The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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XXVI INTRO D UCTION possess great technical knowledge, and have the will necessary to make himself obeyed by his numerous employés ; he must know the needs of foreign countries, the extent of the market, and the vicissitudes of commerce, not only in his own im mediate neighbourhood, but over the entire globe. For to-day all countries are mutually dependent, and a crisis occurring even over the seas, in either hemisphere, re-echoes everywhere in ruins and failures. By his education, his position, his way of life, by the very necessity of exercising his authority, the head of a factory belongs to quite another world from that in which the operatives move. His Christian feelings as a man may lead him to regard them as brothers ; nevertheless, he has nothing in common with them, they are strangers to each other. In vain he may wish to increase their wages or improve their condition, he cannot do it. Competition forces him, in spite of himself, to reduce the cost of production as much as possible. The relations which the present industrial system has established between capitalist and labourer have been detailed with perfect exactness by the celebrated mechanical engineer and manufacturer, James Nasmyth, in his evidence before the committee appointed in England to inquire into trades-unions. He showed that it was for the advantage of trade that large numbers of workmen should be seeking employment, because the price of labour is thus lowered and with it the cost of production. He added that he had frequently increased his profits by putting apprentices to work in the place of grown-up workmen. When asked what he supposed had become of the workmen thus dismissed, and their families, he replied, “ I do not know j I can only leave it to the action of those natural laws which govern society.” In speaking thus, Nasmyth formulated the purely economic doctrine. Chris tianity, however, would have used other language. Thus, while perfecting its methods and extending the use of machinery and division of labour, the large system of manufacture has improved the condition of the lower classes by giving them cheaper goods, but at the same time the gulf that separates capitalist and labourer has been increased. The

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