of Proportionality of Values + +CHAPTER III. +ECONOMIC EVOLUTIONS.--FIRST PERIOD.--THE DIVISION OF LABOR +% 1. Antagonistic Effects of the Principle of Division +% 2. Impotence of Palliatives.--MM. Blanqui, Chevalier, + Dunoyer, Rossi, and Passy + +CHAPTER IV. +SECOND PERIOD.--MACHINERY +% 1. Of the Function of Machinery in its Relations to Liberty +% 2. Machinery's Contradiction.--Origin of Capital and Wages +% 3. Of Preservatives against the Disastrous Influence of Machinery + +CHAPTER V. +THIRD PERIOD.--COMPETITION +% 1. Necessity of Competition +% 2. Subversive Effects of Competition, and the Destruction of + Liberty thereby +% 3. Remedies against Competition + +CHAPTER VI. +FOURTH PERIOD.--MONOPOLY +% 1. Necessity of Monopoly +% 2. The Disasters in Labor and the Perversion of Ideas caused + by Monopoly + +CHAPTER VII. +FIFTH PERIOD.--POLICE, OR TAXATION +% 1. Synthetic Idea of the Tax. Point of Departure and + Development of this Idea +% 2. Antinomy of the Tax +% 3. Disastrous and Inevitable Consequences of the Tax. + (Provisions, Sumptuary Laws, Rural and Industrial Police, + Patents,Trade-Marks, etc.) + +CHAPTER VIII. +OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MAN AND OF GOD, UNDER THE LAW OF +CONTRADICTION, OR A SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE +% 1. The Culpability of Man.--Exposition of the Myth of the Fall +% 2. Exposition of the Myth of Providence.--Retrogression of God + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +Before entering upon the subject-matter of these new memoirs, I +must explain an hypothesis which will undoubtedly seem strange, +but in the absence of which it is impossible for me to proceed +intelligibly: I mean the hypothesis of a God. + +To suppose God, it will be said, is to deny him. Why do you not +affirm him? + +Is it my fault if belief in Divinity has become a suspected +opinion; if the bare suspicion of a Supreme Being is already +noted as evidence of a weak mind; and if, of all philosophical +Utopias, this is the only one which the world no longer +tolerates? Is it my fault if hypocrisy and imbecility everywhere +hide behind this holy formula? + +Let a public teacher suppose the existence, in the universe, of +an unknown force governing suns and atoms, and keeping the whole +machine in motion. With him this supposition, wholly gratuitous, +is perfectly natural; it is received, encouraged: witness +attraction--an hypothesis which will never be verified, and +which, nevertheless, is the glory of its originator. But when, +to explain the course of human events, I suppose, with all +imaginable caution, the intervention of a God, I am sure to shock +scientific gravity and offend critical ears: to so wonderful an +extent has our piety discredited Providence, so many tricks +have been played by means of this dogma or fiction by charlatans +of every stamp! I have seen the theists of my time, and +blasphemy has played over my lips; I have studied the belief of +the people,--this people that Brydaine called the best friend of +God,--and have shuddered at the negation which was about to +escape me. Tormented by conflicting feelings, I appealed to +reason; and it is reason which, amid so many dogmatic +contradictions, now forces the hypothesis upon me. A priori +dogmatism, applying itself to God, has proved fruitless: who +knows whither the hypothesis, in its turn, will lead us? + +I will explain therefore how, studying in the silence of my +heart, and far from every human consideration, the mystery of +social revolutions, God, the great unknown, has become for me an +hypothesis,--I mean a necessary dialectical tool. + + + +I. + +If I follow the God-idea through its successive transformations, +I find that this idea is preeminently social: I mean by this that +it is much more a collective act of faith than an individual +conception. Now, how and under what circumstances is this act of +faith produced? This point it is important to determine. + +From the moral and intellectual point of view, society, or the +collective man, is especially distinguished from the individual +by spontaneity of action,--in other words, instinct. While the +individual obeys, or imagines he obeys, only those motives of +which he is fully conscious, and upon which he can at will +decline or consent to act; while, in a word, he thinks himself +free, and all the freer when he knows that he is possessed of +keener reasoning faculties and larger information,--society is +governed by impulses which, at first blush, exhibit no +deliberation and design, but which gradually seem to be directed +by a superior power, existing outside of society, and pushing it +with irresistible might toward an unknown goal. The +establishment of monarchies and republics, caste-distinctions, +judicial institutions, etc., are so many manifestations of this +social spontaneity, to note the effects of which is much easier +than to point out its principle and show its cause. The whole +effort, even of those who, following Bossuet, Vico, Herder, +Hegel, have applied themselves to the philosophy of history, has +been hitherto to establish the presence of a providential destiny +presiding over all the movements of man. And I observe, in this +connection, that society never fails to evoke its genius previous +to action: as if it wished the powers above to ordain what its +own spontaneity has already resolved on. Lots, oracles, +sacrifices, popular acclamation, public prayers, are the +commonest forms of these tardy deliberations of society. + +This mysterious faculty, wholly intuitive, and, so to speak, +super-social, scarcely or not at all perceptible in persons, but +which hovers over humanity like an inspiring genius, is the +primordial fact of all psychology. + +Now, unlike other species of animals, which, like him, are +governed at the same time by individual desires and collective +impulses, man has the privilege of perceiving and designating to +his own mind the instinct or fatum which leads him; we shall see +later that he has also the power of foreseeing and even +influencing its decrees. And the first act of man, filled and +carried away with enthusiasm (of the divine breath), is to adore +the invisible Providence on which he feels that he depends, and +which he calls GOD,--that is, Life, Being, Spirit, or, simpler +still, Me; for all these words, in the ancient tongues, are +synonyms and homophones. "I am ME," God said to Abraham, +"and I covenant with THEE.".... And to Moses: "I am the Being. +Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, `The Being hath sent +me unto you.'" These two words, the Being and Me, have in the +original language--the most religious that men have ever +spoken--the same characteristic.[1] Elsewhere, when Ie-hovah, +acting as law-giver through the instrumentality of Moses, attests +his eternity and swears by his own essence, he uses, as a form of +oath, _I_; or else, with redoubled force, _I_, THE BEING. Thus +the God of the Hebrews is the most personal and wilful of all the +gods, and none express better than he the intuition of humanity. + + +[1] Ie-hovah, and in composition Iah, the Being; Iao, ioupitur, +same meaning; ha-iah, Heb., he was; ei, Gr., he is, ei-nai, to +be; an-i, Heb., and in conjugation th-i, me; e-go, io, ich, i, +m-i, me, t-ibi, te, and all the personal pronouns in which the +vowels i, e, ei, oi, denote personality in general, and the +consonants, m or n, s or t, serve to indicate the number of the +person. For the rest, let who will dispute over these analogies; +I have no objections: at this depth, the science of the +philologist is but cloud and mystery. The important point to +which I wish to call attention is that the phonetic relation of +names seems to correspond to the metaphysical relation of ideas. + + + +God appeared to man, then, as a me, as a pure and permanent +essence, placing himself before him as a monarch before his +servant, and expressing himself now through the mouth of poets, +legislators, and soothsayers, musa, nomos, numen; now through the +popular voice, vox populi vox Dei. This may serve, among other +things, to explain the existence of true and false oracles; why +individuals secluded from birth do not attain of themselves to +the idea of God, while they eagerly grasp it as soon as it is +presented to them by the collective mind; why, finally, +stationary races, like the Chinese, end by losing it.[2] In the +first place, as to oracles, it is clear that all their +accuracy depends upon the universal conscience which inspires +them; and, as to the idea of God, it is easily seen why isolation +and statu quo are alike fatal to it. On the one hand, absence of +communication keeps the mind absorbed in animal +self-contemplation; on the other, absence of motion, gradually +changing social life into mechanical routine, finally eliminates +the idea of will and providence. Strange fact! religion, which +perishes through progress, perishes also through quiescence. + + +[2] The Chinese have preserved in their traditions the +remembrance of a religion which had ceased to exist among them +five or six centuries before our era. + +(See Pauthier, "China," Paris, Didot.) More surprising still is +it that this singular people, in losing its primitive faith, +seems to have understood that divinity is simply the collective +me of humanity: so that, more than two thousand years ago, China +had reached, in its commonly-accepted belief, the latest results +of the philosophy of the Occident. "What Heaven sees and +understands," it is written in the Shu-king, "is only that which +the people see and understand. What the people deem worthy of +reward and punishment is that which Heaven wishes to punish and +reward. There is an intimate communication between Heaven and +the people: let those who govern the people, therefore, be +watchful and cautious." Confucius expressed the same idea in +another manner: "Gain the affection of the people, and you gain +empire. Lose the affection of the people, and you lose empire." +There, then, general reason was regarded as queen of the world, a +distinction which elsewhere has been bestowed upon revelations. +The Tao-te-king is still more explicit. In this work, which is +but an outline criticism of pure reason, the philosopher Lao-tse +continually identifies, under the name of TAO, universal reason +and the infinite being; and all the obscurity of the book of Lao +tse consists, in my opinion, of this constant identification of +principles which our religious and metaphysical habits have so +widely separated. + + + +Notice further that, in attributing to the vague and (so to +speak) objectified consciousness of a universal reason the first +revelation of Divinity, we assume absolutely nothing concerning +even the reality or non-reality of God. In fact, admitting that +God is nothing more than collective instinct or universal reason, +we have still to learn what this universal reason is in itself. +For, as we shall show directly, universal reason is not given in +individual reason, in other words, the knowledge of social +laws, or the theory of collective ideas, though deduced from the +fundamental concepts of pure reason, is nevertheless wholly +empirical, and never would have been discovered a priori by means +of deduction, induction, or synthesis. Whence it follows that +universal reason, which we regard as the origin of these laws; +universal reason, which exists, reasons, labors, in a separate +sphere and as a reality distinct from pure reason, just as the +planetary system, though created according to the laws of +mathematics, is a reality distinct from mathematics, whose +existence could not have been deduced from mathematics alone: it +follows, I say, that universal reason is, in modern languages, +exactly what the ancients called God. The name is changed: what +do we know of the thing? + +Let us now trace the evolution of the Divine idea. + +The Supreme Being once posited by a primary mystical judgment, +man immediately generalizes the subject by another +mysticism,--analogy. God, so to speak, is as yet but a point: +directly he shall fill the world. + +As, in sensing his social me, man saluted his AUTHOR, so, in +finding evidence of design and intention in animals, plants, +springs, meteors, and the whole universe, he attributes to each +special object, and then to the whole, a soul, spirit, or genius +presiding over it; pursuing this inductive process of apotheosis +from the highest summit of Nature, which is society, down to the +humblest forms of life, to inanimate and inorganic matter. From +his collective me, taken as the superior pole of creation, to the +last atom of matter, man EXTENDS, then, the idea of God,--that +is, the idea of personality and intelligence,--just as God +himself EXTENDED HEAVEN, as the book of Genesis tells us; that +is, created space and time, the conditions of all things. + +Thus, without a God or master-builder, the universe and man +would not exist: such is the social profession of faith. But +also without man God would not be thought, or--to clear the +interval--God would be nothing. If humanity needs an author, God +and the gods equally need a revealer; theogony, the history of +heaven, hell, and their inhabitants,--those dreams of the human +mind,--is the counterpart of the universe, which certain +philosophers have called in return the dream of God. And how +magnificent this theological creation, the work of society! The +creation of the demiourgos was obliterated; what we call the +Omnipotent was conquered; and for centuries the enchanted +imagination of mortals was turned away from the spectacle of +Nature by the contemplation of Olympian marvels. + +Let us descend from this fanciful region: pitiless reason knocks +at the door; her terrible questions demand a reply. + +"What is God?" she asks; "where is he? what is his extent? what +are his wishes? what his powers? what his promises?"--and here, +in the light of analysis, all the divinities of heaven, earth, +and hell are reduced to an incorporeal, insensible, immovable, +incomprehensible, undefinable I-know-not-what; in short, to a +negation of all the attributes of existence. In fact, whether +man attributes to each object a special spirit or genius, or +conceives the universe as governed by a single power, he in +either case but SUPPOSES an unconditioned, that is, an +impossible, entity, that he may deduce therefrom an explanation +of such phenomena as he deems inconceivable on any other +hypothesis. The mystery of God and reason! In order to render +the object of his idolatry more and more RATIONAL, the believer +despoils him successively of all the qualities which would make +him REAL; and, after marvellous displays of logic and genius, +the attributes of the Being par excellence are found to be the +same as those of nihility. This evolution is inevitable and +fatal: atheism is at the bottom of all theodicy. + +Let us try to understand this progress. + +God, creator of all things, is himself no sooner created by the +conscience,--in other words, no sooner have we lifted God from +the idea of the social me to the idea of the cosmic me,--than +immediately our reflection begins to demolish him under the +pretext of perfecting him. To perfect the idea of God, to purify +the theological dogma, was the second hallucination of the human +race. + +The spirit of analysis, that untiring Satan who continually +questions and denies, must sooner or later look for proof of +religious dogmas. Now, whether the philosopher determine the +idea of God, or declare it indeterminable; whether he approach it +with his reason, or retreat from it,--I say that this idea +receives a blow; and, as it is impossible for speculation to +halt, the idea of God must at last disappear. Then the atheistic +movement is the second act of the theologic drama; and this +second act follows from the first, as effect from cause. "The +heavens declare the glory of God," says the Psalmist. Let us +add, And their testimony dethrones him. + +Indeed, in proportion as man observes phenomena, he thinks that +he perceives, between Nature and God, intermediaries; such as +relations of number, form, and succession; organic laws, +evolutions, analogies,-- forming an unmistakable series of +manifestations which invariably produce or give rise to each +other. He even observes that, in the development of this society +of which he is a part, private wills and associative +deliberations have some influence; and he says to himself that +the Great Spirit does not act upon the world directly and by +himself, or arbitrarily and at the dictation of a capricious +will, but mediately, by perceptible means or organs, and by +virtue of laws. And, retracing in his mind the chain of effects +and causes, he places clear at the extremity, as a balance, God. + +A poet has said,-- + +Par dela tous les cieux, le Dieu des cieux reside. + +Thus, at the first step in the theory, the Supreme Being is +reduced to the function of a motive power, a mainspring, a +corner-stone, or, if a still more trivial comparison may be +allowed me, a constitutional sovereign, reigning but not +governing, swearing to obey the law and appointing ministers to +execute it. But, under the influence of the mirage which +fascinates him, the theist sees, in this ridiculous system, only +a new proof of the sublimity of his idol; who, in his opinion, +uses his creatures as instruments of his power, and causes the +wisdom of human beings to redound to his glory. + +Soon, not content with limiting the power of the Eternal, man, +increasingly deicidal in his tendencies, insists on sharing it. + +If I am a spirit, a sentient me giving voice to ideas, continues +the theist, I consequently am a part of absolute existence; I am +free, creative, immortal, equal with God. Cogito, ergo sum,--I +think, therefore I am immortal, that is the corollary, the +translation of Ego sum qui sum: philosophy is in accord with the +Bible. The existence of God and the immortality of the soul are +posited by the conscience in the same judgment: there, man speaks +in the name of the universe, to whose bosom he transports his me; +here, he speaks in his own name, without perceiving that, in this +going and coming, he only repeats himself. + +The immortality of the soul, a true division of divinity, +which, at the time of its first promulgation, arriving after a +long interval, seemed a heresy to those faithful to the old +dogma, has been none the less considered the complement of divine +majesty, necessarily postulated by eternal goodness and justice. +Unless the soul is immortal, God is incomprehensible, say the +theists; resembling in this the political theorists who regard +sovereign representation and perpetual tenure of office as +essential conditions of monarchy. But the inconsistency of the +ideas is as glaring as the parity of the doctrines is exact: +consequently the dogma of immortality soon became the +stumbling-block of philosophical theologians, who, ever since the +days of Pythagoras and Orpheus, have been making futile attempts +to harmonize divine attributes with human liberty, and reason +with faith. A subject of triumph for the impious! . . . . But +the illusion could not yield so soon: the dogma of immortality, +for the very reason that it was a limitation of the uncreated +Being, was a step in advance. Now, though the human mind +deceives itself by a partial acquisition of the truth, it never +retreats, and this perseverance in progress is proof of its +infallibility. Of this we shall soon see fresh evidence. + +In making himself like God, man made God like himself: this +correlation, which for many centuries had been execrated, was the +secret spring which determined the new myth. In the days of the +patriarchs God made an alliance with man; now, to strengthen the +compact, God is to become a man. He will take on our flesh, our +form, our passions, our joys, and our sorrows; will be born of +woman, and die as we do. Then, after this humiliation of the +infinite, man will still pretend that he has elevated the ideal +of his God in making, by a logical conversion, him whom he +had always called creator, a saviour, a redeemer. Humanity does +not yet say, I am God: such a usurpation would shock its piety; +it says, God is in me, IMMANUEL, nobiscum Deus. And, at the +moment when philosophy with pride, and universal conscience with +fright, shouted with unanimous voice, The gods are departing! +excedere deos! a period of eighteen centuries of fervent +adoration and superhuman faith was inaugurated. + +But the fatal end approaches. The royalty which suffers itself +to be limited will end by the rule of demagogues; the divinity +which is defined dissolves in a pandemonium. Christolatry is the +last term of this long evolution of human thought. The angels, +saints, and virgins reign in heaven with God, says the catechism; +and demons and reprobates live in the hells of eternal +punishment. Ultramundane society has its left and its right: it +is time for the equation to be completed; for this mystical +hierarchy to descend upon earth and appear in its real character. + +When Milton represents the first woman admiring herself in a +fountain, and lovingly extending her arms toward her own image as +if to embrace it, he paints, feature for feature, the human +race.--This God whom you worship, O man! this God whom you have +made good, just, omnipotent, omniscient, immortal, and holy, is +yourself: this ideal of perfection is your image, purified in the +shining mirror of your conscience. God, Nature, and man are +three aspects of one and the same being; man is God himself +arriving at self-consciousness through a thousand evolutions. In +Jesus Christ man recognized himself as God; and Christianity is +in reality the religion of God-man. There is no other God than +he who in the beginning said, ME; there is no other God than +THEE. + +Such are the last conclusions of philosophy, which dies in +unveiling religion's mystery and its own. + + +II. + + +It seems, then, that all is ended; it seems that, with the +cessation of the worship and mystification of humanity by itself, +the theological problem is for ever put aside. The gods have +gone: there is nothing left for man but to grow weary and die in +his egoism. What frightful solitude extends around me, and +forces its way to the bottom of my soul! My exaltation resembles +annihilation; and, since I made myself a God, I seem but a +shadow. It is possible that I am still a ME, but it is very +difficult to regard myself as the absolute; and, if I am not the +absolute, I am only half of an idea. + +Some ironical thinker, I know not who, has said: "A little +philosophy leads away from religion, and much philosophy leads +back to it." This proposition is humiliatingly true. + +Every science develops in three successive periods, which may be +called--comparing them with the grand periods of +civilization--the religious period, the sophistical period, the +scientific period.[3] Thus, alchemy represents the religious +period of the science afterwards called chemistry, whose +definitive plan is not yet discovered; likewise astrology was the +religious period of another science, since +established,--astronomy. + + +[3] See, among others, Auguste Comte, "Course of Positive +Philosophy," and P. J. Proudhon, "Creation of Order in Humanity." + + + +Now, after being laughed at for sixty years about the +philosopher's stone, chemists, governed by experience, no longer +dare to deny the transmutability of bodies; while astronomers +are led by the structure of the world to suspect also an organism +of the world; that is, something precisely like astrology. Are +we not justified in saying, in imitation of the philosopher just +quoted, that, if a little chemistry leads away from the +philosopher's stone, much chemistry leads back to it; and +similarly, that, if a little astronomy makes us laugh at +astrologers, much astronomy will make us believe in them?[4] + + +[4] I do not mean to affirm here in a positive manner the +transmutability of bodies, or to point it out as a subject for +investigation; still less do I pretend to say what ought to be +the opinion of savants upon this point. I wish only to call +attention to the species of scepticism generated in every +uninformed mind by the most general conclusions of chemical +philosophy, or, better, by the irreconcilable hypotheses which +serve as the basis of its theories. Chemistry is truly the +despair of reason: on all sides it mingles with the fanciful; and +the more knowledge of it we gain by experience, the more it +envelops itself in impenetrable mysteries. This thought was +recently suggested to me by reading M. Liebig's "Letters on +Chemistry" (Paris, Masgana, 1845, translation of Bertet-Dupiney +and Dubreuil Helion). + +Thus M. Liebig, after having banished from science hypothetical +causes and all the entities admitted by the ancients,--such as +the creative power of matter, the horror of a vacuum, the esprit +recteur, etc. (p. 22),--admits immediately, as necessary to the +comprehension of chemical phenomena, a series of entities no less +obscure,--vital force, chemical force, electric force, the force +of attraction, etc. (pp. 146, 149). One might call it a +realization of the properties of bodies, in imitation of the +psychologists' realization of the faculties of the soul under the +names liberty, imagination, memory, etc. Why not keep to the +elements? Why, if the atoms have weight of their own, as M. +Liebig appears to believe, may they not also have electricity and +life of their own? Curious thing! the phenomena of matter, like +those of mind, become intelligible only by supposing them to be +produced by unintelligible forces and governed by contradictory +laws: such is the inference to be drawn from every page of M. +Liebig's book. + +Matter, according to M. Liebig, is essentially inert and entirely +destitute of spontaneous activity (p. 148): why, then, do the +atoms have weight? Is not the weight inherent in atoms the real, +eternal, and spontaneous motion of matter? And that which we +chance to regard as rest,--may it not be equilibrium rather? +Why, then, suppose now an inertia which definitions contradict, +now an external potentiality which nothing proves? + +Atoms having WEIGHT, M. Liebig infers that they are INDIVISIBLE +(p. 58). What logic! Weight is only force, that is, a thing +hidden from the senses, whose phenomena alone are perceptible,--a +thing, consequently, to which the idea of division and indivision +is inapplicable; and from the presence of this force, from the +hypothesis of an indeterminate and immaterial entity, is inferred +an indivisible material existence! + +For the rest, M. Liebig confesses that it is IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE +MIND to conceive of particles absolutely indivisible; he +recognizes, further, that the FACT of this indivisibility is not +proved; but he adds that science cannot dispense with this +hypothesis: so that, by the confession of its teachers, chemistry +has for its point of departure a fiction as repugnant to the mind +as it is foreign to experience. What irony! + +Atoms are unequal in weight, says M. Liebig, because unequal in +volume: nevertheless, it is impossible to demonstrate that +chemical equivalents express the relative weight of atoms, or, in +other words, that what the calculation of atomic equivalents +leads us to regard as an atom is not composed of several atoms. +This is tantamount to saying that MORE MATTER weighs more than +LESS MATTER; and, since weight is the essence of materiality, we +may logically conclude that, weight being universally identical +with itself, there is also an identity in matter; that the +differences of simple bodies are due solely, either to different +methods of atomic association, or to different degrees of +molecular condensation, and that, in reality, atoms are +transmutable: which M. Liebig does not admit. + +"We have," he says, "no reason for believing that one element is +convertible into another element" (p. 135). What do you know +about it? The reasons for believing in such a conversion can +very well exist and at the same time escape your attention; and +it is not certain that your intelligence in this respect has +risen to the level of your experience. But, admitting the +negative argument of M. Liebig, what follows? That, with about +fifty-six exceptions, irreducible as yet, all matter is in a +condition of perpetual metamorphosis. Now, it is a law of our +reason to suppose in Nature unity of substance as well as unity +of force and system; moreover, the series of chemical compounds +and simple substances themselves leads us irresistibly to this +conclusion. Why, then, refuse to follow to the end the road +opened by science, and to admit an hypothesis which is the +inevitable result of experience itself? + +M. Liebig not only denies the transmutability of elements, but +rejects the spontaneous formation of germs. Now, if we reject +the spontaneous formation of germs, we are forced to admit their +eternity; and as, on the other hand, geology proves that the +globe has not been inhabited always, we must admit also that, at +a given moment, the eternal germs of animals and plants were +born, without father or mother, over the whole face of the earth. + +Thus, the denial of spontaneous generation leads back to the +hypothesis of spontaneity: what is there in much-derided +metaphysics more contradictory? + +Let it not be thought, however, that I deny the value and +certainty of chemical theories, or that the atomic theory seems +to me absurd, or that I share the Epicurean opinion as to +spontaneous generation. Once more, all that I wish to point out +is that, from the point of view of principles, chemistry needs to +exercise extreme tolerance, since its own existence depends on a +certain number of fictions, contrary to reason and experience, +and destructive of each other. + + + +I certainly have less inclination to the marvellous than +many atheists, but I cannot help thinking that the stories of +miracles, prophecies, charms, etc., are but distorted accounts of +the extraordinary effects produced by certain latent forces, or, +as was formerly said, by occult powers. Our science is still so +brutal and unfair; our professors exhibit so much impertinence +with so little knowledge; they deny so impudently facts which +embarrass them, in order to protect the opinions which they +champion,--that I distrust strong minds equally with +superstitious ones. Yes, I am convinced of it; our gross +rationalism is the inauguration of a period which, thanks to +science, will become truly PRODIGIOUS; the universe, to my eyes, +is only a laboratory of magic, from which anything may be +expected. . . . This said, I return to my subject. + +They would be deceived, then, who should imagine, after my rapid +survey of religious progress, that metaphysics has uttered its +last word upon the double enigma expressed in these four +words,--the existence of God, the immortality of the soul. Here, +as elsewhere, the most advanced and best established conclusions, +those which seem to have settled for ever the theological +question, lead us back to primeval mysticism, and involve the new +data of an inevitable philosophy. The criticism of religious +opinions makes us smile today both at ourselves and at religions; +and yet the resume of this criticism is but a reproduction of the +problem. The human race, at the present moment, is on the eve of +recognizing and affirming something equivalent to the old notion +of Divinity; and this, not by a spontaneous movement as before, +but through reflection and by means of irresistible logic. I +will try, in a few words, to make myself understood. + +If there is a point on which philosophers, in spite of +themselves, have finally succeeded in agreeing, it is without +doubt the distinction between intelligence and necessity, the +subject of thought and its object, the me and the not-me; in +ordinary terms, spirit and matter. I know well that all these +terms express nothing that is real and true; that each of them +designates only a section of the absolute, which alone is true +and real; and that, taken separately, they involve, all alike, a +contradiction. But it is no less certain also that the absolute +is completely inaccessible to us; that we know it only by its +opposite extremes, which alone fall within the limits of our +experience; and that, if unity only can win our faith, duality is +the first condition of science. + +Thus, who thinks, and what is thought? What is a soul? what is a +body? I defy any one to escape this dualism. It is with +essences as with ideas: the former are seen separated in Nature, +as the latter in the understanding; and just as the ideas of God +and immortality, in spite of their identity, are posited +successively and contradictorily in philosophy, so, in spite of +their fusion in the absolute, the me and the not-me posit +themselves separately and contradictorily in Nature, and we have +beings who think, at the same time with others which do not +think. + +Now, whoever has taken pains to reflect knows today that such a +distinction, wholly realized though it be, is the most +unintelligible, most contradictory, most absurd thing which +reason can possibly meet. Being is no more conceivable without +the properties of spirit than without the properties of +matter: so that if you deny spirit, because, included in none of +the categories of time, space, motion, solidity, etc., it seems +deprived of all the attributes which constitute reality, I in my +turn will deny matter, which, presenting nothing appreciable but +its inertia, nothing intelligible but its forms, manifests itself +nowhere as cause (voluntary and free), and disappears from view +entirely as substance; and we arrive at pure idealism, that is, +nihility. But nihility is inconsistent with the existence of +living, reasoning--I know not what to call them--uniting in +themselves, in a state of commenced synthesis or imminent +dissolution, all the antagonistic attributes of being. We are +compelled, then, to end in a dualism whose terms we know +perfectly well to be false, but which, being for us the condition +of the truth, forces itself irresistibly upon us; we are +compelled, in short, to commence, like Descartes and the human +race, with the me; that is, with spirit. + +But, since religions and philosophies, dissolved by analysis, +have disappeared in the theory of the absolute, we know no better +than before what spirit is, and in this differ from the ancients +only in the wealth of language with which we adorn the darkness +that envelops us. With this exception, however; that while, to +the ancients, order revealed intelligence OUTSIDE of the world, +to the people of today it seems to reveal it rather WITHIN the +world. Now, whether we place it within or without, from the +moment we affirm it on the ground of order, we must admit it +wherever order is manifested, or deny it altogether. There is no +more reason for attributing intelligence to the head which +produced the "Iliad" than to a mass of matter which crystallizes +in octahedrons; and, reciprocally, it is as absurd to refer the +system of the world to physical laws, leaving out an ordaining +ME, as to attribute the victory of Marengo to strategic +combinations, leaving out the first consul. The only distinction +that can be made is that, in the latter case, the thinking ME is +located in the brain of a Bonaparte, while, in the case of the +universe, the ME has no special location, but extends everywhere. + +The materialists think that they have easily disposed of their +opponents by saying that man, having likened the universe to his +body, finishes the comparison by presuming the existence in the +universe of a soul similar to that which he supposes to be the +principle of his own life and thought; that thus all the +arguments in support of the existence of God are reducible to an +analogy all the more false because the term of comparison is +itself hypothetical. + +It is certainly not my intention to defend the old syllogism: +Every arrangement implies an ordaining intelligence; there is +wonderful order in the world; then the world is the work of an +intelligence. This syllogism, discussed so widely since the days +of Job and Moses, very far from being a solution, is but the +statement of the problem which it assumes to solve. We know +perfectly well what order is, but we are absolutely ignorant of +the meaning of the words Soul, Spirit, Intelligence: how, then, +can we logically reason from the presence of the one to the +existence of the other? I reject, then, even when advanced by +the most thoroughly informed, the pretended proof of the +existence of God drawn from the presence of order in the world; I +see in it at most only an equation offered to philosophy. +Between the conception of order and the affirmation of spirit +there is a deep gulf of metaphysics to be filled up; I am +unwilling, I repeat, to take the problem for the demonstration. + +But this is not the point which we are now considering. I have +tried to show that the human mind was inevitably and irresistibly +led to the distinction of being into me and not-me, spirit and +matter, soul and body. Now, who does not see that the objection +of the materialists proves the very thing it is intended to deny? +Man distinguishing within himself a spiritual principle and a +material principle,--what is this but Nature herself, proclaiming +by turns her double essence, and bearing testimony to her own +laws? And notice the inconsistency of materialism: it denies, +and has to deny, that man is free; now, the less liberty man has, +the more weight is to be attached to his words, and the greater +their claim to be regarded as the expression of truth. When I +hear this machine say to me, "I am soul and I am body," though +such a revelation astonishes and confounds me, it is invested in +my eyes with an authority incomparably greater than that of the +materialist who, correcting conscience and Nature, undertakes to +make them say, "I am matter and only matter, and intelligence is +but the material faculty of knowing." + +What would become of this assertion, if, assuming in my turn the +offensive, I should demonstrate that belief in the existence of +bodies, or, in other words, in the reality of a purely corporeal +nature, is untenable? Matter, they say, is +impenetrable.--Impenetrable by what? I ask. Itself, undoubtedly; +for they would not dare to say spirit, since they would therein +admit what they wish to set aside. Whereupon I raise this double +question: What do you know about it, and what does it signify? + +1. Impenetrability, which is pretended to be the definition of +matter, is only an hypothesis of careless naturalists, a gross +conclusion deduced from a superficial judgment. Experience shows +that matter possesses infinite divisibility, infinite +expansibility, porosity without assignable limits, and +permeability by heat, electricity, and magnetism, together +with a power of retaining them indefinitely; affinities, +reciprocal influences, and transformations without number: +qualities, all of them, hardly compatible with the assumption of +an impenetrable aliquid. Elasticity, which, better than any +other property of matter, could lead, through the idea of spring +or resistance, to that of impenetrability, is subject to the +control of a thousand circumstances, and depends entirely on +molecular attraction: now, what is more irreconcilable with +impenetrability than this attraction? Finally, there is a +science which might be defined with exactness as the SCIENCE OF +PENETRABILITY OF MATTER: I mean chemistry. In fact, how does +what is called chemical composition differ from penetration?[5]. +. . . In short, we know matter only through its forms; of its +substance we know nothing. How, then, is it possible to affirm +the reality of an invisible, impalpable, incoercible being, ever +changing, ever vanishing, impenetrable to thought alone, to which +it exhibits only its disguises? Materialist! I permit you to +testify to the reality of your sensations; as to what occasions +them, all that you can say involves this reciprocity: something +(which you call matter) is the occasion of sensations which are +felt by another something (which I call spirit). + + + +[5] Chemists distinguish between MIXTURE and COMPOSITION, just +as logicians distinguish between the association of ideas and +their synthesis. It is true, nevertheless, that, according to +the chemists, composition may be after all but a mixture, or +rather an aggregation of atoms, no longer fortuitous, but +systematic, the atoms forming different compounds by varying +their arrangement. But still this is only an hypothesis, wholly +gratuitous; an hypothesis which explains nothing, and has not +even the merit of being logical. Why does a purely NUMERICAL or +GEOMETRICAL difference in the composition and form of atoms give +rise to PHYSIOLOGICAL properties so different? If atoms are +indivisible and impenetrable, why does not their association, +confined to mechanical effects, leave them unchanged in essence? +Where is the relation between the cause supposed and the effect +obtained? + +We must distrust our intellectual vision: it is with chemical +theories as with psychological systems. The mind, in order to +account for phenomena, works with atoms, which it does not and +can never see, as with the ME, which it does not perceive: it +applies its categories to everything; that is, it distinguishes, +individualizes, concretes, numbers, compares, things which, +material or immaterial, are thoroughly identical and +indistinguishable. Matter, as well as spirit, plays, as we view +it, all sorts of parts; and, as there is nothing arbitrary in its +metamorphoses, we build upon them these psychologic and atomic +theories, true in so far as they faithfully represent, in terms +agreed upon, the series of phenomena, but radically false as soon +as they pretend to realize their abstractions and are accepted +literally. + + + +2. But what, then, is the source of this supposition that matter +is impenetrable, which external observation does not justify and +which is not true; and what is its meaning? + +Here appears the triumph of dualism. Matter is pronounced +impenetrable, not, as the materialists and the vulgar fancy, by +the testimony of the senses, but by the conscience. The ME, an +incomprehensible nature, feeling itself free, distinct, and +permanent, and meeting outside of itself another nature equally +incomprehensible, but also distinct and permanent in spite of its +metamorphoses, declares, on the strength of the sensations and +ideas which this essence suggests to it, that the NOT-ME is +extended and impenetrable. Impenetrability is a figurative term, +an image by which thought, a division of the absolute, pictures +to itself material reality, another division of the absolute; but +this impenetrability, without which matter disappears, is, in the +last analysis, only a spontaneous judgment of inward sensation, a +metaphysical a priori, an unverified hypothesis of spirit. + +Thus, whether philosophy, after having overthrown theological +dogmatism, spiritualizes matter or materializes thought, +idealizes being or realizes ideas; or whether, identifying +SUBSTANCE and CAUSE, it everywhere substitutes FORCE, phrases, +all, which explain and signify nothing,--it always leads us +back to this everlasting dualism, and, in summoning us to believe +in ourselves, compels us to believe in God, if not in spirits. +It is true that, making spirit a part of Nature, in distinction +from the ancients, who separated it, philosophy has been led to +this famous conclusion, which sums up nearly all the fruit of its +researches: In man spirit KNOWS ITSELF, while everywhere else +it seems NOT TO KNOW ITSELf--"That which is awake in man, which +dreams in the animal, and sleeps in the stone," said a +philosopher. + +Philosophy, then, in its last hour, knows no more than at its +birth: as if it had appeared in the world only to verify the +words of Socrates, it says to us, wrapping itself solemnly around +with its funeral pall, "I know only that I know nothing." What +do I say? Philosophy knows today that all its judgments rest on +two equally false, equally impossible, and yet equally necessary +and inevitable hypotheses,--matter and spirit. So that, while in +former times religious intolerance and philosophic disputes, +spreading darkness everywhere, excused doubt and tempted to +libidinous indifference, the triumph of negation on all points no +longer permits even this doubt; thought, freed from every +barrier, but conquered by its own successes, is forced to affirm +what seems to it clearly contradictory and absurd. The savages +say that the world is a great fetich watched over by a great +manitou. For thirty centuries the poets, legislators, and sages +of civilization, handing down from age to age the philosophic +lamp, have written nothing more sublime than this profession of +faith. And here, at the end of this long conspiracy against God, +which has called itself philosophy, emancipated reason concludes +with savage reason, The universe is a NOT-ME, objectified by a +ME. + +Humanity, then, inevitably supposes the existence of God: and if, +during the long period which closes with our time, it has +believed in the reality of its hypothesis; if it has worshipped +the inconceivable object; if, after being apprehended in this act +of faith, it persists knowingly, but no longer voluntarily, in +this opinion of a sovereign being which it knows to be only a +personification of its own thought; if it is on the point of +again beginning its magic invocations,--we must believe that so +astonishing an hallucination conceals some mystery, which +deserves to be fathomed. + +I say hallucination and mystery, but without intending to deny +thereby the superhuman content of the God-idea, and without +admitting the necessity of a new symbolism,--I mean a new +religion. For if it is indisputable that humanity, in affirming +God,--or all that is included in the word me or spirit,--only +affirms itself, it is equally undeniable that it affirms itself +as something other than its own conception of itself, as all +mythologies and theologies show. And since, moreover, this +affirmation is incontestable, it depends, without doubt, upon +hidden relations, which ought, if possible, to be determined +scientifically. + +In other words, atheism, sometimes called humanism, true in its +critical and negative features, would be, if it stopped at man in +his natural condition, if it discarded as an erroneous judgment +the first affirmation of humanity, that it is the daughter, +emanation, image, reflection, or voice of God,--humanism, I say, +if it thus denied its past, would be but one contradiction more. +We are forced, then, to undertake the criticism of humanism; that +is, to ascertain whether humanity, considered as a whole and +throughout all its periods of development, satisfies the Divine +idea, after eliminating from the latter the exaggerated and +fanciful attributes of God; whether it satisfies the perfection +of being; whether it satisfies itself. We are forced, in short, +to inquire whether humanity TENDS TOWARD God, according to the +ancient dogma, or is itself BECOMING God, as modern philosophers +claim. Perhaps we shall find in the end that the two systems, +despite their seeming opposition, are both true and essentially +identical: in that case, the infallibility of human reason, in +its collective manifestations as well as its studied +speculations, would be decisively confirmed.--In a word, until we +have verified to man the hypothesis of God, there is nothing +definitive in the atheistic negation. + +It is, then, a scientific, that is, an empirical demonstration of +the idea of God, that we need: now, such a demonstration has +never been attempted. Theology dogmatizing on the authority of +its myths, philosophy speculating by the aid of categories, God +has existed as a TRANSCENDENTAL conception, incognizable by the +reason, and the hypothesis always subsists. + +It subsists, I say, this hypothesis, more tenacious, more +pitiless than ever. We have reached one of those prophetic +epochs when society, scornful of the past and doubtful of the +future, now distractedly clings to the present, leaving a few +solitary thinkers to establish the new faith; now cries to God +from the depths of its enjoyments and asks for a sign of +salvation, or seeks in the spectacle of its revolutions, as in +the entrails of a victim, the secret of its destiny. + +Why need I insist further? The hypothesis of God is allowable, +for it forces itself upon every man in spite of himself: no one, +then, can take exception to it. He who believes can do no less +than grant me the supposition that God exists; he who denies is +forced to grant it to me also, since he entertained it before +me, every negation implying a previous affirmation; as for him +who is in doubt, he needs but to reflect a moment to understand +that his doubt necessarily supposes an unknown something, which, +sooner or later, he will call God. + +But if I possess, through the fact of my thought, the right to +SUPPOSE God, I must abandon the right to AFFIRM him. In other +words, if my hypothesis is irresistible, that, for the present, +is all that I can pretend. For to affirm is to determine; now, +every determination, to be true, must be reached empirically. In +fact, whoever says determination, says relation, conditionality, +experience. Since, then, the determination of the idea of God +must result from an empirical demonstration, we must abstain from +everything which, in the search for this great unknown, not being +established by experience, goes beyond the hypothesis, under +penalty of relapsing into the contradictions of theology, and +consequently arousing anew atheistic dissent. + + + +III. + +It remains for me to tell why, in a work on political economy, I +have felt it necessary to start with the fundamental hypothesis +of all philosophy. + +And first, I need the hypothesis of God to establish the +authority of social science.--When the astronomer, to explain the +system of the world, judging solely from appearance, supposes, +with the vulgar, the sky arched, the earth flat, the sun much +like a football, describing a curve in the air from east to west, +he supposes the infallibility of the senses, reserving the right +to rectify subsequently, after further observation, the data with +which he is obliged to start. Astronomic philosophy, in fact, +could not admit a priori that the senses deceive us, and that +we do not see what we do see: admitting such a principle, what +would become of the certainty of astronomy? But the evidence of +the senses being able, in certain cases, to rectify and complete +itself, the authority of the senses remains unshaken, and +astronomy is possible. + +So social philosophy does not admit a priori that humanity can +err or be deceived in its actions: if it should, what would +become of the authority of the human race, that is, the authority +of reason, synonymous at bottom with the sovereignty of the +people? But it thinks that human judgments, always true at the +time they are pronounced, can successively complete and throw +light on each other, in proportion to the acquisition of ideas, +in such a way as to maintain continual harmony between universal +reason and individual speculation, and indefinitely extend the +sphere of certainty: which is always an affirmation of the +authority of human judgments. + +Now, the first judgment of the reason, the preamble of every +political constitution seeking a sanction and a principle, is +necessarily this: THERE IS A GOD; which means that society is +governed with design, premeditation, intelligence. This +judgment, which excludes chance, is, then, the foundation of the +possibility of a social science; and every historical and +positive study of social facts, undertaken with a view to +amelioration and progress, must suppose, with the people, the +existence of God, reserving the right to account for this +judgment at a later period. + +Thus the history of society is to us but a long determination of +the idea of God, a progressive revelation of the destiny of man. +And while ancient wisdom made all depend on the arbitrary and +fanciful notion of Divinity, oppressing reason and conscience, +and arresting progress through fear of an invisible master, +the new philosophy, reversing the method, trampling on the +authority of God as well as that of man, and accepting no other +yoke than that of fact and evidence, makes all converge toward +the theological hypothesis, as toward the last of its problems. + +Humanitarian atheism is, therefore, the last step in the moral +and intellectual enfranchisement of man, consequently the last +phase of philosophy, serving as a pathway to the scientific +reconstruction and verification of all the demolished dogmas. + +I need the hypothesis of God, not only, as I have just said, to +give a meaning to history, but also to legitimate the reforms to +be effected, in the name of science, in the State. + +Whether we consider Divinity as outside of society, whose +movements it governs from on high (a wholly gratuitous and +probably illusory opinion); or whether we deem it immanent in +society and identical with that impersonal and unconscious reason +which, acting instinctively, makes civilization advance (although +impersonality and ignorance of self are contrary to the idea of +intelligence); or whether, finally, all that is accomplished in +society results from the relation of its elements (a system whose +whole merit consists in changing an active into a passive, in +making intelligence necessity, or, which amounts to the same +thing, in taking law for cause),--it always follows that the +manifestations of social activity, necessarily appearing to us +either as indications of the will of the Supreme Being, or as a +sort of language typical of general and impersonal reason, or, +finally, as landmarks of necessity, are absolute authority for +us. Being connected in time as well as in spirit, the facts +accomplished determine and legitimate the facts to be +accomplished; science and destiny are in accord; everything which +happens resulting from reason, and, reciprocally, reason +judging only from experience of that which happens, science has a +right to participate in government, and that which establishes +its competency as a counsellor justifies its intervention as a +sovereign. + +Science, expressed, recognized, and accepted by the voice of all +as divine, is queen of the world. Thus, thanks to the hypothesis +of God, all conservative or retrogressive opposition, every +dilatory plea offered by theology, tradition, or selfishness, +finds itself peremptorily and irrevocably set aside. + +I need the hypothesis of God to show the tie which unites +civilization with Nature. + +In fact, this astonishing hypothesis, by which man is assimilated +to the absolute, implying identity of the laws of Nature and the +laws of reason, enables us to see in human industry the +complement of creative action, unites man with the globe which he +inhabits, and, in the cultivation of the domain in which +Providence has placed us, which thus becomes in part our work, +gives us a conception of the principle and end of all things. +If, then, humanity is not God, it is a continuation of God; or, +if a different phraseology be preferred, that which humanity does +today by design is the same thing that it began by instinct, and +which Nature seems to accomplish by necessity. In all these +cases, and whichever opinion we may choose, one thing remains +certain: the unity of action and law. Intelligent beings, actors +in an intelligently-devised fable, we may fearlessly reason from +ourselves to the universe and the eternal; and, when we shall +have completed the organization of labor, may say with pride, The +creation is explained. + +Thus philosophy's field of exploration is fixed; tradition is the +starting-point of all speculation as to the future; utopia is +forever exploded; the study of the ME, transferred from the +individual conscience to the manifestations of the social will, +acquires the character of objectivity of which it has been +hitherto deprived; and, history becoming psychology, theology +anthropology, the natural sciences metaphysics, the theory of the +reason is deduced no longer from the vacuum of the intellect, but +from the innumerable forms of a Nature abundantly and directly +observable. + +I need the hypothesis of God to prove my good-will towards a +multitude of sects, whose opinions I do not share, but whose +malice I fear:-- theists; I know one who, in the cause of God, +would be ready to draw sword, and, like Robespierre, use the +guillotine until the last atheist should be destroyed, not +dreaming that that atheist would be himself;-- mystics, whose +party, largely made up of students and women marching under the +banner of MM. Lamennais, Quinet, Leroux, and others, has taken +for a motto, "Like master, like man;" like God, like people; and, +to regulate the wages of the workingman, begins by restoring +religion;-- spiritualists, who, should I overlook the rights of +spirit, would accuse me of establishing the worship of matter, +against which I protest with all the strength of my +soul;--sensualists and materialists, to whom the divine dogma is +the symbol of constraint and the principle of enslavement of the +passions, outside of which, they say, there is for man neither +pleasure, nor virtue, nor genius;--eclectics and sceptics, +sellers and publishers of all the old philosophies, but not +philosophers themselves, united in one vast brotherhood, with +approbation and privilege, against whoever thinks, believes, or +affirms without their permission;--conservatives finally, +retrogressives, egotists, and hypocrites, preaching the love of +God by hatred of their neighbor, attributing to liberty the +world's misfortunes since the deluge, and scandalizing reason by +their foolishness. + +Is it possible, however, that they will attack an hypothesis +which, far from blaspheming the revered phantoms of faith, +aspires only to exhibit them in broad daylight; which, instead of +rejecting traditional dogmas and the prejudices of conscience, +asks only to verify them; which, while defending itself against +exclusive opinions, takes for an axiom the infallibility of +reason, and, thanks to this fruitful principle, will doubtless +never decide against any of the antagonistic sects? Is it +possible that the religious and political conservatives will +charge me with disturbing the order of society, when I start with +the hypothesis of a sovereign intelligence, the source of every +thought of order; that the semi-Christian democrats will curse me +as an enemy of God, and consequently a traitor to the republic, +when I am seeking for the meaning and content of the idea of God; +and that the tradesmen of the university will impute to me the +impiety of demonstrating the non-value of their philosophical +products, when I am especially maintaining that philosophy should +be studied in its object,--that is, in the manifestations of +society and Nature? . . . . + +I need the hypothesis of God to justify my style. + +In my ignorance of everything regarding God, the world, the soul, +and destiny; forced to proceed like the materialist,--that is, by +observation and experience,--and to conclude in the language of +the believer, because there is no other; not knowing whether my +formulas, theological in spite of me, would be taken literally or +figuratively; in this perpetual contemplation of God, man, and +things, obliged to submit to the synonymy of all the terms +included in the three categories of thought, speech, and +action, but wishing to affirm nothing on either one side or the +other,--rigorous logic demanded that I should suppose, no more, +no less, this unknown that is called God. We are full of +Divinity, Jovis omnia plena; our monuments, our traditions, our +laws, our ideas, our languages, and our sciences, all are +infected by this indelible superstition outside of which we can +neither speak nor act, and without which we do not even think. + +Finally, I need the hypothesis of God to explain the publication +of these new memoirs. + +Our society feels itself big with events, and is anxious about +the future: how account for these vague presentiments by the sole +aid of a universal reason, immanent if you will, and permanent, +but impersonal, and therefore dumb, or by the idea of necessity, +if it implies that necessity is self-conscious, and consequently +has presentiments? There remains then, once more, an agent or +nightmare which weighs upon society, and gives it visions. + +Now, when society prophesies, it puts questions in the mouths of +some, and answers in the mouths of others. And wise, then, he +who can listen and understand; for God himself has spoken, quia +locutus est Deus. + +The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has proposed the +following question:-- + +"To determine the general facts which govern the relations of +profits to wages, and to explain their respective oscillations." + +A few years ago the same Academy asked, "What are the causes of +misery?" The nineteenth century has, in fact, but one +idea,--equality and reform. But the wind bloweth where it +listeth: many began to reflect upon the question, no one answered +it. The college of aruspices has, therefore, renewed its +question, but in more significant terms. It wishes to know +whether order prevails in the workshop; whether wages are +equitable; whether liberty and privilege compensate each other +justly; whether the idea of value, which controls all the facts +of exchange, is, in the forms in which the economists have +represented it, sufficiently exact; whether credit protects +labor; whether circulation is regular; whether the burdens of +society weigh equally on all, etc. + +And, indeed, insufficiency of income being the immediate cause of +misery, it is fitting that we should know why, misfortune and +malevolence aside, the workingman's income is insufficient. It +is still the same question of inequality of fortunes, which has +made such a stir for a century past, and which, by a strange +fatality, continually reappears in academic programmes, as if +there lay the real difficulty of modern times. + +Equality, then,--its principle, its means, its obstacles, its +theory, the motives of its postponement, the cause of social and +providential iniquities,--these the world has got to learn, in +spite of the sneers of incredulity. + +I know well that the views of the Academy are not thus profound, +and that it equals a council of the Church in its horror of +novelties; but the more it turns towards the past, the more it +reflects the future, and the more, consequently, must we believe +in its inspiration: for the true prophets are those who do not +understand their utterances. Listen further. + +"What," the Academy has asked, "are the most useful applications +of the principle of voluntary and private association that we can +make for the alleviation of misery?" + +And again:-- + +"To expound the theory and principles of the contract of +insurance, to give its history, and to deduce from its rationale +and the facts the developments of which this contract is capable, +and the various useful applications possible in the present state +of commercial and industrial progress." + +Publicists admit that insurance, a rudimentary form of commercial +solidarity, is an association in things, societas in re; that is, +a society whose conditions, founded on purely economical +relations, escape man's arbitrary dictation. So that a +philosophy of insurance or mutual guarantee of security, which +shall be deduced from the general theory of real (in re) +societies, will contain the formula of universal association, in +which no member of the Academy believes. And when, uniting +subject and object in the same point of view, the Academy +demands, by the side of a theory of association of interests, a +theory of voluntary association, it reveals to us the most +perfect form of society, and thereby affirms all that is most at +variance with its convictions. Liberty, equality, solidarity, +association! By what inconceivable blunder has so eminently +conservative a body offered to the citizens this new programme of +the rights of man? It was in this way that Caiaphas prophesied +redemption by disowning Jesus Christ. + +Upon the first of these questions, forty-five memoirs were +addressed to the Academy within two years,--a proof that the +subject was marvellously well suited to the state of the public +mind. But among so many competitors no one having been deemed +worthy of the prize, the Academy has withdrawn the question; +alleging as a reason the incapacity of the competitors, but in +reality because, the failure of the contest being the sole object +that the Academy had in view, it behooved it to declare, without +further delay, that the hopes of the friends of association were +groundless. + +Thus, then, the gentlemen of the Academy disavow, in their +session-chamber, their announcements from the tripod! There is +nothing in such a contradiction astonishing to me; and may God +preserve me from calling it a crime! The ancients believed that +revolutions announced their advent by dreadful signs, and that +among other prodigies animals spoke. This was a figure, +descriptive of those unexpected ideas and strange words which +circulate suddenly among the masses at critical moments, and +which seem to be entirely without human antecedent, so far +removed are they from the sphere of ordinary judgment. At the +time in which we live, such a thing could not fail to occur. +After having, by a prophetic instinct and a mechanical +spontaneity, pecudesque locut{ae}, proclaimed association, the +gentlemen of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences have +returned to their ordinary prudence; and with them custom has +conquered inspiration. Let us learn, then, how to distinguish +heavenly counsel from the interested judgments of men, and hold +it for certain that, in the discourse of sages, that is the most +trustworthy to which they have given the least reflection. + +Nevertheless the Academy, in breaking so rudely with its +intuitions, seems to have felt some remorse. In place of a +theory of association in which, after reflection, it no longer +believes, it asks for a "Critical examination of Pestalozzi's +system of instruction and education, considered mainly in its +relation to the well-being and morality of the poor classes." +Who knows? perchance the relation between profits and wages, +association, the organization of labor indeed, are to be found at +the bottom of a system of instruction. Is not man's life a +perpetual apprenticeship? Are not philosophy and religion +humanity's education? To organize instruction, then, would be to +organize industry and fix the theory of society: the Academy, +in its lucid moments, always returns to that. + +"What influence," the Academy again asks, "do progress and a +desire for material comfort have upon a nation's morality?" + +Taken in its most obvious sense, this new question of the Academy +is commonplace, and fit at best to exercise a rhetorisian's +skill. But the Academy, which must continue till the end in its +ignorance of the revolutionary significance of its oracles, has +drawn aside the curtain in its commentary. What, then, so +profound has it discovered in this Epicurean thesis? + +"The desire for luxury and its enjoyments," it tells us; "the +singular love of it felt by the majority; the tendency of hearts +and minds to occupy themselves with it exclusively; the agreement +of individuals AND THE STATE in making it the motive and the end +of all their projects, all their efforts, and all their +sacrifices,--engender general or individual feelings which, +beneficent or injurious, become principles of action more potent, +perhaps, than any which have heretofore governed men." + +Never had moralists a more favorable opportunity to assail the +sensualism of the century, the venality of consciences, and the +corruption instituted by the government: instead of that, what +does the Academy of Moral Sciences do? With the most automatic +calmness, it establishes a series in which luxury, so long +proscribed by the stoics and ascetics,--those masters of +holiness,--must appear in its turn as a principle of conduct as +legitimate, as pure, and as grand as all those formerly invoked +by religion and philosophy. Determine, it tells us, the motives +of action (undoubtedly now old and worn-out) of which LUXURY is +historically the providential successor, and, from the +results of the former, calculate the effects of the latter. +Prove, in short, that Aristippus was only in advance of his +century, and that his system of morality must have its day, as +well as that of Zeno and A Kempis. + +We are dealing, then, with a society which no longer wishes to be +poor; which mocks at everything that was once dear and sacred to +it,--liberty, religion, and glory,--so long as it has not wealth; +which, to obtain it, submits to all outrages, and becomes an +accomplice in all sorts of cowardly actions: and this burning +thirst for pleasure, this irresistible desire to arrive at +luxury,--a symptom of a new period in civilization,--is the +supreme commandment by virtue of which we are to labor for the +abolition of poverty: thus saith the Academy. What becomes, +then, of the doctrine of expiation and abstinence, the morality +of sacrifice, resignation, and happy moderation? What distrust +of the compensation promised in the other life, and what a +contradiction of the Gospel! But, above all, what a +justification of a government which has adopted as its system the +golden key! Why have religious men, Christians, Senecas, given +utterance in concert to so many immoral maxims? + +The Academy, completing its thought, will reply to us:-- + +"Show how the progress of criminal justice, in the prosecution +and punishment of attacks upon persons and property, follows and +marks the ages of civilization from the savage condition up to +that of the best- governed nations." + +Is it possible that the criminal lawyers in the Academy of Moral +Sciences foresaw the conclusion of their premises? The fact +whose history is now to be studied, and which the Academy +describes by the words "progress of criminal justice," is simply +the gradual mitigation which manifests itself, both in the +forms of criminal examinations and in the penalties inflicted, in +proportion as civilization increases in liberty, light, and +wealth. So that, the principle of repressive institutions being +the direct opposite of all those on which the welfare of society +depends, there is a constant elimination of all parts of the +penal system as well as all judicial paraphernalia, and the final +inference from this movement is that the guarantee of order lies +neither in fear nor punishment; consequently, neither in hell nor +religion. + +What a subversion of received ideas! What a denial of all that +it is the business of the Academy of Moral Sciences to defend! +But, if the guarantee of order no longer lies in the fear of a +punishment to be suffered, either in this life or in another, +where then are to be found the guarantees protective of persons +and property? Or rather, without repressive institutions, what +becomes of property? And without property, what becomes of the +family? + +The Academy, which knows nothing of all these things, replies +without agitation:-- + +"Review the various phases of the organization of the family upon +the soil of France from ancient times down to our day." + +Which means: Determine, by the previous progress of family +organization, the conditions of the existence of the family in a +state of equality of fortunes, voluntary and free association, +universal solidarity, material comfort and luxury, and public +order without prisons, courts, police, or hangmen. + +There will be astonishment, perhaps, at finding that the Academy +of Moral and Political Sciences, after having, like the boldest +innovators, called in question all the principles of social +order,--religion, family, property, justice,--has not also +proposed this problem: WHAT IS THE BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT? +In fact, government is for society the source of all initiative, +every guarantee, every reform. It would be, then, interesting to +know whether the government, as constituted by the Charter, is +adequate to the practical solution of the Academy's questions. + +But it would be a misconception of the oracles to imagine that +they proceed by induction and analysis; and precisely because the +political problem was a condition or corollary of the +demonstrations asked for, the Academy could not offer it for +competition. Such a conclusion would have opened its eyes, and, +without waiting for the memoirs of the competitors, it would have +hastened to suppress its entire programme. The Academy has +approached the question from above. It has said:-- + +The works of God are beautiful in their own essence, justificata +in semet ipsa; they are true, in a word, because they are his. +The thoughts of man resemble dense vapors pierced by long and +narrow flashes. WHAT, THEN, IS THE TRUTH IN RELATION TO US, AND +WHAT IS THE CHARACTER OF CERTAINTY? + +As if the Academy had said to us: You shall verify the +hypothesis of your existence, the hypothesis of the Academy which +interrogates you, the hypotheses of time, space, motion, thought, +and the laws of thought. Then you may verify the hypothesis of +pauperism, the hypothesis of inequality of conditions, the +hypothesis of universal association, the hypothesis of happiness, +the hypotheses of monarchy and republicanism, the hypothesis of +Providence! . . . . + +A complete criticism of God and humanity. + +I point to the programme of the honorable society: it is not I +who have fixed the conditions of my task, it is the Academy of +Moral and Political Sciences. Now, how can I satisfy these +conditions, if I am not myself endowed with infallibility; in +a word, if I am not God or divine? The Academy admits, then, +that divinity and humanity are identical, or at least +correlative; but the question now is in what consists this +correlation: such is the meaning of the problem of certainty, +such is the object of social philosophy. + +Thus, then, in the name of the society that God inspires, an +Academy questions. + +In the name of the same society, I am one of the prophets who +attempt to answer. The task is an immense one, and I do not +promise to accomplish it: I will go as far as God shall give me +strength. But, whatever I may say, it does not come from me: the +thought which inspires my pen is not personal, and nothing that I +write can be attributed to me. I shall give the facts as I have +seen them; I shall judge them by what I shall have said; I shall +call everything by its strongest name, and no one will take +offence. I shall inquire freely, and by the rules of divination +which I have learned, into the meaning of the divine purpose +which is now expressing itself through the eloquent lips of sages +and the inarticulate wailings of the people: and, though I should +deny all the prerogatives guaranteed by our Constitution, I shall +not be factious. I shall point my finger whither an invisible +influence is pushing us; and neither my action nor my words shall +be irritating. I shall stir up the cloud, and, though I should +cause it to launch the thunderbolt, I should be innocent. In +this solemn investigation to which the Academy invites me, I have +more than the right to tell the truth,--I have the right to say +what I think: may my thought, my words, and the truth be but one +and the same thing! + +And you, reader,--for without a reader there is no writer,--you +are half of my work. Without you, I am only sounding brass; +with the aid of your attention, I will speak marvels. Do you see +this passing whirlwind called SOCIETY, from which burst forth, +with startling brilliancy, lightnings, thunders, and voices? I +wish to cause you to place your finger on the hidden springs +which move it; but to that end you must reduce yourself at my +command to a state of pure intelligence. The eyes of love and +pleasure are powerless to recognize beauty in a skeleton, harmony +in naked viscera, life in dark and coagulated blood: consequently +the secrets of the social organism are a sealed letter to the man +whose brain is beclouded by passion and prejudice. Such +sublimities are unattainable except by cold and silent +contemplation. Suffer me, then, before revealing to your eyes +the leaves of the book of life, to prepare your soul by this +sceptical purification which the great teachers of the +people--Socrates, Jesus Christ, St. Paul, St. Remi, Bacon, +Descartes, Galileo, Kant, etc.--have always claimed of their +disciples. + +Whoever you may be, clad in the rags of misery or decked in the +sumptuous vestments of luxury, I restore you to that state of +luminous nudity which neither the fumes of wealth nor the poisons +of envious poverty dim. How persuade the rich that the +difference of conditions arises from an error in the accounts; +and how can the poor, in their beggary, conceive that the +proprietor possesses in good faith? To investigate the +sufferings of the laborer is to the idler the most intolerable of +amusements; just as to do justice to the fortunate is to the +miserable the bitterest of draughts. + +You occupy a high position: I strip you of it; there you are, +free. There is too much optimism beneath this official costume, +too much subordination, too much idleness. Science demands an +insurrection of thought: now, the thought of an official is his +salary. + +Your mistress, beautiful, passionate, artistic, is, I like to +believe, possessed only by you. That is, your soul, your spirit, +your conscience, have passed into the most charming object of +luxury that nature and art have produced for the eternal torment +of fascinated mortals. I separate you from this divine half of +yourself: at the present day it is too much to wish for justice +and at the same time to love a woman. To think with grandeur and +clearness, man must remove the lining of his nature and hold to +his masculine hypostasis. Besides, in the state in which I have +put you, your lover would no longer know you: remember the wife +of Job. + +What is your religion? . . . . Forget your faith, and, through +wisdom, become an atheist.--What! you say; an atheist in spite of +our hypothesis!--No, but because of our hypothesis. One's +thought must have been raised above divine things for a long time +to be entitled to suppose a personality beyond man, a life beyond +this life. For the rest, have no fears for your salvation. God +is not angry with those who are led by reason to deny him, any +more than he is anxious for those who are led by faith to worship +him; and, in the state of your conscience, the surest course for +you is to think nothing about him. Do you not see that it is +with religion as with governments, the most perfect of which +would be the denial of all? Then let no political or religious +fancy hold your soul captive; in this way only can you now keep +from being either a dupe or a renegade. Ah! said I in the days +of my enthusiastic youth, shall I not hear the tolling for the +second vespers of the republic, and our priests, dressed in white +tunics, singing after the Doric fashion the returning hymn: +Change o Dieu, notre servitude, comme le vent du desert en un +souffle rafraichissan! . . . . . But I have despaired of +republicans, and no longer know either religion or priests. + +I should like also, in order to thoroughly secure your judgment, +dear reader, to render your soul insensible to pity, superior to +virtue, indifferent to happiness. But that would be too much to +expect of a neophyte. Remember only, and never forget, that +pity, happiness, and virtue, like country, religion, and love, +are masks. . . . + + +SYSTEM OF ECONOMICAL CONTRADICTIONS: OR, THE PHILOSOPHY OF +MISERY. + +CHAPTER I. OF THE ECONOMIC SCIENCE. + +% 1.--Opposition between FACT and RIGHT in social economy. + +I affirm the REALITY of an economic science. + +This proposition, which few economists now dare to question, is +the boldest, perhaps, that a philosopher ever maintained; and the +inquiries to follow will prove, I hope, that its demonstration +will one day be deemed the greatest effort of the human mind. + +I affirm, on the other hand, the ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY as well as +the PROGRESSIVE nature of economic science, of all the sciences +in my opinion the most comprehensive, the purest, the best +supported by facts: a new proposition, which alters this science +into logic or metaphysics in concreto, and radically changes the +basis of ancient philosophy. In other words, economic science is +to me the objective form and realization of metaphysics; it is +metaphysics in action, metaphysics projected on the vanishing +plane of time; and whoever studies the laws of labor and exchange +is truly and specially a metaphysician. + +After what I have said in the introduction, there is nothing in +this which should surprise any one. The labor of man continues +the work of God, who, in creating all beings, did but externally +realize the eternal laws of reason. Economic science is, then, +necessarily and at once a theory of ideas, a natural theology, +and a psychology. This general outline alone would have sufficed +to explain why, having to treat of economic matters, I was +obliged previously to suppose the existence of God, and by what +title I, a simple economist, aspire to solve the problem of +certainty. + +But I hasten to say that I do not regard as a science the +incoherent ensemble of theories to which the name POLITICAL +ECONOMY has been officially given for almost a hundred years, and +which, in spite of the etymology of the name, is after ail but +the code, or immemorial routine, of property. These theories +offer us only the rudiments, or first section, of economic +science; and that is why, like property, they are all +contradictory of each other, and half the time inapplicable. The +proof of this assertion, which is, in one sense, a denial of +political economy as handed down to us by Adam Smith, Ricardo, +Malthus, and J. B. Say, and as we have known it for half a +century, will be especially developed in this treatise. + +The inadequacy of political economy has at all times impressed +thoughtful minds, who, too fond of their dreams for practical +investigation, and confining themselves to the estimation of +apparent results, have constituted from the beginning a party of +opposition to the statu quo, and have devoted themselves to +persevering, and systematic ridicule of civilization and its +customs. Property, on the other hand, the basis of all social +institutions, has never lacked zealous defenders, who, proud to +be called PRACTICAL, have exchanged blow for blow with the +traducers of political economy, and have labored with a +courageous and often skilful hand to strengthen the edifice which +general prejudice and individual liberty have erected in concert. + +The controversy between conservatives and reformers, still +pending, finds its counterpart, in the history of philosophy, in +the quarrel between realists and nominalists; it is almost +useless to add that, on both sides, right and wrong are equal, +and that the rivalry, narrowness, and intolerance of opinions +have been the sole cause of the misunderstanding. + +Thus two powers are contending for the government of the world, +and cursing each other with the fervor of two hostile religions: +political economy, or tradition; and socialism, or utopia. + +What is, then, in more explicit terms, political economy? What +is socialism? + +Political economy is a collection of the observations thus far +made in regard to the phenomena of the production and +distribution of wealth; that is, in regard to the most common, +most spontaneous, and therefore most genuine, forms of labor and +exchange. + +The economists have classified these observations as far as they +were able; they have described the phenomena, and ascertained +their contingencies and relations; they have observed in them, in +many cases, a quality of necessity which has given them the name +of LAWS; and this ensemble of information, gathered from the +simplest manifestations of society, constitutes political +economy. + +Political economy is, therefore, the natural history of the most +apparent and most universally accredited customs, traditions, +practices, and methods of humanity in all that concerns the +production and distribution of wealth. By this title, +political economy considers itself legitimate in FACT and in +RIGHT: in fact, because the phenomena which it studies are +constant, spontaneous, and universal; in right, because these +phenomena rest on the authority of the human race, the strongest +authority possible. Consequently, political economy calls itself +a SCIENCE; that is, a rational and systematic knowledge of +regular and necessary facts. + +Socialism, which, like the god Vishnu, ever dying and ever +returning to life, has experienced within a score of years its +ten-thousandth incarnation in the persons of five or six +revelators,--socialism affirms the irregularity of the present +constitution of society, and, consequently, of all its previous +forms. It asserts, and proves, that the order of civilization is +artificial, contradictory, inadequate; that it engenders +oppression, misery, and crime; it denounces, not to say +calumniates, the whole past of social life, and pushes on with +all its might to a reformation of morals and institutions. + +Socialism concludes by declaring political economy a false and +sophistical hypothesis, devised to enable the few to exploit the +many; and applying the maxim A fructibus cognoscetis, it ends +with a demonstration of the impotence and emptiness of political +economy by the list of human calamities for which it makes it +responsible. + +But if political economy is false, jurisprudence, which in all +countries is the science of law and custom, is false also; since, +founded on the distinction of thine and mine, it supposes the +legitimacy of the facts described and classified by political +economy. The theories of public and international law, with all +the varieties of representative government, are also false, since +they rest on the principle of individual appropriation and the +absolute sovereignty of wills. + +All these consequences socialism accepts. To it, political +economy, regarded by many as the physiology of wealth, is but the +organization of robbery and poverty; just as jurisprudence, +honored by legists with the name of written reason, is, in its +eyes, but a compilation of the rubrics of legal and official +spoliation,--in a word, of property. Considered in their +relations, these two pretended sciences, political economy and +law, form, in the opinion of socialism, the complete theory of +iniquity and discord. Passing then from negation to affirmation, +socialism opposes the principle of property with that of +association, and makes vigorous efforts to reconstruct social +economy from top to bottom; that is, to establish a new code, a +new political system, with institutions and morals diametrically +opposed to the ancient forms. + +Thus the line of demarcation between socialism and political +economy is fixed, and the hostility flagrant. + +Political economy tends toward the glorification of selfishness; +socialism favors the exaltation of communism. + +The economists, saving a few violations of their principles, for +which they deem it their duty to blame governments, are optimists +with regard to accomplished facts; the socialists, with regard to +facts to be accomplished. + +The first affirm that that which ought to be IS; the second, +that that which ought to be IS NOT. Consequently, while the +first are defenders of religion, authority, and the other +principles contemporary with, and conservative of, +property,--although their criticism, based solely on reason, +deals frequent blows at their own prejudices,--the second reject +authority and faith, and appeal exclusively to science,-- +although a certain religiosity, utterly illiberal, and an +unscientific disdain for facts, are always the most obvious +characteristics of their doctrines. + +For the rest, neither party ever ceases to accuse the other of +incapacity and sterility. + +The socialists ask their opponents to account for the inequality +of conditions, for those commercial debaucheries in which +monopoly and competition, in monstrous union, perpetually give +birth to luxury and misery; they reproach economic theories, +always modeled after the past, with leaving the future hopeless; +in short, they point to the regime of property as a horrible +hallucination, against which humanity has protested and struggled +for four thousand years. + +The economists, on their side, defy socialists to produce a +system in which property, competition, and political organization +can be dispensed with; they prove, with documents in hand, that +all reformatory projects have ever been nothing but rhapsodies of +fragments borrowed from the very system that socialism sneers +at,--plagiarisms, in a word, of political economy, outside of +which socialism is incapable of conceiving and formulating an +idea. + +Every day sees the proofs in this grave suit accumulating, and +the question becoming confused. + +While society has traveled and stumbled, suffered and thrived, in +pursuing the economic routine, the socialists, since Pythagoras, +Orpheus, and the unfathomable Hermes, have labored to establish +their dogma in opposition to political economy. A few attempts +at association in accordance with their views have even been made +here and there: but as yet these exceptional undertakings, lost +in the ocean of property, have been without result; and, as if +destiny had resolved to exhaust the economic hypothesis before +attacking the socialistic utopia, the reformatory party is +obliged to content itself with pocketing the sarcasms of its +adversaries while waiting for its own turn to come. + +This, then, is the state of the cause: socialism incessantly +denounces the crimes of civilization, verifies daily the +powerlessness of political economy to satisfy the harmonic +attractions of man, and presents petition after petition; +political economy fills its brief with socialistic systems, all +of which, one after another, pass away and die, despised by +common sense. The persistence of evil nourishes the complaint of +the one, while the constant succession of reformatory checks +feeds the malicious irony of the other. When will judgment be +given? The tribunal is deserted; meanwhile, political economy +improves its opportunities, and, without furnishing bail, +continues to lord it over the world; possideo quia possideo. + +If we descend from the sphere of ideas to the realities of the +world, the antagonism will appear still more grave and +threatening. + +When, in these recent years, socialism, instigated by prolonged +convulsions, made its fantastic appearance in our midst, men whom +all controversy had found until then indifferent and lukewarm +went back in fright to monarchical and religious ideas; +democracy, which was charged with being developed at last to its +ultimate, was cursed and driven back. This accusation of the +conservatives against the democrats was a libel. Democracy is by +nature as hostile to the socialistic idea as incapable of filling +the place of royalty, against which it is its destiny endlessly +to conspire. This soon became evident, and we are witnesses of +it daily in the professions of Christian and proprietary faith by +democratic publicists, whose abandonment by the people began at +that moment. + +On the other hand, philosophy proves no less distinct from +socialism, no less hostile to it, than politics and religion. + +For just as in politics the principle of democracy is the +sovereignty of numbers, and that of monarchy the sovereignty of +the prince; just as likewise in affairs of conscience religion is +nothing but submission to a mystical being, called God, and to +the priests who represent him; just as finally in the economic +world property--that is, exclusive control by the individual of +the instruments of labor--is the point of departure of every +theory,--so philosophy, in basing itself upon the a priori +assumptions of reason, is inevitably led to attribute to the ME +alone the generation and autocracy of ideas, and to deny the +metaphysical value of experience; that is, universally to +substitute, for the objective law, absolutism, despotism. + +Now, a doctrine which, springing up suddenly in the heart of +society, without antecedents and without ancestors, rejected from +every department of conscience and society the arbitrary +principle, in order to substitute as sole truth the relation of +facts; which broke with tradition, and consented to make use of +the past only as a point from which to launch forth into the +future,--such a doctrine could not fail to stir up against it the +established AUTHORITIES; and we can see today how, in spite of +their internal discords, the said AUTHORITIES, which are but one, +combine to fight the monster that is ready to swallow them. + +To the workingmen who complain of the insufficiency of wages and +the uncertainty of labor, political economy opposes the liberty +of commerce; to the citizens who are seeking for the conditions +of liberty and order, the ideologists respond with representative +systems; to the tender souls who, having lost their ancient +faith, ask the reason and end of their existence, religion +proposes the unfathomable secrets of Providence, and philosophy +holds doubt in reserve. Subterfuges always; complete ideas, +in which heart and mind find rest, never! Socialism cries that +it is time to set sail for the mainland, and to enter port: but, +say the antisocialists, there is no port; humanity sails onward +in God's care, under the command of priests, philosophers, +orators, economists, and our circumnavigation is eternal. + +Thus society finds itself, at its origin, divided into two great +parties: the one traditional and essentially hierarchical, which, +according to the object it is considering, calls itself by turns +royalty or democracy, philosophy or religion, in short, property; +the other socialism, which, coming to life at every crisis of +civilization, proclaims itself preeminently ANARCHICAL and +ATHEISTIC; that is, rebellious against all authority, human and +divine. + +Now, modern civilization has demonstrated that in a conflict of +this nature the truth is found, not in the exclusion of one of +the opposites, but wholly and solely in the reconciliation of the +two; it is, I say, a fact of science that every antagonism, +whether in Nature or in ideas, is resolvable in a more general +fact or in a complex formula, which harmonizes the opposing +factors by absorbing them, so to speak, in each other. Can we +not, then, men of common sense, while awaiting the solution which +the future will undoubtedly bring forth, prepare ourselves for +this great transition by an analysis of the struggling powers, as +well as their positive and negative qualities? Such a work, +performed with accuracy and conscientiousness, even though it +should not lead us directly to the solution, would have at least +the inestimable advantage of revealing to us the conditions of +the problem, and thereby putting us on our guard against every +form of utopia. + +What is there, then, in political economy that is necessary +and true; whither does it tend; what are its powers; what are +its wishes? It is this which I propose to determine in this +work. What is the value of socialism? The same investigation +will answer this question also. + +For since, after all, socialism and political economy pursue the +same end,--namely, liberty, order, and well-being among men,--it +is evident that the conditions to be fulfilled--in other words, +the difficulties to be overcome--to attain this end, are also the +same for both, and that it remains only to examine the methods +attempted or proposed by either party. But since, moreover, it +has been given thus far to political economy alone to translate +its ideas into acts, while socialism has scarcely done more than +indulge in perpetual satire, it is no less clear that, in judging +the works of economy according to their merit, we at the same +time shall reduce to its just value the invective of the +socialists: so that our criticism, though apparently special, +will lead to absolute and definitive conclusions. + +This it is necessary to make clearer by a few examples, before +entering fully upon the examination of political economy. + + +% 2.--Inadequacy of theories and criticisms. + + +We will record first an important observation: the contending +parties agree in acknowledging a common authority, whose support +each claims,--SCIENCE. + +Plato, a utopian, organized his ideal republic in the name of +science, which, through modesty and euphemism, he called +philosophy. Aristotle, a practical man, refuted the Platonic +utopia in the name of the same philosophy. Thus the social war +has continued since Plato and Aristotle. The modern socialists +refer all things to science one and indivisible, but without +power to agree either as to its content, its limits, or its +method; the economists, on their side, affirm that social science +in no wise differs from political economy. + +It is our first business, then, to ascertain what a science of +society must be. + +Science, in general, is the logically arranged and systematic +knowledge of that which IS. + +Applying this idea to society, we will say: Social science is +the logically arranged and systematic knowledge, not of that +which society HAS BEEN, nor of that which it WILL BE, but of +that which it IS in its whole life; that is, in the sum total of +its successive manifestations: for there alone can it have reason +and system. Social science must include human order, not alone +in such or such a period of duration, nor in a few of its +elements; but in all its principles and in the totality of its +existence: as if social evolution, spread throughout time and +space, should find itself suddenly gathered and fixed in a +picture which, exhibiting the series of the ages and the sequence +of phenomena, revealed their connection and unity. Such must be +the science of every living and progressive reality; such social +science indisputably is. + +It may be, then, that political economy, in spite of its +individualistic tendency and its exclusive affirmations, is a +constituent part of social science, in which the phenomena that +it describes are like the starting-points of a vast +triangulation and the elements of an organic and complex whole. +From this point of view, the progress of humanity, proceeding +from the simple to the complex, would be entirely in harmony with +the progress of science; and the conflicting and so often +desolating facts, which are today the basis and object of +political economy, would have to be considered by us as so +many special hypotheses, successively realized by humanity in +view of a superior hypothesis, whose realization would solve all +difficulties, and satisfy socialism without destroying political +economy. For, as I said in my introduction, in no case can we +admit that humanity, however it expresses itself, is mistaken. + +Let us now make this clearer by facts. + +The question now most disputed is unquestionably that of the +ORGANIZATION OF LABOR. + +As John the Baptist preached in the desert, REPENT YE, so the +socialists go about proclaiming everywhere this novelty old as +the world, ORGANIZE LABOR, though never able to tell what, in +their opinion, this organization should be. However that may be, +the economists have seen that this socialistic clamor was +damaging their theories: it was, indeed, a rebuke to them for +ignoring that which they ought first to recognize,--labor. They +have replied, therefore, to the attack of their adversaries, +first by maintaining that labor is organized, that there is no +other organization of labor than liberty to produce and exchange, +either on one's own personal account, or in association with +others,--in which case the course to be pursued has been +prescribed by the civil and commercial codes. Then, as this +argument served only to make them the laughing-stock of their +antagonists, they assumed the offensive; and, showing that the +socialists understood nothing at all themselves of this +organization that they held up as a scarecrow, they ended by +saying that it was but a new socialistic chimera, a word without +sense,--an absurdity. The latest writings of the economists are +full of these pitiless conclusions. + +Nevertheless, it is certain that the phrase organization of labor +contains as clear and rational a meaning as these that +follow: organization of the workshop, organization of the +army, organization of police, organization of charity, +organization of war. In this respect, the argument of the +economists is deplorably irrational. No less certain is it that +the organization of labor cannot be a utopia and chimera; for at +the moment that labor, the supreme condition of civilization, +begins to exist, it follows that it is already submitted to an +organization, such as it is, which satisfies the economists, but +which the socialists think detestable. + +There remains, then, relatively to the proposal to organize labor +formulated by socialism, this objection,--that labor is +organized. Now, this is utterly untenable, since it is notorious +that in labor, supply, demand, division, quantity, proportion, +price, and security, nothing, absolutely nothing is regulated; on +the contrary, everything is given up to the caprices of +free-will; that is, to chance. + +As for us, guided by the idea that we have formed of social +science, we shall affirm, against the socialists and against the +economists, not that labor MUST BE ORGANIZED, nor that it is +ORGANIZED but that it IS BEING ORGANIZED. + +Labor, we say, is being organized: that is, the process of +organization has been going on from the beginning of the world, +and will continue till the end. Political economy teaches us the +primary elements of this organization; but socialism is right in +asserting that, in its present form, the organization is +inadequate and transitory; and the whole mission of science is +continually to ascertain, in view of the results obtained and the +phenomena in course of development, what innovations can be +immediately effected. + +Socialism and political economy, then, while waging a burlesque +war, pursue in reality the same idea,--the organization of labor. + +But both are guilty of disloyalty to science and of mutual +calumny, when on the one hand political economy, mistaking for +science its scraps of theory, denies the possibility of further +progress; and when socialism, abandoning tradition, aims at +reestablishing society on undiscoverable bases. + +Thus socialism is nothing but a profound criticism and continual +development of political economy; and, to apply here the +celebrated aphorism of the school, Nihil est in intellectu, quod +non prius fuerit in sensu, there is nothing in the socialistic +hypotheses which is not duplicated in economic practice. On the +other hand, political economy is but an impertinent rhapsody, so +long as it affirms as absolutely valid the facts collected by +Adam Smith and J. B. Say. + +Another question, no less disputed than the preceding one, is +that of usury, or lending at interest. + +Usury, or in other words the price of use, is the emolument, of +whatever nature, which the proprietor derives from the loan of +his property. Quidquid sorti accrescit usura est, say the +theologians. Usury, the foundation of credit, was one of the +first of the means which social spontaneity employed in its work +of organization, and whose analysis discloses the profound laws +of civilization. The ancient philosophers and the Fathers of the +Church, who must be regarded here as the representatives of +socialism in the early centuries of the Christian era, by a +singular fallacy,--which arose however from the paucity of +economic knowledge in their day,--allowed farm-rent and condemned +interest on money, because, as they believed, money was +unproductive. They distinguished consequently between the loan +of things which are consumed by use--among which they included +money--and the loan of things which, without being consumed, +yield a product to the user. + +The economists had no difficulty in showing, by generalizing the +idea of rent, that in the economy of society the action of +capital, or its productivity, was the same whether it was +consumed in wages or retained the character of an instrument; +that, consequently, it was necessary either to prohibit the rent +of land or to allow interest on money, since both were by the +same title payment for privilege, indemnity for loan. It +required more than fifteen centuries to get this idea accepted, +and to reassure the consciences that had been terrified by the +anathemas pronounced by Catholicism against usury. But finally +the weight of evidence and the general desire favored the +usurers: they won the battle against socialism; and from this +legitimation of usury society gained some immense and +unquestionable advantages. Under these circumstances socialism, +which had tried to generalize the law enacted by Moses for the +Israelites alone, Non foeneraberis proximo tuo, sed alieno, was +beaten by an idea which it had accepted from the economic +routine,-- namely, farm-rent,--elevated into the theory of the +productivity of capital. + +But the economists in their turn were less fortunate, when they +were afterwards called upon to justify farm-rent in itself, and +to establish this theory of the product of capital. It may be +said that, on this point, they have lost all the advantage they +had at first gained against socialism. + +Undoubtedly--and I am the first to recognize it--the rent of +land, like that of money and all personal and real property, is a +spontaneous and universal fact, which has its source in the +depths of our nature, and which soon becomes, by its natural +development, one of the most potent means of organization. I +shall prove even that interest on capital is but the +materialization of the aphorism, ALL LABOR SHOULD LEAVE AN +EXCESS. But in the face of this theory, or rather this fiction, +of the productivity of capital, arises another thesis no less +certain, which in these latter days has struck the ablest +economists: it is that all value is born of labor, and is +composed essentially of wages; in other words, that no wealth has +its origin in privilege, or acquires any value except through +work; and that, consequently, labor alone is the source of +revenue among men. How, then, reconcile the theory of farm-rent +or productivity of capital--a theory confirmed by universal +custom, which conservative political economy is forced to accept +but cannot justify--with this other theory which shows that value +is normally composed of wages, and which inevitably ends, as we +shall demonstrate, in an equality in society between net product +and raw product? + +The socialists have not wasted the opportunity. Starting with +the principle that labor is the source of all income, they began +to call the holders of capital to account for their farm-rents +and emoluments; and, as the economists won the first victory by +generalizing under a common expression farm-rent and usury, so +the socialists have taken their revenge by causing the seignorial +rights of capital to vanish before the still more general +principle of labor. Property has been demolished from top to +bottom: the economists could only keep silent; but, powerless to +arrest itself in this new descent, socialism has slipped clear to +the farthest boundaries of communistic utopia, and, for want of a +practical solution, society is reduced to a position where it can +neither justify its tradition, nor commit itself to experiments +in which the least mistake would drive it backward several +thousand years. + +In such a situation what is the mandate of science? + +Certainly not to halt in an arbitrary, inconceivable, and +impossible juste milieu; it is to generalize further, and +discover a third principle, a fact, a superior law, which shall +explain the fiction of capital and the myth of property, and +reconcile them with the theory which makes labor the origin of +all wealth. This is what socialism, if it wishes to proceed +logically, must undertake. In fact, the theory of the real +productivity of labor, and that of the fictitious productivity of +capital, are both essentially economical: socialism has +endeavored only to show the contradiction between them, without +regard to experience or logic; for it appears to be as destitute +of the one as of the other. Now, in law, the litigant who +accepts the authority of a title in one particular must accept it +in all; it is not allowable to divide the documents and proofs. +Had socialism the right to decline the authority of political +economy in relation to usury, when it appealed for support to +this same authority in relation to the analysis of value? By no +means. All that socialism could demand in such a case was, +either that political economy should be directed to reconcile its +theories, or that it might be itself intrusted with this +difficult task. + +The more closely we examine these solemn discussions, the more +clearly we see that the whole trouble is due to the fact that one +of the parties does not wish to see, while the other refuses to +advance. + +It is a principle of our law that no one can be deprived of his +property except for the sake of general utility, and in +consideration of a fair indemnity payable in advance. + +This principle is eminently an economic one; for, on the one +hand, it assumes the right of eminent domain of the citizen +expropriated, whose consent, according to the democratic spirit +of the social compact, is necessarily presupposed. On the other +hand, the indemnity, or the price of the article taken, is +fixed, not by the intrinsic value of the article, but by the +general law of commerce,--supply and demand; in a word, by +opinion. Expropriation in the name of society may be likened to +a contract of convenience, agreed to by each with all; not only +then must the price be paid, but the convenience also must be +paid for: and it is thus, in reality, that the indemnity is +estimated. If the Roman legists had seen this analogy, they +undoubtedly would have hesitated less over the question of +expropriation for the sake of public utility. + +Such, then, is the sanction of the social right of expropriation: +indemnity. + +Now, practically, not only is the principle of indemnity not +applied in all cases where it ought to be, but it is impossible +that it should be so applied. Thus, the law which established +railways provided indemnity for the lands to be occupied by the +rails; it did nothing for the multitude of industries dependent +upon the previous method of conveyance, whose losses far exceeded +the value of the lands whose owners received compensation. +Similarly, when the question of indemnifying the manufacturers of +beet-root sugar was under consideration, it occurred to no one +that the State ought to indemnify also the large number of +laborers and employees who earned their livelihood in the +beet-root industry, and who were, perhaps, to be reduced to want. + +Nevertheless, it is certain, according to the idea of capital and +the theory of production, that as the possessor of land, whose +means of labor is taken from him by the railroad, has a right to +be indemnified, so also the manufacturer, whose capital is +rendered unproductive by the same railroad, is entitled to +indemnification. Why, then, is he not indemnified? Alas! +because to indemnify him is impossible. With such a system of +justice and impartiality society would be, as a general thing, +unable to act, and would return to the fixedness of Roman +justice. There must be victims. The principle of indemnity is +consequently abandoned; to one or more classes of citizens the +State is inevitably bankrupt. + +At this point the socialists appear. They charge that the sole +object of political economy is to sacrifice the interests of the +masses and create privileges; then, finding in the law of +expropriation the rudiment of an agrarian law, they suddenly +advocate universal expropriation; that is, production and +consumption in common. + +But here socialism relapses from criticism into utopia, and its +incapacity becomes freshly apparent in its contradictions. If +the principle of expropriation for the sake of public utility, +carried to its logical conclusion, leads to a complete +reorganization of society, before commencing the work the +character of this new organization must be understood; now, +socialism, I repeat, has no science save a few bits of physiology +and political economy. Further, it is necessary in accordance +with the principle of indemnity, if not to compensate citizens, +at least to guarantee to them the values which they part with; it +is necessary, in short, to insure them against loss. Now, +outside of the public fortune, the management of which it +demands, where will socialism find security for this same +fortune? + +It is impossible, in sound and honest logic, to escape this +circle. Consequently the communists, more open in their dealings +than certain other sectarians of flowing and pacific ideas, +decide the difficulty; and promise, the power once in their +hands, to expropriate all and indemnify and guarantee none. At +bottom, that would be neither unjust nor disloyal. +Unfortunately, to burn is not to reply, as the interesting +Desmoulins said to Robespierre; and such a discussion ends +always in fire and the guillotine. Here, as everywhere, two +rights, equally sacred, stand in the presence of each other, the +right of the citizen and the right of the State; it is enough to +say that there is a superior formula which reconciles the +socialistic utopias and the mutilated theories of political +economy, and that the problem is to discover it. In this +emergency what are the contending parties doing? Nothing. We +might say rather that they raise questions only to get an +opportunity to redress injuries. What do I say? The questions +are not even understood by them; and, while the public is +considering the sublime problems of society and human destiny, +the professors of social science, orthodox and heretics, do not +agree on principles. Witness the question which occasioned these +inquiries, and which its authors certainly understand no better +than its disparagers,--THE RELATION OF PROFITS AND WAGES. + +What! an Academy of economists has offered for competition a +question the terms of which it does not understand! How, then, +could it have conceived the idea? + +Well! I know that my statement is astonishing and incredible; but +it is true. Like the theologians, who answer metaphysical +problems only by myths and allegories, which always reproduce the +problems but never solve them, the economists reply to the +questions which they ask only by relating how they were led to +ask them: should they conceive that it was possible to go +further, they would cease to be economists. + +For example, what is profit? That which remains for the manager +after he has paid all the expenses. Now, the expenses consist of +the labor performed and the materials consumed; or, in fine, +wages. What, then, is the wages of a workingman? The least +that can be given him; that is, we do not know. What should be +the price of the merchandise put upon the market by the manager? +The highest that he can obtain; that is, again, we do not know. +Political economy prohibits the supposition that the prices of +merchandise and labor can be FIXED, although it admits that they +can be ESTIMATED; and that for the reason, say the economists, +that estimation is essentially an arbitrary operation, which +never can lead to sure and certain conclusions. How, then, shall +we find the relation between two unknowns which, according to +political economy, cannot be determined? Thus political economy +proposes insolvable problems; and yet we shall soon see that it +must propose them, and that our century must solve them. That is +why I said that the Academy of Moral Sciences, in offering for +competition the question of the relation of profits and wages, +spoke unconsciously, spoke prophetically. + +But it will be said, Is it not true that, if labor is in great +demand and laborers are scarce, wages will rise, while profits on +the other hand will decrease; that if, in the press of +competition, there is an excess of production, there will be a +stoppage and forced sales, consequently no profit for the manager +and a danger of idleness for the laborer; that then the latter +will offer his labor at a reduced price; that, if a machine is +invented, it will first extinguish the fires of its rivals; then, +a monopoly established, and the laborer made dependent on the +employer, profits and wages will be inversely proportional? +Cannot all these causes, and others besides, be studied, +ascertained, counterbalanced, etc.? + +Oh, monographs, histories!