THIS BOOK
FORMS PART OF THE
ORIGINAL LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
BOUCHT IN EUROPE
1838 TO 1839
BY
ASA CRAY
#8
7?
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
EDINBURGH:
Trinted by Andrew Siiortreed, Thistle Lane.
THE
SOCIAL SYSTEM
A TREATISE
THE PRINCIPLE OF EXCHANGE.
BY JOHN GRAY.
The Economist is not to frame systems and devise schemes for increasing the
wealth and enjoyments of particular classes, but to apply himself to discover the
sources of national wealth and universal prosperity. — M'Cullocb.
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM TAIT, PRINCE STREET:
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, & GREEN, LONDON: AND
W. CURRY, JUN. & CO. DUBLIN.
MDCCCXXXL
H6
id
G7f
TO
THOSE WHO CAN DISTINGUISH
TRUTH AND JUSTICE
from:
RECEIVED OPINION AND ESTABLISHED CUSTOM;
AND WHO ARE WILLING
TO ASSIST IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SUCH PRINCIPLES
AS ARE BEST CALCULATED TO
ADVANCE THE CHARACTER AND IMPROVE THE CONDITION
OF
THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE,
THIS VOLUME
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
A long period has elapsed since my mind was
first impressed with the belief that there exists in
the heart and vitals of society some deeply rooted
but concealed disease; and continued reflection
upon the subject, has only tended to confirm and
strengthen the opinion.
A notion appears to prevail amongst mankind,
that there exists in our Social System a self regula-
ting principle, and that the stream of commerce,
like that of water, only requires to be let alone to
find its own level, and to flow on smoothly and
prosperously. Ten years ago, I doubted, and I
now deny, the existence of any such principle. I
also deny the possibility of effectually removing the
distresses of this country, by any other means
whatever than those of association in the employ-
ment of capital; and I affirm, that by such associa-
tion, under well digested principles, and with an
improved plan of exchange, unmerited poverty
PREFACE.
may be removed, commercial difficulties of every
denomination annihilated, and individual, as well
as national, prosperity, established upon an ample
and imperishable basis.
At an early period of my life I committed to
paper the opinions I then entertained upon this
subject, and sent the manuscript to the most intel-
ligent friend I then, or have ever since, had,
requesting the favour of a perusal, and of an opinion
of the work; and here is a verbatim copy of his
reply :—
"I had intended, as I was requested, to make a
"few observations upon this work, and I have
"waded through it with the view of doing so; but
"after perusing the third chapter of the last part,"
[the work was then divided into three parts,] "I
"am convinced that any observations would be a
"mere waste of time. I should advise that the
"book be put into any kitchen fire large enough
"to consume it."
My friend-s verdict was certainly neither very
complimentary nor encouraging: I had, however,
but little disposition to act in accordance with his
advice, and as it was quite evident that he had not
understood the opinion which was intended to be
stated, owing, perhaps, to the obscurity of the
language, I endeavoured to console myself with the
hope that, at some future period, I might be able to
state my views in a more clear and intelligible
manner; and I trust that I have now done so.
Some time afterwards, I re-wrote and published
a part of the said work in the form of a lecture, of
PREFACE. ix
which a few hundred copies were sold immediately,
and the rest were put into the hands of a London
publisher, who failed shortly afterwards, and from
that hour to this I have never accurately ascertained
what became of them. The pamphlet I allude to
was afterwards reprinted in Philadelphia, where an
edition of a thousand copies was rapidly sold off.
My reason for giving publicity to the foregoing
statement now is to admit the justice of my friend's
criticism, so far as related to the propriety of pub-
lishing the work in the condition in which it then
was ; and as that portion of it, which was afterwards
printed, was not, in any instance, so far as I know,
advertised, and as no other means, save only the
issuing of a few prospectuses, were taken to bring
it before the public, I have here quoted, without
the accustomed marks, the very few sentences it
contained, which I now think worthy of preser-
vation.
Whilst, however, I am not anxious to rescue
from oblivion the aforesaid pamphlet, which, by the
way, was merely an introduction to the present
subject, and contained no attempt to explain how
matters might be improved; let it not be supposed
that I imagine the present work to be at all free
from the same faults. Fully occupied, from a very
early age, with the active business of life, I have
had no opportunity of acquiring those literary
qualifications, which, in this fastidious age, are so
essential to accomplished authorship. But these,
however undoubtedly important, are not, in the
present instance, indispensable. The poet, or the
PREFACE.
novelist, must be rich in words as well as in
thoughts, ere he can be successful; but in mere
matters of opinion, a plain man can generally tell
his mind in his own way: indeed, most men in the
present day can put thoughts into language suffi-
ciently well to be understood; and, as the object
of this little work is not to please the imagination,
but to assist the judgment, to be understood is all,
as a literary composition, that it aspires to.
A lapse of several years, since the subject of
the commercial interests of nations first occupied
my mind, during which I have undergone a very
full share of bodily exertion, as well as of mental
anxiety and affliction, has, I trust, clone something
towards abating the enthusiasm of a mind naturally
confident and sanguine; but additional thought,
reflection, and experience, have only tended to
confirm my belief, that in the commercial affairs of
society there is a tremendous evil, resembling, not
the decrepitude of old age, which can merely be
assisted with the crutch, but rather the thorn, which
only requires to be plucked from the foot of youth
to restore him to vigour and activity. The opinions
here stated are substantially the same as those which
I entertained many years ago, but they are now
for the first time published.
One word of apology for the style. Boldness of
assertion, full confidence in their own opinions, and
disregard of those of other men, are the common
faults of inexperienced writers; and they are
amongst mine. I find it, however, much easier
thus freely to express myself, than to ape a more
6
PREFACE. xi
subdued and refined style which is not natural to
me. The book may be injured by my inability
to correct these faults. But for the theory therein
registered, no such apology is offered: it has been
forced into my mind by a constant and long con-
tinued intimacy with the world of business: it is
here reduced to a digested and systematic form,
after an attentive examination of what others have
written upon the same subject, and if it cannot stand
the test of the severest fire that can be opened upon
it by the most accomplished and unrelenting
politician, or political economist, and receive the
bullets like an iron target, merely to lay them
flattened at its feet, I shall not long be found to
remain its advocate.
Edinburgh, 14, Brandon Street,
October, 1831.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
Introductory — Difficulties of the subject — Individual engage-
ments— General distaste for the study of Social Science—
Necessity of adapting parts to each other, so as to form a
symmetrical whole — General disbelief in the possibility of
substantial improvement, a serious obstacle to it—Favourable
circumstances of the present times — Theory and practice—
Miscellaneous observations, .... 1
CHAPTER II.
Definition —The principle stated, explained, and its importance
insisted on — Land, labour, capital, and freedom of exchange,
are the four ingredients of which wealth is composed, . 16
CHAPTER III.
Sketch of a Commercial Constitution—Appropriation of Land
and Capital — Direction — Management — Wages — Salaries,
and general principles of the Social System, . . 30
CHAPTER IV.
Production — Labour the Source of wealth—Security of property
— Division of employments — Capital—Description of the
manner in which manufactures and agriculture may be so
conducted that demand must ever keep pace with production, 40
xiv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Page
Exchange—Exchange the parent of Society—The present plan
of Exchange radically defective — Necessity for a measure of
value — Gold, silver, and bank notes, as at present used, totally
unfit for the purpose for which they are intended — The proper
use and qualities of money defined — Description of an improved
plan of Exchange — Plan of a National Bank — Gold, silver,
and copper coin — Exportation and importation, . , 56
CHAPTER VI.
Distribution — Observation upon the nature of the theory here
advocated—Importance of considering the national debt in
fixing the rate of wages — The proper average of wages defined
— Wages — Salaries — National charges — National capital —
Education — Insurances — Incapacity — Depreciation of stock
Unproductive labour — Change of employment — Taxes —
National balance sheet—Business for Mr Hume — Conclusion
of the Chapter, 93
CHAPTER VII.
Prevention of Forgery—Opinion stated, that the Forgery of Bank
Notes may be entirely prevented-—Necessity for a public
criterion of genuine notes — Insufficiency of the existing plans
for the prevention of forgery — Bank Notes should be all alike
— Description of a plan for the prevention of forgery —
Reasons for believing that the plan now proposed would be
effectual, 129
CHAPTER VIII.
Professions—< Distinction between Professional and Commercial
Members of Society — Modes of remunerating Professional
Men — Demi-professional Trades—Transfers of Private Pro-
perty—Patents, 147
CONTENTS. xv
CHAPTER IX.
Pag-e
Review of Society-*- Probable consequences of the Social System
— Map of Society — General review of the employments of
mankind, and of the manner in which the wealth of the country
is now distributed, 157
CHAPTER X.
Population — Theory of Mr Malthus — It is opposed to the plainest
dictates of Nature — It is contradicted by the evidence to which
Mr Malthus appeals for its support—The assumed facts on
which it is founded, are unreal — Even if it were true, it would
be an additional argument for the establishment of the Social
System — Theory of Mr Sadler—Some of his tables quoted—
Effect of inequality in the ages of parents on the sexes of their
children — Animals are subject to the same law — Emigration, 178
CHAPTER XL
Political Economy — A brief notice of the opinions of the Political
Economists, exhibiting the difference, in some respects, between
their views and those of the Author of the Social System,
and tending also to illustrate and defend the principle of the
foregoing pages, 226
CHAPTER XII.
Taxation—General observations upon the effect of taxation, with
reference to the present system of Commerce—Increased
production the effect of large sums of money being borrowed
and expended by the Government—Under the Social System
taxes would be an evil exactly proportionate to their amount, 300
CHAPTER XIII.
The public debt — Preliminary considerations — Comparison
between the public and a private debt—Estimated amount of
property in the British empire — Summary view of the pro-
gressive increase of the national debt, from the period of
the revolution to 1st February, 1813, .... 312
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV,
Pago
Plan of commencement —Influence of the public press—Parlia-
ment should institute an inquiry into the causes of existing
troubles, and into the character of the various remedies that
have been proposed for the relief of distress—Progressive
steps necessary to the formation of a National Commercial
Association, . . . . . . . . . '321
CHAPTER XV.
Concluding address — If we continue to suffer from the existing
commercial errors of society, it is our own fault, . . 327
APPENDIX.
The theory of the Social System is the result entirely of observation
and reflection — The Orbiston Co-operative Establishment —
Quotation from A Word of Advice to its projectors— Obser-
vations upon the character of the late Mr Abram Combe —
A memoir of him quoted—Origin of The North British
Advertiser, a weekly newspaper published in Scotland, con-
taining only advertisements — Plan of Mr Robert Owen of New
Lanark — Conclusion of the appendix, and of the work, . iii)7
* 4 * Add the word question to the end of the second line of page 20.
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory—Difficulties of the subject—Individual engagements —
General distaste for the study of Social Science — Necessity of
adapting parts to each other, so as to form a symmetrical whole —
General disbelief in the possibility of substantial improvement, a
serious obstacle to it—Favourable circumstances of the present
times — Theory and practice—Miscellaneous observations.
Perhaps there are but few tasks more
uninviting than that which is undertaken by
the man who addresses his fellow creatures
upon the subject of their collective prosperity.
Mankind, in general, are so fully occupied
with their respective individual affairs, that
it is next to impossible to withdraw their
attention from them for ever so short a
period; whilst the exceptions to this rule
2 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
are either taken up with some favourite theory
of their own, or else are so well satisfied with
things as they are, that no change is likely to
be any improvement in their estimation.
And it unfortunately happens, that the
study of Social Science has long retained the
character of being one of the most dry and
uninteresting of pursuits. Thus, whilst there
appears to be nothing too insignificant to
command the industry of mankind, in cases
where immediate advantage to the individual
is the expected result, but few persons are
found willing to trouble themselves with
investigating the principles upon which the
aggregate of human affairs is proceeding or
should proceed.
A little reflection, however, should con-
vince us, that it is not merely by apparent
excellence in the various parts of the machin-
ery of society, that the whole can, with any
degree of certainty, be made perfect. Each
part may, in every other respect, be good, but
if it be found to want the quality of being
properly proportioned, and adapted to every
other, we have no reason to be surprised if
the result be unsatisfactory: and it is by no
means wonderful, that a society, possessing
most of the elements of prosperity, should be
struggling with adversity, unless we are well
INTRODUCTORY. 3
assured that its operations are conducted upon
right principles.
Another obstacle to improvement, of a very
serious description, is the common disbelief
in the possibility of it. The public mind
has never yet contemplated a state of pros-
perity beyond good wages and a brisk trade.
It appears to have no conception that any
change is necessary beyond parliamentary
reform, free trade, and a sweeping reduction
of the taxes. It appears, in fact, to be of
opinion, that the general plan of society is
founded upon some immutable basis, some
unalterable law of nature, and that, therefore,
to purge it of a few corruptions, is all that is
necessary to make it go on smoothly, and as
well as we have any right or reason to expect.
But this is a fatal error—a disease as dread-
ful as it is extensive; it is the paralysis of
society, which benumbs and deadens all our
exertions, and renders us the willing slaves
of a condition which we possess the power of
improving in a most extraordinary degree.
There are, however, some favourable
features in the present aspect of things.
Much, from which great benefit was, at a
former period, expected to arise, lias already
been done, but no beneficial change has taken
place. War has been succeeded by a lasting
4. THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
peace; the taxes have been reduced; the acts
of government have been distinguished for
their liberality, and the desire to do good, has
been and is abundantly exhibited: but there
is still no sign of substantial improvement;
distress and dissatisfaction continue to prevail,
and the existence of danger cannot be alto-
gether denied. Neighbouring nations are
involved in no less trouble. Revolution and
bloodshed, the result, no doubt, for the most
part, of oppression and misgovernment, are
bad evidences of the existence of general
prosperity and happiness.
But this condition of things is not altogether
without its advantages. Disappointed in its
past hopes and expectations, the public mind
will ever be upon the alert to discover new
sources of evil, and new causes of dissatis-
faction; for, in spite of the experienced
misery of ages, the world still seems to
entertain an indefinite opinion that things are
not exactly as they should be, that the age of
improvement may ultimately arrive;—and it
will do so.
Confidence, too, in any particular set of
men or of opinions, cannot be very great
in a state of society wherein men of esta-
blished reputation for talent and integrity,
and having equal access to the best sources of
INTRODUCTORY.
information, are found to agree in almost
nothing; one party contending for free trade,
another protesting against it; one being for
economy and retrenchment, whilst another
insists that taxes are a positive good; one
would abolish machinery, whilst another is
enthusiastic in its praise; one is for gold,
another for paper; and, in short, there is
no unanimity: the first principles of social
science are not agreed on, and the battle-field
of political contention is still undeclared to
have been won by any man.
But this state of things cannot last much
longer. Knowledge, ever silently but cer-
tainly progressing in the human mind, must
ultimately prevail, and when but a fraction
of the talent that is at present devoted to the
improvement of the various parts of the
social system, shall be applied to the regu-
lation of the whole, the numerous existing
political anomalies will vanish like so many
shadows, and the condition of societv wTill
become as intelligible as a question in the
rule of three.
We have nearly all the materials necessary
to ensure prosperity, and what we chiefly
want, is a controlling and directing power by
which the various parts of our commercial
system may be so fitted and adapted to each
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
other as to produce a harmonious instead of
an incongruous whole; and whenever such a
power shall be established upon right prin-
ciples, we shall cease to pine away our exis-
tence in unavailing complaints, and to declare
that poverty and wretchedness are ever to be
the lot of man. We shall see the popu-
lation of this country in a state of comparative
ease and affluence, with far less astonishment
than we recently experienced, at seeing the
public of Liverpool and Manchester, flying
over space at the rate of thirty miles an hour •
and the greatest cause of astonishment will
then be, that we have so long been blind to
our own interest, and to the chief cause of
national difficulty and distress.
The present is a peculiarly favourable
period for a complete reform in the com-
mercial arrangements of society. The govern-
ment is liberal, and will encourage it; the
higher and middling classes are as much
embarrassed as any other,—it would be their
interest to assist in promoting it; and the
people, enlightened as they have been of
late by the general spread of education, cannot
much longer be in doubt as to the course they
should pursue.
In entering upon the consideration of what
are the best means of improving the condition
INTRODUCTORY.
of society, it is desirable that we should divest
our minds, as much as possible, of the belief,
that there are any fixed and immutable laws
of commerce. It is the business of society to
make such laws as are calculated to produce
the best results, not to explore those which
the accumulated ignorance of ages has entailed
upon us. It is not so much what is, as what
ought to be, which is the legitimate object of
the political inquirer; and, therefore, we may
safely dismiss, as of little practical value, all
those theories, the chief object of which is
to explain how, according to the existing
principles of commerce, the business of life
can be best conducted. The principles them-
selves, it will be here contended, are founded
in the deepest error, and a reformation must
take place, from the root upwards, before we
can enjoy those blessings which could never
fail to spring from the rational appropriation
of the inexhaustible resources with which
nature has supplied us.
It is already objected, perhaps, from what
has been said, that this is merely some new
theory; and forthwith follows the trite remark,
that "theory and practice are very different
things.5' The truth, however, is, that that
which is right in theory, can never be wrong
in practice. Theory and practice are very
8 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
much like multiplication and division: they
prove each other. The omission of some
fact, or incorrect reasoning upon the facts
before us, may lead us to look for a result
different from that which is experienced;
but it is, nevertheless, invariably true, that
that which is really true in theory is true also
in practice.
An engineer can ascertain whether he has
taken a correct drawing of a machine, by
calculating the result on paper; for, if it does
not correspond with the reality which he may
have seen in operation, he knows at once that
he must have committed an error in making
his drawings. A case in point may be men-
tioned. A person was recently employed in
Edinburgh to take a copy of a machine, for
the purpose of giving an estimate of its value.
Having performed his work, he took the
drawings to his house, and the next day he
mentioned to the person that employed him,,
that he must have miscopied some part of the
machine, because the result on paper was not
the same as that which he had seen in
practice: and this, upon another examination,
proved to be true; he had miscounted the
teeth of one of the principal wheels.
And so it is with theories of every kind.
We may overlook this, or miscalculate that,
INTRODUCTORY.
and when our projects are brought to the test
of experiment, the result will be different
from what we expect; but, if it prove so, we
may rest assured, that on paper there is an
error exactly corresponding with the difference
that is found in practice. Were it, indeed,
otherwise, it would be impossible to describe
any thing, for theory is merely another name
for description ; and if a true theory, that is, a
correct description previous to existence, will
not invariably give the result it promises
when completely understood, it must be
equally impossible to give a description of
any thing, even after it exists, which can be
at all relied upon.
It is exceedingly difficult, no doubt, in
endeavouring to investigate so vast a subject
as the commercial affairs of nations, to be at
all cfertain that every thing has been duly
considered, and that to every division of
the subject has been given its relative weight
and importance; and we may be sure, that
if an age were to be spent in endeavouring
to perfect a theory on paper, improvements
and alterations would rapidly suggest them-
selves whenever we should attempt to reduce
the theory to practice. But this is not a
sound reason for objecting to theories, for,
upon the same principle, we might object to
10 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
every thing which is susceptible of improve-
ment.
In forming an.opinion of the means by
which it is about to be submitted, that the
commercial difficulties of nations may be
entirely removed, the reader is requested to
bear in mind, that I do not propose to intro-
duce a few new springs or wheels into an old
and broken down machine, for the purpose of
mending it,—in which case, the utility of the
said springs or wheels would require to be
considered, with reference to the remaining:
parts of the machine to which they would
have to be applied; but I dismiss entirely
the machine itself, as ill-constructed, compli-
cated, unmendable, and of no value whatever,
excepting, indeed, that the materials of which
it is composed are, for the most part, good,
and capable, by reconstruction, of being
converted to very useful purposes.
The plan of society here to be described,
must be considered separately and distinctly
from that which now exists. Part cannot
always be compared with part, because there is
little affinity between them. We must take
each as a whole, and, judging of the effects that
it is calculated to produce, award the palm to
that which shall be found best to deserve it.
This distinction is necessary, because, if we
INTRODUCTORY. 11
take a part of the social system, and try to
apply it to the unsocial system, it will be
like trying to add an additional wheel to a
machine already finished: there will be no
place for it And, on the other hand, if we
attempt to apply the cumbrous, complicated,
and unwieldy parts, of which the existing
plan of society is composed, to the new one
proposed to be substituted for it, then it
will be found that a great number of these
parts are altogether superseded, and conse-
quently of no use whatever.
Another error which it is desirable to guard
against, and more particularly because it is
a very common one, is the habit, into which
men of all denominations are very liable to
fall, of judging of every thing by looking
merely at the proposed result, and if it hap-
pens to be very different from any thing that
they have ever supposed to be possible, that
is argument enough to satisfy them that it is
impossible. For example, if Mr Stevenson,
the engineer, had announced to the world,
that he intended shortly to travel the distance
of a statute mile, within the space of a couple
of minutes, in a vehicle of several tons weight,
carrying within itself the power by which it
was to be so rapidly propelled, it is more
likely that he would have been thought a
12 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
madman than a rational being. The result
proposed to be attained would have been
sufficient to ensure him the appellations of
visionary and enthusiast Yet this miracle of
modern days has been actually performed,
and, being performed,, men cease to wonder,
because they see how it is done ; and, finding
that the means, in reason as well as in fact,
are equal to the attainment of the end, the
miracle proves to be nothing more than the
natural consequence of certain principles and
combinations, which, had they been under-
stood in the first instance, would have pre-
vented the wonderment altogether.
Now it certainly does not follow, because a
miracle has lately been performed upon a
rail-road, that another miracle is about to be
performed in social science; nor is any such
conclusion intended to be drawn: but it may
be remarked, that the imagination has so
frequently been left in the distance by reality,
that our judgment of propositions would
frequently be much more correct in the first
instance, if we could always bring our minds
to the investigation of them, rather with the
belief that nothing is impossible, than that
every thing is impossible, the like of which we
have never seen: and, therefore, in consider-
ing the proposition now submitted, a correct
INTRODUCTORY. 13
opinion of it will be more easily formed by
dispassionately examining whether the means
are equal to the end proposed to be attained,
than by indulging in vague and unsupported
conjectures that the end is unattainable by
any means.
In most cases, truth is ultimately arrived at
with much greater certainty, by an obstinate
adherence to principles in themselves ob-
viously right, than by allowing the mind to
be withdrawn from them by the occasional
difficulty of reconciling them with existing
facts, or by the innumerable ifs and buts,
which are so abundantly used in controversial
writings, for the purpose of turning black into
white. It is, for example, a fixed principle
of human action, to attain the objects of our
desires as easily as we can. Thus we walk to
a place by the nearest road ; if there are many
modes of doing a thing, we choose the easiest
that we know of and can perform: no man
offers more money for an article than is
demanded for it; and thus, facility and advan-
tage are almost synonymous terms. To obtain
what we require, therefore, as easily as we
can, is clearly a law of our nature, which
never can be altered, and never can be wrong.
It may indeed be said, that a man does not
always go the nearest way to a place. He
14 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
may be induced to go a considerable way
round, because, &c. But this single word
because, proves that he has two objects in
view, instead of one. He may not go the
nearest road, because it is dirty, or dangerous,
or disagreeable, or he may intentionally pro-
long his walk, for the sake of walking. But
in all these cases, there is obviously a double
purpose to be served, and he still acts, there-
fore, upon the invariable principle of attaining
his object as easily as he can.
Apply this rule to practice. The effect of
machinery is to abridge labour; to spin
cotton, for example, more easily than by
any hand process. To use machinery, there-
fore, for the purpose of producing what we
require, must be for ever right, because, to do
so is to obey one of the most obvious laws of
our existence. And here we should take our
stand, caring neither for the ifs, nor for the
buts, nor for the apparent contradictions; and
if it be demonstrated, that poverty and dis-
tress are the undeniable consequences of
erecting and using a machine, then that
demonstration proves one thing besides,
namely, that there is a tremendous error
somewhere else.
The doctrine of excesses is quite inappli-
cable to this subject. To eat and drink is to
INTRODUCTORY. 15
obey a law of nature: to eat and drink to
excess is to disobey it. But there can be
no such thing as excess of obedience to the
laws of nature; and, to supply our wants as
easily as we can, is as clearly a law of nature,
as to walk with our feet, or to speak with our
tongues.
16 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER II.
Definition — The principle stated, explained, and its importance insisted
on—Land, labour, capital, and freedom of exchange, are the four
ingredients of which wealth is composed.
'The specific object of these pages is to
state, to prove, to exemplify, and to endea-
vour to call the attention of the public, to
the important fact,
That it would be by no means difficult to
place the commercial affairs of society upon such
a fooling, that production would become the
uniform and never failing cause of demand; or,
in other zvoi^ds, that to sell for money may be
rendered, at all times, precisely as easy as it now
is to buy with money.
The principle here stated, which is as
plain as simple, and as intelligible as any at
present in operation amongst mankind, is to
be understood without any limit or restriction, as
inspects quantity and value, but not ititJiout
regulation as to kind. Its language is, produce
DEFINITION. 17
ad infantum and I will find you a market ad
infinitum. Multiply your productive powers
by a thousand millions, and by that very act
you enlarge your market for the sale of
produce to precisely the same extent.
Man is an animal, a moral and an intellec-
tual being, and his happiness consists in the
due exercise and gratification of all his pro-
pensities, feelings, and intellectual powers.
The art of happiness, therefore, involves the
consideration of all human pursuits, and these,
are divided into a great variety of parts, or
branches, one of which, and the one which
it is my present intention to discuss, is the
science of procuring the means by which life
is sustained, and leisure afforded for the study
and pursuit of the more refined and higher
branches of science. And however much
individuals may differ as to the expediency of
this thing, or the efficacy of that—however
much, in the details of the subject before us,
like the luxuriant foliage of a tree, one may
incline to the right hand and another to the
left, without detracting from the general
excellence and beauty of the whole, — still
there are some few conditions, or ingredients,
without which it is impossible for societies
ever to prosper to the extent which is naturally
attainable by them: and these are,
B
18 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
First, There must be a sufficiency of land;
Secondly, There must be a sufficiency of
labour;
Thirdly, There must be a sufficiency of
capital; and,
Fourthly, Production must be the uniform
cause of demand, or, in other words, it must
be as easy to sell as it is to buy.
These four conditions are so indispensably
necessary to national prosperity, that they may
be justly compared to the elements, without
which it is impossible for us to exist.
The first, land, is so obviously necessary,
that to dwell upon the subject would be quite
superfluous.
The second, labour, is the source of wealth,
or "original purchase money that is paid for
every thing."
The third, capital, is so essential, that, to
procure the food of a single day, which is not
to be consumed until the day following, we
must have a supply on hand—that is, capital—
sufficient to support life until that time arrives.
The fourth condition, instant power of
exchanging, is the last, but not the least
important, ingredient of prosperity. It is the
want of this one which is now the stumbling
block of every civilized society upon the
earth, and societies have only been able to
DEFINITION. 19
exist at all in its absence, because they have
fallen upon imperfect and very inferior sub-
stitutes for it. Never having had a proper
instrument of exchange, they have, at various
periods, employed bullocks, sea-shells, metals,
tobacco, nails, beads, gold, silver and copper
coins, bank notes, bills of exchange, barter,
credit, and a variety of other things; but to
this hour there has never existed a rational
system of exchange, or a proper instrument
for effecting exchanges.
The vast importance of being, at all times,
as able to sell as to buy, will be a matter of
easy demonstration. When man forsook
(which he is supposed to have done almost
from his first existence) the method of pro-
viding, by his own labour, the particular
articles which he required to use, commenced
merchant, and began to live by^ devoting his
attention to individual pursuits, that he might
supply his wants by exchanging that which
he himself procured or produced for portions
of the labour of other men, he became a
being dependent upon the society in which he
lived; and the degree of that dependence has
been incalculably increased, as societies have
advanced, as artificial wants have multiplied,
and as the objects of labour have been more
and more divided amongst mankind.
20 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
The savage inhabitant of a forest, for
example, is enabled, by his own labours, if in
average health, strength, and intellect, to pro-
vide himself with such food, and clothing, and
habitation, as the forest can afford him.
But man, civilized man, living in a state of
society wherein every acre, plant, and animal,
is appropriated, is, of himself, the most help-
less of created mortals. A smith cannot
feed upon iron, nor use it for clothes and
habitation. The savage may kill a beast, eat
its flesh, and clothe himself with its skin ; but
the civilized smith can do neither. He can
earn his livelihood by exchanging, and only
by exchanging, his labour for portions of the
labour of others; and whenever he has no
subsistence in store, unless he can do this, he
must beg, borrow, steal, or starve.
The importance of the productive classes
has been often illustrated by an appeal to the
inutility, in certain situations, of money. A
chest of gold, had he possessed one, would,
no doubt, have been gladly exchanged by
Robinson Crusoe for a chest of carpenter's
tools; and a million of bank notes, had he
possessed them, would have been as gladly
given for a few acres of well-stocked and
cultivated land. The aptness of this observa-
tion is not, however, confined to money; it
DEFINITION. 21
is equally applicable to any one thing that
exists, for upon no one thing can man subsist.
He cannot live by bread alone; he must have
other food, as also clothes and lodging ; and as,
in a state of society, the difficulty, to any one
man, of producing, by his own labour, what-
ever he requires, is immeasurably increased,
the necessity of being able to exchange one
thing for a variety of other things, becomes
the more urgent. To be able to exchange is
to him as important, as it was to Robinson
Crusoe to be able to produce.
Rejecting, then, the particular instances
arising from bad conduct, imprudence, or
casual misfortune,—Have mankind, generally
speaking, the power of exchanging their
labour for portions of the labour of other
men, without delay, without difficulty, and at
a fair price? In a word, can the whole pro-
ductions of Great Britain and Ireland be sold
to-morrow, at fair prices, for money? Can he
who possesses one thing,—an extensive stock
of household furniture, for example,—convert
that thing into portions of every thing, or of
whatever he requires to have in exchange for
it, without the certainty of incurring an
immense loss bv the exchange? It were
almost idle to answer the question, by saying
that this is an obvious impossibility, in the
22 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
present state of society. A man, it is well
known, who has a tolerable extensive stock of
such goods, must generally keep them many
months on hand, and exert great care and
industry before he can dispose of them at a
fair price,—that is, for more than the cost of
producing them, by so much as may be con-
sidered a fair profit upon the capital employed,
and a proper remuneration for the unpro-
ductive labour exerted in his business.
This, then, I say to that man: The present
system of exchange is founded in the very
depths of ignorance and folly, and I will shew
you how produce, in quantities without any
known or conceivable limit, may be disposed
of on the terms already defined, at all times,
in a single hour, and without the chance of
the time ever arriving when there can, by
any possibility, be a market overstocked, or
demand be overtaken by production. And
moreover, so plain, so simple, and so practi-
cable, is the method by which this may be
accomplished, that the time must come when
mankind will look back upon the present
state of society with very much the same
feeling that we experience when we look back
upon the belief of our ancestors in witchcraft.
We are astonished that so much folly and so
DEFINITION. 23
much wisdom could have existed at the same
period, and in the same minds.
The chief object that I have here in view,
then, is to shew how production may be
rendered the uniform and never-failing cause
of demand. But to explain this doctrine fully,
and to shew the manner of its operation,
necessarily involves the consideration of a
commercial system.
Some persons there are, indeed, who, on
viewing the title-page of a book, purporting
to give a system for society, will ask, What
nonsense is this? Why any system at all,
other than that "which has grown up with
mankind from a state of barbarism, and which,
with reform, free trade, and small taxes, are
all that are necessary for our prosperity?"
The answer, and I have here quoted the words
in which this question has been already asked
me, is, that reform, free trade, and small taxes,
are not all that are necessary to our prosperity;
because that system which has grown up
with mankind from a state of barbarism,
contains an error^ so important, so extensive,
and so overwhelming in its power and conse-
quences, that, unless it be removed, it is totally
impossible to confer substantial benefit upon
mankind; and that error is> a defective system
of exchange. But its removal can only be
24 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
effected by a considerable change in the
commercial arrangements of society; and
hence the necessity of a system, different in
some respects from that on which we are now
acting.
But, again, it may be said, Why not state
simply what the particular improvement is
that you wish to introduce, and leave every
man to judge of it, and to apply it for, him-
self, instead of putting him to the trouble of
following you through details, many of which
he already understands? The answer to this
is, that such a course would be perfectly
unintelligible, and this will be easily shewn
by doing the very thing proposed. Here,
then, is one of the principal features of the
plan I wish to introduce :—
The want of money—a story in every
body's mouth—is a great evil; and I propose
to remedy it by causing the production and
destruction of goods and money to proceed
together. But how, it is immediately asked,
do you propose to do this, and what will be
the good of doing it? Read the book, is the
reply.
Few persons, at all accustomed to contem-
plate the vast changes which have sometimes
taken place in society, in consequence of
simple and apparently insignificant disco-
DEFINITION. 25
veries,— as, for instance, the greater space
occupied by water when it is converted into
steam,—will hesitate to allow, that if, by any
means, it be possible to make production the
cause of demand, society is now in a state of
wretchedness indeed, compared to that which
it has yet to enter.
When, however, by tracing the operation
of cause and effect, we endeavour to give an
answer to the question, What would be the
consequences to society of the change which
lias been already defined? the mind is posi-
tively bewildered in the mightiness of the
subject, and our tired thoughts fall back
upon us, and seem to reproach the will for
unreasonably sending them in search of
infinity.
The system of commerce here advocated
has nothing to do with any speculative
theories upon the perfectibility of man; it
is equally open to men of every class, sect,
party, and country; it requires merely a con-
ventional plan of exchange, and a rational
species of money; and with merely that
degree of rectitude of conduct which is
essential to the existence of civilized society
at all, it may be put into universal operation.
But is it practicable? It has been already
answered that it is so; and it is farther
26 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
answered, that one great criterion of the
practicability of a thing is involved in the
whether it is worth while to put it into prac-
tice. If all the manufacturers in the country
were told, that, by making a certain change
in their present plan of doing business, they
would gain an extra 2^ per cent, by the
employment of their capital, they might fairly
reply, the object is hardly worth the trouble of
gaining. But the language here held out to
them is this: Produce without any limit; call
in the aid of magic, if you please, to increase
the respective products of labour, and still the
market.can never be overstocked, nor can any
difficulty be experienced in selling, for a fair
price, that which you produce.
This, surely, is an object worth accom-
plishing, a point worth contending for, a
prize worth winning; for its accomplishment
would make unmerited poverty a name,
which, in the dictionaries of future ages,
would be marked obsolete; the national debt,
a toy which politicians would in future play
with; and the " want of money," a sentence
in a farce, to be written by posterity, in
burlesque of the wisdom of their ancestors,—
that is, ourselves.
The reason why production is not now the
the cause of demand, will be abundantly
DEFINITION. 27
explained in the sequel. Some of the political
economists, indeed, say, that "effectual de-
mand" does "depend upon production ;" but
the fallacy of such a doctrine will also be fully
shewn, in the course of this work.
I am far from believing that the particular
plan I am now about to explain, is at all the
best that can be devised; on the contrary, I feel
assured that it may be improved in a variety
of particulars. Its chief recommendation is,
that it embodiesthe fourindispensable ingredients
of national prosperity,—the means of procuring
a sufficiency of land; the means of ensuring
a constant increase of capital, proportionate
to the wants of an increasing population;
the power of instantly exchanging labour for
labour; and of labourers themselves, nature
appears likely to produce an abundance to
meet the exigencies of any system.
I have gone carefully over the best works
upon political economy, and could I have
discovered that any previous writer had ever
shewn in what manner capital might be made
systematically to increase as fast as population,
and how production might be made the
uniform cause of demand, the Social System
would never have been written. The impor-
tance, however, of these conditions is such,
that the searcher after the philosopher's stone
28 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
is not a greater visionary, than the man who
expects to see a state of national prosperity
without them: he might as well expect to
respire without lungs, or to reflect without a
brain.
Mr Mill, indeed, in his Elements of Political
Economy, second edition, page 58, admits,
that "there are two modes in which artificial
"means may be employed to make popula-
"tion and capital keep pace together: expe-
"dients may be sought, either to diminish the
"tendency of population to increase, or to
"accelerate beyond its natural pace the
"increase of capital." But he has not proposed
to adopt any practical plan for doing either
the one or the other. He says, indeed, " that
"forcible means employed to make capital
"increase faster than its natural tendency,
"would not produce desirable effects." But
what does the term natural tendency mean,
other than that tendency which is natural
under existing circumstances, and which ten-
dency may be to increase slowly or rapidly,
just as the circumstances are favourable to
increase, or the reverse?
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30 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER III.
Sketch of a Commercial Constitution — Appropriation of Land and
Capital—Direction — Management — Wages — Salaries, and gene-
ral principles of the Social System.
As it is the object of this chapter to
describe, in a connected form, the leading
features of the plan about to be advocated,
rather than to present, in all the stiffness
of language with which such a document
would require to be invested, a commercial
constitution, the chapter itself might perhaps
have been more properly entitled " Principles
of the Social System;" but the term, " Com-
mercial Constitution" has been preferred, as
containing in itself a description of one of
the ingredients conceived to be necessary to
the attainment of national prosperity.
The principles about to be specified will be
accompanied here with but little either of
argument or illustration ; but, after the whole
plan has been described, such general obser-
COMMERCIAL CONSTITUTION. 3j
vations will be made upon it, as will tend to
shew why, in the author's opinion, so vast
and important a change in our commercial
affairs is imperatively called for.
It is proposed, then, that, whenever a
sufficient number of persons shall be induced
to combine their capital, for the purpose of
more effectually supplying themselves with
the necessaries, conveniences, comforts, and
luxuries of life, by making the production
thereof the unfailing cause of a demand for
them to an equal extent, they should proceed
to act upon the following principles :—
I. That a president, and a sufficient number
of representatives, be chosen in an equitable
manner, to control, direct, and regulate the
affairs of the association; that the persons so
elected be invested with supreme power,
during the time they may be in office, and
that they be denominated collectively, The
National Chamber of Commerce.
II. That, in their public capacity, the
members of this Chamber do abstain from all
political and religious discussions; that they
engage to treat, with equal justice, men of
every political opinion, and of every religious
creed; that they do bind and oblige them-
32 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
selves to devote their undivided attention to
the interests of commerce; to submit them-
selves, in all things, without complaint, to the
established authorities of the country; to
renounce the right even to petition parlia-
ment; and that, whenever any change in the
commercial law of the country shall appear
to them to be desirable, or necessary, they
represent the same to their constituents,
leaving it for them to petition for the
necessary alteration.
III. That all persons possessed of land, or
capital, be invited to join this association, and
that all other persons be admitted members
of it as rapidly as its progress will allow.
IV. That all the members of this association,
who shall be possessed of land, or capital, shall
have an estimated value put upon the same,
and shall consent to receive a fixed annual
remuneration for the use thereof, propor-
tionate to its value, in lieu of retaining, in
their own hands, the chances of gain or loss,
by its cultivation or employment.
V. That the direction and control of all
cultivation, manufactures, and trade, be vested
in the Chamber of Commerce.
COMMERCIAL CONSTITUTION. 33
VL That the cultivation of land, and the
management of all trades and manufactures-
be intrusted to servants or managers, to be
hired at fixed salaries by, and to act under
the direction and control of, the Chamber of
Commerce.
VII. That produce of every description,
manufactured and agricultural, be lodged in
national warehouses, and intrusted to the care
of servants or managers, who are to be remu-
nerated by salaries fixed by the Chamber of
Commerce.
VIII. That, from these national warehouses,
or depots, all shops for the disposal of goods
by retail, be supplied; these shops, also, to
be committed to the care of servants or
managers, appointed at fixed salaries by the
Chamber of Commerce.
IX. That all wages and salaries be paid in
money of no intrinsic value; and that the
price of commodities consist, first, of the cost
of the material; secondly, of the wages of
labour; and, thirdly, of such a per centage or
profit, as shall be sufficient to ensure a gradual
and sufficiently rapid increase of capital, a&
also to pay all the expenses of rent, interest
34 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
of capital, salaries, depreciation of stock,
unproductive labour, incidents, and all national
charges, to be hereafter more particularly
specified.
X. That the land, capital, and labour of the
association, be devoted, in the first instance,
to the stocking of the national warehouses
with the various commodities which constitute
the ordinary necessaries, conveniencies, and
comforts of life.
XL That, whenever any commodity shall
be found to be unduly accumulating in the
national warehouses, thereby proving that it is
unnecessary to continue its production to the
same extent as formerly, a portion of the
capital and labour employed in the production
of the said article, be forthwith devoted to
another purpose, that is, to the production of
some other article of which there does not
appear to be any such superfluity.
XII. That the loss or damage, whenever
any shall be sustained by these changes, be
charged to the national account, and form one
of the items to be paid by a per centage on
the sale of the produce of the labour of the
association.
COMMERCIAL CONSTITUTION. 35.
XIII. That, during the time that shall
necessarily elapse between the relinquishing
of one employment, and devoting themselves
to another, the operatives be paid the full
weekly sum that they shall have been accus-
tomed to receive: this expense also to be
charged to the national account.
XIV. If, from great improvements in
machinery, or from any other cause, the pro-
ductive powers of labour should be greatly
increased, so that a small portion of the
number of persons at present necessarily
employed in producing the ordinary market-
able supplies should prove to be sufficient to
meet the demand for them, then let this
simple rule be followed: — As fast as we
come to be supplied with the ordinary neces-
saries and comforts of life, let us apply our
labour and capital to the production of that
which is more ornamental and luxurious;
and it is as impossible that production should
ever overtake demand, as that mankind should
ever cease to desire something which they do
not possess. This rule has no restriction—
no condition—no qualification. It may be
acted on with certain advantage, so long as the
earth shall continue to revolve.
36 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
XV. That the National Commercial Asso-
ciation be held and considered to be one
body of commercial partners, upon the same
principle, to the same extent, and only to
the same extent, that all men are now
political partners in the respective states to
which they belong, being alike subject to, and
protected by, the same general law ; but with-
out the smallest mixture of private property,
or sacrifice of individual right
XVI. That it be a main object of the asso-
ciation to pay off, as rapidly as possible, the
borrowed or hired capital with which it must
commence, and that, with all convenient
speed, it provide itself with sufficient land
and capital of its own.
XVII. That regular accounts be kept by a
national bank of the whole proceedings of the
association, in a manner to be hereafter
described; and that an annual balance sheet
be published, exhibiting its whole receipts,
expenditure, and the state of its finances.
