XXIV

INTRO  D  UCTION.

tion  of  certain  fixed  duties.  The  commune  was  far  more
than  a  mere  political  division  of  the  territory.  It  was  an
economic  institution  administered  by  those  who  constituted  it
In  the  towns,  his  trade  guild  was  to  the  handicraftsman  what
the  commune  was  to  the  peasant  ;  it  assured  him  work,  a
market,  and  the  means  of  making  his  living.  The  administration ­
  of  their  joint  interests,  their  social  gatherings,  and  their
festivals  formed  a  strong  bond  of  union  among  workers  of  the
same  trade.
For  them  also  “  their  to-morrow  ”  was  assured.  In  the  city
as  in  the  country  the  producer  retained  in  his  own  hands  the
instruments  of  production.  It  was  labour  that  then  owned
capital.  Such  a  thing  did  not  then  exist  as  a  mere  wage-earner,
a  man  without  bonds  of  interest  either  with  his  fellow-workmen
or  with  the  land,  without  guarantee  or  security  of  any  kind,
living  from  day  to  day  on  what  capital  might  grant  him.  Today ­
  this  is  the  typical  form  under  which  labour,  the  principal
factor  of  production,  appears.
In  short,  while  formerly  the  condition  of  those  whose  arms
create  all  wealth  was  guaranteed  by  custom,  it  depends  to-day
on  the  fluctuations  of  the  market  and  on  the  force  of  competition, ­
  that  is  to  say,  in  appearance  at  least,  on  the  will  of
landowners  and  capitalists.
We  live  under  the  régime  of  complete  freedom  of  contract  ;
but  in  every  contract,  he  who  supplies  that  which  is  essential  to
a  man  to  live  by  labour,  namely,  the  land  and  the  capital,  will
dictate  the  terms  of  the  bargain  and  will  cause  rent  to  be
brought  to  a  maximum  and  wages  to  a  minimum.  Now  that
all  those  traditional  and  customary  barriers,  which  once
protected  the  weak  and  helpless,  have  fallen,  the  Darwinian  law
of  the  “  struggle  for  existence  ”  reigns  supreme  in  the  economic
world.  The  strongest  wins  the  day,  and  the  strongest,  in  this
case,  means  the  richest.
Now  if  we  consider  the  changes  which  industrial  progress
has  introduced  among  social  conditions,  we  see  that  the  same
economic  influences  which  make  men  more  equal,  create,  at  the
same  time,  an  antagonism  between  master  and  workmen,  and
that  thus  the  causes  which  bring  about  the  triumph  of