--we have been saturated with them +since the days of Adam Smith and J. B. Say, and they are scarcely +more than variations of these authors' words. But it is not thus +that the question should be understood, although the Academy has +given it no other meaning. The RELATION OF PROFITS AND WAGES +should be considered in an absolute sense, and not from the +inconclusive point of view of the accidents of commerce and the +division of interests: two things which must ultimately receive +their interpretation. Let me explain myself. + +Considering producer and consumer as a single individual, whose +recompense is naturally equal to his product; then dividing this +product into two parts, one which rewards the producer for his +outlay, another which represents his profit, according to the +axiom that all labor should leave an excess,--we have to +determine the relation of one of these parts to the other. This +done, it will be easy to deduce the ratio of the fortunes of +these two classes of men, employers and wage-laborers, as well +as account for all commercial oscillations. This will be a +series of corollaries to add to the demonstration. + +Now, that such a relation may exist and be estimated, there must +necessarily be a law, internal or external, which governs wages +and prices; and since, in the present state of things, wages and +prices vary and oscillate continually, we must ask what are the +general facts, the causes, which make value vary and oscillate, +and within what limits this oscillation takes place. + +But this very question is contrary to the accepted principles; +for whoever says OSCILLATION necessarily supposes a mean +direction toward which value's centre of gravity continually +tends; and when the Academy asks that we DETERMINE THE +OSCILLATIONS OF PROFIT AND WAGES, it asks thereby that we +DETERMINE VALUE. Now that is precisely what the gentlemen of +the Academy deny: they are unwilling to admit that, if value is +variable, it is for that very reason determinable; that +variability is the sign and condition of determinability. They +pretend that value, ever varying, can never be determined. This +is like maintaining that, given the number of oscillations of a +pendulum per second, their amplitude, and the latitude and +elevation of the spot where the experiment is performed, the +length of the pendulum cannot be determined because the pendulum +is in motion. Such is political economy's first article of +faith. + +As for socialism, it does not appear to have understood the +question, or to be concerned about it. Among its many organs, +some simply and merely put aside the problem by substituting +division for distribution,--that is, by banishing number and +measure from the social organism: others relieve themselves of +the embarrassment by applying universal suffrage to the wages +question. It is needless to say that these platitudes find dupes +by thousands and hundreds of thousands. + +The condemnation of political economy has been formulated by +Malthus in this famous passage:-- + + +A man who is born into a world already occupied, his family +unable to support him, and society not requiring his labor,--such +a man, I say, has not the least right to claim any nourishment +whatever: he is really one too many on the earth. At the great +banquet of Nature there is no plate laid for him. Nature +commands him to take himself away, and she will not be slow to +put her order into execution.[6] + + +[6 The passage quoted may not be given in the exact words used by +Malthus, it having reached its present shape through the medium +of a French rendering--Translator. + + + +This then is the necessary, the fatal, conclusion of political +economy,--a conclusion which I shall demonstrate by evidence +hitherto unknown in this field of inquiry,--Death to him who does +not possess! + +In order better to grasp the thought of Malthus, let us translate +it into philosophical propositions by stripping it of its +rhetorical gloss:-- + +"Individual liberty, and property, which is its expression, are +economical data; equality and solidarity are not. + +"Under this system, each one by himself, each one for himself: +labor, like all merchandise, is subject to fluctuation: hence the +risks of the proletariat. + +"Whoever has neither income nor wages has no right to demand +anything of others: his misfortune falls on his own head; in the +game of fortune, luck has been against him." + +From the point of view of political economy these propositions +are irrefutable; and Malthus, who has formulated them with such +alarming exactness, is secure against all reproach. From the +point of view of the conditions of social science, these same +propositions are radically false, and even contradictory. + +The error of Malthus, or rather of political economy, does not +consist in saying that a man who has nothing to eat must die; or +in maintaining that, under the system of individual +appropriation, there is no course for him who has neither labor +nor income but to withdraw from life by suicide, unless he +prefers to be driven from it by starvation: such is, on the one +hand, the law of our existence; such is, on the other, the +consequence of property; and M. Rossi has taken altogether too +much trouble to justify the good sense of Malthus on this point. +I suspect, indeed, that M. Rossi, in making so lengthy and loving +an apology for Malthus, intended to recommend political economy +in the same way that his fellow-countryman Machiavel, in his book +entitled "The Prince," recommended despotism to the +admiration of the world. In pointing out misery as the necessary +condition of industrial and commercial absolutism, M. Rossi seems +to say to us: There is your law, your justice, your political +economy; there is property. + +But Gallic simplicity does not understand artifice; and it would +have been better to have said to France, in her immaculate +tongue: The error of Malthus, the radical vice of political +economy, consists, in general terms, in affirming as a definitive +state a transitory condition,-- namely, the division of society +into patricians and proletaires; and, particularly, in saying +that in an organized, and consequently solidaire, society, there +may be some who possess, labor, and consume, while others have +neither possession, nor labor, nor bread. Finally Malthus, or +political economy, reasons erroneously when seeing in the faculty +of indefinite reproduction--which the human race enjoys in +neither greater nor less degree than all animal and vegetable +species--a permanent danger of famine; whereas it is only +necessary to show the necessity, and consequently the existence, +of a law of equilibrium between population and production. + +In short, the theory of Malthus--and herein lies the great merit +of this writer, a merit which none of his colleagues has dreamed +of attributing to him--is a reductio ad absurdum of all political +economy. + +As for socialism, that was summed up long since by Plato and +Thomas More in a single word, UTOPIA,--that is, NO-PLACE, a +chimera. + +Nevertheless, for the honor of the human mind and that justice +may be done to all, this must be said: neither could economic and +legislative science have had any other beginning than they +did have, nor can society remain in this original position. + +Every science must first define its domain, produce and collect +its materials: before system, facts; before the age of art, the +age of learning. The economic science, subject like every other +to the law of time and the conditions of experience, before +seeking to ascertain how things OUGHT TO TAKE PLACE in society, +had to tell us how things DO TAKE PLACE; and all these processes +which the authors speak of so pompously in their books as LAWS, +PRINCIPLES, and THEORIES, in spite of their incoherence and +inconsistency, had to be gathered up with scrupulous diligence, +and described with strict impartiality. The fulfilment of this +task called for more genius perhaps, certainly for more +self-sacrifice, than will be demanded by the future progress of +the science. + +If, then, social economy is even yet rather an aspiration towards +the future than a knowledge of reality, it must be admitted that +the elements of this study are all included in political economy; +and I believe that I express the general sentiment in saying that +this opinion has become that of the vast majority of minds. The +present finds few defenders, it is true; but the disgust with +utopia is no less universal: and everybody understands that the +truth lies in a formula which shall reconcile these two terms: +CONSERVATION and MOTION. + +Thus, thanks to Adam Smith, J. B. Say, Ricardo, and Malthus, as +well as their rash opponents, the mysteries of fortune, atria +Ditis, are uncovered; the power of capital, the oppression of the +laborer, the machinations of monopoly, illumined at all points, +shun the public gaze. Concerning the facts observed and +described by the economists, we reason and conjecture: +abusive laws, iniquitous customs, respected so long as the +obscurity which sustained their life lasted, with difficulty +dragged to the daylight, are expiring beneath the general +reprobation; it is suspected that the government of society must +be learned no longer from an empty ideology, after the fashion of +the Contrat social, but, as Montesquieu foresaw, from the +RELATION OF THINGS; and already a Left of eminently socialistic +tendencies, composed of savants, magistrates, legists, +professors, and even capitalists and manufacturers,--all born +representatives and defenders of privilege,--and of a million of +adepts, is forming in the nation above and outside of +PARLIAMENTARY opinions, and seeking, by an analysis of economic +facts, to capture the secrets of the life of societies. + +Let us represent political economy, then, as an immense plain, +strewn with materials prepared for an edifice. The laborers +await the signal, full of ardor, and burning to commence the +work: but the architect has disappeared without leaving the plan. + +The economists have stored their memories with many things: +unhappily they have not the shadow of an estimate. They know the +origin and history of each piece; what it cost to make it; what +wood makes the best joists, and what clay the best bricks; what +has been expended in tools and carts; how much the carpenters +earned, and how much the stone-cutters: they do not know the +destination and the place of anything. The economists cannot +deny that they have before them the fragments, scattered +pell-mell, of a chef-d'oeuvre, disjecti membra poetae; but it +has been impossible for them as yet to recover the general +design, and, whenever they have attempted any comparisons, they +have met only with incoherence. Driven to despair at last by +their fruitless combinations, they have erected as a dogma the +architectural incongruity of the science, or, as they say, the +INCONVENIENCES of its principles; in a word, they have denied the +science.[7] + + +[7] "The principle which governs the life of nations is not pure +science: it is the total of the complex data which depend on the +state of enlightenment, on needs and interests." Thus expressed +itself, in December, 1844, one of the clearest minds that France +contained, M. Leon Faucher. Explain, if you can, how a man of +this stamp was led by his economic convictions to declare that +the COMPLEX DATA of society are opposed to PURE SCIENCE. + + + +Thus the division of labor, without which production would be +almost nothing, is subject to a thousand inconveniences, the +worst of which is the demoralization of the laborer; machinery +causes, not only cheapness, but obstruction of the market and +stoppage of business; competition ends in oppression; taxation, +the material bond of society, is generally a scourge dreaded +equally with fire and hail; credit is necessarily accompanied by +bankruptcy; property is a swarm of abuses; commerce degenerates +into a game of chance, in which it is sometimes allowable even to +cheat: in short, disorder existing everywhere to an equal extent +with order, and no one knowing how the latter is to banish the +former, taxis ataxien diokein, the economists have decided that +all is for the best, and regard every reformatory proposition as +hostile to political economy. + +The social edifice, then, has been abandoned; the crowd has burst +into the wood-yard; columns, capitals, and plinths, wood, stone, +and metal, have been distributed in portions and drawn by lot: +and, of all these materials collected for a magnificent temple, +property, ignorant and barbarous, has built huts. The work +before us, then, is not only to recover the plan of the edifice, +but to dislodge the occupants, who maintain that their city is +superb, and, at the very mention of restoration, appear in +battle-array at their gates. Such confusion was not seen of old +at Babel: happily we speak French, and are more courageous than +the companions of Nimrod. + +But enough of allegory: the historical and descriptive method, +successfully employed so long as the work was one of examination +only, is henceforth useless: after thousands of monographs and +tables, we are no further advanced than in the age of Xenophon +and Hesiod. The Phenicians, the Greeks, the Italians, labored in +their day as we do in ours: they invested their money, paid their +laborers, extended their domains, made their expeditions and +recoveries, kept their books, speculated, dabbled in stocks, and +ruined themselves according to all the rules of economic art; +knowing as well as ourselves how to gain monopolies and fleece +the consumer and laborer. Of all this accounts are only too +numerous; and, though we should rehearse forever our statistics +and our figures, we should always have before our eyes only +chaos,--chaos constant and uniform. + +It is thought, indeed, that from the era of mythology to the +present year 57 of our great revolution, the general welfare has +improved: Christianity has long been regarded as the chief cause +of this amelioration, but now the economists claim all the honor +for their own principles. For after all, they say, what has been +the influence of Christianity upon society? Thoroughly utopian +at its birth, it has been able to maintain and extend itself only +by gradually adopting all the economic categories,--labor, +capital, farm-rent, usury, traffic, property; in short, by +consecrating the Roman law, the highest expression of political +economy. + +Christianity, a stranger in its theological aspect to the +theories of production and consumption, has been to European +civilization what the trades-unions and free-masons were not long +since to itinerant workmen,--a sort of insurance company and +mutual aid society; in this respect, it owes nothing to political +economy, and the good which it has done cannot be invoked by the +latter in its own support. The effects of charity and +self-sacrifice are outside of the domain of economy, which must +bring about social happiness through justice and the organization +of labor. For the rest, I am ready to admit the beneficial +effects of the system of property; but I observe that these +effects are entirely balanced by the misery which it is the +nature of this system to produce; so that, as an illustrious +minister recently confessed before the English Parliament, and as +we shall soon show, the increase of misery in the present state +of society is parallel and equal to the increase of +wealth,--which completely annuls the merits of political economy. + +Thus political economy is justified neither by its maxims nor by +its works; and, as for socialism, its whole value consists in +having established this fact. We are forced, then, to resume the +examination of political economy, since it alone contains, at +least in part, the materials of social science; and to ascertain +whether its theories do not conceal some error, the correction of +which would reconcile fact and right, reveal the organic law of +humanity, and give the positive conception of order. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +OF VALUE. + +% 1.--Opposition of value in USE and value in EXCHANGE. + +Value is the corner-stone of the economic edifice. The divine +artist who has intrusted us with the continuation of his work has +explained himself on this point to no one; but the few +indications given may serve as a basis of conjecture. Value, in +fact, presents two faces: one, which the economists call value in +USE, or intrinsic value; another, value in EXCHANGE, or of +opinion. The effects which are produced by value under this +double aspect, and which are very irregular so long as it is not +established,--or, to use a more philosophical expression, so long +as it is not constituted,--are changed totally by this +constitution. + +Now, in what consists the correlation between USEFUL value and +value in EXCHANGE? What is meant by CONSTITUTED value, and by +what sudden change is this constitution effected? To answer +these questions is the object and end of political economy. I +beg the reader to give his whole attention to what is to follow, +this chapter being the only one in the work which will tax his +patience. For my part, I will endeavor to be more and more +simple and clear. + +Everything which can be of any service to me is of value to me, +and the more abundant the useful thing is the richer I am: so +far there is no difficulty. Milk and flesh, fruits and grains, +wool, sugar, cotton, wine, metals, marble; in fact, land, water, +air, fire, and sunlight,-- are, relatively to me, values of use, +values by nature and function. If all the things which serve to +sustain my life were as abundant as certain of them are, light +for instance,--in other words, if the quantity of every valuable +thing was inexhaustible,--my welfare would be forever assured: I +should not have to labor; I should not even think. In such a +state, things would always be USEFUL, but it would be no longer +true to say that they ARE VALUABLE; for value, as we shall soon +see, indicates an essentially social relation; and it is solely +through exchange, reverting as it were from society to Nature, +that we have acquired the idea of utility. The whole development +of civilization originates, then, in the necessity which the +human race is under of continually causing the creation of new +values; just as the evils of society are primarily caused by the +perpetual struggle which we maintain against our own inertia. +Take away from man that desire which leads him to think and fits +him for a life of contemplation, and the lord of creation stands +on a level with the highest of the beasts. + +But how does value in use become value in exchange? For it +should be noticed that the two kinds of value, although +coexisting in thought (since the former becomes apparent only in +the presence of the latter), nevertheless maintain a relation of +succession: exchangeable value is a sort of reflex of useful +value; just as the theologians teach that in the Trinity the +Father, contemplating himself through all eternity, begets the +Son. This generation of the idea of value has not been noted by +the economists with sufficient care: it is important that we +should tarry over it. + +Since, then, of the objects which I need, a very large number +exist in Nature only in moderate quantities, or even not at all, +I am forced to assist in the production of that which I lack; +and, as I cannot turn my hand to so many things, I propose to +other men, my collaborators in various functions, to yield me a +portion of their products in exchange for mine. I shall then +always have in my possession more of my own special product than +I consume; just as my fellows will always have in their +possession more of their respective products than they use. This +tacit agreement is fulfilled by COMMERCE. Here we may observe +that the logical succession of the two kinds of value is even +more apparent in history than in theory, men having spent +thousands of years in disputing over natural wealth (this being +what is called PRIMITIVE COMMUNISM) before their industry +afforded opportunity for exchange. + +Now, the capacity possessed by all products, whether natural or +the result of labor, of serving to maintain man, is called +distinctively value in use; their capacity of purchasing each +other, value in exchange. At bottom this is the same thing, +since the second case only adds to the first the idea of +substitution, which may seem an idle subtlety; practically, the +consequences are surprising, and beneficial or fatal by turns. + +Consequently, the distinction established in value is based on +facts, and is not at all arbitrary: it is for man, in submitting +to this law, to use it to increase his welfare and liberty. +Labor, as an author (M. Walras) has beautifully expressed it, is +a war declared against the parsimony of Nature; by it wealth and +society are simultaneously created. Not only does labor produce +incomparably more wealth than Nature gives us,--for instance, it +has been remarked that the shoemakers alone in France produce +ten times more than the mines of Peru, Brazil, and Mexico +combined,--but, labor infinitely extending and multiplying its +rights by the changes which it makes in natural values, it +gradually comes about that all wealth, in running the gauntlet of +labor, falls wholly into the hands of him who creates it, and +that nothing, or almost nothing, is left for the possessor of the +original material. + +Such, then, is the path of economic progress: at first, +appropriation of the land and natural values; then, association +and distribution through labor until complete equality is +attained. Chasms are scattered along our road, the sword is +suspended over our heads; but, to avert all dangers, we have +reason, and reason is omnipotence. + +It results from the relation of useful value to exchangeable +value that if, by accident or from malice, exchange should be +forbidden to a single producer, or if the utility of his product +should suddenly cease, though his storehouses were full, he would +possess nothing. The more sacrifices he had made and the more +courage he had displayed in producing, the greater would be his +misery. If the utility of the product, instead of wholly +disappearing, should only diminish,--a thing which may happen in +a hundred ways,--the laborer, instead of being struck down and +ruined by a sudden catastrophe, would be impoverished only; +obliged to give a large quantity of his own value for a small +quantity of the values of others, his means of subsistence would +be reduced by an amount equal to the deficit in his sale: which +would lead by degrees from competency to want. If, finally, the +utility of the product should increase, or else if its production +should become less costly, the balance of exchange would turn to +the advantage of the producer, whose condition would thus be +raised from fatiguing mediocrity to idle opulence. This +phenomenon of depreciation and enrichment is manifested under a +thousand forms and by a thousand combinations; it is the essence +of the passional and intriguing game of commerce and industry. +And this is the lottery, full of traps, which the economists +think ought to last forever, and whose suppression the Academy of +Moral and Political Sciences unwittingly demands, when, under the +names of profit and wages, it asks us to reconcile value in use +and value in exchange; that is, to find the method of rendering +all useful values equally exchangeable, and, vice versa, all +exchangeable values equally useful. + +The economists have very clearly shown the double character of +value, but what they have not made equally plain is its +contradictory nature. Here begins our criticism. + +Utility is the necessary condition of exchange; but take away +exchange, and utility vanishes: these two things are indissolubly +connected. Where, then, is the contradiction? + +Since all of us live only by labor and exchange, and grow richer +as production and exchange increase, each of us produces as much +useful value as possible, in order to increase by that amount his +exchanges, and consequently his enjoyments. Well, the first +effect, the inevitable effect, of the multiplication of values is +to LOWER them: the more abundant is an article of merchandise, +the more it loses in exchange and depreciates commercially. Is +it not true that there is a contradiction between the necessity +of labor and its results? + +I adjure the reader, before rushing ahead for the explanation, to +arrest his attention upon the fact. + +A peasant who has harvested twenty sacks of wheat, which he with +his family proposes to consume, deems himself twice as rich +as if he had harvested only ten; likewise a housewife who has +spun fifty yards of linen believes that she is twice as rich as +if she had spun but twenty- five. Relatively to the household, +both are right; looked at in their external relations, they may +be utterly mistaken. If the crop of wheat is double throughout +the whole country, twenty sacks will sell for less than ten would +have sold for if it had been but half as great; so, under similar +circumstances, fifty yards of linen will be worth less than +twenty-five: so that value decreases as the production of utility +increases, and a producer may arrive at poverty by continually +enriching himself. And this seems unalterable, inasmuch as there +is no way of escape except all the products of industry become +infinite in quantity, like air and light, which is absurd. God +of my reason! Jean Jacques would have said: it is not the +economists who are irrational; it is political economy itself +which is false to its definitions. Mentita est iniquitas sibi. + +In the preceding examples the useful value exceeds the +exchangeable value: in other cases it is less. Then the same +phenomenon is produced, but in the opposite direction: the +balance is in favor of the producer, while the consumer suffers. +This is notably the case in seasons of scarcity, when the high +price of provisions is always more or less factitious. There are +also professions whose whole art consists in giving to an article +of minor usefulness, which could easily be dispensed with, an +exaggerated value of opinion: such, in general, are the arts of +luxury. Man, through his aesthetic passion, is eager for the +trifles the possession of which would highly satisfy his vanity, +his innate desire for luxury, and his more noble and more +respectable love of the beautiful: upon this the dealers in this +class of articles speculate. To tax fancy and elegance is no +less odious or absurd than to tax circulation: but such a tax is +collected by a few fashionable merchants, whom general +infatuation protects, and whose whole merit generally consists in +warping taste and generating fickleness. Hence no one complains; +and all the maledictions of opinion are reserved for the +monopolists who, through genius, succeed in raising by a few +cents the price of linen and bread. + +It is little to have pointed out this astonishing contrast +between useful value and exchangeable value, which the economists +have been in the habit of regarding as very simple: it must be +shown that this pretended simplicity conceals a profound mystery, +which it is our duty to fathom. + +I summon, therefore, every serious economist to tell me, +otherwise than by transforming or repeating the question, for +what reason value decreases in proportion as production augments, +and reciprocally what causes this same value to increase in +proportion as production diminishes. In technical terms, useful +value and exchangeable value, necessary to each other, are +inversely proportional to each other; I ask, then, why scarcity, +instead of utility, is synonymous with dearness. For--mark it +well--the price of merchandise is independent of the amount of +labor expended in production; and its greater or less cost does +not serve at all to explain the variations in its price. Value +is capricious, like liberty: it considers neither utility nor +labor; on the contrary, it seems that, in the ordinary course of +affairs, and exceptional derangements aside, the most useful +objects are those which are sold at the lowest price; in other +words, that it is just that the men who perform the most +attractive labor should be the best rewarded, while those whose +tasks demand the most exertion are paid the least. So that, in +following the principle to its ultimate consequences, we +reach the most logical of conclusions: that things whose use is +necessary and quantity infinite must be gratuitous, while those +which are without utility and extremely scarce must bear an +inestimable price. But, to complete the embarrassment, these +extremes do not occur in practice: on the one hand, no human +product can ever become infinite in quantity; on the other, the +rarest things must be in some degree useful, else they would not +be susceptible of value. Useful value and exchangeable value +remain, then, in inevitable attachment, although it is their +nature continually to tend towards mutual exclusion. + +I shall not fatigue the reader with a refutation of the +logomachies which might be offered in explanation of this +subject: of the contradiction inherent in the idea of value there +is no assignable cause, no possible explanation. The fact of +which I speak is one of those called primitive,--that is, one of +those which may serve to explain others, but which in themselves, +like the bodies called simple, are inexplicable. Such is the +dualism of spirit and matter. Spirit and matter are two terms +each of which, taken separately, indicates a special aspect of +spirit, but corresponds to no reality. So, given man's needs of +a great variety of products together with the obligation of +procuring them by his labor, the opposition of useful value to +exchangeable value necessarily results; and from this opposition +a contradiction on the very threshold of political economy. No +intelligence, no will, divine or human, can prevent it. + +Therefore, instead of searching for a chimerical explanation, let +us content ourselves with establishing the necessity of the +contradiction. Whatever the abundance of created values and the +proportion in which they exchange for each other, in order +that we may exchange our products, mine must suit you when you +are the BUYER, and I must be satisfied with yours when you are +the SELLER. For no one has a right to impose his own +merchandise upon another: the sole judge of utility, or in other +words the want, is the buyer. Therefore, in the first case, you +have the deciding power; in the second, I have it. Take away +reciprocal liberty, and exchange is no longer the expression of +industrial solidarity: it is robbery. Communism, by the way, +will never surmount this difficulty. + +But, where there is liberty, production is necessarily +undetermined, either in quantity or in quality; so that from the +point of view of economic progress, as from that of the relation +of consumers, valuation always is an arbitrary matter, and the +price of merchandise will ever fluctuate. Suppose for a moment +that all producers should sell at a fixed price: there would be +some who, producing at less cost and in better quality, would get +much, while others would get nothing. In every way equilibrium +would be destroyed. Do you wish, in order to prevent business +stagnation, to limit production strictly to the necessary amount? + +That would be a violation of liberty: for, in depriving me of the +power of choice, you condemn me to pay the highest price; you +destroy competition, the sole guarantee of cheapness, and +encourage smuggling. In this way, to avoid commercial +absolutism, you would rush into administrative absolutism; to +create equality, you would destroy liberty, which is to deny +equality itself. Would you group producers in a single workshop +(supposing you to possess this secret)? That again does not +suffice: it would be necessary also to group consumers in a +common household, whereby you would abandon the point. We are +not to abolish the idea of value, which is as impossible as to +abolish labor, but to determine it; we are not to kill +individual liberty, but to socialize it. Now, it is proved that +it is the free will of man that gives rise to the opposition +between value in use and value in exchange: how reconcile this +opposition while free will exists? And how sacrifice the latter +without sacrificing man? + +Then, from the very fact that I, as a free purchaser, am judge of +my own wants, judge of the fitness of the object, judge of the +price I wish to pay, and that you on the other hand, as a free +producer, control the means of production, and consequently have +the power to reduce your expenses, absolutism forces itself +forward as an element of value, and causes it to oscillate +between utility and opinion. + +But this oscillation, clearly pointed out by the economists, is +but the effect of a contradiction which, repeating itself on a +vast scale, engenders the most unexpected phenomena. Three years +of fertility, in certain provinces of Russia, are a public +calamity, just as, in our vineyards, three years of abundance are +a calamity to the wine-grower I know well that the economists +attribute this distress to a lack of markets; wherefore this +question of markets is an important one with them. Unfortunately +the theory of markets, like that of emigration with which they +attempted to meet Malthus, is a begging of the question. The +States having the largest market are as subject to +over-production as the most isolated countries: where are high +and low prices better known than in the stock-exchanges of Paris +and London? + +From the oscillation of value and the irregular effects resulting +therefrom the socialists and economists, each in their own way, +have reasoned to opposite, but equally false, conclusions: the +former have made it a text for the slander of political economy +and its exclusion from social science; the latter, for the +denial of all possibility of reconciliation, and the affirmation +of the incommensurability of values, and consequently the +inequality of fortunes, as an absolute law of commerce. + +I say that both parties are equally in error. + +1. The contradictory idea of value, so clearly exhibited by the +inevitable distinction between useful value and value in exchange +does not arise from a false mental perception, or from a vicious +terminology, or from any practical error; it lies deep in the +nature of things, and forces itself upon the mind as a general +form of thought,--that is, as a category. Now, as the idea of +value is the point of departure of political economy, it follows +that all the elements of the science--I use the word science in +anticipation--are contradictory in themselves and opposed to each +other: so truly is this the case that on every question the +economist finds himself continually placed between an affirmation +and a negation alike irrefutable. ANTINOMY, in fine, to use a +word sanctioned by modern philosophy, is the essential +characteristic of political economy; that is to say, it is at +once its death-sentence and its justification. + +ANTINOMY, literally COUNTER-LAW, means opposition in principle +or antagonism in relation, just as contradiction or ANTILOGY +indicates opposition or discrepancy in speech. Antinomy,--I ask +pardon for entering into these scholastic details, comparatively +unfamiliar as yet to most economists,--antinomy is the conception +of a law with two faces, the one positive, the other negative. +Such, for instance, is the law called ATTRACTION, by which the +planets revolve around the sun, and which mathematicians have +analyzed into centripetal force and centrifugal force. Such also +is the problem of the infinite divisibility of matter, which, as +Kant has shown, can be denied and affirmed successively by +arguments equally plausible and irrefutable. + +Antinomy simply expresses a fact, and forces itself imperatively +on the mind; contradiction, properly speaking, is an absurdity. +This distinction between antinomy (contra-lex) and contradiction +(contra-dictio) shows in what sense it can be said that, in a +certain class of ideas and facts, the argument of contradiction +has not the same value as in mathematics. + +In mathematics it is a rule that, a proposition being proved +false, its opposite is true, and vice versa. In fact, this is +the principal method of mathematical demonstration. In social +economy, it is not the same: thus we see, for example, that +property being proved by its results to be false, the opposite +formula, communism, is none the truer on this account, but is +deniable at the same time and by the same title as property. +Does it follow, as has been said with such ridiculous emphasis, +that every truth, every idea, results from a contradiction,-- +that is, from a something which is affirmed and denied at the +same moment and from the same point of view,--and that it may be +necessary to abandon wholly the old-fashioned logic, which +regards contradiction as the infallible sign of error? This +babble is worthy of sophists who, destitute of faith and honesty, +endeavor to perpetuate scepticism in order to maintain their +impertinent uselessness. Because antinomy, immediately it is +misunderstood, leads inevitably to contradiction, these have been +mistaken for each other, especially among the French, who like to +judge everything by its effects. But neither contradiction nor +antinomy, which analysis discovers at the bottom of every simple +idea, is the principle of truth. Contradiction is always +synonymous with nullity; as for antinomy, sometimes called by +the same name, it is indeed the forerunner of truth, the material +of which, so to speak, it supplies; but it is not truth, and, +considered in itself, it is the efficient cause of disorder, the +characteristic form of delusion and evil. + +An antinomy is made up of two terms, necessary to each other, but +always opposed, and tending to mutual destruction. I hardly dare +to add, as I must, that the first of these terms has received the +name thesis, position, and the second the name anti-thesis, +counter-position. This method of thought is now so well-known +that it will soon figure, I hope, in the text-books of the +primary schools. We shall see directly how from the combination +of these two zeros unity springs forth, or the idea which dispels +the antinomy. + +Thus, in value, there is nothing useful that cannot be exchanged, +nothing exchangeable if it be not useful: value in use and value +in exchange are inseparable. But while, by industrial progress, +demand varies and multiplies to an infinite extent, and while +manufactures tend in consequence to increase the natural utility +of things, and finally to convert all useful value into +exchangeable value, production, on the other hand, continually +increasing the power of its instruments and always reducing its +expenses, tends to restore the venal value of things to their +primitive utility: so that value in use and value in exchange are +in perpetual struggle. + +The effects of this struggle are well-known: the wars of commerce +and of the market; obstructions to business; stagnation; +prohibition; the massacres of competition; monopoly; reductions +of wages; laws fixing maximum prices; the crushing inequality of +fortunes; misery,--all these result from the antinomy of value. +The proof of this I may be excused from giving here, as it will +appear naturally in the chapters to follow. + +The socialists, while justly demanding that this antagonism be +brought to an end, have erred in mistaking its source, and in +seeing in it only a mental oversight, capable of rectification by +a legal decree. Hence this lamentable outbreak of +sentimentalism, which has rendered socialism so insipid to +positive minds, and which, spreading the absurdest delusions, +makes so many fresh dupes every day. My complaint of socialism +is not that it has appeared among us without cause, but that it +has clung so long and so obstinately to its silliness. + +2. But the economists have erred no less gravely in rejecting a +priori, and just because of the contradictory, or rather +antinomical, nature of value, every idea and hope of reform, +never desiring to understand that, for the very reason that +society has arrived at its highest point of antagonism, +reconciliation and harmony are at hand. This, nevertheless, is +what a close study of political economy would have shown to its +adepts, had they paid more attention to the lights of modern +metaphysics. It is indeed demonstrated, by the most positive +evidence known to the human mind, that wherever an antinomy +appears there is a promise of a resolution of its terms, and +consequently an announcement of a coming change. Now, the idea +of value, as developed by J. B. Say among others, satisfies +exactly these conditions. But the economists, who have remained +for the most part by an inconceivable fatality ignorant of the +movement of philosophy, have guarded against the supposition that +the essentially contradictory, or, as they say, variable, +character of value might be at the same time the authentic sign +of its constitutionality,--that is, of its eminently harmonious +and determinable nature. However dishonorable it may be to the +economists of the various schools, it is certain that their +opposition to socialism results solely from this false +conception of their own principles; one proof, taken from a +thousand, will suffice. + +The Academy of Sciences (not that of Moral Sciences, but the +other), going outside of its province one day, listened to a +paper in which it was proposed to calculate tables of value for +all kinds of merchandise upon the basis of the average product +per man and per day's labor in each branch of industry. "Le +Journal des Economistes" (August, 1845) immediately made this +communication, intrusive in its eyes, the text of a protest +against the plan of tariff which was its object, and the occasion +of a reestablishment of what it called true principles:-- + +"There is no measure of value, no standard of value," it said in +its conclusions; "economic science tells us this, just as +mathematical science tells us that there is no perpetual motion +or quadrature of the circle, and that these never will be found. +Now, if there is no standard of value, if the measure of value is +not even a metaphysical illusion, what then is the law which +governs exchanges? . . . . . As we have said before, it is, in a +general way, SUPPLY and DEMAND: that is the last word of +science." + +Now, how did "Le Journal des Economistes" prove that there is no +measure of value? I use the consecrated expression: though I +shall show directly that this phrase, MEASURE OF VALUE, is +somewhat ambiguous, and does not convey the exact meaning which +it is intended, and which it ought, to express. + +This journal repeated, with accompanying examples, the exposition +that we have just given of the variability of value, but without +arriving, as we did, at the contradiction. Now, if the estimable +editor, one of the most distinguished economists of the +school of Say, had had stricter logical habits; if he had been +long used, not only to observing facts, but to seeking their +explanation in the ideas which produce them,--I do not doubt that +he would have expressed himself more cautiously, and that, +instead of seeing in the variability of value the LAST WORD OF +SCIENCE, he would have recognized unaided that it is the first. +Seeing that the variability of value proceeds not from things, +but from the mind, he would have said that, as human liberty has +its law, so value must have its law; consequently, that the +hypothesis of a measure of value, this being the common +expression, is not at all irrational; quite the contrary, that it +is the denial of this measure that is illogical, untenable. + +And indeed, what is there in the idea of measuring, and +consequently of fixing, value, that is unscientific? All men +believe in it; all wish it, search for it, suppose it: every +proposition of sale or purchase is at bottom only a comparison +between two values,--that is, a determination, more or less +accurate if you will, but nevertheless effective. The opinion of +the human race on the existing difference between real value and +market price may be said to be unanimous. It is for this reason +that so many kinds of merchandise are sold at a fixed price; +there are some, indeed, which, even in their variations, are +always fixed,--bread, for instance. It will not be denied that, +if two manufacturers can supply one another by an account +current, and at a settled price, with quantities of their +respective products, ten, a hundred, a thousand manufacturers can +do the same. Now, that would be a solution of the problem of the +measure of value. The price of everything would be debated upon, +I allow, because debate is still our only method of fixing +prices; but yet, as all light is the result of conflict, debate, +though it may be a proof of uncertainty, has for its object, +setting aside the greater or less amount of good faith that +enters into it, the discovery of the relation of values to each +other,-- that is, their measurement, their law. + +Ricardo, in his theory of rent, has given a magnificent example +of the commensurability of values. He has shown that arable +lands are to each other as the crops which they yield with the +same outlay; and here universal practice is in harmony with +theory. Now who will say that this positive and sure method of +estimating the value of land, and in general of all engaged +capital, cannot be applied to products also? . . . . . + +They say: Political economy is not affected by a priori +arguments; it pronounces only upon facts. Now, facts and +experience teach us that there is no measure of value and can be +none, and prove that, though the conception of such an idea was +necessary in the nature of things, its realization is wholly +chimerical. Supply and demand is the sole law of exchange. + +I will not repeat that experience proves precisely the contrary; +that everything, in the economic progress of society, denotes a +tendency toward the constitution and establishment of value; that +that is the culminating point of political economy--which by this +constitution becomes transformed--and the supreme indication of +order in society: this general outline, reiterated without proof, +would become tiresome. I confine myself for the moment within +the limits of the discussion, and say that SUPPLY and DEMAND, +held up as the sole regulators of value, are nothing more than +two ceremonial forms serving to bring useful value and +exchangeable value face to face, and to provoke their +reconciliation. They are the two electric poles, whose +connection must produce the economical phenomenon of affinity +called EXCHANGE. Like the poles of a battery, supply and demand +are diametrically opposed to each other, and tend continually to +mutual annihilation; it is by their antagonism that the price of +things is either increased, or reduced to nothing: we wish to +know, then, if it is not possible, on every occasion, so to +balance or harmonize these two forces that the price of things +always may be the expression of their true value, the expression +of justice. To say after that that supply and demand is the law +of exchange is to say that supply and demand is the law of supply +and demand; it is not an explanation of the general practice, but +a declaration of its absurdity; and I deny that the general +practice is absurd. + +I have just quoted Ricardo as having given, in a special +instance, a positive rule for the comparison of values: the +economists do better still. Every year they gather from tables +of statistics the average prices of the various grains. Now, +what is the meaning of an average? Every one can see that in a +single operation, taken at random from a million, there is no +means of knowing which prevailed, supply--that is, useful +value--or exchangeable value,--that is, demand. But as every +increase in the price of merchandise is followed sooner or later +by a proportional reduction; as, in other words, in society the +profits of speculation are equal to the losses,--we may regard +with good reason the average of prices during a complete period +as indicative of the real and legitimate value of products. This +average, it is true, is ascertained too late: but who knows that +we could not discover it in advance? Is there an economist who +dares to deny it? + +Nolens volens, then, the measure of value must be sought for: +logic commands it, and her conclusions are adverse to +economists and socialists alike. The opinion which denies +the existence of this measure is irrational, unreasonable. Say +as often as you please, on the one hand, that political economy +is a science of facts, and that the facts are contrary to the +hypothesis of a determination of value, or, on the other, that +this troublesome question would not present itself in a system of +universal association, which would absorb all antagonism,--I will +reply still, to the right and to the left:-- + +1. That as no fact is produced which has not its cause, so none +exists which has not its law; and that, if the law of exchange is +not discovered, the fault is, not with the facts, but with the +savants. + +2. That, as long as man shall labor in order to live, and shall +labor freely, justice will be the condition of fraternity and the +basis of association; now, without a determination of value, +justice is imperfect, impossible. + + +% 2.--Constitution of value; definition of wealth. + +We know value in its two opposite aspects; we do not know it in +its TOTALITY. If we can acquire this new idea, we shall have +absolute value; and a table of values, such as was called for in +the memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, will be possible. + +Let us picture wealth, then, as a mass held by a chemical force +in a permanent state of composition, in which new elements, +continually entering, combine in different proportions, but +according to a certain law: value is the proportional relation +(the measure) in which each of these elements forms a part of the +whole. + +From this two things result: one, that the economists have been +wholly deluded when they have looked for the general measure of +value in wheat, specie, rent, etc., and also when, after having +demonstrated that this standard of measure was neither here nor +there, they have concluded that value has neither law nor +measure; the other, that the proportion of values may continually +vary without ceasing on that account to be subject to a law, +whose determination is precisely the solution sought. + +This idea of value satisfies, as we shall see, all the +conditions: for it includes at once both the positive and fixed +element in useful value and the variable element in exchangeable +value; in the second place, it puts an end to the contradiction +which seemed an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the +determination of value; further, we shall show that value thus +understood differs entirely from a simple juxtaposition of the +two ideas of useful and exchangeable value, and that it is +endowed with new properties. + +The proportionality of products is not a revelation that we +pretend to offer to the world, or a novelty that we bring into +science, any more than the division of labor was an unheard-of +thing when Adam Smith explained its marvels. The proportionality +of products is, as we might prove easily by innumerable +quotations, a common idea running through the works on political +economy, but to which no one as yet has dreamed of attributing +its rightful importance: and this is the task which we undertake +today. We feel bound, for the rest, to make this declaration in +order to reassure the reader concerning our pretensions to +originality, and to satisfy those minds whose timidity leads them +to look with little favor upon new ideas. + +The economists seem always to have understood by the measure of +value only a standard, a sort of original unit, existing by +itself, and applicable to all sorts of merchandise, as the yard +is applicable to all lengths. Consequently, many have thought +that such a standard is furnished by the precious metals. But +the theory of money has proved that, far from being the measure +of values, specie is only their arithmetic, and a conventional +arithmetic at that. Gold and silver are to value what the +thermometer is to heat. The thermometer, with its arbitrarily +graduated scale, indicates clearly when there is a loss or an +increase of heat: but what the laws of heat-equilibrium are; what +is its proportion in various bodies; what amount is necessary to +cause a rise of ten, fifteen, or twenty degrees in the +thermometer,--the thermometer does not tell us; it is not certain +even that the degrees of the scale, equal to each other, +correspond to equal additions of heat. + +The idea that has been entertained hitherto of the measure of +value, then, is inexact; the object of our inquiry is not the +standard of value, as has been said so often and so foolishly, +but the law which regulates the proportions of the various +products to the social wealth; for upon the knowledge of this law +depends the rise and fall of prices in so far as it is normal and +legitimate. In a word, as we understand by the measure of +celestial bodies the relation resulting from the comparison of +these bodies with each other, so, by the measure of values, we +must understand the relation which results from their comparison. + +Now, I say that this relation has its law, and this comparison +its principle. + +I suppose, then, a force which combines in certain proportions +the elements of wealth, and makes of them a homogeneous whole: if +the constituent elements do not exist in the desired proportion, +the combination will take place nevertheless; but, instead of +absorbing all the material, it will reject a portion as useless. +The internal movement by which the combination is produced, and +which the affinities of the various substances determine--this +movement in society is exchange; exchange considered no longer +simply in its elementary form and between man and man, but +exchange considered as the fusion of all values produced by +private industry in one and the same mass of social wealth. +Finally, the proportion in which each element enters into the +compound is what we call value; the excess remaining after the +combination is NON-VALUE, until the addition of a certain +quantity of other elements causes further combination and +exchange. + +We will explain later the function of money. + +This determined, it is conceivable that at a given moment the +proportions of values constituting the wealth of a country may be +determined, or at least empirically approximated, by means of +statistics and inventories, in nearly the same way that the +chemists have discovered by experience, aided by analysis, the +proportions of hydrogen and oxygen necessary to the formation of +water. There is nothing objectionable in this method of +determining values; it is, after all, only a matter of accounts. +But such a work, however interesting it might be, would teach us +nothing very useful. On the one hand, indeed, we know that the +proportion continually varies; on the other, it is clear that +from a statement of the public wealth giving the proportions of +values only for the time and place when and where the statistics +should be gathered we could not deduce the law of proportionality +of wealth. For that, a single operation of this sort would not +be sufficient; thousands and millions of similar ones would be +necessary, even admitting the method to be worthy of confidence. + +Now, here there is a difference between economic science and +chemistry. The chemists, who have discovered by experience such +beautiful proportions, know no more of their how or why than of +the force which governs them. Social economy, on the contrary, +to which no a posteriori investigation could reveal directly the +law of proportionality of values, can grasp it in the very force +which produces it, and which it is time to announce. + +This force, which Adam Smith has glorified so eloquently, and +which his successors have misconceived (making privilege its +equal),--this force is LABOR. Labor differs in quantity and +quality with the producer; in this respect it is like all the +great principles of Nature and the most general laws, simple in +their action and formula, but infinitely modified by a multitude +of special causes, and manifesting themselves under an +innumerable variety of forms. It is labor, labor alone, that +produces all the elements of wealth, and that combines them to +their last molecules according to a law of variable, but certain, +proportionality. It is labor, in fine, that, as the principle of +life, agitates (mens agitat) the material (molem) of wealth, and +proportions it. + +Society, or the collective man, produces an infinitude of +objects, the enjoyment of which constitutes its WELL-BEING. +This well-being is developed not only in the ratio of the +QUANTITY of the products, but also in the ratio of their +VARIETY (quality) and PROPORTION. From this fundamental datum +it follows that society always, at each instant of its life, must +strive for such proportion in its products as will give the +greatest amount of well-being, considering the power and means of +production. Abundance, variety, and proportion in products are +the three factors which constitute WEALTH: wealth, the object of +social economy, is subject to the same conditions of existence as +beauty, the object of art; virtue, the object of morality; and +truth, the object of metaphysics. + +But how establish this marvelous proportion, so essential that +without it a portion of human labor is lost,--that is, useless, +inharmonious, untrue, and consequently synonymous with poverty +and annihilation? + +Prometheus, according to the fable, is the symbol of human +activity. Prometheus steals the fire of heaven, and invents the +early arts; Prometheus foresees the future, and aspires to +equality with Jupiter; Prometheus is God. Then let us call +society Prometheus. + +Prometheus devotes, on an average, ten hours a day to labor, +seven to rest, and seven to pleasure. In order to gather from +his toil the most useful fruit, Prometheus notes the time and +trouble that each object of his consumption costs him. Only +experience can teach him this, and this experience lasts +throughout his life. While laboring and producing, then, +Prometheus is subject to an infinitude of disappointments. But, +as a final result, the more he labors, the greater is his +well-being and the more idealized his luxury; the further he +extends his conquests over Nature, the more strongly he fortifies +within him the principle of life and intelligence in the exercise +of which he alone finds happiness; till finally, the early +education of the Laborer completed and order introduced into his +occupations, to labor, with him, is no longer to suffer,--it is +to live, to enjoy. But the attractiveness of labor does not +nullify the rule, since, on the contrary, it is the fruit of it; +and those who, under the pretext that labor should be attractive, +reason to the denial of justice and to communism, resemble +children who, after having gathered some flowers in the garden, +should arrange a flower-bed on the staircase. + +In society, then, justice is simply the proportionality of +values; its guarantee and sanction is the responsibility of the +producer. + +Prometheus knows that such a product costs an hour's labor, such +another a day's, a week's, a year's; he knows at the same time +that all these products, arranged according to their cost, form +the progression of his wealth. First, then, he will assure his +existence by providing himself with the least costly, and +consequently most necessary, things; then, as fast as his +position becomes secure, he will look forward to articles of +luxury, proceeding always, if he is wise, according to the +natural position of each article in the scale of prices. +Sometimes Prometheus will make a mistake in his calculations, or +else, carried away by passion, he will sacrifice an immediate +good to a premature enjoyment, and, after having toiled and +moiled, he will starve. Thus, the law carries with it its own +sanction; its violation is inevitably accompanied by the +immediate punishment of the transgressor. + +Say, then, was right in saying: "The happiness of this class +(the consumers), composed of all the others, constitutes the +general well- being, the state of prosperity of a country." Only +he should have added that the happiness of the class of +producers, which also is composed of all the others, equally +constitutes the general well-being, the state of prosperity of a +country. So, when he says: "The fortune of each consumer is +perpetually at war with all that he buys," he should have added +again: "The fortune of each producer is incessantly attacked by +all that he sells." In the absence of a clear expression of this +reciprocity, most economical phenomena become unintelligible; and +I will soon show how, in consequence of this grave omission, most +economists in writing their books have talked wildly about the +balance of trade. + +I have just said that society produces first THE LEAST COSTLY, +AND CONSEQUENTLY MOST NECESSARY, THINGS. Now, is it true that +cheapness of products is always a correlative of their necessity, +and vice versa; so that these two words, NECESSITY and +CHEAPNESS, like the following ones, COSTLINESS and +SUPERFLUITY, are synonymes? + +If each product of labor, taken alone, would suffice for the +existence of man, the synonymy in question would not be doubtful; +all products having the same qualities, those would be most +advantageously produced, and therefore the most necessary, which +cost the least. But the parallel between the utility and price +of products is not characterized by this theoretical precision: +either through the foresight of Nature or from some other cause, +the balance between needs and productive power is more than a +theory,--it is a fact, of which daily practice, as well as social +progress, gives evidence. + +Imagine ourselves living in the day after the birth of man at the +beginning of civilization: is it not true that the industries +originally the simplest, those which required the least +preparation and expense, were the following: GATHERING, +PASTURAGE, HUNTING, and FISHING, which were followed long +afterwards by agriculture? Since then, these four primitive +industries have been perfected, and moreover appropriated: a +double circumstance which does not change the meaning of the +facts, but, on the contrary, makes it more manifest. In fact, +property has always attached itself by preference to objects of +the most immediate utility, to MADE VALUES, if I may so speak; +so that the scale of values might be fixed by the progress of +appropriation. + +In his work on the "Liberty of Labor" M. Dunoyer has positively +accepted this principle by distinguishing four great classes of +industry, which he arranges according to the order of their +development,--that is, from the least labor-cost to the greatest. + +These are EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY,--including all the semi-barbarous +functions mentioned above,--COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURING, +INDUSTRY, AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY. And it is for a profound reason +that the learned author placed agriculture last in the list. +For, despite its great antiquity, it is certain that this +industry has not kept pace with the others, and the succession of +human affairs is not decided by their origin, but by their entire +development. It may be that agricultural industry was born +before the others, and it may be that all were contemporary; but +that will be deemed of the latest date which shall be perfected +last. + +Thus the very nature of things, as well as his own wants, +indicates to the laborer the order in which he should effect the +production of the values that make up his well-being. Our law of +proportionality, then, is at once physical and logical, objective +and subjective; it has the highest degree of certainty. Let us +pursue the application. + +Of all the products of labor, none perhaps has cost longer and +more patient efforts than the calendar. Nevertheless, there is +none the enjoyment of which can now be procured more cheaply, and +which, consequently, by our own definitions, has become more +necessary. How, then, shall we explain this change? Why has the +calendar, so useless to the early hordes, who only needed the +alternation of night and day, as of winter and summer, become at +last so indispensable, so unexpensive, so perfect? For, by a +marvelous harmony, in social economy all these adjectives are +interconvertible. How account, in short, by our law of +proportion, for the variability of the value of the calendar? + +In order that the labor necessary to the production of the +calendar might be performed, might be possible, man had to find +means of gaining time from his early occupations and from those +which immediately followed them. In other words, these +industries had to become more productive, or less costly, than +they were at the beginning: which amounts to saying that it was +necessary first to solve the problem of the production of the +calendar from the extractive industries themselves. + +Suppose, then, that suddenly, by a fortunate combination of +efforts, by the division of labor, by the use of some machine, by +better management of the natural resources,--in short, by his +industry,--Prometheus finds a way of producing in one day as much +of a certain object as he formerly produced in ten: what will +follow? The product will change its position in the table of the +elements of wealth; its power of affinity for other products, so +to speak, being increased, its relative value will be +proportionately diminished, and, instead of being quoted at one +hundred, it will thereafter be quoted only at ten. But this +value will still and always be none the less accurately +determined, and it will still be labor alone which will fix the +degree of its importance. Thus value varies, and the law of +value is unchangeable: further, if value is susceptible of +variation, it is because it is governed by a law whose principle +is essentially inconstant,--namely, labor measured by time. + +The same reasoning applies to the production of the calendar as +to that of all possible values. I do not need to explain +how--civilization (that is, the social fact of the increase of +life) multiplying our tasks, rendering our moments more and more +precious, and obliging us to keep a perpetual and detailed record +of our whole life--the calendar has become to all one of the most +necessary things. We know, moreover, that this wonderful +discovery has given rise, as its natural complement, to one of +our most valuable industries, the manufacture of clocks and +watches. + +At this point there very naturally arises an objection, the only +one that can be offered against the theory of the proportionality +of values. + +Say and the economists who have succeeded him have observed that, +labor being itself an object of valuation, a species of +merchandise indeed like any other, to take it as the principal +and efficient cause of value is to reason in a vicious circle. +Therefore, they conclude, it is necessary to fall back on +scarcity and opinion. + +These economists, if they will allow me to say it, herein have +shown themselves wonderfully careless. Labor is said TO HAVE +VALUE, not as merchandise itself, but in view of the values +supposed to be contained in it potentially. The VALUE OF LABOR +is a figurative expression, an anticipation of effect from cause. + +It is a fiction by the same title as the PRODUCTIVITY OF +CAPITAL. Labor produces, capital has value: and when, by a sort +of ellipsis, we say the value of labor, we make an enjambement +which is not at all contrary to the rules of language, but which +theorists ought to guard against mistaking for a reality. Labor, +like liberty, love, ambition, genius, is a thing vague and +indeterminate in its nature, but qualitatively defined by its +object,--that is, it becomes a reality through its product. +When, therefore, we say: This man's labor is worth five francs +per day, it is as if we should say: The daily product of this +man's labor is worth five francs. + +Now, the effect of labor is continually to eliminate scarcity and +opinion as constitutive elements of value, and, by necessary +consequence, to transform natural or indefinite utilities +(appropriated or not) into measurable or social utilities: whence +it follows that labor is at once a war declared upon the +parsimony of Nature and a permanent conspiracy against property. + +According to this analysis, value, considered from the point of +view of the association which producers, by division of labor and +by exchange, naturally form among themselves, is the PROPORTIONAL +RELATION OF THE PRODUCTS WHICH CONSTITUTE WEALTH, and what we +call the value of any special product is a formula which +expresses, in terms of money, the proportion of this product to +the general wealth.--Utility is the basis of value; labor fixes +the relation; the price is the expression which, barring the +fluctuations that we shall have to consider, indicates this +relation. + +Such is the centre around which useful and exchangeable value +oscillate, the point where they are finally swallowed up and +disappear: such is the absolute, unchangeable law which regulates +economic disturbances and the freaks of industry and commerce, +and governs progress. Every effort of thinking and laboring +humanity, every individual and social speculation, as an +integrant part of collective wealth, obeys this law. It was the +destiny of political economy, by successively positing all its +contradictory terms, to make this law known; the object of social +economy, which I ask permission for a moment to distinguish from +political economy, although at bottom there is no difference +between them, will be to spread and apply it universally. + +The theory of the measure or proportionality of values is, let it +be noticed, the theory of equality itself. Indeed, just as in +society, where we have seen that there is a complete identity +between producer and consumer, the revenue paid to an idler +is like value cast into the flames of Etna, so the laborer who +receives excessive wages is like a gleaner to whom should be +given a loaf of bread for gathering a stalk of grain: and all +that the economists have qualified as UNPRODUCTIVE CONSUMPTION +is in reality simply a violation of the law of proportionality. + +We shall see in the sequence how, from these simple data, the +social genius gradually deduces the still obscure system of +organization of labor, distribution of wages, valuation of +products, and universal solidarity. For social order is +established upon the basis of inexorable justice, not at all upon +the paradisical sentiments of fraternity, self-sacrifice, and +love, to the exercise of which so many honorable socialists are +endeavoring now to stimulate the people. It is in vain that, +following Jesus Christ, they preach the necessity, and set the +example, of sacrifice; selfishness is stronger, and only the law +of severity, economic fatality, is capable of mastering it. +Humanitarian enthusiasm may produce shocks favorable to the +progress of civilization; but these crises of sentiment, like the +oscillations of value, must always result only in a firmer and +more absolute establishment of justice. Nature, or Divinity, we +distrust in our hearts: she has never believed in the love of man +for his fellow; and all that science reveals to us of the ways of +Providence in the progress of society--I say it to the shame of +the human conscience, but our hypocrisy must be made aware of +it--shows a profound misanthropy on the part of God. God helps +us, not from motives of goodness, but because order is his +essence; God promotes the welfare of the world, not because he +deems it worthy, but because the religion of his supreme +intelligence lays the obligation upon him: and while the vulgar +give him the sweet name Father, it is impossible for the +historian, for the political economist, to believe that he +either loves or esteems us. + +Let us imitate this sublime indifference, this stoical ataraxia, +of God; and, since the precept of charity always has failed to +promote social welfare, let us look to pure reason for the +conditions of harmony and virtue. + +Value, conceived as the proportionality of products, otherwise +called CONSTITUTED VALUE, necessarily implies in an equal degree +UTILITY and VENALITY, indivisibly and harmoniously united. It +implies utility, for, without this condition, the product would +be destitute of that affinity which renders it exchangeable, and +consequently makes it an element of wealth; it implies venality, +since, if the product was not acceptable in the market at any +hour and at a known price, it would be only a non-value, it would +be nothing. + +But, in constituted value, all these properties acquire a +broader, more regular, truer significance than before. Thus, +utility is no longer that inert capacity, so to speak, which +things possess of serving for our enjoyments and in our +researches; venality is no longer the exaggeration of a blind +fancy or an unprincipled opinion; finally, variability has ceased +to explain itself by a disingenuous discussion between supply and +demand: all that has disappeared to give place to a positive, +normal, and, under all possible circumstances, determinable idea. + +By the constitution of values each product, if it is allowable to +establish such an analogy, becomes like the nourishment which, +discovered by the alimentary instinct, then prepared by the +digestive organs, enters into the general circulation, where it +is converted, according to certain proportions, into flesh, bone, +liquid, etc., and gives to the body life, strength, and beauty. + +Now, what change does the idea of value undergo when we rise from +the contradictory notions of useful value and exchangeable value +to that of constituted value or absolute value? There is, so to +speak, a joining together, a reciprocal penetration, in which the +two elementary concepts, grasping each other like the hooked +atoms of Epicurus, absorb one another and disappear, leaving in +their place a compound possessed, but in a superior degree, of +all their positive properties, and divested of all their negative +properties. A value really such--like money, first-class +business paper, government annuities, shares in a +well-established enterprise--can neither be increased without +reason nor lost in exchange: it is governed only by the natural +law of the addition of special industries and the increase of +products. Further, such a value is not the result of a +compromise,--that is, of eclecticism, juste-milieu, or mixture; +it is the product of a complete fusion, a product entirely new +and distinct from its components, just as water, the product of +the combination of hydrogen and oxygen, is a separate body, +totally distinct from its elements. + +The resolution of two antithetical ideas in a third of a superior +order is what the school calls SYNTHESIS. It alone gives the +positive and complete idea, which is obtained, as we have seen, +by the successive affirmation or negation--for both amount to the +same thing--of two diametrically opposite concepts. Whence we +deduce this corollary, of the first importance in practice as +well as in theory: wherever, in the spheres of morality, history, +or political economy, analysis has established the antinomy of an +idea, we may affirm on a priori grounds that this antinomy +conceals a higher idea, which sooner or later will make its +appearance. + +I am sorry to have to insist at so great length on ideas familiar +to all young college graduates: but I owed these details to +certain economists, who, apropos of my critique of property, have +heaped dilemmas on dilemmas to prove that, if I was not a +proprietor, I necessarily must be a communist; all because they +did not understand THESIS, ANTITHESIS, and SYNTHESIS. + +The synthetic idea of value, as the fundamental condition of +social order and progress, was dimly seen by Adam Smith, when, to +use the words of M. Blanqui, "he showed that labor is the +universal and invariable measure of values, and proved that +everything has its natural price, toward which it continually +gravitates amid the fluctuations of the market, occasioned by +ACCIDENTAL CIRCUMSTANCES foreign to the venal value of the +thing." + +But this idea of value was wholly intuitive with Adam Smith, and +society does not change its habits upon the strength of +intuitions; it decides only upon the authority of facts. The +antinomy had to be expressed in a plainer and clearer manner: J. +B. Say was its principal interpreter. But, in spite of the +imaginative efforts and fearful subtlety of this economist, +Smith's definition controls him without his knowledge, and is +manifest throughout his arguments. + +"To put a value on an article," says Say, "is to DECLARE that it +should be ESTIMATED equally with some other designated article. +. . . . . The value of everything is vague and arbitrary UNTIL +IT IS RECOGNIZED. . . . . ." There is, therefore, a method of +recognizing the value of things,--that is, of determining it; +and, as this recognition or determination results from the +comparison of things with each other, there is, further, a common +feature, a principle, by means of which we are able to DECLARE +that one thing is worth more or less than, or as much as, +another. + +Say first said: "The measure of value is the value of another +product." Afterwards, having seen that this phrase was but a +tautology, he modified it thus: "The measure of value is the +QUANTITY of another product," which is quite as unintelligible. +Moreover, this writer, generally so clear and decided, +embarrasses himself with vain distinctions: "We may APPRECIATE +the value of things; we cannot MEASURE it,--that is, COMPARE it +with an invariable and known standard, for no such standard +exists. We can do nothing but ESTIMATE THE VALUE of things by +comparing them." At other times he distinguishes between REAL +values and RELATIVE values: "The former are those whose value +changes with the cost of production; the latter are those whose +value changes relatively to the value of other kinds of +merchandise." + +Singular prepossession of a man of genius, who does not see that +to COMPARE, to APPRAISE, to APPRECIATE, is to MEASURE; that +every measure, being only a comparison, indicates for that very +reason a true relation, provided the comparison is accurate; +that, consequently, value, or real measure, and value, or +relative measure, are perfectly identical; and that the +difficulty is reduced, not to the discovery of a standard of +measure, since all quantities may serve each other in that +capacity, but to the determination of a point of comparison. In +geometry the point of comparison is extent, and the unit of +measure is now the division of the circle into three hundred and +sixty parts, now the circumference of the terrestrial globe, now +the average dimension of the human arm, hand, thumb, or foot. In +economic science, we have said after Adam Smith, the point of +view from which all values are compared is labor; as for the unit +of measure, that adopted in France is the FRANC. It is +incredible that so many sensible men should struggle for forty +years against an idea so simple. But no: THE COMPARISON OF +VALUES IS EFFECTED WITH OUT A POINT OF COMPARISON BETWEEN THEM, +AND WITHOUT A UNIT OF MEASURE,--such is the proposition which the +economists of the nineteenth century, rather than accept the +revolutionary idea of equality, have resolved to maintain against +all comers. What will posterity say? + +I shall presently show, by striking examples, that the idea of +the measure or proportion of values, theoretically necessary, is +constantly realized in every-day life. + + +% 3.--Application of the law of proportionality of values. + +Every product is a representative of labor. + +Every product, therefore, can be exchanged for some other, as +universal practice proves. + +But abolish labor, and you have left only articles of greater or +less usefulness, which, being stamped with no economic character, +no human seal, are without a common measure,--that is, are +logically unexchangeable. + +Gold and silver, like other articles of merchandise, are +representatives of value; they have, therefore, been able to +serve as common measures and mediums of exchange. But the +special function which custom has allotted to the precious +metals,--that of serving as a commercial agent,--is purely +conventional, and any other article of merchandise, less +conveniently perhaps, but just as authentically, could play this +part: the economists admit it, and more than one example of it +can be cited. What, then, is the reason of this preference +generally accorded to the metals for the purpose of money, and +how shall we explain this speciality of function, unparalleled in +political economy, possessed by specie? For every unique thing +incomparable in kind is necessarily very difficult of +comprehension, and often even fails of it altogether. Now, is it +possible to reconstruct the series from which money seems to have +been detached, and, consequently, restore the latter to its true +principle? + +In dealing with this question the economists, following their +usual course, have rushed beyond the limits of their science; +they have appealed to physics, to mechanics, to history, etc.; +they have talked of all things, but have given no answer. The +precious metals, they have said, by their scarcity, density, and +incorruptibility, are fitted to serve as money in, a degree +unapproached by other kinds of merchandise. In short, the +economists, instead of replying to the economic question put to +them, have set themselves to the examination of a question of +art. They have laid great stress on the mechanical adaptation of +gold and silver for the purpose of money; but not one of them has +seen or understood the economic reason which gave to the precious +metals the privilege they now enjoy. + +Now, the point that no one has noticed is that, of all the +various articles of merchandise, gold and silver were the first +whose value was determined. In the patriarchal period, gold and +silver still were bought and sold in ingots, but already with a +visible tendency to superiority and with a marked preference. +Gradually sovereigns took possession of them and stamped them +with their seal; and from this royal consecration was born +money,--that is, the commodity par excellence; that which, +notwithstanding all commercial shocks, maintains a determined +proportional value, and is accepted in payment for all things. + +That which distinguishes specie, in fact, is not the durability +of the metal, which is less than that of steel, nor its utility, +which is much below that of wheat, iron, coal, and numerous other +substances, regarded as almost vile when compared with gold; +neither is it its scarcity or density, for in both these respects +it might be replaced, either by labor spent upon other materials, +or, as at present, by bank notes representing vast amounts of +iron or copper. The distinctive feature of gold and silver, I +repeat, is the fact that, owing to their metallic properties, the +difficulties of their production, and, above all, the +intervention of public authority, their value as merchandise was +fixed and authenticated at an early date. + +I say then that the value of gold and silver, especially of the +part that is made into money, although perhaps it has not yet +been calculated accurately, is no longer arbitrary; I add that it +is no longer susceptible of depreciation, like other values, +although it may vary continually nevertheless. All the logic and +erudition that has been expended to prove, by the example of gold +and silver, that value is essentially indeterminable, is a mass +of paralogisms, arising from a false idea of the question, ab +ignorantia elenchi. + +Philip I., King of France, mixed with the livre tournois of +Charlemagne one-third alloy, imagining that, since he held the +monopoly of the power of coining money, he could do what every +merchant does who holds the monopoly of a product. What was, in +fact, this adulteration of money, for which Philip and his +successors are so severely blamed? A very sound argument from +the standpoint of commercial routine, but wholly false in the +view of economic science,--namely, that, supply and demand being +the regulators of value, we may, either by causing an artificial +scarcity or by monopolizing the manufacture, raise the +estimation, and consequently the value, of things, and that this +is as true of gold and silver as of wheat, wine, oil, tobacco. +Nevertheless, Philip's fraud was no sooner suspected than his +money was reduced to its true value, and he lost himself all that +he had expected to gain from his subjects. The same thing +happened after all similar attempts. What was the reason of this +disappointment? + +Because, say the economists, the quantity of gold and silver in +reality being neither diminished nor increased by the false +coinage, the proportion of these metals to other merchandise was +not changed, and consequently it was not in the power of the +sovereign to make that which was worth but two worth four. For +the same reason, if, instead of debasing the coin, it had been in +the king's power to double its mass, the exchangeable value of +gold and silver would have decreased one-half immediately, always +on account of this proportionality and equilibrium. The +adulteration of the coin was, then, on the part of the king, a +forced loan, or rather, a bankruptcy, a swindle. + +Marvelous! the economists explain very clearly, when they choose, +the theory of the measure of value; that they may do so, it is +necessary only to start them on the subject of money. Why, then, +do they not see that money is the written law of commerce, the +type of exchange, the first link in that long chain of creations +all of which, as merchandise, must receive the sanction of +society, and become, if not in fact, at least in right, +acceptable as money in settlement of all kinds of transactions? + +"Money," M. Augier very truly says, "can serve, either as a means +of authenticating contracts already made, or as a good medium of +exchange, only so far as its value approaches the ideal of +permanence; for in all cases it exchanges or buys only the value +which it possesses."[8] + + +[8] "History of Public Credit." + + + +Let us turn this eminently judicious observation into a general +formula. + +Labor becomes a guarantee of well-being and equality only so far +as the product of each individual is in proportion with the mass; +for in all cases it exchanges or buys a value equal only to its +own. + +Is it not strange that the defence of speculative and fraudulent +commerce is undertaken boldly, while at the same time the attempt +of a royal counterfeiter, who, after all, did but apply to gold +and silver the fundamental principle of political economy, the +arbitrary instability of values, is frowned down? If the +administration should presume to give twelve ounces of tobacco +for a pound,[9] the economists would cry robbery; but, if the +same administration, using its privilege, should increase the +price a few cents a pound, they would regard it as dear, but +would discover no violation of principles. What an imbroglio is +political economy! + + +[9] In France, the sale of tobacco is a government monopoly.