For the more he increases the amount of
interest to be paid upon it, the more he is compelled to diminish wages.
interest to be paid upon it, the more he is compelled to diminish wages.
Proudhon - What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government
On the other hand, all functions
being equal, either on account of the actual equivalence of talents
and capacities, or on account of social co-operation, how could a
functionary claim a salary proportional to the worth of his genius?
But, what do I say? In equality wages are always proportional to
talents. What is the economical meaning of wages? The reproductive
consumption of the laborer. The very act by which the laborer produces
constitutes, then, this consumption, exactly equal to his production,
of which we are speaking. When the astronomer produces observations, the
poet verses, or the savant experiments, they consume instruments, books,
travels, &c. , &c. ; now, if society supplies this consumption, what more
can the astronomer, the savant, or the poet demand? We must conclude,
then, that in equality, and only in equality, St. Simon's adage--TO
EACH ACCORDING TO HIS CAPACITY TO EACH CAPACITY ACCORDING TO ITS
RESULTS--finds its full and complete application.
III. The great evil--the horrible and ever-present evil--arising from
property, is that, while property exists, population, however reduced,
is, and always must be, over-abundant. Complaints have been made in
all ages of the excess of population; in all ages property has been
embarrassed by the presence of pauperism, not perceiving that it caused
it. Further,--nothing is more curious than the diversity of the plans
proposed for its extermination. Their atrocity is equalled only by their
absurdity.
The ancients made a practice of abandoning their children. The wholesale
and retail slaughter of slaves, civil and foreign wars, also lent their
aid. In Rome (where property held full sway), these three means were
employed so effectively, and for so long a time, that finally the empire
found itself without inhabitants. When the barbarians arrived, nobody
was to be found; the fields were no longer cultivated; grass grew in the
streets of the Italian cities.
In China, from time immemorial, upon famine alone has devolved the task
of sweeping away the poor. The people living almost exclusively upon
rice, if an accident causes the crop to fail, in a few days hunger kills
the inhabitants by myriads; and the Chinese historian records in the
annals of the empire, that in such a year of such an emperor twenty,
thirty, fifty, one hundred thousand inhabitants died of starvation.
Then they bury the dead, and recommence the production of children until
another famine leads to the same result. Such appears to have been, in
all ages, the Confucian economy.
I borrow the following facts from a modern economist:--
"Since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, England has been
preyed upon by pauperism. At that time beggars were punished by law. "
Nevertheless, she had not one-fourth as large a population as she has
to-day.
"Edward prohibits alms-giving, on pain of imprisonment. . . . The laws of
1547 and 1656 prescribe a like punishment, in case of a second offence.
Elizabeth orders that each parish shall support its own paupers. But
what is a pauper? Charles II. decides that an UNDISPUTED residence of
forty days constitutes a settlement in a parish; but, if disputed, the
new-comer is forced to pack off. James II. modifies this decision,
which is again modified by William. In the midst of trials, reports, and
modifications, pauperism increases, and the workingman languishes and
dies.
"The poor-tax in 1774 exceeded forty millions of francs; in 1783-4-5,
it averaged fifty-three millions; 1813, more than a hundred and
eighty-seven millions five hundred thousand francs; 1816, two hundred
and fifty millions; in 1817, it is estimated at three hundred and
seventeen millions.
"In 1821, the number of paupers enrolled upon the parish lists was
estimated at four millions, nearly one-third of the population.
"FRANCE. In 1544, Francis I. establishes a compulsory tax in behalf of
the poor. In 1566 and 1586, the same principle is applied to the whole
kingdom.
"Under Louis XIV. , forty thousand paupers infested the capital [as many
in proportion as to-day]. Mendicity was punished severely. In 1740,
the Parliament of Paris re-establishes within its own jurisdiction the
compulsory assessment.
"The Constituent Assembly, frightened at the extent of the evil and the
difficulty of curing it, ordains the _statu quo_.
"The Convention proclaims assistance of the poor to be a NATIONAL DEBT.
Its law remains unexecuted.
"Napoleon also wishes to remedy the evil: his idea is imprisonment. 'In
that way,' said he, 'I shall protect the rich from the importunity
of beggars, and shall relieve them of the disgusting sight of abject
poverty. '" O wonderful man!
From these facts, which I might multiply still farther, two things are
to be inferred,--the one, that pauperism is independent of population;
the other, that all attempts hitherto made at its extermination have
proved abortive.
Catholicism founds hospitals and convents, and commands charity; that
is, she encourages mendicity. That is the extent of her insight as
voiced by her priests.
The secular power of Christian nations now orders taxes on the rich,
now banishment and imprisonment for the poor; that is, on the one hand,
violation of the right of property, and, on the other, civil death and
murder.
The modern economists--thinking that pauperism is caused by the excess
of population, exclusively--have devoted themselves to devising checks.
Some wish to prohibit the poor from marrying; thus,--having denounced
religious celibacy,--they propose compulsory celibacy, which will
inevitably become licentious celibacy.
Others do not approve this method, which they deem too violent; and
which, they say, deprives the poor man of THE ONLY PLEASURE WHICH HE
KNOWS IN THIS WORLD. They would simply recommend him to be PRUDENT. This
opinion is held by Malthus, Sismondi, Say, Droz, Duchatel, &c. But if
the poor are to be PRUDENT, the rich must set the example. Why should
the marriageable age of the latter be fixed at eighteen years, while
that of the former is postponed until thirty?
Again, they would do well to explain clearly what they mean by this
matrimonial prudence which they so urgently recommend to the laborer;
for here equivocation is especially dangerous, and I suspect that
the economists are not thoroughly understood. "Some half-enlightened
ecclesiastics are alarmed when they hear prudence in marriage advised;
they fear that the divine injunction--INCREASE AND MULTIPLY--is to be
set aside. To be logical, they must anathematize bachelors. " (J. Droz:
Political Economy. )
M. Droz is too honest a man, and too little of a theologian, to see why
these casuists are so alarmed; and this chaste ignorance is the very
best evidence of the purity of his heart. Religion never has encouraged
early marriages; and the kind of PRUDENCE which it condemns is that
described in this Latin sentence from Sanchez,--_An licet ob metum
liberorum semen extra vas ejicere_?
Destutt de Tracy seems to dislike prudence in either form. He says: "I
confess that I no more share the desire of the moralists to diminish
and restrain our pleasures, than that of the politicians to increase
our procreative powers, and accelerate reproduction. " He believes, then,
that we should love and marry when and as we please. Widespread misery
results from love and marriage, but this our philosopher does not heed.
True to the dogma of the necessity of evil, to evil he looks for the
solution of all problems. He adds: "The multiplication of men continuing
in all classes of society, the surplus members of the upper classes are
supported by the lower classes, and those of the latter are destroyed
by poverty. " This philosophy has few avowed partisans; but it has over
every other the indisputable advantage of demonstration in practice. Not
long since France heard it advocated in the Chamber of Deputies, in the
course of the discussion on the electoral reform,--POVERTY WILL ALWAYS
EXIST. That is the political aphorism with which the minister of state
ground to powder the arguments of M. Arago. POVERTY WILL ALWAYS EXIST!
Yes, so long as property does.
The Fourierists--INVENTORS of so many marvellous contrivances--could
not, in this field, belie their character. They invented four methods of
checking increase of population at will.
1. THE VIGOR OF WOMEN. On this point they are contradicted by
experience; for, although vigorous women may be less likely to conceive,
nevertheless they give birth to the healthiest children; so that the
advantage of maternity is on their side.
2. INTEGRAL EXERCISE, or the equal development of all the physical
powers. If this development is equal, how is the power of reproduction
lessened?
3. THE GASTRONOMIC REGIME; or, in plain English, the philosophy of the
belly. The Fourierists say, that abundance of rich food renders
women sterile; just as too much sap--while enhancing the beauty of
flowers--destroys their reproductive capacity. But the analogy is a
false one. Flowers become sterile when the stamens--or male organs--are
changed into petals, as may be seen by inspecting a rose; and when
through excessive dampness the pollen loses its fertilizing power.
Then,--in order that the gastronomic regime may produce the results
claimed for it,--not only must the females be fattened, but the males
must be rendered impotent.