XVIIL That a given number of members
be, at all times, entitled to demand and to
receive an explanation of whatever may
COMMERCIAL CONSTITUTION. 37
appear to be unsatisfactory or obscure in the
national balance sheet.
XIX. That a Commercial Constitution, in
a detailed and explicit form, be drawn up,
and that his majesty's government be humbly
solicited to sanction and patronize the
National Commercial Association, under the
restriction, that it adhere strictly, in all its pro-
ceedings, to the principles of its constitution.
XX. That the Commercial Constitution
never be altered, but with the mutual consent
of the established political government, and
the Chamber of Commerce*
An intelligent friend, who recently did me
the favour to cast his eye over these pages
whilst they were in manuscript, was imme-
diately struck with the resemblance which
appears to exist between the principles of
the social system, as here defined, and the
rules of an ordinary joint stock company.
That a resemblance does exist, at first sight,
is at once admitted, but it extends not one
jot farther than that resemblance which exists
between a mushroom and a toadstool, or
between gold and gilded brass.
The difference lies here* An ordinary joint
38 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
stock company is merely an assemblage of
persons and of capital, whose primary object
is to carry on some branch of trade, commerce,
or manufacture, for the purpose of competing
with other traders, or for the sake of endea-
vouring to monopolize a trade altogether, as,
for example, in the case of the East India
Company, and private advantage is the ulti-
mate object of the whole affair.
The specific object of the proposed com-
mercial association, on the contrary, is to
make production the infallible cause of
demand, and to give the greatest possible
effect to labour and capital, by whomsoever the
former may be exerted, or the latter possessed,
by means of a thoroughly organized plan of
production, exchange, distribution, and accu-
mulation. The ultimate object here, therefore,
is, to give to the public, and to every individual
composing it, in portions proportionate to
his industry and wealth, the entire advantage
of the compact.
And although this subject is rather too
extensive, and too complicated, to be seen
through at a glance, and understood with
that degree of attention which is given
to a new novel by a professional critic, who
reads for the. sake of reviewing it, a very
little reflection will convince any man, who
COMMERCIAL CONSTITUTION. 39
is at all capable of forming an opinion upon
such a subject, that national prosperity of a
very exalted character, would inevitably
spring from the plan of operations that is here
recommended. For, the labouring classes
could never suffer from the want of employ-
ment for a single hour: individual anxieties
respecting business would also be done away
with, for, although industry and attention
would be no less necessary than they are now,
unmerited misfortune, in the shape of bank-
ruptcy, or failure, would be entirely prevented.
The higher classes, too, would be provided
with an excellent fund for the investment
of their money; and the government, as will
be duly shewn, would be saved the very dis-
agreeable and expensive business of collecting
the taxes. And, lastly, the nation would
know no other limit to its wealth than the
exhaustion of its industry, the exhaustion of
its productive powers, or the satisfaction of
its wants.
The main features of the Social System
being thus briefly described, I shall now pro-
ceed to take a view of the subject in a more
detailed and explicit form.
40 "THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER IV.
Production —Labour the source of wealth— Security of property —
Division of employments — Capital — Description of the manner in
which manufactures and agriculture maybe so conducted that demand
must ever keep pace with production.
The enjoyment of life is the common
object of every human pursuit, and the
original source of all the means of enjoyment
is labour. Even land is of no value until
labour is applied to collect, increase, and
regulate its productions; and capital, that is,
accumulated valuables, is the result entirely
of exertion, applied either to the production
or appropriation of wealth.
But, although labour is the only source
of wealth, there are other conditions and
circumstances to be taken into account in
considering the subject of production, by
which the incitement to industry is increased,
and by which its operations are assisted.
PRODUCTION. 4J
One of these conditions is the security of
property, of which Mr M'Culloch observes:
"Security of property is the first and most
"indispensable requisite to the production of
"wealth. Its utility in this respect is, indeed,
"so obvious and striking, that it has been more
"or less respected in every country, and in the
"earliest and rudest periods. Nothing, it is
"plain, could ever tempt any one to engage in
"a laborious employment—he would neither
"domesticate wild animals, nor clear and cul-
"tivate the ground—if, after months and
"years of toil, when his flocks had become
"numerous, and his harvests were ripening
"for the sickle, a stranger were to be allowed
"to rob him of the produce of his industry."
If, however, the security of property is
indispensable as an incitement to industry,
the division of employment is not inferior to
it in importance; for, as a means by which the
productiveness of labour is increased, its value
is altogether incalculable.
The advantages resulting from this prin-
ciple, have been usually classed under the
following heads: "First, The increased skill
"and dexterity of the workmen; secondly,
*' The saving of the time which is commonly
"lost in passing from one employment to
«* another; and, thirdly, The circumstance of
42 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"the division of employments having a ten-
"dency to facilitate the invention of machines
"and processes for abridging and saving
"labour."
Of the increased skill resulting from the
division of employments, it is observed by
Mr Mill, in his Elements of Political Economyr,
that " The foundation of this class of im-
"provements is the faculty by which an
"operation, which we perform slowly at first,
"is performed with greater and greater
"rapidity by repetition. This is a law of
"human nature so familiar and well under-
"stood, that it hardly stands in need of illus-
"tration. The simplest of all operations,
"that of beating equal times on a drum, is a
"proper example. A man who has not prac-
"tised a similar operation, is often surprised,
"upon trial, at the slowness with which he
"performs it, while the rapidity of a practised
"drummer is still more astonishing."
As respects the saving of time occasioned
by the division of labour, Mr M< Culloch says:
"The effect of the division of labour in pre-
"venting that waste of time in moving from
"one employment to another, which must
"always take place when an individual is
"engaged in different occupations, is even
"more obvious than the advantage derived
PRODUCTION. 43
"from the improvement of the skill and dex-
"terity of the labourer. When the same
"individual carries on different employments,
"in different and perhaps distant places, and
"with different sets of tools, it is plainly
"impossible he can avoid losing a considerable
ki portion of time in passing between them. If
"the different businesses in which a labourer
"is to be engaged could be carried on in the
"same workshop, the loss of time would be
"less, but even in that case it would be con-
"siderable." And again, "With regard to the
"effect of the division of employments in
"facilitating the invention of machines, and
"processes for abridging and saving labour, it
u is obvious, that those engaged in any branch
"of industry must be more likely to discover
"easier and readier methods of carrying it on,
"when the whole attention of their minds is
"devoted exclusively to it, than if it were
"dissipated among a variety of objects."
But the advantages proceeding from the
division of employments, have been so fre-
quently described, and are now so generally
understood, that it is unnecessary here to do
more than merely to recognize them, in the
language of the political economists, as
established principles of social science.
Another condition essential to production,
44 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
and without which it is impossible for any
considerable advances to be made towards
prosperity, is the accumulation of capital, of
which much will be said hereafter: for the
present another quotation will suffice. "What,"
says Mr M< Culloch, "could the most skilful
"husbandman perform, were he deprived of
a his spade and his plough ?—a weaver, were
"he deprived of his loom?—a carpenter, were
« he deprived of his saw, his hatchet, and his
"planes? The division of labour cannot be
"carried to any considerable extent without
"the previous accumulation of capital." "Be-
"fore labour can be divided," says Dr Adam
Smith, "a stock of goods of different kinds
"must be stored up somewhere, sufficient to
"maintain the labourer, and to supply him
"with materials and tools. A weaver cannot
"apply himself entirely to his peculiar busi-
"ness, unless there is beforehand stored up
"somewhere, either in his own possession or
"in that of some other person, a stock suffi-
"cient to maintain him, and to supply him
"with the materials and tools of his work,
"till he has not only completed but sold his
* web. This accumulation must, evidently,
"be previous to his applying himself for so
"long a time to such a peculiar business."
But the foregoing considerations, however
PRODUCTION. 45
indispensable to a systematic treatise upon
the subject of political economy, are hardly
necessary to be dwelt upon in a work, the
chief object of which is to demonstrate the
importance of a particular principle; and
when we speak of manufactures individually,
production may perhaps be more intelligibly
defined to be the result of material, capital^
and labour. The business of this chapter,
then, is to shew in what manner it is believed
that the production of commodities can be
much more advantageously carried on than it
is at present; and if the reader will take the
trouble to make himself acquainted at the
outset with the principles of the Social System,
as described in the foregoing chapter, he will
the more readily understand the contents of
this chapter, and of those that are to follow.
It will be already understood, that the
Social System recognizes as useful, but one
controlling and directing power, but one
judge of what it is prudent and proper to
bring into the market, either as respects kind
or quantity,—the Chamber of Commerce,—
who, having the means of ascertaining, at all
times, the actual stock of any kind of goods
on hand, would always be able to say at once
where production should proceed more rapidly,
where at its usual pace, and where also it
should be retarded.
46 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
A master manufacturer, therefore, as he is
now termed, should be an agent, because he
must be liable to increase or decrease the
extent of his productions, whenever required
to do so, or even to give up his business alto-
gether, if needful. And it will require but
little reflection to be convinced, that if, in any
case, there are three factories, where two
would be sufficient, it is much better that one
of them should be given up at once, than that
the three should run a race of competition to
see which of them is to be starved out of
existence. A man gives up eating when his
hunger is satisfied, and a nation must give up
making a given article whenever it has got
enough of it.
But observe the consequences of this
change. Upon the principles of the Social
System, instead of evil it produces good. A
and B, we will suppose, are producers of the
necessaries of life, and the price of necessaries
is, therefore, the wages of two persons, But
it is presently found, that A can produce suffi-
cient necessaries for himself, and B besides.
What follows? The price of the necessaries
of life for two, is now reduced to one. B,
therefore, produces in future luxuries; his
supply, one, is also his demand for one; a
market is thus furnished for the whole pro-
ducts of A and B, and both are now able to
PRODUCTION. 47
afford luxuries, because the half of the luxuries
produced by B, is the equivalent which he
gives for the half of the necessaries produced
by A.
But this is not the case under the present
system of exchange, and hence the wilderness
of ideas upon the subject of over-production.
See what a man of the first rank of intelligence
says upon this subject, in a very recent work.
"By means of machinery," says Mr George
Combe, in his Essay on The Constitution of
Man, "and the aids derived from science,
"the ground can be cultivated, and every
"imaginable necessary and luxury produced
"in ample abundance, by a moderate expendi-
"ture of labour, by any population not in
"itself superabundant. If men were to stop
"whenever they had reached this point, and
"dedicate the residue of each day to moral and
"intellectual pursuits, the consequence would be,
"ready and steady, because not overstocked,
"markets" And again, "The labouring
"population of Britain is taxed with exertion
"for ten, twelve, and some even fourteen
"hours a-day, exhausting their muscular and
"nervous energy, so as utterly to incapacitate
"them, and leaving, besides, no leisure for
"moral and intellectual pursuits. The con-
"sequence of this is, that all markets are
"overstocked with produce; prices first fall
48 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"ruinously low; the operatives are then
"thrown idle, and left in destitution of the
"necessaries of life, until the surplus produce
"of their formerly excessive labours, and
"perhaps something more, are consumed;
"after this takes place, prices rise too high, in
"consequence of the supply falling rather
"below the* demand; the labourers resume
"their toil, on their former system of exces-
"sive exertion; they again overstock the
*" market, and again are thrown idle, and
"suffer dreadful misery."
It would be quite impossible for this to
happen, if production were the uniform
cause of demand* Men, I am satisfied,
would cease to slave twelve or fourteen hours
a-day, if a rational system of exchange were
to be introduced; because, when properly
educated—an inevitable result of national
prosperity—they would infinitely prefer to
work the half of that time, and to enjoy the
other half. But what I contend for is, that
upon the plan of exchange that is here recom-
mended, if men were to work twenty-four
hours a-day, and if, moreover, the labour of
each man was equal to that of a steam engine
of fifty horse power, production could never
overtake demand, and neither could the
market be overstocked for a single hour; for,
as Mr Mill incorrectly says of the present
PRODUCTION. 49
system, "The demand and the equivalent are
"convertible terms, and the one may be sub-
"stituted for the other. The equivalent may
"be called the demand, and the demand the
"equivalent." The kind of produce brought
into the market might change from necessary
to luxury, and from luxury to profusion ; pro-
fessions (not the legal, indeed, nor the medical,
but the arts of painting, sculpture, music, and
many others) would multiply to an incredible
extent, but there would be no more " gluts."
As a general specimen of the manner in
which it is submitted that manufactures and
agriculture should be conducted, let us sup-
pose the necessary buildings and machinery
to be erected, and a number of operatives to
be engaged by a manager employed by the
Chamber of Commerce to carry on the work.
First, then, the manager, as the accredited
agent of the association, is to have the
unlimited command of whatever, in his official
capacity, he requires to use. He is to be
supplied with all the materials necessary for
the carrying on of his trade; that is, not only
with the principal materials, of which the
goods themselves are composed, but also with
those that are consumed in the course of pro-
duction, as coals, chemical dyes, &c, say,
lor example, to the amount of a thousand
D
50 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
pounds; and from the Bank, to be presently
described, with money to the amount of
another thousand pounds. The operatives
being employed produce from the said mate-
rials a certain quantity of goods, and receive
the thousand pounds in payment of their
wages. The goods being transmitted to their
respective national warehouse, the agent's
account with the Bank is balanced at once;
the goods remitted being the only payment
required for the materials and money intrusted
to the agent.
What may be termed the direct cost of
goods so produced would, therefore, consist
of material and labour only; and it does not
appear to be desirable to add any thing to
their price, in this stage of the business, for
the other expenses of rent, management, &c-
Every description of productive employ-
ment—whether it consist in procuring or
manufacturing the material only for the use
of other manufactories,—such,for example, as
the procuring of metal ore, or the spinning of
cotton; or whether it consist in finishing goods
for the market; or in both of these—may thus
be carried on with a degree of facility and
advantage, wholly incompatible with the
existing plan of society, in which a manufac-
turer, after he has produced goods, has to
PRODUCTION. 51
find a market for the sale of them, where and
how he can. An associated manufacturer
would have no market to seek, no customers
to higgle with, no bad debts to fear, no
pecuniary considerations to harass, nor com-
mercial perplexities to annoy him. He
would merely have to perform a plain and
simple duty, and to receive a liberal salary as
his reward.
Established manufacturers have only to
understand the present system to be induced
to embrace a better one. There are few
persons, indeed, who would long hesitate to
exchange chance for certainty, provided the
amount of profit should be greater, or even
equal, in the latter case. And, upon the plan
now proposed, a manufacturer might, in the
first instance, that is, until the vast superiority
of the Social System should be universally
admitted, retain the legal possession of his
capital, and, by becoming a member of the
commercial association, obtain a certain and
considerable income; first, by a fixed payment
for the use of his buildings and machinery,
and, secondly, by obtaining a salary as manager
of his own works.
Agriculture should be put upon precisely
the same footing. All the land possessed
by the association should be cultivated by
52 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
accredited agents, supplied from the national
warehouses with all the materials necessary
for production, and from the Bank with
money to pay their men; and all the
produce should be transmitted to other
national warehouses, and depots, in return.
A farmer, for example, is intrusted with a
given quantity of land, and he receives
instructions as to the general plan upon
which it is'to be cultivated. He employs
labourers, pays them in money, which he
draws at pleasure from the Bank, and
transmits his corn and cattle, as they are
required, into the national stores. The
direct cost of produce in this case, as in that
of the manufacturer, would, therefore, be the
material consumed, and the labour expended,
The limitation which exists to the division
of employments, already spoken of in this
chapter, is here worthy of particular notice.
The division of labour must ever be limited
by the extent of the market, and the advan-
tages of this division we have already seen;
but it is obvious, that if any one operation
be too insignificant, from the small extent
of employment in it, to occupy a man exclu-
sively, he must be employed in more than
one, and thus he will inevitably become less
expert and less productive.
PRODUCTION. 53
This tends to illustrate one of the advan-
tages of the proposed Social System. The
market is at present limited by the compe-
tition which exists between tradesman and
tradesman. A carpenter, for example, who
competes with other carpenters similarly
employed, has comparatively but a very small
extent of market for the result of his labours.;
but if, where there are now twenty small
concerns of this kind, there should be esta-
blished but a single large one in its stead,
the division of employment and consequent
produce of it,, would be immensely increased.
There is another particular, too, in which
the productive powers of labour would be
increased to a wonderful extent by the
operation of the same principle. Machinery
would be rapidly introduced into a great
variety of trades, from which it is at present
either altogether excluded, or used only to a
very moderate extent, and under very dis-
advantageous circumstances, owing to the
smallness of individual establishments. It is
a principle, at present in operation, that the
numbers of separate establishments, in any
given trade, are very much in proportion to
the smallness of the capital required to carry
them on. Thus, in London, there are coal
merchants innumerable; so many, indeed*
54 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
that it is proverbial, that when a man
can do no good in any thing else, he turns
coal merchant, and torments his uncles and
cousins, and their uncles and cousins, with
his solicitations for their custom for coals.
Why is this, but because, in London, a man
can turn coal merchant, or rather coal agent,
without a sixpence?
Selling coals, however, is not a trade in
which machinery is used, and it is mentioned
merely as an instance of the numbers of
establishments being greatly regulated by the
amount of capital required to carry them on.
Turning is another business which is fre-
quently carried on in the same petty manner.
It is so much divided into small establish-
ments now, that there is not one turner in
twenty who uses a mechanical power. Men,,
therefore, are employed instead, at, perhaps,
fifty times the cost; for, if a hundred or so
of these petty concerns were united into one,
a single steam engine would furnish the me-
chanical power for the whole, and, as in the
case of the carpenter* the different operations
would also be subdivided to a much greater
extent.
It is needless to follow out the argument
by giving examples in other trades; indeed,
so greatly beneficial would be the change in
PRODUCTION. &&
this particular, that a true picture of its
advantages would appear to be an extrava-
gant exaggeration. While, however, it may be
laid down as a rule, to which there is almost
no exception, that machinery cannot be too
extensively introduced, and that the man who
is constantly employed in the performance
of a single operation, will do many times as
much work as one who is perpetually changing
his tools, and shifting from one description of
employment to another, it must be obvious,
upon a moment's reflection, that the present
plan of the commercial society is admirably
calculated to confine the operation of these
very beneficial principles within the narrowest
possible limits.
56 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER V.
Exchange—Exchange the parent of Society—The present plan of
Exchange radically defective — Necessity for a measure of value—
Gold, silver, and bank notes, as at present used, totally unfit for the
purpose for which they are intended — The proper use and qualities
of money defined—Description of an improved plan of Exchange—
Plan of a National Bank — Gold, silver, and copper coin—Expor-
tation and importation.
As it is by labour that all things valuable
to mankind are produced, so is it by exchange
that individuals are enabled to partake of a
great variety of things which their own labour
could never, by any possibility, have com-
manded without it. In an advanced state of
society, the food, clothing, and habitation, in
ordinary use, amongst all classes of men, are
composed of an immense number of ingre-
dients, the result of the industry of individuals
scattered over the face of half the globe; whilst
it is evident, that if each person could obtain
nothing but what should be immediately and
EXCHANGE. 57
directly produced by the labour of his own
hands, mankind never could have emerged
from a state of the rudest ignorance and
barbarism.
Exchange, therefore, may be denominated
the bond and principle of society; but it is a
matter of legitimate inquiry, whether the
existing plan of exchange is a good one?
whether it is founded in right principles? and
whether it is calculated to confer upon us all
the benefits which the present advanced state
of human knowledge and resource entitles us
to look for and expect?
And these questions I answer with an
unequivocal and emphatic No. It is our
system of exchange which forms the hiding
place of that giant of mischief which bestrides
the civilized world, rewarding industry with
starvation, exertion with disappointment, and
the best efforts of our rulers to do good, with
perplexity, dismay, and failure; and it is our
system of exchange which has produced the
worse than Babylonian confusion in the ideas
of men upon the subject of their collective
interests.
Give us—and we have it now within our
grasp—parliamentary reform—give us uni-
versal suffrage, annual parliaments, vote by
ballot, free trade, an acquittal of the public
58 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
debt, freedom from all taxes, a repeal of the
Union, and every other thing upon which the
public has ever yet rested its disappointed
hopes,—and still shall this demon of commer-
cial error hold our prosperity in his iron grasp,
and smile upon our ignorance and folly as
he shall see our burdens, as we call them, one
by one removed, whilst we continue to sink
deeper and deeper still into the Slough of
Despond, under the invisible but enormous
weight that is oppressing us.
As, however, it is both desirable and
customary for mankind to devote themselves
to particular occupations, and for each to live
by exchanging that which he produces for
innumerable portions of the labour of others;
and as we cannot, with any degree of con-
venience, make direct exchanges of produce
for produce, an instrument of exchange as a
measure of value, becomes an indispensable
requisite in every commercial society; and a
fit and proper instrument of this description
has never yet been used by any nation upon
the earth.
The legitimate use of money is precisely
the same as that of scales and weights and
measures: it is to measure out and apportion
exchanges, to facilitate the giving and obtain-
ing of equivalents: money, therefore, as a
EXCHANGE. 59
necessary of life of the most ordinary and
everyday description, ought to be as cheap,
as common, and as attainable, by those who
have any thing that they wish to exchange,
as a pair of scales, or a pound weight.
Gold coin is totally unfit for this purpose,
because it is ever used upon the principle of
being itself equal in value to that which it
represents; and as in, at least, ninety-nine
cases out of every hundred, the thing it
represents is capable of being far more easily
increased than gold, every increase of other
produce habitually takes place at the imminent
risk of being sold at a reduced money price,
that is, at a loss instead of at a profit; and
thus production is constantly checked and
retarded by the fear that is ever present in
the manufacturer's mind of producing too
much. It is the quantity that can be sold at
a profit, not the quantity that can be ?nade,
that is the present limit to production.
Bank notes are subject to precisely the
same objection as gold, for they are uniformly
issued upon securities, which are always, in
the aggregate, of more value than the money
advanced upon them. Thus, there is a
constant deficiency of money, a never-failing
facility of obtaining whatever we require for
money, and a never-failing difficulty in obtain-
60 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
ing money for other things. In short, money,
as it is at present used, is merely a com-
modity, the price of which rises and falls,
like every other commodity, in proportion as
the demand for it is great or small.
When other marketable produce is increa-
sing, that is, when it is produced more rapidly
than it is consumed, the demand for money
is, in the aggregate, also increasing; but as
there is no habitual tendency in money to
increase as fast as other produce, an increased
quantity of whatever is given in exchange for
money, would be constantly demanded for it,
if manufacturers were to give full scope to
their respective powers of production. Hence
arises a powerful check upon production; the
fear of producing too much; the fear lest the
article should fetch less money than it cost,
The manufacturer must see a market for his
goods before he makes them, or, at all events,
if he have an abundant stock on hand, he will
not continue to add to it faster than his
customers take from it. It is of no use for
the operatives to say to him, "We are in-
"dustrious and will work; you have the
"capital wherewith to employ us; our wants
"are not supplied." All this must be mere
folly to the man of business, whose capital,
like a hand at cards, must be played with a
EXCHANGE.
61
sort of hocus pocus dexterity to win the stake
— to carry off the prize.
Great care must always be taken that goods
be not made so freely, as to lower themselves
in money price, because the undertaker
would, in that case, lose by his adventure, his
object being to gain by it. The man who
manufactures goods, does not coin guineas at
die same moment: there is no relative increase
between the newly created wealth and its
representative money; and thus a pound note,
like a member of parliament, whose consti-
tuents are increased in number, becomes of
greater relative importance. The value of an
individual vote is lessened in the one case,
and the value of an individual piece of goods
in the other.
Again, as there is no tendency in money,
habitually and systematically to increase as
other produce increases, so also is there no
habitual tendency in it to decrease as other
produce is consumed. The shilling which
buys a loaf of bread, exists in circulation alike
before the bread is made, and after it is eaten.
Thus, the value of money is continually
liable to change, and if weights and measures
were subject to the same kind of variation,
greater confusion and mischief would not be
the result.
62 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
The desideratum in money is, that it may
enable any man, at any time, to exchange any
article, of any value, for an equal value of
whatever marketable commodity he pleases
to have in its stead, with the least possible
expense of time, of labour, and of anxiety.
Does any description of money now in
circulation come up to this standard of
excellence? If, for example, a man build a
house, grow corn, or manufacture goods, can
he certainly and immediately exchange the
house> the corn, or the goods, for their value
in money; that value being a fair remunera-
tion for the trouble of superintendence, and
for the use of the capital employed, added to
the cost in labour and material of producing
them? The universal answer to this question,
if the truth be told, is No.
Repeat the question: would the description
of money now about to be recommended,
possess all these desirable qualities? Could
manufacturers, farmers, and builders, instantly
obtain the value in money of their respective
products, allowing in each case, in the manner
above defined, a fair and reasonable profit for
themselves? The answer is, Certainly they
could, at all times, in all seasons, and without
so much as the shadow of uncertainty or risk.
The time might arrive when the farmer
EXCHANGE. 63
would be instructed to grow more of one
commodity and less of another than here-
tofore; when the manufacturer would be
instructed to contribute to the luxuries and
pleasures of mankind, rather than to his
necessities, and when the builder would be
instructed to adorn rather than to erect; but
the time could never come when production
could exceed demand, or when it could be
difficult to find an instant market for any
earthly thing that should be produced in
accordance with the principles of the Social
System • and the ingenuity of that man will
be racked in vain who shall attempt to dis-
prove the truth of this assertion.
Money should be merely a receipt, an
evidence that the holder of it has either
contributed a certain value to the national
stock of wealth, or that he has acquired a
right to the said value from some one who
has contributed it. The use of the receipt
should be to enable the holder of it to re-ob-
tain the value that was given for it, whenever
he pleases, and in whatever shape he may
require. But money should not be intrin-
sically valuable, and there is no more necessity
for its being so, than there is for a man who
has a store-room full of valuables that he
wishes to dispose of, to carry golden certifi-
64 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
cates in his pocket, to prove to others that the
goods are really there. An authenticated
inventory would answer his purpose quite as
well, and money should be nothing more or
less than portable, transferable, divisible, and
inimitable evidences of the existence of wealth
in store.
But to describe the money arrangements of
the proposed association. A National Bank
should be established, possessing the sole
power of manufacturing paper money, and of
issuing it on demand to the accredited agents
of the association. Another, and the only
other, business of the Bank, should consist in
keeping the national books, and separate
accounts with all the agents, in a manner to
be presently described.
All goods, then, as has been already stated,
should be transmitted from their respective
manufactories to the national warehouses,
and here, to the price of material and labour
already expended, which, in a former chapter
has been denominated direct cost, should be
added the per centage, or profit, fixed by the
Chamber of Commerce, to pay the various
expenses of rent, interest of capital, manage-
ment, salaries, depreciation of stock, incidents,
and all national charges; and this being
done, would form the retail price of goods.
EXCHANGE; 65
The national warehouses must necessarily
be numerous, and for the accommodation of
such articles as are usually consumed in the
district in which they are produced, they
should also be sufficiently distributed over
the whole country. But for goods of a
portable and not very perishable description,
such, for example, as most articles of wearing
apparel and other dry goods, much fewer
warehouses would be required, because, as is
the case at present, they might be forwarded
from one extremity of the kingdom to another,
at a comparatively small expense in proportion
to their value.
The next and last class of warehouses
should consist of retail shops, to be supplied
from the general warehouses with every kind
of commodity, each in its respective line.
These, like the others, should be under the
management of agents. All goods sent to
the retail establishments should be charged
in the wholesale department at the retail
price; and the retail agent's account with
the Bank would then be balanced by two
items. First, he falls to be debited with all
the goods sent to him, which being sold in
all cases for ready money, to be remitted
periodically to the Bank, monthly, quarterly,
or annual balances taking place, the value of
66 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the agent's stock on hand, added to the
amount of money remitted by him to the
Bank should always be exactly equal to the
value of the goods with which he would be
debited.
Upon this plan it will be evident, that, as
the nominal or money price of all the property
in stock would be entirely made up of the money
issued by the Bank to the respective members
of the social community, the quantity of money
in circulation would at all times be exactly
equivalent to the nominal or money value of
the property in store. Money, therefore, ivotdd
increase as produce shoidd be increased; money
would decrease as produce should be redemanded
or consumed, and demand would ever keep pace
with production.
The latter assumption, however, requires a
single qualification, or rather explanation,
which is this:—The annual demand would
appear to be less than the annual production,
by the exact quantity of wealth that would be
annually accumulated. But this is a distinc-
tion nominal rather than real; for, upon the
principles laid down, no perishable article
would ever be produced in greater quantities
than should be required for use, and the
surplus, or saving, would invariably consist of
imperishable commodities, as gold and silver,
EXCHANGE. 67
and other articles of such intrinsic value as
could at all times be exchanged for consum-
able produce. The surplus, therefore, would
in fact be demanded for saving; and it is
evident that this surplus, so far from being
an evil, would be demonstrative evidence of
prosperity.
The whole system of exchange, indeed,
would be precisely similar to that which is
now practised all over this kingdom in the
single article of money. Money is now lodged
in banks by private individuals, who draw it
out by means of checks, or orders, whenever
they require to use it: and the principal
thing which this and every civilized nation
requires to ensure its commercial prosperity
is to do precisely the same thing with market-
able produce of every description, upon a plan,
however, so completely arranged and orga-
nized, that no difficulty or inconvenience
could arise in practice. An estimated value
being previously put upon produce, let it be
lodged in a bank, and drawn out again when-
ever it is required; merely stipulating, by
common consent, that he who lodges any
kind of property in the proposed national
Bank, may take out of it an equal value of what-
ever it may contain, instead of being obliged
to draw out the self same thing that he put
68 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
in. The ordinary banker receives and takes
charge only of money; and he gives money,
and money only, in exchange for money. The
proposed national banker should receive and
take charge of every description of valuable,
and give back any description of valuable in
its stead.
An important part of the subject of ex-
change next falls to be explained. The whole
business of the country, or of the association,
it has been said, is to be conducted by accre-
dited agents, or managers, who are to draw
money as they require it from the Bank,
and materials or goods as they require them
from each other. Will it not, it may be said,
be exceedingly difficult to keep a proper
check upon the honesty of the different
agents? The answer to this is, that nothing
can be imagined more perfectly plain and
simple than these national accounts would be,
as will be immediately apparent by supposing
the whole association to be, what in reality it
would be, but one large manufacturing and
mercantile establishment, the Bank being its
counting-house.
Though every agent should deal with every
other, the whole transactions of the association
might be rendered perfectly clear and intelli-
gible, and as strong a security be had for fair
EXCHANGE. 69
dealing between man and man, as any now in
existence.
The books of every agent must of course
be subject to the inspection of the Bank; and
by every agent being required to debit himself
with whatever he receives, and to credit
himself with whatever he disposes of, his own
account would at all times be perfectly clear.
The cash remitted to the Bank, the goods on
hand, and the goods disposed of without
payment, that is, sent to any other accredited
agent of the association, should always be
exactly equal in amount to the cash and goods
remitted to him by other agents, and with
which he would in consequence be debited
by the Bank.
No debtor and creditor account need be
kept between one agent and another. No
money transactions need take place between
them at all: nor would it be necessary for
payment to be made in any shape for goods
received by one agent from another. Instead
of making any payment, every agent, besides
debiting himself with whatever he receives,
and crediting himself with whatever he dis-
poses of, (an invoice invariably accompanying
all goods transmitted by one agent to another,)
should send a periodical—weekly perhaps—*
copy of the credit side of his account to the
70 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
Bank; and these documents would form
what may be termed the Bank day-book; the
various items of which being posted to the
respective agents' accounts—a debtor and
creditor account being kept by the Bank with
each—the amount of property in the hands
of any agent might always be seen by looking
to his account in the Bank ledger. The Bank
itself posting also from its own books to the
respective agents' accounts, all cash remitted
to and received from them. To render this
subject if possible still plainer, I shall give an
example.
First 9 A, an agent, receives goods, value
,£500, from each of the agents B, C, and D?
that is . . . £1500
And money from the Bank . 500
Which sums amount together to £2000
And he remits goods, value £500, to
each of the agents E, F, G, and H,
amounting together to . £2000
A's account, therefore, with the Bank is
balanced in his oim books, and he has neither
goods nor cash left on hand.
EXCHANGE. 71
Secondly, The Bank receives statements
from B, C, and D, that they have each for-
warded goods to A, value £500, the united
value amounting to . . £1500
The Bank posts the said items to the
debit of A's account in the Bank
books, as also the money before
mentioned sent to A by them-
selves . . 500
Total . £2000
But when A remits a statement to the
Bank that he has sent goods, value
£500, to each of the agents E, F,
G, and H, amounting together to £2000
the same, being posted by the Bank to A's
credit, his account is now balanced in the
Bank books, and E, F, G, and H, are each
debited by the Bank with £500.
Upon this plan, which may almost be
termed simplicity simplified—for it would
reduce the business of book-keeping to less
than a thousandth part of its present extent—
it is evident that a most effectual check would
be kept upon the honesty of the agents. In
72 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
consequence of their never balancing accounts
with each other, but only with the Bank, a false
statement respecting any goods sent to any
party would immediately prevent that party's
account from balancing in the Bank books,
thereby leading by the most direct road
imaginable to investigation and detection.
Another inestimable advantage of this plan
would arise from the ease and certainty with
which the value of the whole, or of any
particular kind of property belonging to the
association, might at any time be ascertained,
whereby the Chamber of Commerce would
be furnished with the best possible guide by
which so to order the production of commo-
dities that no undue accumulation of any
thing could ever take place.
The wholesale agent's accounts with the
Bank would differ from the foregoing example
in a single particular. In addition to the sum
with which they would be debited by other
accredited agents of the association, each
wholesale agent would require to be debited
with the per centage already spoken of,
which would be more advantageously laid on
here than in the retail department, in conse-
quence of the greater facility of accomplishing
it, arising chiefly from the very small number
EXCHANGE. 73
thai: there would be of the wholesale houses
in comparison with the retail.
For example, a wholesale agent is debited
by the Bank with £10,000 for goods remitted
to him by various manufacturers; but if we
suppose the necessary per centage to amount
to ten per cent upon the cost price of com-
modities in their respective manufactories,
there would fall to be added in the Bank
books another thousand pounds to the debit
of the wholesale agent's account for the item
per centage; and the agent being thus required
to account for eleven thousand pounds instead
of ten thousand, must lay the additional
thousand upon the price of commodities
individually, that is, two shillings on each
pound previously to their being transmitted to
the retail agents.
Although, however, it has been contended
that paper money, increasing as produce
increases, and decreasing as produce is con-
sumed, is the only rational instrument of
exchange that can be used for the main
purposes of the business of a country, still it
is evident that a different species of money
is necessary for the purpose of making small
purchases; and it will presently be shewn
upon what principles gold, silver, and copper
coin, may still be used as auxiliary instru-
74 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
ments of exchange. An introductory obser-
vation or two may, however, assist us in our
endeavours to arrive at a thorough under-
standing of this very important subject.
If money be of equal value with that which
it represents, it ceases to be a representative
at all. It is one of the chief desideratums in
money, that the holder of it should be com-
pelled at one time or other to present it for pay-
ment at the place from whence he received it
But if money be of the same intrinsic value as
that which is given for it, no such necessity
exists. The contributor to the national stock
is in fact paid when he receives gold or silver
coin for that which he contributes. He has
no longer a claim for any thing in exchange
for it, and his money no longer constitutes
an evidence that he is a proprietor of other
goods in store. He may, it is true, at a future
time, wish to exchange his coin for more
consumable produce, and with the view of
doing so, indeed, it was that he obtained the
coin; but this is merely giving one valuable
for another, and the proper use of money is
of a totally different character.
Money should mean this, and nothing more
than this: — You have contributed value to
the national stock of wealth; I am the
evidence that it has been received from you f
EXCHANGE. 75
and by me shall you be enabled to receive it
back again, in whatever shape you please.
There is no description of money now existing
which at all corresponds with this character;
its first, its most essential, its most valuable
quality, being intrinsic inutility. We have a
thing called money, consisting either of cer-
tain commodities which are generally used
for the purpose of effecting exchanges, or of
floating securities issued by bankers, which
are passed from hand to hand in the same
way: but these deserve rather to be called
substitutes for money than money itself,
"Wealth, like a thousand streams of water
"arising in different places, and partaking of
"different qualities, should all flow into one
"grand reservoir, and being there mixed up,
"and its various qualities amalgamated, it
"should be restored to its producers in quart-
"titles equal to those contributed by each,^
"but partaking of the qualities of the whole,
"and money should be merely a measure to
"be used for the purpose of giving to every
"man as much as is received from him."—
(Quoted from page 29.)
Gold, silver, and copper coins, however,
although totally unfit for being used as a
measure of value, may nevertheless be used
as auxiliary instruments of exchange; for
76 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
which purpose, their durability, divisibility,
and convenience, peculiarly fit them. But
the last should be used merely as an
auxiliary, as a makeweight, in the scale of
payment, and all three should be considered
to be commodities totally distinct from
money. They should be bought and sold
for money; but they should never be given
by the Bank to the agents, in payment for
goods received into the national stores; and
neither should the Bank have any thing
whatever to do with them; for, as will
presently be shewn, not so much as a single
sixpence would the Bank ever require.
Gold, silver, and copper coins, like every
other commodity, must ever be liable to rise
and fall in value, as they come to be obtained
with increased or decreased difficulty. At
different periods, therefore, it will be necessary
that more or less of them, as well as of other
things, be given for anypound note, used upon
the principle of being a measure of value;
but, in practice, no difficulty or inconvenience
would arise from these changes, as will be
presently shewn. The holders of metal, it
is true, as well as the holders of every thing
else, are liable to small losses, whenever it
falls in value, and to small gains, whenever it
rises in value. These changes, however, as
EXCHANGE. 77
respects gold and silver, occur but seldom,
and the alteration at any one time is usually
very trifling.
I shall now endeavour to describe a
method, by which I submit that every shadow
of difficulty connected with this subject may he
entirely removed; and the reader is requested
to keep constantly in mind, that the thing
now about to be treated of, is a commodity
proposed to be manufactured and sold, under
the Social System, upon precisely the same
principles as goods of every other description,
excepting that it, and it only, should not be
subject to the usual per centage, which, if
imposed, would lead to considerable trouble
and difficulty.
A coin manufactory, then, should be esta-
blished, under the management, as in all
other cases, of an accredited agent of the
association. (The Mint should be converted
into this manufactory j but the word Mint is
avoided in the description, for the purpose of
getting rid altogether of the confused notions
commonly existing upon the subject of
money.) In this establishment, gold, silver,
and copper goods, (coins,) of twro distinct
kinds, or classes, should be manufactured.
The first class would be required to pay
balances to foreign countries; to buy goods
78 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
from foreign countries, which might not be
disposed to take any other commodity from
us; to enable persons emigrating, to take
their property along with them, in the shape
of gold and silver, if they should wish to do
so; to enable persons, disposed to store up
metallic property, to do so, either in their
own possession, or elsewhere; and for some
few other purposes of a similar kind.
One description of coin would answer
perfectly well for all the foregoing, and
similar purposes,—namely, ounces of gold
and silver, bearing a stamp, to prove at once
their purity and weight.
The4 second class of purposes for which
coins would continue to be required, is to
enable us to make small purchases and pay-
ments; for it is evident, that notes of twenty
shillings value can never enable us to buy
pennyworths of goods. The specific value of
the pound note will be defined in the next
chapter.
Besides making the said ounces of gold
and silver, another business of the coin
manufactory, then, should consist in con-
verting the quantity of silver obtainable for a
pound note? into twenty pieces, whatever that
quantity may happen to be at any given
period. This would give us shillings, and
EXCHANGE. 79
coins of half the weight, sixpences. Another
coin, the penny, should consist of. the two
hundred and fortieth part of the quantity of
copper, obtainable for a pound note, whatever
that quantity may happen to be at any given
period. The halfpenny to be half the weight
of the penny above defined, and the farthing
to be half the weight of the halfpenny.
The foregoing commodities being manu-
factured to a sufficient extent, to supply the
ordinary demand for them, are to be for-
warded, on demand, to the accredited agents
of the association; and for the gold, silver,
and copper, of which these coins are to be
manufactured, money—paper money—must
be paid in the ordinary manner,—that is, to
be drawn from the Bank by the agent of the
coin manufactory, as he requires it, for the
purpose of buying gold, silver, and copper.
The foregoing principle, upon which it is
submitted that specie ought to be made,
will, I feel assured, bear the test of the
strictest scrutiny and investigation. Like
the gold of which it treats, the more it is
subjected to the fire of criticism, the brighter
it will shine, and the more obvious will its
infallibility—and I hesitate not to use this
word—become. A few questions, however,
which may probably arise in the mind of the
80 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
reader, relating to this subject,may as well be
answered as we proceed.
Question first—The agents, then,—that
is, the manufacturers and others,—are not to
pay their men exclusively in paper money,
which, indeed, would be impossible, because,
as you do not propose to use any paper
money of less value than a pound, silver and
copper will be required, for the purpose of
making small payments; and to meet this
exigency, you propose that the agents are to
draw at pleasure coins, as well as notes : how,
in this case, is the quantity of paper money
in circulation to be exactly equivalent with
the goods in the public stock, since a jxirt
of your payments is to be made in coins,
which are liable to be melted down, or to be
exported to other countries?
Anszver. Although the agents would pay
a part of the wages in coin, the difference
would always be exactly made up in another
place. Thus, suppose, first, that the weekly
wages of a given manufactory are <£100, and
that no portion of that sum is paid in coins,
but all in paper. In this case, the paper money
issued, and the value received in labour from
the operatives, will be the same, namely,
.£100. Suppose, secondly, that the wages,
.£100, are paid half in coins and half in
EXCHANGE. g\
paper. In this case <£50 worth of paper will
be issued by the agent of the manufactory, and
£50 worth by the agent of the coin manufac-
tory, who must have paid in paper money pre-
cisely that sum for the coins before he could
have remitted them to his brother agent. The
paper, therefore, in circulation is still <£1Q0.
Suppose, thirdly, that the operatives take
coins only in payment of their wages. Then
the whole sum of £100 paper will have been
issued by the agent of the coin manufactory.
Put it, therefore, whichever way you will, the
result is precisely the same : if the one agent
do not issue paper to the exact value of the
property received into the national stores,
the other makes up the deficiency, whether
it be great or small.
Question second. If the operatives, who
are here supposed to have received coins,
choose to spend them abroad, or to melt them
down for the purpose of being manufactured
into plate, will not this affect the equality of
supply and demand?