-- +Translator. + + + +There is, then, in the monetization of gold and silver something +that the economists have given no account of; namely, the +consecration of the law of proportionality, the first act in the +constitution of values. Humanity does all things by infinitely +small degrees: after comprehending the fact that all products of +labor must be submitted to a proportional measure which makes all +of them equally exchangeable, it begins by giving this attribute +of absolute exchangeability to a special product, which shall +become the type and model of all others. In the same way, to +lift its members to liberty and equality, it begins by creating +kings. The people have a confused idea of this providential +progress when, in their dreams of fortune and in their legends, +they speak continually of gold and royalty; and the philosophers +only do homage to universal reason when, in their so-called moral +homilies and their socialistic utopias, they thunder with equal +violence against gold and tyranny. Auri sacra fames! Cursed +gold! ludicrously shouts some communist. As well say cursed +wheat, cursed vines, cursed sheep; for, like gold and silver, +every commercial value must reach an exact and accurate +determination. The work was begun long since; today it is making +visible progress. + +Let us pass to other considerations. + +It is an axiom generally admitted by the economists that ALL +LABOR SHOULD LEAVE AN EXCESS. + +I regard this proposition as universally and absolutely true; it +is a corollary of the law of proportionality, which may be +regarded as an epitome of the whole science of economy. But--I +beg pardon of the economists--the principle that ALL LABOR +SHOULD LEAVE AN EXCESS has no meaning in their theory, and is not +susceptible of demonstration. If supply and demand alone +determine value, how can we tell what is an excess and what is a +SUFFICIENCY? If neither cost, nor market price, nor wages can +be mathematically determined, how is it possible to conceive of a +surplus, a profit? Commercial routine has given us the idea of +profit as well as the word; and, since we are equal politically, +we infer that every citizen has an equal right to realize profits +in his personal industry. But commercial operations are +essentially irregular, and it has been proved beyond question +that the profits of commerce are but an arbitrary discount forced +from the consumer by the producer,--in short, a displacement, to +say the least. This we should soon see, if it was possible to +compare the total amount of annual losses with the amount of +profits. In the thought of political economy, the principle that +ALL LABOR SHOULD LEAVE AN EXCESS is simply the consecration +of the constitutional right which all of us gained by the +revolution,-- the right of robbing one's neighbor. + +The law of proportionality of values alone can solve this +problem. I will approach the question a little farther back: its +gravity warrants me in treating it with the consideration that it +merits. + +Most philosophers, like most philologists, see in society only a +creature of the mind, or rather, an abstract name serving to +designate a collection of men. It is a prepossession which all +of us received in our infancy with our first lessons in grammar, +that collective nouns, the names of genera and species, do not +designate realities. There is much to say under this head, but I +confine myself to my subject. To the true economist, society is +a living being, endowed with an intelligence and an activity of +its own, governed by special laws discoverable by observation +alone, and whose existence is manifested, not under a material +aspect, but by the close concert and mutual interdependence of +all its members. Therefore, when a few pages back, adopting the +allegorical method, we used a fabulous god as a symbol of +society, our language in reality was not in the least +metaphorical: we only gave a name to the social being, an organic +and synthetic unit. In the eyes of any one who has reflected +upon the laws of labor and exchange (I disregard every other +consideration), the reality, I had almost said the personality, +of the collective man is as certain as the reality and the +personality of the individual man. The only difference is that +the latter appears to the senses as an organism whose parts are +in a state of material coherence, which is not true of society. +But intelligence, spontaneity, development, life, all that +constitutes in the highest degree the reality of being, is +as essential to society as to man: and hence it is that the +government of societies is a SCIENCE,-- that is, a study of +natural relations,--and not an ART,-- that is, good pleasure and +absolutism. Hence it is, finally, that every society declines +the moment it falls into the hands of the ideologists. + +The principle that ALL LABOR SHOULD LEAVE AN EXCESS, +undemonstrable by political economy,--that is, by proprietary +routine,--is one of those which bear strongest testimony to the +reality of the collective person: for, as we shall see, this +principle is true of individuals only because it emanates from +society, which thus confers upon them the benefit of its own +laws. + +Let us turn to facts. It has been observed that railroad +enterprises are a source of wealth to those who control them in a +much less degree than to the State. The observation is a true +one; and it might have been added that it applies, not only to +railroads, but to every industry. But this phenomenon, which is +essentially the result of the law of proportionality of values +and of the absolute identity of production and consumption, is at +variance with the ordinary notion of useful value and +exchangeable value. + +The average price charged for the transportation of merchandise +by the old method is eighteen centimes per ton and kilometer, the +merchandise taken and delivered at the warehouses. It has been +calculated that, at this price, an ordinary railroad corporation +would net a profit of not quite ten per cent., nearly the same as +the profit made by the old method. But let us admit that the +rapidity of transportation by rail is to that by wheels, all +allowances made, as four to one: in society time itself being +value, at the same price the railroad would have an advantage +over the stage-wagon of four hundred per cent. `Nevertheless, +this enormous advantage, a very real one so far as society is +concerned, is by no means realized in a like proportion by the +carrier, who, while he adds four hundred per cent. to the social +value, makes personally less than ten per cent. Suppose, in +fact, to make the thing still clearer, that the railroad should +raise its price to twenty- five centimes, the rate by the old +method remaining at eighteen; it would lose immediately all its +consignments; shippers, consignees, everybody would return to the +stage-wagon, if necessary. The locomotive would be abandoned; a +social advantage of four hundred per cent. would be sacrificed to +a private loss of thirty-three per cent. + +The reason of this is easily seen. The advantage which results +from the rapidity of the railroad is wholly social, and each +individual participates in it only in a very slight degree (do +not forget that we are speaking now only of the transportation of +merchandise); while the loss falls directly and personally on the +consumer. A special profit of four hundred per cent. in a +society composed of say a million of men represents four +ten-thousandths for each individual; while a loss to the consumer +of thirty-three per cent. means a social deficit of thirty- three +millions. Private interest and collective interest, seemingly so +divergent at first blush, are therefore perfectly identical and +equal: and this example may serve to show already how economic +science reconciles all interests. + +Consequently, in order that society may realize the profit above +supposed, it is absolutely necessary that the railroad's prices +shall not exceed, or shall exceed but very little, those of the +stage-wagon. + +But, that this condition may be fulfilled,--in other words, that +the railroad may be commercially possible,--the amount of +matter transported must be sufficiently great to cover at least +the interest on the capital invested and the running expenses of +the road. Then a railroad's first condition of existence is a +large circulation, which implies a still larger production and a +vast amount of exchanges. + +But production, circulation, and exchange are not self-creative +things; again, the various kinds of labor are not developed in +isolation and independently of each other: their progress is +necessarily connected, solidary, proportional. There may be +antagonism among manufacturers; but, in spite of them, social +action is one, convergent, harmonious,--in a word, personal. +Further, there is a day appointed for the creation of great +instruments of labor: it is the day when general consumption +shall be able to maintain their employment,--that is, for all +these propositions are interconvertible, the day when ambient +labor can feed new machinery. To anticipate the hour appointed +by the progress of labor would be to imitate the fool who, going +from Lyons to Marseilles, chartered a steamer for himself alone. + +These points cleared up, nothing is easier than to explain why +labor must leave an excess for each producer. + +And first, as regards society: Prometheus, emerging from the womb +of Nature, awakens to life in a state of inertia which is very +charming, but which would soon become misery and torture if he +did not make haste to abandon it for labor. In this original +idleness, the product of Prometheus being nothing, his well-being +is the same as that of the brute, and may be represented by zero. + +Prometheus begins to work: and from his first day's labor, the +first of the second creation, the product of Prometheus--that is, +his wealth, his well-being--is equal to ten. + +The second day Prometheus divides his labor, and his product +increases to one hundred. + +The third day, and each following day, Prometheus invents +machinery, discovers new uses in things, new forces in Nature; +the field of his existence extends from the domain of the senses +to the sphere of morals and intelligence, and with every step +that his industry takes the amount of his product increases, and +assures him additional happiness. And since, finally, with him, +to consume is to produce, it is clear that each day's +consumption, using up only the product of the day before, leaves +a surplus product for the day after. + +But notice also--and give especial heed to this all-important +fact--that the well-being of man is directly proportional to the +intensity of labor and the multiplicity of industries: so that +the increase of wealth and the increase of labor are correlative +and parallel. + +To say now that every individual participates in these general +conditions of collective development would be to affirm a truth +which, by reason of the evidence in its support, would appear +silly. Let us point out rather the two general forms of +consumption in society. + +Society, like the individual, has first its articles of personal +consumption, articles which time gradually causes it to feel the +need of, and which its mysterious instincts command it to create. + +Thus in the middle ages there was, with a large number of cities, +a decisive moment when the building of city halls and cathedrals +became a violent passion, which had to be satisfied at any price; +the life of the community depended upon it. Security and +strength, public order, centralization, nationality, country, +independence, these are the elements which make up the life of +society, the totality of its mental faculties; these are the +sentiments which must find expression and representation. Such +formerly was the object of the temple of Jerusalem, real +palladium of the Jewish nation; such was the temple of +Jupiter Capitolinus of Rome. Later, after the municipal palace +and the temple,--organs, so to speak, of centralization and +progress,--came the other works of public utility,--bridges, +theatres, schools, hospitals, roads, etc. + +The monuments of public utility being used essentially in common, +and consequently gratuitously, society is rewarded for its +advances by the political and moral advantages resulting from +these great works, and which, furnishing security to labor and an +ideal to the mind, give fresh impetus to industry and the arts. + +But it is different with the articles of domestic consumption, +which alone fall within the category of exchange. These can be +produced only upon the conditions of mutuality which make +consumption possible,--that is, immediate payment with advantage +to the producers. These conditions we have developed +sufficiently in the theory of proportionality of values, which we +might call as well the theory of the gradual reduction of cost. + +I have demonstrated theoretically and by facts the principle that +ALL LABOR SHOULD LEAVE AN EXCESS; but this principle, as certain +as any proposition in arithmetic, is very far from universal +realization. While, by the progress of collective industry, each +individual day's labor yields a greater and greater product, and +while, by necessary consequence, the laborer, receiving the same +wages, must grow ever richer, there exist in society classes +which THRIVE and classes which PERISH; laborers paid twice, +thrice, a hundred times over, and laborers continually out of +pocket; everywhere, finally, people who enjoy and people who +suffer, and, by a monstrous division of the means of industry, +individuals who consume and do not produce. The distribution of +well-being follows all the movements of value, and reproduces +them in misery and luxury on a frightful scale and with terrible +energy. But everywhere, too, the progress of wealth--that is, +the proportionality of values--is the dominant law; and when the +economists combat the complaints of the socialists with the +progressive increase of public wealth and the alleviations of the +condition of even the most unfortunate classes, they proclaim, +without suspecting it, a truth which is the condemnation of their +theories. + +For I entreat the economists to question themselves for a moment +in the silence of their hearts, far from the prejudices which +disturb them, and regardless of the employments which occupy them +or which they wait for, of the interests which they serve, of the +votes which they covet, of the distinctions which tickle their +vanity: let them tell me whether, hitherto, they have viewed the +principle that all labor should leave an excess in connection +with this series of premises and conclusions which we have +elaborated, and whether they ever have understood these words to +mean anything more than the right to speculate in values by +manipulating supply and demand; whether it is not true that they +affirm at once, on the one hand the progress of wealth and +well-being, and consequently the measure of values, and on the +other the arbitrariness of commercial transactions and the +incommensurability of values,--the flattest of contradictions? +Is it not because of this contradiction that we continually hear +repeated in lectures, and read in the works on political economy, +this absurd hypothesis: If THE PRICE OF ALL THINGS WAS DOUBLED. +. . . . . ? As if the price of all things was not the proportion +of things, and as if we could double a proportion, a relation, a +law! Finally, is it not because of the proprietary and abnormal +routine upheld by political economy that every one, in +commerce, industry, the arts, and the State, on the pretended +ground of services rendered to society, tends continually to +exaggerate his importance, and solicits rewards, subsidies, large +pensions, exorbitant fees: as if the reward of every service was +not determined necessarily by the sum of its expenses? Why do +not the economists, if they believe, as they appear to, that the +labor of each should leave an excess, use all their influence in +spreading this truth, so simple and so luminous: Each man's +labor can buy only the value which it contains, and this value is +proportional to the services of all other laborers? + +But here a last consideration presents itself, which I will +explain in a few words. + +J. B. Say, who of all the economists has insisted the most +strenuously upon the absolute indeterminability of value, is also +the one who has taken the most pains to refute that idea. He, if +I am not mistaken, is the author of the formula: EVERY PRODUCT +IS WORTH WHAT IT COSTS; or, what amounts to the same thing: +PRODUCTS ARE BOUGHT WITH PRODUCTS. This aphorism, which leads +straight to equality, has been controverted since by other +economists; we will examine in turn the affirmative and the +negative. + +When I say that every product is worth the products which it has +cost, I mean that every product is a collective unit which, in a +new form, groups a certain number of other products consumed in +various quantities. Whence it follows that the products of human +industry are, in relation to each other, genera and species, and +that they form a series from the simple to the composite, +according to the number and proportion of the elements, all +equivalent to each other, which constitute each product. It +matters little, for the present, that this series, as well +as the equivalence of its elements, is expressed in practice more +or less exactly by the equilibrium of wages and fortunes; our +first business is with the relation of things, the economic law. +For here, as ever, the idea first and spontaneously generates the +fact, which, recognized then by the thought which has given it +birth, gradually rectifies itself and conforms to its principle. +Commerce, free and competitive, is but a long operation of +redressal, whose object is to define more and more clearly the +proportionality of values, until the civil law shall recognize it +as a guide in matters concerning the condition of persons. I +say, then, that Say's principle, EVERY PRODUCT IS WORTH WHAT IT +COSTS, indicates a series in human production analogous to the +animal and vegetable series, in which the elementary units (day's +works) are regarded as equal. So that political economy affirms +at its birth, but by a contradiction, what neither Plato, nor +Rousseau, nor any ancient or modern publicist has thought +possible,-- equality of conditions and fortunes. + +Prometheus is by turns husbandman, wine-grower, baker, weaver. +Whatever trade he works at, laboring only for himself, he buys +what he consumes (his products) with one and the same money (his +products), whose unit of measurement is necessarily his day's +work. It is true that labor itself is liable to vary; Prometheus +is not always in the same condition, and from one moment to +another his enthusiasm, his fruitfulness, rises and falls. But, +like everything that is subject to variation, labor has its +average, which justifies us in saying that, on the whole, day's +work pays for day's work, neither more nor less. It is quite +true that, if we compare the products of a certain period of +social life with those of another, the hundred millionth day's +work of the human race will show a result incomparably superior +to that of the first; but it must be remembered also that the +life of the collective being can no more be divided than that of +the individual; that, though the days may not resemble each +other, they are indissolubly united, and that in the sum total of +existence pain and pleasure are common to them. If, then, the +tailor, for rendering the value of a day's work, consumes ten +times the product of the day's work of the weaver, it is as if +the weaver gave ten days of his life for one day of the tailor's. +This is exactly what happens when a peasant pays twelve francs to +a lawyer for a document which it takes him an hour to prepare; +and this inequality, this iniquity in exchanges, is the most +potent cause of misery that the socialists have unveiled,--as the +economists confess in secret while awaiting a sign from the +master that shall permit them to acknowledge it openly. + +Every error in commutative justice is an immolation of the +laborer, a transfusion of the blood of one man into the body of +another. . . . . Let no one be frightened; I have no intention +of fulminating against property an irritating philippic; +especially as I think that, according to my principles, humanity +is never mistaken; that, in establishing itself at first upon the +right of property, it only laid down one of the principles of its +future organization; and that, the preponderance of property once +destroyed, it remains only to reduce this famous antithesis to +unity. All the objections that can be offered in favor of +property I am as well acquainted with as any of my critics, whom +I ask as a favor to show their hearts when logic fails them. How +can wealth that is not measured by labor be VALUABLE? And if it +is labor that creates wealth and legitimates property, how +explain the consumption of the idler? Where is the honesty in a +system of distribution in which a product is worth, according to +the person, now more, now less, than it costs. + +Say's ideas led to an agrarian law; therefore, the conservative +party hastened to protest against them. "The original source of +wealth," M. Rossi had said, "is labor. In proclaiming this great +principle, the industrial school has placed in evidence not only +an economic principle, but that social fact which, in the hands +of a skilful historian, becomes the surest guide in following the +human race in its marchings and haltings upon the face of the +earth." + +Why, after having uttered these profound words in his lectures, +has M. Rossi thought it his duty to retract them afterwards in a +review, and to compromise gratuitously his dignity as a +philosopher and an economist? + +"Say that wealth is the result of labor alone; affirm that labor +is always the measure of value, the regulator of prices; yet, to +escape one way or another the objections which these doctrines +call forth on all hands, some incomplete, others absolute, you +will be obliged to generalize the idea of labor, and to +substitute for analysis an utterly erroneous synthesis." + +I regret that a man like M. Rossi should suggest to me so sad a +thought; but, while reading the passage that I have just quoted, +I could not help saying: Science and truth have lost their +influence: the present object of worship is the shop, and, after +the shop, the desperate constitutionalism which represents it. +To whom, then, does M. Rossi address himself? Is he in favor of +labor or something else; analysis or synthesis? Is he in favor +of all these things at once? Let him choose, for the conclusion +is inevitably against him. + +If labor is the source of all wealth, if it is the surest guide +in tracing the history of human institutions on the face of the +earth, why should equality of distribution, equality as measured +by labor, not be a law? + +If, on the contrary, there is wealth which is not the product of +labor, why is the possession of it a privilege? Where is the +legitimacy of monopoly? Explain then, once for all, this theory +of the right of unproductive consumption; this jurisprudence of +caprice, this religion of idleness, the sacred prerogative of a +caste of the elect. + +What, now, is the significance of this appeal from ANALYSIS to +the false judgments of the synthesis? These metaphysical terms +are of no use, save to indoctrinate simpletons, who do not +suspect that the same proposition can be construed, indifferently +and at will, analytically or synthetically. LABOR IS THE +PRINCIPLE OF VALUE END THE SOURCE OF WEALTH: an analytic +proposition such as M. Rossi likes, since it is the summary of an +analysis in which it is demonstrated that the primitive notion of +labor is identical with the subsequent notions of product, value, +capital, wealth, etc. Nevertheless, we see that M. Rossi rejects +the doctrine which results from this analysis. LABOR, CAPITAL, +AND LAND ARE THE SOURCES OF WEALTH: a synthetic proposition, +precisely such as M. Rossi does not like. Indeed, wealth is +considered here as a general notion, produced in three distinct, +but not identical, ways. And yet the doctrine thus formulated is +the one that M. Rossi prefers. Now, would it please M. Rossi to +have us render his theory of monopoly analytically and ours of +labor synthetically? I can give him the satisfaction. . . . . +But I should blush, with so earnest a man, to prolong such +badinage. M. Rossi knows better than any one that analysis and +synthesis of themselves prove absolutely nothing, and that the +important work, as Bacon said, is to make exact comparisons and +complete enumerations. + +Since M. Rossi was in the humor for abstractions, why did he not +say to the phalanx of economists who listen so respectfully to +the least word that falls from his lips: + +"Capital is the MATERIAL of wealth, as gold and silver are the +material of money, as wheat is the material of bread, and, +tracing the series back to the end, as earth, water, fire, and +air are the material of all our products. But it is labor, labor +alone, which successively creates each utility given to these +MATERIALS, and which consequently transforms them into capital +and wealth. Capital is the result of labor,-- that is, realized +intelligence and life,--as animals and plants are realizations of +the soul of the universe, and as the chefs d'oeuvre of Homer, +Raphael, and Rossini are expressions of their ideas and +sentiments. Value is the proportion in which all the +realizations of the human soul must balance each other in order +to produce a harmonious whole, which, being wealth, gives us +well-being, or rather is the token, not the object, of our +happiness. + +"The proposition, THERE IS NO MEASURE OF VALUE, is illogical and +contradictory, as is shown by the very arguments which have been +offered in its support. + +"The proposition, LABOR IS THE PRINCIPLE OF PROPORTIONALITY OF +VALUES, not only is true, resulting as it does from an +irrefutable analysis, but it is the object of progress, the +condition and form of social well-being, the beginning and end +of political economy. From this proposition and its corollaries, +EVERY PRODUCT IS WORTH WHAT IT COSTS, and PRODUCTS ARE BOUGHT +WITH PRODUCTs, follows the dogma of equality of conditions. + +"The idea of value socially constituted, or of proportionality of +values, serves to explain further: (a) how a mechanical +invention, notwithstanding the privilege which it temporarily +creates and the disturbances which it occasions, always produces +in the end a general amelioration; (b) how the value of an +economical process to its discoverer can never equal the profit +which it realizes for society; (c) how, by a series of +oscillations between supply and demand, the value of every +product constantly seeks a level with cost and with the needs of +consumption, and consequently tends to establish itself in a +fixed and positive manner; (d) how, collective production +continually increasing the amount of consumable things, and the +day's work constantly obtaining higher and higher pay, labor must +leave an excess for each producer; (e) how the amount of work to +be done, instead of being diminished by industrial progress, ever +increases in both quantity and quality--that is, in intensity and +difficulty--in all branches of industry; (f) how social value +continually eliminates fictitious values,--in other words, how +industry effects the socialization of capital and property; (g) +finally, how the distribution of products, growing in regularity +with the strength of the mutual guarantee resulting from the +constitution of value, pushes society onward to equality of +conditions and fortunes. + +"Finally, the theory of the successive constitution of all +commercial values implying the infinite progress of labor, +wealth, and well-being, the object of society, from the economic +point of view, is revealed to us: TO PRODUCE INCESSANTLY, WITH +THEE LEAST POSSIBLE AMOUNT OF LABOR FOR EACH PRODUCT, THE +GREATEST POSSIBLE QUANTITY AND VARIETY OF VALUES, IN SUCH A WAY +AS TO REALIZE, FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL, THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF +PHYSICAL, MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL WELL-BEING, AND, FOR THE RACE, +THE HIGHEST PERFECTION AND INFINITE GLORY. + +Now that we have determined, not without difficulty, the meaning +of the question asked by the Academy of Moral Sciences touching +the oscillations of profit and wages, it is time to begin the +essential part of our work. Wherever labor has not been +socialized,--that is, wherever value is not synthetically +determined,--there is irregularity and dishonesty in exchange; a +war of stratagems and ambuscades; an impediment to production, +circulation, and consumption; unproductive labor; insecurity; +spoliation; insolidarity; want; luxury: but at the same time an +effort of the genius of society to obtain justice, and a constant +tendency toward association and order. Political economy is +simply the history of this grand struggle. On the one hand, +indeed, political economy, in so far as it sanctions and pretends +to perpetuate the anomalies of value and the prerogatives of +selfishness, is truly the theory of misfortune and the +organization of misery; but in so far as it explains the means +invented by civilization to abolish poverty, although these means +always have been used exclusively in the interest of monopoly, +political economy is the preamble of the organization of wealth. + +It is important, then, that we should resume the study of +economic facts and practices, discover their meaning, and +formulate their philosophy. Until this is done, no knowledge of +social progress can be acquired, no reform attempted. The error +of socialism has consisted hitherto in perpetuating religious +reverie by launching forward into a fantastic future instead of +seizing the reality which is crushing it; as the wrong of the +economists has been in regarding every accomplished fact as an +injunction against any proposal of reform. + +For my own part, such is not my conception of economic science, +the true social science. Instead of offering a priori arguments +as solutions of the formidable problems of the organization of +labor and the distribution of wealth, I shall interrogate +political economy as the depositary of the secret thoughts of +humanity; I shall cause it to disclose the facts in the order of +their occurrence, and shall relate their testimony without +intermingling it with my own. It will be at once a triumphant +and a lamentable history, in which the actors will be ideas, the +episodes theories, and the dates formulas. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ECONOMIC EVOLUTIONS.--FIRST PERIOD.--THE DIVISION OF LABOR. + +The fundamental idea, the dominant category, of political economy +is VALUE. + +Value reaches its positive determination by a series of +oscillations between SUPPLY and DEMAND. + +Consequently, value appears successively under three aspects: +useful value, exchangeable value, and synthetic, or social, +value, which is true value. The first term gives birth to the +second in contradiction to it, and the two together, absorbing +each other in reciprocal penetration, produce the third: so that +the contradiction or antagonism of ideas appears as the point of +departure of all economic science, allowing us to say of it, +parodying the sentence of Tertullian in relation to the Gospel, +Credo quia absurdum: There is, in social economy, a latent truth +wherever there is an apparent contradiction, Credo quia +contrarium. + +From the point of view of political economy, then, social +progress consists in a continuous solution of the problem of the +constitution of values, or of the proportionality and solidarity +of products. + +But while in Nature the synthesis of opposites is contemporary +with their opposition, in society the antithetic elements seem to +appear at long intervals, and to reach solution only`after long +and tumultuous agitation. Thus there is no example--the idea +even is inconceivable--of a valley without a hill, a left without +a right, a north pole without a south pole, a stick with but one +end, or two ends without a middle, etc. The human body, with its +so perfectly antithetic dichotomy, is formed integrally at the +very moment of conception; it refuses to be put together and +arranged piece by piece, like the garment patterned after it +which, later, is to cover it.[10] + + +[10] A subtle philologist, M. Paul Ackermann, has shown, using +the French language as an illustration, that, since every word in +a language has its opposite, or, as the author calls it, its +antonym, the entire vocabulary might be arranged in couples, +forming a vast dualistic system. (See Dictionary of Antonyms. +By Paul Ackermann. Paris: Brockhaus & Avenarius. 1842) + + + +In society, on the contrary, as well as in the mind, so far from +the idea reaching its complete realization at a single bound, a +sort of abyss separates, so to speak, the two antinomical +positions, and even when these are recognized at last, we still +do not see what the synthesis will be. The primitive concepts +must be fertilized, so to speak, by burning controversy and +passionate struggle; bloody battles will be the preliminaries of +peace. At the present moment, Europe, weary of war and +discussion, awaits a reconciling principle; and it is the vague +perception of this situation which induces the Academy of Moral +and Political Sciences to ask, "What are the general facts which +govern the relations of profits to wages and determine their +oscillations?" in other words, what are the most salient episodes +and the most remarkable phases of the war between labor and +capital? + +If, then, I demonstrate that political economy, with all its +contradictory hypotheses and equivocal conclusions, is nothing +but an organization of privilege and misery, I shall have proved +thereby that it contains by implication the promise of an +organization of labor and equality, since, as has been said, +every systematic contradiction is the announcement of a +composition; further, I shall have fixed the bases of this +composition. Then, indeed, to unfold the system of economical +contradictions is to lay the foundations of universal +association; to show how the products of collective labor COME +OUT of society is to explain how it will be possible to make them +RETURN to it; to exhibit the genesis of the problems of +production and distribution is to prepare the way for their +solution. All these propositions are identical and equally +evident. + + +% 1.--Antagonistic effects of the principle of division. + +All men are equal in the state of primitive communism, equal in +their nakedness and ignorance, equal in the indefinite power of +their faculties. The economists generally look at only the first +of these aspects; they neglect or overlook the second. +Nevertheless, according to the profoundest philosophers of modern +times, La Rochefoucault, Helvetius, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, +Jacotot, intelligence differs in individuals only QUALITATIVELY, +each having thereby his own specialty or genius; in its +essence,--namely, judgment,--it is QUANTITATIVELY equal in all. +Hence it follows that, a little sooner or a little later, +according as circumstances shall be more or less favorable, +general progress must lead all men from original and negative +equality to a positive equivalence of talents and acquirements. + +I insist upon this precious datum of psychology, the necessary +consequence of which is that the HIERARCHY OF CAPACITIES +henceforth cannot be allowed as a principle and law of +organization: equality alone is our rule, as it is also our +ideal. Then, just as the equality of misery must change +gradually into equality of well-being, as we have proved by the +theory of value, so the equality of minds, negative in the +beginning, since it represents only emptiness, must reappear in a +positive form at the completion of humanity's education. The +intellectual movement proceeds parallelly with the economic +movement; they are the expression, the translation, of each +other; psychology and social economy are in accord, or rather, +they but unroll the same history, each from a different point of +view. This appears especially in Smith's great law, the DIVISION +OF LABOR. + +Considered in its essence, the division of labor is the way in +which equality of condition and intelligence is realized. +Through diversity of function, it gives rise to proportionality +of products and equilibrium in exchange, and consequently opens +for us the road to wealth; as also, in showing us infinity +everywhere in art and Nature, it leads us to idealize our acts, +and makes the creative mind--that is, divinity itself, mentem +diviniorem--immanent and perceptible in all laborers. + +Division of labor, then, is the first phase of economic evolution +as well as of intellectual development: our point of departure is +true as regards both man and things, and the progress of our +exposition is in no wise arbitrary. + +But, at this solemn hour of the division of labor, tempestuous +winds begin to blow upon humanity. Progress does not improve the +condition of all equally and uniformly, although in the end it +must include and transfigure every intelligent and industrious +being. It commences by taking possession of a small number of +privileged persons, who thus compose the elite of nations, while +the mass continues, or even buries itself deeper, in +barbarism. It is this exception of persons on the part of +progress which has perpetuated the belief in the natural and +providential inequality of conditions, engendered caste, and +given an hierarchical form to all societies. It has not been +understood that all inequality, never being more than a negation, +carries in itself the proof of its illegitimacy and the +announcement of its downfall: much less still has it been +imagined that this same inequality proceeds accidentally from a +cause the ulterior effect of which must be its entire +disappearance. + +Thus, the antinomy of value reappearing in the law of division, +it is found that the first and most potent instrument of +knowledge and wealth which Providence has placed in our hands has +become for us an instrument of misery and imbecility. Here is +the formula of this new law of antagonism, to which we owe the +two oldest maladies of civilization, aristocracy and the +proletariat: Labor, in dividing itself according to the law +which is peculiar to it, and which is the primary condition of +its productivity, ends in the frustration of its own objects, and +destroys itself, in other words: Division, in the absence of +which there is no progress, no wealth, no equality, subordinates +the workingman, and renders intelligence useless, wealth harmful, +and equality impossible. All the economists, since Adam Smith, +have pointed out the ADVANTAGES and the INCONVENIENCES of the law +of division, but at the same time insisting much more strenuously +upon the first than the second, because such a course was more in +harmony with their optimistic views, and not one of them ever +asking how a LAW can have INCONVENIENCES. This is the way in +which J. B. Say summed up the question:-- + +"A man who during his whole life performs but one operation, +certainly acquires the power to execute it better and more +readily than another; but at the same time he becomes less +capable of any other occupation, whether physical or moral; +his other faculties become extinct, and there results a +degeneracy in the individual man. That one has made only the +eighteenth part of a pin is a sad account to give of one's self: +but let no one imagine that it is the workingman who spends his +life in handling a file or a hammer that alone degenerates in +this way from the dignity of his nature; it is the same with the +man whose position leads him to exercise the most subtle +faculties of his mind. . . On the whole, it may be said that the +separation of tasks is an advantageous use of human forces; that +it increases enormously the products of society; but that it +takes something from the capacity of each man taken +individually."[11] + + +[11] "Treatise on Political Economy." + + + +What, then, after labor, is the primary cause of the +multiplication of wealth and the skill of laborers? Division. + +What is the primary cause of intellectual degeneracy and, as we +shall show continually, civilized misery? Division. + +How does the same principle, rigorously followed to its +conclusions, lead to effects diametrically opposite? There is +not an economist, either before or since Adam Smith, who has even +perceived that here is a problem to be solved. Say goes so far +as to recognize that in the division of labor the same cause +which produces the good engenders the evil; then, after a few +words of pity for the victims of the separation of industries, +content with having given an impartial and faithful exhibition of +the facts, he leaves the matter there. "You know," he seems to +say, "that the more we divide the workmen's tasks, the more we +increase the productive power of labor; but at the same time the +more does labor, gradually reducing itself to a mechanical +operation, stupefy intelligence." + +In vain do we express our indignation against a theory which, +creating by labor itself an aristocracy of capacities, leads +inevitably to political inequality; in vain do we protest in the +name of democracy and progress that in the future there will be +no nobility, no bourgeoisie no pariahs. The economist replies, +with the impassibility of destiny: You are condemned to produce +much, and to produce cheaply; otherwise your industry will be +always insignificant, your commerce will amount to nothing, and +you will drag in the rear of civilization instead of taking the +lead.--What! among us, generous men, there are some predestined +to brutishness; and the more perfect our industry becomes, the +larger will grow the number of our accursed brothers! . . . . . +--Alas! . . . . . That is the last word of the economist. + +We cannot fail to recognize in the division of labor, as a +general fact and as a cause, all the characteristics of a LAW; +but as this law governs two orders of phenomena radically +opposite and destructive of each other, it must be confessed also +that this law is of a sort unknown in the exact sciences,--that +it is, strange to say, a contradictory law, a counter-law an +antinomy. Let us add, in anticipation, that such appears to be +the identifying feature of social economy, and consequently of +philosophy. + +Now, without a RECOMPOSITION of labor which shall obviate the +inconveniences of division while preserving its useful effects, +the contradiction inherent in the principle is irremediable. It +is necessary,--following the style of the Jewish priests, +plotting the death of Christ,--it is necessary that the poor +should perish to secure the proprietor his for tune, expedit unum +hominem pro populo mori. I am going to demonstrate the necessity +of this decree; after which, if the parcellaire laborer still +retains a glimmer of intelligence, he will console himself with +the thought that he dies according to the rules of political +economy. + +Labor, which ought to give scope to the conscience and render it +more and more worthy of happiness, leading through parcellaire +division to prostration of mind, dwarfs man in his noblest part, +minorat capitis, and throws him back into animality. Thenceforth +the fallen man labors as a brute, and consequently must be +treated as a brute. This sentence of Nature and necessity +society will execute. + +The first effect of parcellaire labor, after the depravation of +the mind, is the lengthening of the hours of labor, which +increase in inverse proportion to the amount of intelligence +expended. For, the product increasing in quantity and quality at +once, if, by any industrial improvement whatever, labor is +lightened in one way, it must pay for it in another. But as the +length of the working-day cannot exceed from sixteen to eighteen +hours, when compensation no longer can be made in time, it will +be taken from the price, and wages will decrease. And this +decrease will take place, not, as has been foolishly imagined, +because value is essentially arbitrary, but because it is +essentially determinable. Little matters it that the struggle +between supply and demand ends, now to the advantage of the +employer, now to the benefit of the employee; such oscillations +may vary in amplitude, this depending on well-known accessory +circumstances which have been estimated a thousand times. The +certain point, and the only one for us to notice now, is that the +universal conscience does not set the same price upon the labor +of an overseer and the work of a hod-carrier. A reduction in the +price of the day's work, then, is necessary: so that the laborer, +after having been afflicted in mind by a degrading function, +cannot fail to be struck also in his body by the meagreness of +his reward. This is the literal application of the words of the +Gospel: HE THAT HATH NOT, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN EVEN THAT +WHICH HE HATH. + +There is in economic accidents a pitiless reason which laughs at +religion and equity as political aphorisms, and which renders man +happy or unhappy according as he obeys or escapes the +prescriptions of destiny. Certainly this is far from that +Christian charity with which so many honorable writers today are +inspired, and which, penetrating to the heart of the bourgeoisie, +endeavors to temper the rigors of the law by numerous religious +institutions. Political economy knows only justice, justice as +inflexible and unyielding as the miser's purse; and it is because +political economy is the effect of social spontaneity and the +expression of the divine will that I have been able to say: God +is man's adversary, and Providence a misanthrope. God makes us +pay, in weight of blood and measure of tears, for each of our +lessons; and to complete the evil, we, in our relations with our +fellows, all act like him. Where, then, is this love of the +celestial father for his creatures? Where is human fraternity? + +Can he do otherwise? say the theists. Man falling, the animal +remains: how could the Creator recognize in him his own image? +And what plainer than that he treats him then as a beast of +burden? But the trial will not last for ever, and sooner or +later labor, having been PARTICULARIZED, will be synthetized. + +Such is the ordinary argument of all those who seek to justify +Providence, but generally succeed only in lending new weapons to +atheism. That is to say, then, that God would have envied us, +for six thousand years, an idea which would have saved millions +of victims, a distribution of labor at once special and +synthetic! In return, he has given us, through his servants +Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Mahomet, etc., those insipid writings, +the disgrace of our reason, which have killed more men than they +contain letters! Further, if we must believe primitive +revelation, social economy was the cursed science, the fruit of +the tree reserved for God, which man was forbidden to touch! Why +this religious depreciation of labor, if it is true, as economic +science already shows, that labor is the father of love and the +organ of happiness? Why this jealousy of our advancement? But +if, as now sufficiently appears, our progress depends upon +ourselves alone, of what use is it to adore this phantom of +divinity, and what does he still ask of us through the multitude +of inspired persons who pursue us with their sermons? All of +you, Christians, protestant and orthodox, neo-revelators, +charlatans and dupes, listen to the first verse of the +humanitarian hymn upon God's mercy: "In proportion as the +principle of division of labor receives complete application, the +worker becomes weaker, narrower, and more dependent. Art +advances: the artisan recedes!"[12] + + +[12] Tocqueville, "Democracy in America." + + + +Then let us guard against anticipating conclusions and prejudging +the latest revelation of experience. At present God seems less +favorable than hostile: let us confine ourselves to establishing +the fact. + +Just as political economy, then, at its point of departure, has +made us understand these mysterious and dismal words: IN +PROPORTION AS THE PRODUCTION OF UTILITY INCREASES, VENALITY +DECREASES; so arrived at its first station, it warns us in a +terrible voice: IN PROPORTION AS ART ADVANCES, THE ARTISAN +RECEDES. To fix the ideas better, let us cite a few examples. + +In all the branches of metal-working, who are the least +industrious of the wage-laborers? Precisely those who are called +MACHINISTS. Since tools have been so admirably perfected, a +machinist is simply a man who knows how to handle a file or +a plane: as for mechanics, that is the business of engineers and +foremen. A country blacksmith often unites in his own person, by +the very necessity of his position, the various talents of the +locksmith, the edge-tool maker, the gunsmith, the machinist, the +wheel-wright, and the horse-doctor: the world of thought would be +astonished at the knowledge that is under the hammer of this man, +whom the people, always inclined to jest, nickname brule-fer. A +workingman of Creuzot, who for ten years has seen the grandest +and finest that his profession can offer, on leaving his shop, +finds himself unable to render the slightest service or to earn +his living. The incapacity of the subject is directly +proportional to the perfection of the art; and this is as true of +all the trades as of metal-working. + +The wages of machinists are maintained as yet at a high rate: +sooner or later their pay must decrease, the poor quality of the +labor being unable to maintain it. + +I have just cited a mechanical art; let us now cite a liberal +industry. + +Would Gutenburg and his industrious companions, Faust and +Schoffer, ever have believed that, by the division of labor, +their sublime invention would fall into the domain of +ignorance--I had almost said idiocy? There are few men so +weak-minded, so UNLETTERED, as the mass of workers who follow +the various branches of the typographic industry,-- compositors, +pressmen, type-founders, book-binders, and paper-makers. The +printer, as he existed even in the days of the Estiennes, has +become almost an abstraction. The employment of women in +type-setting has struck this noble industry to the heart, and +consummated its degradation. I have seen a female +compositor--and she was one of the best--who did not know how to +read, and was acquainted only with the forms of the letters. + +The whole art has been withdrawn into the hands of foremen and +proof-readers, modest men of learning whom the impertinence of +authors and patrons still humiliates, and a few workmen who are +real artists. The press, in a word, fallen into mere mechanism, +is no longer, in its PERSONNEL, at the level of civilization: +soon there will be left of it but a few souvenirs. + +I am told that the printers of Paris are endeavoring by +association to rise again from their degradation: may their +efforts not be exhausted in vain empiricism or misled into barren +utopias! + +After private industries, let us look at public administration. + +In the public service, the effects of parcellaire labor are no +less frightful, no less intense: in all the departments of +administration, in proportion as the art develops, most of the +employees see their salaries diminish. A letter-carrier receives +from four hundred to six hundred francs per annum, of which the +administration retains about a tenth for the retiring pension. +After thirty years of labor, the pension, or rather the +restitution, is three hundred francs per annum, which, when given +to an alms-house by the pensioner, entitles him to a bed, soup, +and washing. My heart bleeds to say it, but I think, +nevertheless, that the administration is generous: what reward +would you give to a man whose whole function consists in walking? +The legend gives but FIVE SOUS to the Wandering Jew; the +letter-carriers receive twenty or thirty; true, the greater part +of them have a family. That part of the service which calls into +exercise the intellectual faculties is reserved for the +postmasters and clerks: these are better paid; they do the work +of men. + +Everywhere, then, in public service as well as free industry, +things are so ordered that nine-tenths of the laborers serve as +beasts of burden for the other tenth: such is the inevitable +effect of industrial progress and the indispensable condition of +all wealth. It is important to look well at this elementary +truth before talking to the people of equality, liberty, +democratic institutions, and other utopias, the realization of +which involves a previous complete revolution in the relations of +laborers. + +The most remarkable effect of the division of labor is the decay +of literature. + +In the Middle Ages and in antiquity the man of letters, a sort of +encyclopaedic doctor, a successor of the troubadour and the poet, +all-knowing, was almighty. Literature lorded it over society +with a high hand; kings sought the favor of authors, or revenged +themselves for their contempt by burning them,--them and their +books. This, too, was a way of recognizing literary sovereignty. + +Today we have manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, bankers, +merchants, professors, engineers, librarians, etc.; we have no +men of letters. Or rather, whoever has risen to a remarkable +height in his profession is thereby and of necessity lettered: +literature, like the baccalaureate, has become an elementary part +of every profession. The man of letters, reduced to his simplest +expression, is the PUBLIC WRITER, a sort of writing commissioner +in the pay of everybody, whose best-known variety is the +journalist. + +It was a strange idea that occurred to the Chambers four years +ago,-- that of making a law on literary property! As if +henceforth the idea was not to become more and more the +all-important point, the style nothing. Thanks to God, there is +an end of parliamentary eloquence as of epic poetry and +mythology; the theatre rarely attracts business men and savants; +and while the connoisseurs are astonished at the decline of art, +the philosophic observer sees only the progress of manly reason, +troubled rather than rejoiced at these dainty trifles. The +interest in romance is sustained only as long as it resembles +reality; history is reducing itself to anthropological exegesis; +everywhere, indeed, the art of talking well appears as a +subordinate auxiliary of the idea, the fact. The worship of +speech, too mazy and slow for impatient minds, is neglected, and +its artifices are losing daily their power of seduction. The +language of the nineteenth century is made up of facts and +figures, and he is the most eloquent among us who, with the +fewest words, can say the most things. Whoever cannot speak this +language is mercilessly relegated to the ranks of the +rhetoricians; he is said to have no ideas. + +In a young society the progress of letters necessarily outstrips +philosophical and industrial progress, and for a long time serves +for the expression of both. But there comes a day when thought +leaves language in the rear, and when, consequently, the +continued preeminence of literature in a society becomes a sure +symptom of decline. Language, in fact, is to every people the +collection of its native ideas, the encyclopaedia which +Providence first reveals to it; it is the field which its reason +must cultivate before directly attacking Nature through +observation and experience. Now, as soon as a nation, after +having exhausted the knowledge contained in its vocabulary, +instead of pursuing its education by a superior philosophy, wraps +itself in its poetic mantle, and begins to play with its periods +and its hemistichs, we may safely say that such a society is +lost. Everything in it will become subtle, narrow, and false; it +will not have even the advantage of maintaining in its splendor +the language of which it is foolishly enamored; instead of going +forward in the path of the geniuses of transition, the Tacituses, +the Thucydides, the Machiavels, and the Montesquieus, it will be +seen to fall, with irresistible force, from the majesty of Cicero +to the subtleties of Seneca, the antitheses of St. Augustine, and +the puns of St. Bernard. + +Let no one, then, be deceived: from the moment that the mind, at +first entirely occupied with speech, passes to experience and +labor, the man of letters, properly speaking, is simply the puny +personification of the least of our faculties; and literature, +the refuse of intelligent industry, finds a market only with the +idlers whom it amuses and the proletaires whom it fascinates, the +jugglers who besiege power and the charlatans who shelter +themselves behind it, the hierophants of divine right who blow +the trumpet of Sinai, and the fanatical proclaimers of the +sovereignty of the people, whose few mouth-pieces, compelled to +practise their tribunician eloquence from tombs until they can +shower it from the height of rostrums, know no better than to +give to the public parodies of Gracchus and Demosthenes. + +All the powers of society, then, agree in indefinitely +deteriorating the condition of the parcellaire laborer; and +experience, universally confirming the theory, proves that this +worker is condemned to misfortune from his mother's womb, no +political reform, no association of interests, no effort either +of public charity or of instruction, having the power to aid him. + +The various specifics proposed in these latter days, far from +being able to cure the evil, would tend rather to inflame it by +irritation; and all that has been written on this point has only +exhibited in a clear light the vicious circle of political +economy. + +This we shall demonstrate in a few words. + + +% 2.--Impotence of palliatives.--MM. Blanqui, Chevalier, Dunoyer, +Rossi, and Passy. + +All the remedies proposed for the fatal effects of parcellaire +division may be reduced to two, which really are but one, the +second being the inversion of the first: to raise the mental and +moral condition of the workingman by increasing his comfort and +dignity; or else, to prepare the way for his future emancipation +and happiness by instruction. + +We will examine successively these two systems, one of which is +represented by M. Blanqui, the other by M. Chevalier. + +M. Blanqui is a friend of association and progress, a writer of +democratic tendencies, a professor who has a place in the hearts +of the proletariat. In his opening discourse of the year 1845, +M. Blanqui proclaimed, as a means of salvation, the association +of labor and capital, the participation of the working man in the +profits,--that is, a beginning of industrial solidarity. "Our +century," he exclaimed, "must witness the birth of the collective +producer." M. Blanqui forgets that the collective producer was +born long since, as well as the collective consumer, and that the +question is no longer a genetic, but a medical, one. Our task is +to cause the blood proceeding from the collective digestion, +instead of rushing wholly to the head, stomach, and lungs, to +descend also into the legs and arms. Besides, I do not know what +method M. Blanqui proposes to employ in order to realize his +generous thought,--whether it be the establishment of national +workshops, or the loaning of capital by the State, or the +expropriation of the conductors of business enterprises and the +substitution for them of industrial associations, or, finally, +whether he will rest content with a recommendation of the +savings bank to workingmen, in which case the participation would +be put off till doomsday. + +However this may be, M. Blanqui's idea amounts simply to an +increase of wages resulting from the copartnership, or at least +from the interest in the business, which he confers upon the +laborers. What, then, is the value to the laborer of a +participation in the profits? + +A mill with fifteen thousand spindles, employing three hundred +hands, does not pay at present an annual dividend of twenty +thousand francs. I am informed by a Mulhouse manufacturer that +factory stocks in Alsace are generally below par and that this +industry has already become a means of getting money by +STOCK-JOBBING instead of by LABOR. To SELL; to sell at the +right time; to sell dear,--is the only object in view; to +manufacture is only to prepare for a sale. When I assume, then, +on an average, a profit of twenty thousand francs to a factory +employing three hundred persons, my argument being general, I am +twenty thousand francs out of the way. Nevertheless, we will +admit the correctness of this amount. Dividing twenty thousand +francs, the profit of the mill, by three hundred, the number of +persons, and again by three hundred, the number of working days, +I find an increase of pay for each person of twenty-two and +one-fifth centimes, or for daily expenditure an addition of +eighteen centimes, just a morsel of bread. Is it worth while, +then, for this, to expropriate mill-owners and endanger the +public welfare, by erecting establishments which must be +insecure, since, property being divided into infinitely small +shares, and being no longer supported by profit, business +enterprises would lack ballast, and would be unable to weather +commercial gales. And even if no expropriation was involved, +what a poor prospect to offer the working class is an +increase of eighteen centimes in return for centuries of economy; +for no less time than this would be needed to accumulate the +requisite capital, supposing that periodical suspensions of +business did not periodically consume its savings! + +The fact which I have just stated has been pointed out in several +ways. M. Passy[13] himself took from the books of a mill in +Normandy where the laborers were associated with the owner the +wages of several families for a period of ten years, and he found +that they averaged from twelve to fourteen hundred francs per +year. He then compared the situation of mill-hands paid in +proportion to the prices obtained by their employers with that of +laborers who receive fixed wages, and found that the difference +is almost imperceptible. This result might easily have been +foreseen. Economic phenomena obey laws as abstract and immutable +as those of numbers: it is only privilege, fraud, and absolutism +which disturb the eternal harmony. + + +[13] Meeting of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, +September, 1845. + + + +M. Blanqui, repentant, as it seems, at having taken this first +step toward socialistic ideas, has made haste to retract his +words. At the same meeting in which M. Passy demonstrated the +inadequacy of cooperative association, he exclaimed: "Does it +not seem that labor is a thing susceptible of organization, and +that it is in the power of the State to regulate the happiness of +humanity as it does the march of an army, and with an entirely +mathematical precision? This is an evil tendency, a delusion +which the Academy cannot oppose too strongly, because it is not +only a chimera, but a dangerous sophism. Let us respect good and +honest intentions; but let us not fear to say that to publish a +book upon the ORGANIZATION OF LABOR is to rewrite for the +fiftieth time a treatise upon the quadrature of the circle or the +philosopher's stone." + +Then, carried away by his zeal, M. Blanqui finishes the +destruction of his theory of cooperation, which M. Passy already +had so rudely shaken, by the following example: "M. Dailly, one +of the most enlightened of farmers, has drawn up an account for +each piece of land and an account for each product; and he proves +that within a period of thirty years the same man has never +obtained equal crops from the same piece of land. The products +have varied from twenty-six thousand francs to nine thousand or +seven thousand francs, sometimes descending as low as three +hundred francs. There are also certain products--potatoes, for +instance--which fail one time in ten. How, then, with these +variations and with revenues so uncertain, can we establish even +distribution and uniform wages for laborers? . . . ." + +It might be answered that the variations in the product of each +piece of land simply indicate that it is necessary to associate +proprietors with each other after having associated laborers with +proprietors, which would establish a more complete solidarity: +but this would be a prejudgment on the very thing in question, +which M. Blanqui definitively decides, after reflection, to be +unattainable,--namely, the organization of labor. Besides, it is +evident that solidarity would not add an obolus to the common +wealth, and that, consequently, it does not even touch the +problem of division. + +In short, the profit so much envied, and often a very uncertain +matter with employers, falls far short of the difference between +actual wages and the wages desired; and M. Blanqui's former plan, +miserable in its results and disavowed by its author, would be a +scourge to the manufacturing industry. Now, the division of +labor being henceforth universally established, the argument is +generalized, and leads us to the conclusion that MISERY IS AN +EFFECT OF LABOR, as well as of idleness. + +The answer to this is, and it is a favorite argument with the +people: Increase the price of services; double and triple wages. + +I confess that if such an increase was possible it would be a +complete success, whatever M. Chevalier may have said, who needs +to be slightly corrected on this point. + +According to M. Chevalier, if the price of any kind of +merchandise whatever is increased, other kinds will rise in a +like proportion, and no one will benefit thereby. + +This argument, which the economists have rehearsed for more than +a century, is as false as it is old, and it belonged to M. +Chevalier, as an engineer, to rectify the economic tradition. +The salary of a head clerk being ten francs per day, and the +wages of a workingman four, if the income of each is increased +five francs, the ratio of their fortunes, which was formerly as +one hundred to forty, will be thereafter as one hundred to sixty. + +The increase of wages, necessarily taking place by addition and +not by proportion, would be, therefore, an excellent method of +equalization; and the economists would deserve to have thrown +back at them by the socialists the reproach of ignorance which +they have bestowed upon them at random. + +But I say that such an increase is impossible, and that the +supposition is absurd: for, as M. Chevalier has shown very +clearly elsewhere, the figure which indicates the price of the +day's labor is only an algebraic exponent without effect on the +reality: and that which it is necessary first to endeavor to +increase, while correcting the inequalities of distribution, is +not the monetary expression, but the quantity of products. Till +then every rise of wages can have no other effect than that +produced by a rise of the price of wheat, wine, meat, sugar, +soap, coal, etc.,--that is, the effect of a scarcity. For what +is wages? + +It is the cost price of wheat, wine, meat, coal; it is the +integrant price of all things. Let us go farther yet: wages is +the proportionality of the elements which compose wealth, and +which are consumed every day reproductively by the mass of +laborers. Now, to double wages, in the sense in which the people +understand the words, is to give to each producer a share greater +than his product, which is contradictory: and if the rise +pertains only to a few industries, a general disturbance in +exchange ensues,--that is, a scarcity. God save me from +predictions! but, in spite of my desire for the amelioration of +the lot of the working class, I declare that it is impossible for +strikes followed by an increase of wages to end otherwise than in +a general rise in prices: that is as certain as that two and two +make four. It is not by such methods that the workingmen will +attain to wealth and--what is a thousand times more precious than +wealth--liberty. The workingmen, supported by the favor of an +indiscreet press, in demanding an increase of wages, have served +monopoly much better than their own real interests: may they +recognize, when their situation shall become more painful, the +bitter fruit of their inexperience! + +Convinced of the uselessness, or rather, of the fatal effects, of +an increase of wages, and seeing clearly that the question is +wholly organic and not at all commercial, M. Chevalier attacks +the problem at the other end. He asks for the working class, +first of all, instruction, and proposes extensive reforms in this +direction. + +Instruction! this is also M. Arago's word to the workingmen; it +is the principle of all progress. Instruction! . . . . It +should be known once for all what may be expected from it in the +solution of the problem before us; it should be known, I say, not +whether it is desirable that all should receive it,--this no one +doubts,--but whether it is possible. + +To clearly comprehend the complete significance of M. Chevalier's +views, a knowledge of his methods is indispensable. + +M. Chevalier, long accustomed to discipline, first by his +polytechnic studies, then by his St. Simonian connections, and +finally by his position in the University, does not seem to admit +that a pupil can have any other inclination than to obey the +regulations, a sectarian any other thought than that of his +chief, a public functionary any other opinion than that of the +government. This may be a conception of order as respectable as +any other, and I hear upon this subject no expressions of +approval or censure. Has M. Chevalier an idea to offer peculiar +to himself? On the principle that all that is not forbidden by +law is allowed, he hastens to the front to deliver his opinion, +and then abandons it to give his adhesion, if there is occasion, +to the opinion of authority. It was thus that M. Chevalier, +before settling down in the bosom of the Constitution, joined M. +Enfantin: it was thus that he gave his views upon canals, +railroads, finance, property, long before the administration had +adopted any system in relation to the construction of railways, +the changing of the rate of interest on bonds, patents, literary +property, etc. + +M. Chevalier, then, is not a blind admirer of the University +system of instruction,--far from it; and until the appearance of +the new order of things, he does not hesitate to say what he +thinks. His opinions are of the most radical. + +M. Villemain had said in his report: "The object of the higher +education is to prepare in advance a choice of men to occupy and +serve in all the positions of the administration, the magistracy, +the bar and the various liberal professions, including the higher +ranks and learned specialties of the army and navy." + +"The higher education," thereupon observes M. Chevalier,[14] "is +designed also to prepare men some of whom shall be farmers, +others manufacturers, these merchants, and those private +engineers. Now, in the official programme, all these classes are +forgotten. The omission is of considerable importance; for, +indeed, industry in its various forms, agriculture, commerce, are +neither accessories nor accidents in a State: they are its chief +dependence. . . . If the University desires to justify its name, +it must provide a course in these things; else an INDUSTRIAL +UNIVERSITY will be established in opposition to it. . . . We +shall have altar against altar, etc. . . ." + + +[14] Journal des Economistes," April, 1843. + + + +And as it is characteristic of a luminous idea to throw light on +all questions connected with it, professional instruction +furnishes M. Chevalier with a very expeditious method of +deciding, incidentally, the quarrel between the clergy and the +University on liberty of education. + +"It must be admitted that a very great concession is made to the +clergy in allowing Latin to serve as the basis of education. The +clergy know Latin as well as the University; it is their own +tongue. Their tuition, moreover, is cheaper; hence they must +inevitably draw a large portion of our youth into their small +seminaries and their schools of a higher grade. . . ." + +The conclusion of course follows: change the course of study, and +you decatholicize the realm; and as the clergy know only Latin +and the Bible, when they have among them neither masters of art, +nor farmers, nor accountants; when, of their forty thousand +priests, there are not twenty, perhaps, with the ability to make +a plan or forge a nail,--we soon shall see which the fathers of +families will choose, industry or the breviary, and whether they +do not regard labor as the most beautiful language in which to +pray to God. + +Thus would end this ridiculous opposition between religious +education and profane science, between the spiritual and the +temporal, between reason and faith, between altar and throne, old +rubrics henceforth meaningless, but with which they still impose +upon the good nature of the public, until it takes offence. + +M. Chevalier does not insist, however, on this solution: he knows +that religion and monarchy are two powers which, though +continually quarrelling, cannot exist without each other; and +that he may not awaken suspicion, he launches out into another +revolutionary idea,--equality. + +"France is in a position to furnish the polytechnic school with +twenty times as many scholars as enter at present (the average +being one hundred and seventy-six, this would amount to three +thousand five hundred and twenty). The University has but to say +the word. . . . If my opinion was of any weight, I should +maintain that mathematical capacity is MUCH LESS SPECIAL than is +commonly supposed. I remember the success with which children, +taken at random, so to speak, from the pavements of Paris, follow +the teaching of La Martiniere by the method of Captain Tabareau." + +If the higher education, reconstructed according to the views of +M. Chevalier, was sought after by all young French men instead of +by only ninety thousand as commonly, there would be no +exaggeration in raising the estimate of the number of minds +mathematically inclined from three thousand five hundred and +twenty to ten thousand; but, by the same argument, we should have +ten thousand artists, philologists, and philosophers; ten +thousand doctors, physicians, chemists, and naturalists; ten +thousand economists, legists, and administrators; twenty thousand +manufacturers, foremen, merchants, and accountants; forty +thousand farmers, wine-growers, miners, etc.,--in all, one +hundred thousand specialists a year, or about one-third of our +youth. The rest, having, instead of special adaptations, only +mingled adaptations, would be distributed indifferently +elsewhere. + +It is certain that so powerful an impetus given to intelligence +would quicken the progress of equality, and I do not doubt that +such is the secret desire of M. Chevalier. But that is precisely +what troubles me: capacity is never wanting, any more than +population, and the problem is to find employment for the one and +bread for the other. In vain does M. Chevalier tell us: "The +higher education would give less ground for the complaint that it +throws into society crowds of ambitious persons without any means +of satisfying their desires, and interested in the overthrow of +the State; people without employment and unable to get any, good +for nothing and believing themselves fit for anything, especially +for the direction of public affairs. Scientific studies do not +so inflate the mind. They enlighten and regulate it at once; +they fit men for practical life. . . ." Such language, I reply, +is good to use with patriarchs: a professor of political economy +should have more respect for his position and his audience. The +government has only one hundred and twenty offices annually at +its disposal for one hundred and seventy-six students +admitted to the polytechnic school: what, then, would be its +embarrassment if the number of admissions was ten thousand, or +even, taking M. Chevalier's figures, three thousand five hundred? + +And, to generalize, the whole number of civil positions is sixty +thousand, or three thousand vacancies annually; what dismay would +the government be thrown into if, suddenly adopting the +reformatory ideas of M. Chevalier, it should find itself besieged +by fifty thousand office- seekers! The following objection has +often been made to republicans without eliciting a reply: When +everybody shall have the electoral privilege, will the deputies +do any better, and will the proletariat be further advanced? I +ask the same question of M. Chevalier: When each academic year +shall bring you one hundred thousand fitted men, what will you do +with them? + +To provide for these interesting young people, you will go down +to the lowest round of the ladder. You will oblige the young +man, after fifteen years of lofty study, to begin, no longer as +now with the offices of aspirant engineer, sub-lieutenant of +artillery, second lieutenant, deputy, comptroller, general +guardian, etc., but with the ignoble positions of pioneer, +train-soldier, dredger, cabin-boy, fagot- maker, and exciseman. +There he will wait, until death, thinning the ranks, enables him +to advance a step. Under such circumstances a man, a graduate of +the polytechnic school and capable of becoming a Vauban, may die +a laborer on a second class road, or a corporal in a regiment + +Oh! how much more prudent Catholicism has shown itself, and how +far it has surpassed you all, St. Simonians, republicans, +university men, economists, in the knowledge of man and society! +The priest knows that our life is but a voyage, and that our +perfection cannot be realized here below; and he contents +himself with outlining on earth an education which must be +completed in heaven. The man whom religion has moulded, content +to know, do, and obtain what suffices for his earthly destiny, +never can become a source of embarrassment to the government: +rather would he be a martyr. O beloved religion! is it necessary +that a bourgeoisie which stands in such need of you should disown +you? . . . Into what terrible struggles of pride and misery +does this mania for universal instruction plunge us! Of what use +is professional education, of what good are agricultural and +commercial schools, if your students have neither employment nor +capital? And what need to cram one's self till the age of twenty +with all sorts of knowledge, then to fasten the threads of a +mule-jenny or pick coal at the bottom of a pit? What! you have +by your own confession only three thousand positions annually to +bestow upon fifty thousand possible capacities, and yet you talk +of establishing schools! Cling rather to your system of +exclusion and privilege, a system as old as the world, the +support of dynasties and patriciates, a veritable machine for +gelding men in order to secure the pleasures of a caste of +Sultans. Set a high price upon your teaching, multiply +obstacles, drive away, by lengthy tests, the son of the +proletaire whom hunger does not permit to wait, and protect with +all your power the ecclesiastical schools, where the students are +taught to labor for the other life, to cultivate resignation, to +fast, to respect those in high places, to love the king, and to +pray to God. For every useless study sooner or later becomes an +abandoned study: knowledge is poison to slaves. + +Surely M. Chevalier has too much sagacity not to have seen the +consequences of his idea. But he has spoken from the bottom of +his heart, and we can only applaud his good intentions: men must +first be men; after that, he may live who can. + +Thus we advance at random, guided by Providence, who never warns +us except with a blow: this is the beginning and end of political +economy. + +Contrary to M. Chevalier, professor of political economy at the +College of France, M. Dunoyer, an economist of the Institute, +does not wish instruction to be organized. The organization of +instruction is a species of organization of labor; therefore, no +organization. Instruction, observes M. Dunoyer, is a profession, +not a function of the State; like all professions, it ought to be +and remain free. It is communism, it is socialism, it is the +revolutionary tendency, whose principal agents have been +Robespierre, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and M. Guizot, which have +thrown into our midst these fatal ideas of the centralization and +absorption of all activity in the State. The press is very free, +and the pen of the journalist is an object of merchandise; +religion, too, is very free, and every wearer of a gown, be it +short or long, who knows how to excite public curiosity, can draw +an audience about him. M. Lacordaire has his devotees, M. Leroux +his apostles, M. Buchez his convent. Why, then, should not +instruction also be free? If the right of the instructed, like +that of the buyer, is unquestionable, and that of the instructor, +who is only a variety of the seller, is its correlative, it is +impossible to infringe upon the liberty of instruction without +doing violence to the most precious of liberties, that of the +conscience. And then, adds M. Dunoyer, if the State owes +instruction to everybody, it will soon be maintained that it owes +labor; then lodging; then shelter. . . . Where does that lead +to? + +The argument of M. Dunoyer is irrefutable: to organize +instruction is to give to every citizen a pledge of liberal +employment and comfortable wages; the two are as intimately +connected as the circulation of the arteries and the veins. But +M. Dunoyer's theory implies also that progress belongs only to a +certain select portion of humanity, and that barbarism is the +eternal lot of nine-tenths of the human race. It is this which +constitutes, according to M. Dunoyer, the very essence of +society, which manifests itself in three stages, religion, +hierarchy, and beggary. So that in this system, which is that of +Destutt de Tracy, Montesquieu, and Plato, the antinomy of +division, like that of value, is without solution. + +It is a source of inexpressible pleasure to me, I confess, to see +M. Chevalier, a defender of the centralization of instruction, +opposed by M. Dunoyer, a defender of liberty; M. Dunoyer in his +turn antagonized by M. Guizot; M. Guizot, the representative of +the centralizers, contradicting the Charter, which posits liberty +as a principle; the Charter trampled under foot by the University +men, who lay sole claim to the privilege of teaching, regardless +of the express command of the Gospel to the priests: GO AND +TEACH. And above all this tumult of economists, legislators, +ministers, academicians, professors, and priests, economic +Providence giving the lie to the Gospel, and shouting: +Pedagogues! what use am I to make of your instruction? + +Who will relieve us of this anxiety? M. Rossi leans toward +eclecticism: Too little divided, he says, labor remains +unproductive; too much divided, it degrades man. Wisdom lies +between these extremes; in medio virtus. Unfortunately this +intermediate wisdom is only a small amount of poverty joined with +a small amount of wealth, so that the condition is not +modified in the least. The proportion of good and evil, instead +of being as one hundred to one hundred, becomes as fifty to +fifty: in this we may take, once for all, the measure of +eclecticism. For the rest, M. Rossi's juste-milieu is in direct +opposition to the great economic law: TO PRODUCE WITH THE LEAST +POSSIBLE EXPENSE THE GREATEST POSSIBLE QUANTITY OF VALUES. . . . +Now, how can labor fulfil its destiny without an extreme +division? Let us look farther, if you please. + +"All economic systems and hypotheses," says M. Rossi, "belong to +the economist, but the intelligent, free, responsible man is +under the control of the moral law. . . Political economy is +only a science which examines the relations of things, and draws +conclusions therefrom. It examines the effects of labor; in the +application of labor, you should consider the importance of the +object in view. When the application of labor is unfavorable to +an object higher than the production of wealth, it should not be +applied. . . Suppose that it would increase the national wealth +to compel children to labor fifteen hours a day: morality would +say that that is not allowable. Does that prove that political +economy is false? No; that proves that you confound things which +should be kept separate." + +If M. Rossi had a little more of that Gallic simplicity so +difficult for foreigners to acquire, he would very summarily have +THROWN HIS TONGUE TO THE DOGS, as Madame de Sevigne said. But a +professor must talk, talk, talk, not for the sake of saying +anything, but in order to avoid silence. M. Rossi takes three +turns around the question, then lies down: that is enough to make +certain people believe that he has answered it. + +It is surely a sad symptom for a science when, in developing +itself according to its own principles, it reaches its object +just in time to be contradicted by another; as, for example, when +the postulates of political economy are found to be opposed to +those of morality, for I suppose that morality is a science as +well as political economy. What, then, is human knowledge, if +all its affirmations destroy each other, and on what shall we +rely? Divided labor is a slave's occupation, but it alone is +really productive; undivided labor belongs to the free man, but +it does not pay its expenses. On the one hand, political economy +tells us to be rich; on the other, morality tells us to be free; +and M. Rossi, speaking in the name of both, warns us at the same +time that we can be neither free nor rich, for to be but half of +either is to be neither. M. Rossi's doctrine, then, far from +satisfying this double desire of humanity, is open to the +objection that, to avoid exclusiveness, it strips us of +everything: it is, under another form, the history of the +representative system. + +But the antagonism is even more profound than M. Rossi has +supposed. For since, according to universal experience (on this +point in harmony with theory), wages decrease in proportion to +the division of labor, it is clear that, in submitting ourselves +to parcellaire slavery, we thereby shall not obtain wealth; we +shall only change men into machines: witness the laboring +population of the two worlds. And since, on the other hand, +without the division of labor, society falls back into barbarism, +it is evident also that, by sacrificing wealth, we shall not +obtain liberty: witness all the wandering tribes of Asia and +Africa. Therefore it is necessary--economic science and morality +absolutely command it--for us to solve the problem of division: +now, where are the economists? More than thirty years ago, +Lemontey, developing a remark of Smith, exposed the demoralizing +and homicidal influence of the division of labor. What has +been the reply; what investigations have been made; what remedies +proposed; has the question even been understood? + +Every year the economists report, with an exactness which I would +commend more highly if I did not see that it is always fruitless, +the commercial condition of the States of Europe. They know how +many yards of cloth, pieces of silk, pounds of iron, have been +manufactured; what has been the consumption per head of wheat, +wine, sugar, meat: it might be said that to them the ultimate of +science is to publish inventories, and the object of their labor +is to become general comptrollers of nations. Never did such a +mass of material offer so fine a field for investigation. What +has been found; what new principle has sprung from this mass; +what solution of the many problems of long standing has been +reached; what new direction have studies taken? + +One question, among others, seems to have been prepared for a +final judgment,--pauperism. Pauperism, of all the phenomena of +the civilized world, is today the best known: we know pretty +nearly whence it comes, when and how it arrives, and what it +costs; its proportion at various stages of civilization has been +calculated, and we have convinced ourselves that all the +specifics with which it hitherto has been fought have been +impotent. Pauperism has been divided into genera, species, and +varieties: it is a complete natural history, one of the most +important branches of anthropology. Well I the unquestionable +result of all the facts collected, unseen, shunned, covered by +the economists with their silence, is that pauperism is +constitutional and chronic in society as long as the antagonism +between labor and capital continues, and that this antagonism can +end only by the absolute negation of political economy. +What issue from this labyrinth have the economists discovered? + +This last point deserves a moment's attention. + +In primitive communism misery, as I have observed in a preceding +paragraph, is the universal condition. + +Labor is war declared upon this misery. + +Labor organizes itself, first by division, next by machinery, +then by competition, etc. + +Now, the question is whether it is not in the essence of this +organization, as given us by political economy, at the same time +that it puts an end to the misery of some, to aggravate that of +others in a fatal and unavoidable manner. These are the terms in +which the question of pauperism must be stated, and for this +reason we have undertaken to solve it. + +What means, then, this eternal babble of the economists about the +improvidence of laborers, their idleness, their want of dignity, +their ignorance, their debauchery, their early marriages, etc.? +All these vices and excesses are only the cloak of pauperism; but +the cause, the original cause which inexorably holds four-fifths +of the human race in disgrace,--what is it? Did not Nature make +all men equally gross, averse to labor, wanton, and wild? Did +not patrician and proletaire spring from the same clay? Then how +happens it that, after so many centuries, and in spite of so many +miracles of industry, science, and art, comfort and culture have +not become the inheritance of all? How happens it that in Paris +and London, centres of social wealth, poverty is as hideous as in +the days of Caesar and Agricola? Why, by the side of this +refined aristocracy, has the mass remained so uncultivated? It +is laid to the vices of the people: but the vices of the upper +class appear to be no less; perhaps they are even greater. The +original stain affected all alike: how happens it, once more, +that the baptism of civilization has not been equally efficacious +for all? Does this not show that progress itself is a privilege, +and that the man who has neither wagon nor horse is forced to +flounder about for ever in the mud? What do I say? The totally +destitute man has no desire to improve: he has fallen so low that +ambition even is extinguished in his heart. + +"Of all the private virtues," observes M. Dunoyer with infinite +reason, "the most necessary, that which gives us all the others +in succession, is the passion for well-being, is the violent +desire to extricate one's self from misery and abjection, is that +spirit of emulation and dignity which does not permit men to rest +content with an inferior situation. . . . But this sentiment, +which seems so natural, is unfortunately much less common than is +thought. There are few reproaches which the generality of men +deserve less than that which ascetic moralists bring against them +of being too fond of their comforts: the opposite reproach might +be brought against them with infinitely more justice. . . . +There is even in the nature of men this very remarkable feature, +that the less their knowledge and resources, the less desire they +have of acquiring these. The most miserable savages and the +least enlightened of men are precisely those in whom it is most +difficult to arouse wants, those in whom it is hardest to inspire +the desire to rise out of their condition; so that man must +already have gained a certain degree of comfort by his labor, +before he can feel with any keenness that need of improving his +condition, of perfecting his existence, which I call the love of +well-being."[15] + + +[15] "The Liberty of Labor," Vol. II, p. 80. + + + +Thus the misery of the laboring classes arises in general from +their lack of heart and mind, or, as M. Passy has said somewhere, +from the weakness, the inertia of their moral and intellectual +faculties. This inertia is due to the fact that the said +laboring classes, still half savage, do not have a sufficiently +ardent desire to ameliorate their condition: this M. Dunoyer +shows. But as this absence of desire is itself the effect of +misery, it follows that misery and apathy are each other's effect +and cause, and that the proletariat turns in a circle. + +To rise out of this abyss there must be either well-being,--that +is, a gradual increase of wages,--or intelligence and +courage,--that is, a gradual development of faculties: two things +diametrically opposed to the degradation of soul and body which +is the natural effect of the division of labor. The misfortune +of the proletariat, then, is wholly providential, and to +undertake to extinguish it in the present state of political +economy would be to produce a revolutionary whirlwind. + +For it is not without a profound reason, rooted in the loftiest +considerations of morality, that the universal conscience, +expressing itself by turns through the selfishness of the rich +and the apathy of the proletariat, denies a reward to the man +whose whole function is that of a lever and spring. If, by some +impossibility, material well-being could fall to the lot of the +parcellaire laborer, we should see something monstrous happen: +the laborers employed at disagreeable tasks would become like +those Romans, gorged with the wealth of the world, whose +brutalized minds became incapable of devising new pleasures. +Well-being without education stupefies people and makes them +insolent: this was noticed in the most ancient times. +Incrassatus est, et recalcitravit, says Deuteronomy. For +the rest, the parcellaire laborer has judged himself: he is +content, provided he has bread, a pallet to sleep on, and plenty +of liquor on Sunday. Any other condition would be prejudicial to +him, and would endanger public order. + +At Lyons there is a class of men who, under cover of the monopoly +given them by the city government, receive higher pay than +college professors or the head-clerks of the government +ministers: I mean the porters. The price of loading and +unloading at certain wharves in Lyons, according to the schedule +of the Rigues or porters' associations, is thirty centimes per +hundred kilogrammes. At this rate, it is not seldom that a man +earns twelve, fifteen, and even twenty francs a day: he only has +to carry forty or fifty sacks from a vessel to a warehouse. It +is but a few hours' work. What a favorable condition this would +be for the development of intelligence, as well for children as +for parents, if, of itself and the leisure which it brings, +wealth was a moralizing principle! But this is not the case: the +porters of Lyons are today what they always have been, drunken, +dissolute, brutal, insolent, selfish, and base. It is a painful +thing to say, but I look upon the following declaration as a +duty, because it is the truth: one of the first reforms to be +effected among the laboring classes will be the reduction of the +wages of some at the same time that we raise those of others. +Monopoly does not gain in respectability by belonging to the +lowest classes of people, especially when it serves to maintain +only the grossest individualism. The revolt of the silk-workers +met with no sympathy, but rather hostility, from the porters and +the river population generally. Nothing that happens off the +wharves has any power to move them. Beasts of burden fashioned +in advance for despotism, they will not mingle with politics as +long as their privilege is maintained. Nevertheless, I ought to +say in their defence that, some time ago, the necessities of +competition having brought their prices down, more social +sentiments began to awaken in these gross natures: a few more +reductions seasoned with a little poverty, and the Rigues of +Lyons will be chosen as the storming-party when the time comes +for assaulting the bastilles. + +In short, it is impossible, contradictory, in the present system +of society, for the proletariat to secure well-being through +education or education through well-being. For, without +considering the fact that the proletaire, a human machine, is as +unfit for comfort as for education, it is demonstrated, on the +one hand, that his wages continually tend to go down rather than +up, and, on the other, that the cultivation of his mind, if it +were possible, would be useless to him; so that he always +inclines towards barbarism and misery. Everything that has been +attempted of late years in France and England with a view to the +amelioration of the condition of the poor in the matters of the +labor of women and children and of primary instruction, unless it +was the fruit of some hidden thought of radicalism, has been done +contrary to economic ideas and to the prejudice of the +established order. Progress, to the mass of laborers, is always +the book sealed with the seven seals; and it is not by +legislative misconstructions that the relentless enigma will be +solved. + +For the rest, if the economists, by exclusive attention to their +old routine, have finally lost all knowledge of the present state +of things, it cannot be said that the socialists have better +solved the antinomy which division of labor raised. Quite the +contrary, they have stopped with negation; for is it not +perpetual negation to oppose, for instance, the uniformity of +parcellaire labor with a so-called variety in which each one can +change his occupation ten, fifteen, twenty times a day at will? + +As if to change ten, fifteen, twenty times a day from one kind of +divided labor to another was to make labor synthetic; as if, +consequently, twenty fractions of the day's work of a manual +laborer could be equal to the day's work of an artist! Even if +such industrial vaulting was practicable,--and it may be asserted +in advance that it would disappear in the presence of the +necessity of making laborers responsible and therefore functions +personal,--it would not change at all the physical, moral, and +intellectual condition of the laborer; the dissipation would only +be a surer guarantee of his incapacity and, consequently, his +dependence. This is admitted, moreover, by the organizers, +communists, and others. So far are they from pretending to solve +the antinomy of division that all of them admit, as an essential +condition of organization, the hierarchy of labor,--that is, the +classification of laborers into parcellaires and generalizers or +organizers,--and in all utopias the distinction of capacities, +the basis or everlasting excuse for inequality of goods, is +admitted as a pivot. Those reformers whose schemes have nothing +to recommend them but logic, and who, after having complained of +the SIMPLISM, monotony, uniformity, and extreme division of +labor, then propose a PLURALITY as a SYNTHESIS,--such inventors, +I say, are judged already, and ought to be sent back to school. + +But you, critic, the reader undoubtedly will ask, what is your +solution? Show us this synthesis which, retaining the +responsibility, the personality, in short, the specialty of the +laborer, will unite extreme division and the greatest variety in +one complex and harmonious whole. + +My reply is ready: Interrogate facts, consult humanity: we can +choose no better guide. After the oscillations of value, +division of labor is the economic fact which influences most +perceptibly profits and wages. It is the first stake driven by +Providence into the soil of industry, the starting-point of the +immense triangulation which finally must determine the right and +duty of each and all. Let us, then, follow our guides, without +which we can only wander and lose ourselves. + +Tu longe sequere, et vestigia semper adora. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SECOND PERIOD.--MACHINERY. + +"I have witnessed with profound regret the CONTINUANCE OF +DISTRESS in the manufacturing districts of the country." + +Words of Queen Victoria on the reassembling of parliament. + +If there is anything of a nature to cause sovereigns to reflect, +it is that, more or less impassible spectators of human +calamities, they are, by the very constitution of society and the +nature of their power, absolutely powerless to cure the +sufferings of their subjects; they are even prohibited from +paying any attention to them. Every question of labor and wages, +say with one accord the economic and representative theorists, +must remain outside of the attributes of power. From the height +of the glorious sphere where religion has placed them, thrones, +dominations, principalities, powers, and all the heavenly host +view the torment of society, beyond the reach of its stress; but +their power does not extend over the winds and floods. Kings can +do nothing for the salvation of mortals. And, in truth, these +theorists are right: the prince is established to maintain, not +to revolutionize; to protect reality, not to bring about utopia. +He represents one of the antagonistic principles: hence, if he +were to establish harmony, he would eliminate himself, which +on his part would be sovereignly unconstitutional and absurd. + +But as, in spite of theories, the progress of ideas is +incessantly changing the external form of institutions in such a +way as to render continually necessary exactly that which the +legislator neither desires nor foresees,--so that, for instance, +questions of taxation become questions of distribution; those of +public utility, questions of national labor and industrial +organization; those of finance, operations of credit; and those +of international law, questions of customs duties and +markets,--it stands as demonstrated that the prince, who, +according to theory, should never interfere with things which +nevertheless, without theory's foreknowledge, are daily and +irresistibly becoming matters of government, is and can be +henceforth, like Divinity from which he emanates, whatever may be +said, only an hypothesis, a fiction. + +And finally, as it is impossible that the prince and the +interests which it is his mission to defend should consent to +diminish and disappear before emergent principles and new rights +posited, it follows that progress, after being accomplished in +the mind insensibly, is realized in society by leaps, and that +force, in spite of the calumny of which it is the object, is the +necessary condition of reforms. Every society in which the power +of insurrection is suppressed is a society dead to progress: +there is no truth of history better proven. + +And what I say of constitutional monarchies is equally true of +representative democracies: everywhere the social compact has +united power and conspired against life, it being impossible for +the legislator either to see that he was working against his own +ends or to proceed otherwise. + +Monarchs and representatives, pitiable actors in +parliamentary comedies, this in the last analysis is what +you are: talismans against the future! Every year brings you the +grievances of the people; and when you are asked for the remedy, +your wisdom covers its face! Is it necessary to support +privilege,--that is, that consecration of the right of the +strongest which created you and which is changing every day? +Promptly, at the slightest nod of your head, a numerous army +starts up, runs to arms, and forms in line of battle. And when +the people complain that, in spite of their labor and precisely +because of their labor, misery devours them, when society asks +you for life, you recite acts of mercy! All your energy is +expended for conservatism, all your virtue vanishes in +aspirations! Like the Pharisee, instead of feeding your father, +you pray for him! Ah! I tell you, we possess the secret of your +mission: you exist only to prevent us from living. Nolite ergo +imperare, get you gone! + +As for us, who view the mission of power from quite another +standpoint, and who wish the special work of government to be +precisely that of exploring the future, searching for progress, +and securing for all liberty, equality, health, and wealth, we +continue our task of criticism courageously, entirely sure that, +when we have laid bare the cause of the evils of society, the +principle of its fevers, the motive of its disturbances, we shall +not lack the power to apply the remedy. + + +% 1.