4. PHANEROGAMIC MORALITY, or public concubinage. I know not why the
phalansterians use Greek words to convey ideas which can be expressed so
clearly in French. This method--like the preceding one--is copied from
civilized customs. Fourier, himself, cites the example of prostitutes
as a proof. Now we have no certain knowledge yet of the facts which he
quotes. So states Parent Duchatelet in his work on "Prostitution. "
From all the information which I have been able to gather, I find that
all the remedies for pauperism and fecundity--sanctioned by universal
practice, philosophy, political economy, and the latest reformers--may
be summed up in the following list: masturbation, onanism, [19]
sodomy, tribadie, polyandry, [20] prostitution, castration, continence,
abortion, and infanticide. [21]
All these methods being proved inadequate, there remains proscription.
Unfortunately, proscription, while decreasing the number of the poor,
increases their proportion. If the interest charged by the proprietor
upon the product is equal only to one-twentieth of the product (by law
it is equal to one-twentieth of the capital), it follows that twenty
laborers produce for nineteen only; because there is one among them,
called proprietor, who eats the share of two. Suppose that the twentieth
laborer--the poor one--is killed: the production of the following year
will be diminished one-twentieth; consequently the nineteenth will have
to yield his portion, and perish. For, since it is not one-twentieth
of the product of nineteen which must be paid to the proprietor, but
one-twentieth of the product of twenty (see third proposition), each
surviving laborer must sacrifice one-twentieth PLUS one four-hundredth
of his product; in other words, one man out of nineteen must be killed.
Therefore, while property exists, the more poor people we kill, the more
there are born in proportion.
Malthus, who proved so clearly that population increases in geometrical
progression, while production increases only in arithmetical
progression, did not notice this PAUPERIZING power of property. Had he
observed this, he would have understood that, before trying to check
reproduction, the right of increase should be abolished; because,
wherever that right is tolerated, there are always too many inhabitants,
whatever the extent or fertility of the soil.
It will be asked, perhaps, how I would maintain a balance between
population and production; for sooner or later this problem must be
solved. The reader will pardon me, if I do not give my method here. For,
in my opinion, it is useless to say a thing unless we prove it. Now, to
explain my method fully would require no less than a formal treatise.
It is a thing so simple and so vast, so common and so extraordinary,
so true and so misunderstood, so sacred and so profane, that to name it
without developing and proving it would serve only to excite contempt
and incredulity. One thing at a time. Let us establish equality, and
this remedy will soon appear; for truths follow each other, just as
crimes and errors do.
SIXTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because it is the Mother of Tyranny.
What is government? Government is public economy, the supreme
administrative power over public works and national possessions.
Now, the nation is like a vast society in which all the citizens are
stockholders. Each one has a deliberative voice in the assembly; and,
if the shares are equal, has one vote at his disposal. But, under the
regime of property, there is great inequality between the shares of
the stockholders; therefore, one may have several hundred votes, while
another has only one. If, for example, I enjoy an income of one million;
that is, if I am the proprietor of a fortune of thirty or forty millions
well invested, and if this fortune constitutes 1/30000 of the national
capital,--it is clear that the public administration of my property
would form 1/30000 of the duties of the government; and, if the nation
had a population of thirty-four millions, that I should have as many
votes as one thousand one hundred and thirty-three simple stockholders.
Thus, when M. Arago demands the right of suffrage for all members of the
National Guard, he is perfectly right; since every citizen is enrolled
for at least one national share, which entitles him to one vote. But the
illustrious orator ought at the same time to demand that each elector
shall have as many votes as he has shares; as is the case in commercial
associations. For to do otherwise is to pretend that the nation has a
right to dispose of the property of individuals without consulting them;
which is contrary to the right of property. In a country where property
exists, equality of electoral rights is a violation of property.
Now, if each citizen's sovereignty must and ought to be proportional to
his property, it follows that the small stock holders are at the mercy
of the larger ones; who will, as soon as they choose, make slaves of
the former, marry them at pleasure, take from them their wives,
castrate their sons, prostitute their daughters, throw the aged to the
sharks,--and finally will be forced to serve themselves in the same way,
unless they prefer to tax themselves for the support of their servants.
In such a condition is Great Britain to-day. John Bull--caring little
for liberty, equality, or dignity--prefers to serve and beg. But you,
bonhomme Jacques?
Property is incompatible with political and civil equality; then
property is impossible.
HISTORICAL COMMENTS. --1. When the vote of the third estate was doubled
by the States-General of 1789, property was grossly violated. The
nobility and the clergy possessed three-fourths of the soil of France;
they should have controlled three-fourths of the votes in the national
representation. To double the vote of the third estate was just, it is
said, since the people paid nearly all the taxes. This argument would
be sound, if there were nothing to be voted upon but taxes. But it was a
question at that time of reforming the government and the constitution;
consequently, the doubling of the vote of the third estate was a
usurpation, and an attack on property.
2. If the present representatives of the radical opposition should
come into power, they would work a reform by which every National Guard
should be an elector, and every elector eligible for office,--an attack
on property.
They would lower the rate of interest on public funds,--an attack on
property.
They would, in the interest of the public, pass laws to regulate the
exportation of cattle and wheat,--an attack on property.
They would alter the assessment of taxes,--an attack on property.
They would educate the people gratuitously,--a conspiracy against
property.
They would organize labor; that is, they would guarantee labor to the
workingman, and give him a share in the profits,--the abolition of
property.
Now, these same radicals are zealous defenders of property,--a radical
proof that they know not what they do, nor what they wish.
3. Since property is the grand cause of privilege and despotism, the
form of the republican oath should be changed. Instead of, "I swear
hatred to royalty," henceforth the new member of a secret society should
say, "I swear hatred to property. "
SEVENTH PROPOSITION.
_Property is impossible, because, in consuming its Receipts, it loses
them; in hoarding them, it nullifies them; and in using them as Capital,
it turns them against Production_.
I. If, with the economists, we consider the laborer as a living machine,
we must regard the wages paid to him as the amount necessary to support
this machine, and keep it in repair. The head of a manufacturing
establishment--who employs laborers at three, five, ten, and
fifteen francs per day, and who charges twenty francs for his
superintendence--does not regard his disbursements as losses, because
he knows they will return to him in the form of products. Consequently,
LABOR and REPRODUCTIVE CONSUMPTION are identical.
What is the proprietor? He is a machine which does not work; or, which
working for its own pleasure, and only when it sees fit, produces
nothing.
What is it to consume as a proprietor? It is to consume without
working, to consume without reproducing. For, once more, that which the
proprietor consumes as a laborer comes back to him; he does not give his
labor in exchange for his property, since, if he did, he would thereby
cease to be a proprietor. In consuming as a laborer, the proprietor
gains, or at least does not lose, since he recovers that which he
consumes; in consuming as a proprietor, he impoverishes himself. To
enjoy property, then, it is necessary to destroy it; to be a real
proprietor, one must cease to be a proprietor.
The laborer who consumes his wages is a machine which destroys and
reproduces; the proprietor who consumes his income is a bottomless
gulf,--sand which we water, a stone which we sow. So true is this,
that the proprietor--neither wishing nor knowing how to produce, and
perceiving that as fast as he uses his property he destroys it for
ever--has taken the precaution to make some one produce in his place.
That is what political economy, speaking in the name of eternal justice,
calls PRODUCING BY HIS CAPITAL,--PRODUCING BY HIS TOOLS. And that is
what ought to be called PRODUCING BY A SLAVE--PRODUCING AS A THIEF AND
AS A TYRANT. He, the proprietor, produce! . . . The robber might say, as
well: "I produce. "
The consumption of the proprietor has been styled luxury, in opposition
to USEFUL consumption. From what has just been said, we see that great
luxury can prevail in a nation which is not rich,--that poverty even
increases with luxury, and vice versa. The economists (so much credit
must be given them, at least) have caused such a horror of luxury,
that to-day a very large number of proprietors--not to say almost
all--ashamed of their idleness--labor, economize, and capitalize. They
have jumped from the frying-pan into the fire.
I cannot repeat it too often: the proprietor who thinks to deserve
his income by working, and who receives wages for his labor, is a
functionary who gets paid twice; that is the only difference between an
idle proprietor and a laboring proprietor. By his labor, the proprietor
produces his wages only--not his income. And since his condition enables
him to engage in the most lucrative pursuits, it may be said that the
proprietor's labor harms society more than it helps it. Whatever the
proprietor does, the consumption of his income is an actual loss, which
his salaried functions neither repair nor justify; and which would
annihilate property, were it not continually replenished by outside
production.
II. Then, the proprietor who consumes annihilates the product: he does
much worse if he lays it up. The things which he lays by pass into
another world; nothing more is seen of them, not even the _caput
mortuum_,--the smoke. If we had some means of transportation by which
to travel to the moon, and if the proprietors should be seized with a
sudden fancy to carry their savings thither, at the end of a certain
time our terraqueous planet would be transported by them to its
satellite!