Answer. Let them do with the coins what-
ever they please. Coins are here put upon
the same footing as bread. The operatives
may eat them if they please, or spend them
in China. Paper money has been paid for
82 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the coins ; and being but paper—a receipt—
it must at one time or other be presented for
payment at the national stores, if the holder
intend to get any thing for it; for at no
other market will it sell for a penny, except
as a means of buying at the national stores,
which comes to the same thing. Demand,
therefore, must still keep pace with produc-
tion.
Question third. But who will give gold, and
silver, and copper, for your paper promises?
how is the coin manufactory to supply the
numerous demands that will be made upon
it for coin? how is it to get silver and copper
sufficient to make so large a quantity of coins
as may be required to replace those which
may be exported, or otherwise, as has been
already mentioned?
Answer. The answer to this question is
important, because it will shew the principle
in a very conspicuous manner. The coin
market will be supplied in one of two
methods,—either by repurchasing from the
vending agents the coins that they receive
in payment for goods bought of them, or by
purchasing metal from foreign merchants or
others, and manufacturing it into coins. To
suppose that foreign merchants would not
EXCHANGE. 33
give us metal for our paper promises, is equi-
valent to supposing that they would not take
any thing whatever that is to be found in our
markets in exchange for their bullion, because
the said paper promises would be the repre-
sentatives of every thing we have to dispose
of, gold and silver included. The quantity
of coin, indeed, required for the convenience
of small purchases, would be very small
indeed, compared with what it is now, be-
cause it would run from the mint to the
agents, and from the agents to the mint, with
wonderful celerity; but whether it should
perform its revolutions quickly or slowly,
there never could be any deficiency of coin;
because if the pound note should come by
degrees to purchase but the half, or the
quarter of the weight of metal that it does
at present, that quantity, be it whatever it
might, would still be divisible into twenty
parts, each of which would be as good a
shilling as ever. A rise in the price of bullion
might be a serious misfortune to snuff-box
amateurs, and lovers of silver candlesticks,
dish-covers, &c.; but no rise or fall either, in
the price of bullion, in as much as it would
always be gradual and trifling at any one
period, could disarrange or throw into a
moment's disorder, any commercial society,
84 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
conducting its exchanges upon the principle
that is here defined, because the principal
instrument of exchange would always be
paper, increasing and decreasing with the
aggregate of produce.
Question fourth. How is the account of
the coin manufactory to be balanced with the
National Bank?
Answer. In precisely the same manner
as that of every other manufacturer, thus :—
Paper money got from the Bank, <£1000.
Coins sent to accredited agents, £500. Coins
in hand, £500. Together, £1000.
Question fifth. What are the vending
agents, who receive coins in payment for
goods, to do with them?
Answer. Return them to the coin manu-
factory, taking in exchange for them, from
the coin manufactory, paper money to the
same amount.
The foregoing are amongst the queries
likely to arise out of the view that has been
taken of this subject; and I know of no
difficulty connected with it, which I have not
here thrown in my own way for the sake of
removing it. Many other difficulties may
EXCHANGE. 85
perhaps arise in the minds of other men;
but I firmly believe, that not one can be
stated but which may be easily and satisfac-
torily answered. Right principles can never
lead us wrong: I believe the principle to be
right, and if any man will take the trouble
to shew that it is wrong, I will be the first
person to admit that he has done so. I
am in search, not of converts to a particular
doctrine, whether that doctrine be right or
wrong, but of utility and truth. To convert
a man to the belief of error, is about as meri-
torious as to debase a temperate man into a
drunkard.
Money, intrinsically valuable, never can
become an immutable standard of value.
Money of no intrinsic value, can; and it is
only by the adoption of an immutable stan-
dard of value that goods, continuing to cost
the same labour in their production, can
continue to maintain the same price in the
market.
It is evident, indeed, from what has been
already said upon the subject of coins, that,
as far as the mere effecting of exchanges is
concerned, coins might be used of a fixed
weight, by reducing the price of wages and
other money remunerations, as the precious
metals should come to be comparatively scarce,
86 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
either from the greater demand for them,
arising from a great increase in the produc-
tion of other things, or from any other cause.
But, whenever such a change should take
place, the inevitable effect of it would be to
lower the price of all the manufactured and
agricultural stock on hand; to cause all sales
for months to come to be effected at a loss;
to increase the taxes and the value of all
fixed incomes; to alter the value of leases;
to increase the claims of the national credi-
tor; and, in a word, to throw the whole com-
merce of the country into the same kind of
inextricable perplexity and confusion, as that
which now exists; whereas, by the adoption
of the plan of exchange that is here de-
scribed, goods of every kind would be made
to pay for each other. Selling would be
merely the act of lodging property in a par-
ticular place; buying would be merely the
act of taking of it back again; and money
would be merely the receipt which every
man would require to keep in the interim
between the period of selling and that of
buying.
The next and last thing to be considered
under the head of exchange, is the exporta-
tion and importation of goods,—one of the
EXCHANGE. 87
subjects about which there is at present
abundance of disputation, and which is also an
evidence how completely the plain, obvious,
and common sense view of things is lost in
our commercial labyrinth.
The constitution of society very much
resembles, in some respects, the constitution
of its individual members. To eat, to drink,
to sleep, and to take exercise, are clearly
pointed out by nature as proper for the
human body, and the inability to do any one
of these with advantage, is ample evidence
that the body is in a diseased state: and it
is obviously the interest of society to procure,
by the most easy and direct method, what-
ever contributes to the enjoyment of life.
Yet we have arguments in abundance against
machinery, the natural tendency of which is
to facilitate the production of every thing to
which it is applied: we have arguments
against free trade, the natural tendency of
which is to enable us to purchase whatever
we require wherever we can buy it cheapest.
And there may be reason in some of these
arguments; but, if there be, then is the con-
stitution of society diseased; for it is as
impossible for a healthy society to manufac-
ture goods too easily, or to buy them too
cheaply, as it is for a healthy man to find his
83 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
advantage in abstaining from the use of food
and exercise.
The object of exporting goods is, that we
may import others. The exports and imports
of a country must always, in the aggregate,
be of equal nominal value, and it is here, and
here only, that there is any use for large sums
of money intrinsically valuable; and even in
the consideration of this branch of the subject,
it would, perhaps, be better to abandon the
word money altogether, as applicable to any
thing but paper.
Every distinct branch of trade, commerce,
and manufactures, would require to be con-
ducted by a committee of men, (members of
the Chamber of Commerce,) thoroughly and
practically acquainted with it; and the direc-
tion of foreign commerce, both as respects
exportation and importation, would necessa-
rily form one of the most important duties of
these committees, the principle of acting being
to import whatever we should want and could
buy, with less British paper money than it
would cost to produce it at home, and to
export whatever we could sell for more British
money than it should cost.
Goods imported must be paid for in goods
or money; for it is clear that the vender,
whoever he may be, will require something
EXCHANGE. 89
in exchange for his commodities, and what-
ever it be, he has only to expend the paper
money he receives for his commodities,
in purchasing it at its respective market
If he should require British goods, he will,
previously to selling his own, make himself
acquainted with the price, in British money,
of those he wishes to purchase, and fix the
price of his commodities accordingly; and if
he should require gold or silver, he will do
precisely the same thing; that is, he will
previously ascertain their price per ounce in
British paper money, and make his bargain
accordingly. The principle of exchange
here advocated being once fairly set on foot,
restrictions of any kind upon the freedom
of trade would soon cease to have a single
advocate.
It is to be understood, that in this chapter,
as in the others, I have merely attempted to
give an outline of an improved system of
commerce, and I hope, that as far as I have
gone, the description has been sufficiently full
to make known the principles of a totally
different and infinitely better system of ex-
change than that on which we are now acting.
To follow out the principle to its fullest extent,
by explaining the various modifications which
would be necessary to suit the peculiarities
90 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
of different employments, it would be neces-
sary to extend the work very far beyond the
limits of the present intention. The prin-
ciple is equally applicable to every trade; and
it may be affirmed, with a degree of confi-
dence amounting to certainty, that it is totally
impossible, by any means that the ingenuity
of man can contrive, ever to govern this, or
any country, in such a manner as to ensure
the general prosperity of its people, until the
existing plan of exchange be uprooted from
society, and another substituted for it, by
which production would be rendered the
constant cause of demand,—demand keeping
pace with it, though production should be
multiplied a thousand or a million fold.
This being effected—and it may easily and
very quickly be effected—I will confess my
total inability to comprehend how, in the pre-
sent very advanced state of productive science,
there could be any such thing as unmerited
poverty, or any thing the least resembling it,
in any civilized nation upon the earth.
The evil of society is not of a comparative,
but of a positive nature. A defective system
of exchange is not one amongst many other
evils of nearly equal importance: it is the
evil—the disease—the stumbling block of
the whole society. Commerce is a species of
EXCHANGE. 91
machinery, requiring a multitude of parts
consistent with each other to make it work
well, and a single error now throws the whole
into confusion. An immense machine having
a single faulty wheel, one tooth too few or
one too many, entirely frustrates the object
of the whole, — and so it is with commerce:
this one error deranges the working of the
whole system; and though it may be difficult
or impossible for a humble and unknown indi-
vidual to arouse mankind to a due sense of
its importance, time will do it, and future ages
will look back with astonishment upon the
miserable ignorance of the present generation
upon this all-important subject.
The most that can be immediately expected,
perhaps, is to bring this subject into public
discussion, and if I should be so fortunate as
to effect this humble object, I shall be more
than repaid by the satisfaction of feeling
assured that I have cast my mite into that
ever accumulating fund of knowledge by which
man must ultimately be emancipated from
the miserable thraldom to which he is at
present consigned.
Little importance is attached to the details
of the plan here promulgated ; indeed scarcely
any are given. They may be modified and
altered, perhaps, in a variety of ways; but it
92 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
would have been difficult to combat the great
error without shewing, in theory at least, the
effect of a different system of exchange.
Dismiss what you please—alter what you
please—modify what you please—but pre-
serve, not in the shape of a quibble or a
quirk, but in a direct and obvious manner,
the one principle, and the rest will follow,
substantially at least,—-make production the
cause of demand: do not do this, and be you
whig or tory, radical or reformer, aristocrat,
republican, or political economist, if you
expect to see any considerable change for the
better, in the condition of society, you are
an Utopian, a visionary, an enthusiast, a man
stone blind to the principal cause of human
trouble and distress. There is a wall of
adamant between you and the object you
would embrace, and you can neither climb
over it nor get round it. You, assisted by
others, may easily remove it, provided you
are first made to see that it is there, and
that your case is entirely hopeless until it is
away: but the fleetest horse can win no race
so long as he is shut up in the stable, and
neither can your visions of prosperity ever
be realized, until you knock off the chain
of commercial error by which you are now
bound to adversity.
DISTRIBUTION. 93
CHAPTER VI.
Distribution — Observation upon the nature of the theory here advo-
cated— Importance of considering the national debt in fixing the
rate of wages—The proper average of wages denned—Wages —
Salaries — National charges — National capital — Education — In-
surances — Incapacity — Depreciation of stock — Unproductive
labour—Change of employment — Taxes — National balance sheet
— Business for Mr Hume — Conclusion of the Chapter.
The observation will, I think, be allowed
to be just, that the theory of free trade,
domestic as well as foreign, which is here
advocated, is, upon the face of it, better
entitled to an impartial examination than
many others, for the reason that it stands
altogether aloof from those violent feelings
of the mind, which so often lead us headlong
into the wildest suppositions.
There are certain terms in our political
vocabulary, the mention of which has too
frequently sent the multitude in quest of a
Will-o'-the-wisp. The national debt, taxes,
94 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
liberty, freedom, rights of the people, and
sundry other expressions, are in themselves
volumes of argument in favour of any theory,
the professed object of which is to support
the popular side in all that relates to these
matters; and too often has this short-hand
of oratory been used in the stead of well
founded and consistent argument. The tax-
gatherer, it is said, comes home to us; not,
indeed, to give, but to take away. We had a
guinea—we have it not—the tax-gatherer has
taken it from us; and our organs of acquisi-
tiveness like not the man, or his trade, at
least, is odious to us. All schemes, there-
fore, for getting rid of taxes have an advocate
before-hand in the feelings of every man,
which sufficiently accounts, not only for the
general, but most erroneous, opinion, that
the taxes are the great evil of the country,
but also for the frequency of disappointments
resulting from the faith that is put in every
scheme having the reduction of taxes for its
object. A theory, on the other hand, which
appeals solely to the reason and judgment,
has no such friend at court; and yet it is
evident, that the man who does not object to
bank notes, gold, or silver, as instruments of
exchange, but who merely says that the same
tools may be used in a better way, is more
DISTRIBUTION. 95
entitled to a patient hearing than the mere
declaimer against taxes, because he can only
have arrived at his conclusions by the exer-
cise of thought: feeling or prejudice can have
had but little to do with such an inquiry.
Another reason of the same kind is, that
this theory has the advantage of standing
aloof from all disputed points upon the sub-
jects of morals and religion.
Food, clothing, habitation, and furniture,
are produced by the skill, industry, and
physical resources of mankind. A certain
standard of integrity and regularity of conduct
is undoubtedly necessary to the existence of
a society trading upon any principles; but
amongst the followers of all religions, these
qualifications are now sufficiently common
for the mere purposes of working, buying,
and selling; and their farther advance is
much more likely to be the consequence of
physical improvement than the cause of it
The system of commerce here contended for
is consistent with individual competition in
bodily and mental occupations, with private
accumulation to any amount, with all forms
of political government having the least
resemblance to fairness or freedom ; and it is
one in which Christian and Jew, and Turk
and Infidel, may unite so as to confer mutual
96 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
benefit upon each other, without the slightest
hinderance from their conflicting religious
creeds, and, so far as the great mass of them
is concerned, without the necessity even of
knowing that they are acting upon any con-
certed plan. The plan here advocated requires
rather a rearrangement of parts than an alter-
ation of them individually; and if it were
established—and established it maybe, with-
out a single compulsive law—the population
of this country could not fail to be fully
employed, and physically well provided for.
Add to this a system of education for the
"formation of character," upon the best
model that can be discovered, and then we
shall have the millennium at once, the speedy
commencement of which Mr Irving is said
to have already announced. Why not make
him a true prophet!
Our present consideration, however, is not
the millennium, but the distribution, or divi-
sion, of the products of labour amongst the
different classes of society: and this should
be effected by the ordinary process of paying
money to the various members of the social
community, as the reward of their labour, in
sums proportionate to the value of them.
This subject we shall consider under the re-
spective heads of wages, salaries, national
DISTRIBUTION. 97
charges, and taxes. But there is one preli-
minary to be noticed—a vacuum left in the
last chapter, to be filled up in this — the
pound note has yet to be described.
Money, upon the system proposed, being
merely a measure of value, and itself of none,
the price of wages and of salaries is of no
moment whatever, provided it be properly
apportioned, so far as regards any part of
the system, save only with reference to the
government taxes and the national debt.
And here a subject of the deepest importance
presents itself for our consideration.
The national debt having been in course of
contraction for a long period, during which,
owing chiefly to variations in the amount
of paper issues, money was sometimes of
one value, and sometimes of another; the
national creditors, speaking of them indi-
vidually, never can be justly repaid, because
it is impossible to ascertain now what was
the value of the different sums when they
were borrowed. The government, therefore,
should institute an inquiry into this subject,
and, having ascertained, as nearly as may be
practicable, the various values of a pound
sterling in wages during the time the debt
too o
was contracting, they should strike a general
98 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
average as equitably as they can, and having
declared their opinion that, on an average of
the whole period, a pound sterling, or whatever
sum it prove to be, would have purchased
an average week's labour of a mechanic or
labourer, that sum, be it whatever it may,
ought to be the price now fixed as the
average wages of labour, in paper money.
And on the subject of the price of labour,
no decided step should be taken without a
mutual agreement between the government
and the Chamber of Commerce : the govern-
ment, consenting to receive the national
paper money in payment of the taxes, ought
also to consent to that money being of the
value here defined.
And although the national bank note
should be of less value than the pound which
is now in general circulation, and in which
all government engagements are of course
paid, no mischief or inconvenience could
arise; because, if the new money should
prove to be insufficiently valuable to fulfil
the intentions of government, that is, if it
should have the effect of reducing the quantity
of the necessaries and comforts of life now
obtainable for the respective salaries of the
government dependants, then both the salaries
and taxes might be immediately increased to
DISTRIBUTION. 99
a sufficient extent to make up the difference,
and thus justice may be done to all parties.
The importance of keeping the debt in
view is incalculable; because, if the national
creditor should be repaid in money of more
value than that which was borrowed of him,
then is the debt itself increased; that is, if
the money he receives back will buy the
labour of two men for a week, whilst that
which he lent bought only the labour of one,
the debt is in effect doubled; and, on the
other hand, if the national creditor be repaid
in money of less value than that which he
lent, then is he defrauded.
The average price of labour, therefore,
should be a subject of mutual consultation
and agreement between the government and
the Chamber of Commerce; and being once
settled on equitable principles, it never need
be altered: it may remain the same to-day,
to-morrow, and for ever; for there never
could be any greater inducement to alter it
than there now is to alter the weight of the
piece of metal called a pound, the size of the
vessel called a pint, or the length of the
measure called a foot rule.
The average price of labour being once
determined, upon the principle here laid
down, we should have attained, for the first
100 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
time since the days of Adam, an immutable
standard of value. For5 if it were determined
that a pound, for example, should be the
payment for the labour of one man for a
week, consisting of six days, or seventy-two
hours in an average employment, a pound
note from that time forth would be just
another name for a week of reasonable exer-
tion. And, as has been already said, there
never could be any motive for altering this
standard, because, to halve the price of
wages or to quarter it, to double or to
quadruple it, would amount to nothing: it
would be a change in words only, none in
things, provided that the amount of salaries,
and of all other money remunerations, were
always made proportionate to the average
price of common labour. Goods under
this system could never fall in price, except
from increased facility of production, and
they could never rise in price, except from
increased difficulty of production.
Were it not for the taxes and the national
debt, it would be of no consequence whatever
what should be the money price of labour,
provided only that it be paid in money divi-
sible into a sufficient number of small parts,
to facilitate the making of small purchases.
A penny, for example, would never answer
DISTRIBUTION. 101
the purpose of paying a week's labour, be-
cause, although the price of commodities
should be so low that a penny would be
liberal wages, the week's consumpt being
made up of a great number of small pur-
chases, it would be necessary that the wages
should be paid in money divisible into small
parts. The proposed pound note, however,
is divisible into 960 parts; and, therefore, it,
or the half of it, would answer quite well, so
far as regards convenience.
From misapprehension, an objection may
here arise in the mind of the reader, which
it may be as well to anticipate and to refute,
before we proceed:
Question. Setting aside, then, the consi-
deration of the taxes and the national debt,
a penny—a metallic penny—you say, would
be as good wages as a pound, excepting only
on account of the inconvenience arising from
its being, according to present usage, divi-
sible into but four parts, namely, farthings:
What is to prevent people from coining cop-
per into pence, and therewith buying up all
your national stock?
Answer. It is fully explained in the last
chapter, that the word penny means a coin
consisting of the two hundred and fortieth
102 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
part of the quantity of copper obtainable for
a pound note. If, then, the weekly wages
of labour should be fixed at a penny, the
pound note would buy the labour of 240 men
for a week, in whatever average occupation
they should be employed. Suppose, then,
the 240 men to be employed in working a
copper mine, the money price of all the copper
they should procure in a week would be a
pound, and the weight of a penny would be
the weight of the quantity of copper procured
by one man in a week of seventy-two hours.
A penny, therefore, it is presumed, would
be a rather more weighty affair than my
supposed querist took it to be at first sight.
And this illustration proves two things: first,
that the supposed objection is altogether
groundless, because a man could gain nothing
by coining copper; and, secondly, that copper
is not a sufficiently valuable commodity to
be used as a principal metallic instrument oi
exchange.
WAGES.
The average price of wages, then, as fixed
by the Chamber of Commerce, upon the
principle here defined, would be the price to
be%paid weekly for all the ordinary operations
DISTRIBUTION. 103
of the productive classes; and the agents, as
has been described in the last chapter, are to
draw whatever money they require from the
Bank, and to pay the wages of the persons
employed under them in the national money.
And it is evident that no motive could exist
for any agent ever to beat down the price of
labour, or to wish to pay a less sum to the
persons employed under him, than their
exertions should be really worth.
But to the general rule of paying an aver-
age price for labour,—that is, a fixed sum for
a certain number of ordinary hours' work
weekly,—there would, of necessity, be some
exceptions, arising from the inequalities of
the employment itself. In the celebrated
work of Dr Adam Smith, these inequalities
are thus described :—" The five following are
"the principal circumstances which, as far as
"I have been able to observe, make up a
"small pecuniary gain in some employments,
"and counterbalance a great one in others.
"First, the agreeableness or disagreeableness
"of the employments themselves; second,
"the easiness and cheapness, or the difficulty
"and expense, of learning them; thirdf the
"constancy or inconstancy of employment in
"them; fourth, the small or great trust which
"may be reposed in those who exercise
104 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"them; and, fifth, the probability or impro-
"bability of success in them."
These variations, which are as applicable to
the Social System proposed, as to the unsocial
system existing, may easily, as it appears to
me, be regulated, partly by fixed scales of
payment for different employments, allowing
something more than the average for some
kinds of work, and something less than the
average for other kinds; partly by an allow-
ance of time, rewarding ten or eleven hours
labour in one employment equally with
twelve in another; and in part by allowing
a very small discretionary power to the
accredited agents of the association; but this
discretion, an evil in itself, should be always
confined within the narrowest possible limits.
SALARIES.
The direction and superintendence of
labour are just as essential to production as
labour itself; but as the man who merely
plans, directs, superintends, and regulates
production, has nothing to shew for it in a
tangible form, he can only be remunerated
by a rate, or tax, upon the indirect results of
his exertion; and it would be incomparably
preferable to allow this remuneration in the
DISTRIBUTION. 105
shape of a fixed salary, than in that of a
per centage, or profit, upon the goods pro-
duced under his care. It would, indeed, be
quite impossible to form any scale of per
centage, or profit, in such a manner as to do
justice to the persons employed; because an
equal degree of care and attention is frequently
as requisite in employments, wherein what
are called the returns are quite trifling, as in
others of ten or twenty times the extent and
magnitude. Prescribed duties should always
have their prescribed reward, for thus only
can the causes of bickerings and petty
jealousies be removed; whereas the attempt
to establish and maintain any rule of remu-
neration, founded upon the quantity of pro-
ducts issued from a manufactory, would be a
never-ending source of trouble and annovance.
The average wages of the agents, therefore,
that is, the wages of superintendence and of
direction, should also be a fixed sum, having
a proper relation to the price of common
labour; and the variations from this average
should be regulated by precisely the same
principles as the variations in the price of
common labour.
The salaries of the agents should be fixed at
a much higher rate than the wages of common
labour, upon the grounds of responsibility,
106 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
and the superior qualifications required.
Liberal payment would also be a great incite-
ment to good conduct, by causing these offices
to become an object of competition whenever
a vacancy should take place. In opposition
to the opinion of some persons who will read
this book—I allude to a numerous class of
individuals who are now in a greater or less
degree favourable to the plans of Mr Owen —
I look upon all systems of eqality as unjust in
principle, and quite impracticable. Nature,
the guide which, in these matters, we all
profess to follow, recognizes no system of
equality as respects mankind ; on the contrary,
she -dispenses her favours very much in pro-
portion to the industry with which, in accor-
dance with her own laws, they are sought to
be obtained. The system of nature appears
to me to be completely demonstrated, by
every pain we suffer, and by every pleasure
we enjoy, to be throughout a system of
rewards and punishments.
Then, as we rise still higher in the scale, we
have to consider the salaries of the president
and members of the Chamber of Commerce.
And here would be required a very different
set of men from fox-hunting squires and radical
orators. The business of the Chamber of
Commerce being divided amongst the nume-
DISTRIBUTION. 107
rous committees, none but men thoroughly
acquainted with the details of the respective
trades they should represent, could be of any
use; and to knowledge acquired by having
passed through all the stages of employment,
must be added experience, talent, industry,
perseverance, and integrity. The remune-
ration must be proportionate; it must be
sufficient to induce the most valuable members
of society to relinquish their other pursuits,
whenever they should be called upon to fill
these, the first offices of the commercial state.
The saving in this one branch of the
national expenditure, (I mean the substitution
of an appointed body of men, with very liberal
salaries, for those locusts of the commercial
world, master farmers, manufacturers, ware-
housemen, and shopkeepers, who now eat up
the rest of society, and, being still hungry,
each other into the bargain,) could not, I feel
assured, be less than ninety millions a-year,
being a sum nearly twice as large as the whole
amount of the taxes. By looking to numbers
25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, and 38, in the
Map of Society, chapter ninth, the reader will
find, that the enormous sum of £ 136,915,600
per annum, is the present estimated price of
managing the business of society. There is
not a man in existence who has any practical
108 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
knowledge of business, who will not instantly
admit, that the whole of this work might be
infinitely better done for a third of the expense;
for the salaries of warehousemen, shopmen,
and clerks, are not included in it. I take it
then at a third, and say in round numbers
that ninety millions a-year may be saved in
this one branch of the public expenditure;
and I use this term, because, so far as the
general interests of mankind are concerned,
this, and all other descriptions of unproductive
labour, are as justly denominated "branches
"of public expenditure," as any purposes to
which the government taxes are applied.
NATIONAL CHARGES.
National Capital.—The first subject to
mention under the head of national charges,
as in a commercial point of view it is the
most important, is the establishment of a
national capital, without which, every attempt
to improve the condition of mankind to any
great extent, must ever prove futile and
abortive, It would, therefore, be necessary to
make a charge, for the purpose of paying the
rent in the first instance, and of ultimately
buying, keeping up, and gradually increasing,
as circumstances should require, a national
DISTRIBUTION. 109
capital, consisting of land, mines, manufac-
tories, warehouses, shipping, machinery,
implements, and, in short, of every thing
required in the production, exchange, and
distribution of commodities.
Education. —Second in importance to the
subject already mentioned, is that of educa-
tion; and it is second instead of first, only
because it must be a consequence of the
establishment of a national capital. In the
present state of society, the facilities for pro-
duction are so great, that we can well afford
to keep in useful but unproductive employ-
ments, a very large portion of the population:
and if freedom of exchange existed, there
would be no excuse for a single individual in
this country receiving any thing short of the
best possible education which the present
state of human knowledge can afford.
The education of an individual is a matter
of public importance. A bad or ignorant man
is an evil to himself, but he is a tenfold
greater evil to society. It is, therefore, more
the business of society collectively, than of
its members individually, to use every
attainable means of removing ignorance, and
of preventing crime: and nations ought to
pay for that which is so essential to their
110 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
well-being and prosperity. It is to the supe-
rior intelligence of man, that the species is
indebted for every thing it possesses above
the brute creation; how then, can it be
otherwise than our collective advantage, to
advance to the utmost of our ability the
intellectual as well as the moral and physical
condition of all our fellow creatures? To
enlarge upon this subject would be to fill a
volume; it is, therefore, merely suggested,
that the best possible education ought to be
given to every son and daughter of Britain,
at the expense of the nation. Private
establishments should be done away with
entirely, by the establishment of public
schools upon so superior a plan, that every
class of society would prefer them.
The numerous hackneyed objections to
the liberal education of the lower classes, are
altogether beneath contempt, and unworthy
of being noticed even for the sake of refuta-
tion. There is no reason whatever, except
in the absurd customs of society, why a
ploughman should not become a minister of
state, or why a minister of state should feel
himself degraded by following for hire the
plough. The world has seen instances of
this kind; it may see them again; and if
ever the day should arrive when a national
DISTRIBUTION. ]]]
committee of education shall be appointed to
see that every individual, male and female,
be properly, that is, thoroughly instructed,
the country cannot fail to reap a rich harvest
of reward.
One very serious error in the existing plan
of education is, that boys who have their own
bread to earn, first receive a book education,
and are then put to learn a trade. During
the first process, they almost never fail to
acquire ideas above their station in life, for
the natural station of every man is that of a
producer of that which he consumes; and
during the second, they are generally com-
pelled to relinquish entirely both mental
improvement and recreation.
In Scotland—in Edinburgh, at least—this
is much less the case than it is in England,
and particularly in London; but it will be
allowed by those who have the best means of
knowing the fact, that, in a great majority
of cases, education ceases entirely amongst
the lower and middling classes whenever a
boy leaves school.
Habits of industry, physical as well as
mental, suitable to the age and sex of youth,
should be inculcated by practice, as well as
by precept, from a very early period, until far
beyond that age which generally terminates
112 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the education of the lower and middling
classes, in the present state of society.
Homer and Virgil,— if, indeed, the ability
to read them in their own language is worth
the labour of acquiring, — Euclid, history,
geography, natural philosophy, social science,
polite literature, and the fine arts, especially
music, as well as personal and mental accom-
plishments, should be made to walk hand in
hand with the spade, the loom, and the plough.
A nation of men thus trained and educated
would annihilate for ever that most con-
temptible of all earthly absurdities, the
contempt of useful labour. Pride, but little
tolerated even now, would hide its diminished
head within the folds of its own buckram; and
a titled coxcomb—a scarce character, too,
perhaps, in the present day—would shrink
into a nonentity before a tribunal of his own
labourers.
Mr George Combe says, [Constitution of
Man, page 214,) " Political economists have
"never dreamt that the world is arranged on
"the principle of supremacy of the moral sen-
"timents and intellect; and, consequently,
"that, to render man happy, his leading
"pursuits must be such as will exercise and
"gratify these powers, and that his life will
"necessarily be miserable, if devoted entirely
DISTRIBUTION. 1]3
"to the production of wealth. They have
« proceeded on the notion that the accumu-
"lation of wealth is the summum bonura; but
« all history teaches, that national happiness
"does not increase in proportion to national
« riches; and, until they shall perceive and
"teach, that intelligence and morality are the
« foundation of all lasting prosperity, they
« will never interest the great body of man-
"kind, nor give a valuable direction to their
"efforts. If the views contained in the
u present Essay be sound, it will become a
"leading object, with future masters in that
u science, to demonstrate the necessity of
"civilized man limiting his physical, and
u increasing his moral and intellectual, occu-
"pations, as the only means of saving himself
"from ceaseless punishment under the natural
"laws. The idea of men in general being
"taught natural philosophy, anatomy, and
ki physiology, political economy, and the other
"sciences that expound the natural laws, has
fc5 been sneered at, as utterly absurd and
"ridiculous. But I would ask, in what occu-
u pations are human beings so urgently en-
"g^ged, that they have no leisure to bestow
"on the study of the Creator's laws?"
Mr George Combe will take a very different
view of the immediate practicability of all this,
H
114 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
if he will bestow a solitary month's mental
labour upon the subject of supply and demand.
Insurances. — Another national charge
should be made, to cover the unintentional
loss or damage of private property, occasioned
by fire; no individual premiums being paid,
books kept, or expensive establishments, with
their intricate and superfluous appendages,
supported. Proof of unintentional loss ought
to constitute the legal claim for reparation.
Shipping insurances would be altogether
unnecessary, because shipping being national
property, when lost, would be national loss,
and to insure it, would merely be to incur
the expense of keeping an account of money
taken out of one pocket, and put into another.
Life Insurances might be conducted upon
the existing plan: they might, indeed, be
conducted in the same plain and unexpensive
manner as fire insurances, provided all persons
should insure their lives ; that is, provided the
Chamber of Commerce should do it for them,
by establishing a fund for the maintenance
of the superannuated, widows, and orphans.
But this, as it appears to me, would be an
undue interference with the right of private
judgment in a matter not affecting the public
good. Why, it may be said, should bachelors
DISTRIBUTION. 115
be taxed for the purpose of keeping other
people's wives and children? The same
objection does not hold with respect to fire
insurances, because, old and young, rich and
poor, married and single, are all liable to
suffer from this calamity.
Incapacity,—mental or physical, should
lbrm another item of national charge, that the
afflicted in all cases might obtain assistance
as a matter of right, instead of as a matter of
charity. Much has often been said in praise
of charity: does it not generate the pride
of affected sensibility and benevolence in the
mind of the giver, and inflict an irremediable
wound on the mental independence of the
receiver? And is not its existence in a
country, which is for ever complaining of over
production, a libel upon common sense?
What a capital subject the following would
be for a committee of the House of Commons:
Uncultivated lands — capital unemployed—
redundant population — over-production —
poverty: reconcile them
i
Depreciation of Stock.— All persons who
are practically acquainted with business, are
aware that with whatever degree of judgment
and caution goods are manufactured, bad
116 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
stockwill accumulate in some instances, whilst
in others, goods of a very perishable nature
will become entirely valueless. This must
ever be the case so long as goods continue to
be made before they are sold, that is, not
made to express order; and therefore the
unavoidable loss so occasioned should form
another item of national charge.
Unproductive Labour.—Besides the un-
productive labour of direction and superin-
tendence, many persons are constantly
employed in useful operations, for which
there is nothing to shew, or rather by which
no additional wealth is created. Such, for
example, is the occupation of conveying
goods; as also are those of warehousemen,
shopmen, and clerks: this expense, therefore,
should form another item of national charge.
Professions will be considered separately.
Change of Employment.-—Whenever a
man betakes himself to an occupation which,
at the time he enters upon it, is useful and
necessary to the well-being of society, but
which, by the introduction of machinery, or
any other unforeseen cause, comes to be after-
wards superseded; it is quite monstrous that
the person so thrown out of employment
DISTRIBUTION. 117
should not be made a partaker, to the full
extent with others, of the benefit so arising
to society, by the establishment of a national
provision for his support, until he can be
otherwise profitably employed.
It is one of the absurdities of the present
system, that those persons who have incom-
parably the best opportunity of discover-
ing how improvements in machinery may
be effected, are directly interested in pre-
venting the advance of mechanical science!
What a fool is a man, in the present state of
society, to tell his employer how his loom, for
instance, may be improved! It is tantamount
to saying, "Master, I can shew you how I
49 and my family may be allowed to starve."
And yet so great is the strength of that feeling
in the human mind, which the phrenologists
call " love of approbation," that men do this
every day in the year.
How much faster, however, would mecha-
nical science advance, if every operative in
the country, being previously well educated,
had, what he ought to have, a direct and
obvious interest in superseding his own
labour! So long as men are little better
than beasts,—so long as, in a state of bar-
barism, every man eats, drinks, and wears
almost nothing but what is procured by his
U8 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
individual exertions,—selfishness is the true
principle for every man to act upon; but
nations have yet to learn, at least practically,
that, in an advanced state of society, selfish-
ness—true, genuine, unalloyed selfishness
— consists in the practice of an almost
unbounded generosity.
A mere change of fashion, in the present
day, has frequently the effect of consigning
thousands to a state of destitution. "In
"addition to the fluctuations arising from the
« changes from peace to war, and from war to
"peace, it is well known," says Mr Malthus,
"how subject particular manufactures are
« to fail from the caprices of taste. The
"weavers of Spitalfields were plunged into
"the most severe distress by the fashion of
"muslins instead of silks; and great num-
"bers of workmen, in Sheffield and Bir-
"mingham, were for a time thrown out of
"employment, owing to the adoption of
"shoe-strings and covered buttons, instead
"of buckles and metal buttons. Our manu-
"factures, taken in the mass, have increased
"with prodigious rapidity, but in particular
"places they have failed; and the parishes
"where this has happened are invariably
"loaded with a crowd of poor, in the most
"distressed and miserable condition." The
DISTRIBUTION. 119
"mass," then, I say5 ought to have supported
the inhabitants of the " particular places,"
until they could be otherwise advantageously
employed j and all persons whose labour is
superseded by improvements, or by any
other cause, excepting always, and only, the
want of capital to employ them,—a want
which could never exist under the Social
System,—ought to be sufficiently provided
for at the public expense, until other employ-
ment could be offered to them ; for it is thus,
and thus only, that the national mind can be
enlisted in the national service.
TAXES.
In the shape of an equal per centage upon
every kind of produce except coin, the only
fair and rational way in which they ever can
be paid, the government taxes, under the
proposed system, might be collected at no
expense. As all goods would pass through
the national warehouses, where, to their cost
in labour and material, woidd be added the
per centage required to meet the several
expenses of salaries, and those that have
been described under the general designation
of national charges, there might also be
120 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
added an additional per centage to pay the
expenses of the government; and thus only
can the taxes of the country be made to fall
equally upon every man, in exact proportion
to the amount of his income.
It may be disputed to this, perhaps, that
a large portion of society would continue to
carry on business upon the old plan, com-
pulsion to join the new ranks being entirely
abjured; and, therefore, that if all the other
taxes should be taken off, and an equal per
centage upon every kind of produce substi-
tuted for them, the lovers of antiquity would
escape taxation. But this is impossible, for
the old plan of society could no more com-
pete with the new, than can the coaches and
four compete with the coaches and steam at
Liverpool. The old system of commerce
would be entirely annihilated in a very few
years—and, until then, the present plan of
tax-gathering might be continued — by the
irresistible effect of a well regulated system
of producing, exchanging, and distributing
the produce of the country : for the enormous
saving, in the item unproductive labour>, which
would result from the plan of exchange here
contemplated, would so completely distance
every kind of competition, that the mere
DISTRIBUTION. 121
saving of the government taxes would amount
to nothing whatever, in the way of induce-
ment to continue in the old system, even
though it should be absolved from taxation
altogether.
Thus, upon the system of exchange pro-
posed, the various items that have been
enumerated under the respective heads of
wages, salaries, national charges, and taxes,
would form the aggregate of price; and, as
has been shewn in the last chapter, the
money issued, and the property in the
national stores, would always be of exactly
the same value; and therefore demand would
ever keep pace with production.
The consumption of commodities, in works
on political economy, generally forms the
subject of a distinct chapter; but this appears
to be quite unnecessary here. Food is con-
sumed when it is eaten, and clothes, houses,
and furniture, when they are worn out. Let
production, exchange, and distribution, be
regulated upon equitable principles, and we
may be quite content to leave consumers to
the course prescribed by their own taste and
disposition. There is, however, what the
political economists call " productive con-
"sumption," which means the consumption
122 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
of hemp when it is converted into cloth, the
consumption of malt and hops when they are
converted into ale, and the consumption of
seed when it is converted into a crop, &c.
Consumption of this kind, however, is merely
another name for a process in producing.
Malt and hops, intended to be used for
brewing, are ale and porter in an unfinished
state. The very name " productive con-
"sumption" is bad; it would puzzle a con-
juror. This subject has, it is hoped, been
made sufficiently plain in the chapter on pro-
duction, to which it properly belongs.
Upon the plan described, then, the annual
produce of the labour of the association
would always be exactly equal to the annual
issues of the Bank, because, as the Bank is
to pay for every thing produced, the money
paid and the property received into the
public stock, would always be equal to each
other. The following, therefore, would be
the items of the national balance sheet.
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124 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
Now, the foregoing account would always
balance, provided that the per centage laid
on goods should be exactly sufficient to pro-
duce all the items but the first on the debit
side of the sheet; and, by the way, the
shortest and easiest way of dealing with the
taxes would be for government to ascertain
its wants—to name the sum, and to receive
it in quarterly payments from the Bank; in
which case the whole cost and trouble of
collecting the taxes would consist in counting
the money, and in making four entries a-year
in a cash-book, and posting the same into a
ledger: But to return to the balance sheet
If the two sides should be unequal, and
the balance should be deficiency, then the per
centage must in future be increased; but if
the balance should be surplus, then the per
centage must be decreased in the year
following. The per centage never need be
altered more than once a-year.
Thus would the business of Mr Hume
be reduced to a focus. Salaries, national
charges, taxes,—every sixpence saved under
any one of these heads would be a clear gain
to the producers; and a few economizers,
with Mr Hume for their chief, would keep
things in order under this system readily
enough; for it would be the interest of
DISTRIBUTION. 125
every individual in the nation to second their
efforts. But the question would no longer
be what tax is to be taken off? Enforce
economy in every branch of the public ex-
penditure, and the balance of the national
balance sheet will be surplus; and a conse-
quent reduction of per centage will take
place as a matter of course. "Reduction of
"per centage," would henceforth be the
reformer's toast, following always that of
"The King," at public dinners, and private
dinners too.
Importation in foreign bottoms, upon the
principles of the Social System, would merely
be the allowing of foreigners to be condi-
tional members of our association; the dif-
ference between them and ourselves being,
that as all the goods produced at home, or
imported in our own ships, would be by the
sanction or order of the Chamber of Com-
merce, all would be received into the national
stores; whereas, of foreign productions, sent
by foreigners into our ports, not brought
into them by the order of the Chamber of
Commerce, such only would be admitted into
our stores as we should have use, that is, a
demand for. In the one case, judgment
would be passed before production or impor-
tation, in the other afterwards.
126 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
With this restriction, if restriction it can
be called, the inhabitants of all nations might
be admitted members of the National Com-
mercial Association; and the advantages of
this free system of foreign exchange would
he, first, to cause every thing to be produced
wherever it could be produced cheapest;
secondly, to increase the number and variety
of articles in our own stock; and, thirdly, to
reduce the taxes per cent, by making them
fall upon a greater amount of produce.
The annual issues of the Bank would,
therefore, be equal to the nominal or paper
value of all the property created at home, and
imported from other countries; and in no
possible case could we do wrong in admitting,
duty free, foreign goods into our stock,
without any limit as to quantity, for which
we should have a corresponding demand;
unless we could make them at home for less
money than it should cost to import them.
Finally, as land, capital, labour, and freedom
of exchange, are the four ingredients of which
wealth is composed, it is impossible that any
such thing as unmerited poverty could exist
in any society founded upon the principles
of the Social System, unless it should arise
DISTRIBUTION. 127
from a deficiency of one or more of these
ingredients.
If, then, we suppose a deficiency of land,
the answer is, let more be bought or rented;
and if there is none either to sell or let at
home, (look at Ireland,) there are millions
upon millions of acres in other countries, over
which the hand of man has never yet scattered
a seed or directed a plough.
If we suppose a deficiency of capital, the
answer is, let the per centage on the sale of
produce be increased to a sufficient extent to
supply the want.
If we suppose a deficiency of labourers,
then will a new era indeed have arisen in the
history of human troubles.
And if we suppose a deficient power ^ of
exchanging, then must we suppose the non-
existence of this system altogether, for its
very heart and vitals, bones, sinews, nerves,
and muscles, are embodied in the sentence,
Freedom of Exchange.