--Of the function of machinery in its relations to liberty. + +The introduction of machinery into industry is accomplished in +opposition to the law of division, and as if to reestablish the +equilibrium profoundly compromised by that law. To truly +appreciate the significance of this movement and grasp its +spirit, a few general considerations become necessary. + +Modern philosophers, after collecting and classifying their +annals, have been led by the nature of their labors to deal also +with history: then it was that they saw, not without surprise, +that the HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY was the same thing at bottom as +the PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY; further, that these two branches of +speculation, so different in appearance, the history of +philosophy and the philosophy of history, were also only the +stage representation of the concepts of metaphysics, which is +philosophy entire. + +Now, dividing the material of universal history among a certain +number of frames, such as mathematics, natural history, social +economy, etc., it will be found that each of these divisions +contains also metaphysics. And it will be the same down to the +last subdivision of the totality of history: so that entire +philosophy lies at the bottom of every natural or industrial +manifestation; that it is no respecter of degrees or qualities; +that, to rise to its sublimest conceptions, all prototypes may be +employed equally well; and, finally, that, all the postulates of +reason meeting in the most modest industry as well as in the most +general sciences, to make every artisan a philosopher,--that is, +a generalizing and highly synthetic mind,--it would be enough to +teach him--what? his profession. + +Hitherto, it is true, philosophy, like wealth, has been reserved +for certain classes: we have the philosophy of history, the +philosophy of law, and some other philosophies also; this is a +sort of appropriation which, like many others of equally noble +origin, must disappear. But, to consummate this immense +equation, it is necessary to begin with the philosophy of labor, +after which each laborer will be able to attempt in his turn the +philosophy of his trade. +Thus every product of art and industry, every political and +religious constitution, like every creature organized or +unorganized, being only a realization, a natural or practical +application, of philosophy, the identity of the laws of nature +and reason, of being and idea, is demonstrated; and when, for our +own purpose, we establish the constant conformity of economic +phenomena to the pure laws of thought, the equivalence of the +real and the ideal in human facts, we only repeat in a particular +case this eternal demonstration. + +What do we say, in fact? + +To determine value,--in other words, to organize within itself +the production and distribution of wealth,--society proceeds +exactly as the mind does in the generation of concepts. First it +posits a primary fact, acts upon a primary hypothesis, the +division of labor, a veritable antinomy, the antagonistic results +of which are evolved in social economy, just as the consequences +might have been deduced in the mind: so that the industrial +movement, following in all respects the deduction of ideas, is +divided into a double current, one of useful effects, the other +of subversive results, all equally necessary and legitimate +products of the same law. To harmonically establish this +two-faced principle and solve this antinomy, society evokes a +second, soon to be followed by a third; and such will be the +progress of the social genius until, having exhausted all its +contradictions,--supposing, though it is not proved, that there +is an end to contradiction in humanity,--it shall cover with one +backward leap all its previous positions and in a single formula +solve all problems. In following in our exposition this +method of the parallel development of the reality and the idea, +we find a double advantage: first, that of escaping the reproach +of materialism, so often applied to economists, to whom facts are +truth simply because they are facts, and material facts. To us, +on the contrary, facts are not matter,--for we do not know what +the word matter means,--but visible manifestations of invisible +ideas. So viewed, the value of facts is measured by the idea +which they represent; and that is why we have rejected as +illegitimate and non-conclusive useful value and value in +exchange, and later the division of labor itself, although to the +economists all these have an absolute authority. + +On the other hand, it is as impossible to accuse us of +spiritualism, idealism, or mysticism: for, admitting as a point +of departure only the external manifestation of the idea,--the +idea which we do not know, which does not exist, as long as it is +not reflected, like light, which would be nothing if the sun +existed by itself in an infinite void,--and brushing aside all a +priori reasoning upon theogony and cosmogony, all inquiry into +substance, cause, the me and the not-me, we confine ourselves to +searching for the LAWS of being and to following the order of +their appearance as far as reason can reach. + +Doubtless all knowledge brings up at last against a mystery: +such, for instance, as matter and mind, both of which we admit as +two unknown essences, upon which all phenomena rest. But this is +not to say that mystery is the point of departure of knowledge, +or that mysticism is the necessary condition of logic: quite the +contrary, the spontaneity of our reason tends to the perpetual +rejection of mysticism; it makes an a priori protest against all +mystery, because it has no use for mystery except to deny it, and +because the negation of mysticism is the only thing for which +reason has no need of experience. + +In short, human facts are the incarnation of human ideas: +therefore, to study the laws of social economy is to +constitute the theory of the laws of reason and create +philosophy. We may now pursue the course of our investigation. + +At the end of the preceding chapter we left the laborer at +loggerheads with the law of division: how will this indefatigable +Oedipus manage to solve this enigma? + +In society the incessant appearance of machinery is the +antithesis, the inverse formula, of the division of labor; it is +the protest of the industrial genius against parcellaire and +homicidal labor. What is a machine, in fact? A method of +reuniting divers particles of labor which division had separated. + +Every machine may be defined as a summary of several operations, +a simplification of powers, a condensation of labor, a reduction +of costs. In all these respects machinery is the counterpart of +division. Therefore through machinery will come a restoration of +the parcellaire laborer, a decrease of toil for the workman, a +fall in the price of his product, a movement in the relation of +values, progress towards new discoveries, advancement of the +general welfare. + +As the discovery of a formula gives a new power to the geometer, +so the invention of a machine is an abridgment of manual labor +which multiplies the power of the producer, from which it may be +inferred that the antinomy of the division of labor, if not +entirely destroyed, will be balanced and neutralized. No one +should fail to read the lectures of M. Chevalier setting forth +the innumerable advantages resulting to society from the +intervention of machinery; they make a striking picture to which +I take pleasure in referring my reader. + +Machinery, positing itself in political economy in opposition to +the division of labor, represents synthesis opposing itself in +the human mind to analysis; and just as in the division of labor +and in machinery, as we shall soon see, political economy +entire is contained, so with analysis and synthesis goes the +possession of logic entire, of philosophy. The man who labors +proceeds necessarily and by turns by division and the aid of +tools; likewise, he who reasons performs necessarily and by turns +the operations of synthesis and analysis, nothing more, +absolutely nothing. And labor and reason will never get beyond +this: Prometheus, like Neptune, attains in three strides the +confines of the world. + +From these principles, as simple and as luminous as axioms, +immense consequences follow. + +As in the operation of the mind analysis and synthesis are +essentially inseparable, and as, looking at the matter from +another point, theory becomes legitimate only on condition of +following experience foot by foot, it follows that labor, uniting +analysis and synthesis, theory and experience, in a continuous +action,--labor, the external form of logic and consequently a +summary of reality and idea,--appears again as a universal method +of instruction. Fit fabricando faber: of all systems of +education the most absurd is that which separates intelligence +from activity, and divides man into two impossible entities, +theorizer and automaton. That is why we applaud the just +complaints of M. Chevalier, M. Dunoyer, and all those who demand +reform in university education; on that also rests the hope of +the results that we have promised ourselves from such reform. If +education were first of all experimental and practical, reserving +speech only to explain, summarize, and coordinate work; if those +who cannot learn with imagination and memory were permitted to +learn with their eyes and hands,--soon we should witness a +multiplication, not only of the forms of labor, but of +capacities; everybody, knowing the theory of something, would +thereby possess the language of philosophy; on occasion he +could, were it only for once in his life, create, modify, +perfect, give proof of intelligence and comprehension, produce +his master-piece, in a word, show himself a man. The inequality +in the acquisitions of memory would not affect the equivalence of +faculties, and genius would no longer seem to us other than what +it really is,--mental health. + +The fine minds of the eighteenth century went into extended +disputations about what constitutes GENIUS, wherein it differs +from TALENT, what we should understand by MIND, etc. They had +transported into the intellectual sphere the same distinctions +that, in society, separate persons. To them there were kings and +rulers of genius, princes of genius, ministers of genius; and +then there were also noble minds and bourgeois minds, city +talents and country talents. Clear at the foot of the ladder lay +the gross industrial population, souls imperfectly outlined, +excluded from the glory of the elect. All rhetorics are still +filled with these impertinences, which monarchical interests, +literary vanity, and socialistic hypocrisy strain themselves to +sanction, for the perpetual slavery of nations and the +maintenance of the existing order. + +But, if it is demonstrated that all the operations of the mind +are reducible to two, analysis and synthesis, which are +necessarily inseparable, although distinct; if, by a forced +consequence, in spite of the infinite variety of tasks and +studies, the mind never does more than begin the same canvas over +again,--the man of genius is simply a man with a good +constitution, who has worked a great deal, thought a great deal, +analyzed, compared, classified, summarized, and concluded a great +deal; while the limited being, who stagnates in an endemic +routine, instead of developing his faculties, has killed his +intelligence through inertia and automatism. It is absurd +to distinguish as differing in nature that which really differs +only in age, and then to convert into privilege and exclusion the +various degrees of a development or the fortunes of a spontaneity +which must gradually disappear through labor and education. + +The psychological rhetoricians who have classified human souls +into dynasties, noble races, bourgeois families, and the +proletariat observed nevertheless that genius was not universal, +and that it had its specialty; consequently Homer, Plato, +Phidias, Archimedes, Caesar, etc., all of whom seemed to them +first in their sort, were declared by them equals and sovereigns +of distinct realms. How irrational! As if the specialty of +genius did not itself reveal the law of the equality of minds! +As if, looking at it in another light, the steadiness of success +in the product of genius were not a proof that it works according +to principles outside of itself, which are the guarantee of the +perfection of its work, as long as it follows them with fidelity +and certainty! This apotheosis of genius, dreamed of with open +eyes by men whose chatter will remain forever barren, would +warrant a belief in the innate stupidity of the majority of +mortals, if it were not a striking proof of their perfectibility. + +Labor, then, after having distinguished capacities and arranged +their equilibrium by the division of industries, completes the +armament of intelligence, if I may venture to say so, by +machinery. According to the testimony of history as well as +according to analysis, and notwithstanding the anomalies caused +by the antagonism of economic principles, intelligence differs in +men, not by power, clearness, or reach, but, in the first place, +by specialty, or, in the language of the schools, by qualitative +determination, and, in the second place, by exercise and +education. Hence, in the individual as in the collective +man, intelligence is much more a faculty which comes, forms, and +develops, qu{ae} fit, than an entity or entelechy which exists, +wholly formed, prior to apprenticeship. Reason, by whatever name +we call it,--genius, talent, industry,--is at the start a naked +and inert potentiality, which gradually grows in size and +strength, takes on color and form, and shades itself in an +infinite variety of ways. By the importance of its acquirements, +by its capital, in a word, the intelligence of one individual +differs and will always differ from that of another; but, being a +power equal in all at the beginning, social progress must consist +in rendering it, by an ever increasing perfection of methods, +again equal in all at the end. Otherwise labor would remain a +privilege for some and a punishment for others. + +But the equilibrium of capacities, the prelude of which we have +seen in the division of labor, does not fulfil the entire destiny +of machinery, and the views of Providence extend far beyond. +With the introduction of machinery into economy, wings are given +to LIBERTY. + +The machine is the symbol of human liberty, the sign of our +domination over nature, the attribute of our power, the +expression of our right, the emblem of our personality. Liberty, +intelligence,--those constitute the whole of man: for, if we +brush aside as mystical and unintelligible all speculation +concerning the human being considered from the point of view of +substance (mind or matter), we have left only two categories of +manifestations,--the first including all that we call sensations, +volitions, passions, attractions, instincts, sentiments; the +other, all phenomena classed under the heads of attention, +perception, memory, imagination, comparison, judgment, reasoning, +etc. As for the organic apparatus, very far from being the +principle or base of these two orders of faculties, it must be +considered as their synthetic and positive realization, their +living and harmonious expression. For just as from the +long-continued issue by humanity of its antagonistic principles +must some day result social organization, so man must be +conceived as the result of two series of potentialities. + +Thus, after having posited itself as logic, social economy, +pursuing its work, posits itself as psychology. The education of +intelligence and liberty,--in a word, the welfare of man,--all +perfectly synonymous expressions,--such is the common object of +political economy and philosophy. To determine the laws of the +production and distribution of wealth will be to demonstrate, by +an objective and concrete exposition, the laws of reason and +liberty; it will be to create philosophy and right a posteriori: +whichever way we turn, we are in complete metaphysics. + +Let us try, now, with the joint data of psychology and political +economy, to define liberty. + +If it is allowable to conceive of human reason, in its origin, as +a lucid and reflecting atom, capable of some day representing the +universe, but at first giving no image at all, we may likewise +consider liberty, at the birth of conscience, as a living point, +punctum saliens, a vague, blind, or, rather, indifferent +spontaneity, capable of receiving all possible impressions, +dispositions, and inclinations. Liberty is the faculty of acting +and of not acting, which, through any choice or determination +whatever (I use the word determination here both passively and +actively), abandons its indifference and becomes WILL. + +I say, then, that liberty, like intelligence, is naturally an +undetermined, unformed faculty, which gets its value and +character later from external impressions,--a faculty, therefore, +which is negative at the beginning, but which gradually defines +and outlines itself by exercise,--I mean, by education. + +The etymology of the word liberty, at least as I understand it, +will serve still better to explain my thought. The root is +lib-et, he pleases (German, lieben, to love); whence have been +constructed lib-eri, children, those dear to us, a name reserved +for the children of the father of a family; lib-ertas, the +condition, character, or inclination of children of a noble race; +lib-ido, the passion of a slave, who knows neither God nor law +nor country, synonymous with licentia, evil conduct. When +spontaneity takes a useful, generous, or beneficent direction, it +is called libertas; when, on the contrary, it takes a harmful, +vicious, base, or evil direction, it is called libido. + +A learned economist, M. Dunoyer, has given a definition of +liberty which, by its likeness to our own, will complete the +demonstration of its exactness. + + +I call liberty that power which man acquires of using his forces +more easily in PROPORTION AS HE FREES HIMSELF from the obstacles +which originally hindered the exercise thereof. I say that he is +the FREER the more thoroughly DELIVERED he is from the causes +which prevented him from making use of his forces, the farther +from him he has driven these causes, the more he has extended and +cleared the sphere of his action . . . . Thus it is said that a +man has a free mind, that he enjoys great liberty of mind, not +only when his intelligence is not disturbed by any external +violence, but also when it is neither obscured by intoxication, +nor changed by disease, nor kept in impotence by lack of +exercise. + + +M. Dunoyer has here viewed liberty only on its negative +side,--that is, as if it were simply synonymous with FREEDOM +FROM OBSTACLES. At that rate liberty would not be a faculty of +man; it would be nothing. But immediately M. Dunoyer, though +persisting in his incomplete definition, seizes the true side of +the matter: then it is that it occurs to him to say that man, in +inventing a machine, serves his liberty, not, as we express +ourselves, because he determines it, but, in M. Dunoyer's style, +because he removes a difficulty from its path. + + +Thus articulate language is a better instrument than language by +sign; therefore one is freer to express his thought and impress +it upon the mind of another by speech than by gesture. The +written word is a more potent instrument than the spoken word; +therefore one is freer to act on the mind of his fellows when he +knows how to picture the word to their eyes than when he simply +knows how to speak it. The press is an instrument two or three +hundred times more potent than the pen; therefore one is two or +three hundred times freer to enter into relation with other men +when he can spread his ideas by printing than when he can publish +them only by writing. + + +I will not point out all that is inexact and illogical in this +fashion of representing liberty. Since Destutt de Tracy, the +last representative of the philosophy of Condillac, the +philosophical spirit has been obscured among economists of the +French school; the fear of ideology has perverted their language, +and one perceives, in reading them, that adoration of fact has +caused them to lose even the perception of theory. I prefer to +establish the fact that M. Dunoyer, and political economy with +him, is not mistaken concerning the essence of liberty, a force, +energy, or spontaneity indifferent in itself to every action, and +consequently equally susceptible of any determination, good or +bad, useful or harmful. M. Dunoyer has had so strong a suspicion +of the truth that he writes himself: + + +Instead of considering liberty as a dogma, I shall present it as +a RESULT; instead of making it the attribute of man, I shall +make it the ATTRIBUTE OF CIVILIZATION; instead of imagining +forms of government calculated to establish it, I shall do my +best to explain how it is BORN OF EVERY STEP OF OUR PROGRESS. + + +Then he adds, with no less reason: + + +It will be noticed how much this method differs from that of +those dogmatic philosophers who talk only of rights and duties; +of what it is the duty of governments to do and the right of +nations to demand, etc. I do not say sententiously: men have a +right to be free; I confine myself to asking: how does it happen +that they are so? + + +In accordance with this exposition one may sum up in four lines +the work that M. Dunoyer has tried to do: A REVIEW of the +obstacles that IMPEDE liberty and the means (instruments, +methods, ideas, customs, religions, governments, etc.) that +FAVOR it. But for its omissions, the work of M. Dunoyer would +have been the very philosophy of political economy. + +After having raised the problem of liberty, political economy +furnishes us, then, with a definition conforming in every point +to that given by psychology and suggested by the analogies of +language: and thus we see how, little by little, the study of man +gets transported from the contemplation of the me to the +observation of realities. + +Now, just as the determinations of man's reason have received the +name of IDEAS (abstract, supposed a priori ideas, or principles, +conceptions, categories; and secondary ideas, or those more +especially acquired and empirical), so the determinations of +liberty have received the name of VOLITIONS, sentiments, habits, +customs. Then, language, figurative in its nature, continuing to +furnish the elements of primary psychology, the habit has been +formed of assigning to ideas, as the place or capacity where they +reside, the INTELLIGENCE, and to volitions, sentiments, etc., +the CONSCIENCE. All these abstractions have been long taken for +realities by the philosophers, not one of whom has seen that all +distribution of the faculties of the soul is necessarily a work +of caprice, and that their psychology is but an illusion. + +However that may be, if we now conceive these two orders of +determinations, reason and liberty, as united and blended by +organization in a living, reasonable, and free PERSON, we shall +understand immediately that they must lend each other mutual +assistance and influence each other reciprocally. If, through an +error or oversight of the reason, liberty, blind by nature, +acquires a false and fatal habit, the reason itself will not be +slow to feel the effects; instead of true ideas, conforming to +the natural relations of things, it will retain only prejudices, +as much more difficult to root out of the intelligence +afterwards, as they have become dearer to the conscience through +age. In this state of things reason and liberty are impaired; +the first is disturbed in its development, the second restricted +in its scope, and man is led astray, becomes, that is, wicked and +unhappy at once. + +Thus, when, in consequence of a contradictory perception and an +incomplete experience, reason had pronounced through the lips of +the economists that there was no regulating principle of value +and that the law of commerce was supply and demand, liberty +abandoned itself to the passion of ambition, egoism, and +gambling; commerce was thereafter but a wager subjected to +certain police regulations; misery developed from the sources of +wealth; socialism, itself a slave of routine, could only protest +against effects instead of rising against causes; and reason was +obliged, by the sight of so many evils, to recognize that it had +taken a wrong road. + +Man can attain welfare only in proportion as his reason and his +liberty not only progress in harmony, but never halt in their +development. Now, as the progress of liberty, like that of +reason, is indefinite, and as, moreover, these two powers are +closely connected and solidary, it must be concluded that +liberty is the more perfect the more closely it defines itself in +conformity with the laws of reason, which are those of things, +and that, if this reason were infinite, liberty itself would +become infinite. In other words, the fullness of liberty lies in +the fullness of reason: summa lex summa libertas. + +These preliminaries were indispensable in order to clearly +appreciate the role of machinery and to make plain the series of +economic evolutions. And just here I will remind the reader that +we are not constructing a history in accordance with the order of +events, but in accordance with the succession of ideas. The +economic phases or categories are now contemporary, now inverted, +in their manifestation; hence the extreme difficulty always felt +by the economists in systematizing their ideas; hence the chaos +of their works, even those most to be commended in every other +respect, such as Adam Smith's, Ricardo's, and J. B. Say's. But +economic theories none the less have their logical succession and +their series in the mind: it is this order which we flatter +ourselves that we have discovered, and which will make this work +at once a philosophy and a history. + + +% 2.--Machinery's contradiction.--Origin of capital and wages. + +From the very fact that machinery diminishes the workman's toil, +it abridges and diminishes labor, the supply of which thus grows +greater from day to day and the demand less. Little by little, +it is true, the reduction in prices causing an increase in +consumption, the proportion is restored and the laborer set at +work again: but as industrial improvements steadily succeed each +other and continually tend to substitute mechanical operations +for the labor of man, it follows that there is a constant +tendency to cut off a portion of the service and consequently to +eliminate laborers from production. Now, it is with the economic +order as with the spiritual order: outside of the church there is +no salvation; outside of labor there is no subsistence. Society +and nature, equally pitiless, are in accord in the execution of +this new decree. + +"When a new machine, or, in general, any process whatever that +expedites matters," says J. B. Say, "replaces any human labor +already employed, some of the industrious arms, whose services +are usefully supplanted, are left without work. A new machine, +therefore, replaces the labor of a portion of the laborers, but +does not diminish the amount of production, for, if it did, it +would not be adopted; IT DISPLACES REVENUE. But the ultimate +advantage is wholly on the side of machinery, for, if abundance +of product and lessening of cost lower the venal value, the +consumer--that is, everybody--will benefit thereby." + +Say's optimism is infidelity to logic and to facts. The question +here is not simply one of a small number of accidents which have +happened during thirty centuries through the introduction of one, +two, or three machines; it is a question of a regular, constant, +and general phenomenon. After revenue has been DISPLACED as Say +says, by one machine, it is then displaced by another, and again +by another, and always by another, as long as any labor remains +to be done and any exchanges remain to be effected. That is the +light in which the phenomenon must be presented and considered: +but thus, it must be admitted, its aspect changes singularly. +The displacement of revenue, the suppression of labor and wages, +is a chronic, permanent, indelible plague, a sort of cholera +which now appears wearing the features of Gutenberg, now +assumes those of Arkwright; here is called Jacquard, there James +Watt or Marquis de Jouffroy. After carrying on its ravages for a +longer or shorter time under one form, the monster takes another, +and the economists, who think that he has gone, cry out: "It was +nothing!" Tranquil and satisfied, provided they insist with all +the weight of their dialectics on the positive side of the +question, they close their eyes to its subversive side, +notwithstanding which, when they are spoken to of poverty, they +again begin their sermons upon the improvidence and drunkenness +of laborers. + +In 1750,--M. Dunoyer makes the observation, and it may serve as a +measure of all lucubrations of the same sort,--"in 1750 the +population of the duchy of Lancaster was 300,000 souls. In 1801, +thanks to the development of spinning machines, this population +was 672,000 souls. In 1831 it was 1,336,000 souls. Instead of +the 40,000 workmen whom the cotton industry formerly employed, it +now employs, since the invention of machinery, 1,500,000." + +M. Dunoyer adds that at the time when the number of workmen +employed in this industry increased in so remarkable a manner, +the price of labor rose one hundred and fifty per cent. +Population, then, having simply followed industrial progress, its +increase has been a normal and irreproachable fact,--what do I +say?--a happy fact, since it is cited to the honor and glory of +the development of machinery. But suddenly M. Dunoyer executes +an about-face: this multitude of spinning-machines soon being out +of work, wages necessarily declined; the population which the +machines had called forth found itself abandoned by the machines, +at which M. Dunoyer declares: Abuse of marriage is the cause of +poverty. + +English commerce, in obedience to the demand of the immense body +of its patrons, summons workmen from all directions, and +encourages marriage; as long as labor is abundant, marriage is an +excellent thing, the effects of which they are fond of quoting in +the interest of machinery; but, the patronage fluctuating, as +soon as work and wages are not to be had, they denounce the abuse +of marriage, and accuse laborers of improvidence. Political +economy--that is, proprietary despotism--can never be in the +wrong: it must be the proletariat. + +The example of printing has been cited many a time, always to +sustain the optimistic view. The number of persons supported +today by the manufacture of books is perhaps a thousand times +larger than was that of the copyists and illuminators prior to +Gutenberg's time; therefore, they conclude with a satisfied air, +printing has injured nobody. An infinite number of similar facts +might be cited, all of them indisputable, but not one of which +would advance the question a step. Once more, no one denies that +machines have contributed to the general welfare; but I affirm, +in regard to this incontestable fact, that the economists fall +short of the truth when they advance the absolute statement that +THE SIMPLIFICATION OF PROCESSES HAS NOWHERE RESULTED IN A +DIMINUTION OF THE NUMBER OF HANDS EMPLOYED IN ANY INDUSTRY +WHATEVER. What the economists ought to say is that machinery, +like the division of labor, in the present system of social +economy is at once a source of wealth and a permanent and fatal +cause of misery. + + +In 1836, in a Manchester mill, nine frames, each having three +hundred and twenty-four spindles, were tended by four spinners. +Afterwards the mules were doubled in length, which gave each of +the nine six hundred and eighty spindles and enabled two men to +tend them. + + +There we have the naked fact of the elimination of the workman by +the machine. By a simple device three workmen out of four are +evicted; what matters it that fifty years later, the population +of the globe having doubled and the trade of England having +quadrupled, new machines will be constructed and the English +manufacturers will reemploy their workmen? Do the economists +mean to point to the increase of population as one of the +benefits of machinery? Let them renounce, then, the theory of +Malthus, and stop declaiming against the excessive fecundity +of marriage. + + +They did not stop there: soon a new mechanical improvement +enabled a single worker to do the work that formerly occupied +four. + + +A new three-fourths reduction of manual work: in all, a reduction +of human labor by fifteen-sixteenths. + + +A Bolton manufacturer writes: "The elongation of the mules of +our frames permits us to employ but twenty-six spinners where we +employed thirty-five in 1837." + + +Another decimation of laborers: one out of four is a victim. + +These facts are taken from the "Revue Economique" of 1842; and +there is nobody who cannot point to similar ones. I have +witnessed the introduction of printing machines, and I can say +that I have seen with my own eyes the evil which printers have +suffered thereby. During the fifteen or twenty years that the +machines have been in use a portion of the workmen have gone back +to composition, others have abandoned their trade, and some have +died of misery: thus laborers are continually crowded back in +consequence of industrial innovations. Twenty years ago eighty +canal-boats furnished the navigation service between Beaucaire +and Lyons; a score of steam-packets has displaced them all. +Certainly commerce is the gainer; but what has become of the +boating-population? Has it been transferred from the boats to +the packets? No: it has gone where all superseded industries +go,--it has vanished. + +For the rest, the following documents, which I take from the same +source, will give a more positive idea of the influence of +industrial improvements upon the condition of the workers. + + +The average weekly wages, at Manchester, is ten shillings. Out +of four hundred and fifty workers there are not forty who earn +twenty shillings. + + +The author of the article is careful to remark that an Englishman +consumes five times as much as a Frenchman; this, then, is as if +a French workingman had to live on two francs and a half a week. + + +"Edinburgh Review," 1835: "To a combination of workmen (who did +not want to see their wages reduced) we owe the mule of Sharpe +and Roberts of Manchester; and this invention has severely +punished the imprudent unionists." + + +PUNISHED should merit punishment. The invention of Sharpe and +Roberts of Manchester was bound to result from the situation; the +refusal of the workmen to submit to the reduction asked of them +was only its determining occasion. Might not one infer, from the +air of vengeance affected by the "Edinburgh Review," that +machines have a retroactive effect? + + +An English manufacturer: "The insubordination of our workmen has +given us the idea of DISPENSING WITH THEM. We have made and +stimulated every imaginable effort of the mind to replace the +service of men by tools more docile, and we have achieved our +object. Machinery has delivered capital from the oppression of +labor. Wherever we still employ a man, we do so only +temporarily, pending the invention for us of some means of +accomplishing his work without him." + +What a system is that which leads a business man to think with +delight that society will soon be able to dispense with men! +MACHINERY HAS DELIVERED CAPITAL FROM THE OPPRESSION OF LABOR! +That is exactly as if the cabinet should undertake to deliver the +treasury from the oppression of the taxpayers. Fool! though the +workmen cost you something, they are your customers: what will +you do with your products, when, driven away by you, they shall +consume them no longer? Thus machinery, after crushing the +workmen, is not slow in dealing employers a counter-blow; for, if +production excludes consumption, it is soon obliged to stop +itself. + + +During the fourth quarter of 1841 four great failures, happening +in an English manufacturing city, threw seventeen hundred and +twenty people on the street. + + +These failures were caused by over-production,--that is, by an +inadequate market, or the distress of the people. What a pity +that machinery cannot also deliver capital from the oppression of +consumers! What a misfortune that machines do not buy the +fabrics which they weave! The ideal society will be reached when +commerce, agriculture, and manufactures can proceed without a man +upon earth! + + +In a Yorkshire parish for nine months the operatives have been +working but two days a week. + + +Machines! + + +At Geston two factories valued at sixty thousand pounds sterling +have been sold for twenty-six thousand. They produced more than +they could sell. + + +Machines! + + +In 1841 the number of children UNDER thirteen years of age +engaged in manufactures diminishes, because children OVER +thirteen take their place. + + +Machines! The adult workman becomes an apprentice, a child, +again: this result was foreseen from the phase of the division of +labor, during which we saw the quality of the workman degenerate +in the ratio in which industry was perfected. + +In his conclusion the journalist makes this reflection: "Since +1836 there has been a retrograde movement in the cotton +industry";--that is, it no longer keeps up its relation with +other industries: another result foreseen from the theory of the +proportionality of values. + +Today workmen's coalitions and strikes seem to have stopped +throughout England, and the economists rightly rejoice over this +return to order,-- let us say even to common sense. But because +laborers henceforth--at least I cherish the hope--will not add +the misery of their voluntary periods of idleness to the misery +which machines force upon them, does it follow that the situation +is changed? And if there is no change in the situation, will not +the future always be a deplorable copy of the past? + +The economists love to rest their minds on pictures of public +felicity: it is by this sign principally that they are to be +recognized, and that they estimate each other. Nevertheless +there are not lacking among them, on the other hand, moody and +sickly imaginations, ever ready to offset accounts of growing +prosperity with proofs of persistent poverty. + +M. Theodore Fix thus summed up the general situation in December, +1844: + + +The food supply of nations is no longer exposed to those terrible +disturbances caused by scarcities and famines, so frequent up to +the beginning of the nineteenth century. The variety of +agricultural growths and improvements has abolished this double +scourge almost absolutely. The total wheat crop in France in +1791 was estimated at about 133,000,000 bushels, which gave, +after deducting seed, 2.855 bushels to each inhabitant. In 1840 +the same crop was estimated at 198,590,000 bushels, or 2.860 +bushels to each individual, the area of cultivated surface being +almost the same as before the Revolution. . . . The rate of +increase of manufactured goods has been at least as high as +that of food products; and we are justified in saying that the +mass of textile fabrics has more than doubled and perhaps tripled +within fifty years. The perfecting of technical processes has +led to this result. . . . + +Since the beginning of the century the average duration of life +has increased by two or three years,--an undeniable sign of +greater comfort, or, if you will, a diminution of poverty. + +Within twenty years the amount of indirect revenue, without any +burdensome change in legislation, has risen from $40,000,000 +francs to 720,000,000,--a symptom of economic, much more than of +fiscal, progress. + +On January 1, 1844, the deposit and consignment office owed the +savings banks 351,500,000 francs, and Paris figured in this sum +for 105,000,000. Nevertheless the development of the institution +has taken place almost wholly within twelve years, and it should +be noticed that the 351,500,000 francs now due to the savings +banks do not constitute the entire mass of economies effected, +since at a given time the capital accumulated is disposed of +otherwise. . . . In 1843, out of 320,000 workmen and 80,000 +house-servants living in the capital, 90,000 workmen have +deposited in the savings banks 2,547,000 francs, and 34,000 +house-servants 1,268,000 francs. + + +All these facts are entirely true, and the inference to be drawn +from them in favor of machines is of the exactest,--namely, that +they have indeed given a powerful impetus to the general welfare. + +But the facts with which we shall supplement them are no less +authentic, and the inference to be drawn from these against +machines will be no less accurate,--to wit, that they are a +continual cause of pauperism. I appeal to the figures of M. Fix +himself. + +Out of 320,000 workmen and 80,000 house-servants residing in +Paris, there are 230,000 of the former and 46,000 of the +latter--a total of 276,000--who do not deposit in the savings +banks. No one would dare pretend that these are 276,000 +spendthrifts and ne'er-do-weels who expose themselves to misery +voluntarily. Now, as among the very ones who make the savings +there are to be found poor and inferior persons for whom the +savings bank is but a respite from debauchery and misery, we may +conclude that, out of all the individuals living by their labor, +nearly three-fourths either are imprudent, lazy, and depraved, +since they do not deposit in the savings banks, or are too poor +to lay up anything. There is no other alternative. But common +sense, to say nothing of charity, permits no wholesale accusation +of the laboring class: it is necessary, therefore, to throw the +blame back upon our economic system. How is it that M. Fix did +not see that his figures accused themselves? + +They hope that, in time, all, or almost all, laborers will +deposit in the savings banks. Without awaiting the testimony of +the future, we may test the foundations of this hope immediately. + +According to the testimony of M. Vee, mayor of the fifth +arrondissement of Paris, "the number of needy families inscribed +upon the registers of the charity bureaus is 30,000,-- which is +equivalent to 65,000 individuals." The census taken at the +beginning of 1846 gave 88,474. And poor families not +inscribed,--how many are there of those? As many. Say, then, +180,000 people whose poverty is not doubtful, although not +official. And all those who live in straitened circumstances, +though keeping up the appearance of comfort,--how many are there +of those? Twice as many,--a total of 360,000 persons, in Paris, +who are somewhat embarrassed for means. + + +"They talk of wheat," cries another economist, M. Louis Leclerc, +"but are there not immense populations which go without bread? +Without leaving our own country, are there not populations which +live exclusively on maize, buckwheat, chestnuts?" + + +M. Leclerc denounces the fact: let us interpret it. If, as there +is no doubt, the increase of population is felt principally +in the large cities,--that is, at those points where the most +wheat is consumed,--it is clear that the average per head may +have increased without any improvement in the general condition. +There is no such liar as an average. + + +"They talk," continues the same writer, "of the increase of +indirect consumption. Vain would be the attempt to acquit +Parisian adulteration: it exists; it has its masters, its adepts, +its literature, its didactic and classic treatises. . . . France +possessed exquisite wines; what has been done with them? What +has become of this splendid wealth? Where are the treasures +created since Probus by the national genius? And yet, when one +considers the excesses to which wine gives rise wherever it is +dear, wherever it does not form a part of the regular life of the +people; when in Paris, capital of the kingdom of good wines, one +sees the people gorging themselves with I know not what,--stuff +that is adulterated, sophisticated, sickening, and sometimes +execrable,--and well-to-do persons drinking at home or accepting +without a word, in famous restaurants, so-called wines, thick, +violet-colored, and insipid, flat, and miserable enough to make +the poorest Burgundian peasant shudder,--can one honestly doubt +that alcoholic liquids are one of the most imperative needs of +our nature? + + +I quote this passage at length, because it sums up in relation to +a special case all that could be said upon the INCONVENIENCES of +machinery. To the people it is with wine as with fabrics, and +generally with all goods and merchandise created for the +consumption of the poor. It is always the same deduction: to +reduce by some process or other the cost of manufacture, in +order, first, to maintain advantageously competition with more +fortunate or richer rivals; second, to serve the vast numbers of +plundered persons who cannot disregard price simply because the +quality is good. Produced in the ordinary ways, wine is too +expensive for the mass of consumers; it is in danger of remaining +in the cellars of the retailers. The manufacturer of wines gets +around the difficulty: unable to introduce machinery into the +cultivation of the vine, he finds a means, with the aid of +some accompaniments, of placing the precious liquid within the +reach of all. Certain savages, in their periods of scarcity, eat +earth; the civilized workman drinks water. Malthus was a great +genius. + +As far as the increase of the average duration of life is +concerned, I recognize the fact, but at the same time I declare +the observation incorrect. Let us explain that. Suppose a +population of ten million souls: if, from whatever cause you +will, the average life should increase five years for a million +individuals, mortality continuing its ravages at the same rate as +before among the nine other millions, it would be found, on +distributing this increase among the whole, that on an average +six months had been added to the life of each individual. It is +with the average length of life, the so-called indicator of +average comfort, as with average learning: the level of knowledge +does not cease to rise, which by no means alters the fact that +there are today in France quite as many barbarians as in the days +of Francois I. The charlatans who had railroad speculation in +view made a great noise about the importance of the locomotive in +the circulation of ideas; and the economists, always on the +lookout for civilized stupidities, have not failed to echo this +nonsense. As if ideas, in order to spread, needed locomotives! +What, then, prevents ideas from circulating from the Institute to +the Faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marceau, in the narrow and +wretched streets of Old Paris and the Temple Quarter, everywhere, +in short, where dwells this multitude even more destitute of +ideas than of bread? How happens it that between a Parisian and +a Parisian, in spite of the omnibus and the letter-carrier, the +distance is three times greater today than in the fourteenth +century? + +The ruinous influence of machinery on social economy and the +condition of the laborers is exercised in a thousand ways, all of +which are bound together and reciprocally labelled: cessation of +labor, reduction of wages, over-production, obstruction of the +market, alteration and adulteration of products, failures, +displacement of laborers, degeneration of the race, and, finally, +diseases and death. + +M. Theodore Fix has remarked himself that in the last fifty years +the average stature of man, in France, has diminished by a +considerable fraction of an inch. This observation is worth his +previous one: upon whom does this diminution take effect? + +In a report read to the Academy of Moral Sciences on the results +of the law of March 22, 1841, M. Leon Faucher expressed himself +thus: + + +Young workmen are pale, weak, short in stature, and slow to think +as well as to move. At fourteen or fifteen years they seem no +more developed than children of nine or ten years in the normal +state. As for their intellectual and moral development, there +are some to be found who, at the age of thirteen, have no notion +of God, who have never heard of their duties, and whose first +school of morality was a prison. + + +That is what M. Leon Faucher has seen, to the great displeasure +of M. Charles Dupin, and this state of things he declares that +the law of March 22 is powerless to remedy. And let us not get +angry over this impotence of the legislator: the evil arises from +a cause as necessary for us as the sun; and in the path upon +which we have entered, anger of any kind, like palliatives of any +kind, could only make our situation worse. Yes, while science +and industry are making such marvellous progress, it is a +necessity, unless civilization's centre of gravity should +suddenly change, that the intelligence and comfort of the +proletariat be diminished; while the lives of the well-to-do +classes grow longer and easier, it is inevitable that those of +the needy should grow harder and shorter. This is established in +the writings of the best--I mean, the most optimistic--thinkers. + +According to M. de Morogues, 7,500,000 men in France have only +ninety- one francs a year to spend, 25 centimes a day. Cinq +sous! cinq sous! (Five cents! five cents!). There is something +prophetic, then, in this odious refrain. + +In England (not including Scotland and Ireland) the poor-rate +was: + +1801.--L 4,078,891 for a population of. . . . .8,872,980 +1818.--L 7,870,801 " " " " . . . .11,978,875 +1833.--L 8,000,000 " " " " . . . .14,000,000 + + +The progress of poverty, then, has been more rapid than that of +population; in face of this fact, what becomes of the hypotheses +of Malthus? And yet it is indisputable that during the same +period the average comfort increased: what, then, do statistics +signify? + +The death-rate for the first arrondissement of Paris is one to +every fifty-two inhabitants, and for the twelfth one to every +twenty-six. Now, the latter contains one needy person to every +seven inhabitants, while the former has only one to every +twenty-eight. That does not prevent the average duration of +life, even in Paris, from increasing, as M. Fix has very +correctly observed. + +At Mulhouse the probabilities of average life are twenty-nine +years for children of the well-to-do class and TWO years for +those of the workers; in 1812 the average life in the same +locality was twenty-five years, nine months, and twelve days, +while in 1827 it was not over twenty-one years and nine months. +And yet throughout France the average life is longer. What does +this mean? + +M. Blanqui, unable to explain so much prosperity and so much +poverty at once, cries somewhere: "Increased production does not +mean additional wealth. . . . Poverty, on the contrary, becomes +the wider spread in proportion to the concentration of +industries. There must be some radical vice in a system which +guarantees no security either to capital or labor, and which +seems to multiply the embarrassments of producers at the same +time that it forces them to multiply their products." + +There is no radical vice here. What astonishes M. Blanqui is +simply that of which the Academy to which he belongs has asked a +determination,--namely, the oscillations of the economic +pendulum, VALUE, beating alternately and in regular time good and +evil, until the hour of the universal equation shall strike. If +I may be permitted another comparison, humanity in its march is +like a column of soldiers, who, starting in the same step and at +the same moment to the measured beating of the drum, gradually +lose their distances. The whole body advances, but the distance +from head to tail grows ever longer; and it is a necessary effect +of the movement that there should be some laggards and +stragglers. + +But it is necessary to penetrate still farther into the antinomy. + +Machines promised us an increase of wealth; they have kept their +word, but at the same time endowing us with an increase of +poverty. They promised us liberty; I am going to prove that they +have brought us slavery. + +I have stated that the determination of value, and with it the +tribulations of society, began with the division of industries, +without which there could be no exchange, or wealth, or progress. + +The period through which we are now passing--that of +machinery--is distinguished by a special characteristic,--WAGES. + +Wages issued in a direct line from the employment of +machinery,--that is, to give my thought the entire generality of +expression which it calls for, from the economic fiction by which +capital becomes an agent of production. Wages, in short, coming +after the division of labor and exchange, is the necessary +correlative of the theory of the reduction of costs, in whatever +way this reduction may be accomplished. This genealogy is too +interesting to be passed by without a few words of explanation. + +The first, the simplest, the most powerful of machines is the +WORKSHOP. + +Division simply separates the various parts of labor, leaving +each to devote himself to the specialty best suited to his +tastes: the workshop groups the laborers according to the +relation of each part to the whole. It is the most elementary +form of the balance of values, undiscoverable though the +economists suppose this to be. Now, through the workshop, +production is going to increase, and at the same time the +deficit. + +Somebody discovered that, by dividing production into its various +parts and causing each to be executed by a separate workman, he +would obtain a multiplication of power, the product of which +would be far superior to the amount of labor given by the same +number of workmen when labor is not divided. + +Grasping the thread of this idea, he said to himself that, by +forming a permanent group of laborers assorted with a view to his +special purpose, he would produce more steadily, more abundantly, +and at less cost. It is not indispensable, however, that the +workmen should be gathered into one place: the existence of the +workshop does not depend essentially upon such contact. It +results from the relation and proportion of the different tasks +and from the common thought directing them. In a word, +concentration at one point may offer its advantages, which are +not to be neglected; but that is not what constitutes the +workshop. + +This, then, is the proposition which the speculator makes to +those whose collaboration he desires: I guarantee you a perpetual +market for your products, if you will accept me as purchaser or +middle-man. The bargain is so clearly advantageous that the +proposition cannot fail of acceptance. The laborer finds in it +steady work, a fixed price, and security; the employer, on the +other hand, will find a readier sale for his goods, since, +producing more advantageously, he can lower the price; in short, +his profits will be larger because of the mass of his +investments. All, even to the public and the magistrate, will +congratulate the employer on having added to the social wealth by +his combinations, and will vote him a reward. + +But, in the first place, whoever says reduction of expenses says +reduction of services, not, it is true, in the new shop, but for +the workers at the same trade who are left outside, as well as +for many others whose accessory services will be less needed in +future. Therefore every establishment of a workshop corresponds +to an eviction of workers: this assertion, utterly contradictory +though it may appear, is as true of the workshop as of a machine. + +The economists admit it: but here they repeat their eternal +refrain that, after a lapse of time, the demand for the product +having increased in proportion to the reduction of price, labor +in turn will come finally to be in greater demand than ever. +Undoubtedly, WITH TIME, the equilibrium will be restored; but, I +must add again, the equilibrium will be no sooner restored at +this point than it will be disturbed at another, because the +spirit of invention never stops, any more than labor. Now, what +theory could justify these perpetual hecatombs?" When we have +reduced the number of toilers," wrote Sismondi, "to a fourth or a +fifth of what it is at present, we shall need only a fourth or a +fifth as many priests, physicians, etc. When we have cut them +off altogether, we shall be in a position to dispense with the +human race." And that is what really would happen if, in order +to put the labor of each machine in proportion to the needs of +consumption,--that is, to restore the balance of values +continually destroyed,--it were not necessary to continually +create new machines, open other markets, and consequently +multiply services and displace other arms. So that on the one +hand industry and wealth, on the other population and misery, +advance, so to speak, in procession, one always dragging the +other after it. + +I have shown the contractor, at the birth of industry, +negotiating on equal terms with his comrades, who have since +become HIS WORKMEN. It is plain, in fact, that this original +equality was bound to disappear through the advantageous position +of the master and the dependence of the wage-workers. In vain +does the law assure to each the right of enterprise, as well as +the faculty to labor alone and sell one's products directly. +According to the hypothesis, this last resource is impracticable, +since it was the object of the workshop to annihilate isolated +labor. And as for the right to take the plough, as they say, and +go at speed, it is the same in manufactures as in agriculture; to +know how to work is nothing, it is necessary to arrive at the +right time; the shop, as well as the land, is to the first comer. + +When an establishment has had the leisure to develop itself, +enlarge its foundations, ballast itself with capital, and assure +itself a body of patrons, what can the workman who has only +his arms do against a power so superior? Hence it was not by an +arbitrary act of sovereign power or by fortuitous and brutal +usurpation that the guilds and masterships were established in +the Middle Ages: the force of events had created them long before +the edicts of kings could have given them legal consecration; +and, in spite of the reform of '89, we see them reestablishing +themselves under our eyes with an energy a hundred times more +formidable. Abandon labor to its own tendencies, and the +subjection of three-fourths of the human race is assured. + +But this is not all. The machine, or the workshop, after having +degraded the laborer by giving him a master, completes his +degeneracy by reducing him from the rank of artisan to that of +common workman. + +Formerly the population on the banks of the Saone and Rhone was +largely made up of watermen, thoroughly fitted for the conduct of +canal-boats or row-boats. Now that the steam-tug is to be found +almost everywhere, most of the boatmen, finding it impossible to +get a living at their trade, either pass three-fourths of their +life in idleness, or else become stokers. + +If not misery, then degradation: such is the last alternative +which machinery offers to the workman. For it is with a machine +as with a piece of artillery: the captain excepted, those whom it +occupies are servants, slaves. + +Since the establishment of large factories, a multitude of little +industries have disappeared from the domestic hearth: does any +one believe that the girls who work for ten and fifteen cents +have as much intelligence as their ancestors? + + +"After the establishment of the railway from Paris to Saint +Germain," M. Dunoyer tells us, "there were established between +Pecq and a multitude of places in the more or less immediate +vicinity such a number of omnibus and stage lines that this +establishment, contrary to all expectation, has considerably +increased the employment of horses." + + +CONTRARY TO ALL EXPECTATION! It takes an economist not to +expect these things. Multiply machinery, and you increase the +amount of arduous and disagreeable labor to be done: this +apothegm is as certain as any of those which date from the +deluge. Accuse me, if you choose, of ill-will towards the most +precious invention of our century,--nothing shall prevent me from +saying that the principal result of railways, after the +subjection of petty industry, will be the creation of a +population of degraded laborers,--signalmen, sweepers, loaders, +lumpers, draymen, watchmen, porters, weighers, greasers, +cleaners, stokers, firemen, etc. Two thousand miles of railway +will give France an additional fifty thousand serfs: it is not +for such people, certainly, that M. Chevalier asks professional +schools. + +Perhaps it will be said that, the mass of transportation having +increased in much greater proportion than the number of +day-laborers, the difference is to the advantage of the railway, +and that, all things considered, there is progress. The +observation may even be generalized and the same argument applied +to all industries. + +But it is precisely out of this generality of the phenomenon that +springs the subjection of laborers. Machinery plays the leading +role in industry, man is secondary: all the genius displayed by +labor tends to the degradation of the proletariat. What a +glorious nation will be ours when, among forty millions of +inhabitants, it shall count thirty-five millions of drudges, +paper-scratchers, and flunkies! + +With machinery and the workshop, divine right--that is, the +principle of authority--makes its entrance into political +economy. Capital, Mastership, Privilege, Monopoly, Loaning, +Credit, Property, etc.,--such are, in economic language, the +various names of I know not what, but which is otherwise called +Power, Authority, Sovereignty, Written Law, Revelation, Religion, +God in short, cause and principle of all our miseries and all our +crimes, and who, the more we try to define him, the more eludes +us. + +Is it, then, impossible that, in the present condition of +society, the workshop with its hierarchical organization, and +machinery, instead of serving exclusively the interests of the +least numerous, the least industrious, and the wealthiest class, +should be employed for the benefit of all? + +That is what we are going to examine. + + +% 3.--Of preservatives against the disastrous influence of +machinery. + +Reduction of manual labor is synonymous with lowering of price, +and, consequently, with increase of exchange, since, if the +consumer pays less, he will buy more. + +But reduction of manual labor is synonymous also with restriction +of market, since, if the producer earns less, he will buy less. +And this is the course that things actually take. The +concentration of forces in the workshop and the intervention of +capital in production, under the name of machinery, engender at +the same time overproduction and destitution; and everybody has +witnessed these two scourges, more to be feared than incendiarism +and plague, develop in our day on the vastest scale and with +devouring intensity. Nevertheless it is impossible for us to +retreat: it is necessary to produce, produce always, produce +cheaply; otherwise, the existence of society is compromised. The +laborer, who, to escape the degradation with which the principle +of division threatened him, had created so many marvellous +machines, now finds himself either prohibited or subjugated by +his own works. Against this alternative what means are proposed? + +M. de Sismondi, like all men of patriarchal ideas, would like the +division of labor, with machinery and manufactures, to be +abandoned, and each family to return to the system of primitive +indivision,--that is, to EACH ONE BY HIMSELF, EACH ONE FOR +HIMSELF, in the most literal meaning of the words. That would be +to retrograde; it is impossible. + +M. Blanqui returns to the charge with his plan of participation +by the workman, and of consolidation of all industries in a +joint-stock company for the benefit of the collective laborer. I +have shown that this plan would impair public welfare without +appreciably improving the condition of the laborers; and M. +Blanqui himself seems to share this sentiment. How reconcile, in +fact, this participation of the workman in the profits with the +rights of inventors, contractors, and capitalists, of whom the +first have to reimburse themselves for large outlays, as well as +for their long and patient efforts; the second continually +endanger the wealth they have acquired, and take upon themselves +alone the chances of their enterprises, which are often very +hazardous; and the third could sustain no reduction of their +dividends without in some way losing their savings? How +harmonize, in a word, the equality desirable to establish between +laborers and employers with the preponderance which cannot be +taken from heads of establishments, from loaners of capital, and +from inventors, and which involves so clearly their exclusive +appropriation of the profits? To decree by a law the admission +of all workmen to a share of the profits would be to pronounce +the dissolution of society: all the economists have seen +this so clearly that they have finally changed into an +exhortation to employers what had first occurred to them as a +project. Now, as long as the wage-worker gets no profit save +what may be allowed him by the contractor, it is perfectly safe +to assume that eternal poverty will be his lot: it is not in the +power of the holders of labor to make it otherwise. + +For the rest, the idea, otherwise very laudable, of associating +workmen with employers tends to this communistic conclusion, +evidently false in its premises: The last word of machinery is to +make man rich and happy without the necessity of labor on his +part. Since, then, natural agencies must do everything for us, +machinery ought to belong to the State, and the goal of progress +is communism. + +I shall examine the communistic theory in its place. + +But I believe that I ought to immediately warn the partisans of +this utopia that the hope with which they flatter themselves in +relation to machinery is only an illusion of the economists, +something like perpetual motion, which is always sought and never +found, because asked of a power which cannot give it. Machines +do not go all alone: to keep them in motion it is necessary to +organize an immense service around them; so that in the end, man +creating for himself an amount of work proportional to the number +of instruments with which he surrounds himself, the principal +consideration in the matter of machinery is much less to divide +its products than to see that it is fed,--that is, to continually +renew the motive power. Now, this motive power is not air, +water, steam, electricity; it is labor,--that is, the market. + +A railroad suppresses all along its line conveyances, stages, +harness- makers, saddlers, wheelwrights, inn-keepers: I take +facts as they are just after the establishment of the road. +Suppose the State, as a measure of preservation or in obedience +to the principle of indemnity, should make the laborers displaced +by the railroad its proprietors or operators: the transportation +rates, let us suppose, being reduced by twenty-five per cent. +(otherwise of what use is the railroad?), the income of all these +laborers united will be diminished by a like amount,--which is to +say that a fourth of the persons formerly living by conveyances +will find themselves literally without resources, in spite of the +munificence of the State. To meet their deficit they have but +one hope,--that the mass of transportation effected over the line +may be increased by twenty-five per cent., or else that they may +find employment in other lines of industry,--which seems at first +impossible, since, by the hypothesis and in fact, places are +everywhere filled, proportion is maintained everywhere, and the +supply is sufficient for the demand. + +Moreover it is very necessary, if it be desired to increase the +mass of transportation, that a fresh impetus be given to labor in +other industries. Now, admitting that the laborers displaced by +this over- production find employment, and that their +distribution among the various kinds of labor proves as easy in +practice as in theory, the difficulty is still far from settled. +For the number of those engaged in circulation being to the +number of those engaged in production as one hundred to one +thousand, in order to obtain, with a circulation one- fourth less +expensive,--in other words, one-fourth more powerful,--the same +revenue as before, it will be necessary to strengthen production +also by one-fourth,--that is, to add to the agricultural and +industrial army, not twenty-five,--the figure which indicates the +proportionality of the carrying industry,--but two hundred and +fifty. But, to arrive at this result, it will be necessary +to create machines,--what is worse, to create men: which +continually brings the question back to the same point. Thus +contradiction upon contradiction: now not only is labor, in +consequence of machinery, lacking to men, but also men, in +consequence of their numerical weakness and the insufficiency of +their consumption, are lacking to machinery: so that, pending the +establishment of equilibrium, there is at once a lack of work and +a lack of arms, a lack of products and a lack of markets. And +what we say of the railroad is true of all industries: always the +man and the machine pursue each other, the former never attaining +rest, the latter never attaining satisfaction. + +Whatever the pace of mechanical progress; though machines should +be invented a hundred times more marvellous than the mule-jenny, +the knitting-machine, or the cylinder press; though forces should +be discovered a hundred times more powerful than steam,--very far +from freeing humanity, securing its leisure, and making the +production of everything gratuitous, these things would have no +other effect than to multiply labor, induce an increase of +population, make the chains of serfdom heavier, render life more +and more expensive, and deepen the abyss which separates the +class that commands and enjoys from the class that obeys and +suffers. + +Suppose now all these difficulties overcome; suppose the laborers +made available by the railroad adequate to the increase of +service demanded for the support of the locomotive,--compensation +being effected without pain, nobody will suffer; on the contrary, +the well-being of each will be increased by a fraction of the +profit realized by the substitution of the railway for the +stage-coach. What then, I shall be asked, prevents these things +from taking place with such regularity and precision? And what +is easier than for an intelligent government to so manage all +industrial transitions? + +I have pushed the hypothesis as far as it could go in order to +show, on the one hand, the end to which humanity is tending, and, +on the other, the difficulties which it must overcome in order to +attain it. Surely the providential order is that progress should +be effected, in so far as machinery is concerned, in the way that +I have just spoken of: but what embarrasses society's march and +makes it go from Charybdis to Scylla is precisely the fact that +it is not organized. We have reached as yet only the second +phase of its evolution, and already we have met upon our road two +chasms which seem insuperable,--division of labor and machinery. +How save the parcellaire workman, if he is a man of intelligence, +from degradation, or, if he is degraded already, lift him to +intellectual life? How, in the second place, give birth among +laborers to that solidarity of interest without which industrial +progress counts its steps by its catastrophes, when these same +laborers are radically divided by labor, wages, intelligence, and +liberty,--that is, by egoism? How, in short, reconcile what the +progress already accomplished has had the effect of rendering +irreconcilable? To appeal to communism and fraternity would be +to anticipate dates: there is nothing in common, there can exist +no fraternity, between such creatures as the division of labor +and the service of machinery have made. It is not in that +direction--at least for the present--that we must seek a +solution. + +Well! it will be said, since the evil lies still more in the +minds than in the system, let us come back to instruction, let us +labor for the education of the people. + +In order that instruction may be useful, in order that it may +even be received, it is necessary, first of all, that the pupil +should be free, just as, before planting a piece of ground, we +clear it of thorns and dog-grass. Moreover, the best system +of education, even so far as philosophy and morality are +concerned, would be that of professional education: once more, +how reconcile such education with parcellaire division and the +service of machinery? How shall the man who, by the effect of +his labor, has become a slave,--that is, a chattel, a thing,-- +again become a person by the same labor, or in continuing the +same exercise? Why is it not seen that these ideas are mutually +repellent, and that, if, by some impossibility, the proletaire +could reach a certain degree of intelligence, he would make use +of it in the first place to revolutionize society and change all +civil and industrial relations? And what I say is no vain +exaggeration. The working class, in Paris and the large cities, +is vastly superior in point of ideas to what it was twenty-five +years ago; now, let them tell me if this class is not decidedly, +energetically revolutionary! And it will become more and more so +in proportion as it shall acquire the ideas of justice and order, +in proportion especially as it shall reach an understanding of +the mechanism of property. + +Language,--I ask permission to recur once more to +etymology,--language seems to me to have clearly expressed the +moral condition of the laborer, after he has been, if I may so +speak, depersonalized by industry. In the Latin the idea of +servitude implies that of subordination of man to things; and +when later feudal law declared the serf ATTACHED TO THE GLEBE, it +only periphrased the literal meaning of the word servus.[16] +Spontaneous reason, oracle of fate itself, had therefore +condemned the subaltern workman, before science had established +his debasement. Such being the case, what can the efforts of +philanthropy do for beings whom Providence has rejected? + + +[16] In spite of the most approved authorities, I cannot accept +the idea that serf, in Latin servus, was so called from servare, +to keep, because the slave was a prisoner of war who was kept for +labor. Servitude, or at least domesticity, is certainly prior to +war, although war may have noticeably strengthened it. Why, +moreover, if such was the origin of the idea as well as of the +thing, should they not have said, instead of serv-us, serv-atus, +in conformity with grammatical deduction? To me the real +etymology is revealed in the opposition of serv-are and serv-ire, +the primitive theme of which is ser-o, in-sero, to join, to +press,whence ser-ies, joint, continuity, ser-a, lock, sertir, +insert, etc. All these words imply the idea of a principal +thing, to which is joined an accessory, as an object of special +usefulness. Thence serv-ire, to be an object of usefulness, a +thing secondary to another; serv-are, as we say to press, to put +aside, to assign a thing its utility; serv-us, a man at hand, a +utility, a chattel, in short, a man of service. The opposite of +servus is dom-inus (dom-us, dom-anium, and dom-are); that is, the +head of the household, the master of the house, he who utilizes +men, servat, animals, domat, and things, possidet. That +consequently prisoners of war should have been reserved for +slavery, servati ad servitium, or rather serti ad glebam, is +perfectly conceivable; their destiny being known, they have +simply taken their name from it. + + + +Labor is the education of our liberty. The ancients had a +profound perception of this truth when they distinguished the +servile arts from the liberal arts. For, like profession, like +ideas; like ideas, like morals. Everything in slavery takes on +the character of degradation,-- habits, tastes, inclinations, +sentiments, pleasures: it involves universal subversion. Occupy +one's self with the education of the poor! But that would create +the most cruel antagonism in these degenerate souls; that would +inspire them with ideas which labor would render intolerable to +them, affections incompatible with the brutishness of their +condition, pleasures of which the perception is dulled in them. +If such a project could succeed, instead of making a man of the +laborer, it would make a demon of him. Just study those faces +which people the prisons and the galleys, and tell me if most of +them do not belong to subjects whom the revelation of the +beautiful, of elegance, of wealth, of comfort, of honor, and of +science, of all that makes the dignity of man, has found too +weak, and so has demoralized and killed. + + +At least wages should be fixed, say the less audacious; schedules +of rates should be prepared in all industries, to be accepted by +employers and workmen. + + +This hypothesis of salvation is cited by M. Fix. And he answers +victoriously: + + +Such schedules have been made in England and elsewhere; their +value is known; everywhere they have been violated as soon as +accepted, both by employers and by workmen. + + +The causes of the violation of the schedules are easy to fathom: +they are to be found in machinery, in the incessant processes and +combinations of industry. A schedule is agreed upon at a given +moment: but suddenly there comes a new invention which gives its +author the power to lower the price of merchandise. What will +the other employers do? They will cease to manufacture and will +discharge their workmen, or else they will propose to them a +reduction. It is the only course open to them, pending a +discovery by them in turn of some process by means of which, +without lowering the rate of wages, they will be able to produce +more cheaply than their competitors: which will be equivalent +again to a suppression of workmen. + +M. Leon Faucher seems inclined to favor a system of indemnity. +He says: + + +We readily conceive that, in some interest or other, the State, +representing the general desire, should command the sacrifice of +an industry. + + +It is always supposed to command it, from the moment that it +grants to each the liberty to produce, and protects and defends +this liberty against all encroachment. + + +But this is an extreme measure, an experiment which is always +perilous, and which should be accompanied by all possible +consideration for individuals. The State has no right to take +from a class of citizens the labor by which they live, before +otherwise providing for their subsistence or assuring itself that +they will find in some new industry employment for their minds +and arms. It is a principle in civilized countries that the +government cannot seize a piece of private property, even on +grounds of public utility, without first buying out the +proprietor by a just indemnity paid in advance. Now, labor seems +to us property quite as legitimate, quite as sacred, as a field +or a house, and we do not understand why it should be +expropriated without any sort of compensation. . . . + +As chimerical as we consider the doctrines which represent +government as the universal purveyor of labor in society, to the +same extent does it seem to us just and necessary that every +displacement of labor in the name of public utility should be +effected only by means of a compensation or a transition, and +that neither individuals nor classes should be sacrificed to +State considerations. Power, in well- constituted nations, has +always time and money to give for the mitigation of these partial +sufferings. And it is precisely because industry does not +emanate from it, because it is born and developed under the free +and individual initiative of citizens, that the government is +bound, when it disturbs its course, to offer it a sort of +reparation or indemnity. + + +There's sense for you: whatever M. Leon Faucher may say, he calls +for the organization of labor. For government to see to it that +EVERY DISPLACEMENT OF LABOR IS EFFECTED ONLY BY MEANS OF A +COMPENSATION OR A TRANSITION, AND THAT INDIVIDUALS AND CLASSES +ARE NEVER SACRIFICED TO STATE CONSIDERATIONS,--that is, to the +progress of industry and the liberty of enterprise, the supreme +law of the State,--is without any doubt to constitute itself, in +some way that the future shall determine, the PURVEYOR OF LABOR +IN SOCIETY and the guardian of wages. And, as we have many times +repeated, inasmuch as industrial progress and consequently the +work of disarranging and rearranging classes in society is +continual, it is not a special transition for each innovation +that needs to be discovered, but rather a general principle, an +organic law of transition, applicable to all possible cases and +producing its effect itself. Is M. Leon Faucher in a position to +formulate this law and reconcile the various antagonisms which we +have described? No, since he prefers to stop at the idea of an +indemnity. POWER, he says, IN WELL-ORGANIZED NATIONS, HAS ALWAYS +TIME AND MONEY TO GIVE FOR THE MITIGATION OF THESE PARTIAL +SUFFERINGS. I am sorry for M. Faucher's generous intentions, but +they seem to me radically impracticable. + +Power has no time and money save what it takes from the +taxpayers. To indemnify by taxation laborers thrown out of work +would be to visit ostracism upon new inventions and establish +communism by means of the bayonet; that is no solution of the +difficulty. It is useless to insist further on indemnification +by the State. Indemnity, applied according to M. Faucher's +views, would either end in industrial despotism, in something +like the government of Mohammed-Ali, or else would degenerate +into a poor-tax,--that is, into a vain hypocrisy. For the good +of humanity it were better not to indemnify, and to let labor +seek its own eternal constitution. + +There are some who say: Let government carry laborers thrown out +of work to points where private industry is not established, +where individual enterprise cannot reach. We have mountains to +plant again with trees, ten or twelve million acres of land to +clear, canals to dig, in short, a thousand things of immediate +and general utility to undertake. + + +"We certainly ask our readers' pardon for it," answers M. Fix; +"but here again we are obliged to call for the intervention of +capital. These surfaces, certain communal lands excepted, are +fallow, because, if cultivated, they would yield no net product, +and very likely not even the costs of cultivation. These lands +are possessed by proprietors who either have or have not the +capital necessary to cultivate them. In the former case, the +proprietor would very probably content himself, if he cultivated +these lands, with a very small profit, and perhaps would forego +what is called the rent of the land: but he has found that, +in undertaking such cultivation, he would lose his original +capital, and his other calculations have shown him that the sale +of the products would not cover the costs of cultivation. . . . +All things considered, therefore, this land will remain fallow, +because capital that should be put into it would yield no profit +and would be lost. If it were otherwise, all these lands would +be immediately put in cultivation; the savings now disposed of in +another direction would necessarily gravitate in a certain +proportion to the cultivation of land; for capital has no +affections: it has interests, and always seeks that employment +which is surest and most lucrative." + + +This argument, very well reasoned, amounts to saying that the +time to cultivate its waste lands has not arrived for France, +just as the time for railroads has not arrived for the Kaffres +and the Hottentots. For, as has been said in the second chapter, +society begins by working those sources which yield most easily +and surely the most necessary and least expensive products: it is +only gradually that it arrives at the utilization of things +relatively less productive. Since the human race has been +tossing about on the face of its globe, it has struggled with no +other task; for it the same care is ever recurrent,--that of +assuring its subsistence while going forward in the path of +discovery. In order that such clearing of land may not become a +ruinous speculation, a cause of misery, in other words, in order +that it may be possible, it is necessary, therefore, to multiply +still further our capital and machinery, discover new processes, +and more thoroughly divide labor. Now, to solicit the government +to take such an initiative is to imitate the peasants who, on +seeing the approach of a storm, begin to pray to God and to +invoke their saint. Governments--today it cannot be too often +repeated--are the representatives of Divinity,--I had almost said +executors of celestial vengeance: they can do nothing for us. +Does the English government, for instance, know any way of +giving labor to the unfortunates who take refuge in its +workhouses? And if it knew, would it dare? AID YOURSELF, AND +HEAVEN WILL AID YOU! This note of popular distrust of Divinity +tells us also what we must expect of power,--nothing. + +Arrived at the second station of our Calvary, instead of +abandoning ourselves to sterile contemplations, let us be more +and more attentive to the teachings of destiny. The guarantee of +our liberty lies in the progress of our torture. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THIRD PERIOD.--COMPETITION. + +Between the hundred-headed hydra, division of labor, and the +unconquered dragon, machinery, what will become of humanity? A +prophet has said it more than two thousand years ago: Satan +looks on his victim, and the fires of war are kindled, Aspexit +gentes, et dissolvit. To save us from two scourges, famine and +pestilence, Providence sends us discord. + +Competition represents that philosophical era in which, a semi- +understanding of the antinomies of reason having given birth to +the art of sophistry, the characteristics of the false and the +true were confounded, and in which, instead of doctrines, they +had nothing but deceptive mental tilts. Thus the industrial +movement faithfully reproduces the metaphysical movement; the +history of social economy is to be found entire in the writings +of the philosophers. Let us study this interesting phase, whose +most striking characteristic is to take away the judgment of +those who believe as well as those who protest. + + +% 1.--Necessity of competition. + +M. Louis Reybaud, novelist by profession, economist on occasion, +breveted by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for +his anti-reformatory caricatures, and become, with the lapse of +time, one of the writers most hostile to social ideas,--M. Louis +Reybaud, whatever he may do, is none the less profoundly imbued +with these same ideas: the opposition which he thus exhibits is +neither in his heart nor in his mind; it is in the facts. + +In the first edition of his "Studies of Contemporary Reformers," +M. Reybaud, moved by the sight of social sufferings as well as +the courage of these founders of schools, who believed that they +could reform the world by an explosion of sentimentalism, had +formally expressed the opinion that the surviving feature of all +their systems was ASSOCIATION. M. Dunoyer, one of M. Reybaud's +judges, bore this testimony, the more flattering to M. Reybaud +from being slightly ironical in form: + + +M. Reybaud, who has exposed with so much accuracy and talent, in +a book which the French Academy has crowned, the vices of the +three principal reformatory systems, holds fast to the principle +common to them, which serves as their base,--association. +Association in his eyes, he declares, is THE GREATEST PROBLEM OF +MODERN TIMES. It is called, he says, to solve that of the +distribution of the fruits of labor. Though authority can do +nothing towards the solution of this problem, association COULD +DO EVERYTHING. M. Reybaud speaks here like a writer of the +phalansterian school. . . . + + +M. Reybaud had advanced a little, as one may see. Endowed with +too much good sense and good faith not to perceive the precipice, +he soon felt that he was straying, and began a retrograde +movement. I do not call this about-face a crime on his part: M. +Reybaud is one of those men who cannot justly be held responsible +for their metaphors. He had spoken before reflecting, he +retracted: what more natural! If the socialists must blame any +one, let it be M. Dunoyer, who had prompted M. Reybaud's +recantation by this singular compliment. + +M. Dunoyer was not slow in perceiving that his words had not +fallen on closed ears. He relates, for the glory of sound +principles, that, "in a second edition of the `Studies of +Reformers,' M. Reybaud has himself tempered the absolute tone of +his expressions. He has said, instead of could do EVERYTHING, +could do MUCH." + +It was an important modification, as M. Dunoyer brought clearly +to his notice, but it still permitted M. Reybaud to write at the +same time: + + +These symptoms are grave; they may be considered as prophecies of +a confused organization, in which labor would seek an equilibrium +and a regularity which it now lacks. . . . At the bottom of all +these efforts is hidden a principle, association, which it would +be wrong to condemn on the strength of irregular manifestations. + + +Finally M. Reybaud has loudly declared himself a partisan of +competition, which means that he has decidedly abandoned the +principle of association. For if by association we are to +understand only the forms of partnership fixed by the commercial +code, the philosophy of which has been summarized for us by MM. +Troplong and Delangle, it is no longer worth while to distinguish +between socialists and economists, between one party which seeks +association and another which maintains that association exists. + +Let no one imagine, because M. Reybaud has happened to say +heedlessly yes and no to a question of which he does not seem to +have yet formed a clear idea, that I class him among those +speculators of socialism, who, after having launched a hoax into +the world, begin immediately to make their retreat, under the +pretext that, the idea now belonging to the public domain, there +is nothing more for them to do but to leave it to make its way. +M. Reybaud, in my opinion, belongs rather to the category of +dupes, which includes in its bosom so many honest people and +people of so much brains. M. Reybaud will remain, then, in my +eyes, the vir probus dicendi peritus, the conscientious and +skilful writer, who may easily be caught napping, but who never +expresses anything that he does not see or feel. Moreover, M. +Reybaud, once placed on the ground of economic ideas, would find +the more difficulty in being consistent with himself because of +the clearness of his mind and the accuracy of his reasoning. I +am going to make this curious experiment under the reader's eyes. + +If I could be understood by M. Reybaud, I would say to him: Take +your stand in favor of competition, you will be wrong; take your +stand against competition, still you will be wrong: which +signifies that you will always be right. After that, if, +convinced that you have not erred either in the first edition of +your book or in the fourth, you should succeed in formulating +your sentiment in an intelligible manner, I will look upon you as +an economist of as great genius as Turgot and A. Smith; but I +warn you that then you will resemble the latter, of whom you +doubtless know little; you will be a believer in equality. Do +you accept the wager? + +To better prepare M. Reybaud for this sort of reconciliation with +himself, let us show him first that this versatility of judgment, +for which anybody else in my place would reproach him with +insulting bitterness, is a treason, not on the part of the +writer, but on the part of the facts of which he has made himself +the interpreter. + +In March, 1844, M. Reybaud published on oleaginous seeds--a +subject which interested the city of Marseilles, his +birthplace--an article in which he took vigorous ground in favor +of free competition and the oil of sesame. According to the +facts gathered by the author, which seem authentic, sesame would +yield from forty-five to forty-six per cent. of oil, while the +poppy and the colza yield only twenty-five to thirty per cent., +and the olive simply twenty to twenty-two. Sesame, for this +reason, is disliked by the northern manufacturers, who have +asked and obtained its prohibition. Nevertheless the English are +on the watch, ready to take possession of this valuable branch of +commerce. Let them prohibit the seed, says M. Reybaud, the oil +will reach us mixed, in soap, or in some other way: we shall have +lost the profit of manufacture. Moreover, the interest of our +marine service requires the protection of this trade; it is a +matter of no less than forty thousand casks of seed, which +implies a maritime outfit of three hundred vessels and three +thousand sailors. + +These facts are conclusive: forty-five per cent. of oil instead +of twenty-five; in quality superior to all the oils of France; +reduction in the price of an article of prime necessity; a saving +to consumers; three hundred ships, three thousand sailors,--such +would be the value to us of liberty of commerce. Therefore, long +live competition and sesame! + +Then, in order to better assure these brilliant results, M. +Reybaud, impelled by his patriotism and going straight in pursuit +of his idea, observes--very judiciously in our opinion--that the +government should abstain henceforth from all treaties of +reciprocity in the matter of transportation: he asks that French +vessels may carry the imports as well as the exports of French +commerce. + + +"What we call reciprocity," he says, "is a pure fiction, the +advantage of which is reaped by whichever of the parties can +furnish navigation at the smallest expense. Now, as in France +the elements of navigation, such as the purchase of the ships, +the wages of the crews, and the costs of outfit, rise to an +excessive figure, higher than in any of the other maritime +nations, it follows that every reciprocity treaty is equivalent +on our part to a treaty of abdication, and that, instead of +agreeing to an act of mutual convenience, we resign ourselves, +knowingly or involuntarily, to a sacrifice." + + +And M. Reybaud then points out the disastrous consequences of +reciprocity: + + +France consumes five hundred thousand bales of cotton, and the +Americans land them on our wharves; she uses enormous quantities +of coal, and the English do the carrying thereof; the Swedes and +Norwegians deliver to us themselves their iron and wood; the +Dutch, their cheeses; the Russians, their hemp and wheat; the +Genoese, their rice; the Spaniards, their oils; the Sicilians, +their sulphur; the Greeks and Armenians, all the commodities of +the Mediterranean and Black seas." + + +Evidently such a state of things is intolerable, for it ends in +rendering our merchant marine useless. Let us hasten back, then, +into our ship yards, from which the cheapness of foreign +navigation tends to exclude us. Let us close our doors to +foreign vessels, or at least let us burden them with a heavy tax. + +Therefore, down with competition and rival marines! + +Does M. Reybaud begin to understand that his +economico-socialistic oscillations are much more innocent than he +would have believed? What gratitude he owes me for having +quieted his conscience, which perhaps was becoming alarmed! + +The reciprocity of which M. Reybaud so bitterly complains is only +a form of commercial liberty. Grant full and entire liberty of +trade, and our flag is driven from the surface of the seas, as +our oils would be from the continent. Therefore we shall pay +dearer for our oil, if we insist on making it ourselves; dearer +for our colonial products, if we wish to carry them ourselves. +To secure cheapness it would be necessary, after having abandoned +our oils, to abandon our marine: as well abandon straightway our +cloths, our linens, our calicoes, our iron products, and then, as +an isolated industry necessarily costs too much, our wines, our +grains, our forage! Whichever course you may choose, privilege +or liberty, you arrive at the impossible, at the absurd. + +Undoubtedly there exists a principle of reconciliation; but, +unless it be utterly despotic, it must be derived from a law +superior to liberty itself: now, it is this law which no one has +yet defined, and which I ask of the economists, if they really +are masters of their science. For I cannot consider him a savant +who, with the greatest sincerity and all the wit in the world, +preaches by turns, fifteen lines apart, liberty and monopoly. + +Is it not immediately and intuitively evident that COMPETITION +DESTROYS COMPETITION? Is there a theorem in geometry more +certain, more peremptory, than that? How then, upon what +conditions, in what sense, can a principle which is its own +denial enter into science? How can it become an organic law of +society? If competition is necessary; if, as the school says, it +is a postulate of production,--how does it become so devastating +in its effects? And if its most certain effect is to ruin those +whom it incites, how does it become useful? For the +INCONVENIENCES which follow in its train, like the good which it +procures, are not accidents arising from the work of man: both +follow logically from the principle, and subsist by the same +title and face to face. + +And, in the first place, competition is as essential to labor as +division, since it is division itself returning in another form, +or rather, raised to its second power; division, I say, no +longer, as in the first period of economic evolution, adequate to +collective force, and consequently absorbing the personality of +the laborer in the workshop, but giving birth to liberty by +making each subdivision of labor a sort of sovereignty in which +man stands in all his power and independence. Competition, in a +word, is liberty in division and in all the divided parts: +beginning with the most comprehensive functions, it tends toward +its realization even in the inferior operations of parcellaire +labor. + +Here the communists raise an objection. It is necessary, they +say, in all things, to distinguish between use and abuse. There +is a useful, praiseworthy, moral competition, a competition which +enlarges the heart and the mind, a noble and generous +competition,--it is emulation; and why should not this emulation +have for its object the advantage of all? There is another +competition, pernicious, immoral, unsocial, a jealous competition +which hates and which kills,--it is egoism. + +So says communism; so expressed itself, nearly a year ago, in its +social profession of faith, the journal, "La Reforme." + +Whatever reluctance I may feel to oppose men whose ideas are at +bottom my own, I cannot accept such dialectics. "La Reforme," in +believing that it could reconcile everything by a distinction +more grammatical than real, has made use, without suspecting it, +of the golden mean,-- that is, of the worst sort of diplomacy. +Its argument is exactly the same as that of M. Rossi in regard to +the division of labor: it consists in setting competition and +morality against each other, in order to limit them by each +other, as M. Rossi pretended to arrest and restrict economic +inductions by morality, cutting here, lopping there, to suit the +need and the occasion. I have refuted M. Rossi by asking him +this simple question: How can science be in disagreement with +itself, the science of wealth with the science of duty? Likewise +I ask the communists: How can a principle whose development is +clearly useful be at the same time pernicious? + +They say: emulation is not competition. I note, in the first +place, that this pretended distinction bears only on the +divergent effects of the principle, which leads one to suppose +that there were two principles which had been confounded. +Emulation is nothing but competition itself; and, since they have +thrown themselves into abstractions, I willingly plunge in also. +There is no emulation without an object, just as there is no +passional initiative without an object; and as the object of +every passion is necessarily analogous to the passion +itself,--woman to the lover, power to the ambitious, gold to the +miser, a crown to the poet,--so the object of industrial +emulation is necessarily profit. + +No, rejoins the communist, the laborer's object of emulation +should be general utility, fraternity, love. + +But society itself, since, instead of stopping at the individual +man, who is in question at this moment, they wish to attend only +to the collective man,--society, I say, labors only with a view +to wealth; comfort, happiness, is its only object. Why, then, +should that which is true of society not be true of the +individual also, since, after all, society is man and entire +humanity lives in each man? Why substitute for the immediate +object of emulation, which in industry is personal welfare, that +far-away and almost metaphysical motive called general welfare, +especially when the latter is nothing without the former and can +result only from the former? + +Communists, in general, build up a strange illusion: fanatics on +the subject of power, they expect to secure through a central +force, and in the special case in question, through collective +wealth, by a sort of reversion, the welfare of the laborer who +has created this wealth: as if the individual came into existence +after society, instead of society after the individual. For that +matter, this is not the only case in which we shall see the +socialists unconsciously dominated by the traditions of the +regime against which they protest. + +But what need of insisting? From the moment that the communist +changes the name of things, vera rerum vocabala, he tacitly +admits his powerlessness, and puts himself out of the question. +That is why my sole reply to him shall be: In denying +competition, you abandon the thesis; henceforth you have no place +in the discussion. Some other time we will inquire how far man +should sacrifice himself in the interest of all: for the moment +the question is the solution of the problem of competition,--that +is, the reconciliation of the highest satisfaction of egoism with +social necessities; spare us your moralities. + +Competition is necessary to the constitution of value,--that is, +to the very principle of distribution, and consequently to the +advent of equality. As long as a product is supplied only by a +single manufacturer, its real value remains a mystery, either +through the producer's misrepresentation or through his neglect +or inability to reduce the cost of production to its extreme +limit. Thus the privilege of production is a real loss to +society, and publicity of industry, like competition between +laborers, a necessity. All the utopias ever imagined or +imaginable cannot escape this law. + +Certainly I do not care to deny that labor and wages can and +should be guaranteed; I even entertain the hope that the time of +such guarantee is not far off: but I maintain that a guarantee of +wages is impossible without an exact knowledge of value, and that +this value can be discovered only by competition, not at all by +communistic institutions or by popular decree. For in this there +is something more powerful than the will of the legislator and of +citizens,--namely, the absolute impossibility that man should do +his duty after finding himself relieved of all responsibility to +himself: now, responsibility to self, in the matter of labor, +necessarily implies competition with others. Ordain that, +beginning January 1, 1847, labor and wages are guaranteed to all: +immediately an immense relaxation will succeed the extreme +tension to which industry is now subjected; real value will +fall rapidly below nominal value; metallic money, in spite of its +effigy and stamp, will experience the fate of the assignats; the +merchant will ask more and give less; and we shall find ourselves +in a still lower circle in the hell of misery in which +competition is only the third turn. + +Even were I to admit, with some socialists, that the +attractiveness of labor may some day serve as food for emulation +without any hidden thought of profit, of what utility could this +utopia be in the phase which we are studying? We are yet only in +the third period of economic evolution, in the third age of the +constitution of labor,--that is, in a period when it is +impossible for labor to be attractive. For the attractiveness of +labor can result only from a high degree of physical, moral, and +intellectual development of the laborer. Now, this development +itself, this education of humanity by industry, is precisely the +object of which we are in pursuit through the contradictions of +social economy. How, then, could the attractiveness of labor +serve us as a principle and lever, when it is still our object +and our end? + +But, if it is unquestionable that labor, as the highest +manifestation of life, intelligence, and liberty, carries with it +its own attractiveness, I deny that this attractiveness can ever +be wholly separated from the motive of utility, and consequently +from a return of egoism; I deny, I say, labor for labor, just as +I deny style for style, love for love, art for art. Style for +style has produced in these days hasty literature and thoughtless +improvisation; love for love leads to unnatural vice, onanism, +and prostitution; art for art ends in Chinese knick-knacks, +caricature, the worship of the ugly. When man no longer looks to +labor for anything but the pleasure of exercise, he soon ceases +to labor, he plays. History is full of facts which attest +this degradation. The games of Greece, Isthmian, Olympic, +Pythian, Nemean, exercises of a society which produced everything +by its slaves; the life of the Spartans and the ancient Cretans, +their models; the gymnasiums, playgrounds, horse-races, and +disorders of the market-place among the Athenians; the +occupations which Plato assigns to the warriors in his Republic, +and which but represent the tastes of his century; finally, in +our feudal society, the tilts and tourneys,--all these +inventions, as well as many others which I pass in silence, from +the game of chess, invented, it is said, at the siege of Troy by +Palamedes, to the cards illustrated for Charles VI. by +Gringonneur, are examples of what labor becomes as soon as the +serious motive of utility is separated from it. Labor, real +labor, that which produces wealth and gives knowledge, has too +much need of regularity and perseverance and sacrifice to be long +the friend of passion, fugitive in its nature, inconstant, and +disorderly; it is something too elevated, too ideal, too +philosophical, to become exclusively pleasure and +enjoyment,--that is, mysticism and sentiment. The faculty of +laboring, which distinguishes man from the brutes, has its source +in the profoundest depths of the reason: how could it become in +us a simple manifestation of life, a voluptuous act of our +feeling? + +But if now they fall back upon the hypothesis of a transformation +of our nature, unprecedented in history, and of which there has +been nothing so far that could have expressed the idea, it is +nothing more than a dream, unintelligible even to those who +defend it, an inversion of progress, a contradiction given to the +most certain laws of economic science; and my only reply is to +exclude it from the discussion. + +Let us stay in the realm of facts, since facts alone have a +meaning and can aid us. The French Revolution was effected for +industrial liberty as well as for political liberty: and although +France in 1789 had not seen all the consequences of the principle +for the realization of which she asked,--let us say it +boldly,--she was mistaken neither in her wishes nor in her +expectation. Whoever would try to deny it would lose in my eyes +the right to criticism: I will never dispute with an adversary +who would posit as a principle the spontaneous error of +twenty-five millions of men. + +At the end of the eighteenth century France, wearied with +privileges, desired at any price to shake off the torpor of her +corporations, and restore the dignity of the laborer by +conferring liberty upon him. Everywhere it was necessary to +emancipate labor, stimulate genius, and render the manufacturer +responsible by arousing a thousand competitors and loading upon +him alone the consequences of his indolence, ignorance, and +insincerity. Before '89 France was ripe for the transition; it +was Turgot who had the glory of effecting the first passage. + +Why then, if competition had not been a principle of social +economy, a decree of destiny, a necessity of the human soul, why, +instead of ABOLISHING corporations, masterships, and +wardenships, did they not think rather of REPAIRING them all? +Why, instead of a revolution, did they not content themselves +with a reform? Why this negation, if a modification was +sufficient? Especially as this middle party was entirely in the +line of conservative ideas, which the bourgeoisie shared. Let +communism, let quasi-socialistic democracy, which, in regard to +the principle of competition, represent--though they do not +suspect it--the system of the golden mean, the +counter-revolutionary idea, explain to me this unanimity of the +nation, if they can! + +Moreover the event confirmed the theory. Beginning with the +Turgot ministry, an increase of activity and well-being +manifested itself in the nation. The test seemed so decisive +that it obtained the approval of all legislatures. Liberty of +industry and commerce figure in our constitutions on a level with +political liberty. To this liberty, in short, France owes the +growth of her wealth during the last sixty years. + +After this capital fact, which establishes so triumphantly the +necessity of competition, I ask permission to cite three or four +others, which, being less general in their nature, will throw +into bolder relief the influence of the principle which I defend. + +Why is our agriculture so prodigiously backward? How is it that +routine and barbarism still hover, in so many localities, over +the most important branch of national labor? Among the numerous +causes that could be cited, I see, in the front rank, the absence +of competition. The peasants fight over strips of ground; they +compete with each other before the notary; in the fields, no. +And speak to them of emulation, of the public good, and with what +amazement you fill them! Let the king, they say (to them the +king is synonymous with the State, with the public good, with +society), let the king attend to his business, and we will attend +to ours! Such is their philosophy and their patriotism. Ah! if +the king could excite competition with them! Unfortunately it is +impossible. While in manufactures competition follows from +liberty and property, in agriculture liberty and property are a +direct obstacle to competition. The peasant, rewarded, not +according to his labor and intelligence, but according to the +quality of the land and the caprice of God, aims, in cultivating, +to pay the lowest possible wages and to make the least possible +advance outlays. Sure of always finding a market for his goods, +he is much more solicitous about reducing his expenses than about +improving the soil and the quality of its products. He sows, and +Providence does the rest. The only sort of competition known to +the agricultural class is that of rents; and it cannot be denied +that in France, and for instance in Beauce, it has led to useful +results. But as the principle of this competition takes effect +only at second hand, so to speak, as it does not emanate directly +from the liberty and property of the cultivators, it disappears +with the cause that produces it, so that, to insure the decline +of agricultural industry in many localities, or at least to +arrest its progress, perhaps it would suffice to make the farmers +proprietors. + +Another branch of collective labor, which of late years has given +rise to sharp debates, is that of public works. "To manage the +building of a road, M. Dunoyer very well says, "perhaps a pioneer +and a postilion would be better than an engineer fresh from the +School of Roads and Bridges." There is no one who has not had +occasion to verify the correctness of this remark. + +On one of our finest rivers, celebrated by the importance of its +navigation, a bridge was being built. From the beginning of the +work the rivermen had seen that the arches would be much too low +to allow the circulation of boats at times when the river was +high: they pointed this out to the engineer in charge of the +work. Bridges, answered the latter with superb dignity, are made +for those who pass over, not for those who pass under. The +remark has become a proverb in that vicinity. But, as it is +impossible for stupidity to prevail forever, the government has +felt the necessity of revising the work of its agent, and as I +write the arches of the bridge are being raised. Does any +one believe that, if the merchants interested in the course of +the navigable way had been charged with the enterprise at their +own risk and peril, they would have had to do their work twice? +One could fill a book with masterpieces of the same sort achieved +by young men learned in roads and bridges, who, scarcely out of +school and given life positions, are no longer stimulated by +competition. + +In proof of the industrial capacity of the State, and +consequently of the possibility of abolishing competition +altogether, they cite the administration of the tobacco industry. + +There, they say, is no adulteration, no litigation, no +bankruptcy, no misery. The condition of the workmen, adequately +paid, instructed, sermonized, moralized, and assured of a +retiring pension accumulated by their savings, is incomparably +superior to that of the immense majority of workmen engaged in +free industry. + +All this may be true: for my part, I am ignorant on the subject. +I know nothing of what goes on in the administration of the +tobacco factories; I have procured no information either from the +directors or the workmen, and I have no need of any. How much +does the tobacco sold by the administration cost? How much is it +worth? You can answer the first of these questions: you only +need to call at the first tobacco shop you see. But you can tell +me nothing about the second, because you have no standard of +comparison and are forbidden to verify by experiment the items of +cost of administration, which it is consequently impossible to +accept. Therefore the tobacco business, made into a monopoly, +necessarily costs society more than it brings in; it is an +industry which, instead of subsisting by its own product, lives +by subsidies, and which consequently, far from furnishing us a +model, is one of the first abuses which reform should strike +down. + +And when I speak of the reform to be introduced in the production +of tobacco, I do not refer simply to the enormous tax which +triples or quadruples the value of this product; neither do I +refer to the hierarchical organization of its employees, some of +whom by their salaries are made aristocrats as expensive as they +are useless, while others, hopeless receivers of petty wages, are +kept forever in the situation of subalterns. I do not even speak +of the privilege of the tobacco shops and the whole world of +parasites which they support: I have particularly in view the +useful labor, the labor of the workmen. From the very fact that +the administration's workman has no competitors and is interested +neither in profit nor loss, from the fact that he is not free, in +a word, his product is necessarily less, and his service too +expensive. This being so, let them say that the government +treats its employees well and looks out for their comfort: what +wonder? Why do not people see that liberty bears the burdens of +privilege, and that, if, by some impossibility, all industries +were to be treated like the tobacco industry, the source of +subsidies failing, the nation could no longer balance its +receipts and its expenses, and the State would become a bankrupt? + +Foreign products: I cite the testimony of an educated man, though +not a political economist,--M. Liebig. + + +Formerly France imported from Spain every year soda to the value +of twenty or thirty millions of francs; for Spanish soda was the +best. All through the war with England the price of soda, and +consequently that of soap and glass, constantly rose. French +manufacturers therefore had to suffer considerably from this +state of things. Then it was that Leblanc discovered the method +of extracting soda from common salt. This process was a source +of wealth to France; the manufacture of soda acquired +extraordinary proportions; but neither Leblanc nor Napoleon +enjoyed the profit of the invention. The Restoration, which took +advantage of the wrath of the people against the author of the +continental blockade, refused to pay the debt of the emperor, +whose promises had led to Leblanc's discoveries. . . . + +A few years ago, the king of Naples having undertaken to convert +the Sicilian sulphur trade into a monopoly, England, which +consumes an immense quantity of this sulphur, warned the king of +Naples that, if the monopoly were maintained, it would be +considered a casus belli. While the two governments were +exchanging diplomatic notes, fifteen patents were taken out in +England for the extraction of sulphuric acid from the limestones, +iron pyrites, and other mineral substances in which England +abounds. But the affair being arranged with the king of Naples, +nothing came of these exploitations: it was simply established, +by the attempts which were made, that the extraction of sulphuric +acid by the new processes could have been carried on +successfully, which perhaps would have annihilated Sicily's +sulphur trade. + +Had it not been for the war with England, had not the king of +Naples had a fancy for monopoly, it would have been a long time +before any one in France would have thought of extracting soda +from sea salt, or any one in England of getting sulphuric acid +from the mountains of lime and pyrites which she contains. Now, +that is precisely the effect of competition upon industry. Man +rouses from his idleness only when want fills him with anxiety; +and the surest way to extinguish his genius is to deliver him +from all solicitude and take away from him the hope of profit and +of the social distinction which results from it, by creating +around him PEACE EVERYWHERE, PEACE ALWAYS, and transferring to +the State the responsibility of his inertia. + +Yes, it must be admitted, in spite of modern quietism,--man's +life is a permanent war, war with want, war with nature, war with +his fellows, and consequently war with himself. The theory of a +peaceful equality, founded on fraternity and sacrifice, is only a +counterfeit of the Catholic doctrine of renunciation of the +goods and pleasures of this world, the principle of beggary, the +panegyric of misery. Man may love his fellow well enough to die +for him; he does not love him well enough to work for him. + +To the theory of sacrifice, which we have just refuted in fact +and in right, the adversaries of competition add another, which +is just the opposite of the first: for it is a law of the mind +that, when it does not know the truth, which is its point of +equilibrium, it oscillates between two contradictions. This new +theory of anti-competitive socialism is that of encouragements. + +What more social, more progressive in appearance, than +encouragement of labor and of industry? There is no democrat who +does not consider it one of the finest attributes of power, no +utopian theorist who does not place it in the front rank as a +means of organizing happiness. Now, government is by nature so +incapable of directing labor that every reward bestowed by it is +a veritable larceny from the common treasury. M. Reybaud shall +furnish us the text of this induction. + + +"The premiums granted to encourage exportation," observes M. +Reybaud somewhere, "are equivalent to the taxes paid for the +importation of raw material; the advantage remains absolutely +null, and serves to encourage nothing but a vast system of +smuggling." + + +This result is inevitable. Abolish customs duties, and national +industry suffers, as we have already seen in the case of sesame; +maintain the duties without granting premiums for exportation, +and national commerce will be beaten in foreign markets. To +obviate this difficulty do you resort to premiums? You but +restore with one hand what you have received with the other, and +you provoke fraud, the last result, the caput mortuum, of all +encouragements of industry. Hence it follows that every +encouragement to labor, every reward bestowed upon industry, +beyond the natural price of its product, is a gratuitous gift, a +bribe taken out of the consumer and offered in his name to a +favorite of power, in exchange for zero, for nothing. To +encourage industry, then, is synonymous at bottom with +encouraging idleness: it is one of the forms of swindling. + +In the interest of our navy the government had thought it best to +grant to outfitters of transport-ships a premium for every man +employed on their vessels. Now, I continue to quote M. Reybaud: + + +On every vessel that starts for Newfoundland from sixty to +seventy men embark. Of this number twelve are sailors: the +balance consists of villagers snatched from their work in the +fields, who, engaged as day laborers for the preparation of fish, +remain strangers to the rigging, and have nothing that is marine +about them except their feet and stomach. Nevertheless, these +men figure on the rolls of the naval inscription, and there +perpetuate a deception. When there is occasion to defend the +institution of premiums, these are cited in its favor; they swell +the numbers and contribute to success. + + +Base jugglery! doubtless some innocent reformer will exclaim. Be +it so: but let us analyze the fact, and try to disengage the +general idea to be found therein. + +In principle the only encouragement to labor that science can +admit is profit. For, if labor cannot find its reward in its own +product, very far from encouraging it, it should be abandoned as +soon as possible, and, if this same labor results in a net +product, it is absurd to add to this net product a gratuitous +gift, and thus overrate the value of the service. Applying this +principle, I say then: If the merchant service calls only for +ten thousand sailors, it should not be asked to support fifteen +thousand; the shortest course for the government is to put five +thousand conscripts on State vessels, and send them on their +expeditions, like princes. Every encouragement offered to the +merchant marine is a direct invitation to fraud,--what do I +say?