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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C0LLEC7VV/SM AND LAND NATIONALIZATION. 201 shops, in theory the collective property of the State, would, in practice, be handed over to corporations of working men, who would manage them in the same way as joint-stock companies do to-day. Workmen would be paid in proportion to the amount and the quality of their work. They would, therefore, have the same incentive as at present to bring to their labour the virtues of energy and carefulness. The difference would be that, on the one hand, they would obtain the full product of their labour, as nothing would have to be deducted for rent, interest, or profits, and, on the other hand, everybody would be obliged to work, as the means of production, having ceased to be private property, would no longer furnish private incomes, such as at present permit people to live in idleness. In primitive societies, where every man owns the instruments of production, his plot of land, his loom, or his tool, private property realizes the aim of justice, which consists in allowing every man to enjoy the entire fruits of his labour. But under the régime of industrial production on a large scale and large anded estates, with their concomitants of wage-earning and tenant-farming, the remuneration of labour is reduced to a minimum by the competition for land or for employment, that IS to say, by the tolls levied by the possessors of land and capital Collectivism, by means of the system of co-operative production necessitated by the employment of machines, aims at realizing the results of generalized private property, namely, the assurance of the full enjoyment of the produce to the producer. Every- thing relating to the means of transport and to the circulating medium, whether money or credit, would become a public department. Dr. Schæffle even supposes the realization of a general scheme of remuneration and exchange, like that suggested by Proudhon and Marx, and which would be of the following nature. In accordance with the theory of those economists who consider labour the exclusive source of value, the workman would receive for each article the price of as many hours of labour as, “on the average," were required for the manufacture of he article. The price would be paid in labour-notes exchange- e or goods. 1 he goods for sale would be deposited in public warehouses or co-operative stores, where they would be ex-

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