sarily die of hunger if he could not certainly count on the grower of corn. The workman in a pin-factory, who prepares only the heads of pins, must be sure of his colleagues who sharpen the points, if his labor would not be entirely in vain. The labor of the merchant is not even thinkable without that of the different producers between whom he mediates. Where the production of a certain article depends on the services of six different kinds of labor, one of which, however, demands thrice the time, and another twice the time of the rest, it is clear, that, in order that the business may be properly carried on, so many workmen should be employed that their number divided by 9 should leave no remainder. (Rau.) The union or combination of different kinds of labor is most perfect when the workmen live nearest together; when, therefore, they are not separated by great difficulties of transportation; or in different countries, in which case, a war might tear all to pieces. SECTION LXV. THE PRINCIPLE OF STABILITY, OR OF THE CONTINUITY OF WORK. Coöperation in time is of equal importance: the principle of the stability, or of the continuity of labor. When a workman dies, it is necessary to be able to calculate on a substitute. It is well known that it is much harder to begin a business, than it is, afterwards, to improve and enlarge it; and this, the more complicated it is. A new enterprise will take root easily, only where there are several similar ones already in existence; a new manufacturing establishment, for instance, where by the existence of other such establishments, the requisite habits of the workmen, of capitalists and of the public in general, have been previously developed. The skill of workmen is propagated especially by observation and the personal emulation of culture affords room for the first especially, and it is known also to a great number of animal species. the young; whence it is, that the introduction of new industries is best made by the immigration of skilled workmen.1 Hence the baleful influence of such interruptions, as for instance, the repeal of the edict of Nantes. Hence too, it is, that despotism and the reign of the populace are so unfavorable to the economy of a country, where there can be no guaranty of a consistent observance and development of the laws. To the best applications of the principle of the continuity of labor belong the church-building of the middle ages, the national canals, the street and fortification systems of modern times; all of which have been created only by the coöperation of several generations to the same end. The most striking means by which such a coöperation has been advanced in modern times is public credit, "a draft on posterity;" yet, all saving is, in principle, the same. The most powerful element in the coöperation in time of labor is the economy in common of the family, although it differs in degree, according to the different kinds of family inheritance. Where, as among the English middle classes, it is customary to secure the business property of the family to one child by will, and to entrust the conduct of the business, during the life of the father, to the devisee, to provide for the other children by insurance, by savings etc., made from the surplus of the business, there may be old firms which remain always new, however; because they combine the experience of age with the energy of youth, and are never broken up by a division of the inheritance. But the 1 Flemish weavers in England, French refugees in Protestant countries; German miners in Spain, Scandinavia, Hungary and America. This, so very largely developed in Egypt and India, where the principle of caste obtains, is very little developed in the despotisms of Asia. The great princes, in the latter countries, build largely from vanity only. Hence their successors seldom complete their works, and scarcely repair them. Nowhere else are there so many half completed and yet decaying buildings. Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, VIII, 86. Riedel, N. Ekonomie I, 259, very correctly remarks that such kinds of coöperation as contribute most to the propagation of skill, both in commerce and manual labor, have less real division of labor, and vice versa. compulsory equality of heirs, which actually obtains in France, compels almost every new generation to begin with a new firm. (See § 85 seq.) 3 SECTION LXVI. ADVANTAGE OF LARGE ENTERPRISES. On the results of the division and coöperation of labor rests the superior advantage of all great undertakings, and they are, therefore, smaller in agriculture than in industry. "It is harder to acquire the first thousand than the second million." Abstraction made of the conditions of capital and of the market, the limit up to which the growing magnitude of an enterprise becomes more advantageous, lies in the increasing difficulty of superintendence. Numberless commercial improvements, such as the post-office, railroads, telegraphs, exchange, banks etc., have operated powerfully to extend these limits. It is frequently possible, even in small enterprises, to secure the advantages of large enterprises, by association among those concerned. They must, of course, possess the necessary capital. If they have not got it, as property, they must borrow it. It is, of course, peculiarly difficult here to preserve the necessary unity, without which the coöperation of labor becomes the confusion of labor. The more moral and intelligent the participants are and the simpler the business, the more extensive may it become, and the more probable will be its success. ($90.)123 3 Compare Leplay, La Réforme sociale en France (1864). 