--a proposal to pay wages for an impossible service. Do the +handling and discipline of vessels and all the conditions of +maritime commerce accommodate themselves to these adjuncts of a +useless personnel? What, then, can the ship-owner do in face of +a government which offers him a bonus to embark on his vessel +people of whom he has no need? If the ministry throws the money +of the treasury into the street, am I guilty if I pick it up? + +Thus--and it is a point worthy of notice--the theory of +encouragements emanates directly from the theory of sacrifice; +and, in order to avoid holding man responsible, the opponents of +competition, by the fatal contradiction of their ideas, are +obliged to make him now a god, now a brute. And then they are +astonished that society is not moved by their appeal! Poor +children! men will never be better or worse than you see them now +and than they always have been. As soon as their individual +welfare solicits them, they desert the general welfare: in which +I find them, if not honorable, at least worthy of excuse. It is +your fault if you now demand of them more than they owe you and +now stimulate their greed with rewards which they do not deserve. +Man has nothing more precious than himself, and consequently no +other law than his responsibility. The theory of self-sacrifice, +like that of rewards, is a theory of rogues, subversive of +society and morality; and by the very fact that you look either +to sacrifice or to privilege for the maintenance of order, you +create a new antagonism in society. Instead of causing the birth +of harmony from the free activity of persons, you render the +individual and the State strangers to each other; in commanding +union, you breathe discord. + +To sum up, outside of competition there remains but this +alternative,-- encouragement, which is a mystification, or +sacrifice, which is hypocrisy. + +Therefore competition, analyzed in its principle, is an +inspiration of justice; and yet we shall see that competition, in +its results, is unjust. + + +% 2.--Subversive effects of competition, and the destruction of +liberty thereby. + +The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, says the Gospel, and +the violent take it by force. These words are the allegory of +society. In society regulated by labor, dignity, wealth, and +glory are objects of competition; they are the reward of the +strong, and competition may be defined as the regime of force. +The old economists did not at first perceive this contradiction: +the moderns have been forced to recognize it. + + +"To elevate a State from the lowest degree of barbarism to the +highest degree of opulence," wrote A. Smith, "but three things +are necessary,-- peace, moderate taxes, and a tolerable +administration of justice. All the rest is brought about by the +NATURAL COURSE OF THINGS." + + +On which the last translator of Smith, M. Blanqui, lets fall this +gloomy comment: + + +We have seen the natural course of things produce disastrous +effects, and create anarchy in production, war for markets, and +piracy in competition. The division of labor and the perfecting +of machinery, which should realize for the great working family +of the human race the conquest of a certain amount of leisure to +the advantage of its dignity, have produced at many points +nothing but degradation and misery. . . . . When A. Smith wrote, +liberty had not yet come with its embarrassments and its abuses, +and the Glasgow professor foresaw only its blessings. . . Smith +would have written like M. de Sismondi, if he had been a witness +of the sad condition of Ireland and the manufacturing districts +of England in the times in which we live. + + +Now then, litterateurs, statesmen, daily publicists, believers +and half-believers, all you who have taken upon yourselves the +mission of indoctrinating men, do you hear these words which one +would take for a translation from Jeremiah? Will you tell us at +last to what end you pretend to be conducting civilization? What +advice do you offer to society, to the country, in alarm? + +But to whom do I speak? Ministers, journalists, sextons, and +pedants! Do such people trouble themselves about the problems of +social economy? Have they ever heard of competition? + +A citizen of Lyons, a soul hardened to mercantile war, travelled +in Tuscany. He observes that from five to six hundred thousand +straw hats are made annually in that country, the aggregate value +of which amounts to four or five millions of francs. This +industry is almost the sole support of the people of the little +State. "How is it," he says to himself, "that so easily +conducted a branch of agriculture and manufactures has not been +transported into Provence and Languedoc, where the climate is the +same as in Tuscany?" But, thereupon observes an economist, if +the industry of the peasants of Tuscany is taken from them, how +will they contrive to live? + +The manufacture of black silks had become for Florence a +specialty the secret of which she guarded preciously. + + +A shrewd Lyons manufacturer, the tourist notices with +satisfaction, has come to set up an establishment in Florence, +and has finally got possession of the peculiar processes of +dyeing and weaving. Probably this DISCOVERY will diminish +Florentine exportation.--A Journey in Italy, by M. Fulchiron. + + +Formerly the breeding of the silk-worm was abandoned to the +peasants of Tuscany; whom it aided to live. + + +Agricultural societies have been formed; they have represented +that the silk-worm, in the peasant's sleeping-room, did not get +sufficient ventilation or sufficient steadiness of temperature, +or as good care as it would have if the laborers who breed them +made it their sole business. Consequently rich, intelligent, and +generous citizens have built, amid the applause of the public, +what are called bigattieres (from bigatti, silk-worm).--M. de +Sismondi. + + +And then, you ask, will these breeders of silk-worms, these +manufacturers of silks and hats, lose their work? Precisely: it +will even be proved to them that it is for their interest that +they should, since they will be able to buy the same products for +less than it costs them to manufacture them. Such is +competition. + +Competition, with its homicidal instinct, takes away the bread of +a whole class of laborers, and sees in it only an improvement, a +saving; it steals a secret in a cowardly manner, and glories in +it as a DISCOVERY; it changes the natural zones of production to +the detriment of an entire people, and pretends to have done +nothing but utilize the advantages of its climate. Competition +overturns all notions of equity and justice; it increases the +real cost of production by needlessly multiplying the capital +invested, causes by turns the dearness of products and their +depreciation, corrupts the public conscience by putting chance in +the place of right, and maintains terror and distrust everywhere. + +But what! Without this atrocious characteristic, competition +would lose its happiest effects; without the arbitrary element in +exchange and the panics of the market, labor would not +continually build factory against factory, and, not being +maintained in such good working order, production would realize +none of its marvels. After having caused evil to arise from the +very utility of its principle, competition again finds a way to +extract good from evil; destruction engenders utility, +equilibrium is realized by agitation, and it may be said of +competition, as Samson said of the lion which he had slain: De +comedente cibus exiit, et de forti dulcedo. Is there anything, +in all the spheres of human knowledge, more surprising than +political economy? + +Let us take care, nevertheless, not to yield to an impulse of +irony, which would be on our part only unjust invective. It is +characteristic of economic science to find its certainty in its +contradictions, and the whole error of the economists consists in +not having understood this. Nothing poorer than their criticism, +nothing more saddening than their mental confusion, as soon as +they touch this question of competition: one would say that they +were witnesses forced by torture to confess what their conscience +would like to conceal. The reader will take it kindly if I put +before his eyes the arguments for laissez-passer, introducing +him, so to speak, into the presence of a secret meeting of +economists. + +M. Dunoyer opens the discussion. + +Of all the economists M. Dunoyer has most energetically embraced +the positive side of competition, and consequently, as might have +been expected, most ineffectually grasped the negative side. M. +Dunoyer, with whom nothing can be done when what he calls +principles are under discussion, is very far from believing that +in matters of political economy yes and no may be true at the +same moment and to the same extent; let it be said even to his +credit, such a conception is the more repugnant to him because of +the frankness and honesty with which he holds his doctrines. +What would I not give to gain an entrance into this pure but so +obstinate soul for this truth as certain to me as the existence +of the sun,--that all the categories of political economy are +contradictions! Instead of uselessly exhausting himself in +reconciling practice and theory; instead of contenting +himself with the ridiculous excuse that everything here below has +its advantages and its inconveniences,--M. Dunoyer would seek the +synthetic idea which solves all the antinomies, and, instead of +the paradoxical conservative which he now is, he would become +with us an inexorable and logical revolutionist. + + +"If competition is a false principle," says M. Dunoyer, "it +follows that for two thousand years humanity has been pursuing +the wrong road." + + +No, what you say does not follow, and your prejudicial remark is +refuted by the very theory of progress. Humanity posits its +principles by turns, and sometimes at long intervals: never does +it give them up in substance, although it destroys successively +their expressions and formulas. This destruction is called +NEGATION; because the general reason, ever progressive, +continually denies the completeness and sufficiency of its prior +ideas. Thus it is that, competition being one of the periods in +the constitution of value, one of the elements of the social +synthesis, it is true to say at the same time that it is +indestructible in its principle, and that nevertheless in its +present form it should be abolished, denied. If, then, there is +any one here who is in opposition to history, it is you. + + +I have several remarks to make upon the accusations of which +competition has been the object. The first is that this regime, +good or bad, ruinous or fruitful, does not really exist as yet; +that it is established nowhere except in a partial and most +incomplete manner. + + +This first observation has no sense. COMPETITION KILLS +COMPETITION, as we said at the outset; this aphorism may be taken +for a definition. How, then, could competition ever be complete? + +Moreover, though it should be admitted that competition does not +yet exist in its integrity, that would simply prove that +competition does not act with all the power of elimination that +there is in it; but that will not change at all its contradictory +nature. What need have we to wait thirty centuries longer to +find out that, the more competition develops, the more it tends +to reduce the number of competitors? + + +The second is that the picture drawn of it is unfaithful; and +that sufficient heed is not paid to the extension which the +general welfare has undergone, including even that of the +laboring classes. + + +If some socialists fail to recognize the useful side of +competition, you on your side make no mention of its pernicious +effects. The testimony of your opponents coming to complete your +own, competition is shown in the fullest light, and from a double +falsehood we get the truth as a result. As for the gravity of +the evil, we shall see directly what to think about that. + + +The third is that the evil experienced by the laboring classes is +not referred to its real causes. + + +If there are other causes of poverty than competition, does that +prevent it from contributing its share? Though only one +manufacturer a year were ruined by competition, if it were +admitted that this ruin is the necessary effect of the principle, +competition, as a principle, would have to be rejected. + + +The fourth is that the principal means proposed for obviating it +would be inexpedient in the extreme. + + +Possibly: but from this I conclude that the inadequacy of the +remedies proposed imposes a new duty upon you,--precisely that of +seeking the most expedient means of preventing the evil of +competition. + + +The fifth, finally, is that the real remedies, in so far as it is +possible to remedy the evil by legislation, would be found +precisely in the regime which is accused of having produced +it,--that is, in a more and more real regime of liberty and +competition. + + +Well! I am willing. The remedy for competition, in your +opinion, is to make competition universal. But, in order that +competition may be universal, it is necessary to procure for all +the means of competing; it is necessary to destroy or modify the +predominance of capital over labor, to change the relations +between employer and workman, to solve, in a word, the antinomy +of division and that of machinery; it is necessary to ORGANIZE +LABOR: can you give this solution? + +M. Dunoyer then develops, with a courage worthy of a better +cause, his own utopia of universal competition: it is a labyrinth +in which the author stumbles and contradicts himself at every +step. + + +"Competition," says M. Dunoyer, "meets a multitude of obstacles." + + +In fact, it meets so many and such powerful ones that it becomes +impossible itself. For how is triumph possible over obstacles +inherent in the constitution of society and consequently +inseparable from competition itself? + + +In addition to the public services, there is a certain number of +professions the practice of which the government has seen fit to +more or less exclusively reserve; there is a larger number of +which legislation has given a monopoly to a restricted number of +individuals. Those which are abandoned to competition are +subjected to formalities and restrictions, to numberless +barriers, which keep many from approaching, and in these +consequently competition is far from being unlimited. In short, +there are few which are not submitted to varied taxes, necessary +doubtless, etc. + + +What does all this mean? M. Dunoyer doubtless does not intend +that society shall dispense with government, administration, +police, taxes, universities, in a word, with everything that +constitutes a society. Then, inasmuch as society necessarily +implies exceptions to competition, the hypothesis of +universal competition is chimerical, and we are back again +under the regime of caprice,--a result foretold in the definition +of competition. Is there anything serious in this reasoning of +M. Dunoyer? + +Formerly the masters of the science began by putting far away +from them every preconceived idea, and devoted themselves to +tracing facts back to general laws, without ever altering or +concealing them. The researches of Adam Smith, considering the +time of their appearance, are a marvel of sagacity and lofty +reasoning. The economic picture presented by Quesnay, wholly +unintelligible as it appears, gives evidence of a profound +sentiment of the general synthesis. The introduction to J. B. +Say's great treatise dwells exclusively upon the scientific +characteristics of political economy, and in every line is to be +seen how much the author felt the need of absolute ideas. The +economists of the last century certainly did not constitute the +science, but they sought this constitution ardently and honestly. + +How far we are today from these noble thoughts! No longer do +they seek a science; they defend the interests of dynasty and +caste. The more powerless routine becomes, the more stubbornly +they adhere to it; they make use of the most venerated names to +stamp abnormal phenomena with a quality of authenticity which +they lack; they tax accusing facts with heresy; they calumniate +the tendencies of the century; and nothing irritates an economist +so much as to pretend to reason with him. + + +"The peculiar characteristic of the present time," cries M. +Dunoyer, in a tone of keen discontent, "is the agitation of all +classes; their anxiety, their inability to ever stop at anything +and be contented; the infernal labor performed upon the less +fortunate that they may become more and more discontented in +proportion to the increased efforts of society to make their lot +really less pitiful." + + +Indeed! Because the socialists goad political economy, they are +incarnate devils! Can there be anything more impious, in fact, +than to teach the proletaire that he is wronged in his labor and +his wages, and that, in the surroundings in which he lives, his +poverty is irremediable? + +M. Reybaud repeats, with greater emphasis, the wail of his +master, M. Dunoyer: one would think them the two seraphim of +Isaiah chanting a Sanctus to competition. In June, 1844, at the +time when he published the fourth edition of his "Contemporary +Reformers," M. Reybaud wrote, in the bitterness of his soul: + + +To socialists we owe the organization of labor, the right to +labor; they are the promoters of the regime of surveillance. . . +. The legislative chambers on either side of the channel are +gradually succumbing to their influence. . . . Thus utopia is +gaining ground. . . . + + +And M. Reybaud more and more deplores the SECRET INFLUENCE OF +SOCIALISM on the best minds, and stigmatizes--see the +malice!--the UNPERCEIVED CONTAGION with which even those who +have broken lances against socialism allow themselves to be +inoculated. Then he announces, as a last act of his high justice +against the wicked, the approaching publication, under the title +of "Laws of Labor," of a work in which he will prove (unless some +new evolution takes place in his ideas) that the laws of labor +have nothing in common, either with the right to labor or with +the organization of labor, and that the best of reforms is +laissez-faire. + + +"Moreover," adds M. Reybaud, "the tendency of political economy +is no longer to theory, but to practice. The abstract portions +of the science seem henceforth fixed. The controversy over +definitions is exhausted, or nearly so. The works of the great +economists on value, capital, supply and demand, wages, taxes, +machinery, farm-rent, increase of population, over-accumulation +of products, markets, banks, monopolies, etc., seem to have set +the limit of dogmatic researches, and form a body of doctrine +beyond which there is little to hope." + +FACILITY OF SPEECH, IMPOTENCE IN ARGUMENT,--such would have been +the conclusion of Montesquieu upon this strange panegyric of the +founders of social economy. THE SCIENCE IS COMPLETE! M. Reybaud +makes oath to it; and what he proclaims with so much authority is +repeated at the Academy, in the professors' chairs, in the +councils of State, in the legislative halls; it is published in +the journals; the king is made to say it in his New Year's +addresses; and before the courts the cases of claimants are +decided accordingly. + +THE SCIENCE IS COMPLETE! What fools we are, then, socialists, to +hunt for daylight at noonday, and to protest, with our lanterns +in our hands, against the brilliancy of these solar rays! + +But, gentlemen, it is with sincere regret and profound distrust +of myself that I find myself forced to ask you for further light. + +If you cannot cure our ills, give us at least kind words, give us +evidence, give us resignation. + + +"It is obvious," says M. Dunoyer, "that wealth is infinitely +better distributed in our day than it ever has been." + +"The equilibrium of pains and pleasures," promptly continues M. +Reybaud, "ever tends to restore itself on earth." + + +What, then! What do you say? WEALTH BETTER DISTRIBUTED, +EQUILIBRIUM RESTORED! Explain yourselves, please, as to this +better distribution. Is equality coming, or inequality going? +Is solidarity becoming closer, or competition diminishing? I +will not quit you until you have answered me, non missura cutem. +. . . For, whatever the cause of the restoration of equilibrium +and of the better distribution which you point out, I embrace it +with ardor, and will follow it to its last consequences. Before +1830--I select the date at random--wealth was not so well +distributed: how so? Today, in your opinion, it is better +distributed: why? You see what I am coming at: distribution +being not yet perfectly equitable and the equilibrium not +absolutely perfect, I ask, on the one hand, what obstacle it is +that disturbs the equilibrium, and, on the other, by virtue of +what principle humanity continually passes from the greater to +the less evil and from the good to the better? For, in fact, +this secret principle of amelioration can be neither competition, +nor machinery, nor division of labor, nor supply and demand: all +these principles are but levers which by turns cause value to +oscillate, as the Academy of Moral Sciences has very clearly +seen. What, then, is the sovereign law of well-being? What is +this rule, this measure, this criterion of progress, the +violation of which is the perpetual cause of poverty? Speak, and +quit your haranguing. + +Wealth is better distributed, you say. Show us your proofs. M. +Dunoyer: + + +According to official documents, taxes are assessed on scarcely +less than eleven million separate parcels of landed property. +The number of proprietors by whom these taxes are paid is +estimated at six millions; so that, assuming four individuals to +a family, there must be no less than twenty-four million +inhabitants out of thirty-four who participate in the ownership +of the soil. + + +Then, according to the most favorable figures, there must be ten +million proletaires in France, or nearly one-third of the +population. Now, what have you to say to that? Add to these ten +millions half of the twenty- four others, whose property, +burdened with mortgages, parcelled out, impoverished, wretched, +gives them no support, and still you will not have the number of +individuals whose living is precarious. + + +The number of twenty-four million proprietors perceptibly tends +to increase. + + +I maintain that it perceptibly tends to decrease. Who is the +real proprietor, in your opinion,--the nominal holder, assessed, +taxed, pawned, mortgaged, or the creditor who collects the rent? +Jewish and Swiss money-lenders are today the real proprietors of +Alsace; and proof of their excellent judgment is to be found in +the fact that they have no thought of acquiring landed estates: +they prefer to invest their capital. + + +To the landed proprietors must be added about fifteen hundred +thousand holders of patents and licenses, or, assuming four +persons to a family, six million individuals interested as +leaders in industrial enterprises. + + +But, in the first place, a great number of these licensed +individuals are landed proprietors, and you count them twice. +Further, it may be safely said that, of the whole number of +licensed manufacturers and merchants, a fourth at most realize +profits, another fourth hold their own, and the rest are +constantly running behind in their business. Take, then, half at +most of the six million so-called leaders in enterprises, which +we will add to the very problematical twelve million landed +proprietors, and we shall attain a total of fifteen million +Frenchmen in a position, by their education, their industry, +their capital, their credit, their property, to engage in +competition. For the rest of the nation, or nineteen million +souls, competition, like Henri IV.'s pullet in the pot, is a dish +which they produce for the class which can pay for it, but which +they never touch. + +Another difficulty. These nineteen million men, within whose +reach competition never comes, are hirelings of the competitors. +In the same way formerly the serfs fought for the lords, but +without being able themselves to carry a banner or put an army on +foot. Now, if competition cannot by itself become the common +condition, why should not those for whom it offers nothing but +perils, exact guarantees from the barons whom they serve? And if +these guarantees can not be denied them, how could they be other +than barriers to competition, just as the truce of God, invented +by the bishops, was a barrier to feudal wars? By the +constitution of society, I said a little while ago, competition +is an exceptional matter, a privilege; now I ask how it is +possible for this privilege to coexist with equality of rights? + +And think you, when I demand for consumers and wage-receivers +guarantees against competition, that it is a socialist's dream? +Listen to two of your most illustrious confreres, whom you will +not accuse of performing an infernal work. + +M. Rossi (Volume I., Lecture 16) recognizes in the State the +right to regulate labor, WHEN THE DANGER IS TOO GREAT AND THE +GUARANTEES INSUFFICIENT, which means always. For the legislator +must secure public order by PRINCIPLES and LAWS: he does not +wait for unforeseen facts to arise in order that he may drive +them back with an arbitrary hand. Elsewhere (Volume II., pp. +73-77) the same professor points out, as consequences of +exaggerated competition, the incessant formation of a financial +and landed aristocracy and the approaching downfall of small +holders, and he raises the cry of alarm. M. Blanqui, on his +side, declares that the organization of labor is recognized by +economic science as in the order of the day (he has since +retracted the statement), urges the participation of workers in +the profits and the advent of the collective laborer, and +thunders continually against the monopolies, prohibitions, and +tyranny of capital. Qui habet aures audiendi audiat! M. Rossi, +as a writer on criminal law, decrees against the robberies of +competition; M. Blanqui, as examining magistrate, proclaims the +guilty parties: it is the counterpart of the duet sung just now +by MM. Reybaud and Dunoyer. When the latter cry HOSANNA, the +former respond, like the Fathers in the Councils, ANATHEMA. + +But, it will be said, MM. Blanqui and Rossi mean to strike only +the ABUSES of competition; they have taken care not to proscribe +the PRINCIPLE, and in that they are thoroughly in accord with +MM. Reybaud and Dunoyer. + +I protest against this distinction, in the interest of the fame +of the two professors. + +In fact, abuse has invaded everything, and the exception has +become the rule. When M. Troplong, defending, with all the +economists, the liberty of commerce, admitted that the coalition +of the cab companies was one of those facts against which the +legislator finds himself absolutely powerless, and which seem to +contradict the sanest notions of social economy, he still had the +consolation of saying to himself that such a fact was wholly +exceptional, and that there was reason to believe that it would +not become general. Now, this fact has become general: the most +conservative jurisconsult has only to put his head out of his +window to see that today absolutely everything has been +monopolized through competition,--transportation (by land, rail, +and water), wheat and flour, wine and brandy, wood, coal, oil, +iron, fabrics, salt, chemical products, etc. It is sad for +jurisprudence, that twin sister of political economy, to see its +grave anticipations contradicted in less than a lustre, but it is +sadder still for a great nation to be led by such poor geniuses +and to glean the few ideas which sustain its life from the +brushwood of their writings. + +In theory we have demonstrated that competition, on its useful +side, should be universal and carried to its maximum of +intensity; but that, viewed on its negative side, it must be +everywhere stifled, even to the last vestige. Are the economists +in a position to effect this elimination? Have they foreseen the +consequences, calculated the difficulties? If the answer +should be affirmative, I should have the boldness to propose the +following case to them for solution. + +A treaty of coalition, or rather of association,--for the courts +would be greatly embarrassed to define either term,--has just +united in one company all the coal mines in the basin of the +Loire. On complaint of the municipalities of Lyons and Saint +Etienne, the ministry has appointed a commission charged with +examining the character and tendencies of this frightful society. + +Well, I ask, what can the intervention of power, with the +assistance of civil law and political economy, accomplish here? + +They cry out against coalition. But can the proprietors of mines +be prevented from associating, from reducing their general +expenses and costs of exploitation, and from working their mines +to better advantage by a more perfect understanding with each +other? Shall they be ordered to begin their old war over again, +and ruin themselves by increased expenses, waste, +over-production, disorder, and decreased prices? All that is +absurd. + +Shall they be prevented from increasing their prices so as to +recover the interest on their capital? Then let them be +protected themselves against any demands for increased wages on +the part of the workmen; let the law concerning joint-stock +companies be reenacted; let the sale of shares be prohibited; and +when all these measures shall have been taken, as the +capitalist-proprietors of the basin cannot justly be forced to +lose capital invested under a different condition of things, let +them be indemnified. + +Shall a tariff be imposed upon them? That would be a law of +maximum. The State would then have to put itself in the place of +the exploiters; keep the accounts of their capital, interest, and +office expenses; regulate the wages of the miners, the salaries +of the engineers and directors, the price of the wood employed in +the extraction of the coal, the expenditure for material; and, +finally, determine the normal and legitimate rate of profit. All +this cannot be done by ministerial decree: a law is necessary. +Will the legislator dare, for the sake of a special industry, to +change the public law of the French, and put power in the place +of property? Then of two things one: either commerce in coals +will fall into the hands of the State, or else the State must +find some means of reconciling liberty and order in carrying on +the mining industry, in which case the socialists will ask that +what has been executed at one point be imitated at all points. + +The coalition of the Loire mines has posited the social question +in terms which permit no more evasion. Either competition,--that +is, monopoly and what follows; or exploitation by the +State,--that is, dearness of labor and continuous impoverishment; +or else, in short, a solution based upon equality,--in other +words, the organization of labor, which involves the negation of +political economy and the end of property. + +But the economists do not proceed with this abrupt logic: they +love to bargain with necessity. M. Dupin (session of the Academy +of Moral and Political Sciences, June 10, 1843) expresses the +opinion that, "though competition may be useful within the +nation, it must be prevented between nations." + +To PREVENT or to LET ALONE,--such is the eternal alternative of +the economists: beyond it their genius does not go. In vain is +it cried out at them that it is not a question of PREVENTING +anything or of PERMITTING everything; that what is asked of +them, what society expects of them, is a RECONCILIATION: this +double idea does not enter their head. + + +"It is necessary," M. Dunoyer replies to M. Dupin, "to +DISTINGUISH theory from practice." + + +My God! everybody knows that M. Dunoyer, inflexible as to +principles in his works, is very accommodating as to practice in +the Council of State. But let him condescend to once ask himself +this question: Why am I obliged to continually distinguish +practice from theory? Why do they not harmonize? + +M. Blanqui, as a lover of peace and harmony, supports the learned +M. Dunoyer,--that is, theory. Nevertheless he thinks, with M. +Dupin,--that is, with practice,--that competition is not EXEMPT +FROM REPROACH. So afraid is M. Blanqui of calumniating and +stirring up the fire! + +M. Dupin is obstinate in his opinion. He cites, as evils for +which competition is responsible, fraud, sale by false weights, +the exploitation of children. All doubtless in order to prove +that competition WITHIN THE NATION may be useful! + +M. Passy, with his usual logic, observes that there will always +be dishonest people who, etc. Accuse human nature, he cries, but +not competition. + +At the very outset M. Passy's logic wanders from the question. +Competition is reproached with the inconveniences which result +from its nature, not with the frauds of which it is the occasion +or pretext. A manufacturer finds a way of replacing a workman +who costs him three francs a day by a woman to whom he gives but +one franc. This expedient is the only one by which he can meet a +falling market and keep his establishment in motion. Soon to the +working women he will add children. Then, forced by the +necessities of war, he will gradually reduce wages and add to the +hours of labor. Where is the guilty party here? This argument +may be turned about in a hundred ways and applied to all +industries without furnishing any ground for accusing human +nature. + +M. Passy himself is obliged to admit it when he adds: "As for +the compulsory labor of children, the fault is on the parents." +Exactly. And the fault of the parents on whom? + + +"In Ireland," continues this orator, "there is no competition, +and yet poverty is extreme." + + +On this point M. Passy's ordinary logic has been betrayed by an +extraordinary lack of memory. In Ireland there is a complete, +universal monopoly of the land, and unlimited, desperate +competition for farms. Competition-monopoly are the two balls +which unhappy Ireland drags, one after each foot. + +When the economists are tired of accusing human nature, the greed +of parents, and the turbulence of radicals, they find delectation +in picturing the felicity of the proletariat. But there again +they cannot agree with each other or with themselves; and nothing +better depicts the anarchy of competition than the disorder of +their ideas. + + +Today the wife of the workingman dresses in elegant robes which +in a previous century great ladies would not have disdained.--M. +Chevalier: Lecture 4. + + +And this is the same M. Chevalier who, according to his own +calculation, estimates that the total national income would give +thirteen cents a day to each individual. Some economists even +reduce this figure to eleven cents. Now, as all that goes to +make up the large fortunes must come out of this sum, we may +accept the estimate of M. de Morogues that the daily income of +half the French people does not exceed five cents each. + + +"But," continues M. Chevalier, with mystical exaltation, "does +not happiness consist in the harmony of desires and enjoyments, +in thebalance of needs and satisfactions? Does it not consist in +a certain condition of soul, the conditions of which it is not +the function of political economy to prevent, and which it is not +its mission to engender? This is the work of religion and +philosophy." + + +Economist, Horace would say to M: Chevalier, if he were living at +the present day, attend simply to my income, and leave me to take +care of my soul: Det vitam, det opes; {ae}quum mi animum ipse +parabo. + +M. Dunoyer again has the floor: + +It would be easy, in many cities, on holidays, to confound the +working class with the bourgeois class [why are there two +classes?], so fine is the dress of the former. No less has been +the progress in nourishment. Food is at once more abundant, more +substantial, and more varied. Bread is better everywhere. Meat, +soup, white bread, have become, in many factory towns, infinitely +more common than they used to be. In short, the average duration +of life has been raised from thirty-five years to forty. + + +Farther on M. Dunoyer gives a picture of English fortunes +according to Marshall. It appears from this picture that in +England two million five hundred thousand families have an income +of only two hundred and forty dollars. Now, in England an income +of two hundred and forty dollars corresponds to an income of one +hundred and forty-six dollars in our country, which, divided +between four persons, gives each thirty-six dollars and a half, +or ten cents a day. That is not far from the thirteen cents +which M. Chevalier allows to each individual in France: the +difference in favor of the latter arises from the fact that, the +progress of wealth being less advanced in France, poverty is +likewise less. What must one think of the economists' luxuriant +descriptions or of their figures? + + +"Pauperism has increased to such an extent in England," confesses +M. Blanqui, "that the English government has had to seek a refuge +in those frightful work-houses". . . . + + +As a matter of fact, those pretended work-houses, where the work +consists in ridiculous and fruitless occupations, are, whatever +may be said, simply torture-houses. For to a reasonable being +there is no torture like that of turning a mill without grain and +without flour, with the sole purpose of avoiding rest, without +thereby escaping idleness. + + +"This organization [the organization of competition]," continues +M. Blanqui, "tends to make all the profits of labor pass into the +hands of capital. . . . It is at Reims, at Mulhouse, at +Saint-Quentin, as at Manchester, at Leeds, at Spitalfields, that +the existence of the workers is most precarious". . . . + + +Then follows a frightful picture of the misery of the workers. +Men, women, children, young girls, pass before you, starved, +blanched, ragged, wan, and wild. The description ends with this +stroke: + + +The workers in the mechanical industries can no longer supply +recruits for the army. + + +It would seem that these do not derive much benefit from M. +Dunoyer's white bread and soup. + +M. Villerme regards the licentiousness of young working girls as +INEVITABLE. Concubinage is their customary status; they are +entirely subsidized by employers, clerks, and students. Although +as a general thing marriage is more attractive to the people than +to the bourgeoisie, there are many proletaires, Malthusians +without knowing it, who fear the family and go with the current. +Thus, as workingmen are flesh for cannon, workingwomen are flesh +for prostitution: that explains the elegant dressing on Sunday. +After all, why should these young women be expected to be more +virtuous than their mistresses? + +M. Buret, crowned by the Academy: + + +I affirm that the working class is abandoned body and soul to the +good pleasure of industry. + + +The same writer says elsewhere: + + +The feeblest efforts of speculation may cause the price of bread +to vary a cent a pound and more: which represents $124,100 for +thirty-four million men. + + +I may remark, in passing, that the much-lamented Buret regarded +the idea of the existence of monopolists as a popular prejudice. +Well, sophist! monopolist or speculator, what matters the name, +if you admit the thing? + +Such quotations would fill volumes. But the object of this +treatise is not to set forth the contradictions of the economists +and to wage fruitless war upon persons. Our object is loftier +and worthier: it is to unfold the System of Economical +Contradictions, which is quite a different matter. Therefore we +will end this sad review here; and, before concluding, we will +throw a glance at the various means proposed whereby to remedy +the inconveniences of competition. + + +% 3.--Remedies against competition. + +Can competition in labor be abolished? + +It would be as well worth while to ask if personality, liberty, +individual responsibility can be suppressed. + +Competition, in fact, is the expression of collective activity; +just as wages, considered in its highest acceptation, is the +expression of the merit and demerit, in a word, the +responsibility, of the laborer. It is vain to declaim and revolt +against these two essential forms of liberty and discipline in +labor. Without a theory of wages there is no distribution, no +justice; without an organization of competition there is no +social guarantee, consequently no solidarity. + +The socialists have confounded two essentially distinct things +when, contrasting the union of the domestic hearth with +industrial competition, they have asked themselves if society +could not be constituted precisely like a great family all of +whose members would be bound by ties of blood, and not as a sort +of coalition in which each is held back by the law of his own +interests. + +The family is not, if I may venture to so speak, the type, the +organic molecule, of society. In the family, as M. de Bonald has +very well observed, there exists but one moral being, one mind, +one soul, I had almost said, with the Bible, one flesh. The +family is the type and the cradle of monarchy and the patriciate: +in it resides and is preserved the idea of authority and +sovereignty, which is being obliterated more and more in the +State. It was on the model of the family that all the ancient +and feudal societies were organized, and it is precisely against +this old patriarchal constitution that modern democracy protests +and revolts. + +The constitutive unit of society is the workshop. + +Now, the workshop necessarily implies an interest as a body and +private interests, a collective person and individuals. Hence a +system of relations unknown in the family, among which the +opposition of the collective will, represented by the EMPLOYER, +and individual wills, represented by the WAGE-RECEIVERS, figures +in the front rank. Then come the relations from shop to shop, +from capital to capital,--in other words, competition and +association. For competition and association are supported by +each other; they do not exist independently; very far from +excluding each other, they are not even divergent. Whoever says +competition already supposes a common object; competition, then, +is not egoism, and the most deplorable error of socialism +consists in having regarded it as the subversion of society. + +Therefore there can be no question here of destroying +competition, as impossible as to destroy liberty; the +problem is to find its equilibrium, I would willingly say its +police. For every force, every form of spontaneity, whether +individual or collective, must receive its determination: in this +respect it is the same with competition as with intelligence and +liberty. How, then, will competition be harmoniously determined +in society? + +We have heard the reply of M. Dunoyer, speaking for political +economy: Competition must be determined by itself. In other +words, according to M. Dunoyer and all the economists, the remedy +for the inconveniences of competition is more competition; and, +since political economy is the theory of property, of the +absolute right of use and abuse, it is clear that political +economy has no other answer to make. Now, this is as if it +should be pretended that the education of liberty is effected by +liberty, the instruction of the mind by the mind, the +determination of value by value, all of which propositions are +evidently tautological and absurd. + +And, in fact, to confine ourselves to the subject under +discussion, it is obvious that competition, practised for itself +and with no other object than to maintain a vague and discordant +independence, can end in nothing, and that its oscillations are +eternal. In competition the struggling elements are capital, +machinery, processes, talent, and experience,--that is, capital +again; victory is assured to the heaviest battalions. If, then, +competition is practised only to the advantage of private +interests, and if its social effects have been neither determined +by science nor reserved by the State, there will be in +competition, as in democracy, a continual tendency from civil war +to oligarchy, from oligarchy to despotism, and then dissolution +and return to civil war, without end and without rest. That is +why competition, abandoned to itself, can never arrive at +its own constitution: like value, it needs a superior principle +to socialize and define it. These facts are henceforth well +enough established to warrant us in considering them above +criticism, and to excuse us from returning to them. Political +economy, so far as the police of competition is concerned, having +no means but competition itself, and unable to have any other, is +shown to be powerless. + +It remains now to inquire what solution socialism contemplates. +A single example will give the measure of its means, and will +permit us to come to general conclusions regarding it. + +Of all modern socialists M. Louis Blanc, perhaps, by his +remarkable talent, has been most successful in calling public +attention to his writings. In his "Organization of Labor," after +having traced back the problem of association to a single point, +competition, he unhesitatingly pronounces in favor of its +abolition. From this we may judge to what an extent this writer, +generally so cautious, is deceived as to the value of political +economy and the range of socialism. On the one hand, M. Blanc, +receiving his ideas ready made from I know not what source, +giving everything to his century and nothing to history, rejects +absolutely, in substance and in form, political economy, and +deprives himself of the very materials of organization; on the +other, he attributes to tendencies revived from all past epochs, +which he takes for new, a reality which they do not possess, and +misconceives the nature of socialism, which is exclusively +critical. M. Blanc, therefore, has given us the spectacle of a +vivid imagination ready to confront an impossibility; he has +believed in the divination of genius; but he must have perceived +that science does not improvise itself, and that, be one's name +Adolphe Boyer, Louis Blanc, or J. J. Rousseau, provided there is +nothing in experience, there is nothing in the mind. + +M. Blanc begins with this declaration: + + +We cannot understand those who have imagined I know not what +mysterious coupling of two opposite principles. To graft +association upon competition is a poor idea: it is to substitute +hermaphrodites for eunuchs. + + +These three lines M. Blanc will always have reason to regret. +They prove that, when he published the fourth edition of his +book, he was as little advanced in logic as in political economy, +and that he reasoned about both as a blind man would reason about +colors. Hermaphrodism, in politics, consists precisely in +exclusion, because exclusion always restores, in some form or +other and in the same degree, the idea excluded; and M. Blanc +would be greatly surprised were he to be shown, by his continual +mixture in his book of the most contrary principles,-- authority +and right, property and communism, aristocracy and equality, +labor and capital, reward and sacrifice, liberty and +dictatorship, free inquiry and religious faith,--that the real +hermaphrodite, the double- sexed publicist, is himself. M. +Blanc, placed on the borders of democracy and socialism, one +degree lower than the Republic, two degrees beneath M. Barrot, +three beneath M. Thiers, is also, whatever he may say and +whatever he may do, a descendant through four generations from M. +Guizot, a doctrinaire. + + +"Certainly," cries M. Blanc, "we are not of those who +anathematize the principle of authority. This principle we have +a thousand times had occasion to defend against attacks as +dangerous as absurd. We know that, when organized force exists +nowhere in a society, despotism exists everywhere." + + +Thus, according to M. Blanc, the remedy for competition, or +rather, the means of abolishing it, consists in the intervention +of authority, in the substitution of the State for individual +liberty: it is the inverse of the system of the economists. + +I should dislike to have M. Blanc, whose social tendencies are +well known, accuse me of making impolitic war upon him in +refuting him. I do justice to M. Blanc's generous intentions; I +love and I read his works, and I am especially thankful to him +for the service he has rendered in revealing, in his "History of +Ten Years," the hopeless poverty of his party. But no one can +consent to seem a dupe or an imbecile: now, putting personality +entirely aside, what can there be in common between socialism, +that universal protest, and the hotch-potch of old prejudices +which make up M. Blanc's republic? M. Blanc is never tired of +appealing to authority, and socialism loudly declares itself +anarchistic; M. Blanc places power above society, and socialism +tends to subordinate it to society; M. Blanc makes social life +descend from above, and socialism maintains that it springs up +and grows from below; M. Blanc runs after politics, and socialism +is in quest of science. No more hypocrisy, let me say to M. +Blanc: you desire neither Catholicism nor monarchy nor nobility, +but you must have a God, a religion, a dictatorship, a +censorship, a hierarchy, distinctions, and ranks. For my part, I +deny your God, your authority, your sovereignty, your judicial +State, and all your representative mystifications; I want neither +Robespierre's censer nor Marat's rod; and, rather than submit to +your androgynous democracy, I would support the status quo. For +sixteen years your party has resisted progress and blocked +opinion; for sixteen years it has shown its despotic origin by +following in the wake of power at the extremity of the left +centre: it is time for it to abdicate or undergo a metamorphosis. + +Implacable theorists of authority, what then do you propose which +the government upon which you make war cannot accomplish in +a fashion more tolerable than yours? + +M. Blanc's SYSTEM may be summarized in three points: + +1. To give power a great force of initiative,--that is, in plain +English, to make absolutism omnipotent in order to realize a +utopia. + +2. To establish public workshops, and supply them with capital, +at the State's expense. + +3. To extinguish private industry by the competition of national +industry. + +And that is all. + +Has M. Blanc touched the problem of value, which involves in +itself alone all others? He does not even suspect its existence. + +Has he given a theory of distribution? No. Has he solved the +antinomy of the division of labor, perpetual cause of the +workingman's ignorance, immorality, and poverty? No. Has he +caused the contradiction of machinery and wages to disappear, and +reconciled the rights of association with those of liberty? On +the contrary, M. Blanc consecrates this contradiction. Under the +despotic protection of the State, he admits in principle the +inequality of ranks and wages, adding thereto, as compensation, +the ballot. Are not workingmen who vote their regulations and +elect their leaders free? It may very likely happen that these +voting workingmen will admit no command or difference of pay +among them: then, as nothing will have been provided for the +satisfaction of industrial capacities, while maintaining +political equality, dissolution will penetrate into the workshop, +and, in the absence of police intervention, each will return to +his own affairs. These fears seem to M. Blanc neither serious +nor well-founded: he awaits the test calmly, very sure that +society will not go out of his way to contradict him. + +And such complex and intricate questions as those of taxation, +credit, international trade, property, heredity,--has M. Blanc +fathomed them? Has he solved the problem of population? No, no, +no, a thousand times no: when M. Blanc cannot solve a difficulty, +he eliminates it. Regarding population, he says: + + +As only poverty is prolific, and as the social workshop will +cause poverty to disappear, there is no reason for giving it any +thought. + + +In vain does M. de Sismondi, supported by universal experience, +cry out to him: + + +We have no confidence in those who exercise delegated powers. We +believe that any corporation will do its business worse than +those who are animated by individual interest; that on the part +of the directors there will be negligence, display, waste, +favoritism, fear of compromise, all the faults, in short, to be +noticed in the administration of the public wealth as contrasted +with private wealth. We believe, further, that in an assembly of +stockholders will be found only carelessness, caprice, +negligence, and that a mercantile enterprise would be constantly +compromised and soon ruined, if it were dependent upon a +deliberative commercial assembly. + + +M. Blanc hears nothing; he drowns all other sounds with his own +sonorous phrases; private interest he replaces by devotion to the +public welfare; for competition he substitutes emulation and +rewards. After having posited industrial hierarchy as a +principle, it being a necessary consequence of his faith in God, +authority, and genius, he abandons himself to mystic powers, +idols of his heart and his imagination. + +Thus M. Blanc begins by a coup d' Etat, or rather, according to +his original expression, by an application of the FORCE OF +INITIATIVE which he gives to power; and he levies an +extraordinary tax upon the rich in order to supply the +proletariat with capital. M. Blanc's logic is very simple,--it +is that of the Republic: power can accomplish what the people +want, and what the people want is right. A singular fashion +of reforming society, this of repressing its most spontaneous +tendencies, denying its most authentic manifestations, and, +instead of generalizing comfort by the regular development of +traditions, displacing labor and income! But, in truth, what is +the good of these disguises? Why so much beating about the bush? +Was it not simpler to adopt the agrarian law straightway? Could +not power, by virtue of its force of initiative, at once declare +all capital and tools the property of the State, save an +indemnity to be granted to the present holders as a transitional +measure? By means of this peremptory, but frank and sincere, +policy, the economic field would have been cleared away; it would +not have cost utopia more, and M. Blanc could then have proceeded +at his ease, and without any hindrance, to the organization of +society. + +But what do I say? organize! The whole organic work of M. Blanc +consists in this great act of expropriation, or substitution, if +you prefer: industry once displaced and republicanized and the +great monopoly established, M. Blanc does not doubt that +production will go on exactly as one would wish; he does not +conceive it possible that any one can raise even a single +difficulty in the way of what he calls his SYSTEM. And, in +fact, what objection can be offered to a conception so radically +null, so intangible as that of M. Blanc? The most curious part +of his book is in the select collection which he has made of +objections proposed by certain incredulous persons, which he +answers, as may be imagined, triumphantly. These critics had not +seen that, in discussing M. Blanc's SYSTEM, they were arguing +about the dimensions, weight, and form of a mathematical point. +Now, as it has happened, the controversy maintained by M. Blanc +has taught him more than his own meditations had done; and one +can see that, if the objections had continued, he would have +ended by discovering what he thought he had invented,--the +organization of labor. + +But, in fine, has the aim, however narrow, which M. Blanc +pursued,-- namely, the abolition of competition and the guarantee +of success to an enterprise patronized and backed by the +State,--been attained? On this subject I will quote the +reflections of a talented economist, M. Joseph Garnier, to whose +words I will permit myself to add a few comments. + + +The government, according to M. Blanc, would choose MORAL +WORKMEN, and would give them GOOD WAGES. + + +So M. Blanc must have men made expressly for him: he does not +flatter himself that he can act on any sort of temperaments. As +for wages, M. Blanc promises that they shall be GOOD; that is +easier than to define their measure. + + +M. Blanc admits by his hypothesis that these workshops would +yield a net product, and, further, would compete so successfully +with private industry that the latter would change into national +workshops. + + +How could that be, if the cost of the national workshops is +higher than that of the free workshops? I have shown in the +third chapter that three hundred workmen in a mill do not produce +for their employer, among them all, a regular net income of +twenty thousand francs, and that these twenty thousand francs, +distributed among the three hundred laborers, would add but +eighteen centimes a day to their income. Now, this is true of +all industries. How will the national workshop, which owes ITS +WORKMEN GOOD WAGES, make up this deficit? By emulation, says M. +Blanc. + +M. Blanc points with extreme complacency to the Leclaire +establishment, a society of house-painters doing a very +successful business, which he regards as a living +demonstration of his system. M. Blanc might have added to this +example a multitude of similar societies, which would prove quite +as much as the Leclaire establishment,--that is, no more. The +Leclaire establishment is a collective monopoly, supported by the +great society which envelops it. Now, the question is whether +entire society can become a monopoly, in M. Blanc's sense and +patterned after the Leclaire establishment: I deny it positively. +But a fact touching more closely the question before us, and +which M. Blanc has not taken into consideration, is that it +follows from the distribution accounts furnished by the Leclaire +establishment that, the wages paid being much above the general +average, the first thing to do in a reorganization of society +would be to start up competition with the Leclaire establishment, +either among its own workmen or outside. + + +Wages would be regulated by the government. The members of the +social workshop would dispose of them as they liked, and THE +INDISPUTABLE EXCELLENCE OF LIFE IN COMMON WOULD NOT BE LONG IN +CAUSING ASSOCIATION IN LABOR TO GIVE BIRTH TO VOLUNTARY +ASSOCIATION IN PLEASURE. + + +Is M. Blanc a communist, yes or no? Let him declare himself once +for all, instead of holding off; and if communism does not make +him more intelligible, we shall at least know what he wants. + + +In reading the supplement in which M. Blanc has seen fit to +combat the objections which some journals have raised, we see +more clearly the incompleteness of his conception, daughter of at +least three fathers,-- Saint-Simonism, Fourierism, and +communism,--with the aid of politics and a little, a very little, +political economy. + +According to his explanations, the State would be only the +regulator, legislator, protector of industry, not the universal +manufacturer or producer. But as he exclusively protects the +social workshops to destroy private industry, he necessarily +brings up in monopoly and falls back into the Saint-Simonian +theory in spite of himself, at least so far as production is +concerned. + + +M. Blanc cannot deny it: his SYSTEM is directed against private +industry; and with him power, by its force of initiative, tends +to extinguish all individual initiative, to proscribe free labor. +The coupling of contraries is odious to M. Blanc: accordingly we +see that, after having sacrificed competition to association, he +sacrifices to it liberty also. I am waiting for him to abolish +the family. + + +Nevertheless hierarchy would result from the elective principle, +as in Fourierism, as in constitutional politics. But these +social workshops again, regulated by law,--will they be anything +but corporations? What is the bond of corporations? The law. +Who will make the law? The government. You suppose that it will +be good? Well, experience has shown that it has never been a +success in regulating the innumerable accidents of industry. You +tell us that it will fix the rate of profits, the rate of wages; +you hope that it will do it in such a way that laborers and +capital will take refuge in the social workshop. But you do not +tell us how equilibrium will be established between these +workshops which will have a tendency to life in common, to the +phalanstery; you do not tell us how these workshops will avoid +competition within and without; how they will provide for the +excess of population in relation to capital; how the +manufacturing social workshops will differ from those of the +fields; and many other things besides. I know well that you will +answer: By the specific virtue of the law! And if your +government, your State, knows not how to make it? Do you not see +that you are sliding down a declivity, and that you are obliged +to grasp at something similar to the existing law? It is easy to +see by reading you that you are especially devoted to the +invention of a power susceptible of application to your system; +but I declare, after reading you carefully, that in my opinion +you have as yet no clear and precise idea of what you need. What +you lack, as well as all of us, is the true conception of liberty +and equality, which you would not like to disown, and which you +are obliged to sacrifice, whatever precautions you may take. + +Unacquainted with the nature and functions of power, you have not +dared to stop for a single explanation; you have not given the +slightest example. + +Suppose we admit that the workshops succeed as producers; there +will also be commercial workshops to put products in circulation +and effect exchanges. And who then will regulate the price? +Again the law? In truth, I tell you, you will need a new +appearance on Mount Sinai; otherwise you will never get out of +your difficulties, you, your Council of State, your chamber of +representatives, or your areopagus of senators. + + +The correctness of these reflections cannot be questioned. M. +Blanc, with his organization by the State, is obliged always to +end where he should have begun (so beginning, he would have been +saved the trouble of writing his book),--that is, in the STUDY OF +ECONOMIC SCIENCE. As his critic very well says: "M. Blanc has +made the grave mistake of using political strategy in dealing +with questions which are not amenable to such treatment"; he has +tried to summon the government to a fulfillment of its +obligations, and he has succeeded only in demonstrating more +clearly than ever the incompatibility of socialism with +haranguing and parliamentary democracy. His pamphlet, all +enamelled with eloquent pages, does honor to his literary +capacity: as for the philosophical value of the book, it would be +absolutely the same if the author had confined himself to writing +on each page, in large letters, this single phrase: I PROTEST. + +To sum up: + +Competition, as an economic position or phase, considered in its +origin, is the necessary result of the intervention of machinery, +of the establishment of the workshop, and of the theory of +reduction of general costs; considered in its own significance +and in its tendency, it is the mode by which collective activity +manifests and exercises itself, the expression of social +spontaneity, the emblem of democracy and equality, the most +energetic instrument for the constitution of value, the support +of association. As the essay of individual forces, it is +the guarantee of their liberty, the first moment of their +harmony, the form of responsibility which unites them all and +makes them solidary. + +But competition abandoned to itself and deprived of the direction +of a superior and efficacious principle is only a vague movement, +an endless oscillation of industrial power, eternally tossed +about between those two equally disastrous extremes,--on the one +hand, corporations and patronage, to which we have seen the +workshop give birth, and, on the other, monopoly, which will be +discussed in the following chapter. + +Socialism, while protesting, and with reason, against this +anarchical competition, has as yet proposed nothing satisfactory +for its regulation, as is proved by the fact that we meet +everywhere, in the utopias which have seen the light, the +determination or socialization of value abandoned to arbitrary +control, and all reforms ending, now in hierarchical corporation, +now in State monopoly, or the tyranny of communism. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FOURTH PERIOD.--MONOPOLY. + +Monopoly, the exclusive commerce, exploitation, or enjoyment of a +thing. + +Monopoly is the natural opposite of competition. This simple +observation suffices, as we have remarked, to overthrow the +utopias based upon the idea of abolishing competition, as if its +contrary were association and fraternity. Competition is the +vital force which animates the collective being: to destroy it, +if such a supposition were possible, would be to kill society. + +But, the moment we admit competition as a necessity, it implies +the idea of monopoly, since monopoly is, as it were, the seat of +each competing individuality. Accordingly the economists have +demonstrated--and M. Rossi has formally admitted it--that +monopoly is the form of social possession, outside of which there +is no labor, no product, no exchange, no wealth. Every landed +possession is a monopoly; every industrial utopia tends to +establish itself as a monopoly; and the same must be said of +other functions not included in these two categories. + +Monopoly in itself, then, does not carry the idea of injustice; +in fact, there is something in it which, pertaining to society as +well as to man, legitimates it: that is the POSITIVE side of the +principle which we are about to examine. + +But monopoly, like competition, becomes anti-social and +disastrous: how does this happen? By ABUSE, reply the +economists. And it is to defining and repressing the abuses of +monopoly that the magistrates apply themselves; it is in +denouncing them that the new school of economists glories. + +We shall show that the so-called abuses of monopoly are only the +effects of the development, in a NEGATIVE sense, of legal +monopoly; that they cannot be separated from their principle +without ruining this principle; consequently, that they are +inaccessible to the law, and that all repression in this +direction is arbitrary and unjust. So that monopoly, the +constitutive principle of society and the condition of wealth, is +at the same time and in the same degree a principle of spoliation +and pauperism; that, the more good it is made to produce, the +more evil is received from it; that without it progress comes to +a standstill, and that with it labor becomes stationary and +civilization disappears. + + +% 1.--Necessity of monopoly. + +Thus monopoly is the inevitable end of competition, which +engenders it by a continual denial of itself: this generation of +monopoly is already its justification. For, since competition is +inherent in society as motion is in living beings, monopoly which +comes in its train, which is its object and its end, and without +which competition would not have been accepted,--monopoly is and +will remain legitimate as long as competition, as long as +mechanical processes and industrial combinations, as long, in +fact, as the division of labor and the constitution of values +shall be necessities and laws. + +Therefore by the single fact of its logical generation monopoly +is justified. Nevertheless this justification would seem of +little force and would end only in a more energetic rejection of +competition than ever, if monopoly could not in turn posit itself +by itself and as a principle. + +In the preceding chapters we have seen that division of labor is +the specification of the workman considered especially as +intelligence; that the creation of machinery and the organization +of the workshop express his liberty; and that, by competition, +man, or intelligent liberty, enters into action. Now, monopoly +is the expression of victorious liberty, the prize of the +struggle, the glorification of genius; it is the strongest +stimulant of all the steps in progress taken since the beginning +of the world: so true is this that, as we said just now, society, +which cannot exist with it, would not have been formed without +it. + +Where, then, does monopoly get this singular virtue, which the +etymology of the word and the vulgar aspect of the thing would +never lead us to suspect? + +Monopoly is at bottom simply the autocracy of man over himself: +it is the dictatorial right accorded by nature to every producer +of using his faculties as he pleases, of giving free play to his +thought in whatever direction it prefers, of speculating, in such +specialty as he may please to choose, with all the power of his +resources, of disposing sovereignly of the instruments which he +has created and of the capital accumulated by his economy for any +enterprise the risks of which he may see fit to accept on the +express condition of enjoying alone the fruits of his discovery +and the profits of his venture. + +This right belongs so thoroughly to the essence of liberty that +to deny it is to mutilate man in his body, in his soul, and in +the exercise of his faculties, and society, which progresses only +by the free initiative of individuals, soon lacking explorers, +finds itself arrested in its onward march. + +It is time to give body to all these ideas by the testimony of +facts. + +I know a commune where from time immemorial there had been no +roads either for the clearing of lands or for communication with +the outside world. During three-fourths of the year all +importation or exportation of goods was prevented; a barrier of +mud and marsh served as a protection at once against any invasion +from without and any excursion of the inhabitants of the holy and +sacred community. Six horses, in the finest weather, scarcely +sufficed to move a load that any jade could easily have taken +over a good road. The mayor resolved, in spite of the council, +to build a road through the town. For a long time he was +derided, cursed, execrated. They had got along well enough +without a road up to the time of his administration: why need he +spend the money of the commune and waste the time of farmers in +road-duty, cartage, and compulsory service? It was to satisfy +his pride that Monsieur the Mayor desired, at the expense of the +poor farmers, to open such a fine avenue for his city friends who +would come to visit him! In spite of everything the road was +made and the peasants applauded! What a difference! they said: +it used to take eight horses to carry thirty sacks to market, and +we were gone three days; now we start in the morning with two +horses, and are back at night. But in all these remarks nothing +further was heard of the mayor. The event having justified him, +they spoke of him no more: most of them, in fact, as I found out, +felt a spite against him. + +This mayor acted after the manner of Aristides. Suppose that, +wearied by the absurd clamor, he had from the beginning proposed +to his constituents to build the road at his expense, provided +they would pay him toll for fifty years, each, however, +remaining free to travel through the fields, as in the past: in +what respect would this transaction have been fraudulent? + +That is the history of society and monopolists. + +Everybody is not in a position to make a present to his +fellow-citizens of a road or a machine: generally the inventor, +after exhausting his health and substance, expects reward. Deny +then, while still scoffing at them, to Arkwright, Watt, and +Jacquard the privilege of their discoveries; they will shut +themselves up in order to work, and possibly will carry their +secret to the grave. Deny to the settler possession of the soil +which he clears, and no one will clear it. + +But, they say, is that true right, social right, fraternal right? + +That which is excusable on emerging from primitive communism, an +effect of necessity, is only a temporary expedient which must +disappear in face of a fuller understanding of the rights and +duties of man and society. + +I recoil from no hypothesis: let us see, let us investigate. It +is already a great point that the opponents confess that, during +the first period of civilization, things could not have gone +otherwise. It remains to ascertain whether the institutions of +this period are really, as has been said, only temporary, or +whether they are the result of laws immanent in society and +eternal. Now, the thesis which I maintain at this moment is the +more difficult because in direct opposition to the general +tendency, and because I must directly overturn it myself by its +contradiction. + +I pray, then, that I may be told how it is possible to make +appeal to the principles of sociability, fraternity, and +solidarity, when society itself rejects every solidary and +fraternal transaction? At the beginning of each industry, at the +first gleam of a discovery, the man who invents is isolated; +society abandons him and remains in the background. To put +it better, this man, relatively to the idea which he has +conceived and the realization of which he pursues, becomes in +himself alone entire society. He has no longer any associates, +no longer any collaborators, no longer any sureties; everybody +shuns him: on him alone falls the responsibility; to him alone, +then, the advantages of the speculation. + +But, it is insisted, this is blindness on the part of society, an +abandonment of its most sacred rights and interests, of the +welfare of future generations; and the speculator, better +informed or more fortunate, cannot fairly profit by the monopoly +which universal ignorance gives into his hands. + +I maintain that this conduct on the part of society is, as far as +the present is concerned, an act of high prudence; and, as for +the future, I shall prove that it does not lose thereby. I have +already shown in the second chapter, by the solution of the +antinomy of value, that the advantage of every useful discovery +is incomparably less to the inventor, whatever he may do, than to +society; I have carried the demonstration of this point even to +mathematical accuracy. Later I shall show further that, in +addition to the profit assured it by every discovery, society +exercises over the privileges which it concedes, whether +temporarily or perpetually, claims of several kinds, which +largely palliate the excess of certain private fortunes, and the +effect of which is a prompt restoration of equilibrium. But let +us not anticipate. + +I observe, then, that social life manifests itself in a double +fashion,--PRESERVATION and DEVELOPMENT. + +Development is effected by the free play of individual energies; +the mass is by its nature barren, passive, and hostile to +everything new. It is, if I may venture to use the comparison, +the womb, sterile by itself, but to which come to deposit +themselves the germs created by private activity, which, in +hermaphroditic society, really performs the function of the male +organ. + +But society preserves itself only so far as it avoids solidarity +with private speculations and leaves every innovation absolutely +to the risk and peril of individuals. It would take but a few +pages to contain the list of useful inventions. The enterprises +that have been carried to a successful issue may be numbered; no +figure would express the multitude of false ideas and imprudent +ventures which every day are hatched in human brains. There is +not an inventor, not a workman, who, for one sane and correct +conception, has not given birth to thousands of chimeras; not an +intelligence which, for one spark of reason, does not emit +whirlwinds of smoke. If it were possible to divide all the +products of the human reason into two parts, putting on one side +those that are useful, and on the other those on which strength, +thought, capital, and time have been spent in error, we should be +startled by the discovery that the excess of the latter over the +former is perhaps a billion per cent. What would become of +society, if it had to discharge these liabilities and settle all +these bankruptcies? What, in turn, would become of the +responsibility and dignity of the laborer, if, secured by the +social guarantee, he could, without personal risk, abandon +himself to all the caprices of a delirious imagination and trifle +at every moment with the existence of humanity? + +Wherefore I conclude that what has been practised from the +beginning will be practised to the end, and that, on this point, +as on every other, if our aim is reconciliation, it is absurd to +think that anything that exists can be abolished. For, the world +of ideas being infinite, like nature, and men, today as ever, +being subject to speculation,--that is, to error,--individuals +have a constant stimulus to speculate and society a constant +reason to be suspicious and cautious, wherefore monopoly never +lacks material. + +To avoid this dilemma what is proposed? Compensation? In the +first place, compensation is impossible: all values being +monopolized, where would society get the means to indemnify the +monopolists? What would be its mortgage? On the other hand, +compensation would be utterly useless: after all the monopolies +had been compensated, it would remain to organize industry. +Where is the system? Upon what is opinion settled? What +problems have been solved? If the organization is to be of the +hierarchical type, we reenter the system of monopoly; if of the +democratic, we return to the point of departure, for the +compensated industries will fall into the public domain,--that +is, into competition,--and gradually will become monopolies +again; if, finally, of the communistic, we shall simply have +passed from one impossibility to another, for, as we shall +demonstrate at the proper time, communism, like competition and +monopoly, is antinomical, impossible. + +In order not to involve the social wealth in an unlimited and +consequently disastrous solidarity, will they content themselves +with imposing rules upon the spirit of invention and enterprise? +Will they establish a censorship to distinguish between men of +genius and fools? That is to suppose that society knows in +advance precisely that which is to be discovered. To submit the +projects of schemers to an advance examination is an a priori +prohibition of all movement. For, once more, relatively to the +end which he has in view, there is a moment when each +manufacturer represents in his own person society itself, sees +better and farther than all other men combined, and frequently +without being able to explain himself or make himself +understood. When Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, Newton's +predecessors, came to the point of saying to Christian society, +then represented by the Church: "The Bible is mistaken; the +earth revolves, and the sun is stationary," they were right +against society, which, on the strength of its senses and +traditions, contradicted them. Could society then have accepted +solidarity with the Copernican system? So little could it do it +that this system openly denied its faith, and that, pending the +accord of reason and revelation, Galileo, one of the responsible +inventors, underwent torture in proof of the new idea. We are +more tolerant, I presume; but this very toleration proves that, +while according greater liberty to genius, we do not mean to be +less discreet than our ancestors. Patents rain, but WITHOUT +GOVERNMENTAL GUARANTEE. Property titles are placed in the +keeping of citizens, but neither the property list nor the +charter guarantee their value: it is for labor to make them +valuable. And as for the scientific and other missions which the +government sometimes takes a notion to entrust to penniless +explorers, they are so much extra robbery and corruption. + +In fact, society can guarantee to no one the capital necessary +for the testing of an idea by experiment; in right, it cannot +claim the results of an enterprise to which it has not +subscribed: therefore monopoly is indestructible. For the rest, +solidarity would be of no service: for, as each can claim for his +whims the solidarity of all and would have the same right to +obtain the government's signature in blank, we should soon arrive +at the universal reign of caprice,--that is, purely and simply at +the statu quo. + +Some socialists, very unhappily inspired--I say it with all the +force of my conscience--by evangelical abstractions, believe +that they have solved the difficulty by these fine maxims: +"Inequality of capacities proves the inequality of duties"; "You +have received more from nature, give more to your brothers," and +other high-sounding and touching phrases, which never fail of +their effect on empty heads, but which nevertheless are as simple +as anything that it is possible to imagine. The practical +formula deduced from these marvellous adages is that each laborer +owes all his time to society, and that society should give back +to him in exchange all that is necessary to the satisfaction of +his wants in proportion to the resources at its disposal. + +May my communistic friends forgive me! I should be less severe +upon their ideas if I were not irreversibly convinced, in my +reason and in my heart, that communism, republicanism, and all +the social, political, and religious utopias which disdain facts +and criticism, are the greatest obstacle which progress has now +to conquer. Why will they never understand that fraternity can +be established only by justice; that justice alone, the +condition, means, and law of liberty and fraternity, must be the +object of our study; and that its determination and formula must +be pursued without relaxation, even to the minutest details? Why +do writers familiar with economic language forget that +superiority of talents is synonymous with superiority of wants, +and that, instead of expecting more from vigorous than from +ordinary personalities, society should constantly look out that +they do not receive more than they render, when it is already so +hard for the mass of mankind to render all that it receives? +Turn which way you will, you must always come back to the cash +book, to the account of receipts and expenditures, the sole +guarantee against large consumers as well as against small +producers. The workman continually lives IN ADVANCE of his +production; his tendency is always to get CREDIT, contract DEBTS +and go into BANKRUPTCY; it is perpetually necessary to remind him +of Say's aphorism: PRODUCTS ARE BOUGHT ONLY WITH PRODUCTS. + +To suppose that the laborer of great capacity will content +himself, in favor of the weak, with half his wages, furnish his +services gratuitously, and produce, as the people say, FOR THE +KING OF PRUSSIA--that is, for that abstraction called society, +the sovereign, or my brothers,--is to base society on a +sentiment, I do not say beyond the reach of man, but one which, +erected systematically into a principle, is only a false virtue, +a dangerous hypocrisy. Charity is recommended to us as a +reparation of the infirmities which afflict our fellows by +accident, and, viewing it in this light, I can see that charity +may be organized; I can see that, growing out of solidarity +itself, it may become simply justice. But charity taken as an +instrument of equality and the law of equilibrium would be the +dissolution of society. Equality among men is produced by the +rigorous and inflexible law of labor, the proportionality of +values, the sincerity of exchanges, and the equivalence of +functions,--in short, by the mathematical solution of all +antagonisms. + +That is why charity, the prime virtue of the Christian, the +legitimate hope of the socialist, the object of all the efforts +of the economist, is a social vice the moment it is made a +principle of constitution and a law; that is why certain +economists have been able to say that legal charity had caused +more evil in society than proprietary usurpation. Man, like the +society of which he is a part, has a perpetual account current +with himself; all that he consumes he must produce. Such is the +general rule, which no one can escape without being, ipso facto +struck with dishonor or suspected of fraud. Singular idea, +truly,--that of decreeing, under pretext of fraternity, the +relative inferiority of the majority of men! After this +beautiful declaration nothing will be left but to draw its +consequences; and soon, thanks to fraternity, aristocracy will be +restored. + +Double the normal wages of the workman, and you invite him to +idleness, humiliate his dignity, and demoralize his conscience; +take away from him the legitimate price of his efforts, and you +either excite his anger or exalt his pride. In either case you +damage his fraternal feelings. On the contrary, make enjoyment +conditional upon labor, the only way provided by nature to +associate men and make them good and happy, and you go back under +the law of economic distribution, PRODUCTS ARE BOUGHT WITH +PRODUCTS. Communism, as I have often complained, is the very +denial of society in its foundation, which is the progressive +equivalence of functions and capacities. The communists, toward +whom all socialism tends, do not believe in equality by nature +and education; they supply it by sovereign decrees which they +cannot carry out, whatever they may do. Instead of seeking +justice in the harmony of facts, they take it from their +feelings, calling justice everything that seems to them to be +love of one's neighbor, and incessantly confounding matters of +reason with those of sentiment. + +Why then continually interject fraternity, charity, sacrifice, +and God into the discussion of economic questions? May it not be +that the utopists find it easier to expatiate upon these grand +words than to seriously study social manifestations? + +Fraternity! Brothers as much as you please, provided I am the +big brother and you the little; provided society, our common +mother, honors my primogeniture and my services by doubling my +portion. You will provide for my wants, you say, in proportion +to your resources. I intend, on the contrary, that such +provision shall be in proportion to my labor; if not, I cease to +labor. + +Charity! I deny charity; it is mysticism. In vain do you talk +to me of fraternity and love: I remain convinced that you love me +but little, and I feel very sure that I do not love you. Your +friendship is but a feint, and, if you love me, it is from +self-interest. I ask all that my products cost me, and only what +they cost me: why do you refuse me? + +Sacrifice! I deny sacrifice; it is mysticism. Talk to me of +DEBT and CREDIT, the only criterion in my eyes of the just and +the unjust, of good and evil in society. To each according to +his works, first; and if, on occasion, I am impelled to aid you, +I will do it with a good grace; but I will not be constrained. +To constrain me to sacrifice is to assassinate me. + +God! I know no God; mysticism again. Begin by striking this +word from your remarks, if you wish me to listen to you; for +three thousand years of experience have taught me that whoever +talks to me of God has designs on my liberty or on my purse. How +much do you owe me? How much do I owe you? That is my religion +and my God. + +Monopoly owes its existence both to nature and to man: it has its +source at once in the profoundest depths of our conscience and in +the external fact of our individualization. Just as in our body +and our mind everything has its specialty and property, so our +labor presents itself with a proper and specific character, which +constitutes its quality and value. And as labor cannot manifest +itself without material or an object for its exercise, the person +necessarily attracting the thing, monopoly is established from +subject to object as infallibly as duration is constituted from +past to future. Bees, ants, and other animals living in society +seem endowed individually only with automatism; with them soul +and instinct are almost exclusively collective. That is why, +among such animals, there can be no room for privilege and +monopoly; why, even in their most volitional operations, they +neither consult nor deliberate. But, humanity being +individualized in its plurality, man becomes inevitably a +monopolist, since, if not a monopolist, he is nothing; and the +social problem is to find out, not how to abolish, but how to +reconcile, all monopolies. + +The most remarkable and the most immediate effects of monopoly +are: + +1. In the political order, the classification of humanity into +families, tribes, cities, nations, States: this is the elementary +division of humanity into groups and sub-groups of laborers, +distinguished by race, language, customs, and climate. It was by +monopoly that the human race took possession of the globe, as it +will be by association that it will become complete sovereign +thereof. + +Political and civil law, as conceived by all legislators without +exception and as formulated by jurists, born of this patriotic +and national organization of societies, forms, in the series of +social contradictions, a first and vast branch, the study of +which by itself alone would demand four times more time than we +can give it in discussing the question of industrial economy +propounded by the Academy. + +2. In the economic order, monopoly contributes to the increase of +comfort, in the first place by adding to the general wealth +through the perfecting of methods, and then by +CAPITALIZING,--that is, by consolidating the conquests of labor +obtained by division, machinery, and competition. From this +effect of monopoly has resulted the economic fiction by which the +capitalist is considered a producer and capital an agent of +production; then, as a consequence of this fiction, the theory of +NET PRODUCT and GROSS PRODUCT. + +On this point we have a few considerations to present. First let +us quote J. B. Say: + + +The value produced is the GROSS product: after the costs of +production have been deducted, this value is the NET product. + +Considering a nation as a whole, it has no net product; for, as +products have no value beyond the costs of production, when these +costs are cut off, the entire value of the product is cut off. +National production, annual production, should always therefore +be understood as gross production. + +The annual revenue is the gross revenue. + +The term net production is applicable only when considering the +interests of one producer in opposition to those of other +producers. The manager of an enterprise gets his PROFIT from +the value PRODUCED after deducting the value CONSUMED. But +what to him is value consumed, such as the purchase of a +productive service, is so much income to the performer of the +service.--Treatise on Political Economy: Analytical Table. + + +These definitions are irreproachable. Unhappily J. B. Say did +not see their full bearing, and could not have foreseen that one +day his immediate successor at the College of France would attack +them. M. Rossi has pretended to refute the proposition of J. B. +Say that TO A NATION NET PRODUCT IS THE SAME THING AS GROSS +PRODUCT by this consideration,--that nations, no more than +individuals of enterprise, can produce without advances, and +that, if J. B. Say's formula were true, it would follow that the +axiom, Ex nihilo nihil fit, is not true + +Now, that is precisely what happens. Humanity, in imitation of +God, produces everything from nothing, de nihilo hilum just as it +is itself a product of nothing, just as its thought comes out of +the void; and M. Rossi would not have made such a mistake, if, +like the physiocrats, he had not confounded the products of the +INDUSTRIAL KINGDOM with those of the animal, vegetable, and +mineral kingdoms. Political economy begins with labor; it is +developed by labor; and all that does not come from labor, +falling into the domain of pure utility,--that is, into the +category of things submitted to man's action, but not yet +rendered exchangeable by labor,--remains radically foreign to +political economy. Monopoly itself, wholly established as it is +by a pure act of collective will, does not change these relations +at all, since, according to history, and according to the written +law, and according to economic theory, monopoly exists, or is +reputed to exist, only after labor's appearance. + +Say's doctrine, therefore, is unassailable. Relatively to the +man of enterprise, whose specialty always supposes other +manufacturers cooperating with him, profit is what remains of the +value produced after deducting the values consumed, among which +must be included the salary of the man of enterprise,--in other +words, his wages. Relatively to society, which contains all +possible specialties, net product is identical with gross +product. + +But there is a point the explanation of which I have vainly +sought in Say and in the other economists,--to wit, how the +reality and legitimacy of net product is established. For it is +plain that, in order to cause the disappearance of net product, +it would suffice to increase the wages of the workmen and the +price of the values consumed, the selling-price remaining the +same. So that, there being nothing seemingly to distinguish net +product from a sum withheld in paying wages or, what amounts to +the same thing, from an assessment laid upon the consumer in +advance, net product has every appearance of an extortion +effected by force and without the least show of right. + +This difficulty has been solved in advance in our theory of the +proportionality of values. + +According to this theory, every exploiter of a machine, of an +idea, or of capital should be considered as a man who increases +with equal outlay the amount of a certain kind of products, and +consequently increases the social wealth by economizing time. +The principle of the legitimacy of the net product lies, then, in +the processes previously in use: if the new device succeeds, +there will be a surplus of values, and consequently a +profit,--that is, net product; if the enterprise rests on a false +basis, there will be a deficit in the gross product, and in the +long run failure and bankruptcy. Even in the case--and it is the +most frequent-- where there is no innovation on the part of the +man of enterprise, the rule of net product remains applicable, +for the success of an industry depends upon the way in which it +is carried on. Now, it being in accordance with the nature of +monopoly that the risk and peril of every enterprise should be +taken by the initiator, it follows that the net product belongs +to him by the most sacred title recognized among men,-- labor and +intelligence. + +It is useless to recall the fact that the net product is often +exaggerated, either by fraudulently secured reductions of wages +or in some other way. These are abuses which proceed, not from +the principle, but from human cupidity, and which remain outside +the domain of the theory. For the rest, I have shown, in +discussing the constitution of value (Chapter II., % 2): 1, how +the net product can never exceed the difference resulting from +inequality of the means of production; 2, how the profit which +society reaps from each new invention is incomparably greater +than that of its originator. As these points have been exhausted +once for all, I will not go over them again; I will simply +remark that, by industrial progress, the net product of the +ingenious tends steadily to decrease, while, on the other hand, +their comfort increases, as the concentric layers which make up +the trunk of a tree become thinner as the tree grows and as they +are farther removed from the centre. + +By the side of net product, the natural reward of the laborer, I +have pointed out as one of the happiest effects of monopoly the +CAPITALIZATION of values, from which is born another sort of +profit,--namely, INTEREST, or the hire of capital. As for +RENT, although it is often confounded with interest, and +although, in ordinary language, it is included with profit and +interest under the common expression REVENUE, it is a different +thing from interest; it is a consequence, not of monopoly, but of +property; it depends on a special theory., of which we will speak +in its place. + +What, then, is this reality, known to all peoples, and +nevertheless still so badly defined, which is called interest or +the price of a loan, and which gives rise to the fiction of the +productivity of capital? + +Everybody knows that a contractor, when he calculates his costs +of production, generally divides them into three classes: 1, the +values consumed and services paid for; 2, his personal salary; 3, +recovery of his capital with interest. From this last class of +costs is born the distinction between contractor and capitalist, +although these two titles always express but one faculty, +monopoly. + +Thus an industrial enterprise which yields only interest on +capital and nothing for net product, is an insignificant +enterprise, which results only in a transformation of values +without adding anything to wealth,-- an enterprise, in short, +which has no further reason for existence and is immediately +abandoned. Why is it, then, that this interest on capital +is not regarded as a sufficient supplement of net product? Why +is it not itself the net product? + +Here again the philosophy of the economists is wanting. To +defend usury they have pretended that capital was productive, and +they have changed a metaphor into a reality. The +anti-proprietary socialists have had no difficulty in overturning +their sophistry; and through this controversy the theory of +capital has fallen into such disfavor that today, in the minds of +the people, CAPITALIST and IDLER are synonymous terms. +Certainly it is not my intention to retract what I myself have +maintained after so many others, or to rehabilitate a class of +citizens which so strangely misconceives its duties: but the +interests of science and of the proletariat itself oblige me to +complete my first assertions and maintain true principles. + +1. All production is effected with a view to consumption,--that +is, to enjoyment. In society the correlative terms production +and consumption, like net product and gross product, designate +identically the same thing. If, then, after the laborer has +realized a net product, instead of using it to increase his +comfort, he should confine himself to his wages and steadily +apply his surplus to new production, as so many people do who +earn only to buy, production would increase indefinitely, while +comfort and, reasoning from the standpoint of society, population +would remain unchanged. Now, interest on capital which has been +invested in an industrial enterprise and which has been gradually +formed by the accumulation of net product, is a sort of +compromise between the necessity of increasing production, on the +one hand, and, on the other, that of increasing comfort; it is a +method of reproducing and consuming the net product at the same +time. That is why certain industrial societies pay their +stockholders a dividend even before the enterprise has yielded +anything. Life is short, success comes slowly; on the one hand +labor commands, on the other man wishes to enjoy. To meet all +these exigencies the net product shall be devoted to production, +but meantime (inter-ea, inter-esse)--that is, while waiting for +the new product--the capitalist shall enjoy. + +Thus, as the amount of net product marks the progress of wealth, +interest on capital, without which net product would be useless +and would not even exist, marks the progress of comfort. +Whatever the form of government which may be established among +men; whether they live in monopoly or in communism; whether each +laborer keeps his account by credit and debit, or has his labor +and pleasure parcelled out to him by the community,--the law +which we have just disengaged will always be fulfilled. Our +interest accounts do nothing else than bear witness to it. + +2. Values created by net product are classed as savings and +capitalized in the most highly exchangeable form, the form which +is freest and least susceptible of depreciation,--in a word, the +form of specie, the only constituted value. Now, if capital +leaves this state of freedom and ENGAGES ITSELF,--that is, takes +the form of machines, buildings, etc.,--it will still be +susceptible of exchange, but much more exposed than before to the +oscillations of supply and demand. Once engaged, it cannot be +DISENGAGED without difficulty; and the sole resource of its owner +will be exploitation. Exploitation alone is capable of +maintaining engaged capital at its nominal value; it may increase +it, it may diminish it. Capital thus transformed is as if it had +been risked in a maritime enterprise: the interest is the +insurance premium paid on the capital. And this premium will be +greater or less according to the scarcity or abundance of +capital. + +Later a distinction will also be established between the +insurance premium and interest on capital, and new facts will +result from this subdivision: thus the history of humanity is +simply a perpetual distinction of the mind's concepts. + +3. Not only does interest on capital cause the laborer to enjoy +the fruit of his toil and insure his savings, but--and this is +the most marvellous effect of interest--while rewarding the +producer, it obliges him to labor incessantly and never stop. + +If a contractor is his own capitalist, it may happen that he will +content himself with a profit equal to the interest on his +investment: but in that case it is certain that his industry is +no longer making progress and consequently is suffering. This we +see when the capitalist is distinct from the contractor: for +then, after the interest is paid, the manufacturer's profit is +absolutely nothing; his industry becomes a perpetual peril to +him, from which it is important that he should free himself as +soon as possible. For as society's comfort must develop in an +indefinite progression, so the law of the producer is that he +should continually realize a surplus: otherwise his existence is +precarious, monotonous, fatiguing. The interest due to the +capitalist by the producer therefore is like the lash of the +planter cracking over the head of the sleeping slave; it is the +voice of progress crying: "On, on! Toil, toil!" Man's destiny +pushes him to happiness: that is why it denies him rest. + +4. Finally, interest on money is the condition of capital's +circulation and the chief agent of industrial solidarity. This +aspect has been seized by all the economists, and we shall give +it special treatment when we come to deal with credit. + +I have proved, and better, I imagine, than it has ever been +proved before: + +That monopoly is necessary, since it is the antagonism of +competition; + +That it is essential to society, since without it society would +never have emerged from the primeval forests and without it would +rapidly go backwards; + +Finally, that it is the crown of the producer, when, whether by +net product or by interest on the capital which he devotes to +production, it brings to the monopolist that increase of comfort +which his foresight and his efforts deserve. + +Shall we, then, with the economists, glorify monopoly, and +consecrate it to the benefit of well-secured conservatives? I am +willing, provided they in turn will admit my claims in what is to +follow, as I have admitted theirs in what has preceded. + + +% 2.--The disasters in labor and the perversion of ideas caused +by monopoly. + +Like competition, monopoly implies a contradiction in its name +and its definition. In fact, since consumption and production +are identical things in society, and since selling is synonymous +with buying, whoever says privilege of sale or exploitation +necessarily says privilege of consumption and purchase: which +ends in the denial of both. Hence a prohibition of consumption +as well as of production laid by monopoly upon the +wage-receivers. Competition was civil war, monopoly is the +massacre of the prisoners. + +These various propositions are supported by all sorts of +evidence,-- physical, algebraic, and metaphysical. What I shall +add will be only the amplified exposition: their simple +announcement demonstrates them. + +Every society considered in its economic relations naturally +divides itself into capitalists and laborers, employers and wage- +receivers, distributed upon a scale whose degrees mark the income +of each, whether this income be composed of wages, profit, +interest, rent, or dividends. + +From this hierarchical distribution of persons and incomes it +follows that Say's principle just referred to: IN A NATION THE +NET PRODUCT IS EQUAL TO THE GROSS PRODUCT, is no longer true, +since, in consequence of monopoly, the SELLING PRICE is much +higher than the COST PRICE. Now, as it is the cost price +nevertheless which must pay the selling price, since a nation +really has no market but itself, it follows that exchange, and +consequently circulation and life, are impossible. + + +In France, twenty millions of laborers, engaged in all the +branches of science, art, and industry, produce everything which +is useful to man. Their aggregate annual wages amount, it is +estimated, to twenty thousand millions; but, in consequence of +the profit (net product and interest) accruing to monopolists, +twenty-five thousand millions must be paid for their products. +Now, as the nation has no other buyers than its wage- receivers +and wage-payers, and as the latter do not pay for the former, and +as the selling-price of merchandise is the same for all, it is +clear that, to make circulation possible, the laborer would have +to pay five for that for which he has received but four.