Thus, then, it is submitted, that a plan has
been demonstrated, by which the commercial
wheel of fortune may revolve upon an im-
perishable axis until the end of time, and
every revolution bring forth an increase of
produce, until the uttermost ends of the earth
shall be cultivated as a garden, and myriads
128 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
upon myriads of human beings be added to
the great family of mankind. Then man
shall say unto his Creator, "We have
"fulfilled our destiny. We have been fruitful
"and multiplied; we have replenished the
"earth, and subdued it; and we have
"dominion over fish of the sea, and over the
"fowl of the air, and over every living thing
"that moveth upon the earth/5
PREVENTION OF FORGERY 129
CHAPTER VII.
Prevention of Forgery — Opinion stated, that the Forgery of Bank Notes
may be entirely prevented—Necessity for a public criterion of
genuine notes — Insufficiency of the existing plans for the prevention
of forgery—Bank Notes should be all alike — Description of a plan
for the prevention of forgery—Reasons for believing that the plan
now proposed would be effectual.
In the preceding pages I have endeavoured
to explain my views as concisely as possible,
and with but little attempt at illustration;
but there remain a few subjects, respecting
which an opinion will probably be looked for
in a work in which it is boldly asserted, that
the commercial society is wrong, and may be
set right. These, therefore, will now be
noticed, but the elements of the Social System,
itself, are to be considered as described in
the preceding chapters; what follows, being
rather for the purpose of exhibiting the
principles in some of their bearings, than as
part and parcel of the System itself.
And, as I have hitherto abstained from
indulging in any fanciful speculations upon
130 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the vast changes in the details of society,
which would necessarily result from the
important commercial changes, the necessity
for which has been insisted on, so, on the
other hand, I shall not hesitate to state in the
following chapters any opinion which appears
to be warranted by the facts of the case
before us, however much it may be opposed
to the opinions of those who have never
deliberately considered the subject of com-
merce, or who have only viewed it through
the "dense atmosphere" of existing political
ignorance and superstition.
An attempt having been made, in a former
chapter, to demonstrate the superiority of
paper money, it will be proper to answer
one of the objections that may arise to the
substitution of it for coin, that is, the supposed
greater facility of imitating paper. Substitu-
tion, however, is not perhaps the right word,
for, in Scotland at least, there is almost no
gold in circulation at present; and I do not
propose to substitute paper for either silver
or copper coin.
Having been long impressed with the
belief that the forgery of bank notes might
be entirely prevented, I wrote an article upon
this subject in the year 1827, a few copies of
which were afterwards printed and privately
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 131
circulated. An act of parliament, however,
would have been necessary to carry the plan
there proposed into effect; no use, therefore,
has hitherto been made of the idea, but as
I have never been able to see any reason to
alter the opinion I then entertained, I shall
here reprint, almost verbatim, the article
above-mentioned, which was as follows :—
To urge the necessity of preventing forgery,
if it be possible to do so, would be wasting
time and words. The importance of the
subject is sufficiently proved by the great
extent of mischief that it is constantly pro-
ducing, and by the valuable time and large
sums of money that have been willingly
expended in ineffectual attempts to render it
impracticable. If, however, the government
of this country had endeavoured to devise
means for the encouragement of forgery, there
is no way in which they could have done it
more effectually, than by allowing every
banker to print his own notes in whatever
form he pleases ; but by the adoption of a plan
the very opposite to this, combining certain
other qualities to be presently described, the
forgery of bank notes might be reduced to
the smallest imaginable fraction of its pre-
sent amount, if not altogether annihilated.
132 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
To put the public in possession of any
thing approaching to perfect security against
loss by forgery, it is necessary that there exist
some public mark, or criterion, of genuine
notes. At present there is no such criterion.
We ring or look at a shilling or a sovereign,
but we put a note into our pockets, or into
our tills, unexamined, merely because we
are, in general, altogether without means of
judging of it. Indeed, so difficult is supposed
to be the task of detecting forgeries, that it
is commonly believed that bank inspectors,
and bankers' clerks, distinguish their notes
only by private marks.
The method generally adopted for the
prevention of forgery, is to combine supe-
riority, variety, and expensiveness, in the
engraving; but these qualities must, by
themselves, be quite ineffectual; for there
are, at this moment, no less than thirty-two
banks issuing notes in Scotland alone, and in
the notes of different values issued by each of
them, there is but little, if any, similarity;
indeed, in some instances, the same bank is
in the habit of issuing notes of the same
value printed from different plates; so, that,
supposing each bank to be making use of
only three plates, we have at present about
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 133
ninety-six different kinds of bank notes circu-
lating in Scotland.
Security here, therefore, against loss by the
forgery of these notes, could only consist in
a perfect knowledge of, or, at least, in a very
intimate acquaintance with them all. This,
it is almost needless to say, is quite unattain-
able; and hence the futility of all plans for
the prevention of forgery, which depend
merely upon fine engraving.
So far from its being necessary for the
forger to imitate very exactly the notes of
any bank, let him engrave a plate without any
resemblance, in point of style, to any other
note in existence, and let him print therefrom
notes purporting to be those of some country
bank known to exist, and he may pass them,
and that extensively too, without much danger.
Indeed, so easily are the public imposed on,
in consequence of the endless variety of forms
in which promises to pay exist, that it has
long been a successful species of fraud to
issue notes bearing the names of banks that
never existed. Nay, any thing will now pass
for paper money; witness a case which hap-
pened the other day at St Andrews, where
a James Anderson was charged before the
Sheriff with having uttered salt pmmfc for
one pound notes. Stronger evidence need
134 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
hardly be adduced to shew the necessity of
fixing upon some one form in which alone
paper money should be allowed to exist.
It being established, then, that uniformity
is the first essential point to be attained, our
next inquiry is, what kind of engraving should
be adopted? and to this subject especial
attention is requested, because, from much
experience, the assertion is adventured, that a
plate might be engraved which would defy
all attempts at successful imitation.
Let his Majesty's Government cause every
note in the united kingdom, of whatever
value, and of whatever bank, to be impressed
with an engraving, consisting chiefly of human
faces, and of the most exquisite workmanship
that the united skill of numerous first-rate
artists can execute, previous to the stamped
paper on which it is to be printed being
delivered into the banker's hands, so that
every bank note, in one part of it at least, may
bear the most exact resemblance to every
other. A variety of human faces engraved
by several artists of superior skill, would
present so different an expression from what
could be produced by any other set of engravers
whatever, that the public, perfectly acquainted
with it, as they then must be, whilst in the act of
counting the notes, would as easily distinguish
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 135
counterfeits from originals, as they now
distinguish one man from another.
It is a truth, which no man well acquainted
with the subject will dispute, that forgeries
are, almost without exception, found to be
different from the notes they are intended
to imitate, when they come to be closely
examined by an attentive eye — in most
instances, very different. Why, then, it may
be said, are they not detected? First, for the
reason already assigned,—because the kinds
of notes in circulation are so numerous, that
few men are very intimately acquainted with
any of them; and, secondly, because the
difference, let it be small or great, which
really exists, is not easily perceived. It is
obvious that there are some things in which
differences are much more observable than in
others. Animals, plants, and flowers, for
example, are seldom so closely observed, but
that others, very different in reality, may be
mistaken for them. In engravings of this
kind, therefore, a very poor imitation is
calculated to deceive us, for the difference,
though it be, in fact, great, does not strike us.
There is, however, one thing, and one only,
that I know of, in which the smallest differ-
ence strikes us instantly,—I mean the human
countenance,—the thing of all others in the
136 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
world, in which old and young, rich and poor,
literate and illiterate, are most in the habit
of distinguishing minute differences, and in
which the variety of expression is altogether
endless. It is here, and here only, that the
smallest possible difference changes the expres-
sion, and tells us at a glance that the thing is
not the same.
The protective engraving, therefore, should
consist chiefly of a great number of human
faces, of extremely varied and peculiar expres-
sion, and they should be engraved by several
artists. These might be surrounded by any
ornamental border, requiring great expertness
in its execution.
A specimen note, illustrative of this plan,
has been drawn under the writer's inspection.
It is about the size of a bank of England note;
one half of it is devoted to the government
engraving, and the other half is left blank for
the banker to print upon. The government
half consists of thirty-five heads, with the King
in the centre, occupying a circle of about two
inches and a half in diameter; these are sur-
rounded by a border, containing a crown, the
Banks of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and
a few flowers. Immediately above this is the
value of the note, and below it is a progressive
number, to be presently spoken of. The
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 137
oeneral effect, if it were well engraved, would
be extremely beautiful; and much better cal-
culated to attract attention, and to fix itself on
the memory, than any thing which has yet
publicly appeared in the shape of a bank
note.
The printing of the notes should also be a
work of great care, and, as far as practicable,
the impressions should be of equal blackness.
Bankers might afterwards print on these
notes whatever they pleased, provided they
neither printed on, nor in any way defaced,
the government engraving.
Multiplication of the Plates. It is
stated, that "the plan of Perkins and Heath
"is founded on the power of transferring to
"steel from copper any engraving, and thus
"of multiplying the finest work of art to the
"extent of any number of copies." If this
be literally true, the united kingdom may be
supplied with notes from a single engraving;
but if not, the same set of engravers, and
they only, could produce more plates; and
though, in this case, there might be a percep-
tible difference in the notes, they would still
be seen to be the work of the same hands.
Paper. The only bank note paper at present
in circulation, which is at all fit for the pur-
pose, is that used by the Bank of England. Fine
138 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
engraving is by all parties admitted to be
quite necessary to tbe prevention of forgery;
but the finest parts of the bank-note engravings
in Scotland are impressed on the surface of
the paper only. So thick is the paper in
general use here that it is penetrated only by
the coarser parts of the engraving; and, conse-
quently, before the notes are half worn out,
scarcely a vestige of the original engraving
remains, and the merest daub of an imitation
might be passed for them.
Even the finest parts of bank note engra-
vings should penetrate through the paper, or
as nearly so as possible, that the expression
may be rendered durable as the note; and
this is almost literally the case with the Bank
of England notes, and with them only.
Progressive Numbers. By the plan here
described, it will be obvious that the bankers
would be relieved from the necessity of
making use of expensive plates, for common
letter-press printing would answer their pur-
pose just as well. But there would be one
thing to guard against. In case any of the
blank notes should fall into improper hands,
a facility would be afforded to the forgery of
any bank notes in the kingdom. To prevent
any evil of this kind, all the notes should be
stamped with a progressive number, and sold
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 139
only to bankers, who should be made respon-
sible for the right use of them; that is, in
case of their allowing them to be lost or
stolen, and they should be converted into
forgeries on other banks, their original pur-
chasers should be made responsible for the
amount, who would be instantly discovered
by referring to the stamp office books—the
stamp office making an entry of every lot of
notes, when sold, stating the name of the
purchaser, and the numbers of the notes.
Lastly, as it is proposed that the value of
the notes should form a part of the govern-
ment engraving, the stamps at present used
would be superseded, ones, fives, tens, &c.
being sold to the bankers at their respective
prices.
The great defect in the existing remedies
for forgery is, that they trust too much to the
powers of the engraver, without sufficiently
regarding those of the human mind. The
great ease with which we distinguish any
thing with which we are well acquainted
from other objects of a similar kind, appears
to have been greatly overlooked; were it
otherwise, Scotland would never have been
inundated with nearly a hundred different
kinds of bank notes, many of which necessa-
rily fall but seldom into the hands of any one
140 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
individual, and which, therefore, no one man
can ever know. But, with a single engraving
of the kind that is here described, ever
present to our view, the most perfect acquaint-
ance would of necessity be formed. An
habitual glance, whilst counting the notes,
would render every feature of it at all times
present in our remembrance; and hence that
security against deception, which existing
plans and precautions can never afford us.
If, in answer to what is here put forth
as security against forgery, it be said, that
what one man can execute another can copy,
I reply, that, in the case I have stated, it
would be difficult beyond measure, if not
absolutely impossible, to copy so exactly as
to deceive. It is proposed that the protective
engraving be the work of numerous artists.
Government might surely be able to procure
the best aitists in the kingdom to do the
work; but still it may be said, that other
engravers might be found so nearly as good,
that a common observer, at least, would not
be able to say which was the best workman-
ship, if a specimen of each man's engraving
were presented to him. This may be true;
but although quality may probably be equalled,
style cannot be imitated with sufficient exact-
ness to defeat the object in view. Faces
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 141
miffht be engraved of the same length, and
breadth, and fulness; but there would be a
difference still, an indescribable difference in
the expression, which would point out the
cheat in an instant; and an ordinary man,
after a little experience, would be almost as
likely to mistake the countenances of his own
children, as to mistake a forged note for one
that was genuine.
Of the notes at present in circulation here,
there are a few good specimens; but even
the best of them appear to be the invention
rather of ingenious engravers wishing to
display their art, than of practical men of
business, whose avocations have compelled
them to discover for themselves some means
of detecting forgeries. The engine engraving,
with which bank notes are now nearly filled,
is all but useless. It may be difficult to
imitate, but there is nothing in it to be
remembered, and no bank note engraving is of
any use which cannot be perfectly remembered.
Of the same character is the engraving in the
centre of the Bank of Scotland's one pound
note, and some others, consisting of an endless
repetition of the words "One Pound," in
characters so small, that good eyes only can
distinguish them even when the notes are
new. This minute kind of engraving would
be well enough if every shopkeeper kept an
142 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
inspector at his counter, with a microscope in
his hand, to examine bank notes; but, in the
absence of this custom, it is of little practical
value. What we require is something which
we can recognize whilst in the act of counting
notes with ordinary rapidity, and there is
nothing which we can so easily and perfectly
remember as the human face.
To form a correct judgment of the means
by which any object is proposed to be attained,
it is necessary that we clearly understand
what that object is. In the present instance,
it would be folly to expect that any engraving
should be so far inimitable, that nothing
having the least resemblance to it could be
produced. All that I conceive to be necessary
is, that a rule be given to the public, by
attention to which, persons of ordinary
capacity may, with common care, be certainly
protected against taking forged notes; and
such a rule, I contend, may be given to the
public so soon as such a note as is here
described shall be in exclusive circulation
throughout the kingdom. This rule, unlike
the private marks which at present constitute
the secrets of banking houses, and which
are altogether concealed from the public,
may be safely given to the forger himself,
through the medium of the public press.
It being supposed, then, that upon every
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 143
bank note in the kingdom, there are thirty-
five exquisitely engraved faces, the rule
suggested is this: Let every individual who
is in the habit of taking bank notes, select for
himself some one of the thirty-five faces, and
let him give it a momentary glance in every
note he takes. By these means his knowledge
of that particular face would be quite perfect,
and nothing but a perfect imitation could
deceive him.
Now let us suppose the case of the forger:
The united skill of the most eminent artists
has been employed in engraving thirty-five
faces, and every individual is supposed to be
perfectly acquainted with some one of them,
but of the one selected by the person to whom
a note is about to be offered, the utterer must
necessarily be ignorant. His only chance of
success, therefore, would consist in offering a
perfect invitation of every face; and whoever
knows any thing of the difficulties to be
surmounted in the execution of such a plate,
will declare at once, that he only could
attempt it with the smallest possible chance
of success, who could make his fortune by
engraving in an honest way.
Still it maybe said, that there are some
men who could never be induced to look at
a note at all—what protection does your
144 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
plan afford them? The answer is plain-
none whatever. Let them take the conse-
quences of their own carelessness.
Upon the whole, it is submitted, that the
great and grand security against forgery, must
be found in causing all the notes in the
kingdom to be, to a certain extent, alike, and
until this be done, plans for the prevention
of forgery may serve to amuse the ingenious
and to furnish employment for engravers, but
forgery will never be prevented.
It is obvious that engravers would not
find their interest in favouring the plan here
promulgated, since the expensive plates at
present in use would be altogether superseded.
Bank inspectors and bankers' clerks are the
persons whose opinions upon this subject are
valuable, most of whom know full well how
easy it is to become sufficiently acquainted
with any one engravijig, to distinguish it with
the utmost facility from any other.
The foregoing article was written with a
view to the present system of banking, but
the same kind of engraving would answer
quite well for the proposed national bank
note; except that the whole of each note
should be printed at the same time, instead of
only the half of it; and excepting, also, that
PREVENTION OF FORGERY. 145
the stamp duty might be dispensed with.
And if, with almost as many kinds of bank
notes in circulation as there are patterns in a
print shop, it be possible to go on using paper
money at all, whilst the temptation to commit
fraud, arising from poverty, is so great as it
is at present; it will surely be allowed, that
when the difficulty of imitating notes should
be greatly increased, and the temptation to
imitate them be greatly diminished, there
would be much less objection to the use of
paper money than there is now, so far as the
fear of forgery is concerned.
The progressive number should be retained
as a final security against a forged note ever
finding its way undetected into the Bank.
The numbers of the notes should be entered
in a book when given out of the Bank, and
they should be checked off when received
back again by the Bank. Thus, if two notes
of the same number should be offered to the
Bank, one of them must prove to be forged,
and the publication of its existence would
cause people to look at notes whenever they
should receive them. From the opposite
course, that is, from not numbering the notes
progressively, carelessness might result, for a
forged note might be presented at the Bank,
146 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
with only the same risk of detection as else^
where.
I was some time ago informed by a gentle-
man, connected with a banking establishment
here, that Messrs Perkins and Heath had
either engraved, or proposed to bankers to
engrave, notes containing several faces exactly
alike. But this plan is far inferior to the
foregoing, because the one would depend
upon comparison, the other upon knowledge.
Thirty-five faces, all exquisitely engraved,
but totally dissimilar, would be infinitely
greater security than the same number of
faces alike, provided that, in every note in
existence, face should correspond with face.
The former plan involves a secret, namely the
selected face, the other has no secret; and it
must be infinitely easier to imitate perfectly
thirty-five faces alike, than thirty-five faces
entirely different, for the same reason that
a man can always perform some one operar
tion, to which his attention is entirely devoted,
much more easily and perfectly than he can
perform several.
PROFESSIONS. 147
CHAPTER VIII.
Professions—Distinction between Professional and Commercial
Members of Society — Modes of remunerating Professional Men —
Demi-professional Trades—Transfers of Private Property—Patents.
Professional men, however nearly allied,
and apparently belonging to a Commercial
Society, are supported in a very different
manner, and, under the Social System, they
would be, much more than they are at pre-
sent, a distinct class of society.
The income of every member of the
national commercial association would form
a part of the price of exchangeable commo-
dities, as has been fully described in former
chapters, but the income of professional men
would generally be derived from a totally dif-
ferent source. The annual issues of the Bank
would be appropriated entirely to the pay-
ment of claims from the various members of
the associated community j and professional
148 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
men would continue to obtain their incomes,
as they clo at present, by making direct
exchanges of their professional assistance
for money, to be paid to them by their cus-
tomers or clients, excepting, however, when
they should be employed by members of
the associated community in their official
capacity.
For example, a physician, a surgeon, or an
artist, when employed by a private member
of society, would obtain from his customer,
in the shape of money, his right and title to
such a portion of the national stock of wealth,
as he should agree to give in exchange for
the professional benefit conferred upon him,
the giving of the money by the one party, and
the receiving of it by the other, being the
evidence, or proof, that A, an associated
member, who had received money for con-
tributing to the national stock of wealth, had
assigned his right to withdraw his contribution
out of the national stores to B, a professional
man, as a remuneration for some service, or
benefit, real or supposed, conferred by the
latter upon the former.
But, in other cases, wherein a professional
man should be employed by a member of the
association, in his official capacity, professional
skill or talent, that of an architect, for example,
PROFESSIONS. ]49
bein.o1 required in the production of some
tangible and exchangeable commodity, to be
brought for sale into the national market,
then the professor would receive the reward
of his services from the hand of an accredited
agent, and the cost of his advice, or assistance,
would form a part of the price of the thing
produced, as in the case of common labour.
Another mode of remunerating professional
men would be, as at present, by fixed salaries,
particularly in cases where their whole time
and attention would be required. Such per-
sons, for example, as teachers, surgeons to
establishments, and some others, should be
thus remunerated, and their salaries should
form a part of the cost of commodities, falling
under some of the items entitled "national
charges," in the national balance sheet
But it is evident, that professional men
could never be justly dealt with by consent-
ing, as in the case of mechanics, labourers,
and managers of trades, to receive a remune-
ration to be fixed by any persons but them-
selves. Every commercial member of the
Social Society would be employed upon the
principle of prescribed duty and prescribed
reward. The hours of attendance would be
fixed; the work to be performed, in cases of
productive labour, would be of a defined
150 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
quality; and these things may be, because
they now are, and ever have been, regulated
with the utmost facility. We may say to a
weaver, the linen must be of a certain degree
of fineness—to use a technical phrase, there
must be so many shoots to the inch; to a
farmer, you must grow wheat, or oats, or
barley; and to a builder, the house must be
of such dimensions and materials ; but no man
can prescribe what are to be the qualities of
another's mind. We cannot rationally say
to a painter, you must be a Lawrence; to an
author, you must be a Shakespeare or a Scott;
to a musician, you must be a Paganini; or to
an equestrian, you must be a Ducrow.
All persons, therefore, who require the aid
of a professional man, must continue to assign
matter for mind, and to part with a fair
portion of their warehoused wealth, for the
professional benefit conferred upon them by
their own desire.
The business of commerce is to feed, clothe,
and lodge mankind, and to provide leisure for
the pursuits of pleasure and intellect, and the
principles now proposed for adoption have
been well considered, with reference to very
many trades and business occupations; they
have been constantly before my "mind's eye"
for the last ten years, and I can truly say,
PROFESSIONS. 151
that, at this hour, I am unable to call to
mind so much as one trade to which they are
inapplicable, excepting only those which are
either wholly, or in part, professional.
No difficulty would arise from the perish-
ableness of any commodity, such as fruit or
fish; slight differences, suitable to the pecu-
liarities of the respective trades and employ-
ments, would require to be made, but they
would be differences in the detail merely, not
in the principle of acting.
There is, however, a kind of demi-profes-
sional class of occupations which requires to
be noticed. If, for example, a man will have
a service performed, or an article made
expressly for him, by some particular
individual, that individual is in consequence
entitled to make his own terms with his
customer. Thus, the trades of tailors and
shoemakers, as long as men continue to prefer
having their coats and shoes made to measure,
instead of selecting from a ready made stock
such as will please them, appear to come
under this denomination; whilst the making
of the material of which the coats and shoes
are manufactured does not. Hair-dressing is
another trade of the same character; and
there are others in which a preference is
sometimes given to particular manufacturers,
152 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
for which no other reason can perhaps be
assigned, than " it is my humour" to prefer
him to any other. Such is the fortunate
situation of sundry makers of musical instru-
ments, percussion guns, and a few other
articles, real superiority being, indeed, very
frequently the basis of their fame.
All persons, therefore, who, either as
masters or assistants, should find it their
advantage to separate themselves from the
Social Society, for the reasons that have been
given, would be paid in the same manner as
professional men. No money would be
created to pay them for their labours, because
the products thereof would never go into the
public stock. A, an agent for example, has
<£100 in money, and he is, therefore, a pro-
prietor of warehoused wealth to that amount.
B, a Joe Manton, or an Errard, sells him a
gun or a harp for the money. A, therefore,
assigns his warehoused wealth to B, by giving
him the money that represents it, in exchange
for his gun or harp.
Transfers of private property would take
place in the same way. C, an invalid, wishes
to reside in Italy. He sells off his household
furniture, and other valuables, by public
auction, as at present. No additional wealth
is, in this case, created, and no additional
PROFESSIONS. 153
money is therefore made. The buyers of C's
property pay him in checks upon the public
stock; he draws, we shall suppose, gold, and
yields up the said checks to the national
warehouseman, and they henceforth cease to
be money.
Thus, try the proposed new principle of
exchange in whatever way you will, it answers
with mathematical precision to the character
that has been given it; " Production the cause
"of demand." Transferring property does
not increase property. The annual issues of
the Bank, therefore, would not represent all
the business transactions of the country, but
only its productions and importations.
Tailors, shoemakers, and hairdressers,
however, as well as all other professional and
demi-professional men, would be gainers by
this system, in precisely the same ratio as
the other members of society; because the
moment their respective trades or occupations
should fail to meet with a remuneration equal
to the average price of common labour, they
would claim their birthright, employment
under the auspices of the national capital.
Under the head professions, there falls to
be noticed a subject which, at present, is a
source of infinite annoyance and ill feeling,—
the law of patents. That an individual who,
154 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
by devoting years of mental labour to a
pursuit, or by the merest chance, discovers
something, by means of which society may
be benefited, is entitled to a suitable reward,
is what few persons, perhaps, will deny. The
present law of patents, however, is neither
well calculated to insure merit its reward,
nor to do justice to inventors; for, it often
happens, that, after a really meritorious and
ingenious man has spent many years of his
life, and consumed his means, in the attain-
ment of an object, for which he takes out a
patent, the patent itself expires before he has
gained a sixpence by his ingenuity. Then,
perhaps, some one else, by improving upon
the invention, not merely reaps the reward
which, in strict justice, would more properly
have been received by the original inventor,
but, what is still worse, absolutely prevents
the inventor himself from improving his own
work, by taking out a new patent over his
head for some one part, which, however
insignificant the merit of its invention may
be, as compared with the original, may,
nevertheless, be so essential to excellence,
that to make a machine without it capable of
competing with one which has it, may be
quite impossible.
In the margin of my manuscript, I find
PROFESSIONS. 155
written by a friend, "This is a small matter,
"in considering so extensive a system. In
"place of patents in the Social Society, would
« it not be better to give the public the
« benefit of any improvement, and to reward
"the improver by money?" The difficulty
is to give the real value of the invention.
Ninety-nine hundredths of inventions are
failures; but every now and then there is a
hit, and the difficulty is to distinguish the
prize from the blanks. The experience of the
inventors does this at present. There are, no
doubt, very serious obstacles in the way of
granting patents in such a manner as to do
justice to all parties, and it is for those who
have fully considered the subject to determine
the best means of reconciling contending
interests; the object of mentioning the subject
here being merely to shew in what manner
the law of patents, as it at present stands, is
reconcileable with the principles of the Social
System.
The making of every kind of machinery
which is established as useful, and which is
not patent, may be carried on, under the
Social System, upon precisely the same plan
as every other kind of productive industry;
and patentees may either employ the asso-
ciated engineers, being themselves, most
156 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
likely, of the number, to make their machines
in the usual way, merely engaging to take
them out of the public stock as fast as they
are made to order, at the usual price of
material, wages, and per centage, and then
sell them at whatever price they can get; or
else they may set up manufactories of their
own, upon the demi-professional plan already
described. But, excepting in cases where
profound secrecy should be required, the
latter plan could almost never be followed
with advantage; because, from the immensely
extensive scale on which the associated
manufactories would be conducted, labour
would be so very extensively divided and com-
bined in them, that it would require a factory,
consisting rather of a town than of a compara-
tively few persons, to compete with them.
It is, therefore, probable, that no additional
advantage could ever be gained by manufac-
turing any article out of the usual routine of
the commercial association.
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 157
CHAPTER IX.
Review of Society — Probable consequences of the Social System —
Map of Society — General review of the employments of mankind,
and of the manner in which the wrealth of the country is now dis-
tributed.
It is here desirable to keep in mind the
distinction between cause and effect. No
objection is, in this book, offered to the
commercial institutions of society, merely
because they are institutions; but they are
objected to solely on the ground of their
total unfitness for the purpose for which
they are intended; the evidence of which is,
that, although it is their express object to do
so, they do not supply mankind in general
with the necessaries and comforts of life,
leaving them, at the same time, leisure for
the employment and gratification of their
physical, moral, and intellectual powers. The
public adoption, however, of the principle of
exchange that is advocated throughout this
158 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
volume, like the introduction of a new process
in manufactures, would supersede much that
at present exists, and give a new aspect to
the appearance of things altogether. The
alterations in society, therefore, to be pre-
sently mentioned, are not essential to, but
they would not improbably be the conse-
quence of, adopting an improved method of
buying and selling.
This distinction should be constantly kept
in mind, because if it were necessary to
persuade some men to give up certain trades
and occupations, that others might be esta-
blished in their stead, all improvement would
soon be at a stand still. In practice, however,
this is not the case, for, whenever a new
principle is introduced, by which certain
occupations are rendered nugatory, as, for
instance, in the case of tax gathering, when a
tax is taken off, they must be given up,
whether their followers like it or no: the
demand for them ceases, and they then die
the natural death of inutility.
In the statistical work of Mr Colquhoun,
on the Wealth and Resources of the British
Empire, there is an attempt to shew in what
proportions the produce of the country is
distributed amongst the various classes of
society: the table here alluded to is dated so
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 159
far back as 1812, but as the principles of
society are essentially the same now as they
were then, the general plan of distribution
cannot be very different. From one of Mr
Colquhoun's tables, therefore, I have con-
structed another, with the view of bringing
under notice, with reference to the principle
of domestic free trade, the various existing
classes of society. The table, of which the
following is in part a copy, is most appro-
priately designated by Mr Colquhoun, "A
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166 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
If we look at the foregoing table, giving it
the credit of bearing some resemblance to a
true representation of the manner in which
the wealth of the country is now disposed of,
the cause of existing trouble and distress can
be no great mystery. Reduce the millions
to units: here is a family of seventeen persons,
having an income amongst them of £430;
nine of the family are productively employed,
and eight are employed unproductively, or
not employed at all; and, moreover, the
annual allowance to the eight who are com-
paratively idle is £330, whilst those by whose
labour the whole family is supported receive
but £100.
The real evil of the commercial society is
its absurd system of exchange, which first
keeps down the produce of the country to
but a fraction of the quantity of what,
unshackled, it would become; and then it
absolutely draws no less a sum than fifty-six
millions annually into its own insatiable
vortex. See numbers 27, 28, 34, and 35, in
the foregoing table. Let us seriously ask
ourselves, what it is that constitutes wealth,
who it is that produces it, and by whom it
is consumed? and these questions being
answered, let us ask again, whether it be not
possible for us to produce a little more, and
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 167
for some parties, who are at present not idle,
but useless, to give a helping hand towards the
production of that which they consume?
The chief object of the foregoing table, is
to shew in what manner the produce of the
country is now distributed. There is a much
Greater difference in the incomes of the diffe-
rent classes than is there seen at first sight,
owing to the difference in the number of
persons in the families of each class. For
example, it appears that the income of each
individual in the productive classes, was <£ll,
in the year 1812, and the income of each
individual in the royal family, only <£2920.
In the former instance, however, the average
number of persons in each family may be
about four and a quarter; in the latter, about
fifty, the domestics being included: conse-
quently, in the former instance, an income
of about <£47 may be at the disposal of the
head of a family; and, in the latter instance,
an income of .£146,000: in this case, the
one income is about three hundred times as
large as the other. But there is much less
difference, in this respect, when we leave the
higher classes: the averaged number of per-
sons in each family is estimated among the
nobility at twenty-five; among the bishops
and baronets at about fifteen; among the
168 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
knights and squires at about ten; and after
this, it appears to vary from four to six.
It will be observed, that, in the foregoing
table, those persons only are denominated
productive members of society, who con-
tribute, with their own hands, to the increase
of tangible and exchangeable wealth: and this
is the true way of treating the subject. The
labour of mind, that is, the labour of con-
trivance, of direction, and of superintendence,,
as well as that of distribution, are as necessary
to the well being of society as the labour of
the body; but there is this difference between
them, namely, that kind of labour, of which
tangible wealth is the immediate result, can
never be superabundant, so long as we have
the material for it to work upon, and the
capital wherewith it requires to be assisted;
whereas, of mental labour, we require only a
sufficient quantity to govern, direct, and super-
intend the labour of the hands, and all above
this quantity has merely the effect of creating
a struggle for the work to be done, without
adding one atom to the quantity performed.
It is not by increasing the number of archi-
tects, for example, that houses are made to
spring up, or by increasing the number of
shopkeepers that goods are manufactured:
it is by calling into operation, in both cases,.
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 169
the men who work up, with their own hands,
the respective materials into the desired form,
that additional wealth is produced.
It is, therefore, the interest of every com-
mercial society to keep down to the lowest
sufficient number, every class of non-producers,
and to increase to the utmost all producers,
for whom useful employment can be devised.
The salary of a prime minister, and the
income of a pedlar, are alike a tax upon the
productive classes, and the only effect of
making a distinction between them, in con-
sidering the aggregate interest of a nation, is
to destroy the judgment, and to throw the
inquirer into the causes of human trouble
upon a wrong scent.
Employ mankind: and, that men may ever
be able to employ each other, let them
establish freedom of exchange; let them
habitually devote a portion of their labour to
the increase of capital; and let them give to
those that are employed the whole produce
of their industry, deducting only that portion
of it which it must ever be necessary to
take from them, for the purpose of remu-
nerating' such a number of unproductive
members of society, as may be more advan-
tageously employed with their heads than
with their hands. This, and this only? is the
170 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
reform that can confer substantial benefit
upon society; this, and this only, is the rock
on which human institutions can ever be
erected with any chance of being able to
brave the tempest and withstand the storm;
and upon this basis, sooner or later, they
must inevitably rest, unless the innate desire
to improve his condition can be eradicated
from the heart of man. Other reforms may
do good; parliamentary reform will do much
good; it will do some justice, and, moreover,
it will prepare the way for other and greater
reformations. The education of the lower
classes is doing much good; it is preparing
their minds to understand their real situation,
their real importance, their irresistible power.
But these are but the steps to improvement;
they are but processes in the manufacture of
the material of that garment in which society
will yet be splendidly arrayed; the whole
process, however, is already far advanced,
and almost as suddenly as the cloth is changed
into the robe, may the existing materials of
trade, commerce, and manufactures, be, at
any time, converted into the means of national
prosperity and happiness.
I shall now briefly notice the various classes
of society, as distinguished in the foregoing
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 171
table, with reference to the principle of
domestic free trade.
Numbers 1,2, and 3. —The King, and others
of the Royal Family, would be so far benefited
by the establishment of the Social System,
that they would have the satisfaction of seeing
their subjects and fellow creatures amply
provided for.
Numbers 4, 6,7, and 8,—Nobility, Gentry,
Knights, Esquires, Ladies, and Gentlemen.
The incomes of this class are derived, for the
most part, from the rent of land, and interest
of money; and liberally may they continue
to be remunerated for the use of both under
the Social System. The day may come,
however, and I believe that it will come, when
the business of every nation will be conducted
upon the basis of a national capital, in which
case but little rent or interest would be attain-
able.
Numbers 9, and 10,— State and Revenue,
persons in civil offices, various. The business
of a great number of the civil offices would
be altogether superseded by the establishment
of domestic free trade,—that of tax-gatherers
and custom-house officers, for example.
Numbers 11, and 12,—Army. It is pre-
sumed that no man who looks at the present
state of Europe, and who values the safety
172 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
of this country, can be anxious to see the
British army reduced at the present period.
Improve the condition of mankind universally
by the establishment of free trade, in the
most comprehensive sense of the term, and
fighting will die a natural death in its own
good time.
Numbers 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17,—Navy,
Half-pay, Pensioners, &c. The foregoing
observation applies also to these.
Numbers 5, 18, and 19,—Bishops and
other Clergymen. When a free system of
exchange shall have provided for the body,
the clergy will get on much better than they
do at present in providing for the soul: the
property of the church need not be interfered
with in the smallest degree by the establish-
ment of the Social System. The condition,
however, of its poorer members would be
greatly improved by the change; there would
be no more <£40 a-year curacies, for no man
would be induced to enter the church, pro-
fessionally, for a less remuneration than the
average price of common labour, which could
not, I conceive, be of less value than is now
obtainable for ,£200 a-year. In mentioning
this sum as a minimum, I have neither
indulged in vague and unsupported conjec-
ture on the one hand, nor am I supported by
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 173
any very accurate knowledge on the other.
There are, unfortunately, no documents exist-
ing from which any definite opinion can be
formed upon this subject; but if the fact be
disputed, I think I am prepared to bring
forward good evidence that the present value
of <£200 a-year, in the necessaries, conveni-
ences, and comforts of life, would be the
lowest remuneration that the average of the
labouring classes would receive under this
system. To enter upon the subject fully would
require a lengthy digression, and I decline
doing so because it is not essential to the
main subject, the wages of labour having been
all along defined to be the remit of labour,
subject to the smallest sufficient deduction for
the support of the unproductive classes. It
is evident that the wages of labour never can
be more than is here defined, and it is as
certain that they never ought to be less.
Number 20. — Judges, Barristers, Attor-
neys, Clerks, &c. Income £7,600,000. Under
the proposed system of domestic free trade,
there would neither be debtor nor creditor,
and no man could become a rogue from
necessity: how much the practice of the
lawyers would be increased or diminished by
these changes, every one may conjecture for
himself
174 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
Number 21,—Physicians, Surgeons, Apo-
thecaries, &c. Prosperity and ease,—upon
the invariable condition, however, of moderate
exertion,—would not perhaps be very much
calculated to increase this class of the com-
munity.
Number .22,—Artists. The increase of
demand for works of art, under the Social
System, would be altogether incalculable:
the demand for the pleasures and recreations
of life would invariably increase as fast as the
more urgent wants of mankind should come
to be supplied.
Numbers 23, 24, and 25,—Freeholders
and Farmers. Under the free system of
exchange, persons of this description would
fall into the rank of accredited agents, and
their situation in life would be greatly im-
proved by the change.
Number 26,—Labourers in Agriculture,
Mines, &c. will be noticed last.
Numbers 27, and 28,—Eminent Merchants,
Bankers, Brokers, &c. The members of the
Chamber of Commerce should, for the most
part, be elected from amongst this class of
the community.
Numbers 29,30, and 31,—Persons employ-
ing professional skill and capital, as Engineers,
Surveyors, Master builders of Houses, Ships,
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 175
&c. Fit persons these for accredited agents,
but far too numerous, as also are the last
mentioned.
Number 32,—Aquatic labourers in the Mer-
chants' service, Fisheries, Rivers, Canals, &c.
The employment of these persons would
remain the same, but, under the Social System,
they would be much better remunerated than
they are at present.
Numbers 33, to 39, inclusive,—Manufac-
turers, Warehousemen, Shopkeepers, Clerks,
Shopmen, &c. A much smaller number of
these persons would be very desirable: some
would become agents, whilst others would be
elevated to the rank of producers under the
Social System.
Number 40,—Artisans, Handicrafts, Mecha-
nics, and Labourers, to be noticed last, with
number 26.
Number 41,—Hawkers, and Pedlars. These
men are productive only of mischief, and are
of no use on earth.
Numbers 42, to 45, inclusive,—Persons
employed in Universities and Schools, Dis-
senting Clergymen, and Players. These
occupations are all professional: see the
Chapter on Professions.
Numbers46, and 47,—Relating to Lunatics.
The Social System proposes to provide for
176 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
lunatics, at the expense of the nation: see the
fourth item of national charges, page 115.
Number 48,—Persons confined in prisons
for debt. This is a curious specimen of the
present system, which first puts it into the
power of 17,500 individuals to get into debt,
and then puts them into prison to prevent
the possibility of their getting out of debt
Although the Social System acknowledges
no such character as either debtor or creditor,
every advantage, capable of being derived
from the most comprehensive system of credit
ever devised, would be secured by it.
Number 49,—Vagrants, Gipsies, Rogues,
Vagabonds, Thieves, Swindlers, Coiners of
Base Money, and common Prostitutes, number
308,741. Education and profitable employ-
ment are the only effectual remedies that can
ever be applied to these national maladies.
Number 50. A nondescript class this : see
the index to the foregoing table, page 161.
Number 51. Paupers,—The existence of
unmerited pauperism, in a country which is
constantly complaining of over-production, is
a libel upon common sense.
Numbers 26 and 40,—Labouring People.
The condition of the productive classes would
be so greatly improved by the establishment
of a free system of exchange, that a true
REVIEW OF SOCIETY. 177
picture of the alteration would only be looked
upon as " fancy's sketch/' by any person but
superficially acquainted with our present
enormous facility of production. Our text
is commercial freedom: establish this, and
demand will ever keep pace with production.
Measure our resources they who can—it is
not possible, indeed, to measure them with
any accuracy; but, freedom of exchange
being established, it may be safely asserted,
that to supply mankind abundantly with the
necessaries and comforts of life, would be a
task as easy as to pump water from a never-
failing spring: yet could there never be any
thing so absurd as over production, and
neither could a market be sought in vain, for
the space of a single hour, for any article that
should ever be produced in accordance with
the principles of the Social System.
M
178 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER X.
Population — Theory of Mr Mai thus — It is opposed to the plainest
dictates of Nature — It is contradicted by the evidence to which Mr
Malthus appeals for its support — The assumed facts on which it is
founded, are unreal — Even if it were true, it would be an additional
argument for the establishment of the Social System — Theory of
Mr Sadler—Some of his tables quoted—Effect of inequality in
the ages of parents on the sexes of their children—Animals are
subject to the same law — Emigration.
And how, says the disciple of Mr Malthus,
will your general principle, as laid down in a
former chapter, that a law of nature never
can be wrong, be reconciled with the best
established theory of population? And here
I must premise, that I throw this difficulty
in my own way, merely for the sake of
removing it. The purpose with which I set
out, has nothing to do with any theories of
population: it has to do with what will cause
men of all denominations to be better sup-
plied than they now are with the means of
enjoying life ; and if it is to be held as a valid
POPULATION. 179
argument against all improvement in this
particular, that it will increase population
too rapidly, why then let legislators take a
holiday just now, for all things must be
prospering to their heart's content.
There are few theories, perhaps, that have
been more abused, or more misrepresented,
than that of Mr Malthus: his proposal to
abolish the poor laws, is, in itself, a sufficient
text upon which to write a whole volume of
abuse; and the most unjust prejudices have
been excited against his theory, by the quo-
tation of selected passages from the Essay on
Population. The only edition of that work
which I have ever read, is the sixth, and the
sum and substance of what Mr Malthus says
upon the subject of the poor laws in that
edition, is,—let us cease to attempt to do that
which we cannot do effectually, because the
attempt itself produces ten times more misery
than it removes; and however much the
philanthropist may differ from Mr Malthus,
as to what are the best means of removing
pauperism, the object of both is precisely
the same.
I am not, however, a disciple of Mr
Malthus; I disagree with him entirely, and
shall proceed to state, as concisely as possible,
niy reasons for entertaining an opinion
180 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
widely different from his upon the subject of
population. The doctrine he teaches is, that
population has a tendency to increase, as
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256.
and subsistence, as
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Supposing, therefore, that we are now at
one, both as respects population and subsis-
tence, and that, as supposed by Mr Malthus,
twenty-five years are to elapse between the
respective changes in population and subsis-
tence, then, in two centuries, mankind would
require to divide the food of nine persons
amongst two hundred and fifty-six, provided
that population should proceed always in the
interim as rapidly as the absence of all checks
would allow it. I believe this doctrine to be
founded in error, for three distinct reasons,
which shall now be stated.