The proprietor who lays up products will neither allow others to enjoy
them, nor enjoy them himself; for him there is neither possession nor
property. Like the miser, he broods over his treasures: he does not use
them. He may feast his eyes upon them; he may lie down with them; he
may sleep with them in his arms: all very fine, but coins do not
breed coins. No real property without enjoyment; no enjoyment without
consumption; no consumption without loss of property,--such is the
inflexible necessity to which God's judgment compels the proprietor to
bend. A curse upon property!
III. The proprietor who, instead of consuming his income, uses it as
capital, turns it against production, and thereby makes it impossible
for him to exercise his right.
For the more he increases the amount of
interest to be paid upon it, the more he is compelled to diminish wages.
Now, the more he diminishes wages,--that is, the less he devotes to
the maintenance and repair of the machines,--the more he diminishes
the quantity of labor; and with the quantity of labor the quantity of
product, and with the quantity of product the very source of his income.
This is clearly shown by the following example:--
Take an estate consisting of arable land, meadows, and vineyards,
containing the dwellings of the owner and the tenant; and worth,
together with the farming implements, one hundred thousand francs, the
rate of increase being three per cent. If, instead of consuming his
revenue, the proprietor uses it, not in enlarging but in beautifying his
estate, can he annually demand of his tenant an additional ninety francs
on account of the three thousand francs which he has thus added to
his capital? Certainly not; for on such conditions the tenant, though
producing no more than before, would soon be obliged to labor for
nothing,--what do I say? to actually suffer loss in order to hold his
lease.
In fact, revenue can increase only as productive soil increases: it
is useless to build walls of marble, and work with plows of gold. But,
since it is impossible to go on acquiring for ever, to add estate to
estate, to CONTINUE ONE'S POSSESSIONS, as the Latins said; and since,
moreover, the proprietor always has means wherewith to capitalize,--it
follows that the exercise of his right finally becomes impossible.
Well, in spite of this impossibility, property capitalizes, and in
capitalizing increases its revenue; and, without stopping to look at the
particular cases which occur in commerce, manufacturing operations,
and banking, I will cite a graver fact,--one which directly affects all
citizens. I mean the indefinite increase of the budget.
The taxes increase every year. It would be difficult to tell in which
department of the government the expenses increase; for who can boast
of any knowledge as to the budget? On this point, the ablest financiers
continually disagree. What is to be thought, I ask, of the science of
government, when its professors cannot understand one another's figures?
Whatever be the immediate causes of this growth of the budget, it is
certain that taxation increases at a rate which causes everybody to
despair. Everybody sees it, everybody acknowledges it; but nobody
seems to understand the primary cause. [1] Now, I say that it cannot be
otherwise,--that it is necessary and inevitable.
[1] "The financial situation of the English government was shown up
in the House of Lords during the session of January 23. It is not
an encouraging one. For several years the expenses have exceeded the
receipts, and the Minister has been able to re-establish the balance
only by loans renewed annually. The combined deficits of the years 1838
and 1839 amount to forty-seven million five hundred thousand francs. In
1840, the excess of expenses over receipts is expected to be twenty-two
million five hundred thousand francs. Attention was called to these
figures by Lord Ripon. Lord Melbourne replied: 'The noble earl unhappily
was right in declaring that the public expenses continually increase,
and with him I must say that there is no room for hope that they can be
diminished or met in any way. '"--National: January 26, 1840.
A nation is the tenant of a rich proprietor called the GOVERNMENT,
to whom it pays, for the use of the soil, a farm-rent called a tax.
Whenever the government makes war, loses or gains a battle, changes the
outfit of its army, erects a monu-ment, digs a canal, opens a road,
or builds a railway, it borrows money, on which the tax-payers pay
interest; that is, the government, without adding to its productive
capacity, increases its active capital,--in a word, capitalizes after
the manner of the proprietor of whom I have just spoken.
Now, when a governmental loan is once contracted, and the interest is
once stipulated, the budget cannot be reduced. For, to accomplish that,
either the capitalists must relinquish their interest, which would
involve an abandonment of property; or the government must go into
bankruptcy, which would be a fraudulent denial of the political
principle; or it must pay the debt, which would require another loan;
or it must reduce expenses, which is impossible, since the loan
was contracted for the sole reason that the ordinary receipts
were insufficient; or the money expended by the government must be
reproductive, which requires an increase of productive capacity,--a
condition excluded by our hypothesis; or, finally, the tax-payers must
submit to a new tax in order to pay the debt,--an impossible thing. For,
if this new tax were levied upon all citizens alike, half, or even more,
of the citizens would be unable to pay it; if the rich had to bear the
whole, it would be a forced contribution,--an invasion of property.
Long financial experience has shown that the method of loans, though
exceedingly dangerous, is much surer, more convenient, and less costly
than any other method; consequently the government borrows,--that is,
goes on capitalizing,--and increases the budget.
Then, a budget, instead of ever diminishing, must necessarily and
continually increase. It is astonishing that the economists, with all
their learning, have failed to perceive a fact so simple and so evident.
If they have perceived it, why have they neglected to condemn it?
HISTORICAL COMMENT. --Much interest is felt at present in a financial
operation which is expected to result in a reduction of the budget.
It is proposed to change the present rate of increase, five per cent.
Laying aside the politico-legal question to deal only with the financial
question,--is it not true that, when five per cent. is changed to four
per cent. , it will then be necessary, for the same reasons, to change
four to three; then three to two, then two to one, and finally to sweep
away increase altogether? But that would be the advent of equality of
conditions and the abolition of property. Now it seems to me, that an
intelligent nation should voluntarily meet an inevitable revolution
half way, instead of suffering itself to be dragged after the car of
inflexible necessity.
EIGHTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because its power of Accumulation is infinite,
and is exercised only over finite quantities.
If men, living in equality, should grant to one of their number the
exclusive right of property; and this sole proprietor should lend one
hundred francs to the human race at compound interest, payable to his
descendants twenty-four generations hence,--at the end of six hundred
years this sum of one hundred francs, at five per cent. , would amount to
107,854,010,777,600 francs; two thousand six hundred and ninety-six
and one-third times the capital of France (supposing her capital to be
40,000,000,000), or more than twenty times the value of the terrestrial
globe!
Suppose that a man, in the reign of St. Louis, had borrowed one hundred
francs, and had refused,--he and his heirs after him,--to return it.
Even though it were known that the said heirs were not the rightful
possessors, and that prescription had been interrupted always at the
right moment,--nevertheless, by our laws, the last heir would be obliged
to return the one hundred francs with interest, and interest on the
interest; which in all would amount, as we have seen, to nearly one
hundred and eight thousand billions.
Every day, fortunes are growing in our midst much more rapidly than
this. The preceding example supposed the interest equal to one-twentieth
of the capital,--it often equals one-tenth, one-fifth, one-half of the
capital; and sometimes the capital itself.
The Fourierists--irreconcilable enemies of equality, whose partisans
they regard as SHARKS--intend, by quadrupling production, to satisfy
all the demands of capital, labor, and skill. But, should production
be multiplied by four, ten, or even one hundred, property would
soon absorb, by its power of accumulation and the effects of its
capitalization, both products and capital, and the land, and even the
laborers. Is the phalanstery to be prohibited from capitalizing and
lending at interest? Let it explain, then, what it means by property.
I will carry these calculations no farther. They are capable of infinite
variation, upon which it would be puerile for me to insist. I only ask
by what standard judges, called upon to decide a suit for possession,
fix the interest? And, developing the question, I ask,--
Did the legislator, in introducing into the Republic the principle
of property, weigh all the consequences? Did he know the law of the
possible? If he knew it, why is it not in the Code? Why is so much
latitude allowed to the proprietor in accumulating property and
charging interest,--to the judge in recognizing and fixing the domain of
property,--to the State in its power to levy new taxes continually? At
what point is the nation justified in repudiating the budget, the tenant
his farm-rent, and the manufacturer the interest on his capital? How
far may the idler take advantage of the laborer? Where does the right
of spoliation begin, and where does it end? When may the producer say
to the proprietor, "I owe you nothing more"? When is property satisfied?
When must it cease to steal?
If the legislator did know the law of the possible, and disregarded it,
what must be thought of his justice? If he did not know it, what must
be thought of his wisdom? Either wicked or foolish, how can we recognize
his authority?