--What is +Property: Chapter IV.[17] + + +[17] A comparison of this passage, as given here, with the +English translation of "What is Property" will show a marked +variation in the language. This is explained by the fact that +the author, in reproducing the passage, modified it considerably. + +The same is true of another quotation from the same work which +will be found a few pages farther on.--Translator. + + + +This, then, is the reason why wealth and poverty are correlative, +inseparable, not only in idea, but in fact; this is the reason +why they exist concurrently; this is what justifies the +pretension of the wage- receiver that the rich man possesses no +more than the poor man, except that of which the latter has been +defrauded. After the monopolist has drawn up his account of +cost, profit, and interest, the wage-paid consumer draws up his; +and he finds that, though promised wages stated in the contract +as one hundred, he has really been given but seventy- five. +Monopoly, therefore, puts the wage-receivers into bankruptcy, and +it is strictly true that it lives upon the spoils. + +Six years ago I brought out this frightful contradiction: why has +it not been thundered through the press? Why have no teachers of +renown warned public opinion? Why have not those who demand +political rights for the workingman proclaimed that he is robbed? + +Why have the economists kept silent? Why? + +Our revolutionary democracy is so noisy only because it fears +revolutions: but, by ignoring the danger which it dares not look +in the face, it succeeds only in increasing it. "We resemble," +says M. Blanqui, "firemen who increase the quantity of steam at +the same time that they place weights on the safety-valve." +Victims of monopoly, console yourselves! If your tormentors will +not listen, it is because Providence has resolved to strike them: + +Non audierunt, says the Bible, quia Deus volebat occidere eos. + +Sale being unable to fulfil the conditions of monopoly, +merchandise accumulates; labor has produced in a year what its +wages will not allow it to consume in less than fifteen months: +hence it must remain idle one-fourth of the year. But, if it +remains idle, it earns nothing: how will it ever buy? And if the +monopolist cannot get rid of his products, how will his +enterprise endure? Logical impossibility multiplies around the +workshop; the facts which translate it are everywhere. + +"The hosiers of England," says Eugene Buret, "had come to the +point where they did not eat oftener than every other day. +This state of things lasted eighteen months." And he cites a +multitude of similar cases. + +But the distressing feature in the spectacle of monopoly's +effects is the sight of the unfortunate workingmen blaming each +other for their misery and imagining that by uniting and +supporting each other they will prevent the reduction of wages. + + +"The Irish," says an observer, "have given a disastrous lesson to +the working classes of Great Britain. . . . . They have +taught our laborers the fatal secret of confining their needs to +the maintenance of animal life alone, and of contenting +themselves, like savages, with the minimum of the means of +subsistence sufficient to prolong life. . . . . Instructed by +this fatal example, yielding partly to necessity, the working +classes have lost that laudable pride which led them to furnish +their houses properly and to multiply about them the decent +conveniences which contribute to happiness." + + +I have never read anything more afflicting and more stupid. And +what would you have these workingmen do? The Irish came: should +they have been massacred? Wages were reduced: should death have +been accepted in their stead? Necessity commanded, as you say +yourselves. Then followed the interminable hours, disease, +deformity, degradation, debasement, and all the signs of +industrial slavery: all these calamities are born of monopoly and +its sad predecessors,--competition, machinery, and the division +of labor: and you blame the Irish! + +At other times the workingmen blame their luck, and exhort +themselves to patience: this is the counterpart of the thanks +which they address to Providence, when labor is abundant and +wages are sufficient. + +I find in an article published by M. Leon Faucher, in the +"Journal des Economistes" (September, 1845), that the English +workingmen lost some time ago the habit of combining, which +is surely a progressive step on which they are only to be +congratulated, but that this improvement in the morale of the +workingmen is due especially to their economic instruction. + + +"It is not upon the manufacturers," cried a spinner at the +meeting in Bolton, "that wages depend. In periods of depression +the employers, so to speak, are only the lash with which +necessity is armed; and whether they will or no, they have to +strike. The regulative principle is the relation of supply to +demand; and the employers have not this power. . . . Let us act +prudently, then; let us learn to be resigned to bad luck and to +make the most of good luck: by seconding the progress of our +industry, we shall be useful not only to ourselves, but to the +entire country." [Applause.] + + +Very good: well-trained, model workmen, these! What men these +spinners must be that they should submit without complaint to the +LASH OF NECESSITY, because the regulative principle of wages is +SUPPLY AND DEMAND! M. Leon Faucher adds with a charming +simplicity: + +English workingmen are fearless reasoners. Give them a FALSE +PRINCIPLE, and they will push it mathematically to absurdity, +without stopping or getting frightened, as if they were marching +to the triumph of the truth. + +For my part, I hope that, in spite of all the efforts of economic +propagandism, French workingmen will never become reasoners of +such power. SUPPLY AND DEMAND, as well as the LASH OF NECESSITY, +has no longer any hold upon their minds. This was the one misery +that England lacked: it will not cross the channel. + +By the combined effect of division, machinery, net product, and +interest, monopoly extends its conquests in an increasing +progression; its developments embrace agriculture as well as +commerce and industry, and all sorts of products. Everybody +knows the phrase of Pliny upon the landed monopoly which +determined the fall of Italy, latifundia perdidere Italiam. +It is this same monopoly which still impoverishes and renders +uninhabitable the Roman Campagna and which forms the vicious +circle in which England moves convulsively; it is this monopoly +which, established by violence after a war of races, produces all +the evils of Ireland, and causes so many trials to O'Connell, +powerless, with all his eloquence, to lead his repealers through +this labyrinth. Grand sentiments and rhetoric are the worst +remedy for social evils: it would be easier for O'Connell to +transport Ireland and the Irish from the North Sea to the +Australian Ocean than to overthrow with the breath of his +harangues the monopoly which holds them in its grasp. General +communions and sermons will do no more: if the religious +sentiment still alone maintains the morale of the Irish people, +it is high time that a little of that profane science, so much +disdained by the Church, should come to the aid of the lambs +which its crook no longer protects. + +The invasion of commerce and industry by monopoly is too well +known to make it necessary that I should gather proofs: moreover, +of what use is it to argue so much when results speak so loudly? +E. Buret's description of the misery of the working-classes has +something fantastic about it, which oppresses and frightens you. +There are scenes in which the imagination refuses to believe, in +spite of certificates and official reports. Couples all naked, +hidden in the back of an unfurnished alcove, with their naked +children; entire populations which no longer go to church on +Sunday, because they are naked; bodies kept a week before they +are buried, because the deceased has left neither a shroud in +which to lay him out nor the wherewithal to pay for the coffin +and the undertaker (and the bishop enjoys an income of from four +to five hundred thousand francs); families heaped up over sewers, +living in rooms occupied by pigs, and beginning to rot while +yet alive, or dwelling in holes, like Albinoes; octogenarians +sleeping naked on bare boards; and the virgin and the prostitute +expiring in the same nudity: everywhere despair, consumption, +hunger, hunger! . . And this people, which expiates the crimes +of its masters, does not rebel! No, by the flames of Nemesis! +when a people has no vengeance left, there is no longer any +Providence for it. + +Exterminations en masse by monopoly have not yet found their +poets. Our rhymers, strangers to the things of this world, +without bowels for the proletaire, continue to breathe to the +moon their melancholy DELIGHTS. What a subject for +MEDITATIONS, nevertheless, is the miseries engendered by +monopoly! + +It is Walter Scott who says: + + +Formerly, though many years since, each villager had his cow and +his pig, and his yard around his house. Where a single farmer +cultivates today, thirty small farmers lived formerly; so that +for one individual, himself alone richer, it is true, than the +thirty farmers of old times, there are now twenty-nine wretched +day-laborers, without employment for their minds and arms, and +whose number is too large by half. The only useful function +which they fulfil is to pay, WHEN THEY CAN, a rent of sixty +shillings a year for the huts in which they dwell.[18] + + +[18] This extract from Scott, as well as that from a +parliamentary report cited a few paragraphs later, is here +translated from the French, and presumably differs in form +somewhat, therefore, from the original English.--Translator. + + + +A modern ballad, quoted by E. Buret, sings the solitude of +monopoly: + +Le rouet est silencieux dans la vallee: +C'en est fait des sentiments de famille. +Sur un peu de fumee le vieil aieul +Etend ses mains pales; et le foyer vide +Est aussi desole que son coeur.[19] + + +[19] The spinning-wheel is silent in the valley: family feelings +are at an end. Over a little smoke the aged grandsire spreads +his pale hands; and the empty hearth is as desolate as his +heart.--Translator. + + + +The reports made to parliament rival the novelist and the poet: + + +The inhabitants of Glensheil, in the neighborhood of the valley +of Dundee, were formerly distinguished from all their neighbors +by the superiority of their physical qualities. The men were of +high stature, robust, active, and courageous; the women comely +and graceful. Both sexes possessed an extraordinary taste for +poetry and music. Now, alas! a long experience of poverty, +prolonged privation of sufficient food and suitable clothing, +have profoundly deteriorated this race, once so remarkably fine. + + +This is a notable instance of the inevitable degradation pointed +out by us in the two chapters on division of labor and machinery. + +And our litterateurs busy themselves with the pretty things of +the past, as if the present were not adequate to their genius! +The first among them to venture on these infernal paths has +created a scandal in the coterie! Cowardly parasites, vile +venders of prose and verse, all worthy of the wages of Marsyas! +Oh! if your punishment were to last as long as my contempt, you +would be forced to believe in the eternity of hell. + +Monopoly, which just now seemed to us so well founded in justice, +is the more unjust because it not only makes wages illusory, but +deceives the workman in the very valuation of his wages by +assuming in relation to him a false title, a false capacity. + +M. de Sismondi, in his "Studies of Social Economy," observes +somewhere that, when a banker delivers to a merchant bank-notes +in exchange for his values, far from giving credit to the +merchant, he receives it, on the contrary, from him. + +"This credit," adds M. de Sismondi, "is in truth so short that +the merchant scarcely takes the trouble to inquire whether the +banker is worthy, especially as the former asks credit instead of +granting it." + + +So, according to M. de Sismondi, in the issue of bank paper, the +functions of the merchant and the banker are inverted: the first +is the creditor, and the second is the credited. + +Something similar takes place between the monopolist and +wage-receiver. + +In fact, the workers, like the merchant at the bank, ask to have +their labor discounted; in right, the contractor ought to furnish +them bonds and security. I will explain myself. + +In any exploitation, no matter of what sort, the contractor +cannot legitimately claim, in addition to his own personal labor, +anything but the IDEA: as for the EXECUTION, the result of the +cooperation of numerous laborers, that is an effect of collective +power, with which the authors, as free in their action as the +chief, can produce nothing which should go to him gratuitously. +Now, the question is to ascertain whether the amount of +individual wages paid by the contractor is equivalent to the +collective effect of which I speak: for, were it otherwise, Say's +axiom, EVERY PRODUCT IS WORTH WHAT IT COSTS, would be violated. + +"The capitalist," they say, "has paid the laborers their daily +wages at a rate agreed upon; consequently he owes them nothing." +To be accurate, it must be said that he has paid as many times +one day's wage as he has employed laborers,--which is not at all +the same thing. For he has paid nothing for that immense power +which results from the union of laborers and the convergence and +harmony of their efforts; that saving of expense, secured by +their formation into a workshop; that multiplication of product, +foreseen, it is true, by the capitalist, but realized by free +forces. Two hundred grenadiers, working under the direction of +an engineer, stood the obelisk upon its base in a few hours; do +you think that one man could have accomplished the same task in +two hundred days? Nevertheless, on the books of the capitalist, +the amount of wages is the same in both cases, because he allots +to himself the benefit of the collective power. Now, of two +things one: either this is usurpation on his part, or it is +error.--What is Property: Chapter III. + + +To properly exploit the mule-jenny, engineers, builders, clerks, +brigades of workingmen and workingwomen of all sorts, have been +needed. In the name of their liberty, of their security, of +their future, and of the future of their children, these workmen, +on engaging to work in the mill, had to make reserves; where are +the letters of credit which they have delivered to the employers? + +Where are the guarantees which they have received? What! +millions of men have sold their arms and parted with their +liberty without knowing the import of the contract; they have +engaged themselves upon the promise of continuous work and +adequate reward; they have executed with their hands what the +thought of the employers had conceived; they have become, by this +collaboration, associates in the enterprise: and when monopoly, +unable or unwilling to make further exchanges, suspends its +manufacture and leaves these millions of laborers without bread, +they are told to be RESIGNED! By the new processes they have +lost nine days of their labor out of ten; and for reward they are +pointed to the LASH OF NECESSITY flourished over them! Then, if +they refuse to work for lower wages, they are shown that they +punish themselves. If they accept the rate offered them, they +lose THAT NOBLE PRIDE, that taste for DECENT CONVENIENCES which +constitute the happiness and dignity of the workingman and +entitle him to the sympathies of the rich. If they combine to +secure an increase of wages, they are thrown into prison! +Whereas they ought to prosecute their exploiters in the courts, +on them the courts will avenge the violations of liberty of +commerce! Victims of monopoly, they will suffer the penalty due +to the monopolists! O justice of men, stupid courtesan, how +long, under your goddess's tinsel, will you drink the blood of +the slaughtered proletaire? + +Monopoly has invaded everything,--land, labor, and the +instruments of labor, products and the distribution of pro ducts. + +Political economy itself has not been able to avoid admitting it. + + +"You almost always find across your path," says M. Rossi, "some +monopoly. There is scarcely a product that can be regarded as +the pure and simple result of labor; accordingly the economic law +which proportions price to cost of production is never completely +realized. It is a formula which is profoundly MODIFIED by the +intervention of one or another of the monopolies to which the +instruments of production are subordinated.--Course in Political +Economy: Volume I., page 143. + + +M. Rossi holds too high an office to give his language all the +precision and exactness which science requires when monopoly is +in question. What he so complacently calls a MODIFICATION OF +ECONOMIC FORMULAS is but a long and odious violation of the +fundamental laws of labor and exchange. It is in consequence of +monopoly that in society, net product being figured over and +above gross product, the collective laborer must repurchase his +own product at a price higher than that which this product costs +him,--which is contradictory and impossible; that the natural +balance between production and consumption is destroyed; that the +laborer is deceived not only in his settlements, but also as to +the amount of his wages; that in his case progress in comfort is +changed into an incessant progress in misery: it is by monopoly, +in short, that all notions of commutative justice are perverted, +and that social economy, instead of the positive science that it +is, becomes a veritable utopia. + +This disguise of political economy under the influence of +monopoly is a fact so remarkable in the history of social ideas +that we must not neglect to cite a few instances. + +Thus, from the standpoint of monopoly, value is no longer that +synthetic conception which serves to express the relation of +a special object of utility to the sum total of wealth: monopoly +estimating things, not in their relation to society, but in their +relation to itself, value loses its social character, and is +nothing but a vague, arbitrary, egoistic, and essentially +variable thing. Starting with this principle, the monopolist +extends the term PRODUCT to cover all sorts of servitude, and +applies the idea of CAPITAL to all the frivolous and shameful +industries which his passions and vices exploit. The charms of a +courtesan, says Say, are so much CAPITAL, of which the PRODUCT +follows the general LAW of VALUES,--namely, SUPPLY and +DEMAND. Most of the works on political economy are full of such +applications. But as prostitution and the state of dependence +from which it emanates are condemned by morality, M. Rossi will +bid us observe the further fact that political economy, after +having MODIFIED its formula in consequence of the intervention +of monopoly, will have to submit to a new CORRECTIVE, although +its conclusions are in themselves irreproachable. For, he says, +political economy has nothing in common with morality: it is for +us to accept it, to modify or correct its formulas, whenever our +welfare, that of society, and the interests of morality call for +it. How many things there are between political economy and +truth! + +Likewise, the theory of net product, so highly social, +progressive, and conservative, has been individualized, if I may +say so, by monopoly, and the principle which ought to secure +society's welfare causes its ruin. The monopolist, always +striving for the greatest possible net product, no longer acts as +a member of society and in the interest of society; he acts with +a view to his exclusive interest, whether this interest be +contrary to the social interest or not. This change of +perspective is the cause to which M. de Sismondi attributes the +depopulation of the Roman Campagna. From the comparative +researches which he has made regarding the product of the agro +romano when in a state of cultivation and its product when left +as pasture-land, he has found that the GROSS product would be +twelve times larger in the former case than in the latter; but, +as cultivation demands relatively a greater number of hands, he +has discovered also that in the former case the NET product +would be less. This calculation, which did not escape the +proprietors, sufficed to confirm them in the habit of leaving +their lands uncultivated, and hence the Roman Campagna is +uninhabited. + + +"All parts of the Roman States," adds M. de Sismondi, "present +the same contrast between the memories of their prosperity in the +Middle Ages and their present desolation. The town of Ceres, +made famous by Renzo da Ceri, who defended by turns Marseilles +against Charles V. and Geneva against the Duke of Savoy, is +nothing but a solitude. In all the fiefs of the Orsinis and the +Colonnes not a soul. From the forests which surround the pretty +Lake of Vico the human race has disappeared; and the soldiers +with whom the formidable prefect of Vico made Rome tremble so +often in the fourteenth century have left no descendants. Castro +and Ronciglione are desolated."--Studies in Political Economy. + + +In fact, society seeks the greatest possible gross product, and +consequently the greatest possible population, because with it +gross product and net product are identical. Monopoly, on the +contrary, aims steadily at the greatest net product, even though +able to obtain it only at the price of the extermination of the +human race. + +Under this same influence of monopoly, interest on capital, +perverted in its idea, has become in turn a principle of death to +society. As we have explained it, interest on capital is, on the +one hand, the form under which the laborer enjoys his net +product, while utilizing it in new creations; on the other, this +interest is the material bond of solidarity between producers, +viewed from the standpoint of the increase of wealth. Under +the first aspect, the aggregate interest paid can never exceed +the amount of the capital itself; under the second, interest +allows, in addition to reimbursement, a premium as a reward of +service rendered. In no case does it imply perpetuity. + +But monopoly, confounding the idea of capital, which is +attributable only to the creations of human industry, with that +of the exploitable material which nature has given us, and which +belongs to all, and favored moreover in its usurpation by the +anarchical condition of a society in which possession can exist +only on condition of being exclusive, sovereign, and +perpetual,--monopoly has imagined and laid it down as a principle +that capital, like land, animals, and plants, had in itself an +activity of its own, which relieved the capitalist of the +necessity of contributing anything else to exchange and of taking +any part in the labors of the workshop. From this false idea of +monopoly has come the Greek name of usury, tokos, as much as to +say the child or the increase of capital, which caused Aristotle +to perpetrate this witticism: COINS BEGET NO CHILDREN. But the +metaphor of the usurers has prevailed over the joke of the +Stagyrite; usury, like rent, of which it is an imitation, has +been declared a perpetual right; and only very lately, by a +half-return to the principle, has it reproduced the idea of +REDEMPTION. + +Such is the meaning of the enigma which has caused so many +scandals among theologians and legists, and regarding which the +Christian Church has blundered twice,--first, in condemning every +sort of interest, and, second, in taking the side of the +economists and thus contradicting its old maxims. Usury, or the +right of increase, is at once the expression and the condemnation +of monopoly; it is the spoliation of labor by organized and +legalized capital; of all the economic subversions it is +that which most loudly accuses the old society, and whose +scandalous persistence would justify an unceremonious and +uncompensated dispossession of the entire capitalistic class. + +Finally, monopoly, by a sort of instinct of self-preservation, +has perverted even the idea of association, as something that +might infringe upon it, or, to speak more accurately, has not +permitted its birth. + +Who could hope today to define what association among men should +be? The law distinguishes two species and four varieties of +civil societies, and as many commercial societies, from the +simple partnership to the joint-stock company. I have read the +most respectable commentaries that have been written upon all +these forms of association, and I declare that I have found in +them but one application of the routine practices of monopoly +between two or more partners who unite their capital and their +efforts against everything that produces and consumes, that +invents and exchanges, that lives and dies. The sine qua non of +all these societies is capital, whose presence alone constitutes +them and gives them a basis; their object is monopoly,--that is, +the exclusion of all other laborers and capitalists, and +consequently the negation of social universality so far as +persons are concerned. + +Thus, according to the definition of the statute, a commercial +society which should lay down as a principle the right of any +stranger to become a member upon his simple request, and to +straightway enjoy the rights and prerogatives of associates and +even managers, would no longer be a society; the courts would +officially pronounce its dissolution, its nonexistence. So, +again, articles of association in which the contracting parties +should stipulate no contribution of capital, but, while +reserving to each the express right to compete with all, should +confine themselves to a reciprocal guarantee of labor and wages, +saying nothing of the branch of exploitation, or of capital, or +of interest, or of profit and loss,--such articles would seem +contradictory in their tenor, as destitute of purpose as of +reason, and would be annulled by the judge on the complaint of +the first rebellious associate. Covenants thus drawn up could +give rise to no judicial action; people calling themselves the +associates of everybody would be considered associates of nobody; +treatises contemplating guarantee and competition between +associates at the same time, without any mention of social +capital and without any designation of purpose, would pass for a +work of transcendental charlatanism, whose author could readily +be sent to a madhouse, provided the magistrates would consent to +regard him as only a lunatic. + +And yet it is proved, by the most authentic testimony which +history and social economy furnish, that humanity has been thrown +naked and without capital upon the earth which it cultivates; +consequently that it has created and is daily creating all the +wealth that exists; that monopoly is only a relative view serving +to designate the grade of the laborer, with certain conditions of +enjoyment; and that all progress consists, while indefinitely +multiplying products, in determining their proportionality,--that +is, in organizing labor and comfort by division, machinery, the +workshop, education, and competition. On the other hand, it is +evident that all the tendencies of humanity, both in its politics +and in its civil laws, are towards universalization,--that is, +towards a complete transformation of the idea of society as +determined by our statutes. + +Whence I conclude that articles of association which should +regulate, no longer the contribution of the associates,--since +each associate, according to the economic theory, is supposed to +possess absolutely nothing upon his entrance into society,--but +the conditions of labor and exchange, and which should allow +access to all who might present themselves,--I conclude, I say, +that such articles of association would contain nothing that was +not rational and scientific, since they would be the very +expression of progress, the organic formula of labor, and since +they would reveal, so to speak, humanity to itself by giving it +the rudiment of its constitution. + +Now, who, among the jurisconsults and economists, has ever +approached even within a thousand leagues of this magnificent and +yet so simple idea? + + +"I do not think," says M. Troplong, "that the spirit of +association is called to greater destinies than those which it +has accomplished in the past and up to the present time. . . ; +and I confess that I have made no attempt to realize such hopes, +which I believe exaggerated. . . . There are well-defined limits +which association should not overstep. No! association is not +called upon in France to govern everything. The spontaneous +impulse of the individual mind is also a living force in our +nation and a cause of its originality. . . . + +"The idea of association is not new. . . . Even among the Romans +we see the commercial society appear with all its paraphernalia +of monopolies, corners, collusions, combinations, piracy, and +venality. . . . The joint-stock company realizes the civil, +commercial, and maritime law of the Middle Ages: at that epoch it +was the most active instrument of labor organized in society. . . +. From the middle of the fourteenth century we see societies +form by stock subscriptions; and up to the time of Law's +discomfiture, we see their number continually increase. . . . +What! we marvel at the mines, factories, patents, and newspapers +owned by stock companies! But two centuries ago such companies +owned islands, kingdoms, almost an entire hemisphere. We +proclaim it a miracle that hundreds of stock subscribers should +group themselves around an enterprise; but as long ago as the +fourteenth century the entire city of Florence was in similar +silent partnership with a few merchants, who pushed the genius of +enterprise as far as possible. Then, if our speculations +are bad, if we have been rash, imprudent, or credulous, we +torment the legislator with our cavilling complaints; we call +upon him for prohibitions and nullifications. In our mania for +regulating everything, EVEN THAT WHICH IS ALREADY CODIFIED; for +enchaining everything by texts reviewed, corrected, and added to; +for administering everything, even the chances and reverses of +commerce,--we cry out, in the midst of so many existing laws: +`There is still something to do!'" + + +M. Troplong believes in Providence, but surely he is not its man. + +He will not discover the formula of association clamored for +today by minds disgusted with all the protocols of combination +and rapine of which M. Troplong unrolls the picture in his +commentary. M. Troplong gets impatient, and rightly, with those +who wish to enchain everything in texts of laws; and he himself +pretends to enchain the future in a series of fifty articles, in +which the wisest mind could not discover a spark of economic +science or a shadow of philosophy. IN OUR MANIA, he cries, FOR +REGULATING EVERYTHING, EVEN THAT WHICH IS ALREADY CODIFIED! . . . +. I know nothing more delicious than this stroke, which paints +at once the jurisconsult and the economist. After the Code +Napoleon, take away the ladder! . . . + + +"Fortunately," M. Troplong continues, "all the projects of change +so noisily brought to light in 1837 and 1838 are forgotten today. + +The conflict of propositions and the anarchy of reformatory +opinions have led to negative results. At the same time that the +reaction against speculators was effected, the common sense of +the public did justice to the numerous official plans of +organization, much inferior in wisdom to the existing law, much +less in harmony with the usages of commerce, much less liberal, +after 1830, than the conceptions of the imperial Council of +State! Now order is restored in everything, and the commercial +code has preserved its integrity, its excellent integrity. When +commerce needs it, it finds, by the side of partnership, +temporary partnership, and the joint-stock company, the free +silent partnership, tempered only by the prudence of the silent +partners and by the provisions of the penal code regarding +swindling."--Troplong: Civil and Commercial Societies: Preface. + + +What a philosophy is that which rejoices in the miscarriage of +reformatory endeavors, and which counts its triumphs by the +NEGATIVE RESULTS of the spirit of inquiry! We cannot now enter +upon a more fundamental criticism of the civil and commercial +societies, which have furnished M. Troplong material for two +volumes. We will reserve this subject for the time when, the +theory of economic contradictions being finished, we shall have +found in their general equation the programme of association, +which we shall then publish in contrast with the practice and +conceptions of our predecessors. + +A word only as to silent partnership. + +One might think at first blush that this form of joint-stock +company, by its expansive power and by the facility for change +which it offers, could be generalized in such a way as to take in +an entire nation in all its commercial and industrial relations. +But the most superficial examination of the constitution of this +society demonstrates very quickly that the sort of enlargement of +which it is susceptible, in the matter of the number of +stockholders, has nothing in common with the extension of the +social bond. + +In the first place, like all other commercial societies, it is +necessarily limited to a single branch of exploitation: in this +respect it is exclusive of all industries foreign to that +peculiarly its own. If it were otherwise, it would have changed +its nature; it would be a new form of society, whose statutes +would regulate, no longer the profits especially, but the +distribution of labor and the conditions of exchange; it would be +exactly such an association as M. Troplong denies and as the +jurisprudence of monopoly excludes. + +As for the personal composition of the company, it naturally +divides itself into two categories,--the managers and the +stockholders. The managers, very few in number, are chosen +from the promoters, organizers, and patrons of the enterprise: in +truth, they are the only associates. The stockholders, compared +with this little government, which administers the society with +full power, are a people of taxpayers who, strangers to each +other, without influence and without responsibility, have nothing +to do with the affair beyond their investments. They are lenders +at a premium, not associates. + +One can see from this how all the industries of the kingdom could +be carried on by such companies, and each citizen, thanks to the +facility for multiplying his shares, be interested in all or most +of these companies without thereby improving his condition: it +might happen even that it would be more and more compromised. +For, once more, the stockholder is the beast of burden, the +exploitable material of the company: not for him is this society +formed. In order that association may be real, he who +participates in it must do so, not as a gambler, but as an active +factor; he must have a deliberative voice in the council; his +name must be expressed or implied in the title of the society; +everything regarding him, in short, should be regulated in +accordance with equality. But these conditions are precisely +those of the organization of labor, which is not taken into +consideration by the code; they form the ULTERIOR object of +political economy, and consequently are not to be taken for +granted, but to be created, and, as such, are radically +incompatible with monopoly.[20] + + +[20] Possibly these paragraphs will not be clear to all without +the explanation that the form of association discussed in them, +called in French the commandite, is a joint-stock company to +which the shareholders simply lend their capital, without +acquiring a share in the management or incurring responsibility +for the results thereof.-- Translator. + + + +Socialism, in spite of its high-sounding name, has so far been no +more fortunate than monopoly in the definition of society: +we may even assert that, in all its plans of organization, it has +steadily shown itself in this respect a plagiarist of political +economy. M. Blanc, whom I have already quoted in discussing +competition, and whom we have seen by turns as a partisan of the +hierarchical principle, an officious defender of inequality, +preaching communism, denying with a stroke of the pen the law of +contradiction because he cannot conceive it, aiming above all at +power as the final sanction of his system,--M. Blanc offers us +again the curious example of a socialist copying political +economy without suspecting it, and turning continually in the +vicious circle of proprietary routine. M. Blanc really denies +the sway of capital; he even denies that capital is equal to +labor in production, in which he is in accord with healthy +economic theories. But he can not or does not know how to +dispense with capital; he takes capital for his point of +departure; he appeals to the State for its silent partnership: +that is, he gets down on his knees before the capitalists and +recognizes the sovereignty of monopoly. Hence the singular +contortions of his dialectics. I beg the reader's pardon for +these eternal personalities: but since socialism, as well as +political economy, is personified in a certain number of writers, +I cannot do otherwise than quote its authors. + + +"Has or has not capital," said "La Phalange," "in so far as it is +a faculty in production, the legitimacy of the other productive +faculties? If it is illegitimate, its pretensions to a share of +the product are illegitimate; it must be excluded; it has no +interest to receive: if, on the contrary, it is legitimate, it +cannot be legitimately excluded from participation in the +profits, in the increase which it has helped to create." + + +The question could not be stated more clearly. M. Blanc holds, +on the contrary, that it is stated in a VERY CONFUSED manner, +which means that it embarrasses him greatly, and that he is much +worried to find its meaning. + +In the first place, he supposes that he is asked "whether it is +equitable to allow the capitalist a share of the profits of +production EQUAL TO THE LABORER'S." To which M. Blanc answers +unhesitatingly that that would be unjust. Then follows an +outburst of eloquence to establish this injustice. + +Now, the phalansterian does not ask whether the share of the +capitalist should or should not be EQUAL TO THE LABORER'S; he +wishes to know simply WHETHER HE IS TO HAVE A SHARE. And to this +M. Blanc makes no reply. + +Is it meant, continues M. Blanc, that capital is INDISPENSABLE +to production, like labor itself? Here M. Blanc distinguishes: +he grants that capital is indispensable, AS labor is, but not +TO THE EXTENT THAT labor is. + +Once again, the phalansterian does not dispute as to quantity, +but as to right. + +Is it meant--it is still M. Blanc who interrogates--that all +capitalists are not idlers? M. Blanc, generous to capitalists +who work, asks why so large a share should be given to those who +do not work? A flow of eloquence as to the IMPERSONAL services +of the capitalist and the PERSONAL services of the laborer, +terminated by an appeal to Providence. + +For the third time, you are asked whether the participation of +capital in profits is legitimate, since you admit that it is +indispensable in production. + +At last M. Blanc, who has understood all the time, decides to +reply that, if he allows interest to capital, he does so only as +a transitional measure and to ease the descent of the +capitalists. For the rest, his project leading inevitably to the +absorption of private capital in association, it would be folly +and an abandonment of principle to do more. M. Blanc, if he had +studied his subject, would have needed to say but a single +phrase: "I deny capital." + +Thus M. Blanc,--and under his name I include the whole of +socialism,-- after having, by a first contradiction of the title +of his book, "ORGANIZATION OF LABOR," declared that capital was +INDISPENSABLE in production, and consequently that it should be +organized and participate in profits like labor, by a second +contradiction rejects capital from organization and refuses to +recognize it: by a third contradiction he who laughs at +decorations and titles of nobility distributes civic crowns, +rewards, and distinctions to such litterateurs inventors, and +artists as shall have deserved well of the country; he allows +them salaries according to their grades and dignities; all of +which is the restoration of capital as really, though not with +the same mathematical precision, as interest and net product: by +a fourth contradiction M. Blanc establishes this new aristocracy +on the principle of equality,-- that is, he pretends to vote +masterships to equal and free associates, privileges of idleness +to laborers, spoliation in short to the despoiled: by a fifth +contradiction he rests this equalitarian aristocracy on the basis +of a POWER ENDOWED WITH GREAT FORCE,--that is, on despotism, +another form of monopoly: by a sixth contradiction, after having, +by his encouragements to labor and the arts, tried to proportion +reward to service, like monopoly, and wages to capacity, like +monopoly, he sets himself to eulogize life in common, labor and +consumption in common, which does not prevent him from wishing to +withdraw from the effects of common indifference, by means of +national encouragements taken out of the common product, the +grave and serious writers whom common readers do not care for: by +a seventh contradiction. . . . but let us stop at seven, for we +should not have finished at seventy-seven. + +It is said that M. Blanc, who is now preparing a history of the +French Revolution, has begun to seriously study political +economy. The first fruit of this study will be, I do not +doubt, a repudiation of his pamphlet on "Organization of Labor," +and consequently a change in all his ideas of authority and +government. At this price the "History of the French +Revolution," by M. Blanc, will be a truly useful and original +work. + +All the socialistic sects, without exception, are possessed by +the same prejudice; all, unconsciously, inspired by the economic +contradiction, have to confess their powerlessness in presence of +the necessity of capital; all are waiting, for the realization of +their ideas, to hold power and money in their hands. The utopias +of socialism in the matter of association make more prominent +than ever the truth which we announced at the beginning: THERE +IS NOTHING IN SOCIALISM WHICH IS NOT FOUND IN POLITICAL ECONOMY; +and this perpetual plagiarism is the irrevocable condemnation of +both. Nowhere is to be seen the dawn of that mother-idea, which +springs with so much eclat from the generation of the economic +categories,--that the superior formula of association has nothing +to do with capital, a matter for individual accounts, but must +bear solely upon equilibrium of production, the conditions of +exchange, the gradual reduction of cost, the one and only source +of the increase of wealth. Instead of determining the relations +of industry to industry, of laborer to laborer, of province to +province, and of people to people, the socialists dream only of +providing themselves with capital, always conceiving the problem +of the solidarity of laborers as if it were a question of +founding some new institution of monopoly. The world, humanity, +capital, industry, business machinery, exist; it is a matter now +simply of finding their philosophy,--in other words, of +organizing them: and the socialists are in search of capital! +Always outside of reality, is it astonishing that they miss it? + +Thus M. Blanc asks for State aid and the establishment of +national workshops; thus Fourier asked for six million francs, +and his followers are still engaged today in collecting that sum; +thus the communists place their hope in a revolution which shall +give them authority and the treasury, and exhaust themselves in +waiting for useless subscriptions. Capital and power, secondary +organs in society, are always the gods whom socialism adores: if +capital and power did not exist, it would invent them. Through +its anxieties about power and capital, socialism has completely +overlooked the meaning of its own protests: much more, it has not +seen that, in involving itself, as it has done, in the economic +routine, it has deprived itself of the very right to protest. It +accuses society of antagonism, and through the same antagonism it +goes in pursuit of reform. It asks capital for the poor +laborers, as if the misery of laborers did not come from the +competition of capitalists as well as from the factitious +opposition of labor and capital; as if the question were not +today precisely what it was before the creation of capital,--that +is, still and always a question of equilibrium; as if, in +short,--let us repeat it incessantly, let us repeat it to +satiety,--the question were henceforth of something other than a +synthesis of all the principles brought to light by civilization, +and as if, provided this synthesis, the idea which leads the +world, were known, there would be any need of the intervention of +capital and the State to make them evident. + +Socialism, in deserting criticism to devote itself to declamation +and utopia and in mingling with political and religious +intrigues, has betrayed its mission and misunderstood the +character of the century. The revolution of 1830 demoralized us; +socialism is making us effeminate. Like political economy, whose +contradictions it simply sifts again, socialism is powerless +to satisfy the movement of minds: it is henceforth, in those whom +it subjugates, only a new prejudice to destroy, and, in those who +propagate it, a charlatanism to unmask, the more dangerous +because almost always sincere. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +FIFTH PERIOD.--POLICE, OR TAXATION. + +In positing its principles humanity, as if in obedience to a +sovereign order, never goes backward. Like the traveller who by +oblique windings rises from the depth of the valley to the +mountain-top, it follows intrepidly its zigzag road, and marches +to its goal with confident step, without repentance and without +pause. Arriving at the angle of monopoly, the social genius +casts backward a melancholy glance, and, in a moment of profound +reflection, says to itself: + +"Monopoly has stripped the poor hireling of everything,--bread, +clothing, home, education, liberty, and security. I will lay a +tax upon the monopolist; at this price I will save him his +privilege. + +"Land and mines, woods and waters, the original domain of man, +are forbidden to the proletaire. I will intervene in their +exploitation, I will have my share of the products, and land +monopoly shall be respected. + +"Industry has fallen into feudalism, but I am the suzerain. The +lords shall pay me tribute, and they shall keep the profit of +their capital. + +"Commerce levies usurious profits on the consumer. I will strew +its road with toll-gates, I will stamp its checks and indorse its +invoices, and it shall pass. + +"Capital has overcome labor by intelligence. I will open +schools, and the laborer, made intelligent himself, shall +become a capitalist in his turn. + +"Products lack circulation, and social life is cramped. I will +build roads, bridges, canals, marts, theatres, and temples, and +thus furnish at one stroke work, wealth, and a market. + +"The rich man lives in plenty, while the workman weeps in famine. +I will establish taxes on bread, wine, meat, salt, and honey, on +articles of necessity and on objects of value, and these shall +supply alms for my poor. + +"And I will set guards over the waters, the woods, the fields, +the mines, and the roads; I will send collectors to gather the +taxes and teachers to instruct the children; I will have an army +to put down refractory subjects, courts to judge them, prisons to +punish them, and priests to curse them. All these offices shall +be given to the proletariat and paid by the monopolists. + +"Such is my certain and efficacious will." + +We have to prove that society could neither think better nor act +worse: this will be the subject of a review which, I hope, will +throw new light upon the social problem. + +Every measure of general police, every administrative and +commercial regulation, like every law of taxation, is at bottom +but one of the innumerable articles of this ancient bargain, ever +violated and ever renewed, between the patriciate and the +proletariat. That the parties or their representatives knew +nothing of it, or even that they frequently viewed their +political constitutions from another standpoint, is of little +consequence to us: not to the man, legislator, or prince do we +look for the meaning of his acts, but to the acts themselves. + + +% 1.--Synthetic idea of the tax.--Point of departure and +development of this idea. + +In order to render that which is to follow more intelligible, I +will explain, inverting, as it were, the method which we have +followed hitherto, the superior theory of the tax; then I will +give its genesis; finally I will show the contradiction and +results. The synthetic idea of the tax, as well as its original +conception, would furnish material for the most extensive +developments. I shall confine myself to a simple announcement of +the propositions, with a summary indication of the proofs. + +The tax, in its essence and positive destiny, is the form of +distribution among that species of functionaries which Adam Smith +has designated by the word UNPRODUCTIVE, although he admits as +much as any one the utility and even the necessity of their labor +in society. By this adjective, UNPRODUCTIVE, Adam Smith, whose +genius dimly foresaw everything and left us to do everything, +meant that the product of these laborers is NEGATIVE, which is a +very different thing from null, and that consequently +distribution so far as they are concerned follows a method other +than exchange. + +Let us consider, in fact, what takes place, from the point of +view of distribution, in the four great divisions of collective +labor,-- EXTRACTION,[21] MANUFACTURES, COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE. +Each producer brings to market a real product whose quantity can +be measured, whose quality can be estimated, whose price can be +debated, and, finally, whose value can be discounted, either in +other services or merchandise, or else in money. In all these +industries distribution, therefore, is nothing but the mutual +exchange of products according to the law of proportionality of +values. + + +[21] Hunting, fishing, mining,--in short, the gathering of all +natural products.--Translator. + + + +Nothing like this takes place with the functionaries called +PUBLIC. These obtain their right to subsistence, not by the +production of real utilities, but by the very state of +unproductivity in which, by no fault of their own, they are kept. +For them the law of proportionality is inverted: while social +wealth is formed and increased in the direct ratio of the +quantity, variety, and proportion of the effective products +furnished by the four great industrial categories, the +development of this same wealth, the perfecting of social order, +suppose, on the contrary, so far as the personnel of police is +concerned, a progressive and indefinite reduction. State +functionaries, therefore, are very truly unproductive. On this +point J. B. Say agreed with A. Smith, and all that he has written +on this subject in correction of his master, and which has been +stupidly included among his titles to glory, arises entirely, it +is easy to see, from a misunderstanding. In a word, the wages of +the government's employees constitute a social DEFICIT; they +must be carried to the account of LOSSES, which it must be the +object of industrial organization to continually diminish: in +this view what other adjective could be used to describe the men +of power than that of Adam Smith? + +Here, then, is a category of services which, furnishing no real +products, cannot be rewarded in the ordinary way; services which +do not fall under the law of exchange, which cannot become the +object of private speculation, competition, joint-stock +association, or any sort of commerce, but which, theoretically +regarded as performed gratuitously by all, but entrusted, by +virtue of the law of division of labor, to a small number of +special men who devote themselves exclusively to them, must +consequently be paid for. History confirms this general datum. +The human mind, which tries all solutions of every problem, has +tried accordingly to submit public functions to exchange; for a +long time French magistrates, like notaries, etc., lived solely +by their fees. But experience has proved that this method of +distribution applied to unproductive laborers was too expensive +and subject to too many disadvantages, and it became necessary to +abandon it. + +The organization of the unproductive services contributes to the +general welfare in several ways: first, by relieving producers of +public cares, in which all must participate, and to which, +consequently, all are more or less slaves; secondly, by +establishing in society an artificial centralization, the image +and prelude of the future solidarity of industries; and, finally, +by furnishing a first attempt at balance and discipline. + +So we admit, with J. B. Say, the usefulness of magistrates and +the other agents of public authority; but we hold that this +usefulness is wholly negative, and we insist, therefore, on +describing these functionaries by the adjective unproductive +which A. Smith applied to them, not to bring them into discredit, +but because they really cannot be classed in the category of +producers. "Taxation," very well says an economist of Say's +school, M. J. Garnier,--"taxation is a PRIVATION which we should +try to reduce to the furthest point of compatibility with the +needs of society." If the writer whom I quote has reflected upon +the meaning of his words, he has seen that the word PRIVATION +which he uses is synonymous with NON-PRODUCTION, and that +consequently those for whose benefit taxes are collected are very +truly UNPRODUCTIVE laborers. + +I insist upon this definition, which seems to me the less +questionable from the fact that, however much they may +dispute over the word, all agree upon the thing, because it +contains the germ of the greatest revolution yet to be +accomplished in the world,--I mean the subordination of the +unproductive functions to the productive functions, in a word, +the effective submission, always asked and never obtained, of +authority to the citizens. + +It is a consequence of the development of the economical +contradictions that order in society first shows itself inverted; +that that which should be above is placed below, that which +should be in relief seems sunken, and that which should receive +the light is thrown into the shadow. Thus power, which, in its +essence, is, like capital, the auxiliary and subordinate of +labor, becomes, through the antagonism of society, the spy, +judge, and tyrant of the productive functions; power, whose +original inferiority lays upon it the duty of obedience, is +prince and sovereign. + +In all ages the laboring classes have pursued against the +office-holding class the solution of this antinomy, of which +economic science alone can give the key. The oscillations--that +is, the political agitations which result from this struggle of +labor against power--now lead to a depression of the central +force, which compromises the very existence of society; now, +exaggerating this same force beyond measure, give birth to +despotism. Then, the privileges of command, the infinite joy +which it gives to ambition and pride, making the unproductive +functions an object of universal lust, a new leaven of discord +penetrates society, which, divided already in one direction into +capitalists and wage-workers, and in another into producers and +non-producers, is again divided as regards power into monarchists +and democrats. The conflicts between royalty and the republic +would furnish us most marvellous and interesting material +for our episodes. The confines of this work do not permit us so +long an excursion; and after having pointed out this new branch +in the vast network of human aberrations, we shall confine +ourselves exclusively, in dealing with taxation, to the economic +question. + +Such, then, in succinctest statement, is the synthetic theory of +the tax,--that is, if I may venture to use the familiar +comparison, of this fifth wheel of the coach of humanity, which +makes so much noise, and which, in governmental parlance, is +styled the State. The State, the police, or their means of +existence, the tax, is, I repeat, the official name of the class +designated in political economy as nonproducers,--in short, as +the domestics of society. + +But public reason does not attain at a single bound this simple +idea, which for centuries had to remain in the state of a +transcendental conception. Before civilization can mount to such +a height, it must pass through frightful tempests and innumerable +revolutions, in each of which, one might say, it renews its +strength in a bath of blood. And when at last production, +represented by capital, seems on the point of thoroughly +subordinating the unproductive organ, the State, then society +rises in indignation, labor weeps at the prospect of its +immediate freedom, democracy shudders at the abasement of power, +justice cries out as if scandalized, and all the oracles of the +departing gods exclaim with terror that the abomination of +desolation is in the holy places and that the end of the world +has come. So true is it that humanity never desires what it +seeks, and that the slightest progress cannot be realized without +spreading panic among the peoples. + +What, then, in this evolution, is the point of departure of +society, and by what circuitous route does it reach +political reform,--that is, economy in its expenditures, equality +in the assessment of its taxes, and the subordination of power to +industry? That is what we are about to state in a few words, +reserving developments for the sequel. + +The original idea of the tax is that of REDEMPTION. + +As, by the law of Moses, each first-born was supposed to belong +to Jehovah, and had to be redeemed by an offering, so the tax +everywhere presents itself in the form of a tithe or royal +prerogative by which the proprietor annually redeems from the +sovereign the profit of exploitation which he is supposed to hold +only by his pleasure. This theory of the tax, moreover, is but +one of the special articles of what is called the social +contract. + +Ancients and moderns all agree, in terms more or less explicit, +in regarding the juridical status of societies as a reaction of +weakness against strength. This idea is uppermost in all the +works of Plato, notably in the "Gorgias," where he maintains, +with more subtlety than logic, the cause of the laws against that +of violence,--that is, legislative absolutism against +aristocratic and military absolutism. In this knotty dispute, in +which the weight of evidence is equal on both sides, Plato simply +expresses the sentiment of entire antiquity. Long before him, +Moses, in making a distribution of lands, declaring patrimony +inalienable, and ordering a general and uncompensated +cancellation of all mortgages every fiftieth year, had opposed a +barrier to the invasions of force. The whole Bible is a hymn to +JUSTICE,--that is, in the Hebrew style, to charity, to kindness +to the weak on the part of the strong, to voluntary renunciation +of the privilege of power. Solon, beginning his legislative +mission by a general abolition of debts, and creating rights and +reserves,--that is, barriers to prevent their return,--was +no less reactionary. Lycurgus went farther; he forbade +individual possession, and tried to absorb the man in the State, +annihilating liberty the better to preserve equilibrium. Hobbes, +deriving, and with great reason, legislation from the state of +war, arrived by another road at the establishment of equality +upon an exception,--despotism. His book, so much calumniated, is +only a development of this famous antithesis. The charter of +1830, consecrating the insurrection made in '89 by the plebeians +against the nobility, and decreeing the abstract equality of +persons before the law, in spite of the real inequality of powers +and talents which is the veritable basis of the social system now +in force, is also but a protest of society in favor of the poor +against the rich, of the small against the great. All the laws +of the human race regarding sale, purchase, hire, property, +loans, mortgages, prescription, inheritance, donation, wills, +wives' dowries, minority, guardianship, etc., etc., are real +barriers erected by judicial absolutism against the absolutism of +force. Respect for contracts, fidelity to promises, the religion +of the oath, are fictions, osselets,[22] as the famous Lysander +aptly said, with which society deceives the strong and brings +them under the yoke. + + +[22] Little bones taken from the joints of animals and serving as +playthings for children.--Translator. + + + +The tax belongs to that great family of preventive, coercive, +repressive, and vindictive institutions which A. Smith designated +by the generic term police, and which is, as I have said, in its +original conception, only the reaction of weakness against +strength. This follows, independently of abundant historical +testimony which we will put aside to confine ourselves +exclusively to economic proof, from the distinction naturally +arising between taxes. + +All taxes are divisible into two great categories: (1) taxes of +assessment, or of privilege: these are the oldest taxes; (2) +taxes of consumption, or of quotite,[23] whose tendency is, by +absorbing the former, to make public burdens weigh equally upon +all. + + +[23] A tax whose total product is not fixed in advance, but +depends upon the quantity of things or persons upon whom it +happens to fall.-- Translator. + + + +The first sort of taxes--including in France the tax on land, the +tax on doors and windows, the poll-tax, the tax on personal +property, the tax on tenants, license-fees, the tax on transfers +of property, the tax on officials' fees, road-taxes, and +brevets--is the share which the sovereign reserves for himself +out of all the monopolies which he concedes or tolerates; it is, +as we have said, the indemnity of the poor, the permit granted to +property. Such was the form and spirit of the tax in all the old +monarchies: feudalism was its beau ideal. Under that regime the +tax was only a TRIBUTE paid by the holder to the universal +proprietor or sleeping-partner (commanditaire), the king. + +When later, by the development of public right, royalty, the +patriarchal form of sovereignty, begins to get impregnated by the +democratic spirit, the tax becomes a quota which each voter owes +to the COMMONWEALTH, and which, instead of falling into the hand +of the prince, is received into the State treasury. In this +evolution the principle of the tax remains intact; as yet there +is no transformation of the institution; the real sovereign +simply succeeds the figurative sovereign. Whether the tax enters +into the peculium of the prince or serves to liquidate a common +debt, it is in either case only a claim of society against +privilege; otherwise, it is impossible to say why the tax is +levied in the ratio of fortunes. + + +Let all contribute to the public expenses: nothing more just. +But why should the rich pay more than the poor? That is just, +they say, because they possess more. I confess that such justice +is beyond my comprehension. . . . One of two things is true: +either the proportional tax guarantees a privilege to the larger +tax-payers, or else it is a wrong. Because, if property is a +natural right, as the Declaration of '93 declares, all that +belongs to me by virtue of this right is as sacred as my person; +it is my blood, my life, myself: whoever touches it offends the +apple of my eye. My income of one hundred thousand francs is as +inviolable a the grisette's daily wage of seventy-five centimes; +her attic is no more sacred than my suite of apartments. The tax +is not levied in proportion to physical strength, size, or skill: +no more should it be levied in proportion to property.--What is +Property: Chapter II. + + +These observations are the more just because the principle which +it was their purpose to oppose to that of proportional assessment +has had its period of application. The proportional tax is much +later in history than liege-homage, which consisted in a simple +officious demonstration without real payment. + +The second sort of taxes includes in general all those +designated, by a sort of antiphrasis, by the term INDIRECT, such +as taxes on liquor, salt, and tobacco, customs duties, and, in +short, all the taxes which DIRECTLY affect the only thing which +should be taxed,--product. The principle of this tax, whose name +is an actual misnomer, is unquestionably better founded in theory +and more equitable in tendency than the preceding: accordingly, +in spite of the opinion of the mass, always deceived as to that +which serves it as well as to that which is prejudicial to it, I +do not hesitate to say that this tax is the only normal one, +barring its assessment and collection, with which it is not my +purpose now to deal. + +For, if it is true, as we have just explained, that the real +nature of the tax is to pay, according to a particular form of +wages, for certain services which elude the usual form of +exchange, it follows that all producers, enjoying these services +equally as far as personal use is concerned, should contribute to +their payment in equal portions. The share for each, therefore, +would be a fraction of his exchangeable product, or, in other +words, an amount taken from the values delivered by him for +purposes of consumption. But, under the monopoly system, and +with collection upon land, the treasury strikes the product +before it has entered into exchange, even before it is +produced,--a circumstance which results in throwing back the +amount of the tax into the cost of production, and consequently +puts the burden upon the consumer and lifts it from monopoly. + +Whatever the significance of the tax of assessment or the tax of +quotite, one thing is sure, and this is the thing which it is +especially important for us to know,--namely, that, in making the +tax proportional, it was the intention of the sovereign to make +citizens contribute to the public expenses, no longer, according +to the old feudal principle, by means of a poll-tax, which would +involve the idea of an assessment figured in the ratio of the +number of persons taxed, and not in the ratio of their +possessions, but so much per franc of capital, which supposes +that capital has its source in an authority superior to the +capitalists. Everybody, spontaneously and with one accord, +considers such an assessment just; everybody, therefore, +spontaneously and with one accord, looks upon the tax as a +resumption on the part of society, a sort of redemption exacted +from monopoly. This is especially striking in England, where, by +a special law, the proprietors of the soil and the manufacturers +pay, in proportion to their incomes, a tax of forty million +dollars, which is called the poor-rate. + +In short, the practical and avowed object of the tax is to effect +upon the rich, for the benefit of the people, a proportional +resumption of their capital. + +Now, analysis and the facts demonstrate: + +That the tax of assessment, the tax upon monopoly, instead of +being paid by those who possess, is paid almost entirely by those +who do not possess; + +That the tax of quotite, separating the producer from the +consumer, falls solely upon the latter, thereby taking from the +capitalist no more than he would have to pay if fortunes were +absolutely equal; + +Finally, that the army, the courts, the police, the schools, the +hospitals, the almshouses, the houses of refuge and correction, +public functions, religion itself, all that society creates for +the protection, emancipation, and relief of the proletaire, paid +for in the first place and sustained by the proletaire, is then +turned against the proletaire or wasted as far as he is +concerned; so that the proletariat, which at first labored only +for the class that devours it,--that of the capitalists,--must +labor also for the class that flogs it,--that of the +nonproducers. + +These facts are henceforth so well known, and the economists--I +owe them this justice--have shown them so clearly, that I shall +abstain from correcting their demonstrations, which, for the +rest, are no longer contradicted by anybody. What I propose to +bring to light, and what the economists do not seem to have +sufficiently understood, is that the condition in which the +laborer is placed by this new phase of social economy is +susceptible of no amelioration; that, unless industrial +organization, and therefore political reform, should bring about +an equality of fortunes, evil is inherent in police institutions +as in the idea of charity which gave them birth; in short, that +the STATE, whatever form it affects, aristocratic or theocratic, +monarchical or republican, until it shall have become the +obedient and submissive organ of a society of equals, will be for +the people an inevitable hell,--I had almost said a deserved +damnation. + + +% 2.--Antinomy of the tax. + +I sometimes hear the champions of the statu quo maintain that for +the present we enjoy liberty enough, and that, in spite of the +declamation against the existing order, we are below the level of +our institutions. So far at least as taxation is concerned, I am +quite of the opinion of these optimists. + +According to the theory that we have just seen, the tax is the +reaction of society against monopoly. Upon this point opinions +are unanimous: citizens and legislators, economists, journalists, +and ballad-writers, rendering, each in their own tongue, the +social thought, vie with each other in proclaiming that the tax +should fall upon the rich, strike the superfluous and articles of +luxury, and leave those of prime necessity free. In short, they +have made the tax a sort of privilege for the privileged: a bad +idea, since it involved a recognition of the legitimacy of +privilege, which in no case, whatever shape it may take, is good +for anything. The people had to be punished for this egoistic +inconsistency: Providence did not fail in its duty. + +From the moment, then, of the conception of the tax as a +counter-claim, it had to be fixed proportionally to means, +whether it struck capital or affected income more especially. +Now, I will point out that the levying of the tax at so much a +franc being precisely that which should be adopted in a country +where all fortunes were equal, saving the differences in the cost +of assessment and collection, the treasury is the most liberal +feature of our society, and that on this point our morals are +really behind our institutions. But as with the wicked the best +things cannot fail to be detestable, we shall see the +equalitarian tax crush the people precisely because the people +are not up to it. + +I will suppose that the gross income in France, for each family +of four persons, is 1,000 francs: this is a little above the +estimate of M. Chevalier, who places it at only 63 centimes a day +for each individual, or 919 francs 80 centimes for each +household. The tax being today more than a thousand millions, or +about an eighth of the total income, each family, earning 1,000 +francs a year, is taxed 125 francs. + +Accordingly, an income of 2,000 francs pays 250 francs; an income +of 3,000 francs, 375; an income of 4,000 francs, 500, etc. The +proportion is strict and mathematically irreproachable; the +treasury, by arithmetic, is sure of losing nothing. + +But on the side of the taxpayers the affair totally changes its +aspect. The tax, which, in the intention of the legislator, was +to have been proportioned to fortune, is, on the contrary, +progressive in the ratio of poverty, so that, the poorer the +citizen is, the more he pays. This I shall try to make plain by +a few figures. + +According to the proportional tax, there is due to the treasury: +for an income of +1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 francs, etc. a tax of + 125 250 375 500 625 750 + +According to this series, then, the tax seems to increase +proportionally to income. + +But when it is remembered that each annual income is made up of +365 units, each of which represents the daily income of the +taxpayer, the tax will no longer be found proportional; it will +be found equal. In fact, if the State levies a tax of 125 francs +on an income of 1,000 francs, it is as if it took from the taxed +family 45 days' subsistence; likewise the assessments of 250, +375, 500, 625, and 750 francs, corresponding to incomes of 2,000, +3,000, 4,000, 5,000, and 6,000 francs, constitute in each case a +tax of 45 days' pay upon each of those who enjoy these incomes. + +I say now that this equality of taxation is a monstrous +inequality, and that it is a strange illusion to imagine that, +because the daily income is larger, the tax of which it is the +base is higher. Let us change our point of view from that of +personal to that of collective income. + +As an effect of monopoly social wealth abandoning the laboring +class to go to the capitalistic class, the object of taxation has +been to moderate this displacement and react against usurpation +by enforcing a proportional replevin upon each privileged person. +But proportional to what? To the excess which the privileged +person has received undoubtedly, and not to the fraction of the +social capital which his income represents. Now, the object of +taxation is missed and the law turned into derision when the +treasury, instead of taking its eighth where this eighth exists, +asks it precisely of those to whom it should be restored. A +final calculation will make this evident. + +Setting the daily income of each person in France at 68 centimes, +the father of a family who, whether as wages or as income from +his capital, receives 1,000 francs a year receives four shares of +the national income; he who receives 2,000 francs has eight +shares; he who receives 4,000 francs has sixteen, etc. Hence it +follows that the workman who, on an income of 1,000 francs, pays +125 francs into the treasury renders to public order half a +share, or an eighth of his income and his family's subsistence; +whereas the capitalist who, on an income of 6,000 francs, pays +only 750 francs realizes a profit of 17 shares out of the +collective income, or, in other words, gains by the tax 425 per +cent. + +Let us reproduce the same truth in another form. + +The voters of France number about 200,000. I do not know the +total amount of taxes paid by these 200,000 voters, but I do not +believe that I am very far from the truth in supposing an average +of 300 francs each, or a total of 60,000,000 for the 200,000 +voters, to which we will add twenty-five per cent. to represent +their share of indirect taxes, making in all 75,000,000, or 75 +francs for each person (supposing the family of each voter to +consist of five persons), which the electoral class pays to the +State. The appropriations, according to the "Annuaire +Economique" for 1845, being 1,106,000,000, there remains +1,031,000,000, which makes the tax paid by each non-voting +citizen 31 francs 30 centimes,--two-fifths of the tax paid by the +wealthy class. Now, for this proportion to be equitable, the +average welfare of the non-voting class would have to be +two-fifths of the average welfare of the voting class: but such +is not the truth, as it falls short of this by more than +three-fourths. + +But this disproportion will seem still more shocking when it is +remembered that the calculation which we have just made +concerning the electoral class is altogether wrong, altogether in +favor of the voters. + +In fact, the only taxes which are levied for the enjoyment of the +right of suffrage are: (1) the land tax; (2) the tax on polls and +personal property; (3) the tax on doors and windows; (4) +license-fees. Now, with the exception of the tax on polls and +personal property, which varies little, the three other taxes are +thrown back on the consumers; and it is the same with all the +indirect taxes, for which the holders of capital are reimbursed +by the consumers, with the exception, however, of the taxes on +property transfers, which fall directly on the proprietor and +amount in all to 150,000,000. Now, if we estimate that in this +last amount the property of voters figures as one-sixth, which is +placing it high, the portion of direct taxes (409,000,000) being +12 francs for each person, and that of indirect taxes +(547,000,000) 16 francs, the average tax paid by each voter +having a household of five will reach a total of 265 francs, +while that paid by the laborer, who has only his arms to support +himself, his wife, and two children, will be 112 francs. In more +general terms, the average tax upon each person belonging to the +upper classes will be 53 francs; upon each belonging to the +lower, 28. Whereupon I renew my question: Is the welfare of +those below the voting standard half as great as that of those +above it? + +It is with the tax as with periodical publications, which really +cost more the less frequently they appear. A daily journal costs +forty francs, a weekly ten francs, a monthly four. Supposing +other things to be equal, the subscription prices of these +journals are to each other as the numbers forty, seventy, and one +hundred and twenty, the price rising with the infrequency of +publication. Now, this exactly represents the increase of the +tax: it is a subscription paid by each citizen in exchange for +the right to labor and to live. He who uses this right in the +smallest proportion pays much; he who uses it a little more pays +less; he who uses it a great deal pays little. + +The economists are generally in agreement about all this. They +have attacked the proportional tax, not only in its principle, +but in its application; they have pointed out its anomalies, +almost all of which arise from the fact that the relation of +capital to income, or of cultivated surface to rent, is never +fixed. + + +Given a levy of one-tenth on the income from lands, and lands of +different qualities producing, the first eight francs' worth of +grain, the second six francs' worth, the third five francs' +worth, the tax will call for one-eighth of the income from the +most fertile land, one-sixth from that a little less fertile, +and, finally, one-fifth from that less fertile still.[24] Will +not the tax thus established be just the reverse of what it +should be? Instead of land, we may suppose other instruments of +production, and compare capitals of the same value, or amounts of +labor of the same order, applied to branches of industry +differing in productivity: the conclusion will be the same. +There is injustice in requiring the same poll-tax of ten francs +from the laborer who earns one thousand francs and from the +artist or physician who has an income of sixty thousand.--J. +Garnier: Principles of Political Economy. + + +[24] This sentence, as it stands, is unintelligible, and probably +is not correctly quoted by Proudhon. At any rate, one of +Garnier's works contains a similar passage, which begins thus: +"Given a levy of one on the area of the land, and lands of +different qualities producing, the first eight, the second six, +the third five, the tax will call for one- eighth," etc. This is +perfectly clear, and the circumstances supposed are aptly +illustrative of Proudhon's point. I should unhesitatingly +pronounce it the correct version, except for the fact that +Proudhon, in the succeeding paragraph, interprets Garnier as +supposing income to be assessed instead of capital.--Translator. + + + +These reflections are very sound, although they apply only to +collection or assessment, and do not touch the principle of the +tax itself. For, in supposing the assessment to be made upon +income instead of upon capital, the fact always remains that the +tax, which should be proportional to fortunes, is borne by the +consumer. + +The economists have taken a resolve; they have squarely +recognized the iniquity of the proportional tax. + +"The tax," says Say, "can never be levied upon the necessary." +This author, it is true, does not tell us what we are to +understand by the necessary, but we can supply the omission. The +necessary is what each individual gets out of the total product +of the country, after deducting what must be taken for taxes. +Thus, making the estimate in round numbers, the production of +France being eight thousand millions and the tax one thousand +millions, the necessary in the case of each individual amounts to +fifty-six and a half centimes a day. Whatever is in excess of +this income is alone susceptible of being taxed, according to J. +B. Say; whatever falls short of it must be regarded by the +treasury as inviolable. + +The same author expresses this idea in other words when he says: +"The proportional tax is not equitable." Adam Smith had already +said before him: "It is not unreasonable that the rich man +should contribute to the public expenses, not only in proportion +to his income, but something more." "I will go further," adds +Say; "I will not fear to say that the progressive tax is the only +equitable tax." And M. J. Garnier, the latest abridger of the +economists, says: "Reforms should tend to establish a +progressional equality, if I may use the phrase, much more just, +much more equitable, than the pretended equality of taxation, +which is only a monstrous inequality." + +So, according to general opinion and the testimony of the +economists, two things are acknowledged: one, that in its +principle the tax is a reaction against monopoly and directed +against the rich; the other, that in practice this same tax is +false to its object; that, in striking the poor by preference, it +commits an injustice; and that the constant effort of the +legislator must be to distribute its burden in a more equitable +fashion. + +I needed to establish this double fact solidly before passing to +other considerations: now commences my criticism. + +The economists, with that simplicity of honest folk which they +have inherited from their elders and which even today is all that +stands to their credit, have taken no pains to see that the +progressional theory of the tax, which they point out to +governments as the ne plus ultra of a wise and liberal +administration, was contradictory in its terms and pregnant with +a legion of impossibilities. They have attributed the oppression +of the treasury by turns to the barbarism of the time, the +ignorance of princes, the prejudices of caste, the avarice of +collectors, everything, in short, which, in their opinion, +preventing the progression of the tax, stood in the way of the +sincere practice of equality in the distribution of public +burdens; they have not for a moment suspected that what they +asked under the name of progressive taxation was the overturn of +all economic ideas. + +Thus they have not seen, for instance, that the tax was +progressive from the very fact that it was proportional, the only +difference being that the progression was in the wrong direction, +the percentage being, as we have said, not directly, but +inversely proportional to fortunes. If the economists had had a +clear idea of this overturn, invariable in all countries where +taxation exists, so singular a phenomenon would not have failed +to draw their attention; they would have sought its causes, and +would have ended by discovering that what they took for an +accident of civilization, an effect of the inextricable +difficulties of human government, was the product of the +contradiction inherent in all political economy. + +The progressive tax, whether applied to capital or to income, is +the very negation of monopoly, of that monopoly which is met +everywhere, according to M. Rossi, across the path of social +economy; which is the true stimulant of industry, the hope of +economy, the preserver and parent of all wealth; of which we have +been able to say, in short, that society cannot exist without it, +but that, except for it, there would be no society. Let the tax +become suddenly what it unquestionably must sometime be,--namely, +the proportional (or progressional, which is the same thing) +contribution of each producer to the public expenses, and +straightway rent and profit are confiscated everywhere for the +benefit of the State; labor is stripped of the fruits of its +toil; each individual being reduced to the proper allowance of +fifty-six and a half centimes, poverty becomes general; the +compact formed between labor and capital is dissolved, and +society, deprived of its rudder, drifts back to its original +state. + +It will be said, perhaps, that it is easy to prevent the absolute +annihilation of the profits of capital by stopping the +progression at any moment. + +Eclecticism, the golden mean, compromise with heaven or with +morality: is it always to be the same philosophy, then? True +science is repugnant to such arrangements. All invested capital +must return to the producer in the form of interest; all labor +must leave a surplus, all wages be equal to product. Under the +protection of these laws society continually realizes, by the +greatest variety of production, the highest possible degree of +welfare. These laws are absolute; to violate them is to wound, +to mutilate society. Capital, accordingly, which, after all, is +nothing but accumulated labor, is inviolable. But, on the other +hand, the tendency to equality is no less imperative; it is +manifested at each economic phase with increasing energy and an +invincible authority. Therefore you must satisfy labor and +justice at once; you must give to the former guarantees more +and more real, and secure the latter without concession or +ambiguity. + +Instead of that, you know nothing but the continual substitution +of the good pleasure of the prince for your theories, the arrest +of the course of economic law by arbitrary power, and, under the +pretext of equity, the deception of the wage worker and the +monopolist alike! Your liberty is but a half-liberty, your +justice but a half-justice, and all your wisdom consists in those +middle terms whose iniquity is always twofold, since they justify +the pretensions of neither one party nor the other! No, such +cannot be the science which you have promised us, and which, by +unveiling for us the secrets of the production and consumption of +wealth, must unequivocally solve the social antinomies. Your +semi- liberal doctrine is the code of despotism, and shows that +you are powerless to advance as well as ashamed to retreat. + +If society, pledged by its economic antecedents, can never +retrace its steps; if, until the arrival of the universal +equation, monopoly must be maintained in its possession,--no +change is possible in the laying of taxes: only there is a +contradiction here, which, like every other, must be pushed till +exhausted. Have, then, the courage of your opinions,-- respect +for wealth, and no pity for the poor, whom the God of monopoly +has condemned. The less the hireling has wherewith to live, the +more he must pay: qui minus habet, etiam quod habet auferetur ab +eo. This is necessary, this is inevitable; in it lies the safety +of society. + +Let us try, nevertheless, to reverse the progression of the tax, +and so arrange it that the capitalist, instead of the laborer, +will pay the larger share. + +I observe, in the first place, that with the usual method of +collection, such a reversal is impracticable. + +In fact, if the tax falls on exploitable capital, this tax, in +its entirety, is included among the costs of production, and then +of two things one: either the product, in spite of the increase +in its selling value, will be bought by the consumer, and +consequently the producer will be relieved of the tax; or else +this same product will be thought too dear, and in that case the +tax, as J. B. Say has very well said, acts like a tithe levied on +seed,--it prevents production. Thus it is that too high a tax on +the transfer of titles arrests the circulation of real property, +and renders estates less productive by keeping them from changing +hands. + +If, on the contrary, the tax falls on product, it is nothing but +a tax of quotite, which each pays in the ratio of his +consumption, while the capitalist, whom it is purposed to strike, +escapes. + +Moreover, the supposition of a progressive tax based either on +product or on capital is perfectly absurd. How can we imagine +the same product paying a duty of ten per cent. at the store of +one dealer and a duty of but five at another's? How are estates +already encumbered with mortgages and which change owners every +day, how is a capital formed by joint investment or by the +fortune of a single individual, to be distinguished upon the +official register, and taxed, not in the ratio of their value or +rent, but in the ratio of the fortune or presumed profits of the +proprietor? + +There remains, then, a last resource,--to tax the net income of +each tax-payer, whatever his method of getting it. For instance, +an income of one thousand francs would pay ten per cent.; an +income of two thousand francs, twenty per cent.; an income of +three thousand francs, thirty per cent., etc. We will set aside +the thousand difficulties and annoyances that must be met in +ascertaining these incomes, and suppose the operation as +easy as you like. Well! that is exactly the system which I +charge with hypocrisy, contradiction, and injustice. + +I say in the first place that this system is hypocritical, +because, instead of taking from the rich that entire portion of +their income in excess of the average national product per +family, which is inadmissible, it does not, as is imagined, +reverse the order of progression in the direction of wealth; at +most it changes the rate of progression. Thus the present +progression of the tax, for fortunes yielding incomes of a +thousand francs and UNDER, being as that of the numbers 10, 11, +12, 13, etc., and, for fortunes yielding incomes of a thousand +francs and OVER, as that of the numbers 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, etc.,-- +the tax always increasing with poverty and decreasing with +wealth,--if we should confine ourselves to lifting the indirect +tax which falls especially on the poorer class and imposing a +corresponding tax upon the incomes of the richer class, the +progression thereafter, it is true, would be, for the first, only +as that of the numbers 10, 10.25, 10.50, 10.75, 11, 11.25, etc., +and, for the second, as 10, 9.75, 9.50, 9.25, 9, 8.75, etc. But +this progression, although less rapid on both sides, would still +take the same direction nevertheless, would still be a reversal +of justice; and it is for this reason that the so-called +progressive tax, capable at most of giving the philanthropist +something to babble about, is of no scientific value. It changes +nothing in fiscal jurisprudence; as the proverb says, it is +always the poor man who carries the pouch, always the rich man +who is the object of the solicitude of power. + +I add that this system is contradictory. + +In fact, ONE CANNOT BOTH GIVE AND KEEP, say the jurisconsults. +Instead, then, of consecrating monopolies from which the holders +are to derive no privilege save that of straightway losing, with +the income, all the enjoyment thereof, why not decree the +agrarian law at once? Why provide in the constitution that each +shall freely enjoy the fruit of his labor and industry, when, by +the fact or the tendency of the tax, this permission is granted +only to the extent of a dividend of fifty-six and a half centimes +a day,--a thing, it is true, which the law could not have +foreseen, but which would necessarily result from progression? +The legislator, in confirming us in our monopolies, intended to +favor production, to feed the sacred fire of industry: now, what +interest shall we have to produce, if, though not yet associated, +we are not to produce for ourselves alone? After we have been +declared free, how can we be made subject to conditions of sale, +hire, and exchange which annul our liberty? + +A man possesses government securities which bring him an income +of twenty thousand francs. The tax, under the new system of +progression, will take fifty per cent. of this from him. At this +rate it is more advantageous to him to withdraw his capital and +consume the principal instead of the income. Then let him be +repaid. What! repaid! The State cannot be obliged to repay; +and, if it consents to redeem, it will do so in proportion to the +net income. Therefore a bond for twenty thousand francs will be +worth not more than ten thousand to the bondholder, because of +the tax, if he wishes to get it redeemed by the State: unless he +divides it into twenty lots, in which case it will return him +double the amount. Likewise an estate which rents for fifty +thousand francs, the tax taking two-thirds of the income, will +lose two- thirds of its value. But let the proprietor divide +this estate into a hundred lots and sell it at auction, and then, +the terror of the treasury no longer deterring purchasers, he can +get back his entire capital. So that, with the progressive +tax, real estate no longer follows the law of supply and demand +and is not valued according to the real income which it yields, +but according to the condition of the owner. The consequence +will be that large capitals will depreciate in value, and +mediocrity be brought to the front; land-owners will hasten to +sell, because it will be better for them to consume their +property than to get an insufficient rent from it; capitalists +will recall their investments, or will invest only at usurious +rates; all exploitation on a large scale will be prohibited, +every visible fortune proceeded against, and all accumulation of +capital in excess of the figure of the necessary proscribed. +Wealth, driven back, will retire within itself and never emerge +except by stealth; and labor, like a man attached to a corpse, +will embrace misery in an endless union. Does it not well become +the economists who devise such reforms to laugh at the reformers? + +After having demonstrated the contradiction and delusion of the +progressive tax, must I prove its injustice also? The +progressive tax, as understood by the economists and, in their +wake, by certain radicals, is impracticable, I said just now, if +it falls on capital and product: consequently I have supposed it +to fall on incomes. But who does not see that this purely +theoretical distinction between capital, product, and income +falls so far as the treasury is concerned, and that the same +impossibilities which we have pointed out reappear here with all +their fatal character? + +A manufacturer discovers a process by means of which, saving +twenty per cent. of his cost of production, he secures an income +of twenty-five thousand francs. The treasury calls on him for +fifteen thousand. He is obliged, therefore, to raise his prices, +since, by the fact of the tax, his process, instead of saving +twenty per cent., saves only eight per cent. Is not this as +if the treasury prevented cheapness? Thus, in trying to reach +the rich, the progressive tax always reaches the consumer; and it +is impossible for it not to reach him without suppressing +production altogether: what a mistake! + +It is a law of social economy that all invested capital must +return continually to the capitalist in the form of interest. +With the progressive tax this law is radically violated, since, +by the effect of progression, interest on capital is so reduced +that industries are established only at a loss of a part or the +whole of the capital. To make it otherwise, interest on capital +would have to increase progressively in the same ratio as the tax +itself, which is absurd. Therefore the progressive tax stops the +creation of capital; furthermore it hinders its circulation. +Whoever, in fact, should want to buy a plant for any enterprise +or a piece of land for cultivation would have to consider, under +the system of progressive taxation, not the real value of such +plant or land, but rather the tax which it would bring upon him; +so that, if the real income were four per cent., and, by the +effect of the tax or the condition of the buyer, must go down to +three, the purchase could not be effected. After having run +counter to all interests and thrown the market into confusion by +its categories, the progressive tax arrests the development of +wealth and reduces venal value below real value; it contracts, it +petrifies society. What tyranny! What derision! + +The progressive tax resolves itself, then, whatever may be done, +into a denial of justice, prohibition of production, +confiscation. It is unlimited and unbridled absolutism, given to +power over everything which, by labor, by economy, by +improvements, contributes to public wealth. + +But what is the use of wandering about in chimerical hypotheses +when the truth is at hand. It is not the fault of the +proportional principle if the tax falls with such shocking +inequality upon the various classes of society; the fault is in +our prejudices and our morals. The tax, as far as is possible in +human operations, proceeds with equity, precision. Social +economy commands it to apply to product; it applies to product. +If product escapes it, it strikes capital: what more natural! +The tax, in advance of civilization, supposes the equality of +laborers and capitalists: the inflexible expression of necessity, +it seems to invite us to make ourselves equals by education and +labor, and, by balancing our functions and associating our +interests, to put ourselves in accord with it. The tax refuses +to distinguish between one man and another: and we blame its +mathematical severity for the differences in our fortunes! We +ask equality itself to comply with our injustice! Was I not +right in saying at the outset that, relatively to the tax, we are +behind our institutions? + +Accordingly we always see the legislator stopping, in his fiscal +laws, before the subversive consequences of the progressive tax, +and consecrating the necessity, the immutability of the +proportional tax. For equality in well-being cannot result from +the violation of capital: the antinomy must be methodically +solved, under penalty, for society, of falling back into chaos. +Eternal justice does not accommodate itself to all the whims of +men: like a woman, whom one may outrage, but whom one does not +marry without a solemn alienation of one's self, it demands on +our part, with the abandonment of our egoism, the recognition of +all its rights, which are those of science. + +The tax, whose final purpose, as we have shown, is the reward of +the non-producers, but whose original idea was a restoration of +the laborer,--the tax, under the system of monopoly, reduces +itself therefore to a pure and simple protest, a sort of +extra-judicial act, the whole effect of which is to aggravate the +situation of the wage-worker by disturbing the monopolist in his +possession. As for the idea of changing the proportional tax +into a progressive tax, or, to speak more accurately, of +reversing the order in which the tax progresses, that is a +blunder the entire responsibility for which belongs to the +economists. + +But henceforth menace hovers over privilege. With the power of +modifying the proportionality of the tax, government has under +its hand an expeditious and sure means of dispossessing the +holders of capital when it will; and it is a frightful thing to +see everywhere that great institution, the basis of society, the +object of so many controversies, of so many laws, of so many +cajoleries, and of so many crimes, PROPERTY, suspended at the end +of a thread over the yawning mouth of the proletariat. + + +% 3.