1 Concerning association in general, see M. Chevalier, Cours, III, Leçon, 24, 25. On this subject so much talked of in our day, see, more in detail, concerning its application to agriculture, my work, Nationalökonomik des Ackerbaues, 4, § 39, 47 ff.; 68, 133 ff.; on its application to industry, especially where there is question of the relation of handiwork and manufactures to large factories; see Roscher, Ansichten der Volkswirthschaft, II, Aufl., 1861, Abhandlung, IV, V. 2 Adam Smith remarked that the laws of the division of labor obtain also in intellectual works; and indeed, among all nations in a very low grade of CHAPTER IV. FREEDOM AND SLAVERY. SECTION LXVII. THE ORIGIN OF SLAVERY. An institution like that of personal bondage, which, it can be shown, has existed, among all nations of which history gives civilization, the germs of all art and science are found connected with theology; and later, the germs of all poetry and history with the epic. The expression: non defuit homini, sed scientiæ, quod nescivit Salmasius, is a clear proof of the insignificance of the science of the time. Think of the increase during the last hundred years of the branches of study in our German universities. There are now thirty-four regular professors in the Leipzig philosophical faculty, where then there were only nine. But here also the principle proves true, that an excessive division of labor, where the broader connection and the deeper foundation of all sciences disappear from the consciousness, undermines intellectual health and freedom. And the injury here is greater and more irreparable than in the domain of mere physical labor. See Hufeland, N. Grundlegung,I, 207 ff. If we have just become Alexandrians, we have, however, no Aristotle to hope for. Jurisprudentia est divinarum atque humanarum rerum notitia, justi atque injusti scientia (Ulpian). It is remarkable that nations who possess no real national literature of their own, when they once get beyond the bounds of utter barbarism, learn foreign languages etc., most easily. The socialistic utopia of Ch. Fourier (Théorie des quatre Mouvements, 1808. Théorie de l'Unité universelle, 1822. Le nouveau Monde industriel et sociétaire, 1829) are based upon the following fundamental ideas. A. The present civilization is that of a topsy-turvy world, especially in so far as it ascribes a "moral" (a word always used by him in an ironical sense) self us information, at one time or another, must have very general causes. Among these may be mentioned especially subjection through war. It is not possible to calculate how much the principle, that it was proper to reduce the man to slavery government to man. In Fourier's world, on the other hand, every man is supposed, at all times, to give free rein to every passion; and the play of these gratifications constitutes the harmonie, in which the poorest find more enjoyment than do kings at the present time. (See § 207 of this work.) B. The main thing to further this is a radical reform in the division and cooperation of labor as they exist at present. Instead of the present villages and cities, we should have only phalansteries, each with 2,000 inhabitants, and situated in the center of the land cultivated by them. Instead of the present nations and states, we should have a universal confederate republic, hierarchically graded, with French as the universal language. According to the demands of the passion papillonne, each one should carry on the most different kinds of business side by side, and each one of them at most two hours per day; i. e., every one should be a dilletante, no one a master, and everything should be done as badly as possible. Proudhon, Contradictions économiques, ch. 3, objects to this, that a workman must, in some way, be held responsible for his work. Fourier himself calculates that, in his harmonie all pleasures are productive labor; and that by this constant change, one might be satisfied with from 4% to 5%1⁄2 hours of sleep, and that even children 21⁄2 years old might take part in the work. Thus, there would be a great rivalry between apple-growers and pear-growers, so great "that more intrigues in attack and defense [ passion cabaliste] would arise there than in all the cabinets of Europe," in the settling of which the growers of quinces would act as intermediaries. There are, in addition to all this, wonderful aids; a fructifying crown of light rises over the north pole; oranges bloom in Siberia; the sea becomes as delicious as lemonade; dangerous animals die, and in their stead anti-lions and anti-whales come into being, animals useful to man, which draw his ships for him during calms. These ideas are by no means retracted in Fourier's later works, See Nouveau Monde (Oeuvres) IV, 447. The propositions of Robert Owen, A new View of Society (1812), have much similarity with those of Fourier. They differ only in the absence of the French barrack-like character of the phalanxes, and the fantastic character of the presentation of the doctrine. He would have all the land divided into districts of 1,000 acres each; each district to have a four-cornered town with 1,000 inhabitants, following a system of production and consumption in common, but not with full equality; carrying on both agriculture and other business. A principal feature here is an entirely new system of education. The author says that man has hitherto been the slave of an execrable trinity: positive religion, personal property and indissoluble wedlock. (Declaration of mental independence.) |