If our charters and our codes are based upon an absurd hypothesis,
what is taught in the law-schools? What does a judgment of the Court
of Appeal amount to? About what do our Chambers deliberate? What is
POLITICS? What is our definition of a STATESMAN? What is the meaning of
JURISPRUDENCE? Should we not rather say JURISIGNORANCE?
If all our institutions are based upon an error in calculation, does it
not follow that these institutions are so many shams? And if the entire
social structure is built upon this absolute impossibility of property,
is it not true that the government under which we live is a chimera, and
our present society a utopia?
NINTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because it is powerless against Property.
I. By the third corollary of our axiom, interest tells against the
proprietor as well as the stranger. This economical principle is
universally admitted. Nothing simpler at first blush; yet, nothing more
absurd, more contradictory in terms, or more absolutely impossible.
The manufacturer, it is said, pays himself the rent on his house and
capital. HE PAYS HIMSELF; that is, he gets paid by the public who buy
his products. For, suppose the manufacturer, who seems to make this
profit on his property, wishes also to make it on his merchandise, can
he then pay himself one franc for that which cost him ninety centimes,
and make money by the operation? No: such a transaction would transfer
the merchant's money from his right hand to his left, but without any
profit whatever.
Now, that which is true of a single individual trading with himself is
true also of the whole business world. Form a chain of ten, fifteen,
twenty producers; as many as you wish. If the producer A makes a
profit out of the producer B. B's loss must, according to economical
principles, be made up by C, C's by D; and so on through to Z.
But by whom will Z be paid for the loss caused him by the profit charged
by A in the beginning? BY THE CONSUMER, replies Say. Contemptible
equivocation! Is this consumer any other, then, than A, B. C, D, &c. ,
or Z? By whom will Z be paid? If he is paid by A, no one makes a profit;
consequently, there is no property. If, on the contrary, Z bears the
burden himself, he ceases to be a member of society; since it refuses
him the right of property and profit, which it grants to the other
associates.
Since, then, a nation, like universal humanity, is a vast industrial
association which cannot act outside of itself, it is clear that no man
can enrich himself without impoverishing another. For, in order that the
right of property, the right of increase, may be respected in the
case of A, it must be denied to Z; thus we see how equality of rights,
separated from equality of conditions, may be a truth. The iniquity of
political economy in this respect is flagrant. "When I, a manufacturer,
purchase the labor of a workingman, I do not include his wages in the
net product of my business; on the contrary, I deduct them. But the
workingman includes them in his net product. . . . "(Say: Political
Economy. )
That means that all which the workingman gains is NET PRODUCT; but that
only that part of the manufacturer's gains is NET PRODUCT, which remains
after deducting his wages. But why is the right of profit confined to
the manufacturer? Why is this right, which is at bottom the right of
property itself, denied to the workingman? In the terms of economical
science, the workingman is capital. Now, all capital, beyond the cost
of its maintenance and repair, must bear interest. This the proprietor
takes care to get, both for his capital and for himself. Why is the
workingman prohibited from charging a like interest for his capital,
which is himself?
Property, then, is inequality of rights; for, if it were not inequality
of rights, it would be equality of goods,--in other words, it would not
exist. Now, the charter guarantees to all equality of rights. Then, by
the charter, property is impossible.
II. Is A, the proprietor of an estate, entitled by the fact of his
proprietorship to take possession of the field belonging to B. his
neighbor? "No," reply the proprietors; "but what has that to do with
the right of property? " That I shall show you by a series of similar
propositions.
Has C, a hatter, the right to force D, his neighbor and also a hatter,
to close his shop, and cease his business? Not the least in the world.
But C wishes to make a profit of one franc on every hat, while D is
content with fifty centimes. It is evident that D's moderation is
injurious to C's extravagant claims. Has the latter a right to prevent D
from selling? Certainly not.
Since D is at liberty to sell his hats fifty centimes cheaper than C if
he chooses, C in his turn is free to reduce his price one franc. Now, D
is poor, while C is rich; so that at the end of two or three years D is
ruined by this intolerable competition, and C has complete control of
the market. Can the proprietor D get any redress from the proprietor C?
Can he bring a suit against him to recover his business and property?
No; for D could have done the same thing, had he been the richer of the
two.
On the same ground, the large proprietor A may say to the small
proprietor B: "Sell me your field, otherwise you shall not sell your
wheat,"--and that without doing him the least wrong, or giving him
ground for complaint. So that A can devour B if he likes, for the very
reason that A is stronger than B. Consequently, it is not the right of
property which enables A and C to rob B and D, but the right of might.
By the right of property, neither the two neighbors A and B, nor the two
merchants C and D, could harm each other. They could neither dispossess
nor destroy one another, nor gain at one another's expense. The power of
invasion lies in superior strength.
But it is superior strength also which enables the manufacturer
to reduce the wages of his employees, and the rich merchant and
well-stocked proprietor to sell their products for what they please. The
manufacturer says to the laborer, "You are as free to go elsewhere
with your services as I am to receive them. I offer you so much. " The
merchant says to the customer, "Take it or leave it; you are master of
your money, as I am of my goods. I want so much. " Who will yield? The
weaker.
Therefore, without force, property is powerless against property, since
without force it has no power to increase; therefore, without force,
property is null and void.
HISTORICAL COMMENT. --The struggle between colonial and native sugars
furnishes us a striking example of this impossibility of property. Leave
these two industries to themselves, and the native manufacturer will
be ruined by the colonist. To maintain the beet-root, the cane must be
taxed: to protect the property of the one, it is necessary to injure the
property of the other. The most remarkable feature of this business is
precisely that to which the least attention is paid; namely, that, in
one way or another, property has to be violated. Impose on each industry
a proportional tax, so as to preserve a balance in the market, and you
create a MAXIMUM PRICE,--you attack property in two ways. On the one
hand, your tax interferes with the liberty of trade; on the other, it
does not recognize equality of proprietors. Indemnify the beet-root, you
violate the property of the tax-payer. Cultivate the two varieties of
sugar at the nation's expense, just as different varieties of tobacco
are cultivated,--you abolish one species of property. This last course
would be the simpler and better one; but, to induce the nations to adopt
it, requires such a co-operation of able minds and generous hearts as is
at present out of the question.
Competition, sometimes called liberty of trade,--in a word, property
in exchange,--will be for a long time the basis of our commercial
legislation; which, from the economical point of view, embraces all
civil laws and all government. Now, what is competition? A duel in a
closed field, where arms are the test of right.
"Who is the liar,--the accused or the accuser? " said our barbarous
ancestors. "Let them fight it out," replied the still more barbarous
judge; "the stronger is right. "
Which of us two shall sell spices to our neighbor? "Let each offer them
for sale," cries the economist; "the sharper, or the more cunning, is
the more honest man, and the better merchant. "
Such is the exact spirit of the Code Napoleon.
TENTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because it is the Negation of equality.
The development of this proposition will be the resume of the preceding
ones.
1. It is a principle of economical justice, that PRODUCTS ARE BOUGHT
ONLY BY PRODUCTS. Property, being capable of defence only on the ground
that it produces utility, is, since it produces nothing, for ever
condemned.
2. It is an economical law, that LABOR MUST BE BALANCED BY PRODUCT. It
is a fact that, with property, production costs more than it is worth.
3. Another economical law: THE CAPITAL BEING GIVEN, PRODUCTION IS
MEASURED, NOT BY THE AMOUNT OF CAPITAL, BUT BY PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY.
Property, requiring income to be always proportional to capital without
regard to labor, does not recognize this relation of equality between
effect and cause.
4 and 5. Like the insect which spins its silk, the laborer never
produces for himself alone. Property, demanding a double product and
unable to obtain it, robs the laborer, and kills him.
6. Nature has given to every man but one mind, one heart, one will.
Property, granting to one individual a plurality of votes, supposes him
to have a plurality of minds.
7. All consumption which is not reproductive of utility is destruction.
Property, whether it consumes or hoards or capitalizes, is productive of
INUTILITY,--the cause of sterility and death.
8. The satisfaction of a natural right always gives rise to an equation;
in other words, the right to a thing is necessarily balanced by the
possession of the thing. Thus, between the right to liberty and the
condition of a free man there is a balance, an equation; between the
right to be a father and paternity, an equation; between the right to
security and the social guarantee, an equation. But between the right
of increase and the receipt of this increase there is never an equation;
for every new increase carries with it the right to another, the latter
to a third, and so on for ever. Property, never being able to accomplish
its object, is a right against Nature and against reason.