--Disastrous and inevitable consequences of the tax. +(Provisions, sumptuary laws, rural and industrial police, +patents, trade-marks, etc.) + +M. Chevalier addressed to himself, in July, 1843, on the subject +of the tax, the following questions: + + +(1) Is it asked of all or by preference of a part of the nation? +(2) Does the tax resemble a levy on polls, or is it exactly +proportioned to the fortunes of the tax-payers? (3) Is +agriculture more or less burdened than manufactures or commerce? +(4) Is real estate more or less spared than personal property? +(5) Is he who produces more favored than he who consumes? (6) +Have our taxation laws the character of sumptuary laws? + + +To these various questions M. Chevalier makes the reply which I +am about to quote, and which sums up all of the most +philosophical considerations upon the subject which I have met: + + +(a) The tax affects the universality, applies to the mass, takes +the nation as a whole; nevertheless, as the poor are the most +numerous, it taxes them willingly, certain of collecting more. +(b) By the nature of things the tax sometimes takes the form of a +levy on polls, as in the case of the salt tax. (c, d, e) The +treasury addresses itself to labor as well as to consumption, +because in France everybody labors, to real more than to personal +property, and to agriculture more than to manufactures. (f) By +the same reasoning, our laws partake little of the character of +sumptuary laws. + + +What, professor! is that all that science has taught you? THE +TAX APPLIES TO THE MASS, you say; IT TAKES THE NATION AS A WHOLE. +Alas! we know it only too well; but it is this which is +iniquitous, and which we ask you to explain. The government, +when engaged in the assessment and distribution of the tax, could +not have believed, did not believe, that all fortunes were equal; +consequently it could not have wished, did not wish, the sums +paid to be equal. Why, then, is the practice of the government +always the opposite of its theory? Your opinion, if you please, +on this difficult matter? Explain; justify or condemn the +exchequer; take whatever course you will, provided you take some +course and say something. Remember that your readers are men, +and that they cannot excuse in a doctor, speaking ex cathedra, +such propositions as this: AS THE POOR ARE THE MOST NUMEROUS, IT +TAXES THEM WILLINGLY, CERTAIN OF COLLECTING MORE. No, Monsieur: +NUMBERS do not regulate the tax; the tax knows perfectly well +that millions of poor added to millions of poor do not make one +voter. You render the treasury odious by making it absurd, and I +maintain that it is neither the one nor the other. The poor man +pays more than the rich because Providence, to whom misery is +odious like vice, has so ordered things that the miserable +must always be the most ground down. The iniquity of the tax is +the celestial scourge which drives us towards equality. God! if +a professor of political economy, who was formerly an apostle, +could but understand this revelation! + +BY THE NATURE OF THINGS, says m. Chevalier, THE TAX SOMETIMES +TAKES THE FORM OF A LEVY ON POLLS. Well, in what case is it just +that the tax should take the form of a levy on polls? Is it +always, or never? What is the principle of the tax? What is its +object? Speak, answer. + +And what instruction, pray, can we derive from the remark, +scarcely worthy of quotation, that THE TREASURY ADDRESSES ITSELF +TO LABOR AS WELL AS TO CONSUMPTION, TO REAL MORE THAN TO PERSONAL +PROPERTY, TO AGRICULTURE MORE THAN TO MANUFACTURES? Of what +consequence to science is this interminable recital of crude +facts, if your analysis never extracts a single idea from them? + +All the deductions made from consumption by taxation, rent, +interest on capital, etc., enter into the general expense account +and figure in the selling price, so that nearly always the +consumer pays the tax: that we know. And as the goods most +consumed are also those which yield the most revenue, it +necessarily follows that the poorest people are the most heavily +burdened: this consequence, like the first, is inevitable. Once +more, then, of what importance to us are your fiscal +distinctions? Whatever the classification of taxable material, +as it is impossible to tax capital beyond its income, the +capitalist will be always favored, while the proletaire will +suffer iniquity, oppression. The trouble is not in the +distribution of taxes; it is in the distribution of goods. M. +Chevalier cannot be ignorant of this: why, then, does not M. +Chevalier, whose word would carry more weight than that of a +writer suspected of not loving the existing order, say as much? + +From 1806 to 1811 (this observation, as well as the following, is +M. Chevalier's) the annual consumption of wine in Paris was one +hundred and forty quarts for each individual; now it is not more +than eighty-three. Abolish the tax of seven or eight cents a +quart collected from the retailer, and the consumption of wine +will soon rise from eighty-three quarts to one hundred and +seventy-five; and the wine industry, which does not know what to +do with its products, will have a market. Thanks to the duties +laid upon the importation of cattle, the consumption of meat by +the people has diminished in a ratio similar to that of the +falling-off in the consumption of wine; and the economists have +recognized with fright that the French workman does less work +than the English workman, because he is not as well fed. + +Out of sympathy for the laboring classes M. Chevalier would like +our manufacturers to feel the goad of foreign competition a +little. A reduction of the tax on woollens to the extent of +twenty cents on each pair of pantaloons would leave six million +dollars in the pockets of the consumers,--half enough to pay the +salt tax. Four cents less in the price of a shirt would effect a +saving probably sufficient to keep a force of twenty thousand men +under arms. + +In the last fifteen years the consumption of sugar has risen from +one hundred and sixteen million pounds to two hundred and sixty +million, which gives at present an average of seven pounds and +three-quarters for each individual. This progress demonstrates +that sugar must be classed henceforth with bread, wine, meat, +wool, cotton, wood, and coal, among the articles of prime +necessity. To the poor man sugar is a whole medicine-chest: +would it be too much to raise the average individual consumption +of this article from seven pounds and three-quarters to fifteen +pounds? Abolish the tax, which is about four dollars and a +half on a hundred pounds, and your consumption will double. + +Thus the tax on provisions agitates and tortures the poor +proletaire in a thousand ways: the high price of salt hinders the +production of cattle; the duties on meat diminish also the +rations of the laborer. To satisfy at once the tax and the need +of fermented beverages which the laboring class feels, they serve +him with mixtures unknown to the chemist as well as to the brewer +and the wine-grower. What further need have we of the dietary +prescriptions of the Church? Thanks to the tax, the whole year +is Lent to the laborer, and his Easter dinner is not as good as +Monseigneur's Good Friday lunch. It is high time to abolish +everywhere the tax on consumption, which weakens and starves the +people: this is the conclusion of the economists as well as of +the radicals. + +But if the proletaire does not fast to feed Caesar, what will +Caesar eat? And if the poor man does not cut his cloak to cover +Caesar's nudity, what will Caesar wear? + +That is the question, the inevitable question, the question to be +solved. + +M. Chevalier, then, having asked himself as his sixth question +whether our taxation laws have the character of sumptuary laws, +has answered: No, our taxation laws have not the character of +sumptuary laws. M. Chevalier might have added--and it would have +been both new and true-- that that is the best thing about our +taxation laws. But M. Chevalier, who, whatever he may do, always +retains some of the old leaven of radicalism, has preferred to +declaim against luxury, whereby he could not compromise himself +with any party. "If in Paris," he cries, "the tax collected from +meat should be laid upon private carriages, saddle- horses and +carriage-horses, servants, and dogs, it would be a perfectly +equitable operation." + +Does M. Chevalier, then, sit in the College of France to expound +the politics of Masaniello? I have seen the dogs at Basle +wearing the treasury badge upon their necks as a sign that they +had been taxed, and I looked upon the tax on dogs, in a country +where taxation is almost nothing, as rather a moral lesson and a +hygienic precaution than a source of revenue. In 1844 the dog +tax of forty-two cents a head gave a revenue of $12,600 in the +entire province of Brabant, containing 667,000 inhabitants. From +this it may be estimated that the same tax, producing in all +France $600,000, would lighten the taxes of QUOTITE LESS THAN TWO +CENTS a year for each individual. Certainly I am far from +pretending that $600,000 is a sum to be disdained, especially +with a prodigal ministry; and I regret that the Chamber should +have rejected the dog tax, which would always have served to +endow half a dozen highnesses. But I remember that a tax of this +nature is levied much less in the interest of the treasury than +as a promoter of order; that consequently it is proper to look +upon it, from the fiscal point of view, as of no importance; and +that it will even have to be abolished as an annoyance when the +mass of the people, having become a little more humanized, shall +feel a disgust for the companionship of beasts. TWO CENTS A +YEAR, what a relief for poverty! + +But M. Chevalier has other resources in reserve,--horses, +carriages, servants, articles of luxury, luxury at last! How +much is contained in that one word, LUXURY! + +Let us cut short this phantasmagoria by a simple calculation; +reflections will be in order later. In 1842 the duties collected +on imports amounted to $25,800,000. In this sum of $25,800,000, +sixty-one articles in common use figure for $24,800,000, and one +hundred and seventy-seven, used only by those who enjoy a high +degree of luxury, for TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. In the first +class sugar yielded a revenue of $8,600,000, coffee $2,400,000, +cotton $2,200,000, woollens $2,000,000, oils $1,600,000, coal +$800,000, linens and hemp $600,000,-- making a total of +$18,200,000 on seven articles. The amount of revenue, then, is +lower in proportion as the article of merchandise from which it +is derived is less generally used, more rarely consumed, and +found accompanying a more refined degree of luxury. And yet +articles of luxury are subject to much the highest taxes. +Therefore, even though, to obtain an appreciable reduction upon +articles of primary necessity, the duties upon articles of luxury +should be made a hundred times higher, the only result would be +the suppression of a branch of commerce by a prohibitory tax. +Now, the economists all favor the abolition of custom-houses; +doubtless they do not wish them replaced by city toll- gates? +Let us generalize this example: salt brings the treasury +$11,400,000, tobacco $16,800,000. Let them show me, figures in +hand, by what taxes upon articles of luxury, after having +abolished the taxes on salt and tobacco, this deficit will be +made up. + +You wish to strike articles of luxury; you take civilization at +the wrong end. I maintain, for my part, that articles of luxury +should be free. In economic language what are luxuries? Those +products which bear the smallest ratio to the total wealth, those +which come last in the industrial series and whose creation +supposes the preexistence of all the others. From this point of +view all the products of human labor have been, and in turn have +ceased to be, articles of luxury, since we mean by luxury nothing +but a relation of succession, whether chronological or +commercial, in the elements of wealth. Luxury, in a word, is +synonymous with progress; it is, at each instant of social life, +the expression of the maximum of comfort realized by labor +and at which it is the right and destiny of all to arrive. Now, +just as the tax respects for a time the newly-built house and the +newly-cleared field, so it should freely welcome new products and +precious articles, the latter because their scarcity should be +continually combatted, the former because every invention +deserves encouragement. What! under a pretext of luxury would +you like to establish new classes of citizens? And do you take +seriously the city of Salente and the prosopopoeia of Fabricius? +Since the subject leads us to it, let us talk of morality. +Doubtless you will not deny the truth so often dwelt upon by the +Senecas of all ages,--that luxury CORRUPTS and WEAKENS morals: +which means that it humanizes, elevates, and ennobles habits, and +that the first and most effective education for the people, the +stimulant of the ideal in most men, is luxury. The Graces were +naked, according to the ancients; where has it ever been said +that they were needy? It is the taste for luxury which in our +day, in the absence of religious principles, sustains the social +movement and reveals to the lower classes their dignity. The +Academy of Moral and Political Sciences clearly understood this +when it chose luxury as the subject of one of its essays, and I +applaud its wisdom from the bottom of my heart. Luxury, in fact, +is already more than a right in our society, it is a necessity; +and he is truly to be pitied who never allows himself a little +luxury. And it is when universal effort tends to popularize +articles of luxury more and more that you would confine the +enjoyment of the people to articles which you are pleased to +describe as articles of necessity! It is when ranks approach and +blend into each other through the generalization of luxury that +you would dig the line of demarcation deeper and increase the +height of your steps! The workman sweats and sacrifices and +grinds in order to buy a set of jewelry for his sweetheart, a +necklace for his granddaughter, or a watch for his son; and you +would deprive him of this happiness, unless he pays your +tax,--that is, your fine. + +But have you reflected that to tax articles of luxury is to +prohibit the luxurious arts? Do you think that the silk-workers, +whose average wages does not reach forty cents; the milliners at +ten cents; the jewellers, goldsmiths, and clockmakers, with their +interminable periods of idleness; servants at forty dollars,--do +you think that they earn too much? + +Are you sure that the tax on luxuries would not be paid by the +worker in the luxurious arts, as the tax on beverages is paid by +the consumer of beverages? Do you even know whether higher +prices for articles of luxury would not be an obstacle to the +cheapness of necessary objects, and whether, in trying to favor +the most numerous class, you would not render the general +condition worse? A fine speculation, in truth! Four dollars to +be returned to the laborer on his wine and sugar, and eight to be +taken from him in the cost of his pleasures! He shall gain +fifteen cents on the leather in his boots, and, to take his +family into the country four times a year, he shall pay one +dollar and twenty cents more for carriage-hire! A small +bourgeois spends one hundred and twenty dollars for a +housekeeper, laundress, linen-tender, and errand-boys; but if, +by a wiser economy which works for the interest of all, he takes +a domestic, the exchequer, in the interest of articles of +subsistence, will punish this plan of economy! What an absurd +thing is the philanthropy of the economists, when closely +scrutinized! + +Nevertheless I wish to satisfy your whim; and, since you +absolutely must have sumptuary laws, I undertake to give you +the receipt. And I guarantee that in my system collection shall +be easy: no comptrollers, assessors, tasters, assayers, +inspectors, receivers; no watching, no office expenses; not the +smallest annoyance or the slightest indiscretion; no constraint +whatever. Let it be decreed by a law that no one in future shall +receive two salaries at the same time, and that the highest fees, +in any situation, shall not exceed twelve hundred dollars in +Paris and eight hundred in the departments. What! you lower your +eyes! Confess, then, that your sumptuary laws are but hypocrisy. + +To relieve the people some would apply commercial practices to +taxation. If, for instance, they say, the price of salt were +reduced one-half, if letter-postage were lightened in the same +proportion, consumption would not fail to increase, the revenue +would be more than doubled, the treasury would gain, and so would +the consumer. + +Let us suppose the event to confirm this anticipation. Then I +say: If letter-postage should be reduced three-fourths, and if +salt should be given away, would the treasury still gain? +Certainly not. What, then, is the significance of what is called +the postal reform? That for every kind of product there is a +natural rate, ABOVE which profit becomes usurious and tends to +decrease consumption, but BELOW which the producer suffers loss. +This singularly resembles the determination of value which the +economists reject, and in relation to which we said: There is a +secret force that fixes the extreme limits between which value +oscillates, of which there is a mean term that expresses true +value. + +Surely no one wishes the postal service to be carried on at a +loss; the opinion, therefore, is that this service should be +performed AT COST. This is so rudimentary in its simplicity +that one is astonished that it should have been necessary to +resort to a laborious investigation of the results of reducing +letter-postage in England; to pile up frightful figures and +probabilities beyond the limit of vision, to put the mind to +torture, all to find out whether a reduction in France would lead +to a surplus or a deficit, and finally to be unable to agree upon +anything! What! there was not a man to be found in the Chamber +with sense enough to say: There is no need of an ambassador's +report or examples from England; letter-postage should be +gradually reduced until receipts reach the level of +expenditures.[25] What, then, has become of our old Gallic wit? + + +[25] Thank heaven! the minister has settled the question, and I +tender him my very sincere compliments. By the proposed tariff +letter-postage will be reduced to 2 cents for distances under 12 +1/2 miles; 4 cents, for distances between 12 1/2 and 25 miles; 6 +cents, between 25 and 75 miles; 8 cents, between 75 and 225 +miles; 10 cents, for longer distances. + + + +But, it will be said, if the tax should furnish salt, tobacco, +letter-carriage, sugar, wines, meat, etc., at cost, consumption +would undoubtedly increase, and the improvement would be +enormous; but then how would the State meet its expenses? The +amount of indirect taxes is nearly one hundred and twenty million +dollars; upon what would you have the State levy this sum? If +the treasury makes nothing out of the postal service, it will +have to increase the tax on salt; if the tax on salt be lifted +also, it will have to throw the burden back upon drinks; there +would be no end to this litany. Therefore the supply of products +at cost, whether by the State or by private industry, is +impossible. + +Therefore, I will reply in turn, relief of the unfortunate +classes by the State is impossible, as sumptuary laws are +impossible, as the progressive tax is impossible; and all your +irrelevancies regarding the tax are lawyer's quibbles. You +have not even the hope that the increase of population, by +dividing the assessments, may lighten the burden of each; because +with population misery increases, and with misery the work and +the personnel of the State are augmented. + +The various fiscal laws voted by the Chamber of Deputies during +the session of 1845-46 are so many examples of the absolute +incapacity of power, whatever it may be and however it may go to +work, to procure the comfort of the people. From the very fact +that it is power,--that is, the representative of divine right +and of property, the organ of force,--it is necessarily sterile, +and all its acts are stamped in the corner with a fatal +deception. + +I referred just now to the reform in the postage rates, which +reduces the price of letter-carriage about one-third. Surely, if +motives only are in question, I have no reason to reproach the +government which has effected this useful reduction; much less +still will I seek to diminish its merit by miserable criticisms +upon matters of detail, the vile pasturage of the daily press. A +tax, considerably burdensome, is reduced thirty per cent.; its +distribution is made more equitable and more regular; I see only +the fact, and I applaud the minister who has accomplished it. +But that is not the question. + +In the first place, the advantage which the government gives us +by changing the tax on letters leaves the proportional--that is, +the unjust--character of this tax intact: that scarcely requires +demonstration. The inequality of burdens, so far as the postal +tax is concerned, stands as before, the advantage of the +reduction going principally, not to the poorest, but to the +richest. A certain business house which paid six hundred dollars +for letter-postage will pay hereafter only four hundred; it will +add, then, a net profit of two hundred dollars to the ten +thousand which its business brings it, and it will owe this to +the munificence of the treasury. On the other hand, the peasant, +the laborer, who shall write twice a year to his son in the army, +and shall receive a like number of replies, will have saved ten +cents. Is it not true that the postal reform acts in direct +opposition to the equitable distribution of the tax? that if, +according to M. Chevalier's wish, the government had desired to +strike the rich and spare the poor, the tax on letters was the +last that it would have needed to reduce? Does it not seem that +the treasury, false to the spirit of its institution, has only +been awaiting the pretext of a reduction inappreciable by poverty +in order to seize the opportunity to make a present to wealth? + +That is what the critics of the bill should have said, and that +is what none of them saw. It is true that then the criticism, +instead of applying to the minister, struck power in its essence, +and with power property, which was not the design of the +opponents. Truth today has all opinions against it. + +And now could it have been otherwise? No, since, if they kept +the old tax, they injured all without relieving any; and, if they +reduced it, they could not make different rates for classes of +citizens without violating the first article of the Charter, +which says: "All Frenchmen are equal before the law,"--that is, +before the tax. Now, the tax on letters is necessarily personal; +therefore it is a capitation-tax; therefore, that which is equity +in this respect being iniquity from another standpoint, an +equilibrium of burdens is impossible. + +At the same time another reform was effected by the care of the +government,--that of the tax on cattle. Formerly the duties on +cattle, whether on importation from foreign countries, or from +the country into the cities, were collected at so much a +head; henceforth they will be collected according to weight. +This useful reform, which has been clamored for so long, is due +in part to the influence of the economists, who, on this occasion +as on many others which I cannot recall, have shown the most +honorable zeal, and have left the idle declamations of socialism +very far in the rear. But here again the good resulting from the +law for the amelioration of the condition of the poor is wholly +illusory. They have equalized, regulated, the collection from +beasts; they have not distributed it equitably among men. The +rich man, who consumes twelve hundred pounds of meat a year, will +feel the effects of the new condition laid upon the butchers; the +immense majority of the people, who never eat meat, will not +notice it. And I renew my question of a moment ago: Could the +government, the Chamber, do otherwise than as it has done? No, +once more; for you cannot say to the butcher: You shall sell +your meat to the rich man for twenty cents a pound and to the +poor man for five cents. It would be rather the contrary that +you would obtain from the butcher. + +So with salt. The government has reduced four-fifths the tax on +salt used in agriculture, on condition of its undergoing a +transformation. A certain journalist, having no better objection +to raise, has made thereupon a complaint in which he grieves over +the lot of those poor peasants who are more maltreated by the law +than their cattle. For the third time I ask: Could it be +otherwise? Of two things one: either the reduction will be +absolute, and then the tax on salt must be replaced by a tax on +something else; now I defy entire French journalism to invent a +tax which will bear two minutes' examination; or else the +reduction will be partial, whether by maintaining a portion of +the duties on salt in all its uses, or by abolishing +entirely the duties on salt used in certain ways. In the first +case, the reduction is insufficient for agriculture and the poor; +in the second, the capitation-tax still exists, in its enormous +disproportion. Whatever may be done, it is the poor man, always +the poor man, who is struck, since, in spite of all theories, the +tax can never be laid except in the ratio of the capital +possessed or consumed, and since, if the treasury should try to +proceed otherwise, it would arrest progress, prohibit wealth, and +kill capital. + +The democrats, who reproach us with sacrificing the revolutionary +interest (what is the revolutionary interest?) to the socialistic +interest, ought really to tell us how, without making the State +the sole proprietor and without decreeing the community of goods +and gains, they mean, by any system of taxation whatever, to +relieve the people and restore to labor what capital takes from +it. In vain do I rack my brains; on all questions I see power +placed in the falsest situation, and the opinion of journals +straying into limitless absurdity. + +In 1842 M. Arago was in favor of the administration of railways +by corporations, and the majority in France thought with him. In +1846 he has announced a change in his opinion; and, apart from +the speculators in railways, it may be said again that the +majority of citizens have changed as M. Arago has. What is to be +believed and what is to be done amid this see-sawing of the +savants and of France? + +State administration, it would seem, ought to better assure the +interests of the country; but it is slow, expensive, and +unintelligent. Twenty-five years of mistakes, miscalculations, +improvidence, hundreds of millions thrown away, in the great work +of canalizing the country, have proved it to the most +incredulous. We have even seen engineers, members of the +administration, loudly proclaiming the incapacity of the +State in the matter of public works as well as of industry. + +Administration by corporations is irreproachable, it is true, +from the standpoint of the interest of the stockholders; but with +these the general interest is sacrificed, the door opened to +speculation, and the exploitation of the public by monopoly +organized. + +The ideal system would be one uniting the advantages of both +methods without presenting any of their shortcomings. Now, the +means of realizing these contradictory characteristics? the means +of breathing zeal, economy, penetration into these irremovable +officers who have nothing to gain or to lose? the means of +rendering the interests of the public as dear to a corporation as +its own, of making these interests veritably its own, and still +keeping it distinct from the State and having consequently its +private interests? Who is there, in the official world, that +conceives the necessity and therefore the possibility of such a +reconciliation? much more, then, who possesses its secret? + +In such an emergency the government, as usual, has chosen the +course of eclecticism; it has taken a part of the administration +for itself and left the rest to the corporations; that is, +instead of reconciling the contraries, it has placed them exactly +in conflict. And the press, which in all things is precisely on +a par with power in the matter of wit,--the press, dividing +itself into three fractions, has decided, one for the ministerial +compromise, another for the exclusion of the State, and the third +for the exclusion of the corporations. So that today no more +than before do the public or M. Arago, in spite of their +somersault, know what they want. + +What a herd is the French nation in this nineteenth century, with +its three powers, its press, its scientific bodies, its +literature, its instruction! A hundred thousand men, in our +country, have their eyes constantly open upon everything that +interests national progress and the country's honor. Now, +propound to these hundred thousand men the simplest question of +public order, and you may be assured that all will rush pell-mell +into the same absurdity. + +Is it better that the promotion of officials should be governed +by merit or by length of service? + +Certainly there is no one who would not like to see this double +method of estimating capacities blended into one. What a society +it would be in which the rights of talent would be always in +harmony with those of age! But, they say, such perfection is +utopian, for it is contradictory in its statement. And instead +of seeing that it is precisely the contradiction which makes the +thing possible, they begin to dispute over the respective value +of the two opposed systems, which, each leading to the absurd, +equally give rise to intolerable abuses. + +Who shall be the judge of merit? asks one: the government. Now, +the government recognizes merit only in its creatures. Therefore +no promotion by choice, none of that immoral system which +destroys the independence and the dignity of the office-holder. + +But, says another, length of service is undoubtedly very +respectable. It is a pity that it has the disadvantage of +rendering stagnant things which are essentially voluntary and +free,--labor and thought; of creating obstacles to power even +among its agents, and of bestowing upon chance, often upon +incapacity, the reward of genius and audacity. + +Finally they compromise: to the government is accorded the power +of appointing arbitrarily to a certain number of offices +pretended men of merit, who are supposed to have no need of +experience, while the rest, apparently deemed incapable, are +promoted in turn. And the press, that ambling old nag of all +presumptuous mediocrities, which generally lives only by the +gratuitous compositions of young people as destitute of talent as +of acquired knowledge, hastens to begin again its attacks upon +power, accusing it,--not without reason too,--here of favoritism, +there of routine. + +Who could hope ever to do anything to the satisfaction of the +press? After having declaimed and gesticulated against the +enormous size of the budget, here it is clamoring for increased +salaries for an army of officials, who, to tell the truth, really +have not the wherewithal to live. Now it is the teachers, of +high and low grade, who make their complaints heard through its +columns; now it is the country clergy, so insufficiently paid +that they have been forced to maintain their fees, a fertile +source of scandal and abuse. Then it is the whole administrative +nation, which is neither lodged, nor clothed, nor warmed, nor +fed: it is a million men with their families, nearly an eighth of +the population, whose poverty brings shame upon France and for +whom one hundred million dollars should at once be added to the +budget. Note that in this immense personnel there is not one man +too many; on the contrary, if the population grows, it will +increase proportionally. Are you in a position to tax the nation +to the extent of four hundred million dollars? Can you take, out +of an average income of $184 for four persons, $47.25--more than +one-fourth--to pay, together with the other expenses of the +State, the salaries of the non-productive laborers? And if you +cannot, if you can neither pay your expenses nor reduce them, +what do you want? of what do you complain? + +Let the people know it, then, once for all: all the hopes of +reduction and equity in taxation, with which they are lulled by +turns by the harangues of power and the diatribes of party +leaders, are so many mystifications; the tax cannot be reduced, +nor can its assessment be more equitable, under the monopoly +system. On the contrary, the lower the condition of the +citizen becomes, the heavier becomes his tax; that is inevitable, +irresistible, in spite of the avowed design of the legislator and +the repeated efforts of the treasury. Whoever cannot become or +remain rich, whoever has entered the cavern of misfortune, must +make up his mind to pay in proportion to his poverty: Lasciate +ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate. + +Taxation, then, police,--henceforth we shall not separate these +two ideas,--is a new source of pauperism; taxation aggravates the +subversive effects of the preceding antinomies,--division of +labor, machinery, competition, monopoly. It attacks the laborer +in his liberty and in his conscience, in his body and in his +soul, by parasitism, vexations, the frauds which it prompts, and +the punishments which follow them. + +Under Louis XIV. the smuggling of salt alone caused annually +thirty- seven hundred domiciliary seizures, two thousand arrests +of men, eighteen hundred of women, sixty-six hundred of children, +eleven hundred seizures of horses, fifty confiscations of +carriages, and three hundred condemnations to the galleys. And +this, observes the historian, was the result of one tax +alone,--the salt-tax. What, then, was the total number of +unfortunates imprisoned, tortured, expropriated, on account of +the tax? + +In England, out of every four families, one is unproductive, and +that is the family which enjoys an abundance. What an advantage +it would be for the working-class, you think, if this leprosy of +parasitism should be removed! Undoubtedly, in theory, you are +right; in practice, the suppression of parasitism would be a +calamity. Though one-fourth of the population of England is +unproductive, another fourth of the same population is at work +for it: now, what would these laborers do, if they should +suddenly lose the market for their products? An absurd +supposition, you say. Yes, an absurd supposition, but a very +real supposition, and one which you must admit precisely because +it is absurd. In France a standing army of five hundred thousand +men, forty thousand priests, twenty thousand doctors, eighty +thousand lawyers, and I know not how many hundred thousand other +nonproducers of every sort, constitute an immense market for our +agriculture and our manufactures. Let this market suddenly +close, and manufactures will stop, commerce will go into +bankruptcy, and agriculture will be smothered beneath its +products. + +But how is it conceivable that a nation should find its market +clogged because of having got rid of its useless mouths? Ask +rather why an engine, whose consumption has been figured at six +hundred pounds of coal an hour, loses its power if it is given +only three hundred. But again, might not these non-producers be +made producers, since we cannot get rid of them? Eh! child: tell +me, then, how you will do without police, and monopoly, and +competition, and all the contradictions, in short, of which your +order of things is made up. Listen. + +In 1844, at the time of the troubles in Rive-de-Gier, M. Anselme +Petetin published in the "Revue Independante" two articles, full +of reason and sincerity, concerning the anarchy prevailing in the +conduct of the coal mines in the basin of the Loire. M. Petetin +pointed out the necessity of uniting the mines and centralizing +their administration. The facts which he laid before the public +were not unknown to power; has power troubled itself about +the union of the mines and the organization of that industry? +Not at all. Power has followed the principle of free +competition; it has let alone and looked on. + +Since that time the mining companies have combined, not without +causing some anxiety to consumers, who have seen in this +combination a plot to raise the price of fuel. Will power, which +has received numerous complaints upon this subject, intervene to +restore competition and prevent monopoly? It cannot do it; the +right of combination is identical in law with the right of +association; monopoly is the basis of our society, as competition +is its conquest; and, provided there is no riot, power will let +alone and look on. What other course could it pursue? Can it +prohibit a legally established commercial association? Can it +oblige neighbors to destroy each other? Can it forbid them to +reduce their expenses? Can it establish a maximum? If power +should do any one of these things, it would overturn the +established order. Power, therefore, can take no initiative: it +is instituted to defend and protect monopoly and competition at +once, within the limitations of patents, licenses, land taxes, +and other bonds which it has placed upon property. Apart from +these limitations power has no sort of right to act in the name +of society. The social right is not defined; moreover, it would +be a denial of monopoly and competition. How, then, could power +take up the defence of that which the law did not foresee or +define, of that which is the opposite of the rights recognized by +the legislator? + +Consequently, when the miner, whom we must consider in the events +of Rive-de-Gier as the real representative of society against the +mine- owners, saw fit to resist the scheme of the monopolists by +defending his wages and opposing combination to combination, +power shot the miner down. And the political brawlers accused +authority, saying it was partial, ferocious, sold to monopoly, +etc. For my part, I declare that this way of viewing the acts of +authority seems to me scarcely philosophical, and I reject it +with all my energies. It is possible that they might have killed +fewer people, possible also that they might have killed more: the +fact to be noticed here is not the number of dead and wounded, +but the repression of the workers. Those who have criticised +authority would have done as it did, barring perhaps the +impatience of its bayonets and the accuracy of its aim: they +would have repressed, I say; they would not have been able to do +anything else. And the reason, which it would be vain to try to +brush aside, is that competition is legal, joint-stock +association is legal, supply and demand are legal, and all the +consequences which flow directly from competition, joint-stock +association, and free commerce are legal, whereas workingmen's +strikes are ILLEGAL. And it is not only the penal code which +says this, but the economic system, the necessity of the +established order. As long as labor is not sovereign, it must be +a slave; society is possible only on this condition. That each +worker individually should have the free disposition of his +person and his arms may be tolerated;[26] but that the workers +should undertake, by combinations, to do violence to monopoly +society cannot permit. Crush monopoly, and you abolish +competition, and you disorganize the workshop, and you sow +dissolution everywhere. Authority, in shooting down the miners, +found itself in the position of Brutus placed between his +paternal love and his consular duties: he had to sacrifice either +his children or the republic. The alternative was horrible, I +admit; but such is the spirit and letter of the social compact, +such is the tenor of the charter, such is the order of +Providence. + + +[26] The new law regarding service-books has confined the +independence of workers within narrower limits. The democratic +press has again thundered its indignation this subject against +those in power, as if they had been guilty of anything more than +the application of the principles of authority and property, +which are those of democracy. What the Chambers have done in +regard to service-books was inevitable, and should have been +expected. It is as impossible for a society founded on the +proprietary principle not to end in class distinctions as for a +democracy to avoid despotism, for a religion to be reasonable, +for fanaticism to show tolerance. This is the law of +contradiction: how long will it take us to understand it? + + + +Thus the police function, instituted for the defence of the +proletariat, is directed entirely against the proletariat. The +proletaire is driven from the forests, from the rivers, from the +mountains; even the cross- roads are forbidden him; soon he will +know no road save that which leads to prison. + +The advance in agriculture has made the advantage of artificial +meadows and the necessity of abolishing common land generally +felt. Everywhere communal lands are being cleared, let, +enclosed; new advances, new wealth. But the poor day-laborer, +whose only patrimony is the communal land and who supports a cow +and several sheep in summer by letting them feed along the roads, +through the underbrush, and over the stripped fields, will lose +his sole and last resource. The landed proprietor, the purchaser +or farmer of the communal lands, will alone thereafter sell, with +his wheat and vegetables, milk and cheese. Instead of weakening +an old monopoly, they create a new one. Even the road- laborers +reserve for themselves the edges of the roads as a meadow +belonging to them, and drive off all non-administrative cattle. +What follows? That the day-laborer, before abandoning his cow, +lets it feed in contravention of the law, becomes a marauder, +commits a thousand depredations, and is punished by fine and +imprisonment: of what use to him are police and agricultural +progress? Last year the mayor of Mulhouse, to prevent +grape-stealing, forbade every individual not an owner of vines to +travel by day or night over roads running by or through +vineyards,--a charitable precaution, since it prevented even +desires and regrets. But if the public highway is nothing but an +accessory of private property; if the communal lands are +converted into private property; if the public domain, in short, +assimilated to private property, is guarded, exploited, leased, +and sold like private property,--what remains for the proletaire? +Of what advantage is it to him that society has left the state of +war to enter the regime of police? + +Industry, as well as land, has its privileges,--privileges +consecrated by the law, as always, under conditions and +reservations, but, as always also, to the great disadvantage of +the consumer. The question is interesting; we will say a few +words upon it. + +I quote M. Renouard. + + +"Privileges," says M. Renouard, "were a corrective of +regulation." + + +I ask M. Renouard's permission to translate his thought by +reversing his phrase: Regulation was a corrective of privilege. +For whoever says regulation says limitation: now, how conceive of +limiting privilege before it existed? I can conceive a sovereign +submitting privileges to regulations; but I cannot at all +understand why he should create privileges expressly to weaken +the effect of regulations. There is nothing to prompt such a +concession; it would be an effect without a cause. In logic as +well as in history, everything is appropriated and monopolized +when laws and regulations arrive: in this respect civil +legislation is like penal legislation. The first results +from possession and appropriation, the second from the appearance +of crimes and offences. M. Renouard, preoccupied with the idea +of servitude inherent in all regulation, has considered privilege +as a compensation for this servitude; and it was this which led +him to say that PRIVILEGES ARE A CORRECTIVE OF REGULATION. But +what M. Renouard adds proves that he meant the opposite: + + +The fundamental principle of our legislation, that of granting +temporary monopoly as a condition of a contract between society +and the laborer, has always prevailed, etc. + + +What is, in reality, this grant of a monopoly? A simple +acknowledgment, a declaration. Society, wishing to favor a new +industry and enjoy the advantages which it promises, BARGAINS +with the inventor, as it has bargained with the farmer; it +guarantees him the monopoly of his industry for a time; but it +does not create the monopoly. The monopoly exists by the very +fact of the invention; and the acknowledgment of the monopoly is +what constitutes society. + +This ambiguity cleared up, I pass to the contradictions of the +law. + + +All industrial nations have adopted the establishment of a +temporary monopoly as a condition of a contract between society +and the inventor. . . . . I do not take readily to the belief +that all legislators of all countries have committed robbery. + + +M. Renouard, if ever he reads this work, will do me the justice +to admit that, in quoting him, I do not criticise his thought; he +himself has perceived the contradictions of the patent law. All +that I pretend is to connect this contradiction with the general +system. + +Why, in the first place, a TEMPORARY monopoly in manufacture, +while land monopoly is PERPETUAL? The Egyptians were more +logical; with them these two monopolies were alike hereditary, +perpetual, inviolable. I know the considerations which have +prevailed against the perpetuity of literary property, and I +admit them all; but these considerations apply equally well to +property in land; moreover, they leave intact all the arguments +brought forward against them. What, then, is the secret of all +these variations of the legislator? For the rest, I do not need +to say that, in pointing out this inconsistency, it is not my +purpose either to slander or to satirize; I admit that the course +of the legislator is determined, not by his will, but by +necessity. + +But the most flagrant contradiction is that which results from +the enacting section of the law. Title IV, article 30, % 3, +reads: "If the patent relates to principles, methods, systems, +discoveries, theoretical or purely scientific conceptions, +without indicating their industrial applications, the patent is +void." + +Now, what is a PRINCIPLE, a METHOD, a THEORETICAL CONCEPTION, +a SYSTEM? It is the especial fruit of genius, it is invention +in its purity, it is the idea, it is everything. The application +is the gross fact, nothing. Thus the law excludes from the +benefit of the patent the very thing which deserves it,--namely, +the idea; on the contrary, it grants a patent to the +application,--that is, to the material fact, to a pattern of the +idea, as Plato would have said. Therefore it is wrongly called a +PATENT FOR INVENTION; it should be called a PATENT FOR FIRST +OCCUPANCY. + +In our day, if a man had invented arithmetic, algebra, or the +decimal system, he would have obtained no patent; but Bareme +would have had a right of property in his Computations. Pascal, +for his theory of the weight of the atmosphere, would not have +been patented; instead of him, a glazier would have obtained the +privilege of the barometer. I quote M. Arago: + + +After two thousand years it occurred to one of our +fellow-countrymen that the screw of Archimedes, which is used to +raise water, might be employed in forcing down gases; it +suffices, without making any change, to turn it from right to +left, instead of turning it, as when raising water, from left to +right. Large volumes of gas, charged with foreign substances, +are thus forced into water to a great depth; the gas is purified +in rising again. I maintain that there was an invention; that +the person who saw a way to make the screw of Archimedes a +blowing machine was entitled to a patent. + + +What is more extraordinary is that Archimedes himself would thus +be obliged to buy the right to use his screw; and M. Arago +considers that just. + +It is useless to multiply these examples: what the law meant to +monopolize is, as I said just now, not the idea, but the fact; +not the invention, but the occupancy. As if the idea were not +the category which includes all the facts that express it; as if +a method, a system, were not a generalization of experiences, and +consequently that which properly constitutes the fruit of +genius,--invention! Here legislation is more than anti-economic, +it borders on the silly. Therefore I am entitled to ask the +legislator why, in spite of free competition, which is nothing +but the right to apply a theory, a principle, a method, a +non-appropriable system, he forbids in certain cases this same +competition, this right to apply a principle?" It is no longer +possible," says M. Renouard, with strong reason, "to stifle +competitors by combining in corporations and guilds; the loss is +supplied by patents." Why has the legislator given hands to this +conspiracy of monopolies, to this interdict upon theories +belonging to all? + +But what is the use of continually questioning one who can say +nothing? The legislator did not know in what spirit he was +acting when he made this strange application of the right of +property, which, to be exact, we ought to call the right of +priority. Let him explain himself, then, at least, regarding the +clauses of the contract made by him, in our name, with the +monopolists. + +I pass in silence the part relating to dates and other +administrative and fiscal formalities, and come to this article: + + +The patent does not guarantee the invention. + + +Doubtless society, or the prince who represents it, cannot and +should not guarantee the invention, since, in granting a monopoly +for fourteen years, society becomes the purchaser of the +privilege, and consequently it is for the patentee to furnish the +guarantee. How, then, can legislators proudly say to their +constituents: "We have negotiated in your name with an inventor; +he pledges himself to give you the enjoyment of his discovery on +condition of having the exclusive exploitation for fourteen +years. But we do not guarantee the invention"? On what, then, +have you relied, legislators? How did you fail to see that, +without a guarantee of the invention, you conceded a privilege, +not for a real discovery, but for a possible discovery, and that +thus the field of industry was given up by you before the plough +was found? Certainly, your duty bade you to be prudent; but who +gave you a commission to be dupes? + +Thus the patent for invention is not even the fixing of a date; +it is an abandonment in anticipation. It is as if the law should +say: "I assure the land to the first occupant, but without +guaranteeing its quality, its location, or even its existence; +not even knowing whether I ought to give it up or that it falls +within the domain of appropriation!" A pretty use of the +legislative power! + +I know that the law had excellent reasons for abstaining; but I +maintain that it also had good reasons for intervening. Proof: + + +"It cannot be concealed," says M. Renouard, "it cannot be +prevented; patents are and will be instruments of quackery as +well as a legitimate reward of labor and genius. . . . It is for +the good sense of the public to do justice to juggleries." + + +As well say it is for the good sense of the public to distinguish +true remedies from false, pure wine from adulterated; or, it is +for the good sense of the public to distinguish in a buttonhole +the decoration awarded to merit from that prostituted to +mediocrity and intrigue. Why, then, do you call yourselves the +State, Power, Authority, Police, if the work of Police must be +performed by the good sense of the public? + + +As the proverb says, he who owns land must defend it; likewise, +he who holds a privilege is liable to attack. + + +Well! how will you judge the counterfeit, if you have no +guarantee? In vain will they offer you the plea: in right first +occupancy, in fact similarity. Where reality depends upon +quality, not to demand a guarantee is to grant no right over +anything, is to take away the means of comparing processes and +identifying the counterfeit. In the matter of industrial +processes success depends upon such trifles! Now, these trifles +are the whole. + +I infer from all this that the law regarding patents for +inventions, indispensable so far as its motives are concerned, is +impossible--that is, illogical, arbitrary, disastrous--in its +economy. Under the control of certain necessities the legislator +has thought best, in the general interest, to grant a privilege +for a definite thing; and he finds that he has given a +signature-in-blank to monopoly, that he has abandoned the chances +which the public had of making the discovery or some other +similar to it, that he has sacrificed the rights of competitors +without compensation, and abandoned the good faith of defenceless +consumers to the greed of quacks. Then, in order that nothing +might be lacking to the absurdity of the contract, he has said to +those whom he ought to guarantee: "Guarantee yourselves!" + +I do not believe, any more than M. Renouard, that the legislators +of all ages and all countries have wilfully committed robbery in +sanctioning the various monopolies which are pivotal in public +economy. But M. Renouard might well also agree with me that the +legislators of all ages and all countries have never understood +at all their own decrees. A deaf and blind man once learned to +ring the village bells and wind the village clock. It was +fortunate for him, in performing his bell- ringer's functions, +that neither the noise of the bells nor the height of the +bell-tower made him dizzy. The legislators of all ages and all +countries, for whom I profess, with M. Renouard, the profoundest +respect, resemble that blind and deaf man; they are the +Jacks-in-the- clock-house of all human follies. + +What a feather it would be in my cap if I should succeed in +making these automata reflect! if I could make them understand +that their work is a Penelope's web, which they are condemned to +unravel at one end as fast as they weave at the other! + +Thus, while applauding the creation of patents, on other points +they demand the abolition of privileges, and always with the same +pride, the same satisfaction. M. Horace Say wishes trade in meat +to be free. Among other reasons he puts forward this strictly +mathematical argument: + + +The butcher who wants to retire from business seeks a purchaser +for his investment; he figures in the account his tools, his +merchandise, his reputation, and his custom; but under the +present system, he adds to these the value of the bare +title,--that is, the right to share in a monopoly. Now, this +supplementary capital which the purchasing butcher gives for the +title bears interest; it is not a new creation; this interest +must enter into the price of his meat. Hence the limitation of +the number of butchers' stalls has a tendency to raise the price +of meat rather than lower it. + +I do not fear to affirm incidentally that what I have just said +about the sale of a butcher's stall applies to every charge +whatever having a salable title. + + +M. Horace Say's reasons for the abolition of the butcher's +privilege are unanswerable; moreover, they apply to printers, +notaries, attorneys, process-servers, clerks of courts, +auctioneers, brokers, dealers in stocks, druggists, and others, +as well as to butchers. But they do not destroy the reasons +which have led to the adoption of these monopolies, and which are +generally deduced from the need of security, authenticity, and +regularity in business, as well as from the interests of commerce +and the public health. The object, you say, is not attained. My +God! I know it: leave the butcher's trade to competition, and you +will eat carrion; establish a monopoly in the butcher's trade, +and you will eat carrion. That is the only fruit you can hope +for from your monopoly and patent legislation. + +Abuses! cry the protective economists. Establish over commerce a +supervisory police, make trade-marks obligatory, punish the +adulteration of products, etc. + +In the path upon which civilization has entered, whichever way we +turn, we always end, then, either in the despotism of monopoly, +and consequently the oppression of consumers, or else in the +annihilation of privilege by the action of the police, which is +to go backwards in economy and dissolve society by destroying +liberty. Marvellous thing! in this system of free industry, +abuses, like lice, being generated by their own remedies, if the +legislator should try to suppress all offences, be on the watch +against all frauds, and secure persons, property, and the public +welfare against any attack, going from reform to reform, he would +finally so multiply the non-productive functions that the entire +nation would be engaged in them, and that at last there would be +nobody left to produce. Everybody would be a policeman; the +industrial class would become a myth. Then, perhaps, order would +reign in monopoly. + + +"The principle of the law yet to be made concerning trade-marks," +says M. Renouard, "is that these marks cannot and should not be +transformed into guarantees of quality." + + +This is a consequence of the patent law, which, as we have seen, +does not guarantee the invention. Adopt M. Renouard's principle; +after that of what use will marks be? Of what importance is it +to me to read on the cork of a bottle, instead of TWELVE-CENT +WINE or FIFTEEN-CENT WINE, WINE-DRINKERS' COMPANY or the name of +any other concern you will? What I care for is not the name of +the merchant, but the quality and fair price of the merchandise. + +The name of the manufacturer is supposed, it is true, to serve as +a concise sign of good or bad manufacture, of superior or +inferior quality. Then why not frankly take part with those who +ask, besides the mark of ORIGIN, a mark significant of +something? Such a reservation is incomprehensible. The two +sorts of marks have the same purpose; the second is only a +statement or paraphrase of the first, a condensation of the +merchant's prospectus; why, once more, if the origin signifies +something, should not the mark define this significance? + +M. Wolowski has very clearly developed this argument in his +opening lecture of 1843-44, the substance of which lies entirely +in the following analogy: + + +Just as the government has succeeded in determining a standard of +QUANTITY, it may, it should also fix a standard of QUALITY; one +of these standards is the necessary complement of the other. The +monetary unit, the system of weights and measures, have not +infringed upon industrial liberty; no more would it be damaged by +a system of trade-marks. + + +M. Wolowski then supports himself on the authority of the princes +of the science, A. Smith and J. B. Say,--a precaution always +useful with hearers who bow to authority much more than to +reason. + +I declare, for my part, that I thoroughly share M. Wolowski's +idea, and for the reason that I find it profoundly revolutionary. +The trade-mark, being, according to M. Wolowski's expression, +nothing but a standard of qualities, is equivalent in my eyes to +a general scheduling of prices. For, whether a particular +administration marks in the name of the State and guarantees the +quality of the merchandise, as is the case with gold and silver, +or whether the matter of marking is left to the manufacturer, +from the moment that the mark must give THE INTRINSIC COMPOSITION +OF THE MERCHANDISE (these are M. Wolowski's own words) AND +GUARANTEE THE CONSUMER AGAINST ALL SURPRISE, it necessarily +resolves itself into a fixed price. It is not the same thing as +price; two similar products, but differing in origin and quality, +may be of equal value, as a bottle of Burgundy may be worth a +bottle of Bordeaux; but the mark, being significant, leads to an +exact knowledge of the price, since it gives the analysis. To +calculate the price of an article of merchandise is to decompose +it into its constituent parts; now, that is exactly what the +trade-mark must do, if designed to signify anything. Therefore +we are on the road, as I have said, to a general scheduling of +prices. + +But a general scheduling of prices is nothing but a determination +of all values, and here again political economy comes into +conflict with its own principles and tendencies. Unfortunately, +to realize M. Wolowski's reform, it is necessary to begin by +solving all the previous contradictions and enter a higher sphere +of association; and it is this absence of solution which has +brought down upon M. Wolowski's system the condemnation of most +of his fellow-economists. + +In fact, the system of trade-marks is inapplicable in the +existing order, because this system, contrary to the interests of +the manufacturers and repugnant to their habits, could be +sustained only by the energetic will of power. Suppose for a +moment that the administration be charged with affixing the +marks; its agents will have to interpose continually in the work +of manufacture, as it interposes in the liquor business and the +manufacture of beer; further, these agents, whose functions seem +already so intrusive and annoying, deal only with taxable +quantities, not with exchangeable qualities. These fiscal +supervisors and inspectors will have to carry their investigation +into all details in order to repress and prevent fraud; and what +fraud? The legislator will have defined it either incorrectly or +not at all; it is at this point that the task becomes appalling. + +There is no fraud in selling wine of the poorest quality, but +there is fraud in passing off one quality for another; then you +are obliged to differentiate the qualities of wines, and +consequently to guarantee them. Is it fraudulent to mix wines? +Chaptal, in his treatise on the art of making wine, advises this +as eminently useful; on the other hand, experience proves that +certain wines, in some way antagonistic to each other or +incompatible, produce by their mixture a disagreeable and +unhealthy drink. Then you are obliged to say what wines can be +usefully mixed, and what cannot. Is it fraudulent to aromatize, +alcoholize, and water wines? Chaptal recommends this also; +and everybody knows that this drugging produces sometimes +advantageous results, sometimes pernicious and detestable +effects. What substances will you proscribe? In what cases? In +what proportion? Will you prohibit chicory in coffee, glucose in +beer, water, cider, and three-six alcohol in wine? + +The Chamber of Deputies, in the rude attempt at a law which it +was pleased to make this year regarding the adulteration of +wines, stopped in the very middle of its work, overcome by the +inextricable difficulties of the question. It succeeded in +declaring that the introduction of water into wine, and of +alcohol above the proportion of eighteen per cent., was +fraudulent, and in putting this fraud into the category of +offences. It was on the ground of ideology; there one never +meets an obstacle. But everybody has seen in this redoubling of +severity the interest of the treasury much more than that of the +consumer; the Chamber did not dare to create a whole army of +wine-tasters, inspectors, etc., to watch for fraud and identify +it, and thus load the budget with a few extra millions; in +prohibiting watering and alcoholization, the only means left to +the merchant-manufacturers of putting wine within the reach of +all and realizing profits, it did not succeed in increasing the +market by a decrease in production. The chamber, in a word, in +prosecuting the adulteration of wines, has simply set back the +limits of fraud. To make its work accomplish its purpose it +would first have to show how the liquor trade is possible without +adulteration, and how the people can buy unadulterated +wine,--which is beyond the competency and escapes the capacity of +the Chamber. + +If you wish the consumer to be guaranteed, both as to value and +as to healthfulness, you are forced to know and to determine all +that constitutes good and honest production, to be continually at +the heels of the manufacturer, and to guide him at every step. +He no longer manufactures; you, the State, are the real +manufacturer. + +Thus you find yourself in a trap. Either you hamper the liberty +of commerce by interfering in production in a thousand ways, or +you declare yourself sole producer and sole merchant. + +In the first case, through annoying everybody, you will finally +cause everybody to rebel; and sooner or later, the State getting +itself expelled, trade-marks will be abolished. In the second +you substitute everywhere the action of power for individual +initiative, which is contrary to the principles of political +economy and the constitution of society. Do you take a middle +course? It is favor, nepotism, hypocrisy, the worst of systems. + +Suppose, now, that the marking be left to the manufacturer. I +say that then the marks, even if made obligatory, will gradually +lose their SIGNIFICANCE, and at last become only proofs of +ORIGIN. He knows but little of commerce who imagines that a +merchant, a head of a manufacturing enterprise, making use of +processes that are not patentable, will betray the secret of his +industry, of his profits, of his existence. The significance +will then be a delusion; it is not in the power of the police to +make it otherwise. The Roman emperors, to discover the +Christians who dissembled their religion, obliged everybody to +sacrifice to the idols. They made apostates and martyrs; and the +number of Christians only increased. Likewise significant marks, +useful to some houses, will engender innumerable frauds and +repressions; that is all that can be expected of them. To induce +the manufacturer to frankly indicate the intrinsic +composition--that is, the industrial and commercial +value--of his merchandise, it is necessary to free him from the +perils of competition and satisfy his monopolistic instincts: can +you do it? It is necessary, further, to interest the consumer in +the repression of fraud, which, so long as the producer is not +utterly disinterested, is at once impossible and contradictory. +Impossible: place on the one hand a depraved consumer, China; on +the other a desperate merchant, England; between them a venomous +drug causing excitement and intoxication; and, in spite of all +the police in the world, you will have trade in opium. +Contradictory: in society the consumer and the producer are but +one,--that is, both are interested in the production of that +which it is injurious to them to consume; and as, in the case of +each, consumption follows production and sale, all will combine +to guard the first interest, leaving it to each to guard himself +against the second. + +The thought which prompted trade-marks is of the same character +as that which formerly inspired the maximum laws. Here again is +one of the innumerable cross-roads of political economy. + +It is indisputable that maximum laws, though made and supported +by their authors entirely as a relief from famine, have +invariably resulted in an aggravation of famine. Accordingly it +is not injustice or malice with which the economists charge these +abhorred laws, but stupidity, inexpediency. But what a +contradiction in the theory with which they oppose them! + +To relieve famine it is necessary to call up provisions, or, to +put it better, to bring them to light; so far there is nothing to +reproach. To secure a supply of provisions it is necessary to +attract the holders by profits, excite their competition, +and assure them complete liberty in the market: does not this +process strike you as the absurdest homoeopathy? How is it that +the more easily I can be taxed the sooner I shall be provided? +Let alone, they say, let pass; let competition and monopoly act, +especially in times of famine, and even though famine is the +effect of competition and monopoly. What logic! but, above all, +what morality! + +But why, then, should there not be a tariff for farmers as well +as for bakers? Why not a registration of the sowing, of the +harvest, of the vintage, of the pasturage, and of the cattle, as +well as a stamp for newspapers, circulars, and orders, or an +administration for brewers and wine-merchants? Under the +monopoly system this would be, I admit, an increase of torments; +but with our tendencies to unfairness in trade and the +disposition of power to continually increase its personnel and +its budget, a law of inquisition regarding crops is becoming +daily more indispensable. + +Besides, it would be difficult to say which, free trade or the +maximum, causes the more evil in times of famine. + +But, whichever course you choose,--and you cannot avoid the +alternative,--the deception is sure and the disaster immense. +With the maximum goods seek concealment; the terror increasing +from the very effect of the law, the price of provisions rises +and rises; soon circulation stops, and the catastrophe follows, +as prompt and pitiless as a band of plunderers. With competition +the progress of the scourge is slower, but no less fatal: how +many deaths from exhaustion or hunger before the high prices +attract food to the market! how many victims of extortion after +it has arrived! It is the story of the king to whom God, in +punishment for his pride, offered the alternative of three days' +pestilence, three months' famine, or three years' war. David +chose the shortest; the economists prefer the longest. Man +is so miserable that he would rather end by consumption than by +apoplexy; it seems to him that he does not die as much. This is +the reason why the disadvantages of the maximum and the benefits +of free trade have been so much exaggerated. + +For the rest, if France during the last twenty-five years has +experienced no general famine, the cause is not in the liberty of +commerce, which knows very well, when it wishes, how to produce +scarcity in the midst of plenty and how to make famine prevail in +the bosom of abundance; it is in the improvement in the methods +of communication, which, shortening distances, soon restore the +equilibrium disturbed for a moment by local penury. A striking +example of that sad truth that in society the general welfare is +never the effect of a conspiracy of individual wills! + +The farther we delve into this system of illusory compromises +between monopoly and society,--that is, as we have explained in % +1 of this chapter, between capital and labor, between the +patriciate and the proletariat,--the more we discover that it is +all foreseen, regulated, and executed in accordance with this +infernal maxim, with which Hobbes and Machiavel, those theorists +of despotism, were unacquainted: EVERYTHING BY THE PEOPLE AND +AGAINST THE PEOPLE. While labor produces, capital, under the +mask of a false fecundity, enjoys and abuses; the legislator, in +offering his mediation, thought to recall the privileged class to +fraternal feelings and surround the laborer with guarantees; and +now he finds, by the fatal contradiction of interests, that each +of these guarantees is an instrument of torture. It would +require a hundred volumes, the life of ten men, and a heart of +iron, to relate from this standpoint the crimes of the State +towards the poor and the infinite variety of its tortures. A +summary glance at the principal classes of police will be +enough to enable us to estimate its spirit and economy. + +After having sown trouble in all minds by a confusion of civil, +commercial, and administrative laws, made the idea of justice +more obscure by multiplying contradictions, and rendered +necessary a whole class of interpreters for the explanation of +this system, it has been found necessary also to organize the +repression of crimes and provide for their punishment. Criminal +justice, that particularly rich order of the great family of +non-producers, whose maintenance costs France annually more than +six million dollars, has become to society a principle of +existence as necessary as bread is to the life of man; but with +this difference,--that man lives by the product of his hands, +while society devours its members and feeds on its own flesh. + +It is calculated by some economists that there is, + +In London . . 1 criminal to every 89 inhabitants. +In Liverpool . . 1 " " " 45 " +In Newcastle . . 1 " " " 27 " + + +But these figures lack accuracy, and, utterly frightful as they +seem, do not express the real degree of social perversion due to +the police. We have to determine here not only the number of +recognized criminals, but the number of offences. The work of +the criminal courts is only a special mechanism which serves to +place in relief the moral destruction of humanity under the +monopoly system; but this official exhibition is far from +including the whole extent of the evil. Here are other figures +which will lead us to a more certain approximation. + +The police courts of Paris disposed, + +In 1835 . . . . of 106,467 cases. +In 1836 . . . . " 128,489 " +In 1837 . . . . " 140,247 " + + +Supposing this rate of increase to have continued up to 1846, and +to this total of misdemeanors adding the cases of the criminal +courts, the simple matters that go no further than the police, +and all the offences unknown or left unpunished,--offences far +surpassing in number, so the magistrates say, those which justice +reaches,--we shall arrive at the conclusion that in one year, in +the city of Paris, there are more infractions of the law +committed than there are inhabitants. And as it is necessary to +deduct from the presumable authors of these infractions children +of seven years and under, who are outside the limits of guilt, +the figures will show that every adult citizen is guilty, three +or four times a year, of violating the established order. + +Thus the proprietary system is maintained at Paris only by the +annual consummation of one or two millions of offences! Now, +though all these offences should be the work of a single man, the +argument would still hold good: this man would be the scapegoat +loaded with the sins of Israel: of what consequence is the number +of the guilty, provided justice has its contingent? + +Violence, perjury, robbery, cheating, contempt of persons and +society, are so much a part of the essence of monopoly; they flow +from it so naturally, with such perfect regularity, and in +accordance with laws so certain,--that it is possible to submit +their perpetration to calculation, and, given the number of a +population, the condition of its industry, and the stage of its +enlightenment, to rigorously deduce therefrom the statistics of +its morality. The economists do not know yet what the principle +of value is; but they know, within a few decimals, the +proportionality of crime. So many thousand souls, so many +malefactors, so many condemnations: about that there can be no +mistake. It is one of the most beautiful applications of the +theory of chances, and the most advanced branch of economic +science. If socialism had invented this accusing theory, the +whole world would have cried calumny. + +Yet, after all, what is there in it that should surprise us? As +misery is a necessary result of the contradictions of society, a +result which it is possible to determine mathematically from the +rate of interest, the rate of wages, and the prevailing +market-prices, so crimes and misdemeanors are another effect of +this same antagonism, susceptible, like its cause, of estimation +by figures. The materialists have drawn the silliest inferences +from this subordination of liberty to the laws of numbers: as if +man were not under the influence of all that surrounds him, and +as if, since all that surrounds him is governed by inexorable +laws, he must not experience, in his freest manifestations, the +reaction of those laws! + +The same character of necessity which we have just pointed out in +the establishment and sustenance of criminal justice is found, +but under a more metaphysical aspect, in its morality. + +In the opinion of all moralists, the penalty should be such as to +secure the reformation of the offender, and consequently free +from everything that might cause his degradation. Far be it from +me to combat this blessed tendency of minds and disparage +attempts which would have been the glory of the greatest men of +antiquity. Philanthropy, in spite of the ridicule which +sometimes attaches to its name, will remain, in the eyes of +posterity, the most honorable characteristic of our time: the +abolition of the death penalty, which is merely postponed; the +abolition of the stigma; the studies regarding the effects of the +cellular system; the establishment of workshops in the prisons; +and a multitude of other reforms which I cannot even +name,--give evidence of real progress in our ideas and in our +morals. What the author of Christianity, in an impulse of +sublime love, related of his mystical kingdom, where the +repentant sinner was to be glorified above the just and the +innocent man,--that utopia of Christian charity has become the +aspiration of our sceptical society; and when one thinks of the +unanimity of feeling which prevails in respect to it, he asks +himself with surprise who then prevents this aspiration from +being realized. + +Alas! it is because reason is still stronger than love, and logic +more tenacious than crime; it is because here as everywhere in +our civilization there reigns an insoluble contradiction. Let us +not wander into fantastic worlds; let us embrace, in all its +frightful nudity, the real one. + + Le crime fait la honte, et non pas l'echafaud,[27] + +says the proverb. By the simple fact that man is punished, +provided he deserved to be, he is degraded: the penalty renders +him infamous, not by virtue of the definition of the code, but by +reason of the fault which caused the punishment. Of what +importance, then, is the materiality of the punishment? of what +importance all your penitentiary systems? What you do is to +satisfy your feelings, but is powerless to rehabilitate the +unfortunate whom your justice strikes. The guilty man, once +branded by chastisement, is incapable of reconciliation; his +stain is indelible, and his damnation eternal. If it were +possible for it to be otherwise, the penalty would cease to be +proportional to the offence; it would be no more than a fiction, +it would be nothing. He whom misery has led to larceny, if he +suffers himself to fall into the hands of justice, remains +forever the enemy of God and men; better for him that he had +never been born; it was Jesus Christ who said it: Bonum erat ei, +si natus non fuisset homo ille. And what Jesus Christ declared, +Christians and infidels do not dispute: the irreparability of +shame is, of all the revelations of the Gospel, the only one +which the proprietary world has understood. Thus, separated from +nature by monopoly, cut off from humanity by poverty, the mother +of crime and its punishment, what refuge remains for the plebeian +whom labor cannot support, and who is not strong enough to take? + + +[27] The crime makes the shame, and not the scaffold. +--Translator. + + + +To conduct this offensive and defensive war against the +proletariat a public force was indispensable: the executive power +grew out of the necessities of civil legislation, administration, +and justice. And there again the most beautiful hopes have +changed into bitter disappointments. + +As legislator, as burgomaster, and as judge, the prince has set +himself up as a representative of divine authority. A defender +of the poor, the widow, and the orphan, he has promised to cause +liberty and equality to prevail around the throne, to come to the +aid of labor, and to listen to the voice of the people. And the +people have thrown themselves lovingly into the arms of power; +and, when experience has made them feel that power was against +them, instead of blaming the institution, they have fallen to +accusing the prince, ever unwilling to understand that, the +prince being by nature and destination the chief of non-producers +and greatest of monopolists, it was impossible for him, in spite +of himself, to take up the cause of the people. + +All criticism, whether of the form or the acts of government, +ends in this essential contradiction. And when the self-styled +theorists of the sovereignty of the people pretend that the +remedy for the tyranny of power consists in causing it to emanate +from popular suffrage, they simply turn, like the squirrel, in +their cage. For, from the moment that the essential conditions +of power--that is, authority, property, hierarchy--are preserved, +the suffrage of the people is nothing but the consent of the +people to their oppression,--which is the silliest charlatanism. + +In the system of authority, whatever its origin, monarchical or +democratic, power is the noble organ of society; by it society +lives and moves; all initiative emanates from it; order and +perfection are wholly its work. According to the definitions of +economic science, on the contrary,--definitions which harmonize +with the reality of things,-- power is the series of +non-producers which social organization must tend to indefinitely +reduce. How, then, with the principle of authority so dear to +democrats, shall the aspiration of political economy, an +aspiration which is also that of the people, be realized? How +shall the government, which by the hypothesis is everything, +become an obedient servant, a subordinate organ? Why should the +prince have received power simply to weaken it, and why should he +labor, with a view to order, for his own elimination? Why should +he not try rather to fortify himself, to add to his courtiers, to +continually obtain new subsidies, and finally to free himself +from dependence on the people, the inevitable goal of all power +originating in the people? + +It is said that the people, naming its legislators and through +them making its will known to power, will always be in a position +to arrest its invasions; that thus the people will fill at once +the role of prince and that of sovereign. Such, in a word, is +the utopia of democrats, the eternal mystification with which +they abuse the proletariat. + +But will the people make laws against power; against the +principle of authority and hierarchy, which is the principle +upon which society is based; against liberty and property? +According to our hypothesis, this is more than impossible, it is +contradictory. Then property, monopoly, competition, industrial +privileges, the inequality of fortunes, the preponderance of +capital, hierarchical and crushing centralization, administrative +oppression, legal absolutism, will be preserved; and, as it is +impossible for a government not to act in the direction of its +principle, capital will remain as before the god of society, and +the people, still exploited, still degraded, will have gained by +their attempt at sovereignty only a demonstration of their +powerlessness. + +In vain do the partisans of power, all those dynastico-republican +doctrinaires who are alike in everything but tactics, flatter +themselves that, once in control of affairs, they will inaugurate +reform everywhere. Reform what? + +Reform the constitution? It is impossible. Though the entire +nation should enter the constitutional convention, it would not +leave it until it had either voted its servitude under another +form, or decreed its dissolution. + +Reconstruct the code, the work of the emperor, the pure substance +of Roman law and custom? It is impossible. What have you to put +in the place of your proprietary routine, outside of which you +see and understand nothing? in the place of your laws of +monopoly, the limits of whose circle your imagination is +powerless to overstep? More than half a century ago royalty and +democracy, those two sibyls which the ancient world has +bequeathed to us, undertook, by a constitutional compromise, to +harmonize their oracles; since the wisdom of the prince has +placed itself in unison with the voice of the people, what +revelation has resulted? what principle of order has been +discovered? what issue from the labyrinth of privilege pointed +out? Before prince and people had signed this strange +compromise, in what were their ideas not similar? and now that +each is trying to break the contract, in what do they differ? + +Diminish public burdens, assess taxes on a more equitable basis? +It is impossible: to the treasury as to the army the man of the +people will always furnish more than his contingent. + +Regulate monopoly, bridle competition? It is impossible; you +would kill production. + +Open new markets? It is impossible.[28] + +Organize credit? It is impossible.[29] + +Attack heredity? It is impossible.[30] + + +[28] See volume II., chapter IX. +[29] Ibid., chapter X. +[30] Ibid., chapter XI. + + + +Create national workshops, assure a minimum to unemployed +workmen, and assign to employees a share of the profits? It is +impossible. It is in the nature of government to be able to deal +with labor only to enchain laborers, as it deals with products +only to levy its tithe. + +Repair, by a system of indemnities, the disastrous effects of +machinery? It is impossible. + +Combat by regulations the degrading influence of parcellaire +division? It is impossible. + +Cause the people to enjoy the benefits of education? It is +impossible. + +Establish a tariff of prices and wages, and fix the value of +things by sovereign authority? It is impossible, it is +impossible. + +Of all the reforms which society in its distress solicits not one +is within the competence of power; not one can be realized +by it, because the essence of power is repugnant to them all, and +it is not given to man to unite what God has divided. + +At least, the partisans of governmental initiative will say, you +will admit that, in the accomplishment of the revolution promised +by the development of antinomies, power would be a potent +auxiliary. Why, then, do you oppose a reform which, putting +power in the hands of the people, would second your views so +well? Social reform is the object; political reform is the +instrument: why, if you wish the end, do you reject the means? + +Such is today the reasoning of the entire democratic press, which +I forgive with all my heart for having at last, by this +quasi-socialistic confession of faith, itself proclaimed the +emptiness of its theories. It is in the name of science, then, +that democracy calls for a political reform as a preliminary to +social reform. But science protests against this subterfuge as +an insult; science repudiates any alliance with politics, and, +very far from expecting from it the slightest aid, must begin +with politics its work of exclusion. + +How little affinity there is between the human mind and truth! +When I see the democracy, socialistic but yesterday, continually +asking for capital in order to combat capital's influence; for +wealth, in order to cure poverty; for the abandonment of liberty, +in order to organize liberty; for the reformation of government, +in order to reform society,--when I see it, I say, taking upon +itself the responsibility of society, provided social questions +be set aside or solved, it seems to me as if I were listening to +a fortune-teller who, before answering the questions of those who +consult her, begins by inquiring into their age, their condition, +their family, and all the accidents of their life. Eh! miserable +sorceress, if you know the future, you know who I am and what I +want; why do you ask me to tell you? + +Likewise I will answer the democrats: If you know the use that +you should make of power, and if you know how power should be +organized, you possess economic science. Now, if you possess +economic science, if you have the key of its contradictions, if +you are in a position to organize labor, if you have studied the +laws of exchange, you have no need of the capital of the nation +or of public force. From this day forth you are more potent than +money, stronger than power. For, since the laborers are with +you, you are by that fact alone masters of production; you hold +commerce, manufactures, and agriculture enchained; you have the +entire social capital at your disposition; you have full control +of taxation; you block the wheels of power, and you trample +monopoly under foot. What other initiative, what greater +authority, do you ask? What prevents you from applying your +theories? + +Surely not political economy, although generally followed and +accredited: for, everything in political economy having a true +side and a false side, your only problem is to combine the +economic elements in such a way that their total shall no longer +present a contradiction. + +Nor is it the civil law: for that law, sanctioning economic +routine solely because of its advantages and in spite of its +disadvantages, is susceptible, like political economy itself, of +being bent to all the exigencies of an exact synthesis, and +consequently is as favorable to you as possible. + +Finally, it is not power, which, the last expression of +antagonism and created only to defend the law, could stand in +your way only by forswearing itself. + +Once more, then, what stops you? + +If you possess social science, you know that the problem of +association consists in organizing, not only the +NON-PRODUCERS,--in that direction, thank heaven! little remains +to be done,--but also the PRODUCERS, and by this organization +subjecting capital and subordinating power. Such is the war that +you have to sustain: a war of labor against capital; a war of +liberty against authority; a war of the producer against the +non-producer; a war of equality against privilege. What you +ask, to conduct the war to a successful conclusion, is precisely +that which you must combat. Now, to combat and reduce power, to +put it in its proper place in society, it is of no use to change +the holders of power or introduce some variation into its +workings: an agricultural and industrial combination must be +found by means of which power, today the ruler of society, shall +become its slave. Have you the secret of that combination? + +But what do I say? That is precisely the thing to which you do +not consent. As you cannot conceive of society without +hierarchy, you have made yourselves the apostles of authority; +worshippers of power, you think only of strengthening it and +muzzling liberty; your favorite maxim is that the welfare of the +people must be achieved in spite of the people; instead of +proceeding to social reform by the extermination of power and +politics, you insist on a reconstruction of power and politics. +Then, by a series of contradictions which prove your sincerity, +but the illusory character of which is well known to the real +friends of power, the aristocrats and monarchists, your +competitors, you promise us, in the name of power, economy in +expenditures, an equitable assessment of taxes, protection to +labor, gratuitous education, universal suffrage, and all the +utopias repugnant to authority and property. Consequently power +in your hands has never been anything but ruinous, and that is +why you have never been able to retain it; that is why, on the +Eighteenth of Brumaire,[31] four men were sufficient to take +it away from you, and why today the bourgeoisie, which is as fond +of power as you are and which wants a strong power, will not +restore it to you. + + +[31] Date of the Napoleonic coup d'Etat, according to the +revolutionary calendar. + + + +Thus power, the instrument of collective might, created in +society to serve as a mediator between labor and privilege, finds +itself inevitably enchained to capital and directed against the +proletariat. No political reform can solve this contradiction, +since, by the confession of the politicians themselves, such a +reform would end only in increasing the energy and extending the +sphere of power, and since power would know no way of touching +the prerogatives of monopoly without overturning the hierarchy +and dissolving society. The problem before the laboring classes, +then, consists, not in capturing, but in subduing both power and +monopoly,--that is, in generating from the bowels of the people, +from the depths of labor, a greater authority, a more potent +fact, which shall envelop capital and the State and subjugate +them. Every proposition of reform which does not satisfy this +condition is simply one scourge more, a rod doing sentry duty, +virgam vigilantem, as a prophet said, which threatens the +proletariat. + +The crown of this system is religion. There is no occasion for +me to deal here with the philosophic value of religious opinions, +relate their history, or seek their interpretation. I confine +myself to a consideration of the economic origin of religion, the +secret bond which connects it with police, the place which it +occupies in the series of social manifestations. + +Man, despairing of finding the equilibrium of his powers, leaps, +as it were, outside of himself and seeks in infinity that +sovereign harmony the realization of which is to him the highest +degree of reason, power, and happiness. Unable to harmonize with +himself, he kneels before God and prays. He prays, and his +prayer, a hymn sung to God, is a blasphemy against society. + +It is from God, man says to himself, that authority and power +come to me: then, let us obey God and the prince. Obedite Deo et +principibus. It is from God that law and justice come to me. +Per me reges regnant et potentes decernunt justitiam. Let us +respect the commands of the legislator and the magistrate. It is +God who controls the prosperity of labor, who makes and unmakes +fortunes: may his will be done! Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit, +sit nomen Domini benedictum. It is God who punishes me when +misery devours me, and when I am persecuted for righteousness's +sake: let us receive with respect the scourges which his mercy +employs for our purification. Humiliamini igitur sub potenti +manu Dei. This life, which God has given me, is but an ordeal +which leads me to salvation: let us shun pleasure; let us love +and invite pain; let us find our pleasure in doing penance. The +sadness which comes from injustice is a favor from on high; +blessed are they that mourn! Beati qui lugent! . . . . Haec +est enim gratia, si quis sustinet tristitias, patiens injuste. + +A century ago a missionary, preaching before an audience made up +of financiers and grandees, did justice to this odious morality. +"What have I done?" he cried, with tears. "I have saddened the +poor, the best friends of my God! I have preached the rigors of +penance to unfortunates who want for bread! It is here, where my +eyes fall only on the powerful and on the rich, on the oppressors +of suffering humanity, that I must launch the word of God in +all the force of its thunder!" + +Let us admit, nevertheless, that the theory of resignation has +served society by preventing revolt. Religion, consecrating by +divine right the inviolability of power and of privilege, has +given humanity the strength to continue its journey and exhaust +its contradictions. Without this bandage thrown over the eyes of +the people society would have been a thousand times dissolved. +Some one had to suffer that it might be cured; and religion, the +comforter of the afflicted, decided that it should be the poor +man. It is this suffering which has led us to our present +position; civilization, which owes all its marvels to the +laborer, owes also to his voluntary sacrifice its future and its +existence. Oblatus est quia ipse voluit, et livore ejus sanati +sumus. + +O people of laborers! disinherited, harassed, proscribed people! +people whom they imprison, judge, and kill! despised people, +branded people! Do you not know that there is an end, even to +patience, even to devotion? Will you not cease to lend an ear to +those orators of mysticism who tell you to pray and to wait, +preaching salvation now through religion, now through power, and +whose vehement and sonorous words captivate you? Your destiny is +an enigma which neither physical force, nor courage of soul, nor +the illuminations of enthusiasm, nor the exaltation of any +sentiment, can solve. Those who tell you to the contrary deceive +you, and all their discourses serve only to postpone the hour of +your deliverance, now ready to strike. What are enthusiasm and +sentiment, what is vain poesy, when confronted with necessity? +To overcome necessity there is nothing but necessity itself, the +last reason of nature, the pure essence of matter and spirit. + +Thus the contradiction of value, born of the necessity of free +will, must be overcome by the proportionality of value, another +necessity produced by the union of liberty and intelligence. +But, in order that this victory of intelligent and free labor +might produce all its consequences, it was necessary that society +should pass through a long succession of torments. + +It was a necessity that labor, in order to increase its power, +should be divided; and a necessity, in consequence of this +division, that the laborer should be degraded and impoverished. + +It was a necessity that this original division should be +reconstructed by scientific instruments and combinations; and a +necessity, in consequence of this reconstruction, that the +subordinated laborer should lose, together with his legitimate +wages, even the exercise of the industry which supported him. + +It was a necessity that competition then should step in to +emancipate liberty on the point of perishing; and a necessity +that this deliverance should end in a vast elimination of +laborers. + +It was a necessity that the producer, ennobled by his art, as +formerly the warrior was by arms, should bear aloft his banner, +in order that the valor of man might be honored in labor as in +war; and a necessity that of privilege should straightway be born +the proletariat. + +It was a necessity that society should then take under its +protection the conquered plebeian, a beggar without a roof; and a +necessity that this protection should be converted into a new +series of tortures. + +We shall meet on our way still other necessities, all of which +will disappear, like the others, before greater necessities, +until shall come at last the general equation, the supreme +necessity, the triumphant fact, which must establish the kingdom +of labor forever. + +But this solution cannot result either from surprise or from a +vain compromise. It is as impossible to associate labor and +capital as to produce without labor and without capital; as +impossible to establish equality by power as to suppress power +and equality and make a society without people and without +police. + +There is a necessity, I repeat, of a MAJOR FORCE to invert the +actual formulas of society; a necessity that the LABOR of the +people, not their valor nor their votes, should, by a scientific, +legitimate, immortal, insurmountable combination, subject capital +to the people and deliver to them power. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MAN AND OF GOD, UNDER THE LAW OF +CONTRADICTION, OR A SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE. + +The ancients blamed human nature for the presence of evil in the +world. + +Christian theology has only embroidered this theme in its own +fashion; and, as that theology sums up the whole religious period +extending from the origin of society to our own time, it may be +said that the dogma of original sin, having in its favor the +assent of the human race, acquires by that very fact the highest +degree of probability. + +So, according to all the testimony of ancient wisdom, each people +defending its own institutions as excellent and glorifying them, +it is not to religions, or to governments, or to traditional +customs accredited by the respect of generations, that the cause +of evil must be traced, but rather to a primitive perversion, to +a sort of congenital malice in the will of man. As to the +question how a being could have perverted and corrupted itself +ORIGINALLY, the ancients avoided that difficulty by fables: +Eve's apple and Pandora's box have remained celebrated among +their symbolic solutions. + +Not only, then, had antiquity posited in its myths the question +of the origin of evil; it had solved it by another myth, in +unhesitatingly affirming the criminality ab ovo of our race. + +Modern philosophers have erected against the Christian dogma a +dogma no less obscure,--that of the depravity of society. MAN IS +BORN GOOD, cries Rousseau, in his peremptory style; BUT +SOCIETY--that is, the forms and institutions of society--DEPRAVES +HIM. In such terms was formulated the paradox, or, better, the +protest, of the philosopher of Geneva. + +Now, it is evident that this idea is only the ancient hypothesis +turned about. The ancients accused the individual man; Rousseau +accuses the collective man: at bottom, it is always the same +proposition, an absurd proposition. + +Nevertheless, in spite of the fundamental identity of the +principle, Rousseau's formula, precisely because it was an +opposition, was a step forward; consequently it was welcomed with +enthusiasm, and it became the signal of a reaction full of +contradictions and absurdities. Singular thing! it is to the +anathema launched by the author of "Emile" against society that +modern socialism is to be traced. + +For the last seventy or eighty years the principle of social +perversion has been exploited and popularized by various +sectarians, who, while copying Rousseau, reject with all their +might the anti-social philosophy of that writer, without +perceiving that, by the very fact that they aspire to reform +society, they are as unsocial or unsociable as he. It is a +curious spectacle to see these pseudo-innovators, condemning +after Jean Jacques monarchy, democracy, property, communism, +thine and mine, monopoly, wages, police, taxation, luxury, +commerce, money, in a word, all that constitutes society and +without which society is inconceivable, and then accusing this +same Jean Jacques of misanthropy and paralogism, because, after +having seen the emptiness of all utopias, at the same time that +he pointed out the antagonism of civilization, he sternly +concluded against society, though recognizing that without +society there is no humanity. + +I advise those who, on the strength of what slanderers and +plagiarists say, imagine that Rousseau embraced his theory only +from a vain love of eccentricity, to read "Emile" and the "Social +Contract" once more. That admirable dialectician was led to deny +society from the standpoint of justice, although he was forced to +admit it as necessary; just as we, who believe in an indefinite +progress, do not cease to deny, as normal and definitive, the +existing state of society. Only, whereas Rousseau, by a +political combination and an educational system of his own, tried +to bring man nearer to what he called NATURE, and what seemed to +him the ideal society, we, instructed in a profounder school, say +that the task of society is to continually solve its +antinomies,--a matter of which Rousseau could have had no idea. +Thus, apart from the now abandoned system of the "Social +Contract," and so far as criticism alone is concerned, socialism, +whatever it may say, is still in the same position as Rousseau, +forced to reform society incessantly,--that is, to perpetually +deny it. + +Rousseau, in short, simply declared in a summary and definitive +manner what the socialists repeat in detail and at every moment +of progress,-- namely, that social order is imperfect, always +lacking something. Rousseau's error does not, can not lie in +this negation of society: it consists, as we shall show, in his +failure to follow his argument to the end and deny at once +society, man, and God. + +However that may be, the theory of man's innocence, corresponding +to that of the depravity of society, has at last got the upper +hand. The immense majority of socialists--Saint-Simon, Owen, +Fourier, and their disciples; communists, democrats, progressives +of all sorts--have solemnly repudiated the Christian myth of the +fall to substitute there for the system of an aberration on +the part of society. And, as most of these sectarians, in spite +of their flagrant impiety, were still too religious, too pious, +to finish the work of Jean Jacques and trace back to God the +responsibility for evil, they have found a way of deducing from +the hypothesis of God the dogma of the native goodness of man, +and have begun to fulminate against society in the finest +fashion. + +The theoretical and practical consequences of this reaction were +that, evil--that is, the effect of internal and external +struggle--being abnormal and transitory, penal and repressive +institutions are likewise transitory; that in man there is no +native vice, but that his environment has depraved his +inclinations; that civilization has been mistaken as to its own +tendencies; that constraint is immoral, that our passions are +holy; that enjoyment is holy and should be sought after like +virtue itself, because God, who caused us to desire it, is holy. +And, the women coming to the aid of the eloquence of the +philosophers, a deluge of anti-restrictive protests has fallen, +quasi de vulva erumpens, to make use of a comparison from the +Holy Scriptures, upon the wonder-stricken public. + +The writings of this school are recognizable by their evangelical +style, their melancholy theism, and, above all, their enigmatical +dialectics. + + +"They blame human nature," says M. Louis Blanc, "for almost all +our evils; the blame should be laid upon the vicious character of +social institutions. Look around you: how many talents +misplaced, and CONSEQUENTLY depraved! How many activities have +become turbulent for want of having found their legitimate and +natural object! They force our passions to traverse an impure +medium; is it at all surprising that they become altered? Place +a healthy man in a pestilent atmosphere, and he will inhale +death. . . . Civilization has taken a wrong road, . . . and to +say that it could not have been otherwise is to lose the right to +talk of equity, of morality, of progress; it is to lose the right +to talk of God. Providence disappears to give place to the +grossest fatalism." + + +The name of God recurs forty times, and always to no purpose, in +M. Blanc's "Organization of Labor," which I quote from +preference, because in my view it represents advanced democratic +opinion better than any other work, and because I like to do it +honor by refuting it. + +Thus, while socialism, aided by extreme democracy, deifies man by +denying the dogma of the fall, and consequently dethrones God, +henceforth useless to the perfection of his creature, this same +socialism, through mental cowardice, falls back upon the +affirmation of Providence, and that at the very moment when it +denies the providential authority of history. + +And as nothing stands such chance of success among men as +contradiction, the idea of a religion of pleasure, renewed from +Epicurus during an eclipse of public reason, has been taken as an +inspiration of the national genius; it is this that distinguishes +the new theists from the Catholics, against whom the former have +inveighed so loudly during the last two years only out of rivalry +in fanaticism. It is the fashion today to speak of God on all +occasions and to declaim against the pope; to invoke Providence +and to scoff at the Church. THANK GOD! WE ARE NOT ATHEISTS, said +"La Reforme" one day; all the more, it might have added by way of +increasing its absurdity, we are not Christians. The word has +gone forth to every one who holds a pen to bamboozle the people, +and the first article of the new faith is that an infinitely good +God has created man as good as himself; which does not prevent +man, under the eye of God, from becoming wicked in a detestable +society. + +Nevertheless it is plain, in spite of these semblances of +religion, we might even say these desires for it, that the +quarrel between socialism and Christian tradition, between man +and society, must end by a denial of Divinity. Social reason is +not distinguishable by us from absolute Reason, which is no other +than God himself, and to deny society in its past phases is to +deny Providence, is to deny God. + +Thus, then, we are placed between two negations, two +contradictory affirmations: one which, by the voice of entire +antiquity, setting aside as out of the question society and God +which it represents, finds in man alone the principle of evil; +another which, protesting in the name of free, intelligent, and +progressive man, throws back upon social infirmity and, by a +necessary consequence, upon the creative and inspiring genius of +society all the disturbances of the universe. + +Now, as the anomalies of social order and the oppression of +individual liberties arise principally from the play of economic +contradictions, we have to inquire, in view of the data which we +have brought to light: + +1. Whether fate, whose circle surrounds us, exercises a control +over our liberty so imperious and compulsory that infractions of +the law, committed under the dominion of antinomies, cease to be +imputable to us? And, if not, whence arises this culpability +peculiar to man? + +2. Whether the hypothetical being, utterly good, omnipotent, +omniscient, to whom faith attributes the supreme direction of +human agitations, has not himself failed society at the moment of +danger? And, if so, to explain this insufficiency of Divinity. + +In short, we are to find out whether man is God, whether God +himself is God, or whether, to attain the fullness of +intelligence and liberty, we must search for a superior cause. + + +% 1.--The culpability of man.