First, It is opposed to the plainest dictates
of nature.
In one sense, whatever is, is natural
Virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance,
good and evil, are all and equally the result
of nature; and whatever may be the condi-
tion of mankind, that condition is as clearly
the natural fruit of the inherent qualities
of human beings, and of the external cir-
POPULATION. 181
cumstances by which they are surrounded,
as is the apple, the peach, or the plum, the
natural fruit of its respective tree.
But there is this difference between the
two cases: nature appears to say to man, So
much will I do for you, and so much will I
do through you. The form, the sex, and the
structure of the body, for example, are ren-
dered what they are by nature: the bones,
the flesh, the joints, the veins, the muscles,
and the nerves, are all formed for us by a
superior power, and we cannot alter any of
them. Again, our natural exigencies are
equally above our control; we cannot come
into the world without them, or alter them
after we are in it. But, on the other hand,
our wants are supplied almost entirely by our
own instrumentality, and so imperative is
nature in this particular, that she positively
refuses to continue our existence upon any
other condition than that of habitual industry.
In the case before vis, then, nature acts
alone in conferring the desires which lead to
the increase of the species, and through the
instrumentality of man himself in supplying
him with the means of supporting a family.
The difficulty of supporting a family, then,
being admitted, the question that remains is,
whether it be nature or humanity that is at
182 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
fault? I say it is humanity—that nature
does nothing in vain; and that, if she had
not intended the universality of marriage, she
could not, without a direct violation of her
own laws, have given universally the sexual
desires.
But, let us inquire a little into the pro-
ceedings of nature in other matters wherein
she acts for man, but independently of his
assistance. Look at the structure of the
human body: Is it incomplete, unfinished,
and imperfect? or are not rather the various
parts so admirably constructed and adapted
to each other, as to form a whole incompre-
hensibly complicated and beautiful? Nature
gives us light and air; she causes the sun to
invigorate the earth, and the seed that is
scattered upon its surface to spring up in
renewed and multiplied quantities: and in all
cases wherein she operates for man, but
without the aid of man, she has been liberal
to profusion. If, then, whenever she acts
alone, she does more than is sufficient, it is
at least very improbable that she should fail
to do her part, in those cases wherein a part
is all she undertakes to perform.
Instead, then, of accusing Nature, let us
rather take the acknowledged difficulty of
supporting a family as presumptive evidence
POPULATION. 183
that something is wanting on our own part:
let us bear in mind, that, although the sun
will ripen our crops, it will neither till the
land appropriated to their growth, nor sow
the seed from whence they are made to spring:
and, in the case before us, let us in like
manner rather suspect the wisdom of man
than arraign the munificence of God; for it
is at least a fair presumption, that the cause
of the evil is as likely to be found in our
own neglect of using the means that are
naturally within our reach, as in the decree
of Heaven.
Mr Malthus, indeed, strives to make it
appear, that the doctrine he advocates is not
unnatural, and at page 259, vol. ii,—I quote
in every instance from the sixth edition,—he
says, " This law," that is, the law of popula-
tion, " she [Nature] has declared in the same
"manner as she declares that intemperance
"in eating and drinking will be followed
"by ill health; and that, however grateful
"it may be to us at the moment to indulge
"this propensity to excess, such indulgence
"will ultimately produce unhappiness. It
"is as much a law of nature that repletion is
"bad for the human frame, as that eating and
"drinking, unattended with this consequence,
"are good for it. An implicit obedience
184 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"to the impulses of our natural passions
"would lead us into the wildest and most
"fatal extravagances; and yet we have
"the strongest reasons for believing that
"all these passions are so necessary to our
"being, that they could not be generally
"weakened, or diminished, without injuring
"our happiness."
Plausible enough all this at first sight; but,
alas! how futile is the attempt to establish
an analogy between eating and drinking to
excess, and the moderate indulgence, by every
man, of those passions which lead to the
increase of the species! Does temperance
consist in one half of mankind abstaining
altogether from the use of food? or is it true,
that an implicit obedience to the impulses
of our natural appetite for food would lead
us to the immoderate, and, consequently,
injurious, use of it? So far from there being
any analogy between the two cases, nature
requires that every man do eat; and, so far
from "implicit obedience" constituting excess,
it may be safely asserted, that the exact
quantity of food that we can habitually take
with most pleasure to ourselves^ is the precise
quantity which is best for us.
If, then, temperance is the word, in what
manner is it to be practised I In total
POPULATION.
185
abstinence? This is not temperance, but
starvation! In moderate indulgence? This
very moderation, Mr Mai thus has not to be
iold, is the best method by which to insure a
numerous and healthy offspring. No! Mr
Malthus must scratch the word nature out
of his vocabulary, for it is in vain that he
attempts to reconcile with nature's dictates
that theory which withholds from any son
or daughter of Adam the sacred pleasures of
marriage; and it most unfortunately happens
for the argument just quoted, that the punish-
ment which nature inflicts upon those who,
by intemperance, repletion, excess, disobey
her dictates in the matter before us, is not
an extra dozen or so of vigorous and healthy
children, but a puny and unhealthy offspring,
or else no offspring at all..
The dilemma in which Mr Malthus finds
himself whenever he attempts to reconcile
his theory with the dictates of nature, is most
remarkable. No man, indeed, appears to be
more alive than himself to the desirable-
ness of the married state. " Of the happiness,"
he says, at page 261, "spread over human
"life by this passion, very few are unconscious.
"Virtuous love, exalted by friendship, seems
"to be that sort of mixture of sensual and
"intellectual enjoyment particularly suited
186 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"to the nature of man, and most powerfully
"calculated to awaken the sympathies of the
"soul, and produce the most exquisite gratifi-
"cations. Perhaps there is scarcely a man who
"has once experienced the genuine delight
"of virtuous love, however great his intel-
"lectual pleasures may have been, who does
"not look back to that period as the sunny
"spot of his whole life, where his imagina-
"tion loves most to bask—which he recollects
"and contemplates with the fondest regret—
"and which he would wish to live over
"again." And, again, at page 262, "The
"evening meal, the warm house, and the
"comfortable fireside, would lose half their
"interest, if we were to exclude the idea
"of some object of affection, with whom
"they were to be shared. We have also
"great reason to believe, that the passion
"between the sexes has the most powerful
"tendency to soften and meliorate the human
"character, and keep it more alive to all
"the kindlier emotions of benevolence and
"pity."
All attempts, however, to reconcile the
sentiments here so beautifully expressed with
the iron theory of population, as propounded
by Mr Malthus, must, it is evident, be for
ever futile, and in his own book they are
POPULATION. 187
most conspicuously so. At page 266 he says,
« We cannot but conceive that it is an object
"of the Creator that the earth should be
4 replenished, and it appears to me clear, that
"this could not be effected without a tendency
"in population to increase faster than food;
"and as with the present law of increase the
"peopling of the earth does not proceed very
"rapidly, we have undoubtedly some reason
"to believe that this law is not too powerful
"for its apparent object." And again, at
page 267, " If these two tendencies [that is,
"the tendencies in food and population to
"increase] were exactly balanced, I do not
"see what motive there would be sufficiently
"strong to overcome the acknowledged in-
"dolence of man, and make him proceed in
u the cultivation of the soil. The population
u of any large territory, however fertile,
"would be as likely to stop at five hundred
u or five thousand as at five millions or fifty
u millions."
How fallacious is this reasoning! If the
tendency of population be to increase rapidly,
and the tendency of food to increase as
rapidly, by what miracle is the population of
a fertile territory to stop at five hundred?
This is just a question of figures. If 1 a have
a tendency to become 2 a within a given
188 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
time, provided, and only provided, that 1 b
has a tendency to become 2 b within the
same time, how, in the name of common
sense, is the progress of 1 a to be accelerated
by the tardiness of 1 b? or if both a and b
have a tendency to increase in the same
ratio, and that at a very rapid rate, by what
miracle are neither of them to increase at
all? Mr Malthas says in effect this,—Couple
the greyhound to the sloth, and they will get
on much faster than a couple of greyhounds
of equal fleetness, placed side by side, and
started after the same hare.
At page 275, another attempt is made to
reconcile the theory with nature, or rather,
perhaps, I should say, to reconcile nature
with the theory. "A young woman without
"fortune, when she has passed her twenty-fifth
"year, begins to fear, and with reason, that
"she may lead a life of celibacy, and, with a
"heart capable of forming a strong attach-
<c ment, feels, as each year creeps on, her hopes
"of finding an object on which to rest her
"affections gradually diminishing, and the
"uneasiness of her situation aggravated by
"the silly and unjust prejudices of the world.
"If the general age of marriage among women
"were later, the period of youth and hope
« would be prolonged, and fewer would be
POPULATION. 189
« ultimately disappointed. That a change
"of this kind would be a most decided
"advantage to the more virtuous half of
"society, we cannot for a moment doubt."
Silly and unjust prejudices! Take it in a
variety of ways. At what period has a
woman the most attractions for a man?
Answer, Before five-and-twenty. Are early
or late marriages generally productive of most
happiness? Answer, Early. Does the expe-
rience of the world prove that long court-
ships, say seven years or so, are desirable?
Answer, No. Are late, or moderately early,
marriages — say before twenty-five — most
conducive to the permanent health of the
female? Answer, Early. Will early or late
marriages produce the most orphans? An-
swer, Late. Upon these grounds, then, it is
not doubted, but denied, that " a change
"of this kind would be a most decided
"advantage:" it would be exactly the
reverse.
There is an old maxim which says, Eat
when you are hungry, and drink when you
thirst; and I much question whether we can
find a better criterion of the proper age of
marriage than by referring to those examples
where pecuniary considerations may be sup-
posed to have the least influence. Marriages,
190 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
then, in these cases, according to the registers
of the peerage, are most frequent at from
eighteen to twenty-one on the part of the
females, and from twenty-two to twenty-five
on the part of the men: that is, in this
country. But in warmer climates, where
"the charms and beauties of the female sex
"are developed long before they put forth
"their blossoms in northern regions," the
women "become mothers at an age which,
"in England, is considered little more than
"that of childhood." Look at the case,
therefore, in whatever light you please, it
must be confessed, however reluctantly on
the part of Mr Malthus, that the doctrine he
teaches can never be supported by an appeal
to the dictates of nature.
Secondly, The doctrine of Mr Malthus is
flatly contradicted by that very evidence to
which he himself appeals in his endeavours
to establish its truth, — I mean the evidence
of animated life. Mr Malthus asserts, that
there is a "constant tendencv in all animated
"life to increase beyond the nourishment
"prepared for it."
Now, so far from this being really the case,
there is not a single fact in nature more
conspicuously observable, than that the
numbers of birds, beasts, and fishes, in a
POPULATION. 191
state of nature, have no tendency zvhatever to
increase beyond the nourishment prepared
for them. This has been shewn in a most
masterly manner, by Mr Sadler, in that part
of his work [Law of Population,) which is
entitled, "A Dissertation upon the Balance
"of the Food, and Numbers of Animated
"Nature;" the pith of his argument being,
that if A B C and D form food for each other;
that is, if B be the food of A, C the food of B,
and D the food of C, the smallest miscalcu-
lation on the part of nature would have the
inevitable effect of destroying the existence of
the whole. If A, for example, should eat up
the whole of B, it is evident that C would
increase beyond all bounds, and that D
would henceforward be exterminated, as a
necessary consequence of the enormous in-
crease of C; that C would then starve, and
that B and A must necessarily follow in
the same course.
If it were really true, that there is a con-
stant tendency in all animated life to increase
beyond the nourishment prepared for it,
(and, by the way, there is not so much as
one word offered in evidence of the truth
of this assertion throughout the whole two
volumes of the Essay on Population,) it fol-
lows, as a matter of course, that all animated
192 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
nature must be in a constant state of demi-
starvation. If, for instance, the lack of food
limits the number of herrings, it is certain
that herrings, like the Irish cottagers, must
be insufficiently fed; inasmuch as poverty,
even in the sea, must precede want. The
average of herrings, therefore, must, as a
necessary consequence, be very poor: but
they are no such thing; and therefore it is
clear, that herrings have no tendency to in-
crease faster than the nourishment prepared
for them.
Again, if there be a constant tendency in
all animated life to increase beyond the
nourishment prepared for it, how comes it
that some kinds of birds, which live upon a
certain kind of food, are infinitely more
numerous than others that subsist upon the
same kind of food? If food is the limit of
numbers, how comes it that there are a thou-
sand sparrows for a single finch, a thousand
rooks for a single daw, a million of swallows
for a single flycatcher? These questions, as
it appears to me, can only be satisfactorily
answered, by allowing that the numbers of
every bird, beast, and fish, in a state of
nature, are regulated by an innate principle,
which principle has no more to do with room
or food than it has to do with Parliamentary
POPULATION. 193
Reform: and that nature does not proceed
upon the blundering, partial, and irrational
method of condemning one half of the species
to a state of celibacy, that the other half may
be prolific, is as obvious a fact as any in the
creation.
If, then, human beings have a tendency to
increase faster than the means of their subsis-
tence, they form the single exception to an
otherwise universal rule to the contrary; for,
so far from numbers being regulated by food,
all the animate world, save man, is tolerably
plump and fat; and birds, beasts, and fishes,
living upon the same kind of food, do not
increase in an equal degree, but continue to
maintain something like a permanent propor-
tion to each other, some being very numerous,
whilst others are very scarce. Still, if we
observe any one kind of bird or beast, it
appears, equally with man, to have a ten-
dency to increase. Reasoning from analogy,
therefore, we must come to the conclusion,
that as the rest of the animate creation does
not increase in disproportion to the food
prepared for it, the presumption is, that, in
the nature of man, there is also a principle
by which his numbers will ever be regulated
in due proportion to the room that is pre-
pared for him, and to the food that he is
N
194 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
naturally capable of preparing for himself;
that the desire of marriage being universally
natural, to marry must be universally right;
and that the multitudes of volumes that
have been circulated upon the subject of
checks, have all been written without any
reference to the fact, that, in the present state
of society, there is no tendency in demand
to keep pace with production; or, in other
words, that mankind have never yet exerted
the poxver which they naturally possess, of
supplying themselves with the necessaries,
conveniencies, and comforts of life.
It is an established truth, that Nature
punishes our ignorances: if an idiot put his
hand into the fire, it will not burn him the
less because he is an idiot; and if society
have, to this hour, conducted its exchanges
upon an idiotic principle, it is in strict
analogy with the proceedings of nature in
every other respect, that society is not
punished the less for its folly, because it
does not happen to know that the principle
on which its exchanges are conducted is
idiotic*
Thirdlyj The assumed facts upon which
Mr Malthus's theory of population is founded
are unreal.
It would lead to an endless inquiry to
POPULATION. 195
ascertain at what rate population increases
under the most favourable circumstances ; but
the rate at which Mr Malthus has affirmed
that food increases, is purely ideal, and as
void of truth and rationality as the most
improbable tale in the Thousand and One
Nights. The quantity of food, like the quan-
tity of every thing else that is produced,
depends upon the effectual demand for it
make production the cause of demand, and
the delusion will vanish instantly.
A market! a market! is the everlasting cry
from one end of Europe to the other; we
have subsistence in plenty, and nobody can
be found to buy it fast enough. The markets
of society are at present as amply supplied
with food as they are with other commodities;
and were it otherwise for but a single month,
additional capital would rush into those
employments by which food is produced.
Effectual demand—a term properly defined,
by the political economists, to mean the
desire to possess any thing, combined with
the ability to give an equivalent for it—is
the only thing wanting to cause houses to be
built, clothes to be manufactured, and food to
be produced in quantities without any known
or comprehensible limit. At the present
time, there is a superabundance of food in
196 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the market; those who have it not, have no
money to offer for it; and therefore it is not
the want of food itself, but the want of pro-
fitable employment, that causes the hungry
to be unfed.
For centuries yet to come, there can be
no deficiency of food. In the sea alone, we
have an inexhaustible resource for its pro-
duction; and the liking for fish, it is well
known, uniformly increases as society rises in
refinement. And if we look forward to far
distant ages, who shall pretend to determine
the resources of mankind? No maxim is
more true than that necessity is the mother
of invention. What is food? Matter brought
into a certain state of modification. What is
the peculiar, the most wonderful quality of
matter? It is its indestructibility. We may
change its shape; we may convert it alter-
nately into earth, and air, and water; but we
can only change its shape, for we cannot
consume it, or decrease its absolute quantity,
to the amount of a single grain.
It is very remarkable, that the theory of Mr
Ma]thus should have gained ground to the
extent that it has done in the face of the fact,
that the existing policy of almost all nations
is to throw every difficulty in the way of
importation, and to afford facilities to expor-
POPULATION. 197
tation; the one being habitually impeded by
the imposition of duties, whilst the other is
encouraged by the granting of bounties.
The means of subsistence have no innate
tendency to increase at all; they are capable
of being increased by the application of
human labour, and with what rapidity, de-
pends upon the due admixture of the four
ingredients that constitute wealth,—land,
labour, capital, and freedom of exchange.
Of land, there never can be any want, upon
the principles of the Social System, until the
whole habitable globe is brought into a s*ate
of high cultivation; of labourers, it is not
very likely that a deficiency will ever arise
from a superabundant population; of capital
sufficient to employ mankind, we are equally
secure, for capital is merely the accumulated
produce of anterior labour, and the universal
complaint is the want of a sufficient market
for the disposal of the produce of labour;
by which it is elearty implied, that capital is
capable of being created in superabundance
—and so it is. Of the fourth ingredient,
freedom of exchange, it is needless to reiterate
the demonstration which has so frequently
been given respecting it in these pages.
The whole science of political economy,
198 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
or "how to make wealth/' may be reduced
to a simple receipt,—to one as plain as any
in The Cook's Oracle. Thus, — Take due
portions of land, labour, and capital, pound
them well up together in a mortar, and the
wealth is made. Note,— Capital is made
of land and labour, so that your wealth never
need be of insufficient quantity, until you
have exhausted your stock of one of these
two ingredients, provided your mortar be not
too small.
The mortar is all that is wanted: at pre-
sent, we have no mortar. See to it, ye poli-
ticians and political economists; see to it,
ye reformers and philanthropists; see to it,
Brougham, Grey, Russell, Hume, O'Connell,
and others, who have already done so much
for the people's liberty; make one effort more
for the people's bread.
But it does not follow, because capital has
already accumulated to an extent sufficient to
enable us to produce marketable commodities
in superabundance, that there is any increased
facility in accumulating them. On the con-
trary, "capital is formed out of profit;" and
it is one of the anomalies arising out of the
present plan of exchange, that the more
easily we can create wealth, the more diffi-
POPULATION. 199
culty there is in accumulating it: and the
reason of this is, that the increase of capital
depends, not upon facility of production,
but upon the amount of profit attainable by
the sale of produce. The competition which
exists between rival manufacturers compels
them to sell their goods at a very small
profit, so small indeed, in a great majority of
cases, as barely to support their current ex-
penses, and to prevent the depreciation of
their capital. The operatives they employ
cannot accumulate capital, for a subsistence
is all they can ever get, whilst of operatives
there is a superabundance: and if we follow
the goods they make into the retail market,
we shall find the same principle exerting itself
with redoubled energy,—profits reduced to
the lowest possible fraction by the competi-
tion which exists between tradesman and
tradesman.
Capital can have no tendency to increase
rapidly whilst we continue to act upon these
principles; it can never keep pace with popu-
lation; and, indeed, it cannot, with any cer-
tainty, be secured from decreasing. But, that
capital may be made to increase as fast as
population, is sufficiently evident; for capital
is the result of saving, and a nation can afford
to save just so much as it can produce more
200 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
than it is necessary for it to consume. When-
ever, therefore, we put into operation a
rational system of exchange, by which our
productive resources may be emancipated
from their present bondage, there can be no
difficulty about the matter; for, at whrtever
rate population increases, capital may be
made to increase at the same rate, by
increasing or decreasing the per centage on
the sale of goods, in the manner that has
been formerly described.
The occurrence of an occasional famine is
no evidence whatever of the inability to pro-
duce food in superabundance. Food, like
every other marketable commodity, is pro-
duced in such quantities as are known by
previous experience to be sufficient to meet
the ordinary demand for it. But, if a crop
fail, an increased effort to produce more
cannot be made upon the instant to supply
the deficiency. Land is sufficiently culti-
vated in Ireland to produce enough of food
to meet the ordinary demand for it; but this
is no security against a famine, because the
ordinary portion of food left for the producers
is but just enough to support them j. and
whenever a crop fails, they cannot instantly
cultivate more land. Double the ordinary
demand, and the ordinary products will most
POPULATION. 201
assmedly be doubled too. What says Mr
M'Culloch?" A very small advance towards
"a better system of farming would enable
"Ireland to export five or six times the
« quantity of produce she now sends to us."
The Irish famines, therefore, are not the
result of inability to produce sufficient food,
uut they are the result of a sudden deficiency
of food in proportion to the ordinary demand,
or of a sudden excess of demand in proportion
to the ordinary supply.
And the same kind of famine visits occa-
sionally trade as well as agriculture. When,
for example, in 1817, the Princess Charlotte
died, the event being sudden and unexpected,
there was a famine in the black bombazine
trade: goods which sold usually at 2s. and
2s. 6d. a yard, rose in a day to 4s. and 5s.;
and why?—because there was no time to
manufacture more previous to the commence-
ment of the general mourning; but, if the
demand had been foreseen, there would not
have been any such scarcity; on the contrary,
there would, to a certainty, have been a
superabundance. Two kings and two queens
of England have died since that period, but
no such scarcity of mourning has ever existed
since, because the events were not so sudden,
nor so unexpected: the demand was fore-
202 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
seen, and when it came, an ample supply
was ready to meet it.
So it is with Ireland: if it should please
God to visit the Irish labourers with a vora-
cious appetite, so that they could not live, or
rather could not work with less than double the
quantity of food they get at present, the inevi-
table consequence would be, that more food
would be in ordinary demand, and more would
be produced. But as the ordinary supply would
still be but just enough to meet the ordinary
demand, and as enough to keep them, and no
more, would continue to be the ordinary
remuneration of the producers, they would
still be as liable to the visitation of a famine
as they are now. Or, reverse the case, and
suppose that God should be pleased to per-
form a miracle in favour of the Irish, by
acquitting them of the necessity of eating at
all, is it not as certain, as that a stone thrown
into the air will fall to the ground, that the
average rate of Irish wages would speedily
tall, by just so much as is now expended in
the purchase of potatoes and butter milk,
and that the labourers would neither be
better clothed, better lodged, nor better edu-
cated than they are at present?
Previously to taking leave of Mr Malthus,
and turning to another theory of population.
POPULATION. 203
to be presently noticed, let us, in supposition,
admit, for the sake of obtaining another view
of this subject, the truth of every thing Mr
Mai thus has written, as to the tendency of
population to increase faster than food. It
does not, then, I say, amount to the shadow
of an argument against the principles of the
Social System,—nay more, it furnishes an
additional argument, of a very powerful kind,
for their adoption.
Checks, then, we shall suppose, are neces-
sary; but where does the check prudential
operate with the greatest force? Amongst
the ignorant, the wretched, the half-starved?
Assuredly not: it has the least influence on
those who have most need of it, who have
nothing whatever to lose, whose station in
life is already so low, that it cannot sink still
lower. It has more influence a thousand
times amongst the clerks and warehousemen
of merchants and bankers in London, and
other great cities, than amongst the cabins
of the starving Irish. If, then, the world is
at this moment as full of people as it can
conveniently hold; and if it is, therefore,
the present interest of nations to put a full
stop to the farther increase of mankind,
then I submit, that there is no way in which
that object can be so readily carried into
204 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
effect, as by the establishment of a system
of universal freedom of exchange and un-
bounded liberality of education; and this
opinion is, I believe, in strict accordance
with that of Mr Mai thus himself
Mr Mai thus, indeed, objects to all systems
of equality, upon the ground of their wanting
those " stimulants to exertion which can
"alone overcome the natural indolence of
"man, and prompt him to the proper cul-
"tivation of the earth, and the fabrication
"of those conveniencies and comforts which
"are necessary to his happiness." The
Social System is not a system of equality;
its adoption would, no doubt, have the effect
of bringing about a state of society much
nearer to equality, than that which now
exists, because it would give an equal reward
for equal toil; but so far from withdrawing
the ordinary stimulus to exertion, it would
greatly increase it by imposing upon every
man the necessity of supporting himself and
his family, by the useful exertion of body or
mind in some way, whilst, at the same time,
it would allow of the most devoted attention
to professional and scientific pursuits.
There is one question, however, asked by
Mr Malthus, (vol. ii. p. 45,) to which, as the
advocate of a system having even a semblance
POPULATION. 205
to equality, I feel bound to give an answer.
It is this :—" But in any system of equality,
« either such as that proposed by Mr Owen,
« or in parochial partnerships in land, not
« only would there be no means of emi-
« orating to other parishes with any prospect
"of relief, but the rate of increase at first
« would, of course, be much greater than in
u the present state of society. What, then,
"I would ask, is to prevent the division of
"the produce of the soil to each individual,
"from becoming every year less and less,
u till the whole society, and every individual
"member of it, are pressed down by want
"and misery? This is a very simple and
"intelligible question; and, surely, no man
"ought to propose or support a system of
u equality, who is not able to give a rational
"answer to it, at least, in theory. But even
"in theory, I have never yet heard any thing
"approaching to a rational answer to it."
Here, then, I shall attempt to give an
answer to it, as simple, as intelligible, and as
rational as the question itself. A society of
men, no matter what number, have a quantity
of land, which produces yearly a certain
quantity of corn, which land the society
deputes a sufficient number of men to culti-
vate. The land being supposed to be the
206 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
property of the society, no rent is chargeable
upon it; the price of the corn will, therefore,
consist of the cost of the seed, the wages of
labour, the due maintenance of the quality
of the land itself, and the per centage before
spoken of; but as the corn is to be sold
only for money, which money can be ob-
tained only by putting into the public stock
some saleable commodity, which has cost as
much labour in its production as the corn
itself, not a loaf can ever be tasted by any
man, until he has bonajide given an equiva-
lent for it, which equivalent would be nearly
as effective in the purchasing of corn grown
upon land on the other side of the Atlantic,
as upon the land of the society itself. As,
therefore, as much labour must be given for
the corn, as the corn itself should cost,
directly and indirectly, in its production, the
importation of corn would always begin
when the equivalents offered for it should
be greater in number than the corresponding
portions of corn ready to be given in exchange
for them; or, in other words, whenever the
demand for corn should exceed the home
supply of it. Thus would "the division of
"the produce of the soil to each individual"
be prevented from decreasing in the smallest
degree, so far from becoming every year less
POPULATION, 207
and less. The equivalents offered for corn,
over and above the quantity of corn pro-
duced on the society lands, would constitute
the demand for foreign corn; and a due
portion of the labour of the society would
be forthwith employed in the production of
such commodities, as the importers of the
corn should be willing to accept in exchange
for it.
And this argument can only be met by
one of two extravagant suppositions: First,
that no foreign growers of corn would sell it
for any thing we could either produce, or
procure in exchange for any thing we could
produce: or, secondly, that the whole earth
should be in the same state of high cultiva-
tion. And this argument Mr Malthus must
not use; for he himself says, that " an event
"at such a distance, might fairly be left to
"Providence." That the establishment of
this system would lead to the very rapid
peopling and cultivation of the earth, I
admit at once; but here, again, I have an
advocate in Mr Malthus, who says, —" We
"cannot but conceive, that it is an object
"of the Creator, that the earth should be
"replenished."
My argument, however, stops not here, for
not only would each man's share of the pro-
208 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
duce of the soil, and of labour in general, not
become less as population should increase,
but it would constantly and habitually be-
come greater. That great magician of pro-
ductive science, the subdivision of labour,
would, under this system, for the first time,
exhibit the mightiness of his power; his
three wands, noticed in the chapter on pro-
duction,—the increased dexterity of the
workmen, the saving of time commonly lost
in the changing of employments, and the
invention and application of machinery,—
would now begin to be waved for the benefit
of mankind in general. The extent of the
market, by which the division of labour must
ever be limited, would increase with popu-
lation; and by the extended subdivision
of employment that would be consequent
thereon, the produce of each man's labour
would be increased; and the reward of
labour being its result, the portion falling to
the share of each individual would also be
increased in a corresponding degree.
There is, however, a distinction to be
made. There are some kinds of commodities
which are capable of being increased to an
almost indefinite extent by the application
of additional labour, whilst there are others
which cannot be so increased j the former,
POPULATION. 209
under the Social System, would become
almost as plentiful and as accessible as air
and water, whilst the latter would gradually
become scarcer and dearer. Food, in nearly
all its varieties, until the whole habitable
globe shall be cultivated, will continue to
belong to the first division; so also will most
articles of wearing apparel, and many of the
elegancies of life. Corn, cattle, and the
grape, for example, may be multiplied to an
almost indefinite extent, and so may the
principal materials of clothing, as wool,
cotton, hemp, hides, &c. Luxuries are in
an especial manner multipliable by human
labour. A pennyworth of raw cotton is con-
vertible into a lace veil, or dress, worth a
thousand times the sum. Paintings, again,
are of the same character, as also are musical
instruments, books, china, glass, and most
articles of domestic ornament.
Ivory is an example of the other kind: if
the whole habitable globe were under culti-
vation, the price of the ivory furnished by a
single elephant, supposing the rest of the
animal, alive or dead, to be of no value to
man, would be equal to the cost of all the
food and care bestowed upon it during life.
Ivory, therefore, would gradually rise in price,
as also would all other articles not multipli-
o
210 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
able otherwise than by the application of an
increased quantity of capital and labour.
Mr Malthus, however5 is not in the undis-
puted possession of the field, as respects the
other view of the subject of population,
namely, the law of increase. Mr Michael
Thomas Sadler has recently come forth with
a couple of volumes, containing upwards of
thirteen hundred closely printed pages, upon
the same subject. The theory he declares to
be the true one, is, that "the prolificness of
"human beings, otherwise similarly circum-
"stanced, varies inversely as their numbers;"
and, moreover, that "the prolificness of
"human beings, as thus regulated by the
"extent of the space they occupy, is further-
"more influenced by the quality of that
"space, or otherwise by its potential produce;
"so that the same number of marriages in a
"population occupying an equal surface, will,
"all other circumstances remaining equal, be
"less productive in mountainous than in
"champaign countries; and less in the frigid
"than in the temperate regions."
Startling and improbable as this theory
undoubtedly is at first sight, an enormous
mass of statistical evidence is adduced by Mr
Sadler in its support. It is certainly a very
extraordinary fact, if fact it be, that an equal
POPULATION. 211
number of married men and women, of equal
acre, health, and means, should have more
children, provided they reside in a situation
where there is but one inhabitant to an acre,
than if they should live in a situation where
there are two or three inhabitants to an acre.
Desirable it undoubtedly is, that the law of
increase should contain a self regulating
principle, such as is here described. I shall,
therefore, give a few of the results of Mr
Sadler's investigation, and the grounds on
which he says that the principle does exist.
The work itself, so far as it is published—
for there is another volume to come — is
illustrated by a hundred and four tables. Of
the theory, Mr Sadler says, " it is constructed
"not upon selected or garbled proofs, but
"upon the whole of the known facts bearing
"upon the subject; which facts also are of
"themselves of so unconnected and dissimilar
"a nature, that they would have contradicted
"each other, and have led infallibly to the
"most opposite conclusions as respects the
"principle at issue, had not that principle
"and its proofs been equally true."
212
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
A TABLE,
EXHIBITING THE COMPARATIVE PROLIFICNESS OF MARRIAGES, AS
REGULATED BY THE DENSITY OF THE POPULATION IN
THE COUNTRIES SPECIFIED, AND AT NEARLY
THE SAME PERIOD.
Inhabitants on
Children
Countries.
a square mile
to a 1
marriage» j
about
Cape of Good Hope, .
1
5-48
North America,
4
5-22
Russia in Europe, .
23
4-94
Denmark,
73
4*89
Prussia,
100
4-70
France,
140
4-22
England,
160
3-66
IN ENGLAND,
WHERE THERE ARE TO THE SQUARE MILE,
Number
The births to
Inhabitants.
of
Counties.
100 marriages
are
From 50 to 100
2
420
From 100 to 150
9
396
From 150 to 200
16
390
From 200 to 250
4
388
From 250 to 300
5
378
From 300 to 350
3
353
From 500 to 600
2
331
4,000 and upwards
1
246
POPULATION.
213
IN FRANCE,
WHERE THERE ARE TO EACH INHABITANT,
Number
The births to
Hectares.
of
1000 marriages
Departments.
are
From 4 to 5
2
5130
From 3 to 4
3
4372
From 2 to 3
30
4250
From 1 to 2
44
4234
From -06 to ]
5
4146
And -06
1
2557
IN PRUSSIA,
WHERE THERE ARE TO THE SQUARE MILE GERMAN,
Number
Births to 100
Births to 100
marriages,
Births to 100
marriages,
(Busching.)
Inhabitants.
of
marriages,
1
1
Provinces.
1754.
1784.
Under 1000
2
434
472
503
1000 to 2000
4
414
445
454
2000 to 3000
6
384
424
426
3000 to 4000
2
365
408
394
214
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
IN AMERICA,
IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THERE HAVE BEEN, TO EVERY
HUNDRED FEMALES, FROM 16 TO 45 YEARS OF AGE, WHERE
THERE HAVE BEEN ON THE SQUARE MILE,
Number
Children under
Inhabitants.
of
States.
ten years of
age.
Under 5
8
216
From 5 to 10
2
176
From 10 to 15
4
205
From 15 to 20
1
171
From 20 to 30
6
166
From 30 to 40
2
162
From 40 to 50
none
none
From 50 to 60
2
129
60 and upwards
1
120
A TABLE,
SHEWING THE DIMINISHING FECUNDITY OF MARRIAGES IN ENGLAND,
AS ITS POPULATION HAS INCREASED.
Births to a
marriage.
[ Periods.
Population.
1680
1730
1770
1790
1805
5,500,000
5,800,000
7,500,000
8,700,000
10,678,500
4-65
4-25
3-61
3-59
3.50
POPULATION. 215
The six foregoing tables, if in each case
tliev really represent the fact, are strong
evidence of the truth of Mr Sadler's theory,
for the charge of selecting particular places,
applicable to his peculiar view of the subject,
is out of the question. To make out a case,
a man may select a parish, a town, or possibly
a county, but he who gives England, France,
Prussia, and the United States of America,
amongst his examples, will hardly be accused
of selecting particular instances for the sake
of attempting to establish a favourite, but
delusive, theory.
The apparent exception to the rule, as
exhibited in the table of America, is thus
explained by Mr Sadler, haw of Population,
vol. ii, p. 244 :—" I have divided the twenty-
"six States and Territories, (exclusive of
"Columbia, or the city of Washington,) thus
"minutely, for the very purpose of exhibiting
"an apparent deviation from the principle
"advanced, which occurs in the second sec-
"tion, and which need not to have appeared,
"had the classification been somewhat diffe-
"rent. But I purposely introduce, and point
"it out, to notice, as an example of those
"many exceptions which, in an inquiry of
"this nature, must constantly arise, and which,
"when duly considered and understood,
"constitute direct proofs of the general rule.
216
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
tt *
'The two states, in the second line, are those
'of Maine and Georgia. The first of these,
'it is true, contains a territory of 32,628
'square miles, and a population of 298,335
'souls; on which the calculation of nine
'individuals only on the square mile is made.
'But how stands the real fact? We are
'informed on the best authority, (that of Mr
'Warden,) that of this extent, 7,578 square
'miles only are, properly speaking, peopled;
6 the interior, comprising above 25,000, being
'almost totally uninhabited, numbering, in
'1817, only 1500 families. Maine, therefore,
'being thus rectified, (and none will say
'that, in reference to the argument, it ought
'not to be so,) places itself in the fifth line
'of the above table, or precisely where it
'should have been, in regard to its actual
'pfolificness: so exactly does the principle
'of population manifest itself, even in its
'very exceptions, when such are duly
'examined. The other state, Georgia, it is
'well known, is similarly circumstanced with
'Maine, though not in a like degree."
The great difficulty of the subject of popu-
lation, as respects the present view of it, is
the impossibility of getting at the facts. I
give the foregoing tables, slightly altered,
indeed, inform, for the sake of greater perspi-
cuity, just as I have found them in a very
POPULATION. 217
elaborate work upon the subject of which it
treats. An immense mass of statistical evi-
dence must be carefully examined, and its
authenticity be inquired into, before any
decided opinion can be formed upon the
subject of the absolute increase of mankind,
under the various circumstances in which he
is placed. Leaving it, therefore, for the
literati to settle a dispute in which I am quite
incompetent to engage, I have here briefly
endeavoured to meet Mr Mai thus upon other
grounds, and I feel assured that every impartial
inquirer into the circumstances which now
regulate the production of commodities, will
admit that a new light is thrown upon the
subject of population by the contents of this
volume.
Another fact, mentioned as such by Mr
Sadler, is verv remarkable. At first sight it
would appear, that late marriages, on the part
of men, to comparatively young women, would
have the effect of condemning a great number
of women to the condition of celibacy. Thus,
if there be born an equal number of men and
women, and if the men were all to marry at
the age of thirty to women of the age of
twenty, it is obvious, that, in the aggregate
population, there would be of the marriage-
able age an immense preponderance of
women, that is, there would be more
218
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
marriageable women than men, by the whole
number of the latter that should die between
the ages of twenty and thirty. For example,
suppose, in a hundred instances, there be an
equal number of both sexes of the age of
twenty, and that an equal number of both
sexes die before the age of thirty, the result
will be as follows :—
Deaths of each
before thirty.
Suppose ten.
Males of
twenty.
Females of
twenty.
Leaving Males
Leaving Females
100
100
10
90
90
Being of the marriageable age 100 Females to 90 M
[ales.
i
But nature, who appears to be a stronger
advocate for marriage than Mr Malthus, is
not easily to be foiled in her intentions.
It therefore appears, that if such a custom
were to become universal, the comparative
deficiency of men of the marriagable -age,
would speedily be made up by the operation
of another law of nature, which enacts, that
from any given considerable number of
marriages there shall be most male births
when the husband is the older, and most
female births when the wife is the older. If,
then, the men should never marry until they
should arrive at the age of fifty, and then in all
POPULATION.
219
cases to females of twenty, the supply of young
women would not exceed the demand for
them in a greater ratio than it does at present,
for the immense preponderance of male births
that would then take place would make up
for the loss of all the men that should die
before the age of fifty, and every woman
would have as good a chance of obtaining a
husband as ever.
In proof of what is here stated, we are
furnished by Mr Sadler, from the Registers
of the Peerage, with "381 instances of first
"marriages, being the whole number in
« which the ages of both parties could be
"ascertained," which are as follows:
A TABLE,
SHEWING THE INFLUENCE, WHICH THE DIFFERENCE IN THE AGES OF
THE PARENTS, RESPECTIVELY, HAS IN REGULATING THE
PROPORTION OF THE SEXES OF THEIR CHILDREN.
TAKEN FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE PEERAGE,
Difference of age.
The husband being
:}!
Younger
Of equal age
From 1 to
years older
From 6 to 11 doJ
From 11 to 16 do.
From 16 to 21 do.
i
21 & upwards do.';
Number of
marriages.
Male
births.
Female
births.
Being as
Males
to
Females.
54
122
141
1000
1156
18
54
57
1000
1055
126
366
353
1000
964
107
327
258
1000
789
43
143
97
1000
678
22
48
30
1000
625
11
45
27
1000
600
220 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
The same rule holds with respect to animals.
Mr George Combe {Constitution of Man, page
305) quotes from the Quarterly Journal of
Agriculture, a description of "a method of
"obtaining a greater number of one sex, at
"the option of the proprietor, in the breeding
"of live stock." The rule is, that old fathers
produce a majority of males, and old mothers
a majority of females; following which in
the selection of the parent stock, the result
of an experiment for a majority of female
lambs, was 84 female births to 53 male births;
and the result of another experiment for a
majority of male lambs was 80 male births
to 55 female. Thus it appears that nature is
no respecter of persons, peers of the realm
and a flock of sheep being alike subject to
the same law.
These instances are very remarkable, and
tend to shew, in a conspicuous manner, to
use the words of Mr Sadler, that the Creator
has "himself regulated the prolificness of his
"creatures in reference to the circumstances
"in which his providence shall place them,
"instead of leaving that regulation, minute
"as it will be seen it is in itself, to the busy,
"selfish, and ignorant interference of men,
"who, on every possible view of the subject,
"are as incompetent to the task they are
POPULATION. 221
"eager to assume, as they are to that of
"creation."
Waving, however, every other view of the
subject, emigration will continue to be the
natural remedy for a too crowded population,
so long as there shall be an abundance of
fertile and uncultivated land on any portion
of the globe. But emigration, as it now takes
place, presents but a dreary and uninviting
prospect. To turn our backs upon our homes
and friends, and to cast ourselves, unknown
and unprotected, upon the vast ocean of life, in
situations, and under circumstances, present-
ing scarcely more than some faint ray of hope
that we, our children, or their children, may
be ultimately benefited by the venture, is but
a cold alternative, and but little in accordance
with some of the best and warmest feelings of
our nature. The enthusiastic lire of youth
may doubtless find pleasures in the enterprise, -
and even the difficulties, troubles, and pri-
vations to be encountered, may, in some
minds, and for a time, add to the incitement.
But these are " the pleasures of hope," and
the delirium of an excited imagination ; they
are not the realities of ease, of comfort, and
of prosperity.
But if there is an indescribable something in
222 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
1
"home/' which attaches us by a so
magic power to certain situations, the t<,j
of youthful mirth and spotless plea
remembered in after life only as a dream
has departed, how small is the numb
us who escape the pang, severe thoug
some instances, it may be, encountered
separation! Again, how small is, in ge
the extent of the enchanted ground! A L OJ
a garden, an arbour, or a tree, with seats around
it—a hill, a valley, or a favourite walk beside
some rivulet, or through a park or grove—and
then the boundary, which being overstepped,
the magic is gone, and all the world beside is
then the same.
But if emigration be an evil, would it not
be possible to lessen its magnitude by emi-
grating in large numbers, say from twenty
to fifty thousand at a time; and, instead
of going out, like Don Qtiixotte, in search
of adventures, by being associated and as-
sorted, so that each person might play his
part in such a manner as to benefit the whole
society. This might be effected by the
appointment of a competent body of men to
ascertain the most advantageous situations,
and to draw up schedules of society, to be
filled up by intending emigrants ; the number
POPULATION. 223
\A\ trade, profession, or occupation, being
i ted to its due proportion.