9. Finally, property is not self-existent. An extraneous cause--either
FORCE or FRAUD--is necessary to its life and action. In other
words, property is not equal to property: it is a negation--a
delusion--NOTHING.
being equal, either on account of the actual equivalence of talents
and capacities, or on account of social co-operation, how could a
functionary claim a salary proportional to the worth of his genius?
But, what do I say? In equality wages are always proportional to
talents. What is the economical meaning of wages? The reproductive
consumption of the laborer. The very act by which the laborer produces
constitutes, then, this consumption, exactly equal to his production,
of which we are speaking. When the astronomer produces observations, the
poet verses, or the savant experiments, they consume instruments, books,
travels, &c. , &c. ; now, if society supplies this consumption, what more
can the astronomer, the savant, or the poet demand? We must conclude,
then, that in equality, and only in equality, St. Simon's adage--TO
EACH ACCORDING TO HIS CAPACITY TO EACH CAPACITY ACCORDING TO ITS
RESULTS--finds its full and complete application.
III. The great evil--the horrible and ever-present evil--arising from
property, is that, while property exists, population, however reduced,
is, and always must be, over-abundant. Complaints have been made in
all ages of the excess of population; in all ages property has been
embarrassed by the presence of pauperism, not perceiving that it caused
it. Further,--nothing is more curious than the diversity of the plans
proposed for its extermination. Their atrocity is equalled only by their
absurdity.
The ancients made a practice of abandoning their children. The wholesale
and retail slaughter of slaves, civil and foreign wars, also lent their
aid. In Rome (where property held full sway), these three means were
employed so effectively, and for so long a time, that finally the empire
found itself without inhabitants. When the barbarians arrived, nobody
was to be found; the fields were no longer cultivated; grass grew in the
streets of the Italian cities.
In China, from time immemorial, upon famine alone has devolved the task
of sweeping away the poor. The people living almost exclusively upon
rice, if an accident causes the crop to fail, in a few days hunger kills
the inhabitants by myriads; and the Chinese historian records in the
annals of the empire, that in such a year of such an emperor twenty,
thirty, fifty, one hundred thousand inhabitants died of starvation.
Then they bury the dead, and recommence the production of children until
another famine leads to the same result. Such appears to have been, in
all ages, the Confucian economy.
I borrow the following facts from a modern economist:--
"Since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, England has been
preyed upon by pauperism. At that time beggars were punished by law. "
Nevertheless, she had not one-fourth as large a population as she has
to-day.
"Edward prohibits alms-giving, on pain of imprisonment. . . . The laws of
1547 and 1656 prescribe a like punishment, in case of a second offence.
Elizabeth orders that each parish shall support its own paupers. But
what is a pauper? Charles II. decides that an UNDISPUTED residence of
forty days constitutes a settlement in a parish; but, if disputed, the
new-comer is forced to pack off. James II. modifies this decision,
which is again modified by William. In the midst of trials, reports, and
modifications, pauperism increases, and the workingman languishes and
dies.
"The poor-tax in 1774 exceeded forty millions of francs; in 1783-4-5,
it averaged fifty-three millions; 1813, more than a hundred and
eighty-seven millions five hundred thousand francs; 1816, two hundred
and fifty millions; in 1817, it is estimated at three hundred and
seventeen millions.
"In 1821, the number of paupers enrolled upon the parish lists was
estimated at four millions, nearly one-third of the population.
"FRANCE. In 1544, Francis I. establishes a compulsory tax in behalf of
the poor. In 1566 and 1586, the same principle is applied to the whole
kingdom.
"Under Louis XIV. , forty thousand paupers infested the capital [as many
in proportion as to-day]. Mendicity was punished severely. In 1740,
the Parliament of Paris re-establishes within its own jurisdiction the
compulsory assessment.
"The Constituent Assembly, frightened at the extent of the evil and the
difficulty of curing it, ordains the _statu quo_.
"The Convention proclaims assistance of the poor to be a NATIONAL DEBT.
Its law remains unexecuted.
"Napoleon also wishes to remedy the evil: his idea is imprisonment. 'In
that way,' said he, 'I shall protect the rich from the importunity
of beggars, and shall relieve them of the disgusting sight of abject
poverty. '" O wonderful man!
From these facts, which I might multiply still farther, two things are
to be inferred,--the one, that pauperism is independent of population;
the other, that all attempts hitherto made at its extermination have
proved abortive.
Catholicism founds hospitals and convents, and commands charity; that
is, she encourages mendicity. That is the extent of her insight as
voiced by her priests.
The secular power of Christian nations now orders taxes on the rich,
now banishment and imprisonment for the poor; that is, on the one hand,
violation of the right of property, and, on the other, civil death and
murder.
The modern economists--thinking that pauperism is caused by the excess
of population, exclusively--have devoted themselves to devising checks.
Some wish to prohibit the poor from marrying; thus,--having denounced
religious celibacy,--they propose compulsory celibacy, which will
inevitably become licentious celibacy.
Others do not approve this method, which they deem too violent; and
which, they say, deprives the poor man of THE ONLY PLEASURE WHICH HE
KNOWS IN THIS WORLD. They would simply recommend him to be PRUDENT. This
opinion is held by Malthus, Sismondi, Say, Droz, Duchatel, &c. But if
the poor are to be PRUDENT, the rich must set the example. Why should
the marriageable age of the latter be fixed at eighteen years, while
that of the former is postponed until thirty?
Again, they would do well to explain clearly what they mean by this
matrimonial prudence which they so urgently recommend to the laborer;
for here equivocation is especially dangerous, and I suspect that
the economists are not thoroughly understood. "Some half-enlightened
ecclesiastics are alarmed when they hear prudence in marriage advised;
they fear that the divine injunction--INCREASE AND MULTIPLY--is to be
set aside. To be logical, they must anathematize bachelors. " (J. Droz:
Political Economy. )
M. Droz is too honest a man, and too little of a theologian, to see why
these casuists are so alarmed; and this chaste ignorance is the very
best evidence of the purity of his heart. Religion never has encouraged
early marriages; and the kind of PRUDENCE which it condemns is that
described in this Latin sentence from Sanchez,--_An licet ob metum
liberorum semen extra vas ejicere_?
Destutt de Tracy seems to dislike prudence in either form. He says: "I
confess that I no more share the desire of the moralists to diminish
and restrain our pleasures, than that of the politicians to increase
our procreative powers, and accelerate reproduction. " He believes, then,
that we should love and marry when and as we please. Widespread misery
results from love and marriage, but this our philosopher does not heed.
True to the dogma of the necessity of evil, to evil he looks for the
solution of all problems. He adds: "The multiplication of men continuing
in all classes of society, the surplus members of the upper classes are
supported by the lower classes, and those of the latter are destroyed
by poverty. " This philosophy has few avowed partisans; but it has over
every other the indisputable advantage of demonstration in practice. Not
long since France heard it advocated in the Chamber of Deputies, in the
course of the discussion on the electoral reform,--POVERTY WILL ALWAYS
EXIST. That is the political aphorism with which the minister of state
ground to powder the arguments of M. Arago. POVERTY WILL ALWAYS EXIST!
Yes, so long as property does.
The Fourierists--INVENTORS of so many marvellous contrivances--could
not, in this field, belie their character. They invented four methods of
checking increase of population at will.
1. THE VIGOR OF WOMEN. On this point they are contradicted by
experience; for, although vigorous women may be less likely to conceive,
nevertheless they give birth to the healthiest children; so that the
advantage of maternity is on their side.
2. INTEGRAL EXERCISE, or the equal development of all the physical
powers. If this development is equal, how is the power of reproduction
lessened?
3. THE GASTRONOMIC REGIME; or, in plain English, the philosophy of the
belly. The Fourierists say, that abundance of rich food renders
women sterile; just as too much sap--while enhancing the beauty of
flowers--destroys their reproductive capacity. But the analogy is a
false one. Flowers become sterile when the stamens--or male organs--are
changed into petals, as may be seen by inspecting a rose; and when
through excessive dampness the pollen loses its fertilizing power.
Then,--in order that the gastronomic regime may produce the results
claimed for it,--not only must the females be fattened, but the males
must be rendered impotent.
4. PHANEROGAMIC MORALITY, or public concubinage. I know not why the
phalansterians use Greek words to convey ideas which can be expressed so
clearly in French. This method--like the preceding one--is copied from
civilized customs. Fourier, himself, cites the example of prostitutes
as a proof. Now we have no certain knowledge yet of the facts which he
quotes. So states Parent Duchatelet in his work on "Prostitution. "
From all the information which I have been able to gather, I find that
all the remedies for pauperism and fecundity--sanctioned by universal
practice, philosophy, political economy, and the latest reformers--may
be summed up in the following list: masturbation, onanism, [19]
sodomy, tribadie, polyandry, [20] prostitution, castration, continence,
abortion, and infanticide. [21]
All these methods being proved inadequate, there remains proscription.