--Exposition of the myth of +the fall. + +As long as man lives under the law of egoism, he accuses himself; +as soon as he rises to the conception of a social law, he accuses +society. In both cases humanity accuses humanity; and so far the +clearest result of this double accusation is the strange faculty, +which we have not yet pointed out, and which religion attributes +to God as well as to man, of REPENTANCE. + +Of what, then, does humanity repent? For what does God, who +repents as well as ourselves, desire to punish us? Poenituit +Deum quod hominem fecisset in terra, et tactus dolore cordis +intrinsecus, delebo, inquit, hominem. . . . If I demonstrate +that the offences charged upon humanity are not the consequence +of its economic embarrassments, although the latter result from +the constitution of its ideas; that man does evil gratuitously +and when not under compulsion, just as he honors himself by acts +of heroism which justice does not exact,--it will follow that +man, at the tribunal of his conscience, may be allowed to plead +certain extenuating circumstances, but can never be entirely +discharged of his guilt; that the struggle is in his heart as +well as in his mind; that he deserves now praise, now blame, +which is a confession, in either case, of his inharmonious state; +finally, that the essence of his soul is a perpetual compromise +between opposing attractions, his morality a system of seesaw, in +a word,--and this word tells the whole story,-- eclecticism. + +My proof shall be soon made. + +There exists a law, older than our liberty, promulgated from the +beginning of the world, completed by Jesus Christ, preached +and certified by apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, +graven on the heart of man, and superior to all metaphysics: it +is LOVE. LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF, Jesus Christ tells us, +after Moses. That is the whole of it. Love thy neighbor as +thyself, and society will be perfect; love thy neighbor as +thyself, and all distinctions of prince and shepherd, of rich and +poor, of learned and ignorant, disappear, all clashing of human +interests ceases. Love thy neighbor as thyself, and happiness +with industry, without care for the future, shall fill thy days. +To fulfil this law and make himself happy man needs only to +follow the inclination of his heart and listen to the voice of +his sympathies. He resists; he does more: not content with +preferring himself to his neighbor, he labors constantly to +destroy his neighbor; after having betrayed love through egoism, +he overturns it by injustice. + +Man, I say, faithless to the law of charity, has, of himself and +without any necessity, made the contradictions of society so many +instruments of harm; through his egoism civilization has become a +war of surprises and ambushes; he lies, he steals, he murders, +when not compelled to do so, without provocation, without excuse. +In short, he does evil with all the characteristics of a nature +deliberately maleficent, and all the more wicked because, when it +so wishes, it knows how to do good gratuitously also and is +capable of self-sacrifice; wherefore it has been said of it, with +as much reason as depth: Homo homini lupus, vel deus. Not to +unduly extend the subject, and especially in order to avoid +prejudging the questions that I shall have to consider, I limit +myself to the economic facts already analyzed. + +With the fact that the division of labor is by nature, pending +the attainment of a synthetic organization, an irresistible +cause of physical, moral, and mental inequality among men neither +society nor conscience have anything to do. That is a fact of +necessity, of which the rich man is as innocent as the +parcellaire workman, consigned by his position to all sorts of +poverty. + +But how happens it that this inevitable inequality is converted +into a title of nobility for some, of abjection for others? How +happens it, if man is good, that he has not succeeded in +levelling by his goodness this wholly metaphysical obstacle, and +that, instead of strengthening the fraternal tie that binds men, +pitiless necessity breaks it? Here man cannot be excused on the +ground of his economic inexperience or legislative +shortsightedness; it was enough that he had a heart. Since the +martyrs of the division of labor should have been helped and +honored by the rich, why have they been rejected as impure? Why +is it an unheard-of thing for masters to occasionally relieve +their slaves, for princes, magistrates, and priests to change +places with mechanics, and for nobles to assume the task of the +peasants on the land? What is the reason of this brutal pride of +the powerful? + +And note that such conduct on their part would have been not only +charitable and fraternal, but in accord with the sternest +justice. By virtue of the principle of collective force, +laborers are the equals and associates of their leaders; so that +in the system of monopoly itself, community of action restoring +the equilibrium which parcellaire individualism has disturbed, +justice and charity blend. On the hypothesis of the essential +goodness of man, how then is to be explained the monstrous +attempt to change the authority of some into nobility and the +obedience of others into plebeianism? Labor, between the serf +and the free man, like color between the black and the white, has +always drawn an impassable line; and we ourselves, who glory so +in our philanthropy, at the bottom of our hearts are of the same +opinion as our predecessors. The sympathy which we feel for the +proletaire is like that with which animals inspire us; delicacy +of organs, dread of misery, pride in separating ourselves from +all suffering,--it is these shifts of egoism that prompt our +charity. + +For in fact--and I desire only this fact to confound us--is it +not true that spontaneous benevolence, so pure in its primitive +conception (eleemosyna, sympathy, tenderness), alms, in fine, has +become for the unfortunate a sign of degradation, a public +stigma? And socialists, rebuking Christianity, dare to talk to +us of love! The Christian thought, the conscience of humanity, +hit the mark precisely, when it founded so many institutions for +the relief of misfortune. To grasp the evangelical precept in +its depth and render legal charity as honorable to those who had +been its objects as to those who had exercised it, there was +needed--what? Less pride, less greed, less egoism. If man is +good, will any one tell me how the right to alms has become the +first link in the long chain of infractions, misdemeanors, and +crimes? Will any one still dare to blame the misdeeds of man +upon the antagonisms of social economy, when these antagonisms +offered him so beautiful an opportunity of manifesting the +charity of his heart, I do not say by self-sacrifice, but by the +simple doing of justice? + +I know--and this objection is the only one that can be offered +against my position--that charity is covered with shame and +dishonor because the individual who asks it is too often, alas! +suspected of misconduct and rarely to be recommended on the score +of dignity of morals and of labor. And statistics prove that +those who are poor through cowardice and negligence outnumber ten +times those who are poor through accident or mischance. + +Far be it from me to challenge this observation, the truth of +which is demonstrated by too many facts, and which, moreover, has +received the sanction of the people. The people are the first to +accuse the poor of laziness; and there is nothing more common +than to meet in the lower classes men who boast, as if it were a +title of nobility, that they have never been in the hospital and +in their greatest distress have never been recipients of public +charity. Thus, just as opulence avows its robberies, misery +confesses its shame. Man is a tyrant or a slave by will before +becoming so by fortune; the heart of the proletaire is like that +of the rich man,--a sewer of boiling sensuality, the home of +crapulence and imposture. + +Upon this unexpected revelation I ask how it happens, if man is +good and charitable, that the rich calumniate charity while the +poor defile it? It is perversion of judgment on the part of the +rich, say some; it is degradation of faculties on the part of the +poor, say others. But how is it that judgment is perverted on +the one hand, and on the other that faculties are degraded? How +comes it that a true and cordial fraternity has not arrested on +the one side and on the other the effects of pride and labor? +Let my questions be answered by reasons, not by phrases. + +Labor, in inventing processes and machines which infinitely +multiply its power, and then in stimulating industrial genius by +rivalry and assuring its conquests by means of the profits of +capital and privileges of exploitation, has rendered the +hierarchical constitution of society more profound and more +inevitable; I repeat that no blame attaches to any one for this. +But I call the holy law of the Gospel to witness that it was +within our power to draw wholly different consequences from this +subordination of man to man, or, better, of laborer to laborer. + +The traditions of feudal life and of that of the patriarchs set +the example for the manufacturers. The division of labor and the +other accidents of production were only calls to the great family +life, indications of the preparatory system in accordance with +which fraternity was to appear and be developed. Masterships, +corporations, and rights of primogeniture were conceived under +the influence of this idea; many communists even are not hostile +to this form of association; is it surprising that the ideal is +so tenacious among those who, conquered but not converted, still +appear as its representatives? What, then, prevented charity, +union, sacrifice from maintaining themselves in the hierarchy, +when the hierarchy might have been only a condition of labor? To +this end it would have sufficed if men having machines, valiant +knights fighting with equal weapons, had not made a mystery of +their secrets or withheld them from others; if barons had set to +work, not to monopolize their products, but to cheapen them; and +if vassals, assured that war would result only in increasing +their wealth, had always shown themselves enterprising, +industrious, and faithful. The chief of the workshop would then +have been simply a captain putting his men through manoeuvres in +their interest as well as in his own, and maintaining them, not +with his perquisites, but with their own services. + +Instead of these fraternal relations, we have had pride, +jealousy, and perjury; the employer, like the vampire of the +fable, exploiting the degraded wage-worker, and the wage-worker +conspiring against the employer; the idler devouring the +substance of the laborer, and the serf, squatting in filth, +having no strength left but for hatred. + + +Called on to furnish for the work of production, these tools, +those labor, capitalists and laborers are today in a struggle: +why? Because absolutism presides over all their relations; +because the capitalist speculates on the need which the laborer +feels of procuring tools, while the laborer, in turn, seeks to +derive advantage from the need which the capitalist feels of +fertilizing his capital.--L. Blanc: Organization of Labor. + + +And why this ABSOLUTISM in the relations of capitalist and +laborer? Why this hostility of interests? Why this reciprocal +enmity? Instead of eternally explaining the fact by the fact +itself, go to the bottom, and you will find everywhere, as +original motive, a passion for enjoyment which neither law nor +justice nor charity restrain; you will see egoism continually +discounting the future, and sacrificing to its monstrous caprices +labor, capital, life, and the security of all. + +The theologians have given the name CONCUPISCENCE or +CONCUPISCIBLE APPETITE to the passionate greed for sensual +things, the effect, according to them, of original sin. I +trouble myself little, for the present, as to the nature of the +original sin; I simply observe that the concupiscible appetite of +the theologians is no other than that NEED OF LUXURY pointed out +by the Academy of Moral Sciences as the ruling motive of our +epoch. Now, the theory of proportionality of values demonstrates +that luxury is naturally measured by production; that every +consumption in advance is recovered by an equivalent later +privation; and that the exaggeration of luxury in a society +necessarily has an increase of misery as its correlative. Now, +were man to sacrifice his personal welfare for luxurious and +advance enjoyments, perhaps I should accuse him only of +imprudence; but, when he injures the welfare of his +neighbor,--a welfare which he should regard as inviolable, both +from charity and on the ground of justice,--I say then that man +is wicked, inexcusably wicked. + +WHEN GOD, according to Bossuet, FORMED THE BOWELS OF MAN, HE +ORIGINALLY PLACED GOODNESS THERE. Thus love is our first law; +the prescriptions of pure reason, as well as the promptings of +the senses, take second and third rank only. Such is the +hierarchy of our faculties,--a principle of love forming the +foundation of our conscience and served by an intelligence and +organs. Hence of two things one: either the man who violates +charity to obey his cupidity is guilty; or else, if this +psychology is false, and the need of luxury in man must hold a +place beside charity and reason, man is a disorderly animal, +utterly wicked, and the most execrable of beings. + +Thus the organic contradictions of society cannot cover the +responsibility of man; viewed in themselves, moreover, these +contradictions are only the theory of the hierarchical regime, +the first form and consequently an irreproachable form of +society. By the antinomy of their development labor and capital +have been continually led back to equality at the same time as to +subordination, to solidarity as well as to dependence; one was +the agent, the other the stimulator and guardian of the common +wealth. This indication has been indistinctly seen by the +theorists of the feudal system; Christianity came in time to +cement the compact; and it is still the sentiment of this +misunderstood and broken, but in itself innocent and legitimate, +organization which causes regrets among us and sustains the hope +of a party. As this system was written in the book of destiny, +it cannot be said to be bad in itself, just as the embryonic +state cannot be called bad because it precedes adult age in +physiological development. + +I insist, therefore, on my accusation: + +Under the regime abolished by Luther and the French Revolution +man could be happy in proportion to the progress of his industry; +he did not choose to be; on the contrary, he forbade himself to +be. + +Labor has been regarded as dishonorable; the clergy and the +nobility have made themselves the devourers of the poor; to +satisfy their animal passions, they have extinguished charity in +their hearts; they have ruined, oppressed, assassinated the +laborer. And thus it is that we see capital still hunting the +proletariat. Instead of tempering the subversive tendency of +economic principles by association and mutuality, the capitalist +exaggerates it unnecessarily and with evil design; he abuses the +senses and the conscience of the workman; he makes him a valet in +his intrigues, a purveyor of his debaucheries, an accomplice in +his robberies; he makes him in all respects like himself, and +then it is that he can defy the justice of revolutions to touch +him. Monstrous thing! the man who lives in misery, and whose +soul therefore seems a nearer neighbor of charity and honor, +shares his master's corruption; like him, he gives everything to +pride and luxury, and if he sometimes cries out against the +inequality from which he suffers, it is still less from zeal for +justice than from rivalry in desire. The greatest obstacle which +equality has to overcome is not the aristocratic pride of the +rich man, but the ungovernable egoism of the poor man. And you +rely on his native goodness to reform at once both the +spontaneity and the premeditation of his malice! + + +"As the false and anti-social education given to the present +generation," says Louis Blanc, "permits no search for any other +motive for emulation and encouragement than an increase of +reward, the difference of wages should be graduated according to +the hierarchy of functions, an entirely new education having +to change ideas and morals in this matter." + + +Dismissing the hierarchy of functions and the inequality of wages +for what they are worth, let us consider here only the motive +assigned by the author. Is it not strange to see M. Blanc affirm +the goodness of our nature, and at the same time address himself +to the most ignoble of our propensities,--avarice? Truly, evil +must seem to you very deeply rooted, if you deem it necessary to +begin the restoration of charity by a violation of charity. +Jesus Christ broke openly with pride and greed; apparently the +libertines whom he catechised were holy personages compared with +the herd infected with socialism. But tell us then, in short, +how our ideas have been warped, why our education is anti-social, +since it is now demonstrated that society has followed the route +traced by destiny and can no longer be charged with the crimes of +man. + +Really, the logic of socialism is marvellous. + +Man is good, they say; but it is necessary to DETACH HIS +INTERESTS from evil to secure his abstinence from it. Man is +good; but he must be INTERESTED in the good, else he will not do +it. For, if the interest of his passions leads him to evil, he +will do evil; and, if this same interest leaves him indifferent +to good, he will not do good. And society will have no right to +reproach him for having listened to his passions, because it was +for society to conduct him by his passions. What a rich and +precious nature was that of Nero, who killed his mother because +she wearied him, and who caused Rome to be burned in order to +have a representation of the pillage of Troy! What an artist's +soul was that of Heliogabalus, who organized prostitution! What +a potent character was Tiberius! But what an abominable society +was that which perverted those divine souls, and produced, +moreover, Tacitus and Marcus Aurelius! + +This, then, is what is called the harmlessness of man,--the +holiness of his passions! An aged Sappho, abandoned by her +lovers, goes back under the conjugal law; her interest detached +from love, she returns to marriage, and is holy. What a pity +that this word HOLY (saint) has not in French the double meaning +which it possesses in the Hebrew language! All would be in +accord regarding the holiness of Sappho. + +I read in a report upon the railways of Belgium that, the Belgian +administration having allowed its engineers a premium of two and +one- half cents for every bushel of coke saved out of an average +consumption of two hundred and ten pounds for a given distance +traversed, this premium bore such fruits that the consumption +fell from two hundred and ten pounds to one hundred and six. +This fact sums up the whole socialistic philosophy: to gradually +train the workingman to justice, encourage him to labor, lift him +to the sublimity of devotion, by increase of wages, +profit-sharing, distinctions, and rewards. Certainly I do not +mean to blame this method, which is as old as the world: whatever +way you take to tame serpents and tigers and render them useful, +I applaud it. But do not say that your beasts are doves; for +then, as sole reply, I shall point you to their claws and teeth. +Before the Belgian engineers became interested in the economy of +fuel, they burned double the quantity. Therefore on their part +there was carelessness, negligence, prodigality, waste, perhaps +theft, although they were bound to the administration by a +contract which obliged them to practise all the contrasted +virtues. IT IS GOOD, you say, TO INTEREST THE LABORER. I say +further that it is just. But I maintain that this INTEREST, +more powerful over man than voluntarily accepted obligation, more +powerful, in a word, than DUTY, accuses man. Socialism goes +backward in morality, and it turns up its nose at Christianity. +It does not understand charity, and yet, to hear it, one would +suppose that it invented charity. + +See, moreover, observe the socialists, what fortunate fruits the +perfecting of our social order has already borne! The present +generation is undeniably better than its predecessors: are we +wrong in concluding that a perfect society will produce perfect +citizens? Say rather, reply the conservative believers in the +dogma of the fall, that, religion having purified hearts, it is +not astonishing that institutions have felt the effects. Now let +religion finish its work, and have no fears about society. + +So speak and retort in an endless wandering from the question the +theorists of the two schools. Neither understand that humanity, +to use a Biblical expression, is one and constant in its +generations,--that is, that everything in it, at every period of +its development, in the individual as in the mass, proceeds from +the same principle, which is, not BEING, but BECOMING. They do +not see, on the one hand, that progress in morality is a +continual conquest of mind over animality, just as progress in +wealth is the fruit of the war waged by labor upon the parsimony +of nature; consequently that the idea of native goodness lost +through society is as absurd as the idea of native wealth lost +through labor, and that a compromise with the passions should be +viewed in the same light as a compromise with rest. On the other +hand, they refuse to understand that, if there is progress in +humanity, whether through religion or from some other cause, the +hypothesis of constitutional corruption is nonsense, a +contradiction. + +But I anticipate the conclusions at which I must arrive: let us, +for the present, establish simply that the moral perfection of +humanity, like material welfare, is realized by a series of +oscillations between vice and virtue, MERIT and DEMERIT. + +Yes, humanity grows in justice, but this growth of our liberty, +due entirely to the growth of our intelligence, surely gives no +proof of the goodness of our nature; and, far from authorizing us +to glorify our passions, it really destroys their sway. The +fashion and style of our malice change with time: the barons of +the middle ages plundered the traveller on the highway, and then +offered him hospitality in their castles; mercantile feudality, +less brutal, exploits the proletaire and builds hospitals for +him: who would dare to say which of the two has deserved the palm +of virtue? + +Of all the economic contradictions value is that which, +dominating the others and summing them up, holds in a sense the +sceptre of society, I had almost said of the moral world. Until +value, oscillating between its two poles,--useful value and value +in exchange,--arrives at its constitution, thine and mine remain +fixed arbitrarily; the conditions of fortune are the effect of +chance; property rests on a precarious title; everything in +social economy is provisional. What should social, intelligent, +and free beings have learned from this uncertainty of value? To +make amicable regulations that should protect labor and guarantee +exchange and cheapness. What a happy opportunity for all to make +up, by honesty, disinterestedness, and tenderness of heart, for +the ignorance of the objective laws of the just and the unjust! +Instead of that, commerce has everywhere become, by spontaneous +effort and unanimous consent, an uncertain operation, a +venturesome enterprise, a lottery, and often a deceitful and +fraudulent speculation. + +What obliges the holder of provisions, the storekeeper of +society, to pretend that there is a scarcity, sound the +alarm, and provoke a rise of prices? Public short-sightedness +places the consumer at his mercy; some change of temperature +furnishes him a pretext; the assured prospect of gain finally +corrupts him, and fear, skilfully spread abroad, throws the +population into his toils. Certainly the motive which actuates +the swindler, the thief, the assassin, those natures warped, it +is said, by the social order, is the same which animates the +monopolist who is not in need. How, then, does this passion for +gain, abandoned to itself, turn to the prejudice of society? Why +has preventive, repressive, and coercive legislation always been +necessary to set a limit to liberty? For that is the accusing +fact, which it is impossible to deny: everywhere the law has +grown out of abuse; everywhere the legislator has found himself +forced to make man powerless to harm, which is synonymous with +muzzling a lion or infibulating a boar. And socialism itself, +ever imitating the past, makes no other pretence: what is, +indeed, the organization which it claims, if not a stronger +guarantee of justice, a more complete limitation of liberty? + +The characteristic trait of the merchant is to make everything +either an object or an instrument of traffic. Disassociated from +his fellows, his interests separated from those of others, he is +for and against all deeds, all opinions, all parties. A +discovery, a science, is in his eyes an instrument of war, out of +the way of which he tries to keep, and which he would like to +annihilate, unless he can make use of it himself to kill his +competitors. An artist, an educated person, is an artilleryman +who knows how to handle the weapon, and whom he tries to corrupt, +if he cannot win him. The merchant is convinced that logic is +the art of proving at will the true and the false; he was the +inventor of political venality, traffic in consciences, +prostitution of talents, corruption of the press. He knows how +to find arguments and advocates for all lies, all iniquities. He +alone has never deceived himself as to the value of political +parties: he deems them all equally exploitable,--that is, equally +absurd. + +Without respect for his avowed opinions, which he abandons and +resumes by turns; sharply pursuing in others those violations of +faith of which he is himself guilty,--he lies in his claims, he +lies in his representations, he lies in his inventories; he +exaggerates, he extenuates, he over-rates; he regards himself as +the centre of the world, and everything outside of him has only a +relative existence, value, and truth. Subtle and shrewd in his +transactions, he stipulates, he reserves, trembling always lest +he may say too much or not enough; abusing words with the simple, +generalizing in order not to compromise himself, specifying in +order to allow nothing, he turns three times upon himself and +thinks seven times under his chin before saying his last word. +Has he at last concluded? He rereads himself, he interprets +himself, he comments on himself; he tortures himself to find a +deep meaning in every part of his contract, and in the clearest +phrases the opposite of what they say. + +What infinite art, what hypocrisy, in his relations with the +manual laborer! From the simple shopkeeper to the big +contractor, how skilful they are in exploiting his arms! How +well they know how to contend with labor, in order to obtain it +at a low price! In the first place, it is a hope for which the +master receives a slight service; then it is a promise which he +discounts by requiring some duty; then a trial, a sacrifice,--for +he needs nobody,--which the unfortunate man must recognize by +contenting himself with the lowest wages; there are endless +exactions and overcharges, compensated by settlements on +pay-days effected in the most rapacious and deceitful spirit. +And the workman must keep silent and bend the knee, and clench +his fist under his frock: for the employer has the work, and only +too happy is he who can obtain the favor of his swindles. And +because society has not yet found a way to prevent, repress, and +punish this odious grinding process, so spontaneous, so +ingenuous, so disengaged from all superior impulse, it is +attributed to social constraint. What folly! + +The commission-merchant is the type, the highest expression, of +monopoly, the embodiment of commerce, that is, of civilization. +Every function depends upon his, participates in it, or is +assimilated to it: for, as from the standpoint of the +distribution of wealth the relations of men with each other are +all reducible to exchanges,--that is, to transfers of values,--it +may be said that civilization is personified in the +commission-merchant. + +Now, question the commission-merchants as to the morality of +their trade; they will be frank with you; all will tell you that +the commission business is extortion. Complaints are made of the +frauds and adulterations which disgrace manufactures: commerce--I +refer especially to the commission business--is only a gigantic +and permanent conspiracy of monopolists, by turns competing or +joined in pools; it is not a function performed with a view to a +legitimate profit, but a vast organization of speculation in all +articles of consumption, as well as on the circulation of persons +and products. Already swindling is tolerated in this profession: +how many way-bills overcharged, erased, altered! how many stamps +counterfeited! how much damage concealed or fraudulently +compounded! how many lies as to quality! how many promises given +and retracted! how many documents suppressed! what intrigues +and combinations! and then what treasons! + +The commission-merchant--that is, the merchant--that is, the +man--is a gambler, a slanderer, a charlatan, a mercenary, a +thief, a forger. . . . + +This is the effect of our antagonistic society, observe the +neo-mystics. So say the commercial people, the first under all +circumstances to accuse the corruption of the century. They act +as they do, if we may believe them, simply to indemnify +themselves and wholly against their inclination: they follow +necessity; theirs is a case of legitimate defence. + +Does it require an effort of genius to see that these mutual +recriminations strike at the very nature of man, that the +pretended perversion of society is nothing but the perversion of +man, and that the opposition of principles and interests is only +an external accident, so to speak, which brings into relief, but +without exerting a necessitating influence, both the blackness of +our egoism and the rare virtues with which our race is honored? + +I understand inharmonious competition and its irresistible +eliminating effects: this is inevitable. Competition, in its +higher expression, is the gearing by means of which laborers +reciprocally stimulate and sustain each other. But, pending the +realization of that organization which must elevate competition +to its veritable nature, it remains a civil war in which +producers, instead of aiding each other in labor, grind and crush +each other by labor. The danger here was imminent; man, to avert +it, had this supreme law of love; and nothing was easier, while +pushing competition to its extreme limits in the interest of +production, than to then repair its murderous effects by an +equitable distribution. Far from that, this anarchical +competition has become, as it were, the soul and spirit of +the laborer. Political economy placed in the hands of man this +weapon of death, and he has struck; he has used competition, as +the lion uses his paws and jaws, to kill and devour. How is it, +then, I repeat, that a wholly external accident has changed the +nature of man, which is supposed to be good and gentle and +social? + +The wine merchant calls to his aid jelly, magnin, insects, water, +and poisons; by combinations of his own he adds to the +destructive effects of competition. Whence comes this mania? +From the fact, you say, that his competitor sets him the example! +And this competitor, who incites him? Some other competitor. So +that, if we make the tour of society, we shall find that it is +the mass, and in the mass each particular individual, who, by a +tacit agreement of their passions,--pride, indolence, greed, +distrust, jealousy,--have organized this detestable war. + +After having gathered about him tools, material, and workmen, the +contractor must recover in the product, besides the amount of his +outlay, first the interest of his capital, and then a profit. It +is in consequence of this principle that lending at interest has +finally become established, and that gain, considered in itself, +has always passed for legitimate. Under this system, the police +of nations not having seen at first the essential contradiction +of loans at interest, the wage-worker, instead of depending +directly upon himself, had to depend upon an employer, as the +soldier belonged to the count, or the tribe to the patriarch. +This order of things was necessary, and, pending the +establishment of complete equality, it was not impossible that +the welfare of all should be secured by it. But when the master, +in his disorderly egoism, has said to the servant: "You shall +not share with me," and robbed him at one stroke of labor and +wages, where is the necessity, where the excuse? Will it be +necessary further, in order to justify the CONCUPISCIBLE +APPETITE, to fall back on the IRASCIBLE APPETITE? Take care: in +drawing back in order to justify the human being in the series of +his lusts, instead of saving his morality, you abandon it. For +my part, I prefer the guilty man to the wild-beast man. + +Nature has made man sociable: the spontaneous development of his +instincts now makes him an angel of charity, now robs him even of +the sentiment of fraternity and the idea of devotion. Did any +one ever see a capitalist, weary of gain, conspiring for the +general good and making the emancipation of the proletariat his +last speculation? There are many people, favorites of fortune, +to whom nothing is lacking but the crown of beneficence: now, +where is the grocer who, having grown rich, begins to sell at +cost? Where the baker who, retiring from business, leaves his +customers and his establishment to his assistants? Where the +apothecary who, under the pretence of winding up his affairs, +surrenders his drugs at their true value? When charity has its +martyrs, why has it not its amateurs? If there should suddenly +be formed a congress of bondholders, capitalists, and men of +business, retired but still fit for service, with a view to +carrying on a certain number of industries gratuitously, in a +short time society would be reformed from top to bottom. But +work for nothing! That is for the Vincent de Pauls, the +Fenelons, all those whose souls have always been weaned and whose +hearts have been pure. The man enriched by gain will be a +municipal councillor, a member of the committee on charities, an +officer of the infant schools: he will perform all the honorary +functions, barring exactly that which would be efficacious, but +which is repugnant to his habits. Work without hope of profits! +That cannot be, for it would be self-destruction. He would +like to, perhaps; he has not the courage. Video meliora +proboque, deteriora sequor. The retired proprietor is really the +owl of the fable gathering beech-nuts for its mutilated mice +until it is ready to devour them. Is society also to be blamed +for these effects of a passion so long, so freely, so fully +gratified? + +Who, then, will explain this mystery of a manifold and discordant +being, capable at once of the highest virtues and the most +frightful crimes? The dog licks his master who strikes him, +because the dog's nature is fidelity and this nature never leaves +him. The lamb takes refuge in the arms of the shepherd who +fleeces and eats him, because the sheep's inseparable +characteristics are gentleness and peace. The horse dashes +through flame and grape-shot without touching with his +swiftly-moving feet the wounded and dead lying in his path, +because the horse's soul is unalterable in its generosity. These +animals are martyrs for our sakes through the constancy and +devotion of their natures. The servant who defends his master at +the peril of his life, for a little gold betrays and murders him; +the chaste wife pollutes her bed because of some disgust or +absence, and in Lucrece we find Messalina; the proprietor, by +turns father and tyrant, refits and restores his ruined farmer +and drives from his lands the farmer's too numerous family, which +has increased on the strength of the feudal contract; the +warrior, mirror and paragon of chivalry, makes the corpses of his +companions a stepping- stone to advancement. Epaminondas and +Regulus traffic in the blood of their soldiers,--how many +instances have my own eyes witnessed!--and by a horrible contrast +the profession of sacrifice is the most fruitful in cowardice. +Humanity has its martyrs and its apostates: to what, I ask again, +must this division be attributed? + +To the antagonism of society, you always say; to the state of +separation, isolation, hostility to his fellows, in which man has +hitherto lived; in a word, to that alienation of his heart which +has led him to mistake enjoyment for love, property for +possession, pain for labor, intoxication for joy; to that warped +conscience, in short, which remorse has not ceased to pursue +under the name of ORIGINAL SIN. When man, reconciled with +himself, shall cease to look upon his neighbor and nature as +hostile powers, then will he love and produce simply by the +spontaneity of his energy; then it will be his passion to give, +as it is today to acquire; and then will he seek in labor and +devotion his only happiness, his supreme delight. Then, love +becoming really and indivisibly the law of man, justice will +thereafter be but an empty name, painful souvenir of a period of +violence and tears. + +Certainly I do not overlook the fact of antagonism, or, as it +will please you to call it, of religious alienation, any more +than the necessity of reconciling man with himself; my whole +philosophy is but a perpetuity of reconciliations. You admit +that the divergence of our nature is the preliminary of society, +or, let us rather say, the material of civilization. This is +precisely the fact, but, remember well, the indestructible fact +of which I seek the meaning. Certainly we should be very near an +understanding, if, instead of considering the dissidence and +harmony of the human faculties as two distinct periods, clean-cut +and consecutive in history, you would consent to view them with +me simply as the two faces of our nature, ever adverse, ever in +course of reconciliation, but never entirely reconciled. In a +word, as individualism is the primordial fact of humanity, so +association is its complementary term; but both are in incessant +manifestation, and on earth justice is eternally the condition of +love. + +Thus the dogma of the fall is not simply the expression of a +special and transitory state of human reason and morality: it is +the spontaneous confession, in symbolic phrase, of this fact as +astonishing as it is indestructible, the culpability, the +inclination to evil, of our race. Curse upon me a sinner! cries +on every hand and in every tongue the conscience of the human +race. V{ae} nobis quia peccavimus! Religion, in giving this +idea concrete and dramatic form, has indeed gone back of history +and beyond the limits of the world for that which is essential +and immanent in our soul; this, on its part, was but an +intellectual mirage; it was not mistaken as to the essentiality +and permanence of the fact. Now, it is this fact for which we +have to account, and it is also from this point of view that we +are to interpret the dogma of original sin. + +All peoples have had their expiatory customs, their penitential +sacrifices, their repressive and penal institutions, born of the +horror and regret of sin. Catholicism, which built a theory +wherever social spontaneity had expressed an idea or deposited a +hope, converted into a sacrament the at once symbolic and +effective ceremony by which the sinner expressed his repentance, +asked pardon of God and men for his fault, and prepared himself +for a better life. Consequently I do not hesitate to say that +the Reformation, in rejecting contrition, cavilling over the word +metanoia, attributing to faith alone the virtue of justification, +deconsecrating repentance in short, took a step backward and +utterly failed to recognize the law of progress. To deny was not +to reply. On this point as on so many others the abuses of the +Church called for reform; the theories of repentance, of +damnation, of the remission of sin, and of grace contained, if I +may venture to say so, in a latent state, the entire system of +humanity's education; these theories needed to be developed +and grown into rationalism; Luther knew nothing but their +destruction. Auricular confession was a degradation of +repentance, an equivocal demonstration substituted for a great +act of humility; Luther surpassed papist hypocrisy by reducing +the primitive confession before God and men (exomologoumai to +theo. . . . kai humin, adelphoi) to a soliloquy. The Christian +meaning then was lost, and not until three centuries later was it +restored by philosophy. + +Since, then, Christianity--that is, religious humanity--has not +been in error as to the REALITY of a fact essential in human +nature,--a fact which it has designated by the words ORIGINAL +PREVARICATION, let us further interrogate Christianity, humanity, +as to the MEANING of this fact. Let us not be astonished either +by metaphor or by allegory: truth is independent of figures. And +besides, what is truth to us but the continuous progress of our +mind from poetry to prose? + +And first let us inquire whether this at least singular idea of +original prevarication had not, somewhere in the Christian +theology, its correlative. For the true idea, the generic idea, +cannot result from an isolated conception; there must be a +series. + +Christianity, after having posited the dogma of the fall as the +first term, followed up its thought by affirming, for all who +should die in this state of pollution, an irrevocable separation +from God, an eternity of punishment. Then it completed its +theory by reconciling these two opposites by the dogma of +rehabilitation or of grace, according to which every creature +born in the hatred of God is reconciled by the merits of Jesus +Christ, which faith and repentance render efficacious. Thus, +essential corruption of our nature and perpetuity of punishment, +except in the case of redemption through voluntary participation +in Christ's sacrifice,--such is, in brief, the evolution of the +theological idea. The second affirmation is a consequence of the +first; the third is a negation and transformation of the two +others: in fact, a constitutional vice being necessarily +indestructible, the expiation which it involves is as eternal as +itself, unless a superior power comes to break destiny and lift +the anathema by an integral renovation. + +The human mind, in its religious caprices as well as in its most +positive theories, has always but one method; the same +metaphysics produced the Christian mysteries and the +contradictions of political economy; faith, without knowing it, +hangs upon reason; and we, explorers of divine and human +manifestations, are entitled to verify, in the name of reason, +the hypotheses of theology. + +What was it, then, that the universal reason, formulated in +religious dogmas, saw in human nature, when, by so regular a +metaphysical construction, it declared successively the +INGENUOUSNESS of the offence, the eternity of the penalty, the +necessity of grace? The veils of theology are becoming so +transparent that it quite resembles natural history. + +If we conceive the operation by which the supreme being is +supposed to have produced all beings, no longer as an emanation, +an exertion of the creative force and infinite substance, but as +a division or differentiation of this substantial force, each +being, organized or unorganized, will appear to us the special +representative of one of the innumerable potentialities of the +infinite being, as a section of the absolute; and the collection +of all these individualities (fluids, minerals, plants, insects, +fish, birds, and quadrupeds) will be the creation, the universe. + +Man, an abridgment of the universe, sums up and syncretizes +in his person all the potentialities of being, all the sections +of the absolute; he is the summit at which these potentialities, +which exist only by their divergence, meet in a group, but +without penetrating or becoming confounded with each other. Man, +therefore, by this aggregation, is at once spirit and matter, +spontaneity and reflection, mechanism and life, angel and brute. +He is venomous like the viper, sanguinary like the tiger, +gluttonous like the hog, obscene like the ape; and devoted like +the dog, generous like the horse, industrious like the bee, +monogamic like the dove, sociable like the beaver and sheep. And +in addition he is man,--that is, reasonable and free, susceptible +of education and improvement. Man enjoys as many names as +Jupiter; all these names he carries written on his face; and, in +the varied mirror of nature, his infallible instinct is able to +recognize them. A serpent is beautiful to the reason; it is the +conscience that finds it odious and ugly. The ancients as well +as the moderns grasped this idea of the constitution of man by +agglomeration of all terrestrial potentialities: the labors of +Gall and Lavater were, if I may say so, only attempts at +disintegration of the human syncretism, and their classification +of our faculties a miniature picture of nature. Man, in short, +like the prophet in the lions' den, is veritably given over to +the beasts; and if anything is destined to exhibit to posterity +the infamous hypocrisy of our epoch, it is the fact that educated +persons, spiritualistic bigots, have thought to serve religion +and morality by altering the nature of our race and giving the +lie to anatomy. + +Therefore the only question left to decide is whether it depends +upon man, notwithstanding the contradictions which the +progressive emission of his ideas multiplies around him, to give +more or less scope to the potentialities placed under his +control, or, as the moralists say, to his passions; in other +words, whether, like Hercules of old, he can conquer the +animality which besets him, the infernal legion which seems ever +ready to devour him. + +Now, the universal consent of peoples bears witness--and we have +shown it in the third and fourth chapters--that man, all his +animal impulses set aside, is summed up in intelligence and +liberty,--that is, first, a faculty of appreciation and choice, +and, second, a power of action indifferently applicable to good +and evil. We have shown further that these two faculties, which +exercise a necessary influence over each other, are susceptible +of indefinite development and improvement. + +Social destiny, the solution of the human enigma, is found, then, +in these words: EDUCATION, PROGRESS. + +The education of liberty, the taming of our instincts, the +enfranchisement or REDEMPTION of our soul,--this, then, as +Lessing has proved, is the meaning of the Christian mystery. +This education will last throughout our life and that of +humanity: the contradictions of political economy may be solved; +the essential contradiction of our being never will be. That is +why the great teachers of humanity, Moses, Buddha, Jesus Christ, +Zoroaster, were all apostles of expiation, living symbols of +repentance. Man is by nature a sinner,--that is, not essentially +ILL-DOING, but rather ILL-DONE,-- and it is his destiny to +perpetually re-create his ideal in himself. That is what the +greatest of painters, Raphael, felt profoundly, when he said that +art consists in rendering things, not as nature made them, but as +it should have made them. + +Henceforth, then, it is ours to teach the theologians, for we +alone continue the tradition of the Church, we alone possess the +meaning of the Scriptures, of the Councils, and of the Fathers. +Our interpretation rests on the most certain and most authentic +grounds, on the greatest authority to which men can appeal, the +metaphysical construction of ideas and facts. Yes, the human +being is vicious because he is illogical, because his +constitution is but an eclecticism which holds in perpetual +struggle the potentialities of his being, independently of the +contradictions of society. The life of man is only a continual +compromise between labor and pain, love and enjoyment, justice +and egoism; and the voluntary sacrifice which man makes in +obedience to his inferior attractions is the baptism which +prepares the way for his reconciliation with God and renders him +worthy of that beatific union and eternal happiness. + +The object of social economy, in incessantly securing order in +labor and favoring the education of the race, is then to render +charity--that charity which knows not how to rule its +slaves--superfluous as far as possible by equality, or better, to +make charity develop from justice, as a flower from its stem. +Ah! if charity had had the power to create happiness among men, +it would have proved it long ago; and socialism, instead of +seeking the organization of labor, would have had but to say: +"Take care, you are lacking in charity." + +But, alas! charity in man is stunted, sly, sluggish, and +lukewarm; in order to act, it needs elixirs and aromas. That is +why I have clung to the triple dogma of prevarication, damnation, +and redemption,--that is, perfectibility through justice. +Liberty here below is always in need of assistance, and the +Catholic theory of celestial favors comes to complete this too +real demonstration of the miseries of our nature. + +Grace, say the theologians, is, in the order of salvation, every +help or means which can conduct us to eternal life. That is to +say, man perfects himself, civilizes himself, humanizes himself +only by the incessant aid of experience, by industry, science, +and art, by pleasure and pain, in a word, by all bodily and +mental exercises. + +There is an HABITUAL grace, called also JUSTIFYING and +SANCTIFYING, which is conceived as a quality residing in the +soul, containing the innate virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, +and inseparable from charity. In other words, habitual grace is +the symbol of the predominance of good impulses, which lead man +to order and love, and by means of which he succeeds in subduing +his evil tendencies and remaining master in his own domain. As +for ACTUAL grace, that indicates the external means which give +scope to the orderly passions and serve to combat the subversive +passions. + +Grace, according to Saint Augustine, is essentially gratuitous, +and precedes sin in man. Bossuet expressed the same thought in +his style so full of poesy and tenderness: When God formed the +bowels of man, he originally placed goodness there. In fact, the +first determination of free will is in this natural GOODNESS, by +which man is continually incited to order, to labor, to study, to +modesty, to charity, and to sacrifice. Therefore Saint Paul +could say, without attacking free will, that, in everything +concerning the accomplishment of good, God worketh in us both to +will and to do. For all the holy aspirations of man are in him +before he begins to think and feel; and the pangs of heart which +he experiences when he violates them, the delight with which he +is filled when he obeys them, all the invitations, in short, +which come to him from society and his education, do not belong +to him. + +When grace is such that the will chooses the good with joy and +love, without hesitation and without recall, it is styled +EFFICACIOUS. Every one has witnessed those transports of soul +which suddenly decide a vocation, an act of heroism. Liberty +does not perish therein; but from its predeterminations it may be +said that it was inevitable that it should so decide. And the +Pelagians, Lutherans, and others have been mistaken in saying +that grace compromised free choice and killed the creative force +of the will; since all determinations of the will come +necessarily either from society which sustains it, or from nature +which opens its career and points out its destiny. + +But, on the other hand, the Augustinians, the Thomists, the +congruists, Jansen, Thomassin, Molina, etc., were strangely +mistaken when, sustaining at once free will and grace, they +failed to see that between these two terms the same relation +exists as between substance and form, and that they have +confessed an opposition which does not exist. Liberty, like +intelligence, like all substance and all force, is necessarily +determined,--that is, it has its forms and its attributes. Now, +while in matter the form and the attribute are inherent in and +contemporary with substance, in liberty the form is given by +three external agents, as it were,--the human essence, the laws +of thought, exercise or education. GRACE, in fine, like its +opposite, TEMPTATION, indicates precisely the fact of the +determination of liberty. + +To sum up, all modern ideas regarding the education of humanity +are only an interpretation, a philosophy of the Catholic doctrine +of grace, a doctrine which seemed obscure to its authors only +because of their ideas upon free will, which they supposed to be +threatened as soon as grace or the source of its determinations +was spoken of. We affirm, on the contrary, that liberty, +indifferent in itself to all modality, but destined to act and to +take shape according to a preestablished order, receives its +first impulse from the Creator who inspires it with love, +intelligence, courage, resolution, and all the gifts of the Holy +Spirit, and then delivers it to the labor of experience. It +follows from this that grace is necessarily PRE-MOVING, that +without it man is capable of no sort of good, and that +nevertheless free will accomplishes its own destiny +spontaneously, with reflection and choice. In all this there is +neither contradiction nor mystery. Man, in so far as he is man, +is good; but, like the tyrant described by Plato, who was, he +too, a teacher of grace, man carries in his bosom a thousand +monsters, which the worship of justice and science, music and +gymnastics, all the graces of opportunity and condition, must +cause him to overcome. Correct one definition in Saint +Augustine, and all that doctrine of grace, famous because of the +disputes which it excited and which disconcerted the Reformation, +will seem to you brilliant with clearness and harmony. + +And now is man God? + +God, according to the theological hypothesis, being the +sovereign, absolute, highly synthetic being, the infinitely wise +and free, and therefore indefectible and holy, Me, it is plain +that man, the syncretism of the creation, the point of union of +all the potentialities manifested by the creation, physical, +organic, mental, and moral; man, perfectible and fallible, does +not satisfy the conditions of Divinity as he, from the nature of +his mind, must conceive them. Neither is he God, nor can he, +living, become God. + +All the more, then, the oak, the lion, the sun, the universe +itself, sections of the absolute, are not God. At the same +stroke the worship of man and the worship of nature are +overthrown. + +Now we have to present the counter-proof of this theory. + +From the standpoint of social contradictions we have judged of +the morality of man. We are to judge, in its turn and from the +same standpoint, the morality of Providence. In other words, is +God possible, as speculation and faith offer him for the +adoration of mortals? + + +% 2.--Exposition of the myth of Providence.--Retrogression of +God. + +Among the proofs, to the number of three, which theologians and +philosophers are accustomed to bring forward to show the +existence of a God, they give the foremost position to universal +consent. + +This argument I considered when, without rejecting or admitting +it, I promptly asked myself: What does universal consent affirm +in affirming a God? And in this connection I should recall the +fact that the difference of religions is not a proof that the +human race has fallen into error in affirming a supreme Me +outside of itself, any more than the diversity of languages is a +proof of the non-reality of reason. The hypothesis of God, far +from being weakened, is strengthened and established by the very +divergence and opposition of faiths. + +An argument of another sort is that which is drawn from the order +of the world. In regard to this I have observed that, nature +affirming spontaneously, by the voice of man, its own distinction +into mind and matter, it remained to find out whether an infinite +mind, a soul of the world, governs and moves the universe, as +conscience, in its obscure intuition, tells us that a mind +animates man. If, then, I added, order were an infallible sign +of the presence of mind, the presence of a God in the universe +could not be overlooked. + +Unfortunately this IF is not demonstrated and cannot be. For, on +the one hand, pure mind, conceived as the opposite of matter, is +a contradictory entity, the reality of which, consequently, +nothing can attest. On the other hand, certain beings ordered in +themselves--such as crystals, plants, and the planetary system, +which, in the sensations that they make us feel, do not return us +sentiment for sentiment, as the animals do--seeming to us utterly +destitute of conscience, there is no more reason for supposing a +mind in the centre of the world than for placing one in a stick +of sulphur; and it may be that, if mind, conscience, exists +anywhere, it is only in man. + +Nevertheless, if the order of the world can tell us nothing as to +the existence of God, it reveals a thing no less precious +perhaps, and which will serve us as a landmark in our +inquiries,--namely, that all beings, all essences, all phenomena +are bound together by a totality of laws resulting from their +properties, a totality which in the third chapter I have named +FATALITY or NECESSITY. Whether or not there exists then an +infinite intelligence, embracing the whole system of these laws, +the whole field of fatalism; whether or not to this infinite +intelligence is united in profound penetration a superior will, +eternally determined by the totality of the cosmic laws and +consequently infinitely powerful and free; whether or not, +finally, these three things, fatality, intelligence, will, are +contemporary in the universe, adequate to each other and +identical,--it is clear that so far we find nothing repugnant to +these positions; but it is precisely this hypothesis, this +anthropomorphism, which is yet to be demonstrated. + +Thus, while the testimony of the human race reveals to us a God, +without saying what this God may be, the order of the world +reveals to us a fatality,--that is, an absolute and peremptory +totality of causes and effects,--in short, a system of +laws,--which would be, if God exists, like the sight and +knowledge of this God. + +The third and last proof of the existence of God proposed by the +theists and called by them the metaphysical proof is nothing but +a tautological construction of categories, which proves +absolutely nothing. + +Something exists; therefore there is something in existence. + +Something is multiple; therefore something is one. + +Something comes after something; therefore something is prior to +something. + +Something is smaller of greater than something; therefore +something is greater than all things. + +Something is moved; therefore something is mover, etc., ad +infinitum. + +That is what is called even today, in the faculties and the +seminaries, by the minister of public education and by +Messeigneurs the bishops, proving the existence of God by +metaphysics. That is what the elite of the French youth are +condemned to bleat after their professors, for a year, or else +forfeit their diplomas and the privilege of studying law, +medicine, polytechnics, and the sciences. Certainly, if anything +is calculated to surprise, it is that with such philosophy Europe +is not yet atheistic. The persistence of the theistic idea by +the side of the jargon of the schools is the greatest of +miracles; it constitutes the strongest prejudice that can be +cited in favor of Divinity. + +I do not know what humanity calls God. + +I cannot say whether it is man, the universe, or some invisible +reality that we are to understand by that name; or indeed whether +the word stands for anything more than an ideal, a creature of +the mind. Nevertheless, to give body to my hypothesis and +influence to my inquiries, I shall consider God in accordance +with the common opinion, as a being apart, omnipresent, distinct +from creation, endowed with imperishable life as well as infinite +knowledge and activity, but above all foreseeing and just, +punishing vice and rewarding virtue. I shall put aside the +pantheistic hypothesis as hypocritical and lacking courage. God +is personal, or he does not exist: this alternative is the axiom +from which I shall deduce my entire theodicy. + +Not concerning myself therefore for the present with questions +which the idea of God may raise later, the problem before me now +is to decide, in view of the facts the evolution of which in +society I have established, what I should think of the conduct of +God, as it is held up for my faith and relatively to humanity. +In short, it is from the standpoint of the demonstrated existence +of evil that I, with the aid of a new dialectical process, mean +to fathom the Supreme Being. Evil exists: upon this point +everybody seems to agree. + +Now, have asked the stoics, the Epicureans, the manicheans, and +the atheists, how harmonize the presence of evil with the idea of +a sovereignly good, wise, and powerful God? How can God, after +allowing the introduction of evil into the world, whether through +weakness or negligence or malice, render responsible for their +acts creatures which he himself has created imperfect, and which +he thus delivers to all the dangers of their attractions? Why, +finally, since he promises the just a never-ending bliss after +death, or, in other words, gives us the idea and desire of +happiness, does he not cause us to enjoy this life by stripping +us of the temptation of evil, instead of exposing us to an +eternity of torture? + +Such used to be the purport of the protest of the atheists. + +Today this is scarcely discussed: the theists are no longer +troubled by the logical impossibilities of their system. They +want a God, especially a Providence: there is competition for +this article between the radicals and the Jesuits. The +socialists preach happiness and virtue in the name of God; in the +schools those who talk the loudest against the Church are the +first of mystics. + +The old theists were more anxious about their faith. They tried, +if not to demonstrate it, at least to render it reasonable, +feeling sure, unlike their successors, that there is neither +dignity nor rest for the believer except in certainty. + +The Fathers of the Church then answered the incredulous that evil +is only DEPRIVATION OF A GREATER GOOD, and that those who always +reason about the BETTER lack a point of support upon which to +establish themselves, which leads straight to absurdity. In +fact, every creature being necessarily confined and imperfect, +God, by his infinite power, can continually add to his +perfections: in this respect there is always, in some degree, a +deprivation of good in the creature. Reciprocally, however +imperfect and confined the creature is supposed to be, from the +moment that it exists it enjoys a certain degree of good, better +for it than annihilation. Therefore, though it is a rule that +man is considered good only so far as he accomplishes all the +good that he can, it is not the same with God, since the +obligation to do good infinitely is contradictory to the very +faculty of creation, perfection and creature being two terms that +necessarily exclude each other. God, then, was sole judge of the +degree of perfection which it was proper to give to each +creature: to prefer a charge against him under this head is to +slander his justice. + +As for sin,--that is, moral evil,--the Fathers, to reply to the +objections of the atheists, had the theories of free will, +redemption, justification, and grace, to the discussion of which +we need not return. + +I have no knowledge that the atheists have replied categorically +to this theory of the essential imperfection of the creature, a +theory reproduced with brilliancy by M. de Lamennais in his +"Esquisse." It was impossible, indeed, for them to reply to it; +for, reasoning from a false conception of evil and of free will, +and in profound ignorance of the laws of humanity, they were +equally without reasons by which either to triumph over their own +doubts or to refute the believers. + +Let us leave the sphere of the finite and infinite, and place +ourselves in the conception of order. Can God make a round +circle, a right-angled square? Certainly. + +Would God be guilty if, after having created the world according +to the laws of geometry, he had put it into our minds, or even +allowed us to believe without fault of our own, that a circle may +be square or a square circular, though, in consequence of this +false opinion, we should have to suffer an incalculable series of +evils? Again, undoubtedly. + +Well! that is exactly what God, the God of Providence, has done +in the government of humanity; it is of that that I accuse him. +He knew from all eternity--inasmuch as we mortals have discovered +it after six thousand years of painful experience--that order in +society--that is, liberty, wealth, science--is realized by the +reconciliation of opposite ideas which, were each to be taken as +absolute in itself, would precipitate us into an abyss of misery: +why did he not warn us? Why did he not correct our judgment at +the start? Why did he abandon us to our imperfect logic, +especially when our egoism must find a pretext in his acts of +injustice and perfidy? He knew, this jealous God, that, if he +exposed us to the hazards of experience, we should not find until +very late that security of life which constitutes our entire +happiness: why did he not abridge this long apprenticeship +by a revelation of our own laws? Why, instead of fascinating us +with contradictory opinions, did he not reverse experience by +causing us to reach the antinomies by the path of analysis of +synthetic ideas, instead of leaving us to painfully clamber up +the steeps of antinomy to synthesis? + +If, as was formerly thought, the evil from which humanity suffers +arose solely from the imperfection inevitable in every creature, +or better, if this evil were caused only by the antagonism of the +potentialities and inclinations which constitute our being, and +which reason should teach us to master and guide, we should have +no right to complain. Our condition being all that it could be, +God would be justified. + +But, in view of this wilful delusion of our minds, a delusion +which it was so easy to dissipate and the effects of which must +be so terrible, where is the excuse of Providence? Is it not +true that grace failed man here? God, whom faith represents as a +tender father and a prudent master, abandons us to the fatality +of our incomplete conceptions; he digs the ditch under our feet; +he causes us to move blindly: and then, at every fall, he +punishes us as rascals. What do I say? It seems as if it were +in spite of him that at last, covered with bruises from our +journey, we recognize our road; as if we offended his glory in +becoming more intelligent and free through the trials which he +imposes upon us. What need, then, have we to continually invoke +Divinity, and what have we to do with those satellites of a +Providence which for sixty centuries, by the aid of a thousand +religions, has deceived and misled us? + +What! God, through his gospel-bearers and by the law which he +has put in our hearts, commands us to love our neighbor as +ourselves, to do to others as we wish to be done by, to render +each his due, not to keep back anything from the laborer's hire, +and not to lend at usury; he knows, moreover, that in us charity +is lukewarm and conscience vacillating, and that the slightest +pretext always seems to us a sufficient reason for exemption from +the law: and yet he involves us, with such dispositions, in the +contradictions of commerce and property, in which, by the +necessity of the theory, charity and justice are bound to perish! +Instead of enlightening our reason concerning the bearing of +principles which impose themselves upon it with all the power of +necessity, but whose consequences, adopted by egoism, are fatal +to human fraternity, he places this abused reason at the service +of our passion; by seduction of the mind, he destroys our +equilibrium of conscience; he justifies in our own eyes our +usurpations and our avarice; he makes the separation of man from +his fellow inevitable and legitimate; he creates division and +hatred among us in rendering equality by labor and by right +impossible; he makes us believe that this equality, the law of +the world, is unjust among men; and then he proscribes us en +masse for not having known how to practise his incomprehensible +precepts! I believe I have proved, to be sure, that our +abandonment by Providence does not justify us; but, whatever our +crime, toward it we are not guilty; and if there is a being who, +before ourselves and more than ourselves, is deserving of +hell,--I am bound to name him,--it is God. + +When the theists, in order to establish their dogma of +Providence, cite the order of nature as a proof, although this +argument is only a begging of the question, at least it cannot be +said that it involves a contradiction, and that the fact cited +bears witness against the hypothesis. In the system of the +world, for instance, nothing betrays the smallest anomaly, +the slightest lack of foresight, from which any prejudice +whatever can be drawn against the idea of a supreme, intelligent, +personal motor. In short, though the order of nature does not +prove the reality of a Providence, it does not contradict it. + +It is a very different thing with the government of humanity. +Here order does not appear at the same time as matter; it was not +created, as in the system of the world, once and for eternity. +It is gradually developed according to an inevitable series of +principles and consequences which the human being himself, the +being to be ordered, must disengage spontaneously, by his own +energy and at the solicitation of experience. No revelation +regarding this is given him. Man is submitted at his origin to a +preestablished necessity, to an absolute and irresistible order. +That this order may be realized, man must discover it; that it +may exist, he must have divined it. This labor of invention +might be abridged; no one, either in heaven or on earth, will +come to man's aid; no one will instruct him. Humanity, for +hundreds of centuries, will devour its generations; it will +exhaust itself in blood and mire, without the God whom it +worships coming once to illuminate its reason and abridge its +time of trial. Where is divine action here? Where is +Providence? + +"IF GOD DID NOT EXIST,"--it is Voltaire, the enemy of religions, +who says so,--"IT WOULD BE NECESSARY TO INVENT HIM." Why? +"Because," adds the same Voltaire, "if I were dealing with an +atheist prince whose interest it might be to have me pounded in a +mortar, I am very sure that I should be pounded." Strange +aberration of a great mind! And if you were dealing with a pious +prince, whose confessor, speaking in the name of God, should +command that you be burned alive, would you not be very sure of +being burned also? Do you forget, then, anti-Christ, the +Inquisition, and the Saint Bartholomew, and the stakes of Vanini +and Bruno, and the tortures of Galileo, and the martyrdom of so +many free thinkers? Do not try to distinguish here between use +and abuse: for I should reply to you that from a mystical and +supernatural principle, from a principle which embraces +everything, which explains everything, which justifies +everything, such as the idea of God, all consequences are +legitimate, and that the zeal of the believer is the sole judge +of their propriety. + +"I once believed," says Rousseau, "that it was possible to be an +honest man and dispense with God; but I have recovered from that +error." Fundamentally the same argument as that of Voltaire, the +same justification of intolerance: Man does good and abstains +from evil only through consideration of a Providence which +watches over him; a curse on those who deny its existence! And, +to cap the climax of absurdity, the man who thus seeks for our +virtue the sanction of a Divinity who rewards and punishes is the +same man who teaches the native goodness of man as a religious +dogma. + +And for my part I say: The first duty of man, on becoming +intelligent and free, is to continually hunt the idea of God out +of his mind and conscience. For God, if he exists, is +essentially hostile to our nature, and we do not depend at all +upon his authority. We arrive at knowledge in spite of him, at +comfort in spite of him, at society in spite of him; every step +we take in advance is a victory in which we crush Divinity. + +Let it no longer be said that the ways of God are impenetrable. +We have penetrated these ways, and there we have read in letters +of blood the proofs of God's impotence, if not of his +malevolence. My reason, long humiliated, is gradually rising to +a level with the infinite; with time it will discover all that +its inexperience hides from it; with time I shall be less and +less a worker of misfortune, and by the light that I shall have +acquired, by the perfection of my liberty, I shall purify myself, +idealize my being, and become the chief of creation, the equal of +God. A single moment of disorder which the Omnipotent might have +prevented and did not prevent accuses his Providence and shows +him lacking in wisdom; the slightest progress which man, +ignorant, abandoned, and betrayed, makes towards good honors him +immeasurably. By what right should God still say to me: BE +HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY? Lying spirit, I will answer him, imbecile +God, your reign is over; look to the beasts for other victims. I +know that I am not holy and never can become so; and how could +you be holy, if I resemble you? Eternal father, Jupiter or +Jehovah, we have learned to know you; you are, you were, you ever +will be, the jealous rival of Adam, the tyrant of Prometheus. + +So I do not fall into the sophism refuted by St. Paul, when he +forbids the vase to say to the potter: Why hast thou made me +thus? I do not blame the author of things for having made me an +inharmonious creature, an incoherent assemblage; I could exist +only in such a condition. I content myself with crying out to +him: Why do you deceive me? Why, by your silence, have you +unchained egoism within me? Why have you submitted me to the +torture of universal doubt by the bitter illusion of the +antagonistic ideas which you have put in my mind? Doubt of +truth, doubt of justice, doubt of my conscience and my liberty, +doubt of yourself, O God! and, as a result of this doubt, +necessity of war with myself and with my neighbor! That, supreme +Father, is what you have done for our happiness and your glory; +such, from the beginning, have been your will and your +government; such the bread, kneaded in blood and tears, upon +which you have fed us. The sins which we ask you to forgive, you +caused us to commit; the traps from which we implore you to +deliver us, you set for us; and the Satan who besets us is +yourself. + +You triumphed, and no one dared to contradict you, when, after +having tormented in his body and in his soul the righteous Job, a +type of our humanity, you insulted his candid piety, his prudent +and respectful ignorance. We were as naught before your +invisible majesty, to whom we gave the sky for a canopy and the +earth for a footstool. And now here you are dethroned and +broken. Your name, so long the last word of the savant, the +sanction of the judge, the force of the prince, the hope of the +poor, the refuge of the repentant sinner,--this incommunicable +name, I say, henceforth an object of contempt and curses, shall +be a hissing among men. For God is stupidity and cowardice; God +is hypocrisy and falsehood; God is tyranny and misery; God is +evil. As long as humanity shall bend before an altar, humanity, +the slave of kings and priests, will be condemned; as long as one +man, in the name of God, shall receive the oath of another man, +society will be founded on perjury; peace and love will be +banished from among mortals. God, take yourself away! for, from +this day forth, cured of your fear and become wise, I swear, with +hand extended to heaven, that you are only the tormentor of my +reason, the spectre of my conscience. + +I deny, therefore, the supremacy of God over humanity; I reject +his providential government, the non-existence of which is +sufficiently established by the metaphysical and economical +hallucinations of humanity,--in a word, by the martyrdom of +our race; I decline the jurisdiction of the Supreme Being over +man; I take away his titles of father, king, judge, good, +merciful, pitiful, helpful, rewarding, and avenging. All these +attributes, of which the idea of Providence is made up, are but a +caricature of humanity, irreconcilable with the autonomy of +civilization, and contradicted, moreover, by the history of its +aberrations and catastrophes. Does it follow, because God can no +longer be conceived as Providence, because we take from him that +attribute so important to man that he has not hesitated to make +it the synonym of God, that God does not exist, and that the +theological dogma from this moment is shown to be false in its +content? + +Alas! no. A prejudice relative to the divine essence has been +destroyed; by the same stroke the independence of man is +established: that is all. The reality of the divine Being is +left intact, and our hypothesis still exists. In demonstrating +that it was impossible for God to be Providence, we have taken a +first step in the determination of the idea of God; the question +now is to find out whether this first datum accords with the rest +of the hypothesis, and consequently to determine, from the same +standpoint of intelligence, what God is, if he is. + +For just as, after having established the guilt of man under the +influence of the economical contradictions, we have had to +account for this guilt, if we would not leave man wounded after +having made him a contemptible satire, likewise, after having +admitted the chimerical nature of the doctrine of a Providence in +God, we must inquire how this lack of Providence harmonizes with +the idea of sovereign intelligence and liberty, if we would not +sacrifice the proposed hypothesis, which nothing yet shows to be +false. + +I affirm, then, that God, if there is a God, does not resemble +the effigies which philosophers and priests have made of him; +that he neither thinks nor acts according to the law of analysis, +foresight, and progress, which is the distinctive characteristic +of man; that, on the contrary, he seems rather to follow an +inverse and retrogressive course; that intelligence, liberty, +personality in God are constituted not as in us; and that this +originality of nature, perfectly accounted for, makes God an +essentially anti-civilizing, anti-liberal, anti-human being. + +I prove my proposition by going from the negative to the +positive,--that is, by deducing the truth of my thesis from the +progress of the objections to it. + +1. God, say the believers, can be conceived only as infinitely +good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, etc.,--the whole +litany of the infinites. Now, infinite perfection cannot be +reconciled with the datum of a will holding an indifferent or +even reactionary attitude toward progress: therefore, either God +does not exist, or the objection drawn from the development of +the antinomies proves only our ignorance of the mysteries of +infinity. + +I answer these reasoners that, if, to give legitimacy to a wholly +arbitrary opinion, it suffices to fall back on the +unfathomability of mysteries, I am as well satisfied with the +mystery of a God without providence as with that of a Providence +without efficacy. But, in view of the facts, there is no +occasion to invoke such a consideration of probability; we must +confine ourselves to the positive declaration of experience. +Now, experience and facts prove that humanity, in its +development, obeys an inflexible necessity, whose laws are made +clear and whose system is realized as fast as the collective +reason reveals it, without anything in society to give evidence +of an external instigation, either from a providential +command or from any superhuman thought. The basis of the belief +in Providence is this necessity itself, which is, as it were, the +foundation and essence of collective humanity. But this +necessity, thoroughly systematic and progressive as it may +appear, does not on that account constitute providence either in +humanity or in God; to become convinced thereof it is enough to +recall the endless oscillations and painful gropings by which +social order is made manifest. + +2. Other arguers come unexpectedly across our path, and cry: +What is the use of these abstruse researches? There is no more +an infinite intelligence than a Providence; there is neither me +nor will in the universe outside of man. All that happens, evil +as well as good, happens necessarily. An irresistible ensemble +of causes and effects embraces man and nature in the same +fatality; and those faculties in ourselves which we call +conscience, will, judgment, etc., are only particular accidents +of the eternal, immutable, and inevitable whole. + +This argument is the preceding one inverted. It consists in +substituting for the idea of an omnipotent and omniscient author +that of a necessary and eternal, but unconscious and blind, +coordination. From this opposition we can already form a +presentiment that the reasoning of the materialists is no firmer +than that of the believers. + +Whoever says necessity or fatality says absolute and inviolable +order; whoever, on the contrary, says disturbance and disorder +affirms that which is most repugnant to fatality. Now, there is +disorder in the world, disorder produced by the play of +spontaneous forces which no power enchains: how can that be, if +everything is the result of fate? + +But who does not see that this old quarrel between theism and +materialism proceeds from a false notion of liberty and fatality, +two terms which have been considered contradictory, though really +they are not. If man is free, says the one party, all the more +surely is God free too, and fatality is but a word; if everything +is enchained in nature, answers the other party, there is neither +liberty nor Providence: and so each party argues in its own +direction till out of sight, never able to understand that this +pretended opposition of liberty and fatality is only the natural, +but not antithetical, distinction between the facts of activity +and those of intelligence. + +Fatality is the absolute order, the law, the code, fatum, of the +constitution of the universe. But this code, very far from being +exclusive in itself of the idea of a sovereign legislator, +supposes it so naturally that all antiquity has not hesitated to +admit it; and today the whole question is to find out whether, as +the founders of religions have believed, the legislator preceded +the law in the universe,--that is, whether intelligence is prior +to fatality,--or whether, as the moderns claim, the law preceded +the legislator,--in other words, whether mind is born of nature. +BEFORE or AFTER, this alternative sums up all philosophy. To +dispute over the posteriority or priority of mind is all very +well, but to deny mind in the name of fatality is an exclusion +which nothing justifies. To refute it, it is sufficient to +recall the very fact on which it is based,--the existence of +evil. + +Given matter and attraction, the system of the world is their +product: that is fatal. Given two correlative and contradictory +ideas, a composition must follow: that also is fatal. Fatality +clashes, not with liberty, whose destiny, on the contrary, is to +secure the accomplishment of fatality within a certain sphere, +but with disorder, with everything that acts as a barrier to the +execution of the law. Is there disorder in the world, yes or no? + +The fatalists do not deny it, for, by the strangest blunder, it +is the presence of evil which has made them fatalists. Now, I +say that the presence of evil, far from giving evidence of +fatality, breaks fatality, does violence to destiny, and supposes +a cause whose erroneous but voluntary initiative is in +discordance with the law. This cause I call liberty; and I have +proved, in the fourth chapter, that liberty, like reason which +serves man as a torch, is as much greater and more perfect as it +harmonizes more completely with the order of nature, which is +fatality. + +Therefore to oppose fatality to the testimony of the conscience +which feels itself free, and vice versa, is to prove that one +misconstrues ideas and has not the slightest appreciation of the +question. The progress of humanity may be defined as the +education of reason and human liberty by fatality: it is absurd +to regard these three terms as exclusive of each other and +irreconcilable, when in reality they sustain each other, fatality +serving as the base, reason coming after, and liberty crowning +the edifice. It is to know and penetrate fatality that human +reason tends; it is to conform to it that liberty aspires; and +the criticism in which we are now engaged of the spontaneous +development and instinctive beliefs of the human race is at +bottom only a study of fatality. Let us explain this. + +Man, endowed with activity and intelligence, has the power to +disturb the order of the world, of which he forms a part. But +all his digressions have been foreseen, and are effected within +certain limits, which, after a certain number of goings and +comings, lead man back to order. From these oscillations of +liberty may be determined the role of humanity in the world; and, +since the destiny of man is bound up with that of creatures, it +is possible to go back from him to the supreme law of things and +even to the sources of being. + +Accordingly I will no longer ask: How is it that man has the +power to violate the providential order, and how is it that +Providence allows him to do so? I state the question in other +terms: How is it that man, an integrant part of the universe, a +product of fatality, is able to break fatality? How is it that a +fatal organization, the organization of humanity, is +adventitious, contradictory, full of tumult and catastrophes? +Fatality is not confined to an hour, to a century, to a thousand +years: if science and liberty must inevitably be ours, why do +they not come sooner? For, the moment we suffer from the delay, +fatality contradicts itself; evil is as exclusive of fatality as +of Providence. + +What sort of a fatality, in short, is that which is contradicted +every instant by the facts which take place within its bosom? +This the fatalists are bound to explain, quite as much as the +theists are bound to explain what sort of an infinite +intelligence that can be which is unable either to foresee or +prevent the misery of its creatures. + +But that is not all. Liberty, intelligence, fatality, are at +bottom three adequate expressions, serving to designate three +different faces of being. In man reason is only a defined +liberty conscious of its limit. But within the circle of its +limitations this liberty is also fatality, a living and personal +fatality. When, therefore, the conscience of the human race +proclaims that the fatality of the universe--that is, the +highest, the supreme fatality--is adequate to an infinite reason +as well as to an infinite liberty, it simply puts forth an +hypothesis in every way legitimate, the verification of which is +incumbent upon all parties. + + +3. Now come the HUMANISTS, the new atheists, and say: + +Humanity in its ensemble is the reality sought by the social +genius under the mystical name of God. This phenomenon of +the collective reason,--a sort of mirage in which humanity, +contemplating itself, takes itself for an external and +transcendent being who considers its destinies and presides over +them,--this illusion of the conscience, we say, has been analyzed +and explained; and henceforth to reproduce the theological +hypothesis is to take a step backward in science. We must +confine ourselves strictly to society, to man. GOD in religion, +the STATE in politics, PROPERTY in economy, such is the triple +form under which humanity, become foreign to itself, has not +ceased to rend itself with its own hands, and which today it must +reject. + +I admit that every affirmation or hypothesis of Divinity proceeds +from anthropomorphism, and that God in the first place is only +the ideal, or rather, the spectre of man. I admit further that +the idea of God is the type and foundation of the principle of +authority and absolutism, which it is our task to destroy or at +least to subordinate wherever it manifests itself, in science, +industry, public affairs. Consequently I do not contradict +humanism; I continue it. Taking up its criticism of the divine +being and applying it to man, I observe: + +That man, in adoring himself as God, has posited of himself an +ideal contrary to his own essence, and has declared himself an +antagonist of the being supposed to be sovereignly perfect,--in +short, of the infinite; + +That man consequently is, in his own judgment, only a false +divinity, since in setting up God he denies himself; and that +humanism is a religion as detestable as any of the theisms of +ancient origin; + +That this phenomenon of humanity taking itself for God is not +explainable in the terms of humanism, and requires a further +interpretation. + +God, according to the theological conception, is not only +sovereign master of the universe, the infallible and +irresponsible king of creatures, the intelligible type of man; he +is the eternal, immutable, omnipresent, infinitely wise, +infinitely free being. Now, I say that these attributes of God +contain more than an ideal, more than an elevation--to whatever +power you will--of the corresponding attributes of humanity; I +say that they are a contradiction of them. God is contradictory +of man, just as charity is contradictory of justice; as sanctity, +the ideal of perfection, is contradictory of perfectibility; as +royalty, the ideal of legislative power, is contradictory of law, +etc. So that the divine hypothesis is reborn from its resolution +into human reality, and the problem of a complete, harmonious, +and absolute existence, ever put aside, ever comes back. + +To demonstrate this radical antinomy it suffices to put facts in +juxtaposition with definitions. + +Of all facts the most certain, most constant, most indubitable, +is certainly that in man knowledge is progressive, methodical, +the result of reflection,--in short, experimental; so much so +that every theory not having the sanction of experience--that is, +of constancy and concatenation in its representations--thereby +lacks a scientific character. In regard to this not the +slightest doubt can be raised. Mathematics themselves, though +called pure, are subject to the CONCATENATION of propositions, +and hence depend upon experience and acknowledge its law. + +Man's knowledge, starting with acquired observation, then +progresses and advances in an unlimited sphere. The goal which +it has in view, the ideal which it tends to realize without ever +being able to attain it,-- placing it on the contrary farther and +farther ahead of it,--is the infinite, the absolute. + +Now, what would be an infinite knowledge, an absolute knowledge, +determining an equally infinite liberty, such as speculation +supposes in God? It would be a knowledge not only universal, but +intuitive, spontaneous, as thoroughly free from hesitation as +from objectivity, although embracing at once the real and the +possible; a knowledge sure, but not demonstrative; complete, not +sequential; a knowledge, in short, which, being eternal in its +formation, would be destitute of any progressive character in the +relation of its parts. + +Psychology has collected numerous examples of this mode of +knowing in the instinctive and divinatory faculties of animals; +in the spontaneous talent of certain men born mathematicians and +artists, independent of all education; finally, in most of the +primitive human institutions and monuments, products of +unconscious genius independent of theories. And the regular and +complex movements of the heavenly bodies; the marvellous +combinations of matter,--could it not be said that these too are +the effects of a special instinct, inherent in the elements? + +If, then, God exists, something of him appears to us in the +universe and in ourselves: but this something is in flagrant +opposition with our most authentic tendencies, with our most +certain destiny; this something is continually being effaced from +our soul by education, and to make it disappear is the object of +our care. God and man are two natures which shun each other as +soon as they know each other; in the absence of a transformation +of one or the other or both, how could they ever be reconciled? +If the progress of reason tends to separate us from Divinity, how +could God and man be identical in point of reason? How, +consequently, could humanity become God by education? + +Let us take another example. + +The essential characteristic of religion is feeling. Hence, by +religion, man attributes feeling to God, as he attributes reason +to him; moreover, he affirms, following the ordinary course of +his ideas, that feeling in God, like knowledge, is infinite. + +Now, that alone is sufficient to change the quality of feeling in +God, and make it an attribute totally distinct from that of man. +In man sentiment flows, so to speak, from a thousand different +sources: it contradicts itself, it confuses itself, it rends +itself; otherwise, it would not feel itself. In God, on the +contrary, sentiment is infinite,--that is, one, complete, fixed, +clear, above all storms, and not needing irritation as a contrast +in order to arrive at happiness. We ourselves experience this +divine mode of feeling when a single sentiment, absorbing all our +faculties, as in the case of ecstasy, temporarily imposes silence +upon the other affections. But this rapture exists always only +by the aid of contrast and by a sort of provocation from without; +it is never perfect, or, if it reaches fulness, it is like the +star which attains its apogee, for an indivisible instant. + +Thus we do not live, we do not feel, we do not think, except by a +series of oppositions and shocks, by an internal warfare; our +ideal, then, is not infinity, but equilibrium; infinity expresses +something other than ourselves. + +It is said: God has no attributes peculiar to himself; his +attributes are those of man; then man and God are one and the +same thing. + +On the contrary, the attributes of man, being infinite in God, +are for that very reason peculiar and specific: it is the nature +of the infinite to become speciality, essence, from the fact that +the finite exists. Deny then, if you will, the reality of God, +as one denies the reality of a contradictory idea; reject +from science and morality this inconceivable and bloody phantom +which seems to pursue us the more, the farther it gets from us; +up to a certain point that may be justified, and at any rate can +do no harm. But do not make God into humanity, for that would be +slander of both. + +Will it be said that the opposition between man and the divine +being is illusory, and that it arises from the opposition that +exists between the individual man and the essence of entire +humanity? Then it must be maintained that humanity, since it is +humanity that they deify, is neither progressive, nor contrasted +in reason and feeling; in short, that it is infinite in +everything,--which is denied not only by history, but by +psychology. + +This is not a correct understanding, cry the humanists. To have +the right ideal of humanity, it must be considered, not in its +historic development, but in the totality of its manifestations, +as if all human generations, gathered into one moment, formed a +single man, an infinite and immortal man. + +That is to say, they abandon the reality to seize a projection; +the true man is not the real man; to find the veritable man, the +human ideal, we must leave time and enter eternity,--what do I +say?--desert the finite for infinity, man for God! Humanity, in +the shape we know it, in the shape in which it is developed, in +the only shape in fact in which it can exist, is erect; they show +us its reversed image, as in a mirror, and then say to us: That +is man! And I answer: It is no longer man, it is God. Humanism +is the most perfect theism. + +What, then, is this providence which the theists suppose in God? +An essentially human faculty, an anthropomorphic attribute, by +which God is thought to look into the future according to the +progress of events, in the same way that we men look into +the past, following the perspective of chronology and history. + +Now, it is plain that, just as infinity--that is, spontaneous and +universal intuition in knowledge--is incompatible with humanity, +so providence is incompatible with the hypothesis of the divine +being. God, to whom all ideas are equal and simultaneous; God, +whose reason does not separate synthesis from antinomy; God, to +whom eternity renders all things present and contemporary,--was +unable, when creating us, to reveal to us the mystery of our +contradictions; and that precisely because he is God, because he +does not see contradiction, because his intelligence does not +fall under the category of time and the law of progress, because +his reason is intuitive and his knowledge infinite. Providence +in God is a contradiction within a contradiction; it was through +providence that God was actually made in the image of man; take +away this providence, and God ceases to be man, and man in turn +must abandon all his pretensions to divinity. + +Perhaps it will be asked of what use it is to God to have +infinite knowledge, if he is ignorant of what takes place in +humanity. + +Let us distinguish. God has a perception of order, the sentiment +of good. But this order, this good, he sees as eternal and +absolute; he does not see it in its successive and imperfect +aspects; he does not grasp its defects. We alone are capable of +seeing, feeling, and appreciating evil, as well as of measuring +duration, because we alone are capable of producing evil, and +because our life is temporary. God sees and feels only order; +God does not grasp what happens, because what happens is BENEATH +him, beneath his horizon. We, on the contrary, see at once the +good and the evil, the temporal and the eternal, order and +disorder, the finite and the infinite; we see within us and +outside of us; and our reason, because it is finite, surpasses +our horizon. + +Thus, by the creation of man and the development of society, a +finite and providential reason, our own, has been posited in +contradiction of the intuitive and infinite reason, God; so that +God, without losing anything of his infinity in any direction, +seems diminished by the very fact of the existence of humanity. +Progressive reason resulting from the projection of eternal ideas +upon the movable and inclined plane of time, man can understand +the language of God, because he comes from God and his reason at +the start is like that of God; but God cannot understand us or +come to us, because he is infinite and cannot re-clothe himself +in finite attributes without ceasing to be God, without +destroying himself. The dogma of providence in God is shown to +be false, both in fact and in right. + +It is easy now to see how the same reasoning turns against the +system of the deification of man. + +Man necessarily positing God as absolute and infinite in his +attributes, whereas he himself develops in a direction the +inverse of this ideal, there is discord between the progress of +man and what man conceives as God. On the one hand, it appears +that man, by the syncretism of his constitution and the +perfectibility of his nature, is not God and cannot become God; +on the other, it is plain that God, the supreme Being, is the +antipode of humanity, the ontological summit from which it +indefinitely separates itself. God and man, having divided +between them the antagonistic faculties of being, seem to be +playing a game in which the control of the universe is the stake, +the one having spontaneity, directness, infallibility, eternity, +the other having foresight, deduction, mobility, time. God and +man hold each other in perpetual check and continually avoid +each other; while the latter goes ahead in reflection and theory +without ever resting, the former, by his providential incapacity, +seems to withdraw into the spontaneity of his nature. There is a +contradiction, therefore, between humanity and its ideal, an +opposition between man and God, an opposition which Christian +theology has allegorized and personified under the name of Devil +or Satan,--that is, contradictor, enemy of God and man. + +Such is the fundamental antinomy which I find that modern critics +have not taken into account, and which, if neglected, having +sooner or later to end in the negation of the man-God and +consequently in the negation of this whole philosophical +exegesis, reopens the door to religion and fanaticism. + +God, according to the humanists, is nothing but humanity itself, +the collective me to which the individual me is subjected as to +an invisible master. But why this singular vision, if the +portrait is a faithful copy of the original? Why has man, who +from his birth has known directly and with out a telescope his +body, his soul, his chief, his priest, his country, his +condition, been obliged to see himself as in a mirror, and +without recognizing himself, under the fantastic image of God? +Where is the necessity of this hallucination? What is this dim +and ambiguous consciousness which, after a certain time, becomes +purified, rectified, and, instead of taking itself for another, +definitively apprehends itself as such? Why on the part of man +this transcendental confession of society, when society itself +was there, present, visible, palpable, willing, and +acting,--when, in short, it was known as society and named as +such? + +No, it is said, society did not exist; men were agglomerated, but +not associated; the arbitrary constitution of property and +the State, as well as the intolerant dogmatism of religion, prove +it. + +Pure rhetoric: society exists from the day that individuals, +communicating by labor and speech, assume reciprocal obligations +and give birth to laws and customs. Undoubtedly society becomes +perfect in proportion to the advances of science and economy, but +at no epoch of civilization does progress imply any such +metamorphosis as those dreamed of by the builders of utopia; and +however excellent the future condition of humanity is to be, it +will be none the less the natural continuation, the necessary +consequence, of its previous positions. + +For the rest, no system of association being exclusive in itself, +as I have shown, of fraternity and justice, it has never been +possible to confound the political ideal with God, and we see in +fact that all peoples have distinguished society from religion. +The first was taken as END, the second regarded only as MEANS; +the prince was the minister of the collective will, while God +reigned over consciences, awaiting beyond the grave the guilty +who escaped the justice of men. Even the idea of progress and +reform has never been anywhere absent; nothing, in short, of that +which constitutes social life has been entirely ignored or +misconceived by any religious nation. Why, then, once more, this +tautology of Society-Divinity, if it is true, as is pretended, +that the theological hypothesis contains nothing other than the +ideal of human society, the preconceived type of humanity +transfigured by equality, solidarity, labor, and love? + +Certainly, if there is a prejudice, a mysticism, which now seems +to me deceptive in a high degree, it is no longer Catholicism, +which is disappearing, but rather this humanitary philosophy, +making man a holy and sacred being on the strength of a +speculation too learned not to have something of the arbitrary in +its composition; proclaiming him God,--that is, essentially good +and orderly in all his powers, in spite of the disheartening +evidence which he continually gives of his doubtful morality; +attributing his vices to the constraint in which he has lived, +and promising from him in complete liberty acts of the purest +devotion, because in the myths in which humanity, according to +this philosophy, has painted itself, we find described and +opposed to each other, under the names of hell and paradise, a +time of constraint and penalty and an era of happiness and +independence! With such a doctrine it would suffice--and +moreover it would be inevitable--for man to recognize that he is +neither God, nor good, nor holy, nor wise, in order to fall back +immediately into the arms of religion; so that in the last +analysis all that the world will have gained by the denial of God +will be the resurrection of God. + +Such is not my view of the meaning of the religious fables. +Humanity, in recognizing God as its author, its master, its alter +ego, has simply determined its own essence by an antithesis,--an +eclectic essence, full of contrasts, emanated from the infinite +and contradictory of the infinite, developed in time and aspiring +to eternity, and for all these reasons fallible, although guided +by the sentiment of beauty and order. Humanity is the daughter +of God, as every opposition is the daughter of a previous +position: that is why humanity has formed God like itself, has +lent him its own attributes, but always by giving them a specific +character,--that is, by defining God in contradiction of itself. +Humanity is a spectre to God, just as God is a spectre to +humanity; each of the two is the other's cause, reason, and end +of existence. + +It was not enough, then, to have demonstrated, by criticism +of religious ideas, that the conception of the divine me leads +back to the perception of the human me; it was also necessary to +verify this deduction by a criticism of humanity itself, and to +see whether this humanity satisfies the conditions that its +apparent divinity supposes. Now, such is the task that we +solemnly inaugurated when, starting at once with human reality +and the divine hypothesis, we began to unroll the history of +society in its economic institutions and speculative thoughts. + +We have shown, on the one hand, that man, although incited by the +antagonism of his ideas, and although up to a certain point +excusable, does evil gratuitously and by the bestial impulse of +his passions, which are repugnant to the character of a free, +intelligent, and holy being. We have shown, on the other hand, +that the nature of man is not harmoniously and synthetically +constituted, but formed by an agglomeration of the potentialities +specialized in each creature,--a circumstance which, in revealing +to us the principle of the disorders committed by human liberty, +has finished the demonstration of the non- divinity of our race. +Finally, after having proved that in God providence not only does +not exist, but is impossible; after having, in other words, +separated the divine attributes of the infinite Being from the +anthropomorphic attributes,--we have concluded, contrary to the +affirmations of the old theodicy, that, relatively to the destiny +of man, a destiny essentially progressive, intelligence and +liberty in God suffered a contrast, a sort of limitation and +diminution, resulting from his eternal, immutable, and infinite +nature; so that man, instead of adoring in God his sovereign and +his guide, could and should look on him only as his antagonist. +And this last consideration will suffice to make us reject +humanism also, as tending invincibly, by the deification of +humanity, to a religious restoration. The true remedy for +fanaticism, in our view, is not to identify humanity with God, +which amounts to affirming, in social economy communism, in +philosophy mysticism and the statu quo; it is to prove to +humanity that God, in case there is a God, is its enemy. + +What solution will result later from these data? Will God, in +the end, be found to be a reality? + +I do not know whether I shall ever know. If it is true, on the +one hand, that I have today no more reason for affirming the +reality of man, an illogical and contradictory being, than the +reality of God, an inconceivable and unmanifested being, I know +at least, from the radical opposition of these two natures, that +I have nothing to hope or to fear from the mysterious author whom +my consciousness involuntarily supposes; I know that my most +authentic tendencies separate me daily from the contemplation of +this idea; that practical atheism must be henceforth the law of +my heart and my reason; that from observable necessity I must +continually learn the rule of my conduct; that any mystical +commandment, any divine right, which should be proposed to me, +must be rejected and combatted by me; that a return to God +through religion, idleness, ignorance, or submission, is an +outrage upon myself; and that if I must sometime be reconciled +with God, this reconciliation, impossible as long as I live and +in which I should have everything to gain and nothing to lose, +can be accomplished only by my destruction. + +Let us then conclude, and inscribe upon the column which must +serve as a landmark in our later researches: + +The legislator DISTRUSTS man, an abridgment of nature and a +syncretism of all beings. He DOES NOT RELY on Providence, an +inadmissible faculty in the infinite mind. + +But, attentive to the succession of phenomena, submissive to the +lessons of destiny, he seeks in necessity the law of humanity, +the perpetual prophecy of his future. + +He remembers also, sometimes, that, if the sentiment of Divinity +is growing weaker among men; if inspiration from above is +gradually withdrawing to give place to the deductions of +experience; if there is a more and more flagrant separation of +man and God; if this progress, the form and condition of our +life, escapes the perceptions of an infinite and consequently +non-historic intelligence; if, to say it all, appeal to +Providence on the part of a government is at once a cowardly +hypocrisy and a threat against liberty,--nevertheless the +universal consent of the peoples, manifested by the establishment +of so many different faiths, and the forever insoluble +contradiction which strikes humanity in its ideas, its +manifestations, and its tendencies indicate a secret relation of +our soul, and through it of entire nature, with the infinite,--a +relation the determination of which would express at the same +time the meaning of the universe and the reason of our existence. + +END OF VOLUME FIRST. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Philosophy of Misery by Proudhon + Binary files differdiff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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