*ry much, as it appears to me, might thus
me to alleviate the evils of emigration.
3 circumstances of different countries
\ be particularly investigated, and
hie information and advice would be
to those persons who might be disposed
lv, , /ve their own. If it be said, that every
man is the best judge of what he should do
for himself, it is replied, that in the absence
of positive knowledge, which is almost never
possessed in such cases, it would generally
cost more than an emigrant is possessed of to
acquire information that may be fully and
implicitly relied upon. Every day brings
with it the history of some miserable wretch,
who, deluded by vague and exaggerated
leports, sought a distant land in the sanguine
expectation of finding it to overflow with milk
and honey, but who found it to contain for
him only the bitterness of disappointed hope.
Emigration would be no great hardship
if men were to go out in large numbers at a
time, and to take with them such an ample
supply of capital, and combination of know-
ledge and talent, as would enable them to
form, as a society, a tolerably perfect whole
from the commencement.
224 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
But the anti-populationist may follow me
even here, and say, When the earth is full,
what will you do then? I reply, and the
answer is sufficient, that the question is for
the consideration of those who maybe inter-
ested in obtaining an answer to it: for us it
is enough to be assured, that we and our
children's children can not be of that race:
it is for us to study our own welfare, and the
welfare of those whom we may bring into
the world, and we may rest assured that in
doing this, we shall do nothing to destroy
the happiness of future ages.
Food, you tell us, does not increase as fast
as population, and that it is the fault of nature
that it does not do so. I have denied the
truth of the assertion, and proved—I think I
may use that word—that, as yet at least, it is
the fault of man. Libeller of nature and her
laws, define, if you are able, the boundary
of human power! See that principle of pro-
gressiveness, which rushes onward from age
to age like a mighty torrent, swallowing with
insatiable avidity the numberless tributary
streams that are daily swelling its magnitude,
and giving fresh impetus to its rapidity, and
say, if you are able, where is this torrent of
human ingenuity and resource to stop! Take
but one retrospective glance, and see how
POPULATION. 225
mightily have its waters swoln, even, as it
were, since yesterday, and then look forward
and imagine; cast reason out of sight, call
cause and effect a dream, and let the unbridled
fancy, stimulated by an insatiable thirst for
the impossible, fix an imaginary limit to the
power of man, and future ages still shall
smile at the narrowness of your ideas, and
wonder at your feebleness of thought.
226 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER XL
Political Economy—A brief notice of the opinions of the Political
Economists, exhibiting the difference, in some respects, between
their views and those of the Author of the Social System, and
tending also to illustrate and defend the principle of the foregoing
There are two opposite errors into which
men are liable to fall, who differ in opinion
from others who have written upon the same
subjects as themselves ; the one is to underrate
the efforts of other men, and to cut and slash
about them in reviewing their writings, for the
sake of the poor pleasure it affords them to do
so; and the other is to disarm an antagonist,
by paying obsequious deference even to what
are conceived to be his errors: the cause of
truth is always best promoted by avoiding
both these extremes. To err is human; and
little indeed is it that an ordinary individual
is able to add to the aggregate stock of pre-
viously existing knowledge; yet, from the
reiterated attempts of mankind to correct
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 227
and enlighten each other, truth is perpetually
making its way against every opposition. As
the strongest adamant is wasted, in the course
of years, by the constant dropping of water,
so error yields — however deeply rooted,
widely spread, and apparently immoveable—>
to the irresistible influence of truth.
The political economists are undoubtedly
the men to whom every particle of merit is
due for ascertaining the principles upon
which the machinery of commerce is now
working, and if any one, now or hereafter,
shall be able to add something to what they
have done, however important that addition
may be, however practically useless the pre-
ceding discoveries may have been without it,
still it is to the labour that has gone before
that the merit is, for the most part, due.
To investigate the laws which regulate the
production, exchange, and distribution of
commodities, appears to have been the chief
object of the political economists. To ascer-
tain by what laws they may best be regulated
is the more important business, provided that
the existing laws be not unalterable.
Without professing to have expended very
much labour upon the subject, which my
occupations in life have never allowed me the
opportunity of doing, I have, nevertheless.
228 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
made myself sufficiently acquainted with the
existing theories of political economy, to
satisfy myself, that an effective and practicable
remedy, for the evils of the commercial
society, has never yet been pointed out by
any man; and, since the substance of the
foregoing pages was committed to paper,
I have carefully examined the last edition of
Mr M'Culloch's Principles, for the sake of
endeavouring to discover something which
might induce me to believe that I am in
error. The opinion here stated, as to the
practicability of emerging, as if by a miracle,
from a condition of poverty and perplexity
into one of affluence and ease, cannot fail
to be looked upon as extravagant at first sight;
but I am constrained to confess my total
inability to find so much as a single sentence,
in the "Principles of Political Economy" to
alter my opinion, whilst, on the other hand,
I have met with very many to strengthen
and confirm it
It would be needless to discuss at any
length the opinions of other writers, because
Mr M'Culloch's work—the most important
of its kind that has lately appeared—contains
a statement of the best established opinions
of the present day upon the subject of which
it treats. Without, therefore, attempting
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 229
to give even an outline of the theory which
is there advocated, a knowledge of which
can be best and most easily acquired, by
those who are unacquainted with it, by a
perusal of the work itself, which the Edin-
burgh Review denominates, "by much the
"best manual of political economy that has
"yet been presented to the world," a few
extracts from it will here be given, chiefly
for the purpose of exhibiting some of the
differences between the existing principles of
the commercial society and those of the Social
System:—
"The Principles of Political Economy, with
"a Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the
u Science. By J. R. M'Culloch, Esq. Pro-
"fessor of Political Economy in the University
"of London. Second edition, corrected
"and greatly enlarged. 1830."
Page 7. "The object of political economy
"is to point out the means by which the
"industry of man may be rendered most
"productive of those necessaries, comforts,
"and enjoyments, which constitute wrealth;
"to ascertain the circumstances most favour-
u able for its accumulation; the proportions
"in which it is divided among the different
230 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"classes of the community; and the mode
"in which it may be most advantageously
"consumed." This definition is objected to
only so far as regards the single word that is
here printed in Italics. The word "is"
ought, it is conceived, to have been " should
"be." But this definition does not appear
to have been constantly kept in mind; for, at
page 23, we find the following passage: "The
"economist will not arrive at a true know-
"ledge of the laws regulating the production
"accumulation, distribution, and consumption
"of wealth, unless he draw his materials from
"a very wide surface." Evidently implying,
that there are laws existing by which these
things are and must be regulated, and that,
therefore, the business of the economist is to
discover laws rather than to frame them.
After observing upon the general neglect
of the science of political economy in former
ages, and upon the increased attention that
has been paid to the subject of late years,
Mr M'Culloch observes, at page 14, "These
"circumstances sufficiently account for the
"late rise of the science, and the little atten-
"tion paid to it down to a very recent period.
"And, since it has become an object of more
"general attention and inquiry, the differ-
"ences which have subsisted among the
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 231
"most eminent of its professors have proved
"exceedingly unfavourable to its progress,
"and have generated a disposition to distrust
"its best established conclusions." It is
quite evident that there can be almost no
difference of opinion about matters which
are thoroughly understood: so long, therefore,
as such men as Professors Wilson, Mai thus,
and JVrCulloch, cannot agree upon its first
principles, there will be strong reason for
believing, that political economy is a science
of doubts rather than of certainties.
Page 16. "It is an admitted principle in
"morals, as well as political economy, that by
u far the largest portion of mankind have a
"much clearer view of what is conducive to
"their own interests, than it is possible for
"any other man or select number of men to
"have 5 and, consequently, that it is sound
u policy to allow each individual to follow
"the bent of his inclination, and to engage
"in any branch of industry he may think
"proper. This is the general theorem; and
"it is one which is established on the most
"comprehensive experience."
The truth of this is unhesitatingly denied.
If each man were supported by his own
unassisted industry; if each of us were fed,
clothed, and lodged, by the labour of our
232 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
own hands, this proposition would be true;
but so soon as a man becomes a member of a
commercial society, so soon as he consents
to form a part of one stupendous whole,
instead of being to himself a whole, from that
moment a controlling and directing power
is as essential to the right working of the
aggregate of commerce, as it is to an individual
manufactory; or as is the "governor," to
the right working of the steam engine. By
this I do not mean, that the taste and inclina-
tions of the individual members of society
are to be interfered with; what I contend
for is a controlling and directing power to
take in hand the whole of our commercial
affairs; and I contend, moreover, that indivi-
dual freedom and independence can never exist
in any commercial society without it When a
man becomes a member of a political society,
he binds himself to a certain line of conduct,
and, failing to keep his bond, he engages to
forfeit his property, his liberty, and even his
life, to the offended institutions of his country;
and what is the result of all this? Freedom!
The name of it is given up, and the reality
is received in exchange for it The experience
of the whole world may be appealed to as
evidence of the truth of the assertion, that an
uncontrolled system of commerce has ever
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 933
had the effect of plunging the great mass of
mankind into the depths of poverty and
wretchedness. Every man may be free to
follow the bent of his own inclination in
the choice of his employment, but, before
societies can ever prosper, the operations of
their individual members must be so regu-
lated that they may become consistent with,
instead of being opposed to, the interests of
other men: and Mr M'Culloch might as
rationally tell an army of soldiers, that by
killing each other they will conquer their
common foe; or a band of musicians, that
by each playing beautifully, but no matter
what tune or in what time, their music will
be delightful; as to tell a nation of competi-
tors in the employment of capital, that by
destroying each other's interest, they will
promote the general good. I do not object
to individual competition in bodily or mental
occupations: competition is, in my opinion,
the very spirit of excellence in every thing
we undertake ; but I do object to competition
in the employment of capital. Capital should
be, to the commercial world, what the sun
is to the natural world: it should shine
equally on the labours of all, rewarding
industry with abundance, and idleness with
poverty and want.
234 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM,
Page 17. "It should always be kept in
"view, that it is never any part of the business
"of the economist to inquire into the means
"by which the fortunes of individuals have
"been increased or diminished, except to
"ascertain their general operation and effect.
"The public interests should always form the
"exclusive objects of his attention. He is
"not to frame systems, and devise schemes,
"for increasing the wealth and enjoyments
"of particular classes; but to apply himself
"to discover the sources of national wealth
"and universal prosperity, and the means
"by which they may be rendered most pro-
"ductive." By this criterion let the Social
System be tried, and if it be weighed in the
balance against any previously existing theory
of political economy, it will not be found
wanting if justice hold the scales.
Page 71. Speaking of Mr Locke's tract on
Raising the Value of Money, Mr M< Culloch
observes: "Pie lays it down broadly, that all
"taxes, howsoever imposed, must ultimately
"fall on the land; whereas it is plain he
"ought, consistently with the above principle,
"to have shewn, that they wTould fall, not
"exclusively on the produce of land, but
"generally on produce of industry, or on all
"species of commodities/'
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 235
It has been shewn, in a former chapter, how
taxes may be made to fall equally upon pro-
duce of every description in exact proportion
to its value; and also in what manner they
may be collected without the expense of a
single shilling.
Page 76. "Most writers on political
"economy have entered into lengthened
"discussions with respect to the difference
"between what they have termed productive
"and unproductive labour. I cannot, how-
"ever, I confess, discover any real ground
"for most of those discussions, or for the
"distinctions that have frequently been set
"up between one sort of labour and another.
"The subject is not one in which there is
"apparently any difficulty. It is not at the
"species of labour carried on, but at its results,
"that we should look. So long as an indivi-
"dual employs himself in any way not detri-
"mental to others, and accomplishes the object
"he has in view, his labour is obviously pro-
"ductive; while, if he do not accomplish it,
"or obtain some sort of equivalent advantage
"from the exertion of the labour, it is as
"obviously unproductive. This definition
"seems clear, and leads to no perplexities;
"and it will be shewn, in another chapter,
"that it is not possible to adopt any other
236 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"without being involved in endless difficulties
*< and contradictions."
The distinction between productive and
unproductive labour is of immense impor-
tance. At page 82, Mr M'Culloch says:
"All have been impressed with the reason-
"ableness of the maxim which teaches, that
"those who sow ought to be permitted to
"reap—that the labour of a man's body, and
"the work of his hands, are to be considered
"as exclusively his own." But how is a man
to be enabled to retain that which is so
unquestionably his own—the produce of his
own labour—unless the arrangements of
society be such as to secure it to him? No
system of commerce can be conceived more
monstrously at variance with the equitable
principle here laid down by Mr M'Culloch,
than that which compels the poor man to sell
his labour by public competition. He might
as well sell himself; nay, according to some
accounts, it would be much better for him to
sell his person, than to sell, in the manner he
does at present, the labour of his hands. We
have a nominal system of commercial freedom,
but a real system of commercial slavery: we
have the shadow of that which is right, but
the substance of that which is wrong. Let
the labouring man cease for ever to sell his
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 237
labour at all; let him hire and afterwards
raise a capital of his own; let him produce
wealth and accumulate it; and let him hire
servants to take care of it for him, and to give
it him back, whenever and in whatever shape
he may require it. Thus may the labouring
classes retain the command over the wealth
they produce until it is consumed; and thus
only can they place themselves in a situation
in which they can deserve to be denominated
free men. Why is it important to distinguish
between productive and unproductive labour?
Because we can never have in operation too
much of the former, nor too little, provided
we have sufficient, of the latter,—the former
is the team, the latter is the driver,—and
the true interest of every nation consists in
reducing the greatest possible proportion of
its commercial population to the condition
of producers, and in advancing that condition
to the highest possible state of affluence and
enjoyment. Of all useful non-producers, let
there be enough; but as they must ever be
a direct tax upon producers, great or small,
as they are few or many, let their number
ever be kept down to that which is sufficient.
Moreover, it is at the "species of labour
"carried on" and not at the " results" that we
must look to ascertain what is and what is
not productive labour, and unless we do this,
238 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
we shall never fail to find ourselves "involved
"in endless difficulties and contradictions."
The result of gambling, for example, is fre-
quently to obtain bread; but to produce bread
is a very different affair. A lawyer may
obtain many thousands a-year by the exercise
of his profession; but he does not produce
even the vellum whereon he writes. Mr
M'Culloch has here confounded two things,
which are sometimes as different as black
and white,—producing and obtaining. Why,
with reference to the national balance sheet,
page 123, have I been obliged to state the
necessity of adding a per centage to the cost
of goods sufficient to pay all the expenses of
salaries, taxes, and national charges, but
because all the individuals employed under
these heads are non-producers? Why is rent,
interest, and profit, necessary for the support
of certain classes of society, but because the
classes who, for the most part, live thereby,
are non-producers? Why does government
tax us, directly and indirectly, to the amount
of forty or fifty millions a-year, but because
its members and dependents are non-pro-
ducers?
At page 525, Mr M'Culloch quotes Dr
Adam Smith upon this subject, and in the
index, page 552, he says, that he has refuted
the Doctor: let us sea The author of the
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 239
Wealth of Nations says, "The labour of
"some of the most respectable orders in the
«society is like that of menial servants,
"unproductive of any value, and does not
"fix or realize itself in any permanent
"subject or vendible commodity, which
"endures after that labour is past, and for
"which an equal quantity of labour could
"afterwards be procured. The sovereign,
"for example, with all the officers both of
"justice and war who serve under him—the
"whole army and navy—are unproductive
"labourers. They are the servants of the
"public, and are maintained by a part of the
"annual produce of the industry of other
"people." So far the Doctor.
"But," says Mr M'Culloch, " though these
"statements are plausible, it will not, I
u apprehend, be difficult to shew the fallacy
"of the distinction Dr Smith has endea-
"voured to establish. To begin with his
"strongest case, that of the menial servant,
"he says, that his labour is unproductive,
"because it is not realized in a vendible
"commodity, while the labour of the raanu-
"facturer is productive, because it is so
"realized. But of what is the labour of the
"manufacturer productive? Does it not
"consist of comforts and conveniencies
240 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"required for the use and accommodation of
"society? The manufacturer is not a pro-
"ducer of matter, but of utility only. And
"is it not obvious that the menial servant
"is also a producer of utility? It is univer-
"sally allowed, that the labour of the hus-
"bandman, who raises corn, beef, and other
"articles of provision, is productive. But if
"so, why is the labour of the menial servant,
"who prepares and dresses these articles, and
"fits them for use, to be set down as unpro-
"ductive? It is clear to demonstration, that
"there is no difference whatever between the
"two species of industry,— that they are
"either both productive, or both unpro-
"ductive. To produce a fire, it is quite as
"indispensable that coals should be carried
"from the cellar to the grate, as that they
"should be carried from the bottom of the
"mine to the surface of the earth: and if it be
"said that the miner is a productive labourer,
"must we not say as much of the servant
"who is employed to make and mend the
"fire? The whole of Dr Smith's reasoning
"proceeds on a false hypothesis. He has
"made a distinction where there is none,
"and where it is not in the nature of things
"there can be any. The end of all human
"exertion is the same; that is, to increase
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 241
«the sum of necessaries, comforts, and
"enjoyments; and it must be left to the
"judgment of every one to determine, what
« proportion of these comforts he will have
« in the shape of menial services, and what in
«*' the shape of material products. It is true,
"as has been sometimes stated, that the
«results of the labour of the menial servant
« are seldom capable of being estimated in
"the same way as the results of the labour
"of the agriculturist, manufacturer, or mer-
"chant: but are they, on that account, the
"less real or valuable? Could the same
"quantity of work be performed by those
"who are called productive labourers, were
"it not for the assistance they derive from
M those who are falsely called unproductive?"
At page 512, Mr M'Culloch has defined
consumption to be synonymous with use, and
then he adds, "We produce comfnodities
"only that we may use or consume them.
"Consumption is, in fact, the end and object
"of human exertion." And, at page 5, he
defines value to mean " exchangeable worth.'*
Service certainly comes under the denomi-
nation of exchangeable worth, and, therefore,
the opinions here quoted are in accordance
with Mr M'Culloch's own definition of the
meaning of terms. But still there is a much
242 THE, SOCIAL SYSTEM.
greater difference between productive and
unproductive labour than Mr M'Culloch is
willing to allow, even in cases wherein the
latter may possess the quality of exchangeable
worth.
A 'producer we will here define to be a
man, who, by the labour of his own hands,
assists in the production of some consumable
product, which may be either used or ex-
changed, after his labour is completed, for
some other commodity which has cost an
equal quantity of labour in its production;
and a non-producer we will define to be a man,
who, however useful or necessary his services
may be to the well-being of society, does not,
by his own hands, assist in the production of
any such commodity. The importance of the
distinction consists in this: the non-producer,
as here defined, must ever be a tax upon
producers to the whole amount of that which
he consumes; whereas the producer is not a
tax upon any body.
To take Mr M'Culloch's own example. The
wages of a man who makes or mends a fire
in a manufactoryr, form a part of the direct
cost of goods produced, and add to the money
price of them. The coals, the attendance on
the fire, the material wrought, and the labour
expended upon it, are all component parts of
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 243
the cost of commodities, and add to their
exchangeable value ; and, upon the principles
of the Social System, they would all be
represented by money brought into existence,
as a consequence of the commodity having
been so produced. But a servant who makes
or mends a fire in a gentleman s house adds
nothing whatever to the national stock of
exchangeable wealth; on the contrary, he
diminishes it, and the price of his utility is
paid by a claim upon the national stock of
accumulated wealth being transferred to him
from the pocket of his master; and no
additional money is created in consequence
of the making or mending of the said fire, as
in the other case. The fire in the factory
increases the aggregate stock of valuables;
the fire in the dwelling-house diminishes it.
The great distinction between the two cases,
in a practical point of view, is, that of
these utilitarians there never can be too few,
provided always that there are sufficient,
whilst of producers there never can be too
many, provided there is capital enough to
employ them.
Page 527. "Dr Smith makes no scruple
"about admitting the just title of the work-
"man employed to repair a steam-engine to
"be enrolled in the productive class; and
244 * THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"yet he would place a physician, who had
"been instrumental in saving the life of
"Arkwright or Watt, amongst those that are
"unproductive!" Certainly; and he is right:
for the former increases the stock of exchange-
able wealth, repairing and making being
precisely the same in this respect, whilst the
other only acquires a right to that which
previously existed. If Arkwright and Watt
had been marketable commodities—slaves—
the physician who should prolong their lives
would be entitled to the denomination of a
productive labourer.
At page 529, Mr M'Culloch assumes, that
players, singers, opera-dancers, and buffoons,
are productive labourers; and, at page 531,
that the higher classes of functionaries, when
they properly discharge the duties of their
office, are " the most productive labourers in
"a state;" and a little afterwards he says, in
the same page: "Take a parallel case, that of
"the labourers employed to construct fences:
"no one ever presumed to doubt that their
"labour is productive; and yet they do not
"contribute directly to the production of
"corn, or of any other valuable product."
Do they not? Does not a fence contain
exchangeable worth? Is not a stone wall a
valuable product? Does it not add exchange-
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 245
able value to the estate on which it is erected,
provided it be judiciously placed there?
Assuredly it does, but how much exchange-
able worth does the opera-dancer or the
buffoon leave behind him on the stage of the
theatre in which he performs? None what-
ever: such men add nothing to the consu-
mable stock of wealth; and a gambler, a
fortune-teller, or a dancing bear, may as
justly be termed a productive labourer, as
the man who produces nothing whatever but
a posture or a grin.
"Could the same quantity of work," says
Mr M'Culloeh, "be performed by those who
"are called productive labourers, were it not
"for the assistance they derive from those
"who axe falsely called unproductive?" No:
but the same quantity of work could be per-
formed by the productive labourers, with the
assistance of a fifth part of the presently
existing number of those who are truly called
unproductive.
It may be difficult, in some few cases, to
draw a very distinct line of demarcation
between productive and unproductive labour.
As Mr Mill says, upon the same subject,
[Elements of Political Economyr, page 218,)
"Between things that differ the most widely,
"there is always an order of things which
246 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"approach them by insensible gradations;"
and again, " Notwithstanding this difficulty, it
"is absolutely necessary, for the purposes of
"human discourse, that classification should
"be performed, and the line drawn some-
"where." Under the Social System, how-
ever, there could be no practical difficulty
about this matter; for, productive or unpro-
ductive, that man only would be admitted a
member of the association, the labour of
whose hands, or of whose head, should be
acknowledged to be useful, by money being
created to remunerate him for benefits con-
ferred upon the commercial state. Society
may be divided into three classes,—pro-
ducers, useful non-producers> and drones.
Of the first, we never can have too many,
so long as capital is abundant; of the second^
we never can have too few, provided we have
enough to keep producers in full and unre-
tarded operation; and of the third, it is most
desirable to have none.
Page 80. " The principle of increase
"implanted in the human race is so very
"powerful, that population never fails of
"speedily expanding to the limits of sub-
"sistence, how much soever they may be
"extended. Indeed, its natural tendency is
"to exceed these limits, or to increase the
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
247
"number of people faster than the supplies
« of food and other necessary accommoda-
"tions provided for their support."
There is no tendency in population to
increase faster than the means of subsistence,
so far as nature is concerned. We are told
much about the necessity of " checks."
"First cast out the beam out of thine own
"eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast
"out the moat out of thy brother's eye."
There are, unfortunately, other checks besides
those on population to be considered: there
are the checks upon production, the checks
upon exchange, the checks upon distribution,
and the checks upon accumulation. Remove
the existing checks, and then it will be seen
that there is no need for imposing any new
ones. Nature, unassisted Nature, produces
little food, and no children: she has implanted
in man necessities and desires, which insure
the production of the one3 and the increase
of the other; but it is by the voluntary act
of man himself that both are increased, and
Nature herself has interfered much more
obviously in fixing a limit to the increase of
the latter than of the former. We cannot
sow children by the acre as we do turnips,
or plant them by thousands as we do cabbages,
or weave them by steam as we do cloth: the
248 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
most enormous bump of philoprogenitiveness
can avail nothing; Nature will have her
course, and children, albeit no uncommon
kind of produce, come but slowly and deli-
berately into the world after all.
Page 84. "The property of a landlord is
"violated, when he is compelled to adopt
"any system of cultivation, even though it
"were really preferable to that which he
"was previously following; the property of
"a capitalist is violated when he is obliged
"to accept a particular rate of interest for
"his stock; and the property of a labourer
u is violated when he is obliged to employ
"himself in any particular occupation, or for
"a fixed rate of wages."
The property of no man can be violated
by the formation of such arrangements as
shall have the effect of fixing the rate of
wages at the result of labour, subject to the
smallest possible deduction for the support
of unproductive labour. Not only would
the property of the labourer not be violated
by his wages being thus fixed, but it must
ever continue to be violated until they are
thus fixed. The existing system of com-
merce has precisely the same effect as an act
of parliament would have, fixing the price
of labour at the lowest sufficient quantity
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 249
to support life, and to continue the same
miserable race of labourers. Indeed, this is
the definition given by the political econo-
mists to the natural rate of wages. In
opposition to this, I hold the natural rate of
wao-es to be the whole that is produced by
labour, subject only to the above defined
deduction.
Page 92. "The facility of exchanging is
<• the vivifying principle of industry: it
« stimulates agriculturists to adopt the best
"system of cultivation, and to raise the
"largest crops, because it enables them to
"exchange whatever portion of the produce
« of their lands exceeds their own wants, for
« other commodities contributing to their
"comforts and enjoyments ; and it stimulates
"manufacturers and merchants to increase
"and improve the quantity, variety, and
« quality of their goods, that they may
"thereby obtain greater supplies of raw
"produce."
The facility of exchanging, in the present
day, is the freedom of bondage, the wisdom
of folly, the virtue of vice: no such thing
exists. The freedom of exchange now is all
on the one side: there is freedom enough in
exchanging money for goods, but there is
no freedom in exchanging goods for money.
250 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
The former is all ease, the latter all difficulty;
but, when freedom of exchange shall be
really established, it will be just as easy and
^inexpensive to sell as it now is to buy—to
convert goods into money, as money into
goods.
Page 95. "Like the different parts of a
"well-constructed engine, the inhabitants of
"a civilized country are all mutually depen-
"dent on, and connected with each other.
"Without any previous concert, and obeying
"only the powerful and steady impulse of
"self-interest, they universally conspire to
"the same great end; and contribute, each
"in his respective sphere, to furnish the
"greatest supply of necessaries, luxuries,
"conveniencies, and enjoyments." For are,
read should be: they do no such thing, and
without previous concert, they never by
possibility can universally conspire to the
same great end.
Page 104. "The produce of the labour of
"r nation cannot be increased otherwise
"than by an increase in the number of its
"labourers, or in their productive powers;
"but without an increase of capital, it is, in
"most cases, impossible to employ another
"workman with advantage." And, if the
institutions of society had been framed with
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 251
a single object, that object being to prevent
the increase of capital, it is hardly possible
to conceive in what manner they could be
improved.
Beginning at page 123, Mr M'Culloch has
devoted a short chapter to the consideration
of credit, and shews its utility in the present
state of society. The Social System embraces
an infinitely more comprehensive system of
credit than any at present in existence, and,
at the same time, it combines security with
convenience to an extent very far beyond
any plan that appears to have been previously
contemplated. In short, whilst it avoids all
the evils, it embraces every advantage that
belongs to the present system of credit.
Page 134. "No certain estimate can ever
"be formed of the quantity of money required
"to conduct the business of any country; this
"quantity being, in all cases, determined by
"the value of money itself, the services it
"has to perform, and the devices used for
"economizing its employment." Compare
this loose, indefinite, and unsatisfactory des-r
cription with the principles here laid down
in the chapters on exchange and distribution.
Under the Social System, the money in cir-
culation and the goods in the national stores
would always be exactly equivalent, increasing
252 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
and decreasing together. The money would
be the demand, the property would be the
supply, and the one would ever be equal to
the other.
Page 139. << It is frequently, indeed, alleged,
"that the number of retailers is, in most
"places, unnecessarily great, and that, in
"order to subsist, they charge an enormous
"profit. But it is easy to see, that there can
"be no real ground for these statements. A
"regard to their own interest will always
"prevent too many individuals from entering
"into the retail trade, as it prevents them
"from entering into any other employment;
"at the same time that the competition to
"which they are exposed will effectually
"hinder them from realizing more than the
"ordinary rate of profit."
It is the interest of all producers to be
burdened as little as possible with the expense
of keeping non-producers. Retailers are non-
producers; and were their profits regulated
upon equitable principles, instead of by com-
petition between each other, two-thirds of
them, at least, might be dispensed with, and
their work be infinitely better done. Take
the business of a general clothier, for example,
one who keeps the materials of every des-
cription of male and female dress. In a town
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 253
of twenty thousand inhabitants, there are
commonly dozens of retailers of dress, carry-
ing on business upon a more or less extensive
scale. The capital employed is many times
what it need be, and yet, from the great
sameness and subdivision of the aggregate
stock, there is nothing like the convenience
to the public that would be given by the sub-
stitution of one or two large establishments
for the whole, with about three times the
stock of any one previously existing. The
returns, in this case, would be far more rapid;
the loss on bad stock, would be reduced to a
twentieth part of its present amount; the
number of persons required to conduct any
given quantity of business, would be incredibly
decreased; and the occupation itself would
become much more respectable. The general
effect of the whole system of retail trade as
it is now carried on, is to tax producers to
many times the extent that would be neces-
sary for its libera] support, under proper
regulations.
Page 149. "We have already seen, that the
"number of workmen employed in a country
"must always be limited to the number
"which its capital can feed and maintain.
"But it is plain that no regulation can
"directly add any thing to that capital." By
254 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
adopting the regulations that have been
pointed out in this volume, the capital of a
country would be as certainly and as regularly
increased, as would that of an individual,
who, having an income of £100 a-year,
could only spend <£90 of it.
Page 149. "Every individual is constantly
"exerting himself to find out the most advan-
"tageous methods of employing his capital
"and labour. It is true that it is his own
"advantage, and not that of the society,
"which he has in view; but a society being
"nothing more than a collection of indivi-
"duals, it is plain that each, in steadily
"pursuing his own aggrandizement, is fol-
"lowing that precise line of conduct which
"is most for the public advantage." This
is one of the great errors of the political
economists. It is, unfortunately, not true,
that " each, in steadily pursuing his own
"aggrandizement, is following that precise
"line of conduct which is most for the public
"advantage." In the present state of society,
persons following their individual interests
in the employment of capital are uniformly
acting in opposition to the interests of others.
Manufacturers and traders, looking at them
individually, appear to be opposed only to
the persons who are engaged in like trades
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 255
and occupations with themselves; for as the
price of goods is apparently lowered by com-
petition in buying .and selling, the public
would, at first sight, appear to be benefited
by this very opposition. But it is no such
thing: the greater the subdivision of trades
into distinct establishments, the greater is
the amount of profit per cent necessary for
their support, and the whole system, as it is
now carried on, is nothing better than a
national conspiracy to prevent the increase
of capital, and to perpetuate poverty and
wretchedness.
Page 149. " Self-interest is the most
"powerful stimulus that can be applied to
"excite the industry, and to sharpen the
"intellect and ingenuity of man; and no
"proposition can be more true, than that
"each individual can, in his local situation,
"judge better what is advantageous and
"useful for himself than any other person."
The experience of every age and of every
nation has proved, that a man can no more
fix himself in that particular station of life
which is best suited either to his individual
interest, or to the collective interest of
society, without the aid of a directing power
to regulate the proceedings of the whole
256 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
society, than can a bar of iron convert
itself into a spring, or wheel, or screw, as it
happens to be most waited, for a piece of
mechanism. To be industrious is nothing;
we must work with, instead of against, our
fellows, before we can work effectually
either for their interest or for our own.
Population, so long as the present system
of exchange exists, will ever have a ten-
dency to increase faster than capital; and in
two centuries, we shall have to divide the
food of nine persons amongst two hundred
and fifty-six.
Page 157. "What has now been stated
"goes far to settle the disputed question as
"to the influence of absentee expenditure.
"If an English gentleman, living at home,
"and using none but foreign articles in his
"establishment, gives the same encourage-
"ment to industry that he would do were he
"to use none but British articles, he must, it
"is obvious, do the same thing should he go
"abroad. Whatever he may get from the
"foreigner, when at Paris or Brussels, must
"be paid for, directly or indirectly, in British
"articles, quite in the same way as when he
"resided in London. Nor is it easy to
"imagine any grounds for pronouncing his
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 257
"expenditure in the latter more beneficial to
"this country than in the former.
"I do not mean, by any thing now stated,
"nor did I ever mean, by any thing I have
"stated on other occasions, to maintain, that
"absenteeism may not be, in several respects,
"injurious. It would be easy, indeed, to
"shew, that both England and Scotland have
u been largely benefited by the residence of
"the great landed proprietors on their estates.
"No one can doubt that they have been
"highly instrumental in introducing the
"manners, and in diffusing a taste for the
"conveniencies and enjoyments of a more
"refined society; and that the improved
"communications between different places,
"the expensive and commodious farm
"buildings, and the plantations with which
"the country is sheltered and ornamented,
"are to be, in a great degree, ascribed to
"their residence. It may be doubted, how-
"ever, considering the circumstances under
"which most Irish landlords acquired their
"estates, the difference between their reli-
"gious tenets and those of their tenants,
"the peculiar tenures under which the latter
"hold their lands, and the political condition
"of the country, whether their residence
"would have been of any considerable
R
258 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
f advantage. But, whatever conclusion may
'be come to as to this point, cannot affect
< what has been stated in the text. [This
quotation is a note in the original.] The
question really at issue refers merely to
the spending of revenue, and has nothing
to do with the improvement of estates;
and, notwithstanding all that has been said
to the contrary, I am not yet convinced
that absenteeism is, in this respect, at all
injurious."
The words, "what has now been stated,"
refer to an argument too long to be quoted
here, the purport of which is, that " if expor-
"tation be a good thing—and the most ardent
"admirers of the restrictive system admit it
"to be such—importation must also be a good
"thing; for the two are indissolubly con-
"nected; and to separate them, even in
"imagination, implies a total ignorance of
"the most obvious principles." It does not
form any part of the professed object of this
book to enter the lists with the political
economists upon their own ground, that is,
to combat their opinions with reference to
their own system: but it would not perhaps
be very difficult to detect a fallacy in Mr
M'Culloch's opinion, with reference to the
two subjects of free trade and absenteeism.
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 259
Under any system trade can never be too
free, because, as Mr M'Culloch has observed,
importation and exportation are indissolubly
united, and it is impossible to prohibit the
one without injuring the other also. It is,
however, the interest of every nation to
expend the profit derived from the exchange
of commodities at home, as well as revenue
of every description.
Tims, cloth is produced in England, which
costs £100 in gold, and it sells in Peru for
£120 in gold. Well, the cloth is sent to
Peru, and the gold is brought to England,
and by the transaction the English merchant
is a gainer of <£20. Now, it is evident that
the spending of this <£20, in the purchase of
Peruvian labour, will not create any demand
for English produce, and neither will the
spending of it in the purchase of English
labour, create any demand for Peruvian pro-
duce. Whilst, therefore, exportation and
importation must always be of equal nominal
value, the spending of the profit derived from
the exchange, is always beneficial to that
country, the labour of which is purchased
by it, because there is nothing to be sent out
of the country as a consequence of the trans-
action.
Again, a merchant sends, at 20 per cent
profit, cottons, value <£100, to France, and he
260 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
receives <£100 worth of silks in exchange for
them. He gains in this case silks value £20
by the transaction, the half of which, we will
suppose, he requires to have made into dresses
for his wife, and, instead of money, he gives
the other half to the dressmaker for her
trouble: is it not as clear as daylight that the
advantage, so far as relates to the spending of
revenue, lies with that country where the
dressmaker resides? An English gentleman
"living at home, and using none but foreign
"articles in his establishment, gives the
"same encouragement to industry,"—to
British industry, mind,—" that he would do
"were he to use none but British articles!"
Suppose, then, that a foreigner be a tailor,
and that, instead of in the Palais Royal, he
resides in Regent Street, London, will the
English tailor, who lives next door to him,
receive the same encouragement as himself?
Verily he will not, and neither will any other
man in Britain, in any trade whatever.
Now for the absentee, of whom Mr
M'Culloch affirms, that as respects the spen-
ding of revenue, it matters not where he lives.
To raise rent, produce must be sold at home
or abroad, and in either case, whoever buys
it is entitled to consume it, and so far absen-
teeism is a matter of no importance. The
Irish corn being sold in London, must bring
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 261
from London into Ireland, money or goods,
as valuable as the corn taken out of Ireland.
But the rent being paid in money, is it of no
consequence to Ireland whether the money
be expended in employing Irishmen or
Frenchmen? The landlord, we shall suppose,
has an income of ten thousand pounds, and
he requires a house and furniture, food,
clothes, amusement, professional advice,
equipages, attendants, servants,—and thou-
sands of people are ready in every European
country to furnish their commodities and
labour to all who have money to offer for
them. Suppose that rents were paid in kind,
and that, instead of money, the income of the
landlord is ten thousand bushels of corn: if
he spend his income in Ireland, he transfers
to the Irish builder, furnisher, provision
merchant, clothier, player, physician, coach
builder, and domestic servant, in return for
goods which would never otherwise have
been produced, and for services which would
never otherwise have been performed, that
portion of his corn which he does not require
to consume himself, that is, almost the whole
of it; but if he spend his income in Italy, he
transfers to the Italian builder, furnisher,
provision merchant, clothier, player, physician,
coach builder, and domestic servant, in
262 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
return for services performed by them, that
portion of his corn, which, had he remained
at home, would have become food for his
countrymen, and the services rendered to
him in Italy, would never have been per-
formed had he and his property been in
Ireland.
A physician, for example, takes up his
residence in a forest; will the trees come to
be cured of a cholic? will they drop gold
instead of dew? or will not dead leaves be
more plentiful than bank notes? But instead
of trees, or the starving peasantry of Ireland,
plant wealthy landlords, with their wives,
families, and domestics, around the dispenser
of drugs and chemicals, and see if it be the
same thing to him whether the immense
stores of wealth, created by the laborious, are
assigned to a foreigner or to himself; and
the question being answered, repeat it to the
builder, the furnisher, the merchant, the
clothier, the player, and the servant.
If the Dukes of Bedford and Buccleuch
really consumed all that portion of wheat, oats,
barley, hay, straw, peas, beans, and clover-
lambs, calves, sheep, and oxen—pigs, game,
and poultry,—which is produced on their
estates, and paid to them annually in the
name of rent, it would be a matter of very
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 263
small importance whether they should reside
in England and Scotland, or in the antipodes;
indeed, the latter would be the preferable
place of the three, for a trifling portion
would, in that case, require to be paid to the
persons employed in conveying the feast.
But these noblemen do not, and cannot,
consume their rents: they, therefore, assign
them to others in return for services received,
which services would never otherwise be
performed; and the difference in the effect
between assigning them to Englishmen and
Scotchmen, instead of to foreigners, is, that
the former instead of the latter are made
partakers of the aforesaid produce.
Extreme cases are often a powerful test of
truth. Ireland, then, is now said to be
capable of supporting seven millions of
people. Suppose Ireland to be the property
of one man, and that one other man is able
to cultivate it for him. The proprietor
resides in France,—what follows? All the
Irish produce, save only the wages of one
man, goes out of the country, in the first
instance, for money; the money being
received, is posted off to Paris, and Ireland
supports one Irishmen and seven millions,
save one, of Frenchmen. Reverse the case:
the proprietor resides in Ireland, the whole
264 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
produce, we shall still suppose, is sold for
money; but the money being spent in Ireland,
brings an equal quantity of produce back
again into the country in exchange for that
which is exported, and Ireland now supports
at home seven millions of people instead of
one man.
Following the rents into the pockets merely
of the landlords, absenteeism would not
appear to do any harm; but we must follow
them out of their pockets, as well as into
them, before we can justly estimate the
effect of absenteeism.
The remedy for the evil is not, however,
to be found in taxing absentees, nor in a
miserably ineffective system of poor laws,
but in setting on foot a rational system of
exchange, by which capital may be made to
increase as fast as population, whereby pro-
fitable employment may be given to every
man. At present, four-fifths of the popula-
tion of this country have almost no choice
what they shall do: there is no constantly
increasing capital "marching abreast" with
population, and consequently there is a
constant scramble for employment of every
description; and this is the sort of freedom
which an individual now possesses "to follow
"the bent of his inclination, and to engage
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 265
"in any branch of industry he may think
"proper!" Upon the principles here pointed
out, every man would be able to obtain
employment at the average rate of wages;
and if a labourer did not work for a rich
man, that he might partake of his riches,
he would merely have to work for himself
instead, and the result to him would be the
same. Production is not now the cause of
demand, but demand is the cause of pro-
duction. Spending an income, therefore,
creates employment, which would not other-
wise exist; but it has been elsewhere shewn
how profitable employment may be created
for all men, without depending, in the
smallest degree, upon the will or taste of
the rich and powerful.
Page 173. "Instead of its being true, that
"the workmen employed in manufacturing
"establishments are less intelligent and acute
"than those employed in agriculture, the
"fact is distinctly and completely the reverse.
"The weavers and other mechanics of Glas-
"gow, Manchester, and Birmingham, possess
"far more information than is possessed by
"the agricultural labourers of any county in
"the empire." Some people will dispute this,
perhaps, but I quote the remark for a different
purpose. It would be difficult to discover
266 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
why a weaver, a tailor, or a shoemaker,
should be a less intelligent being than those
belonging to any other class of society.
There is nothing either dishonourable or
stultifying in useful employment, and the
common distaste for it amongst the better
educated classes, arises from the association
of other ideas than those necessarily con-
nected with the occupations themselves. If
every man were to receive a refined and liberal
education, the name of operative would not
sound one jot less respectable than that
of banker or merchant does at present. The
notion of inferiority which now attaches to
the lower orders of society, has its foundation
rather in a distaste for the habits and man-
ners of the persons themselves, than for the
occupations and pursuits they follow; but if
a national system of education were esta-
blished, for the purpose of cultivating the
minds of all men, to an extent sufficient
to create, as nearly as the differences of
intellect would allow of it, a mental equality
amongst mankind, there would no longer
be any antipathy to productive employ-
ments. This, however, is stated as a general,
not as an invariable rule; for it certainly
appears that there are some very necessary
occupations in life so odious, that no man
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 267
who follows them, rich though he may be,
could be possessed of very much refinement.