Unfortunately, proscription, while decreasing the number of the poor,
increases their proportion. If the interest charged by the proprietor
upon the product is equal only to one-twentieth of the product (by law
it is equal to one-twentieth of the capital), it follows that twenty
laborers produce for nineteen only; because there is one among them,
called proprietor, who eats the share of two. Suppose that the twentieth
laborer--the poor one--is killed: the production of the following year
will be diminished one-twentieth; consequently the nineteenth will have
to yield his portion, and perish. For, since it is not one-twentieth
of the product of nineteen which must be paid to the proprietor, but
one-twentieth of the product of twenty (see third proposition), each
surviving laborer must sacrifice one-twentieth PLUS one four-hundredth
of his product; in other words, one man out of nineteen must be killed.
Therefore, while property exists, the more poor people we kill, the more
there are born in proportion.
Malthus, who proved so clearly that population increases in geometrical
progression, while production increases only in arithmetical
progression, did not notice this PAUPERIZING power of property. Had he
observed this, he would have understood that, before trying to check
reproduction, the right of increase should be abolished; because,
wherever that right is tolerated, there are always too many inhabitants,
whatever the extent or fertility of the soil.
It will be asked, perhaps, how I would maintain a balance between
population and production; for sooner or later this problem must be
solved. The reader will pardon me, if I do not give my method here. For,
in my opinion, it is useless to say a thing unless we prove it. Now, to
explain my method fully would require no less than a formal treatise.
It is a thing so simple and so vast, so common and so extraordinary,
so true and so misunderstood, so sacred and so profane, that to name it
without developing and proving it would serve only to excite contempt
and incredulity. One thing at a time. Let us establish equality, and
this remedy will soon appear; for truths follow each other, just as
crimes and errors do.
SIXTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because it is the Mother of Tyranny.
What is government? Government is public economy, the supreme
administrative power over public works and national possessions.
Now, the nation is like a vast society in which all the citizens are
stockholders. Each one has a deliberative voice in the assembly; and,
if the shares are equal, has one vote at his disposal. But, under the
regime of property, there is great inequality between the shares of
the stockholders; therefore, one may have several hundred votes, while
another has only one. If, for example, I enjoy an income of one million;
that is, if I am the proprietor of a fortune of thirty or forty millions
well invested, and if this fortune constitutes 1/30000 of the national
capital,--it is clear that the public administration of my property
would form 1/30000 of the duties of the government; and, if the nation
had a population of thirty-four millions, that I should have as many
votes as one thousand one hundred and thirty-three simple stockholders.
Thus, when M. Arago demands the right of suffrage for all members of the
National Guard, he is perfectly right; since every citizen is enrolled
for at least one national share, which entitles him to one vote. But the
illustrious orator ought at the same time to demand that each elector
shall have as many votes as he has shares; as is the case in commercial
associations. For to do otherwise is to pretend that the nation has a
right to dispose of the property of individuals without consulting them;
which is contrary to the right of property. In a country where property
exists, equality of electoral rights is a violation of property.
Now, if each citizen's sovereignty must and ought to be proportional to
his property, it follows that the small stock holders are at the mercy
of the larger ones; who will, as soon as they choose, make slaves of
the former, marry them at pleasure, take from them their wives,
castrate their sons, prostitute their daughters, throw the aged to the
sharks,--and finally will be forced to serve themselves in the same way,
unless they prefer to tax themselves for the support of their servants.
In such a condition is Great Britain to-day. John Bull--caring little
for liberty, equality, or dignity--prefers to serve and beg. But you,
bonhomme Jacques?
Property is incompatible with political and civil equality; then
property is impossible.
HISTORICAL COMMENTS. --1. When the vote of the third estate was doubled
by the States-General of 1789, property was grossly violated. The
nobility and the clergy possessed three-fourths of the soil of France;
they should have controlled three-fourths of the votes in the national
representation. To double the vote of the third estate was just, it is
said, since the people paid nearly all the taxes. This argument would
be sound, if there were nothing to be voted upon but taxes. But it was a
question at that time of reforming the government and the constitution;
consequently, the doubling of the vote of the third estate was a
usurpation, and an attack on property.
2. If the present representatives of the radical opposition should
come into power, they would work a reform by which every National Guard
should be an elector, and every elector eligible for office,--an attack
on property.
They would lower the rate of interest on public funds,--an attack on
property.
They would, in the interest of the public, pass laws to regulate the
exportation of cattle and wheat,--an attack on property.
They would alter the assessment of taxes,--an attack on property.
They would educate the people gratuitously,--a conspiracy against
property.
They would organize labor; that is, they would guarantee labor to the
workingman, and give him a share in the profits,--the abolition of
property.
Now, these same radicals are zealous defenders of property,--a radical
proof that they know not what they do, nor what they wish.
3. Since property is the grand cause of privilege and despotism, the
form of the republican oath should be changed. Instead of, "I swear
hatred to royalty," henceforth the new member of a secret society should
say, "I swear hatred to property. "
SEVENTH PROPOSITION.
_Property is impossible, because, in consuming its Receipts, it loses
them; in hoarding them, it nullifies them; and in using them as Capital,
it turns them against Production_.
I. If, with the economists, we consider the laborer as a living machine,
we must regard the wages paid to him as the amount necessary to support
this machine, and keep it in repair. The head of a manufacturing
establishment--who employs laborers at three, five, ten, and
fifteen francs per day, and who charges twenty francs for his
superintendence--does not regard his disbursements as losses, because
he knows they will return to him in the form of products. Consequently,
LABOR and REPRODUCTIVE CONSUMPTION are identical.
What is the proprietor? He is a machine which does not work; or, which
working for its own pleasure, and only when it sees fit, produces
nothing.
What is it to consume as a proprietor? It is to consume without
working, to consume without reproducing. For, once more, that which the
proprietor consumes as a laborer comes back to him; he does not give his
labor in exchange for his property, since, if he did, he would thereby
cease to be a proprietor. In consuming as a laborer, the proprietor
gains, or at least does not lose, since he recovers that which he
consumes; in consuming as a proprietor, he impoverishes himself. To
enjoy property, then, it is necessary to destroy it; to be a real
proprietor, one must cease to be a proprietor.
The laborer who consumes his wages is a machine which destroys and
reproduces; the proprietor who consumes his income is a bottomless
gulf,--sand which we water, a stone which we sow. So true is this,
that the proprietor--neither wishing nor knowing how to produce, and
perceiving that as fast as he uses his property he destroys it for
ever--has taken the precaution to make some one produce in his place.
That is what political economy, speaking in the name of eternal justice,
calls PRODUCING BY HIS CAPITAL,--PRODUCING BY HIS TOOLS. And that is
what ought to be called PRODUCING BY A SLAVE--PRODUCING AS A THIEF AND
AS A TYRANT. He, the proprietor, produce! . . . The robber might say, as
well: "I produce. "
The consumption of the proprietor has been styled luxury, in opposition
to USEFUL consumption. From what has just been said, we see that great
luxury can prevail in a nation which is not rich,--that poverty even
increases with luxury, and vice versa. The economists (so much credit
must be given them, at least) have caused such a horror of luxury,
that to-day a very large number of proprietors--not to say almost
all--ashamed of their idleness--labor, economize, and capitalize. They
have jumped from the frying-pan into the fire.
I cannot repeat it too often: the proprietor who thinks to deserve
his income by working, and who receives wages for his labor, is a
functionary who gets paid twice; that is the only difference between an
idle proprietor and a laboring proprietor. By his labor, the proprietor
produces his wages only--not his income. And since his condition enables
him to engage in the most lucrative pursuits, it may be said that the
proprietor's labor harms society more than it helps it. Whatever the
proprietor does, the consumption of his income is an actual loss, which
his salaried functions neither repair nor justify; and which would
annihilate property, were it not continually replenished by outside
production.
II. Then, the proprietor who consumes annihilates the product: he does
much worse if he lays it up. The things which he lays by pass into
another world; nothing more is seen of them, not even the _caput
mortuum_,--the smoke. If we had some means of transportation by which
to travel to the moon, and if the proprietors should be seized with a
sudden fancy to carry their savings thither, at the end of a certain
time our terraqueous planet would be transported by them to its
satellite!
