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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312 SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. author of a number of pamphlets and brochures, but his most considerable work is a book entitled “ The Historical Basis of Socialism in England,” written to aid the work of the Federation. This book, as its name implies, is mainly historical, but it contains two chapters, one on “ Labour and Surplus Value,” and another on the “ Great Machine Industry,” which are almost entirely concerned with economics. The whole work, especially the economical part, is, as the author acknowledges, largely derived from the writings of Karl Marx, Rodbertus, and Friedrich Engels. The historical part gives a sketch of the social and economical development of England from the fifteenth century to the present time.* It is of necessity a dark picture, but Mr. Hyndman has deepened the shadows and left only such lights as make the shadows by contrast darker still. As a scientific study it is greatly disfigured by the constant ascription of evil motives to landlords, capitalists, free-traders, and generally all persons—and they are many— with whom Mr. Hyndman does not agree. In the economic portion may be found, though somewhat spoilt in the borrowing, all those theories of Karl Marx, of which M. de Laveleye has given an account. First of all there is the Marxist theory of value, which Mr. Hyndman expresses as follows “ Human labour-force applied to commodities reckoned useful in existing social conditions constitutes the basis of exchange-value ; the quantity of labour- force socially necessary to produce such commodities and bring them forward for exchange, constitutes the measure of their relative exchange-value,” this labour-force being itself measured by “the time during which it is exerted.” In Publishing Company, London. Many of Mr. Bradlaugh’s arguments were unanswerable and were, of course, left unanswered. For instance, he put a case to this effect :—“ Suppose I want to start an agitation against your Collectivist system. M/ ill your Socialist State grant me lecture halls for the purpose of clenouncing it? Will it give me a printing press to enable me to publish books and papers advocating a new revolution to overthrow Socialism ? If not, and if all land, machinery, capital, and credit is to belong to the State, what becomes of freedom of speech ? * A very suggestive, though unhappily fragmentary, sketch of the period from 1760 will be found in Mr. Arnold Toynbee’s “Industrial Revolution in England ” (1884).

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