A man may sow corn and reap it, he may
manufacture goods and sell them, and all
this may be rendered quite consistent with
the character and feelings of a gentleman;
but mining, the more laborious occupations
in foundries, and some others, appear to
require a condition of bodily toil which is
very inconsistent with our present notions of
refinement.
The condition of unmarried and dependent
females, in the present state of society, is
most piteous. There are but two or three
occupations in which a well educated woman
can now engage, without being certainly
excluded from a rank in society, to which
she may otherwise be fully qualified to be-
long. What, I should like to know—save
our present barbarous system of exchange,
which reduces the remuneration for such
employments to a mere existence—should
prevent ladies from engaging in the nu-
merous light, healthy, and agreeable em-
ployments that are afforded, in innumerable
variety, by our various branches of manu-
facture? Would books, for instance, be less
agreeable to read, because they had been
folded by fingers that could play the harp?
268 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
or would the harp-strings be contaminated
by the touch of fingers that had recently
been employed in reducing, to the form of a
book, sheets of the Waverley Novels or The
Keepsake? The supposition that useful
employments must ever be followed by the
poor, the vulgar, and the unaccomplished,
has no better foundation than the most stupid
blindness to the causes which render them,
for the most part, so at present—inadequate
remuneration, the taxes of unproductive
labour, and commercial impolicy.
For selling goods of any description, save
only those which are now sold exclusively by
females to females, ladies are totally unfit
The management of a stock of goods, of
whatever kind, is a proper employment only
for men; and selling goods, moreover, in a
public shop, is an occupation by no means
consistent with the delicacy and reserve
which properly belong to the female cha-
racter, particularly in youth; but that many
of the light, agreeable, and useful employ-
ments, in our manufactories, will be followed,
—not, indeed, for ten, twelve, or fourteen
hours a-day, but, probably, for four or six,—
by women, with whom the present generation
of ladies could not, for an instant, be compared
in knowledge, in refinement, or in elegance
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 269
of mind or person, is an event which I firmly
believe will one day come to pass.
Page 181. " If the construction of a
"machine, that would manufacture two pairs
"of stockings for the same expense that had
"previously been required to manufacture
"one pair, be under any circumstances
"injurious, the injury would, obviously, be
"equal were the same thing accomplished by
"increased dexterity and skill on the part
"of the knitters; were the females, for
"example, who have been in the habit of
"knitting two or three pairs in the week,
"able in future to knit four or six pairs. There
u is really no difference in the cases." This
quotation is given merely for the purpose of
transferring to these pages as clear, concise,
and conclusive an argument in favour of
machinery as can be well imagined. It is,
however, for the advocates of the existing
principles of society to contend the point
with Mr M'Culloch, whether economy or
extravagance be our present interest.
Page 184. Gluts.—" Every man's object,
"in exerting his productive powers, must
"be either to consume the entire produce
"of his labour himself, or to exchange it, or
"portions of it, for such commodities as he
"wishes to obtain from others. Suppose,
270 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"now, that he directly consumes every thing
"he produces: it is obvious that in such a
"case there can be no glut or excess; for, to
"suppose that commodities, produced in
"order to be directly consumed by the indi-
"viduals producing them, may be in excess,
"is equivalent to supposing that production
"may be carried on without any motive,
"or that there may be an effect without
"a cause! When individuals, instead of
"directly consuming the produce of their
"industry, offer it in exchange to others,
"their miscalculation may occasion a glut.
"Should A, for example, produce commo-
"dities, and offer them in exchange to B or
"C, who is unable to furnish him with those
"he is desirous to obtain, he will have mis-
"calculated, and there will be a glut: he
"should, it is obvious, have either offered his
"commodities to others, or have applied
"himself to the production of those which
"he wanted This, however, is an error that
"will speedily be rectified; for, if he find
"that he cannot attain his object by prose-
"cuting his present employment, he will
"forthwith set about changing it, producing,
"in time to come, such commodities only as
"he can find a merchant for, or as he means
"to consume. It is clear, therefore, that a
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 271
"universally increased facility of production
"can never be the cause of a permanent over-
"loading of the market."
The confused and contradictory notions
which at present exist among mankind upon
the subject of gluts, are owing entirely to the
existing plan of exchange. All arguments
founded upon what an individual would do,
as in the case instanced above, fall to the
ground, as being inapplicable to the present
state of society, on account of the difficulty
of exchanging one thing for another. There
never could be a general glut, if freedom of
exchange really existed, and if mankind
were in the habit of using a measure of value
as an instrument of exchange; but in the
absence of these conditions—and unfortu-
nately they are absent—there may be a glut
of almost every thing. Suppose that to-
morrow there should be an immense increase
of goods of every description save money:
it is of no avail that they are equal to each
other, and that there is in fact no glut of any
thing, so far as the wants and wishes of man-
kind are concerned; for an inevitable conse-
quence of this general increase would be, an
advance in the price of money, or what is
the same thing, a general fall in the money
price of goods. All stocks on hand would
272 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
therefore require to be sold at a loss. And
this is an evil which does not and cannot
cure itself; for as commodities must always
be produced in apparent superabundance
before any fall can take place in their money
price, they must uniformly be sold at a loss
wherever they are produced in such quan-
tities as to lower themselves in money price;
the higher price of production always pre-
ceding the lower price of sale. And it is no
answer to this to say, that in the case sup-
posed, money would also increase in quantity;
for it is quite impossible that it could do any
such thing, to a sufficient extent to prevent
the evil that has been pointed out.
The increase of money is always a matter
of more caution than the increase of other
things. The securities on which it is given
out are limited in number, and peculiar in
kind; such as lands, houses, well secured
bills, and other retainable and imperishable
property. Who ever heard of a bank ad-
vancing <£100 upon the security of a cargo of
mackerel, or of ripe fruit, the estimated value
of which was only <£100; and yet, unless
money be increased as fish are caught, and
as cherries ripen and are gathered for the
market, and be decreased as fish and cherries
are consumed, there can be no security against
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 273
the recurrence of gluts: gluts meaning, not
superabundance of the commodity brought
into the market, so far as regards the wants
and wishes of society, or the ability to give
an equivalent for it, if the power of ex-
changing were to be freed from its shackles,
but such a quantity as shall cause a fall in
money price, and consequent loss instead of
profit to the undertaker.
But I have said, that under the present
system of exchange it is impossible that money
should increase with sufficient rapidity to
prevent the evil that has been pointed out.
Commodities are of two kinds,—those that
are, and those that are not, capable of being
increased in unlimited quantities by the appli-
cation of human labour; and there are also
all the degrees between these two extremes.
It is needless to argue the fact—for to point
to it will be sufficient—that gold is not as
multipliable by human labour as the aggregate
of other produce. If, then, the aggregate of
other produce be increased faster than gold,
it—the aggregate of produce, mind—must
be sold at a loss: it will not be the exception,
but it will be the rule, to lose by the employ-
ment of capital, instead of to gain by it. And
the liability of bankers to pay their notes in
gold, renders it quite impossible for them to
274 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
supply the deficiency; for, if they were to
make the attempt, gold would immediately
rise in price, as compared with their notes,
which would henceforth be returned upon
their hands as fast as they could issue them.
Then, it may be said, suppose the bankers
were not liable to pay their notes in specie,
what would happen? Why, then, bank notes
would be as plentiful as potatoes—there
would be no end to them; a pound note
would soon have to be given for a pound of
mutton chops, and the most unutterable con-
fusion would arise from the other extreme.
Twist and turn this subject, then, in whatever
way you please, you will find that the only
species of money that can ever allow pro-
duction to go on unchecked, must be a symbol,
not a commodity, increasing as the produce
of labour increases, and decreasing as the
produce of labour is privately appropriated or
consumed.
A very little reflection will convince any
practical man, that over-production—gluts—
is not the effect of miscalculation: if it were,
there never could be any such thing as a
general stagnation of trade, or a general diffi-
culty of obtaining a fair and reasonable profit
by the employment of capital. A few articles
might be superabundant now and then, but
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 275
the mass would always be sold as readily as
it could be made, and the deficiency would
always be as obvious as the glut But, instead
of this being really the case, turn to whatever
branch of productive industry you will, there
is a superabundant power of production; or,
in other words, production is the effect of
demand, and not the cause of it. Gluts of
one thing, we are told, merely argue a cor-
responding deficiency of some other thing;
but unless that other thing be money, it is an
evident absurdity to attribute them to any
such cause.
There is no tendency in demand to keep
pace with production. Create an increased
demand, and never fear but it will imme-
diately be followed by a corresponding
increase of production. If effectual demand
were really the result of production, the
difficulty of obtaining goods, at fair prices,
for money, would always be exactly equal
with that of obtaining money for goods at
fair prices. To buy and to sell would always,
in the aggregate, be equally easy and difficult;
in fact, there would be no difficulty in either
case. All the arts and schemes, contrivances
and adulterations, that are now resorted to
by venders to obtain customers, would be
done away with, because there would no
276 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
longer be any motive for their continuance.
And under the Social System it would really
be so: as respects difficulty, there would be
no difference whatever between buying and
selling. Effectual demand would really
depend upon production, because all pro-
duction would cause effectual demand: the
natural demand would be uniformly equal to
the whole quantity produced, and there
would be no greater favour in giving money
for goods than in giving goods for money.
At page 185, Mr M'Culloch objects to the
doctrine of Mr Malthus, who has " been led
"to deny the proposition that effective
"demand depends upon production." To
say that effective demand depends upon pro-
duction is a mere quibble, unless production
uniformly causes effectual demand; and it
does no such thing. The non-initiated in the
mysteries of the existing school of political
economy, answer the proposition point blank,
and hesitate not to declare it to be, what in
reality it is, a downright absurdity. "What,"
says the tailor, "do you really mean to say,
"that I have nothing to do but to stitch away
« from sunrise to midnight, and that my coats
"and vests will be demanded as fast as they
"are made! No, sir, depend upon it, not-
"withstanding any beautiful theory of cob-
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 277
"webs that may exist within your pericranium
"to the contrary, demand does not depend
"upon production, but production depends
;i upon demand; for, in my trade at least,
"goods are made because they are ordered,
« and they are not necessarily ordered because
"they happen to be made. A thousand coats
"will not produce a thousand customers,
"but a thousand customers will produce a
"thousand coats." The same answer would
be given by all the tailors in Britain, and not
by them only, but by all the conductors of
productive trades in existence.
Practically speaking, then, it is mere non-
sense to say that effective demand depends
upon production. "But," says Mr M'Culloch,
at page 184, "suppose that the amount
"of capital and labour, engaged in every
"different employment, is adjusted according
"to the effectual demand, and that they are
"all yielding the same nett profit; if the
"productive powers of labour were univer-
"sally increased, the commodities produced
"would all preserve the same relation to
"each other. Double or treble the quantity
"of one commodity would be given for
"double or treble the quantity of every
"other commodity. There would be a
"general augmentation of the wealth of the
278 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"society, but there would be no excess of
"commodities in the market; the increased
"equivalents on the one side being precisely
"balanced by a corresponding increase on
"the other. But if, while one class of pro-
"ducers were industrious, another chose to
"be idle, there would be a temporary excess.
"It is clear, however, that this excess would
"be occasioned by the deficient production of
"the idle class. It would not be a conse-
"quence of production being too much, but
"of its being too little, increased. Increase
"it more—make the idle class equally pro-
"ductive with the others, and then it will be
"able to furnish them with equivalents for
"their commodities, and the surplus will
"immediately disappear."
Now, all this is very much like saying, give
me a pair of wings, and then will I soar with
the eagle, and emigrate with the swallow : the
condition upon which the whole argument is
founded, is an impossibility in the present
state of society. The productive powers of
labour cannot be universally increased, either
by an individual producer, or by the aggregate
of producers, so long as we continue to act
upon the existing commercial principles,
without loss staring the employers of capital
in the face at every step they take. Producers
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 279
now are like an ungoverned regiment of
soldiers, who are told by the political econo-
mists that they are to march in line; but as
there is no one to give the word of command,
there can be no simultaneous movement, and
therefore, the first man who steps forward,
breaks the ranks, and his own neck into the
bargain. If—if, a due proportion of money
makers included, producers were to move
on simultaneously, there could be no over-
production.
To the universal increase of commodities,
having the same relation to each other, con-
vention in the employment of capital is an
indispensable condition; and by this single
word, convention, the whole system con-
tended for in these pages may be described.
But, says the economist, is not your conven-
tion very much like my wings,—is not this
condition also an impossibility? Nothing of
the kind : the terms, partnership, convention,
and national association, have been used
indiscriminately in describing the principle
of these pages. It will, however, be found, on
examination, that the partnership contended
for, is, in the common acceptation of the
term, no partnership at all; and that, instead
of requiring more unity of sentiment than is
essential to the present plan of society, it
280 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
would require incomparably less. The existing
commercial system is nothing but an aggre-
gate of petty partnerships, of little miserable
bands, fighting against each other, and not
unfrequently amongst themselves; whereas
the national partnership contended for, would
extend no farther than that which now exists
between a member of parliament, the post-
master general, a custom-house clerk, and a
labourer in Portsmouth dock-yard. Like
the impulse that conveys us, and the globe
that we inhabit, many thousand miles an hour,
without our being able to feel that there is
any motion, so would this national partner-
ship be practically unknown, unperceived,
unfelt, otherwise than by its beneficial in-
fluence. Every man would be at once his
own master and a servant of the commercial
state. "Like the different parts of a well
"constructed engine, the inhabitants of a
"civilized country" would all be " mutually
"dependent on, and connected with, each
"other." With "previous concert, and
"obeying only the powerful and steady im-
"pulse of self-interest, they" would "uni-
"versally conspire to the same great end,
"and contribute, each in his respective
"sphere, to furnish the greatest supply of
"necessaries, luxuries, conveniences, and
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 281
"enjoyments." Every man, in his individual
capacity, and in the performance of his
respective duties, would be entirely uncon-
nected with every other man—very much more
so, indeed, than mankind in general are at
present; but each would, nevertheless, belong
to one grand national assurance company,
against all the evils of poverty, of ignorance,
and of oppression.
I have thought it necessary to dwell at
considerable length upon this subject, because
some of the first writers of the day affirm that
to be at present, which it is the express object
of this book to bring about. Mr Mill, author
of The History of British India, a name suffi-
ciently great in the literary world to give
weight to any opinion connected with this
subject, says, in the preface to the second
edition of his Elements of Political Economy,
"I have endeavoured, by new illustrations,
"to render more palpable what appears to
"me to be demonstration of that most
"important doctrine, that the aggregate
"demand and supply of a nation are always
"equal, that production can never be too rapid
"for the market; in other words, that there
"never can be a general glut of commodities."
Mr Mill's arguments are, however, substan-
tially the same as those of Mr M'Culloch,
282 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
and I have preferred to grapple with the
latter, merely because to do so is in accor-
dance with the plan of this chapter of the
present work. Nothing can exceed the
confidence with which Mr Mill writes upon
this subject; but he, nevertheless, is wrong,
arid upon precisely the same grounds as Mr
M'Culloch. They have both overlooked the
fact, that, after goods are produced, they have
to be exchanged for a species of money, which
is not capable of being increased as rapidly
as the aggregate of other commodities. I am
not quite sure, however, after all, that Mr Mill
means any thing more than this, namely,
to use the words of the title to the section,
"That which is annually produced is annually
"consumed." It is at once admitted, that
the aggregate supply and demand of a
country go together ; but, then, it is the race-
horse yoked to the stage-wagon. Production
is the race-horse, and demand is the stage-
wagon. Production can go no faster than
demand: they are linked together; but the
spirit and qualities of the animal are abun-
dantly shewn by those very gluts, with the dis-
cussion of which, I fear, the reader's patience
is ere this tired. How I would fly over the
course, if demand would let me! says the high
mettled racer. Have pity on the poor beast,
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 283
then, and give him, in future, a little jockey
instead of a stage-wagon to take along with
him.
To conclude this subject: "Whenever,"
says Mr Mill, "any addition takes place in
"the quantity of goods, without an addition
"to the quantity of money, the price falls,
"and, of necessity, in the exact proportion
"of the addition which has been made. If
"this is not clear to every apprehension
"already, it may be rendered palpable by
"adducing a simple case. Suppose the
"market to be a very narrow one,—of bread
"solely on the one side, and money on the
"other. Suppose that the ordinary state of
"the market is a hundred loaves on the one
"side, and a hundred shillings on the other:
"the price of bread, accordingly, a shilling a
"loaf. Suppose, in these circumstances, that
"the quantity of loaves is increased to two
"hundred, while the money remains the
u same, it is obvious, that the price of the
"bread must fall one-half, or to sixpence per
"loaf." And is not this, I add, an argument
or rather a demonstration, sufficient to anni-
hilate the validity of every sentence that has
ever been written with the view of attempting
to prove that effectual demand depends upon
production, seeing that, whenever goods are
284 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
produced, they must be exchanged for a
species of money, which cannot, by any human
contrivance, be increased as rapidly as the
aggregate of other produce?
Page 194. "Ultimately, therefore, the
"introduction of machines cannot fail of
"being highly advantageous to the labourer;
"and even, when first resorted to, they never
"impose on him any other hardship than
"that of occasionally forcing him to change
"his business. This, however, is seldom a
"very material one." Now, really, this does
appear to me to be a hardship of a most
material description. In this age of com-
petition, how very few men, not educated to
any given employment, are at all capable of
competing with those who have! How
dexterous must a man become, to be able to
compete with his neighbours, and how
essential are education and long habit to
success in any employment. How does the
opinion of Mr M'Culloch, as here stated,
that to force a man to change his business is
seldom a material hardship, tally with his own
opinion, as stated at page 93, of the same
book ?" A peculiar play of the muscles, or
"sleight-of-hand, is necessary to perform the
"simplest operation in the best and most
"expeditious manner; and this can only be
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 285
acquired by habitual and constant practice"
Dr Smith/' continues Mr M'Culloch, " has
given a striking example, in the case of the
nail manufacturer, of the extreme difference
between training a workman to the precise
occupation in which he is to be employed,
and training him to a similar and closely
allied occupation. 'A common smith,'
says he,' who, though accustomed to handle
'the hammer, has never been used to make
'nails, if, upon some particular occasion, he
< is obliged to attempt it, will scarce, I am
< assured, be able to make above two or
'three hundred nails in a day, and those,
'too, very bad ones. A smith who has been
'accustomed to make nails, but whose sole
4 or principal business has not been that of
'a nailer, can seldom, with his utmost dill—
'gence, make more than eight hundred or
'a thousand nails in a day. But I have
'seen several boys, under twenty years of
'age, who had never exercised any other
; trade but that of making nails, and who,
'when they exerted themselves, could make,
'each of them, upwards of two thousand
'three hundred nails in a day;' or nearly
three times the number of the smith who
had been accustomed to make them, but
286 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"who was not entirely devoted to that par-
"ticular business!"
What chance would a weaver or a political
economist have, in competition with these
sleight-of-hand nail makers? How many
times over would a poor wretch, who had
spent his previous life in almost any other
occupation, be obliged to starve to death,
before he could acquire sufficient dexterity
to be able to earn his bread by making nails?
The truth is, that for a man to be obliged
to change his business, is a hardship of an
almost overwhelming description; it is a
misfortune which can seldom be recovered in
a lifetime; and although there are some few
individuals who possess sufficient versatility
of talent to enable them to turn their hands
to many things, these are only the exceptions
to a very general rule to the contrary. It has
been shewn, in a former chapter, in what
manner, according to the social notions of
policy, as well as of right, this evil ought to
be provided against.
Page 209. "No arbitrary regulation, no act
"of the legislature, can add any thing to the
"capital of the country; it can only force it
■" into artificial channels." Could not the
members of a manufacturing and trading
community agree amongst themselves to
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 287
save a part of their income? Could thev
not determine upon, and adopt an " arbitrary
"regulation/' by which this saving might be
effected, making it, by mutual consent,
binding equally on all? And could not
this add to the capital of the country?
Assuredly it would; and unless this be done,
politicians and political economists may con-
tinue to puzzle each other until the day of
judgment; but, in the promotion of national
prosperity, it will avail nothing.
Page 215. "It appears, from the tables
"given by M. Messance, in his valuable
"work on the population of France, that the
"ravages occasioned by the plague of Mar-
"seilles, in 1720, were very soon repaired;
"and that, notwithstanding the diminution
"of population, the marriages became more
"numerous, and were also more fruitful, im-
"mediately after the mortality had subsided."
This tells in favour of the theory of Mr Sadler.
The whole theory of superfecundity is built
upon the supposition, that there is a natural
tendency in population to increase at a certain
rate, and a natural tendency in subsistence
to increase at a certain other rate; and, if
Mr Malthus had taken half as much pains to
discover the existing checks upon production
and accumulation, as he has to insist upon
288 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the necessity of imposing checks upon the
increase of population, the essay on popu-
lation would never have been quoted as
gospel by Mr M'Culloch. "The extreme
"importance of controlling the principle of
"population," says Mr M'Culloch, at page
216, "by the influence of moral restraint,
"may be shewn by comparing the natural
"ratio of its increase with that of the increase
"of capital. It has been already seen, that
"that portion of the accumulated produce or
"capital of a country which consists of food
"and clothes, or of the articles directly
"available to the support of man, forms the
"only fund from which the inhabitants derive
"any part of their subsistence: and hence
"it is plain, that if capital have a tendency
"to increase faster than population, the con-
"dition of society must, generally speaking,
"become more and more prosperous." The
great error of all this is the conclusion that
is drawn from it. The necessity of checking
population is habitually and incessantly
insisted on, whilst it is admitted throughout,
that the same effect would be produced by
increasing capital. But of the two alternatives
we hear nothing: it is of the one only that a
word is said. Nature regulates the prolific-
ness of marriages; man possesses the power
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 289
of regulating the accumulation of capital;
but the political economists have, in their
wisdom, determined, that it is nature, not
humanity, that is in error. "There are no
"means whatever," says Mr M'Culloch, at
page 379, "by which the command of the
"labouring class over the necessaries and
"conveniences of life can be enlarged, other
"than by accelerating the increase of capital
"as compared with population, or by retard-
"ing the increase of population as compared
"with capital; and every scheme for im-
"proving the condition of the labourer which
"is not bottomed on this principle, or which
"has not an increase of the ratio of capital
"to population for its object, must be com-
"pletely nugatory and ineffectual."
The Social System is bottomed on this
principle, and a very little reflection should
be sufficient to convince any man, that it is
not by endeavouring to counteract the laws
of nature, but by accommodating ourselves to
them, that nations must be made to prosper.
If we cannot swim with the stream of nature,
we may rest assured that we cannot swim
against it.
The Author of Nature has given to every
thing which his power has created, peculiar
properties, by a knowledge of, and attention
T
290 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
to, which alone are we able to bring any
thing to perfection, or to the approach of it.
To the vegetable world he has given its pecu-
liarities, and, in the cultivation thereof, we
attend to the diversities of each particular
species of plant, never failing to give it, as
far as our knowledge and ability enable us to
do so, the soil, situation, and temperature
that it requires; well knowing that it would
be vain and foolish to attempt to make it
accommodate itself to any soil, situation, or
temperature which we should choose to
prefer. Human beings only require to be
treated as we treat plants.
Page 383. "No proposition, then, can
"be more true, than that the unexampled
"misery of the Irish people is directly owing
"to the excessive augmentation of their num-
"bers; and nothing can be more perfectly
"futile, than to expect any real or lasting
"amendment in their situation until an effec-
"tual check has been given to the progress
"of population." The opinion here stated
by Mr M'Culloch is completely refuted by
himself; for, at page 491, he says, "Every
"one, however, who has been in Ireland, or
"has any acquaintance with that country,
"must be aware, that agriculture is there at
"the lowest possible ebb, and that, consi-
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 291
"dering the extraordinary natural fertility
"of the soil, a very small advance towards
"a better system of farming would enable
"Ireland to export five or six times the
"quantity of produce she now sends to us."
And again, at page 492, " On these grounds,
"it would seem that a very great increase in
"the imports of corn and cattle from Ireland
"may be rationally anticipated. Nor should
"it surprise any one, who considers her
"vast capacities of improvement, though we
"become, in a few years, an exporting people."
Can any two things be more completely at
variance with each other than is the first of
these quotations with the second and third?
A real and lasting amendment may be effected
in the situation of the Irish, by removing the
existing checks upon production, exchange,
distribution, and accumulation: by imposing
checks upon population never. The distresses
of Ireland may be removed at any time, and
for ever, and the absentees brought to their
senses rapidly, not by depopulating the
country, nor by repealing the existing union,
but by the formation of a commercial union
upon the principles that are here described j
and it is totally impossible to remove the
distresses of any country by any other means
292 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
whatever, than those of causing demand to
keep pace with production, run the latter ever
so quickly.
Speaking of the providence of the labour-
ing classes of this country, Mr M'Culloeh
says, at page 409, ■" In proof of this, we
"are referred to the returns obtained under
"authority of the House of Commons, which
"shew, that, in 1815, there were no fewer
"than 925,439 individuals in England and
"Wales, being about one-eleventh of the then
"existing population, members of friendly
"societies, formed for the express purpose
"of affording protection to the members
"during sickness and old age, and enabling
"them to subsist without resorting to the
"parish funds; and that the deposits in the
"saving's banks amount at present to about
"fourteen millions sterling! It is alleged,
"that no such unquestionable proofs of the
"prevalence of a spirit of providence and
"independence can be exhibited in any other
"European country." This furnishes pretty
strong evidence of what the lower classes of
society can do when they set about it: indeed
it is certain, from their overwhelming num-
bers, that they could, of themselves, and
without any assistance whatever, put the
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 293
principles of the Social System into opera-
tion. For, in every state of society, the
wages of labour must be sufficient to support
the toils of labour, and to continue the race
of labourers; and this minimum of reward,
or " natural price of labour,'' as the political
economists call it, can never be so nicely
adjusted, but that the labouring classes may
be enabled to save something out of their
earnings; and, though a farthing a-week
should be fixed as a minimum subscription,
it is certain, that, for a great national object,
such as is here contended for, so complete a
system of voluntary tax might be established
amongst themselves, as speedily to realize a
sum sufficient to start the Social System;
and, once fairly on its legs, it would be easier
to check the tides than to retard its progress.
An enlightened multitude, seeking to im-
prove their condition by the legitimate means
of honest industry, would soon become the
most irresistible power upon the earth.
Page 445. "But in no case does rent
"enter into price; for the produce raised
"on the poorest lands, or by means of the
"capital last applied to the cultivation of the
"soil, regulates the price of all the rest; and
"this produce yields no surplus above the
"common and average rate of profit." Surely
294
THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
this must be a mistake. The theory of rent,
as laid down by Mr M'Culloch, is, that it
(rent) consists of the difference between the
produce of any given quantity of capital and
labour expended upon rich and compara-
tively poor lands. Thus, for example, if
land of the
First quality produce
100 -»
* 50 bushels of corn
Second do.
90
Bushels of corn,
40
do.
Third do.
80
the rent of the
30
do.
Fourth do.
70
landwillbe the
20
do.
Fifth do.
60
value of
10
do.
Sixth do.
50
0
do.
That is, provided that there be any consider-
able quantity of land of the sixth quality in
a state of cultivation; for the cost of pro-
ducing the corn from the sixth, or poorest
quality of land, will regulate the price of corn
in the market; and therefore, although the
cultivators of superior lands should pay no
rent whatever, the price of corn would still
be the same, for they would then pocket the
difference, which is now received by the land
proprietors. This theory of rent appears to
be completely established; and at page 442
Mr M'Culloch says, « This analysis of the
"nature and causes of rent, discovers an
"important and fundamental distinction
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 295
« between agricultural and commercial and
« manufacturing industry. In manufactures,
"the worst machinery is first set in motion,
"and every day its powers are improved by
"new inventions, and it is rendered capable
''< of yielding a greater amount of produce
"with the same expense; and as no limits
u can be assigned to the quantity of improved
"machinery that may be introduced,—as a
"million of steam-engines maybe constructed
"for the same, or rather for a less, propor-
"tional expense than would be required for
"the construction of one, — competition
"never fails of reducing the price of manu-
"factured commodities to the sum for which
"they may be produced according to the
"least expensive method. In agriculture,
"on the contrary, the best machines, that is,
"the best soils, are brought first into use, and
"recourse is afterwards had to inferior soils,
"which require greater expenditure to make
"them yield the same supplies."
Thus it appears, that, whilst the market
price of commodities is regulated by the
cheapest method of producing them, in all
cases wherein unlimited quantities can be
produced at the same comparative expense,
it is regulated by the dearest method of pro-
ducing them in all cases wherein additional
296 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
quantities can only be produced at a com-
paratively greater expense. If, for example,
to spin a given quantity of cotton by machi-
nery should cost a shilling, and to spin it by
the hand ten shillings, the market price of
spinning the cotton would be ten shillings,
provided that the existing machines should
be incapable of spinning all the cotton for
which there should be an effectual demand;
and the machine proprietors would therefore
be enabled to obtain a profit of nine shillings
on every such quantity of cotton spun by
them over and above the ordinary rate of
profit obtained by their hand competitors.
But this does not prove that " in no case
"does rent enter into price." For cotton
read corn, and say that, under the most
favourable circumstances, its cost in labour,
capital, and the average rate of profit, be a
shilling; but if we follow it into the market
we find the price demanded for it to be ten
shillings, what, in the name of political
economy, is it then which adds nine shillings
to its price, if it be not rent 9
There appears to be no doubt that the
price of corn in the market will continue to
be unaffected by the payment of rent to land-
lords, so long as we continue to act upon the
existing principles of commerce, because if the
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 997
landlords did not take rent, the tenants would,
and would be able to take it, provided that
the existing restrictions upon the importation
of corn should be continued. But this would
not be the case if the corn lands of the country
were to become a part of a national capital, to
be employed in the manner that has been
here described; for all the land worth culti-
vating would be cultivated; the whole produce
would be divided by the whole cost of produc-
tion; the extra cost of cultivating inferior land,
in proportion to the result obtained therefrom,
would be equally divided amongst every eater
of bread in the kingdom, and the price of corn
would be lower than it is now by the whole
amount of rent that is annually paid for per-
mission to cultivate the land on which it is
grown. The variations in the quality of land
are the instrument of power—the act of Cir-
cumstantial Parliament—by which the people
are now taxed to a most enormous amount.
Let the government of this country assist its
people in putting into operation a plan of
exchange, by which they may be freed from
all those taxes which are imposed upon them
by the force of circumstances, and a complaint
against the amount of the government taxes
will never again be uttered by the tongue of
man, "Much discussion," says Mr M'Culloch,
298 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
at page 468, " has taken place as to the proper
"size of farms. This, however, is not a point
"as to which it is possible to come to any
"very precise conclusions." I do not think
so. The precise size of a farm should be the
whole quantity of land in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, that is devoted to the production
of marketable commodities; and the precise
number of farmers should be the number that
may be sufficient to cultivate the land in the
best manner, and with the least sufficient
expense of superintendence and management
And if the charge of radicalism be brought
against me for making this observation, I
plead—Not Guilty. I would not have a single
acre of land converted into national property
by any violent proceeding, or by any uncon-
stitutional or dishonourable act. I merely
say this,—Let a commercial society be formed
upon certain principles; let the society act
upon the said principles, and it must become
rich; and, being rich, whenever there is any
land to sell at a fair price, let the society buy
it. I merely contend, that the labouring
classes of society should continue to be
allowed to do that which they and every
other class are allowed to do, by the law of
the country, as it at present stands.
Much of Mr M'Culloch's work, that has
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 299
been unnoticed here, is devoted to an explana-
tion of the existing state of things; and, save
one which has been already quoted, the fore-
going is the last extract which will here be
given from it; and however much I may
differ from this author in many particulars,
I should be wanting in candour if I did not
acknowledge myself greatly indebted to " The
Principles of'Political Economy''for a clear view
of many subjects with which I was previously
but ill acquainted. The doctrines therein
taught are, however, very different in some
particulars from those of the Social System:
under the one set of principles, production
must ever remain the effect of demand, whilst
under the other, it would become the cause
of it; and that is the better system of the two
which is most in accordance with Mr M'Cul-
loch's own definition of our mutual object,
"The Economist is not to frame systems and
"devise schemes for increasing the wealth
"and enjoyments of particular classes, but to
"apply himself to discover the sources of
"national wealth and universal prosperity."
300 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER XII.
Taxation—General observations upon the effect of taxation, with
reference to the present system of Commerce —Increased production
the effect of large sums of money being borrowed and expended by
the Government — Under the Social System taxes would be an
evil exactly proportionate to their amount.
A nation, like an individual, can afford to
pay taxes more or less, as its income is great
or small. All the arguments against taxation
are founded upon the supposition, that, by
at least so much as government shall cease to
take from us, we shall become the richer;
but before we can be assured that this con-
clusion is logical, one of two propositions must
be established, namely,—that the national
income, that is, the annual produce of the
labour of the people, is of a fixed quantity, or
value ; or else, that to reduce the taxes would
have the effect rather of increasing than of
diminishing the national income.
The reduction or abolition of the tax on a
particular commodity, is sometimes found to
TAXATION. 301
have the effect of increasing the consumption
thereof to a great extent; and at first view
this looks very much like proof that the
annual produce of the country is increased
in proportion as the taxes are diminished.
It is no proof, however, of any such thing:
it proves this, and this only, that, in disposing
of their incomes, that is, in spending their
money, mankind are governed by the desire
of obtaining for them whatever they consider
to be most calculated to promote their advan-
tage and satisfaction; and as all things are
produced with the view of meeting the known
wants and wishes of society, every commodity
falls into its respective station in the scale of
supply, according to the degree in which it
possesses the two qualities of desirableness
and cheapness; for those things are always
most in demand, which are most desired, and
most easily obtained. For example,—
SCALE OF DEMAND.
First necessaries,
1
Moderate comforts,
. 2
Ample provision,
Affluence,
3
. 4
Luxury,
Profusion,
5
. 6
302 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
Now, it is evident that demand will always
be the greatest for the lowest numbers in
the foregoing scale, because, while only a few
persons, comparatively speaking, can be con-
sumers of the sixth class, all, both rich and
poor, must of necessity be consumers of the
first. If, therefore, we take any article, the
present price of which causes it to come
under the denomination of six, and by re-
ducing its price alter it to the character of
three, it is certain that the demand for it will
be enormously increased.
But this does not prove, nor does it form
a particle of evidence, that if, instead of
removing number 6 to number 3, num-
bers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, each retaining its
respective place, should all be reduced in
money price, an increase of production would
take place in any thing like the ratio before
spoken of. On the contrary, it would be a
change in name rather than in reality, and
the annual produce of the country being re-
gulated by totally different principles, would
not, with any certainty, be increased to the
amount of a single grain.
Taxation has the effect of raising the money
price of commodities; but who is benefited
by low prices? Not the labourer; for whilst
two men are employed, and two unemployed
TAXATION. 303
are seeking for employment, the two former
will be compelled by competition to accept
whatever remuneration is offered them above
the parish allowance. Not the tradesman;
for whilst there are more goods to sell than
there are customers to buy them, the profits
of trade will be sure to decrease as fast as
prices can possibly fall; and if, with a sten-
torian voice, loud enough to be heard from
one extremity of the kingdom to the other,
a man were to demand of the trading classes,
u What, without any exception, is the greatest
"evil you have had to contend with of late
"years?" in some very extensive trades
they would answer him, with one consent,
and without so much as a single dissentient
voice, " A falling market; owing to which it
"has uniformly happened, that the goods we
"buy to-day, at as low a price as money,
"judgment, and a thorough knowledge of the
"markets can ensure, are worth still less three
u months hence; and thus, if we keep a suf-
"ficient stock on hand to give our customers
"the advantage of selecting from an exten-
"sive variety, we may lay our account for a
"certain annual loss of a few hundred
"pounds, as the unavoidable consequence of
"depreciation in the value of our stock." A
few years previous to this period, precisely
304 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the reverse took place; manufactured stock
was continually rising in price, and then
anterior purchases had as regularly to be
marked up to the new standard, as they had
afterwards to be marked down to it. Thus
have money makers, and money managers,
the gods of the commercial world, continued
to hold in their own hands the issues of
commercial life and death.
The higher classes are, no doubt, benefited
by low prices, whenever they can get the
rents agreed for twenty years ago, and in all
cases where they have fixed money incomes
well secured.
The radicals, and some other political
quacks, call it a libel on common sense, even
to start the question, whether the taxes are
now beneficial or injurious; but these gentle-
men are easily answered, for most of them
are abuses of machinery, and in that character
they are themselves the advocates of taxation
and extravagance. The contemptuous sneer
with which a man is sometimes treated by his
radical friends, if he happen to have any, for
presuming to doubt whether taxes are at
present an evil or a good, goes but a very little
way towards proving that they are the former;
and whoever asserts that there is no doubt
about the matter in the mind of any rational
TAXATION. 305
man, tells us by the same language, that his
opinion is not the result of a deliberate and
unprejudiced inquiry into the subject. It
may be with a diseased commercial society,
as it often undoubtedly is with a diseased
member of it, that evil produces good. The
administration of a violent, and even danger-
ous, medicine, itself an undoubted evil, is in
many cases beneficial; and if to tax an irra-
tional and ill-constructed commercial society,
have the effect of calling into operation its
dormant productive powers, taxation does
no more harm than would be committed by
horsewhipping a lazy but powerful vaga-
bond, who could not be got to exert himself
by any more gentle method.
That the productive resources of this
country are not in full operation now, none
but the veriest political bigot will deny.
There are three natural limits to production:
the exhaustion of our industry, the exhaustion
of our productive powers, and the satisfaction
of our wants. But to none of these limits
has the productive power of society advanced
at present: the existing limit to production,
then, be it what it may, is an artificial one.
I believe it is this: We produce as much as,
in the aggregate, we can sell for more money
than it costs; and this quantity is, I think,
306 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
regulated by the comparative scarcity of
goods and money. Goods appear to me to
have, in the present state of society, the same
relation to money that the mercury in the
thermometer has to the temperature of the
atmosphere; they expand with the heat of
an abundant, and contract with the frigidity
of a deficient, circulating medium.
If the whole productive powers of a country
were in ordinary operation, it would be quite
impossible for an immense increase of pro-
duction to be always consequent upon the
issue of a profusion of bank notes. The
circulating of bank notes creates a demand
for produce; it does no more; it is quite
evident, from the nature of the instrument
itself, that it can do no more.
Again, if the productive powers of labour
were always in full operation, the borrowing
and spending of large sums of money could
have no other effect than to withdraw, from
the mass of the population, an immense
proportion of those necessaries and comforts
of life which they would otherwise have
possessed. If, for example, the products of
the country are at ten, and the government
spends borrowed money in the purchase of
those products to the amount of five, there
are left but five for the consumption of the
TAXATION. 307
people not under the pay of government
Hie times, therefore, when the national debt
was most rapidly contracting, should have
?een desperately bad; it happens, however,
ather unfortunately for the opinions of those
vho believe that effective demand depends
ww upon production, that they were just
he reverse. It was during the year 1813 that
he public debt was most rapidly increased;
10 less a sum than sixty-four millions was
hen borrowed; and what followed? Why,
t must be within the remembrance of almost
>very commercial man, that prosperity never
vas so general, at least in his day. The spend-
ing, however, of all this money did not create
vealth, it created only a demand for it: the
)roductive powers of labour obeyed the call;
md wealth in abundance came at the bidding
)f the money that was ready to be given in
exchange for it.
It is only the radicals, however, who fancy
hat, to get forthwith into a commercial
leaven, we have merely to get rid of the
axes; for, if we refer to the opinions of those
)ersons who have been led to think seriously
ipon the subject, for the purpose of com-
mitting their opinions to paper in a systematic
orm, we find no such disposition to lay evil
)y wholesale to the charge of taxation and
308 THE.SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the public debt. "To those," says Mr
Colquhoun, " who may entertain an opinion,
"that the nation has been saved, under all
"the difficulties and perils it has had to
u encounter, by the exertions of industry and
"ingenuity of the people, some surprise
"may be excited by the assertion, that the
"domestic debt, and its progressive increase,
"have had the chief merit in producing what
"may be considered as a political pheno-
"menon,—the rapid increase of public and
"private buildings, trade, commerce, naviga-
"tion, and manufactures of the country, under
"the accumulated and increasing weight of
"an immense public debt. Like seed sown
"in the ground, the vast sums expended gave
"birth to additional industry and ingenuity,
"which, in various branches, have been found
"to re-produce many fold."
"The government," says Mr Malthus,
"during the last twenty-five years, has shewn
"no very great love either of peace or
"liberty, and no particular economy in the
"use of the national resources. It has pro
"ceeded in a very straight-forward manner
"to spend great sums in war, and to raise
"them by very heavy taxes. It has, no doubt,
"done its part towards the dilapidation of
". the national resources. But still the broad
TAXATION. 309
"fact must stare every impartial observer in
"the face, that at the end of the war in 1814^
"the national resources were not dilapidated;
u and that, not only were the wealth and
"population considerably greater than they
"were at the commencement of the war, but
"that they had increased in the interval at a
"more rapid rate than was ever experienced
"before. Perhaps this may justly be con-
"sidered as one of the most extraordinary
"facts in history,"
The cause of the facts here stated appears
to me to be perfectly plain. The expenditure
of immense sums of borrowed money during
the war, created a demand for labour, in other
words, called into operation those resources
which the country then possessed, and still
possesses. The forced demand for produce,
so brought about, made trade brisk; ample
employment was furnished for the existing
capital; capital itself is formed out of profit,
and profit was then at a very high rate.
Capital, therefore, accumulated rapidly, and,
as Mr Malthus observes, the national
resources, instead of being dilapidated, were
increased during the war, at a more rapid
rate than ever was experienced before. Some,
indeed, attempt to make it out, that, by a
species of magical process, we spent by antici-
310 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
pation; but the supposition is quite erroneous,
for the debt is almost entirely owing to our-
selves; a little more than seventeen millions
and a half, is all I believe that is owing to
other countries.
What was in reality spent during the war?
It was not capital, for that never before
accumulated at half so rapid a rate. It was
the produce of the labour of the people-
food, clothes, swords, muskets, ammunition,
accoutrements, which were made in conse-
quence of the demand which then existed
for them, which, in the absence of that
demand, would never have existed at all, and
which, if occasion should require, we could
produce again as rapidly, and with as little
inconvenience as ever. Had the true prin-
ciple of supply and demand, however, been
understood, the national debt would never
have existed; for the people, who, by their
labour and capital, could meet the enormous
demand created by the spending of borrowed
money, could have met that demand precisely
as easily, had it been made upon them in the
shape of an equal per centage upon the pro-
duce of their industry.