The proprietor who lays up products will neither allow others to enjoy
them, nor enjoy them himself; for him there is neither possession nor
property. Like the miser, he broods over his treasures: he does not use
them. He may feast his eyes upon them; he may lie down with them; he
may sleep with them in his arms: all very fine, but coins do not
breed coins. No real property without enjoyment; no enjoyment without
consumption; no consumption without loss of property,--such is the
inflexible necessity to which God's judgment compels the proprietor to
bend. A curse upon property!
III. The proprietor who, instead of consuming his income, uses it as
capital, turns it against production, and thereby makes it impossible
for him to exercise his right.
For the more he increases the amount of
interest to be paid upon it, the more he is compelled to diminish wages.
Now, the more he diminishes wages,--that is, the less he devotes to
the maintenance and repair of the machines,--the more he diminishes
the quantity of labor; and with the quantity of labor the quantity of
product, and with the quantity of product the very source of his income.
This is clearly shown by the following example:--
Take an estate consisting of arable land, meadows, and vineyards,
containing the dwellings of the owner and the tenant; and worth,
together with the farming implements, one hundred thousand francs, the
rate of increase being three per cent. If, instead of consuming his
revenue, the proprietor uses it, not in enlarging but in beautifying his
estate, can he annually demand of his tenant an additional ninety francs
on account of the three thousand francs which he has thus added to
his capital? Certainly not; for on such conditions the tenant, though
producing no more than before, would soon be obliged to labor for
nothing,--what do I say? to actually suffer loss in order to hold his
lease.
In fact, revenue can increase only as productive soil increases: it
is useless to build walls of marble, and work with plows of gold. But,
since it is impossible to go on acquiring for ever, to add estate to
estate, to CONTINUE ONE'S POSSESSIONS, as the Latins said; and since,
moreover, the proprietor always has means wherewith to capitalize,--it
follows that the exercise of his right finally becomes impossible.
Well, in spite of this impossibility, property capitalizes, and in
capitalizing increases its revenue; and, without stopping to look at the
particular cases which occur in commerce, manufacturing operations,
and banking, I will cite a graver fact,--one which directly affects all
citizens. I mean the indefinite increase of the budget.
The taxes increase every year. It would be difficult to tell in which
department of the government the expenses increase; for who can boast
of any knowledge as to the budget? On this point, the ablest financiers
continually disagree. What is to be thought, I ask, of the science of
government, when its professors cannot understand one another's figures?
Whatever be the immediate causes of this growth of the budget, it is
certain that taxation increases at a rate which causes everybody to
despair. Everybody sees it, everybody acknowledges it; but nobody
seems to understand the primary cause. [1] Now, I say that it cannot be
otherwise,--that it is necessary and inevitable.
[1] "The financial situation of the English government was shown up
in the House of Lords during the session of January 23. It is not
an encouraging one. For several years the expenses have exceeded the
receipts, and the Minister has been able to re-establish the balance
only by loans renewed annually. The combined deficits of the years 1838
and 1839 amount to forty-seven million five hundred thousand francs. In
1840, the excess of expenses over receipts is expected to be twenty-two
million five hundred thousand francs. Attention was called to these
figures by Lord Ripon. Lord Melbourne replied: 'The noble earl unhappily
was right in declaring that the public expenses continually increase,
and with him I must say that there is no room for hope that they can be
diminished or met in any way. '"--National: January 26, 1840.
A nation is the tenant of a rich proprietor called the GOVERNMENT,
to whom it pays, for the use of the soil, a farm-rent called a tax.
Whenever the government makes war, loses or gains a battle, changes the
outfit of its army, erects a monu-ment, digs a canal, opens a road,
or builds a railway, it borrows money, on which the tax-payers pay
interest; that is, the government, without adding to its productive
capacity, increases its active capital,--in a word, capitalizes after
the manner of the proprietor of whom I have just spoken.
Now, when a governmental loan is once contracted, and the interest is
once stipulated, the budget cannot be reduced. For, to accomplish that,
either the capitalists must relinquish their interest, which would
involve an abandonment of property; or the government must go into
bankruptcy, which would be a fraudulent denial of the political
principle; or it must pay the debt, which would require another loan;
or it must reduce expenses, which is impossible, since the loan
was contracted for the sole reason that the ordinary receipts
were insufficient; or the money expended by the government must be
reproductive, which requires an increase of productive capacity,--a
condition excluded by our hypothesis; or, finally, the tax-payers must
submit to a new tax in order to pay the debt,--an impossible thing. For,
if this new tax were levied upon all citizens alike, half, or even more,
of the citizens would be unable to pay it; if the rich had to bear the
whole, it would be a forced contribution,--an invasion of property.
Long financial experience has shown that the method of loans, though
exceedingly dangerous, is much surer, more convenient, and less costly
than any other method; consequently the government borrows,--that is,
goes on capitalizing,--and increases the budget.
Then, a budget, instead of ever diminishing, must necessarily and
continually increase. It is astonishing that the economists, with all
their learning, have failed to perceive a fact so simple and so evident.
If they have perceived it, why have they neglected to condemn it?
HISTORICAL COMMENT. --Much interest is felt at present in a financial
operation which is expected to result in a reduction of the budget.
It is proposed to change the present rate of increase, five per cent.
Laying aside the politico-legal question to deal only with the financial
question,--is it not true that, when five per cent. is changed to four
per cent. , it will then be necessary, for the same reasons, to change
four to three; then three to two, then two to one, and finally to sweep
away increase altogether? But that would be the advent of equality of
conditions and the abolition of property. Now it seems to me, that an
intelligent nation should voluntarily meet an inevitable revolution
half way, instead of suffering itself to be dragged after the car of
inflexible necessity.
EIGHTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because its power of Accumulation is infinite,
and is exercised only over finite quantities.
If men, living in equality, should grant to one of their number the
exclusive right of property; and this sole proprietor should lend one
hundred francs to the human race at compound interest, payable to his
descendants twenty-four generations hence,--at the end of six hundred
years this sum of one hundred francs, at five per cent. , would amount to
107,854,010,777,600 francs; two thousand six hundred and ninety-six
and one-third times the capital of France (supposing her capital to be
40,000,000,000), or more than twenty times the value of the terrestrial
globe!
Suppose that a man, in the reign of St. Louis, had borrowed one hundred
francs, and had refused,--he and his heirs after him,--to return it.
Even though it were known that the said heirs were not the rightful
possessors, and that prescription had been interrupted always at the
right moment,--nevertheless, by our laws, the last heir would be obliged
to return the one hundred francs with interest, and interest on the
interest; which in all would amount, as we have seen, to nearly one
hundred and eight thousand billions.
Every day, fortunes are growing in our midst much more rapidly than
this. The preceding example supposed the interest equal to one-twentieth
of the capital,--it often equals one-tenth, one-fifth, one-half of the
capital; and sometimes the capital itself.
The Fourierists--irreconcilable enemies of equality, whose partisans
they regard as SHARKS--intend, by quadrupling production, to satisfy
all the demands of capital, labor, and skill. But, should production
be multiplied by four, ten, or even one hundred, property would
soon absorb, by its power of accumulation and the effects of its
capitalization, both products and capital, and the land, and even the
laborers. Is the phalanstery to be prohibited from capitalizing and
lending at interest? Let it explain, then, what it means by property.
I will carry these calculations no farther. They are capable of infinite
variation, upon which it would be puerile for me to insist. I only ask
by what standard judges, called upon to decide a suit for possession,
fix the interest? And, developing the question, I ask,--
Did the legislator, in introducing into the Republic the principle
of property, weigh all the consequences? Did he know the law of the
possible? If he knew it, why is it not in the Code? Why is so much
latitude allowed to the proprietor in accumulating property and
charging interest,--to the judge in recognizing and fixing the domain of
property,--to the State in its power to levy new taxes continually? At
what point is the nation justified in repudiating the budget, the tenant
his farm-rent, and the manufacturer the interest on his capital? How
far may the idler take advantage of the laborer? Where does the right
of spoliation begin, and where does it end? When may the producer say
to the proprietor, "I owe you nothing more"? When is property satisfied?
When must it cease to steal?
If the legislator did know the law of the possible, and disregarded it,
what must be thought of his justice? If he did not know it, what must
be thought of his wisdom? Either wicked or foolish, how can we recognize
his authority?
If our charters and our codes are based upon an absurd hypothesis,
what is taught in the law-schools? What does a judgment of the Court
of Appeal amount to? About what do our Chambers deliberate? What is
POLITICS? What is our definition of a STATESMAN? What is the meaning of
JURISPRUDENCE? Should we not rather say JURISIGNORANCE?
