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CHAPTER I

MONEY AND INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY

The Hustorical Aspect of Liberty

UTY, claim, right, and obligation are in the last
D analysis only names for a one-sided aspect of dual
relationships. Every duty has as its correlative
the right of another subject. This right or claim may have
for its content the personal services, the immediate result
of these personal services, or merely a specific object. This
series is also a scale for the amount of liberty that is left to
the person thus bound. The extreme form of the first instance
 is slavery. In that case there is no objective specification
 of the service demanded, but the individual is
bound with the whole of his personality and all his energies.
The transition to the second phase begins with the specification
 of the labor time or of the character of the work.
The third phase is reached if, instead of a quantum labor
time or labor force, a specific product is demanded. In
that case the claimant is interested only in a specific objective
 obligation. How that obligation is met becomes a matter
 of indifference to him, and the personality of the servant
 can withdraw from the service.
But as long as the natural economy lasts, a complete
liberation cannot be obtained. The intimate relationship
between product and producer prevents a complete withdrawal
 of the personality from the service demanded, although
 the substitution of a factual service for a personal
service means increased liberty. Full liberation becomes
possible only after the money economy has succeeded the