If all our institutions are based upon an error in calculation, does it
not follow that these institutions are so many shams? And if the entire
social structure is built upon this absolute impossibility of property,
is it not true that the government under which we live is a chimera, and
our present society a utopia?
NINTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because it is powerless against Property.
I. By the third corollary of our axiom, interest tells against the
proprietor as well as the stranger. This economical principle is
universally admitted. Nothing simpler at first blush; yet, nothing more
absurd, more contradictory in terms, or more absolutely impossible.
The manufacturer, it is said, pays himself the rent on his house and
capital. HE PAYS HIMSELF; that is, he gets paid by the public who buy
his products. For, suppose the manufacturer, who seems to make this
profit on his property, wishes also to make it on his merchandise, can
he then pay himself one franc for that which cost him ninety centimes,
and make money by the operation? No: such a transaction would transfer
the merchant's money from his right hand to his left, but without any
profit whatever.
Now, that which is true of a single individual trading with himself is
true also of the whole business world. Form a chain of ten, fifteen,
twenty producers; as many as you wish. If the producer A makes a
profit out of the producer B. B's loss must, according to economical
principles, be made up by C, C's by D; and so on through to Z.
But by whom will Z be paid for the loss caused him by the profit charged
by A in the beginning? BY THE CONSUMER, replies Say. Contemptible
equivocation! Is this consumer any other, then, than A, B. C, D, &c. ,
or Z? By whom will Z be paid? If he is paid by A, no one makes a profit;
consequently, there is no property. If, on the contrary, Z bears the
burden himself, he ceases to be a member of society; since it refuses
him the right of property and profit, which it grants to the other
associates.
Since, then, a nation, like universal humanity, is a vast industrial
association which cannot act outside of itself, it is clear that no man
can enrich himself without impoverishing another. For, in order that the
right of property, the right of increase, may be respected in the
case of A, it must be denied to Z; thus we see how equality of rights,
separated from equality of conditions, may be a truth. The iniquity of
political economy in this respect is flagrant. "When I, a manufacturer,
purchase the labor of a workingman, I do not include his wages in the
net product of my business; on the contrary, I deduct them. But the
workingman includes them in his net product. . . . "(Say: Political
Economy. )
That means that all which the workingman gains is NET PRODUCT; but that
only that part of the manufacturer's gains is NET PRODUCT, which remains
after deducting his wages. But why is the right of profit confined to
the manufacturer? Why is this right, which is at bottom the right of
property itself, denied to the workingman? In the terms of economical
science, the workingman is capital. Now, all capital, beyond the cost
of its maintenance and repair, must bear interest. This the proprietor
takes care to get, both for his capital and for himself. Why is the
workingman prohibited from charging a like interest for his capital,
which is himself?
Property, then, is inequality of rights; for, if it were not inequality
of rights, it would be equality of goods,--in other words, it would not
exist. Now, the charter guarantees to all equality of rights. Then, by
the charter, property is impossible.
II. Is A, the proprietor of an estate, entitled by the fact of his
proprietorship to take possession of the field belonging to B. his
neighbor? "No," reply the proprietors; "but what has that to do with
the right of property? " That I shall show you by a series of similar
propositions.
Has C, a hatter, the right to force D, his neighbor and also a hatter,
to close his shop, and cease his business? Not the least in the world.
But C wishes to make a profit of one franc on every hat, while D is
content with fifty centimes. It is evident that D's moderation is
injurious to C's extravagant claims. Has the latter a right to prevent D
from selling? Certainly not.
Since D is at liberty to sell his hats fifty centimes cheaper than C if
he chooses, C in his turn is free to reduce his price one franc. Now, D
is poor, while C is rich; so that at the end of two or three years D is
ruined by this intolerable competition, and C has complete control of
the market. Can the proprietor D get any redress from the proprietor C?
Can he bring a suit against him to recover his business and property?
No; for D could have done the same thing, had he been the richer of the
two.
On the same ground, the large proprietor A may say to the small
proprietor B: "Sell me your field, otherwise you shall not sell your
wheat,"--and that without doing him the least wrong, or giving him
ground for complaint. So that A can devour B if he likes, for the very
reason that A is stronger than B. Consequently, it is not the right of
property which enables A and C to rob B and D, but the right of might.
By the right of property, neither the two neighbors A and B, nor the two
merchants C and D, could harm each other. They could neither dispossess
nor destroy one another, nor gain at one another's expense. The power of
invasion lies in superior strength.
But it is superior strength also which enables the manufacturer
to reduce the wages of his employees, and the rich merchant and
well-stocked proprietor to sell their products for what they please. The
manufacturer says to the laborer, "You are as free to go elsewhere
with your services as I am to receive them. I offer you so much. " The
merchant says to the customer, "Take it or leave it; you are master of
your money, as I am of my goods. I want so much. " Who will yield? The
weaker.
Therefore, without force, property is powerless against property, since
without force it has no power to increase; therefore, without force,
property is null and void.
HISTORICAL COMMENT. --The struggle between colonial and native sugars
furnishes us a striking example of this impossibility of property. Leave
these two industries to themselves, and the native manufacturer will
be ruined by the colonist. To maintain the beet-root, the cane must be
taxed: to protect the property of the one, it is necessary to injure the
property of the other. The most remarkable feature of this business is
precisely that to which the least attention is paid; namely, that, in
one way or another, property has to be violated. Impose on each industry
a proportional tax, so as to preserve a balance in the market, and you
create a MAXIMUM PRICE,--you attack property in two ways. On the one
hand, your tax interferes with the liberty of trade; on the other, it
does not recognize equality of proprietors. Indemnify the beet-root, you
violate the property of the tax-payer. Cultivate the two varieties of
sugar at the nation's expense, just as different varieties of tobacco
are cultivated,--you abolish one species of property. This last course
would be the simpler and better one; but, to induce the nations to adopt
it, requires such a co-operation of able minds and generous hearts as is
at present out of the question.
Competition, sometimes called liberty of trade,--in a word, property
in exchange,--will be for a long time the basis of our commercial
legislation; which, from the economical point of view, embraces all
civil laws and all government. Now, what is competition? A duel in a
closed field, where arms are the test of right.
"Who is the liar,--the accused or the accuser? " said our barbarous
ancestors. "Let them fight it out," replied the still more barbarous
judge; "the stronger is right. "
Which of us two shall sell spices to our neighbor? "Let each offer them
for sale," cries the economist; "the sharper, or the more cunning, is
the more honest man, and the better merchant. "
Such is the exact spirit of the Code Napoleon.
TENTH PROPOSITION.
Property is impossible, because it is the Negation of equality.
The development of this proposition will be the resume of the preceding
ones.
1. It is a principle of economical justice, that PRODUCTS ARE BOUGHT
ONLY BY PRODUCTS. Property, being capable of defence only on the ground
that it produces utility, is, since it produces nothing, for ever
condemned.
2. It is an economical law, that LABOR MUST BE BALANCED BY PRODUCT. It
is a fact that, with property, production costs more than it is worth.
3. Another economical law: THE CAPITAL BEING GIVEN, PRODUCTION IS
MEASURED, NOT BY THE AMOUNT OF CAPITAL, BUT BY PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY.
Property, requiring income to be always proportional to capital without
regard to labor, does not recognize this relation of equality between
effect and cause.
4 and 5. Like the insect which spins its silk, the laborer never
produces for himself alone. Property, demanding a double product and
unable to obtain it, robs the laborer, and kills him.
6. Nature has given to every man but one mind, one heart, one will.
Property, granting to one individual a plurality of votes, supposes him
to have a plurality of minds.
7. All consumption which is not reproductive of utility is destruction.
Property, whether it consumes or hoards or capitalizes, is productive of
INUTILITY,--the cause of sterility and death.
8. The satisfaction of a natural right always gives rise to an equation;
in other words, the right to a thing is necessarily balanced by the
possession of the thing. Thus, between the right to liberty and the
condition of a free man there is a balance, an equation; between the
right to be a father and paternity, an equation; between the right to
security and the social guarantee, an equation. But between the right
of increase and the receipt of this increase there is never an equation;
for every new increase carries with it the right to another, the latter
to a third, and so on for ever. Property, never being able to accomplish
its object, is a right against Nature and against reason.
9. Finally, property is not self-existent. An extraneous cause--either
FORCE or FRAUD--is necessary to its life and action. In other
words, property is not equal to property: it is a negation--a
delusion--NOTHING.