I have been induced to confine my obser-
vations upon this subject to mere general
remarks — to play about the gate of the
TAXATION. 311
labyrinth, rather than enter it—because I
have only in view the endeavour to fix atten-
tion to the great principle of these pages.
Let the advocates of things as they are, solve
their own riddles, and explain their own
mysteries, as best they can; and verily I do
not think that they can pitch upon a more
difficult problem to solve satisfactorily than
the absolute effect of taxation in the present
state of society: there are so many pros and
cons, so many ifs and buts, that I question
whether George Bidder himself could make
it out.
With reference to the principles of the
Social System, there is no such difficulty;
for the productive powers of labour being at
all times in full operation, taxes would be an
evil exactly proportionate to their amount.
The strength of the giant being always
exerted, whatever portion of it should be
demanded for the service of the state, must
of necessity be so much lost to himself.
312 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
CHAPTER XIII.
The public debt—Preliminary considerations — Comparison between
the public and a private debt — Estimated amount of property in
the British empire — Summary view of the progressive increase
of the national debt, from the period of the revolution to 1st
February, 1813.
The public debt is the public witch, on
whose devoted head the politically supersti-
tious are for ever heaping the opprobrium of
all their misfortunes, difficulties, and troubles.
If an individual be in debt, and wishes to get
out of it, he has to consider the amount of
his debt, the amount of his income, and how
long a time it will require to pay off the
former, by laying aside a portion of the latter
for that purpose. There is, however, an
important preliminary to consider, namely,
the possibility of reducing expenditure. If,
for instance, a man be in debt <£100, and his
annual income be but <£100, and the expen-
diture of £100 be necessary to the support
of existence, it is certain that unless that man
THE PUBLIC DEBT. 313
can increase his income, he can neither pay
off his debt, nor a single shilling ofit,solong
as he continues to live; but if his debt be
£100, his income <£100, and the necessaries
of life but <£90, it follows, that in the space
of ten years he may relieve himself of the
burden. In considering, therefore, the pos-
sibility of reducing or paying off the national
debt, this distinction should be constantly
kept in view.
The present amount of the national debt
is, in round numbers, about eight hundred
millions; and, according to Mr Colquhoun,
the annual income of the country is about
four hundred and thirty millions; by appro-
priating a tenth part of our present income to
the purpose, it would therefore require about
twenty years to pay off the debt entirely.
The first thing, however, to be determined
is the value of the money which the national
creditor ought to accept in liquidation of his
claims, which value has been particularly
defined in the chapter of this work entitled
Distribution. Perhaps there would be no
great hardship in imposing a pretty heavy
per centage upon the produce of the country,
for the purpose of repaying the national cre-
ditors, because, upon the principles of the
314 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
Social System, it would tell two ways; and
it would merely require us to work a little
harder than would otherwise be necessary.
The more we should work, the more wealth
and money too should we create, which money
would be as valuable as that which the national
creditor lent. Thus, at the expiration of every
year, a few millions might be handed over to
the national creditors, who, in all human
probability, would hand them back again, to
be converted into lands and buildings, and
other national capital, for which they would
receive ample remuneration, under the pro-
vision of the first article of national charges,
as mentioned at page 108,
A question arises, Could we afford to pay
off a large sum annually, say twenty millions
or so? And I think it is answered by the
well known fact, that our present difficulties
arise chiefly from our being able to create
wealth so easily and so rapidly, that nobody
can be found to buy it fast enough. This
evil the Social System would most effectually
cure; for, upon the principles here laid down,
demand must ever keep pace with produc-
tion.
Dismiss the millions, both in the case of
the income and the debt: thus, debt <£800;
THE PUBLIC DEBT. 315
income ,£400. Now, really it would not
appear to be a thing absolutely impossible
for a man to get out of debt in the course of
years, who owes <£800, and whose annual
income is <£400; and whenever this nation
shall be blessed with a free and unrestrained
system of exchange, it will be just as easy for
it to pay off its debt of eight hundred millions,
as it would be for the supposed individual to
pay off his debt of <£800, both being required
to save a portion of their income for the pur-
pose, and both being well able to afford to
do so.
At page 60 of the second edition of his
book, Mr Colquhoun estimates the property
of the British empire at <£4,096,530,895, and
in the following manner, the particulars
being previously given much more fully :—
316 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF PROPERTY IN THE
BRITISH EMPIRE.
Europe.—Great Britain and
Ireland, including the navy, £2,736,640,000
Dependencies, . 22,161,330
-£2,758,801,330
America. —British Possessions
in North America, £46,575,360
British West India Colonies, 100,014,864
Conquered West India Colo-
nies, . . . 75,220,000
Africa.—British Settlements, £550,400
Conquered idem, . 4,220,100
Asia. — British Colonies and
Dependencies, . £ 11,280,000
Conquered idem, idem 27,441,090
221,810,224
4,770,500
£38,721,090
Territorial. — Possessions
under the management of
the East India Company, 1,072,427,751
1,111,148,841
Total, £4,096,530,895
If, therefore, with reference to the public
debt, we look at the property of the empire
instead of at its income—the income spoken
of, by the way, is only that of Great Britain
and Ireland, that of the colonies not being
included—we find that it does not amount
to a fifth of the whole ; so that, if the nation
THE PUBLIC DEBT. 317
were to be made bankrupt, it could pay
above a hundred shillings in the pound. The
property of an empire cannot, it is true, be
sold off like a bankrupt estate; but this does
not make the property itself of less value.
If Mr Colquhoun has estimated the property
of the empire at what it is worth in small
portions, the aggregate is not intrinsically of
less value because it is not possible to sell it.
Its value, so far as relates to the subject we
are now considering, should be estimated by
the value of its individual parts, in money of
the same value as that which the national
creditors lent, and not by the number of
golden guineas that it would now sell for by
public competition to its own inhabitants, in
which case it is quite clear, that the whole
property could only sell for that portion of
itself which is denominated gold.
It would be absurd to reason from Mr
Colquhoun's estimates as from established
facts, because an approximation to the truth
is all that he professes to give. They serve
the purpose, however, of giving general views,
and enable us to form some notion of the
aggregate circumstances of the country. Mr
Colquhoun himself says of his estimates, that
it is a principle throughout to steer clear of
exaggeration.
318 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
This view of the subject, however, is far
less important than that with reference to
the income, because it is from the income,
and not from the property, of the country
that the debt must be paid, if ever it be paid
at all. Now, the income of Great Britain
and Ireland, Mr Colquhoun estimates at four
hundred and thirty millions, and, in so doing,
it is not improbable that he is greatly within
the mark. For the present annual amount
of the taxes is about forty-five millions, which
sum is entirely expended in paying the govern-
ment dependants and the interest of the
public debt. Forty-five is, in round numbers,
about a tenth of four hundred and thirty.
Now, it certainly does not appear, that, their
incomes being averaged, more than a tenth
part of the population of this country is living
upon money derived from the public funds,
or from government in any shape. There is
good reason for believing, therefore, that the
total income of this country is not less than
four hundred and thirty millions.
The analogy between the case of the sup-
posed individual and that of the public, fails,
however, in one particular, the latter being
already taxed to the amount of a ninth part
of its estimated income. But this is a mere
bagatelle, scarcely worth taking into the
THE PUBLIC DEBT. 3]9
account; because another omission of much
greater—perhaps many times greater—mag-
nitude has to be set against it; namely, the
power we posses of increasing the income itself
to an almost indefinite amount, by making
production become the cause of demand.
The mind of man has a great antipathy to
the confession of its own ignorance, even
to itself. The difficulties of this nation
must, therefore, be attributed to something:
and because it has not been generally
perceived that they are entirely owing to
commercial impolicy, the public debt has
formed a very convenient resting place for
public credulity; in the face, however, of the
fact, that the country thus burdened has
continued to prosper in, at least, an equal
degree with others that have no such pretext
for their troubles.
The following brief statistical history of the
national debt, extracted from Mr Colquhoun's
valuable work, cannot fail to interest the poli-
tical reader. If effective demand depends
now upon production, what a riddle is pre-
sented in the following document? If, on
the contrary, production depends upon effec-
tive demand, and if effective demand may be
made to depend upon production, what is to
prevent us from paying off the debt as rapidly
as it was contracted?
SUMMARY VIEW OF THE NATIONAL DEBT, FROM
THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION TO
FEBRUARY 1, 1813.
National Debt at the Revolution, . . £ 664,263
Increase during the reign of King William, . 15,730,439
Debt at the accession of Queen Anne, . . £ 16,394,702
Increase during the reign of Queen Anne, . 37,750,661
Debt at the accession of George I. . . £54,145,363
Decrease during the reign of George I. . 2,053,128
Debt at the accession of George II. . . £52,092,235
Decrease during the peace, . . . 5,137,612
Debt at the commencement of the Spanish war, 1739, £46,954,623
Increase during the war, . . . 31,338,689
Debt at the end of the Spanish war, 1748, . £78,293,312
Decrease during the peace, . . . 3,721,472
Debt at the commencement of the war, 1755, . £74,571,840
Increase during the war, . . . 72,111,004
Debt at the conclusion of the peace, 1762, . £ 146,682,844
Decrease during the peace, . . . 10,739,793
Debt at the commencement of the American war, 1776, £ 135,943,051
Increase during the war, . . • 102,541,819
Debt at the conclusion of the American war, 1783, £238,484,870
Decrease during the peace, . . 4,751,261
Debt at commencement of the French revolutionary war, 1793, £233,733,609
Increase during the war, . . 327,469,665
Debt at conclusion of the French revolutionary war, 1801, £561,203,274
Increase during the peace, . . 40,207,806
Debt at the commencement of the French war, 1803, £ 601,411,080
Increase during the war, . . . 341,784,871
Total funded and unfunded debt on 1st February, 1813, £943,195,951
Deduct,—
Redeemed by sinking funds, . £210,461,356
Land tax redeemed, . . % 24,378,804
Converted into life annuities, and trans-
ferred to commissioners for reduction
of the National Debt, . . 1,961,582
236,801,742
Net National Debt on the 1st February, 1813, £706,394,209
PLAN OF COMMENCEMENT. 321
CHAPTER XIV.
Plan of Commencement—Influence of the public press — Parliament
should institute an inquiry into the causes of existing troubles, and
into the character of the various remedies that have been proposed
for the relief of distress — Progressive steps necessary to the forma-
tion of a National Commercial Association,
If, then, it be true that there exists, in the
shape of a defective system of exchange, an
insuperable obstacle to national and indivi-
dual prosperity—insuperable only until our
commercial plan is entirely remodelled—we
ought immediately to commence making the
necessary changes. The most powerful
engine in the world is the Public Press ; taken
up by which, and treated with its usual free-
dom, the subject here discussed may be
brought fairly before the public : which being
done as a preliminary proceeding, the follow-
ing progressive steps should then be taken to
bring this system into practical existence.
x
322 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
Let some influential member of parliament
obtain the appointment of a committee to
inquire into the state of the country, and to
investigate the character of the various reme-
dies that have been proposed for the evils of
society: the Social System would then, it is
presumed, obtain a hearing in its turn.
If the said committee, acting in the capacity
of a grand jury, should pronounce the prin-
ciple of exchange here contended for to be
worthy of a minute investigation, then let
a select committee be appointed for that
express purpose, and let its members, amongst
other things, express a desire to be put in
possession of all the arguments that may be
brought against the plan. These being col-
lected, let a competent person be appointed
to reduce the whole of them into one con-
tinuous argument, in a clear, concise, and
intelligible form.
Then let the author of the Social System,
who now challenges this ordeal, and denies that
it is in the power of man to detect an important
error either in the theory he has advanced, or
in the conclusions that he has drawn from it,
be required to answer the said objections,
and the arguments on both sides being duly
weighed and carefully considered, let an
PLAN OF COMMENCEMENT. 323
opinion of the merits and demerits of the
Social System be publicly expressed by the
committee.
Should the severe scrutiny, which is here
requested for the proposed principle of
exchange, have the effect of establishing its
importance in the mind of the public, a
nucleus of the national commercial associa-
tion may then be formed by any number
of private individuals, whose first business
should be to follow the principles of the
Social System into all their various ramifica-
tions of trade and manufacture, by drawing
up a prospectus, at great length, descriptive
of the manner in which each and every kind
of business would require to be modified,
arranged, and conducted.
Then let the detailed plan be laid before
the public, and let all persons of capital be
invited to associate: names being required,
in the first instance, of persons disposed to
adopt the new principle of exchange; each
applicant being also required to describe the
nature of his business, the amount of capital
he would be willing to advance for an
equitable remuneration, as also the nature of
the capital itself, whether it be land, build-
ings, machinery, goods, or money.
If, after a reasonable effort should have
024 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
been made to obtain subscribers to the plan,
a sufficient capital should appear to be ready
to be embarked in the service of the new
commercial army, the next step would be to
elect a Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber of Commerce being elected,
must proceed to examine and arrange the
various proposals, so as to ascertain how
nearly they could form, at the beginning, a
whole manufacturing and trading community;
and when the number of persons, and amount
of capital, should appear to be sufficient to
commence with, the government should be
petitioned for a constitution, and agreed with
upon the price to be paid as the average
wages of labour,—the paramount importance
of which has been shewn in the Chapter on
Distribution.
These preliminaries being settled, the
Chamber must next proceed to take inven-
tories of, and to give credit in the national
books for, all the capital offered to them, at a
rate per cent, to be previously agreed to be
paid for the use of capital; and this being
done, agents must be appointed to conduct the
respective trades and manufactures. Each
agent should be furnished with an inventory
of the capital intrusted to him, with which
he would, in consequence, be debited in the
PLAN OF COMMENCEMENT. ,325
bank books. Proprietors of capital, possessing
also the requisite knowledge, should in all
convenient cases be appointed to the agencies.
A bank and warehouses would next
require to be established upon the plan des-
cribed, and operatives being engaged by the
agents in the usual way, at the wages fixed
by the Chamber of Commerce, operations
might forthwith commence.
The new plan of exchange being once
fairly in existence, and placed under the
control of thoroughly experienced and practi-
cal men of business, the irresistible nature of
the principle would soon be exhibited, and
the total impossibility of competing with it
would soon be universally acknowledged.
As fast as the associated capital should
increase, either by the acquisition of new
associates, or by accumulation, additional
persons would be called into operation under
its auspices, and the market of old society
would daily become more and more restricted.
But even so slow a process as is here con-
templated would not be very probable, for if
the plan should be taken up in the proper
quarter—I mean by the government—and a
formal declaration issued, that the new prin-
ciple of exchange would be encouraged, and
assisted, if needful, with a few millions, the
326 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
manufacturing and agricultural interests, ever
keen enough in the examination, of what
concerns their individual selves, and seeing,
as they would, the total impossibility of
resisting the torrent,, would, for the most
part, throw themselves into it, whilst those
that should remain would very speedily dis-
cover, that the home market was rapidly
closing in upon them, like the "iron shroud"
described in Blackwood's Magazine, which,
being a tolerably spacious prison on the day
of its victim's entrance, gradually diminished
in height, in length, and width, until, upon
the seventh day, it closed upon the body of
its prisoner, and extinguished him from the
light of day for ever.
The only thing that can possibly defeat,
even for a time, the principle of exchange
here described, is an ill-digested, hasty, and
imperfect trial: nothing in this world, of
a commercial character, can succeed, unless
it be rightly set about.
CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 327
CHAPTER XV.
Concluding address — If we continue to suffer from the existing com-
mercial errors of society, it is our own fault.
The name of England is great and glorious
among the nations of the earth; in war it has
been feared, in peace it has been envied; in
England the arts have flourished, and science
has progressed with great and rapid strides;
her trade has been the wonder of surrounding
nations, and her commerce has extended
itself to the utmost corners of the earth; yet
are her people poor, distracted, and unhappy.
Her governors are overwhelmed with per-
plexity, and easier is his task who undertakes
to steer the frailest bark through raging waters,
than the task of him who ventures to direct
the helm of state.
Her nobility, themselves a portion of the
troubled stream, are racked with anxious
cares and fears, alike about the present and
the future. Their rents unattainable, their
fortunes falling into decay; their property
328 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
depreciating, and their wonted splendour
and magnificence almost bankrupt.
Her clergy, anxious to perform the duties
that devolve upon them,—struggling to stay
the torrent of depravity, and vice, and crime,
which it is their especial office to oppose,—
are borne down, like straws upon the water's
surface, by the irresistible force and violence
of the polluted stream, ever increasing in
magnitude, and daily becoming an object of
still greater dread and apprehension.
Her middle classes, ever the dreamers of
peace and plenty, whilst the ill-omened star
of war formed yet the resting place of their
credulity, know of enjoyment little but the
name; and scarcely more secure of future
comfort and prosperity than is the weather-
cock of pointing to the south upon a given
day and hour in next December, they still
drag on, from day to day, a weary round
of care, of trouble, and of anxiety, better
deserving to be called the penalty of living
than the price of life.
Her labouring classes have been enlightened,
by the spread of education, only to see the
horror of the dungeon in which they are con-
fined, and to feel, with more acuteness, the
depth of the privation and misery into which
they think themselves inextricably plunged.
CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 329
Ireland, unhappy Ireland! ever the last
word in the tale of human misery and woe,
like the expiring wretch upon the rack, still
calls for our compassion and our aid; but
there is no help, worthy of the name, for
Ireland,
England has only to be made acquainted
with the immensity of her own strength,
to spring, as it were, in an instant from the
very depths of poverty and wretchedness, into
the heights of prosperity and commercial
happiness. All she requires is to let loose
her enormous powers of production, which
are now tied and bound down by the chain
of commercial error. Like a mighty engine
wanting a single wheel, she now stands still,
the wonderment of those, who, ignorant of
her construction, are not aware that any
wheel is wanting; but re-arrange her parts,
and give her that one wheel, and nations
shall awaken, as from the sleep of death, to
see her operate and to erect her counterpart.
Freedom, domestic freedom of exchange,
is what this nation chiefly wants, to make its
people prosperous and happy. No miracle
on human nature has to be performed, to
bring this plan of exchange into operation;
no inventive genius has to be sought for, to
perfect its construction, for ten thousand
330 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
models of it now exist. Apply that principle
to the whole that has ever been found indis-
pensable to the right working of every part of
man's affairs, and the thing is done.
Unity of action, as here proposed, is not
dependent upon individual unity of thought
or sentiment; and it is not a little remarkable,
that although this principle is acted upon in
every part of the world; although its value is
such, that almost nothing can be done with-
out it in the individual affairs of mankind;
yet, from the movements of the prodigious
whole, it is entirely excluded. Division of
labour, and unity of action, have been con-
temporaneous. No manufacturing business
could be conducted for a single hour in the
absence of this principle. Suppose a number
of men to be sent into a manufactory to work
at random, and without an overseer, at what-
ever operation each might fancy he could
perform; a failure in the desired object
would be the inevitable result; the men
might be able and industrious enough indi-
vidually, but, for want of a controlling power,
they would, in the aggregate, do almost
nothing but impede and annoy each other.
In practice, however, this is not the case.
Operatives proceed to a manufactory, and
possibly quarrel as they walk the street
CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 331
towards it; but once within its walls, they
conform to the regulations of the establish-
ment, each man takes his place, and men,
between whom the excess of personal enmity
may perhaps exist, immediately act in concert,
and for a beneficial purpose.
The post office, one of the best conducted
establishments in the kingdom, and probably
the only one in it, of a commercial character,
that is worth preserving, is conducted upon
the same principle. Here an immense
number of agents, clerks, porters, sorters,
distributers, coachmen, guards, horses and
carriages, widely dispersed over the united
kingdom, are all regulated in such a manner
as to work into each other's hands.
And, if we look upon the stupendous
whole, of which we form a part, the same
principle of unity becomes still more remark-
able. Order, system, regularity, an aptitude
of one thing for another, and an uniformity
of action so invariable, that astronomy can
foretell events a century before they happen,
are the most strikingly conspicuous of nature's
laws; and there is nothing amongst mankind
in which the resemblance of excellence exists
which violates them j but whilst contrivance,
arrangement, plan, are indispensably neces-
sary to every part, the aggregate of jmrts is
332 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
left to work, as best it can, ungoverned: and
thus, whilst God requires arrangement and a
plan to govern worlds, presumptuous man
sets at defiance his Maker's laws, and tells the
paltry objects of his care to rule themselves.
Let us then cease to persevere in our
worse than insane course: let an inquiry be
instituted into the causes of human trouble,
by those who are so much interested in the
welfare of mankind, and on whose shoulders
so much responsibility devolves,—the British
Government. Let its members look carefully
and dispassionately into the principle laid
down in this little book, and if it should be
seen that a clue is furnished to the labyrinth,
let them not refuse to use it because it has
been given to them by one who has neither
rank, nor wealth, nor name, to give weight
to his opinions. Let them pick up sound
advice wherever they can find it, as they
would a pearl upon the sands of the sea,
caring not to ask from whence it came, but
looking rather at its value, and at the best
means of disposing of it: and if, though
rough and unpolished, this little treatise
should be found to contain a jewel, let not
the setting of it be unduly delayed: these
are momentous times!
And let the middle classes, whose per-
CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 333
severance in a bad cause merits a better
reward than that which it obtains, halt, if it
be but for a short time, to take a passing
glance at a new object that would fain attract
and fix their attention, if it knew how. To
them, the trading classes, in active communi-
cation with whom the author of the Social
System has entirely spent his life, the lan-
guage of the foregoing pages should be
especially intelligible, for few of them will
hesitate to believe that it is much easier now
to procure goods, than to procure customers
to buy them. Let them think deeply upon
the principle of exchange that is here ex-
plained, and let each ask himself as an
individual, whether he would not prefer
becoming an agent to the British nation,
responsible only to an elected power for his
proceedings, on receiving a fixed, a certain,
and a liberal remuneration for the perfor-
mance of a plain, an easy, and an honourable
duty, to remaining the never-ending slave of
caprice, uncertainty, incessant toil, and inter-
minable anxiety.
And let the labouring classes think of these
things. "Knowledge is power." Let them
turn a deaf ear to the absurd quackeries of
radicalism; let them follow, with persevering
steps, and unwearied attention, the windings
334 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
of that stream of wealth which rises directly
from their own labours; let them mark well
where it flows on smoothly, and where it is
obstructed in its progress; and let them
satisfy their minds why, with a never-failing
spring for its source, there should be so great
a scarcity at its termination.
Finally, Let the mind of the public be but
once intently fixed upon the all-important
subject of exchange, and we may rest assured,
that the day is fast approaching when the
sun of truth shall shed his rays among those
countless thousands who endure their chains
with patience now, because they know not
whence they come, nor how they may be free,
—and because, as all exist in bondage, each
in his brother sees a fellow slave, and cries,
Alas! it is the lot of man. But shew them
freedom—give them but a sight of what they
may become—tell them prosperity should be
the lot of every man, and prove it truly
said—they will no longer live in slavery, nor
bear their chains at all.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
The theory of the Social System is the result entirely of observation and
reflection — The Orbiston Co-operative Establishment — Quotation
from A Word of Advice to its projectors—Observations upon the
character of the late Mr Abram Combe — A memoir of him quoted—>
Origin of The North British Advertiser, a weekly newspaper, published
in Scotland, containing only advertisements—Plan of Mr Robert Owen
of New Lanark— Conclusion of the appendix, and of the work.
Since the foregoing work was entirely ready for the
press, I have resolved to add an appendix to it, for the
purpose of bestowing a few words upon the co-operative
establishment, recently erected, and razed to the ground, at
Orbiston, in Lanarkshire; as also upon the co-operative
plan of Mr Robert Owen, of New Lanark.
To perform this task, however, in such a manner as to
do justice to myself, involves the necessity of entering at
some length upon a personal narrative, which, on account
of subsequent events, with which the public of Edinburgh
are sufficiently acquainted, I would rather have avoided.
A suspicion, however, may not improbably enter the minds
of some, that the Social System, as here developed, is only
a new edition of some old and exploded theory; or that the
Y
338 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
ideas have, in substance at least, been gathered from the
works of other writers. I feel the less hesitation in asserting
at once, that, neither in whole nor in part, have I gathered
these opinions from any man, because there are persons
residing in Edinburgh, no friends of mine either, who are
able to detect and to expose the smallest inaccuracy, if there
be any, in the following statement.
After spending five years at Repton school, in Derby-
shire, where, with every opportunity of becoming a good
Latin and Greek scholar, had I ever attended to my studies,
I learned little else than to catch fish, to play at marbles,
and to climb trees, I entered, at the age of fourteen, upon
the performance of such duties as boys, who have nothing
but their own industry to depend upon, have usually pre-
scribed to them in a large manufacturing and wholesale house
in the city of London; the duties themselves being, in
general, but little suited to the taste of those who are over
fastidious in their choice of employment — a fault of which it
has never hitherto been my lot to be accused. I left school, I
well remember, with the written character of " possessing
"abilities, rising barely to mediocrity." During the five
years aforesaid, I never read through half a dozen English
books, and within six months after I left school, I had
forgotten nearly all that I had ever learned of Latin: on the
study of Greek I never entered.
Plunged at once, at the expiration of this period, into
the very centre of the ocean of business, Cheapside, I
found myself in a school of a very different character from
that which I had left on the banks of the Trent. My
fishing-rod was now laid by, and my industry was entirely
devoted to the performance of my very humble duties,
which were, I believe, at all times performed to the entire
satisfaction of those by whom I was employed.
Having read almost nothing up to this period, I had
■acquired no materials for reflection, but in their absence I
found in London an abundance of food for observation.
APPENDIX. 339
Ever disposed, almost, as I have been told, from my cradle,
to ask " what is the reason of" whatever excited my
curiosity, I may say that to ask, and to endeavour to answer,
this question, has been the chief recreative employment and
pleasure of my life. I never was, and I trust never shall
be, satisfied by those vague and inconclusive explanations
with which, to save the trouble of thinking-, many persons
are apt to content themselves; and, being quite unable to
penetrate the unfathomable mystery with which every thing
seemed to be invested, I looked, for a number of years,
upon London and its myriads, as an intricate problem, that
however much I might wish, I could hardly venture to hope
ever to be able to solve.
But London soon lost for me all its imposing grandeur:
my occupations led me, almost weekly, to every corner of
it, and such as it is, I soon knew it as well as most men.
I saw, however, nothing to satisfy, every thing to puzzle
me. Something is wrong, some enormous error exists among
this moving mass of flesh and blood, was an opinion which
soon formed itself in my mind, never, as I am now convinced,
to be removed from it; and an indefinite suspicion, that
the commercial proceedings of mankind were at variance
with the whole system of nature, and that God could never
have intended his creatures to be the mere stumblingblocks
of each other, as I saw them to be at every step I trode,
reduced my mind to a gloomy, thoughtful, and half super-
stitious condition.
My circumstances, being, at length, somewhat changed
for the better, my attention came by degrees to be fixed,
with great earnestness, upon an inquiry into the theorij of
buying and selling, — with the practice of both I was
now abundantly acquainted; and without the aid of any
author—for I had not read one line upon the subject of
political economy — I arrived at the conclusion which forms
the theory of this book *. I saw clearly that goods of every
description are made either because they are ordered, or
340 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
because there is every prospect of their being so; and
continued reflection satisfied me that this state of things
ought to be reversed, — that production, instead of bein<y
the effect of demand, ought to be the cause of it.
Full of my grand discovery, for such I then considered,
and do still consider it, I procured a copy of Dr Smith's
Wealth of Nations, and, after reading the first volume of it,
I set to work to reduce my theory to a written form; but
being in every way disqualified for the task, I was unable to
do more than compile a violent, puerile, unintelligible, and
unmendable volume, which I called The National Commercial
System. The title was the best of it; but although there
was scarcely a sentence in that book fit for the press, there
is scarcely an idea in this one which was not contained, in
some shape or other, in the original: the chief difference,
indeed, is, that I then contended for—what I have since
seen the folly of advocating—an exclusive metallic currency.
The unmerciful verdict that was passed upon this work
I have given in the preface. An elder brother, however,
my present partner and manager of the North British
Advertiser, treated the matter somewhat differently. He
saw all the faults of the manuscript, but he saw also, 1
believe, that still there might be something of consequence
in the ideas, and, by his advice, I put the manuscript aside,
and betook myself to reading what Mr Owen had written
upon the same subject. Previous to this, I had not read a
single line of Mr Owen's writings, nor did I even know that
such a man existed. The results, however, promised by
Mr Owen, I found to be substantially the same as those
which I conceived to be attainable, and I, therefore, yielded
to the persuasion that the publication of my book would only
gain for me the character of a plagiary.
Under this impression it was, that, as has been already
stated in the preface, I was some time afterwards induced to
publish a pamphlet—professedly a defence of Mr Owen's
plans—the substance of which is contained in the ninth
APPENDIX. 341
chapter of the present work. To many of Mr Owen's
opinions, however, I never was a convert, and that the
opinions developed in this book have been, for a long time,
entertained by me, is sufficiently proved by the following
passage, with which the aforesaid pamphlet, which was
published in January, 1825, concludes: —
"At a future period I shall endeavour to explain another
"set of arrangements, on the basis of a national capital, by
"the introduction of which the only limits to our wealth
"would be the exhaustion of our productive powers and
"the satisfaction of our wants. The plans to which I
"allude are altogether different from the plans of Mr Owen,
"but I entertain a hope that they will be useful in proving
"to the world, that unity of interest is in every way con-
"sistent with individuality and distinctions of property ; and
"at a period like the present, when I hesitate not to say
"that society is on the eve of relinquishing for ever the
"commercial principles on which it has hitherto acted, too
"many modifications of the same fundamental principle
"cannot be laid before the public, for out of each some-
"thing advantageous may perhaps be selected."
Perfectly well disposed, however, to agree entirely
with Mr Owen, in attaching the utmost importance to the
principle of co-operation, — by which term I mean merely a
thoroughly organized plan of producing, exchanging, and
distributing the wealth of the country,— I offered at once, on
being informed that an experiment was about to be made of
his plan at Orbiston, to give the proprietors whatever benefit
they could derive from my very humble services. They
were accepted; this it was that brought me to Scotland; and
for the purpose of coming here, I left what I could easily
have made a valuable situation in a London wholesale and
manufacturing house, for which I then travelled.
On my arrival here, however, I soon found, and most
sincerely did I regret to find, that the management of the
Orbiston establishment was not in the hands of clear-headed,
practical, and business-like men. The plan of operations
342 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
was never reduced to any definite form, even on paper. I
saw at once that the scheme would turn out an utter failure;
and as far as I could do so with propriety, not being myself
one of the shareholders, I remonstrated, but without effect,
and I then resolved to have nothing whatever to do with
the affair.
Do I say this now, because Orbiston has been a failure?
Thank Heaven, I ask no man to take it on my word that I
do not; and here is the evidence that Orbiston has turned
out precisely as I said, five years ago, that it would turn
out: — Mortified and disappointed to see many thousand
pounds expended on a speculation that was sure to fail, on the
29th June, 1826, I wrote an article, which I entitled, A Word
of Advice to the Orbistonians, on the Principles which ought
to regulate their present proceedings. Of this document I
printed a few hundred copies, for distribution amongst the
proprietors and tenants at Orbiston; and from it the follow-
ing are extracts :—
"With every disposition to place the highest value on
"the unceasing exertions that have been made by the
"proprietors of the Orbiston establishment to promote the
"interests of its tenants, and with the most complete con-
"viction that it is also the anxious wish of the tenants, at
"least of such of them as I am acquainted with, not merely
"to seek their individual advantage, but also to further the
"extensive views of the proprietors, I am, nevertheless,
"satisfied that there exists, in the minds of some of the
"most influential members, a degree of indifference as to
"the nature of the occupations that are to be carried on in
"the establishment, which is greatly inconsistent with the
"best interests of the society.
"Seeing that the professed object of the Orbiston pro-
"prietors is to exhibit to the world a society of labouring
"men in superior circumstances to those of men of the
"same class in external society, it appears to me, that an
"error has been committed, in allowing a number of persons
"to assemble there who are expected to discover what they
APPENDIX. 343
"can do. They can do nothing; at least, they can do
"nothing well. As well might it be expected that a
"number of pieces of wood, collected together by chance,
"should be able to form themselves into a beautiful
"machine —as well might it be expected that an indiscrimi-
"nate mixture of drugs should forma perfect medicine—as
"that men, so collected, should be able to act together to
"any useful purpose.
"If I am told, in answer to this, that the individuals
"themselves are to suffer the inconvenience consequent on
"being placed in situations for which their previous habits
"of life have unfitted them, I ask, who are to form the
"community but the individuals? and if the individuals
"composing the community are to suffer the consequences
"of their being unfit members, by what means is that
"superior state of enjoyment to be exhibited, by which it is
"expected that the world at large will be induced to act
"upon the principles of unity and mutual co-operation?
"Can the body be in health, whilst the members composing
"it are in a state of disease?
"Having spoken thus plainly of what appears to me to
"be an evil, I shall now refer to the remedy, which, in my
"opinion, must consist in doing just the reverse of what
"has hitherto been done in the particular alluded to.
"Instead of persons being allowed to come to Orbiston
"to find out what they can do, the proprietors of Orbiston
"must state distinctly to persons making application for
"admission, what description of hands are required—what
"proportions of each—what the qualifications necessary;
"and such, and such only, should be admitted as are
"completely qualified to act in the capacity for which they
"engage themselves; and, until the proprietors of the
"Orbiston establishment are prepared to do this, they are
"unprepared to take the first step that can lead them to
"prosperity; and it is my belief, that every other that
"is previously taken will have to be retraced.
344 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
•" To enable me to state my ideas upon the subject more
"clearly, I shall arrange the different observations that I
"have to make, under the heads to which they belong.
"Number of Inhabitants,—The first thing to be done
"at Orbiston, is to ascertain, as nearly as possible, the
"number of persons that are to form the community; and,
"perhaps, the best number that can be brought into the
"establishment is the greatest number that can be conve-
"niently accommodated in the building, for whom profitable
"employment can be found; because, as there is a fixed
"rent chargeable upon the land and buildings, which must
"be paid out of the produce of the labour of the inhabitants,
"the more numerous they are, the less will be the sum
"chargeable upon each; and, in proportion to the number
"of inhabitants, and their means of purchasing, will be the
"extent of the market amongst themselves, which will
"prove of considerable importance, as furnishing a certain
"source of remuneration to several kinds of employment.
"On the description of persons required. — Of
"very trifling importance, however, is the number of persons
"which may compose the community, in comparison with
"that of making a selection of such, and such only, as are
'* completely qualified for the duties that have to be per-
^ formed.
"The proprietors of Orbiston, before Orbiston can
'* answer the purpose for which it has been established,
<c must fix upon some two or three, (and they ought not to
"exceed two or three,) general branches of trade, by which
"the mass of the population may be employed; and a
"great many minor occupations will arise, as a consequence
"of such trades being established upon an extensive scale.
"For example, I shall suppose that some general branch
"of industry be fixed upon: Whatever this may be, it will
"require a manager, and men of various talents, and various
APPENDIX. 345
kinds of knowledge and experience, to act together, before
it can be conducted in the best manner; and not a single
individual ought to be admitted into the society, who is
not completely qualified to perform the part he undertakes.
"The circumstance of any considerable number of persons
being thus employed, would immediately create other
minor employments, such as baking, brewing, cooking,
storekeeping, and a variety of domestic occupations, each
and every one of which ought to be filled by persons who
have been brought up in those very occupations, or, at
least, by persons who can prove that they are qualified to
fulfil their duties in the best manner.
"It may be said, 6 We have not amongst us persons who
< have been accustomed to the various duties which have
'to be performed/ I ask, Why have you not? Have
you ever attempted to procure them? Are these times
when labourers are scarce? Or is the remuneration you
can oifer inferior to that which is given for like employ-
ments in external society? But, it may also be said,
'We have persons in the community for whom there is
'no other employment.' I ask, How came a single
individual to be admitted into the community, until it was
found that his services were required?
"For my part, I am fully satisfied, however painful it
might be to all parties, that the best movement that can
possibly take place at present, would be, not only to
dismiss from the community all persons for whom there
is no profitable employment, but also all those who are
filling situations for which their previous habits of life
have unfitted them ; to refill those situations with other and
more competent persons, and not to admit another indivi-
dual until his services are wanted.
"Description of trades likely to succeed best.—
"Another very important consideration is the description
"of trades which are intended to be carried on at Orbiston,
"as the principal source of employment to its inhabitants.
346 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"In selecting these, the proprietors have a duty before
"them, on the judicious performance of which mainly
"depends the future success and prosperity of their esta-
"blishment. There are, however, as it occurs to me, but
"four essentials :—
"1st, The goods manufactured, must be such as there is
"a good market for, at a convenient distance.
"2dly, The trades followed, must be such as are well
"suited to the localities of Orbiston.
"3dly, They must be such only as can be conducted in
"the best manner. And,
"4thly, They must not be of any description which
"affords but a bad living in the present state of society, as
"compared with other kinds of employment.
"On the two former essentials I deem it quite unneces-
"sary to offer any remarks; they are obvious, and cannot
"easily be overlooked; but the same cannot, perhaps, be
"said of the third. And here it may be remarked, that
"there is an immense difference in different occupations in
"one particular, some admitting of an almost indefinite
"division of employment^ while others admit of this to a
"very limited extent only. For example, if there was an
"abundant supply of water to turn the requisite machinery,
"a cotton mill could not be established at Orbiston, or
66 indeed any where, to any advantage, except it be on the
"very largest scale; because, where this is not the case,
"the operations performed by the machinery are not so
"numerous or complete, and the facilities thereby afforded
"to labour are not so extensive, and, consequently, the
"labour itself is not so productive. And such is also the
"case with a great number of manufacturing trades.
"But in others,—in that of a tailor or shoemaker, for
"example, — the operations are not so numerous ; little or no
"machinery is used, and, consequently, less advantages are
66 possessed by a large establishment over a small one, than
"in the kind of trade before mentioned. Do not, however,
"suppose, that I look upon tailoring or shoeinaking as
APPENDIX. 347
"desirable trades to be carried on to any great extent at
"Orb is to n: I do not; but merely mention them as con-
"trasts to the one before named; and all I wish to urge is,
"the necessity of venturing upon such trades only as can
"be conducted on the scale of extent best suited to their
"nature.
"And, fourthly, another serious error might be committed,
"by entering upon trades which afford a bare existence
"only, in the present state of society; for, as I have said
"before, the prosperity of the community must consist of
"the united prosperity of the individuals who compose
"it; and if the lowest or most unprofitable employments
"are followed, instead of the higher or more profitable
"ones, the community will present no very inviting prospect
"to the well paid labourer in external society.
"That some species of labour command much better
iC wages than others, will be readily admitted by those who
"have any means of knowing the fact; and, without
"inquiring into the causes of these inequalities, I am
"anxious to fix attention to t\\e fact, and to the importance
"of attending to it, in the selection of the occupations at
"Orbiston.
"Remuneration of the managers.—You may talk
"about equal distribution if you please, but, at least for
"some years to come, you cannot act upon it.
"The prosperity of Orbiston mainly depends upon the
"successful establishment of a number, more or less, of
"extensive and well conducted trades, and, whatever these
"may be, they must have competent managers; and the
"services of men really competent to conduct any business
"with that degree of spirit and activity, which is indispen-
"sably necessary to its success, can neither be obtained
"at Orbiston, nor elsewhere, for any thing short of very
"liberal remuneration.
"Within the last few years, a few trades have sprung up
"in London, which, from the scale of extent on which they
348 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"are conducted, have assumed a character totally different
"from that of any former establishment in the same line of
"business. They are, I think, nearly, or quite, one hundred
"times the ordinary extent.
"These establishments, the success of which has been as
"astonishing as their magnitude, have been the offspring of
"a few comprehensive minds, which, leaving the beaten
"track, have ventured to adopt a course of proceeding
"peculiar to themselves; and one remarkable feature in
"them is, that the heads, or managers of the departments,
"are men selected for their superior ability in their respee-
"tive occupations, and the salaries they receive axe from
"twice to six or seven times the amount usually given for
"the performance of like duties.
"The consequence of this treatment, which is not the
"result of liberality, but of worldly minded policy, is,
"that a degree of interest in the success of the business is
"generated and kept alive, which never has, and, in my
"opinion, never can, exist in the minds of those who merely
"obtain a subsistence as the reward of their industry.
"You may obtain men readily enough who will engage
"to perform certain important duties for a small reward, but
"experience will prove, that prosperity will form no part of
"the result of their labours.
"For the same reason I should say, that, to the impor-
a tant situation of president at Orbiston, a very liberal
tc salary ought to be attached. This is an instance of an
"office which plenty of persons will be found ready to
"undertake; but Mr Combe is the only man in the world
"who will really perform the duties of it for a small salary.
"On this subject I come to two conclusions : —
"First, that no undertaking will prosper at Orbiston, or
"any where else, which has not at its head a competent
"and well paid manager; and,
"Second, that it would be injudicious in the extreme to
"attempt the carrying on of more than two or three general
"branches of trade, because the price that must be paid as the
APPENDIX. 349
"wages of superintendence and management will be small
"or great, in proportion as the trades to be superintended
"are few or many.
"If a single trade could be fixed upon, by wliich the
"whole population could be employed, excepting only those
"persons who would be engaged in agriculture, and in
"domestic occupations, the happiest effects might be
"anticipated; but if, on the contrary, an immense number
"of trades are gone into, with half as many masters as men,
"the production of one article wall exceed all limits,—
"disappointment*
"In every description of business, I look for advantage
"chiefly from the magnitude of the scale on which it is
"conducted. If it were possible to establish a cabinet
"manufactory upon so large a scale, that every man in it
"could be constantly employed in performing a single
"operation; if it were possible to confine every individual
"workman to the use of a single tool, and for every table,
"or other piece of furniture, to pass through as many hands
"as there are distinct operations in the making of it; I
"conceive that the cost, in point of labour, of the article pro-
"duced, would not be one fourth, and, far more probably,
"not one tenth, of its present ordinary amount in small
"manufactories.
"The not very complicated business of making a sliip-
"block, requires, by the old method of the various
"operations being performed by one man, from two to
"three hours' labour, while, by the almost miraculous
"powers of the extensive division of employment, aided by
"proper machinery, the same effect is produced, in the
"Portsmouth dock-yard, in the incredibly short space of two
"or three minutes; and, consequently, supposing the
"labourers employed, in both instances, to be receiving
"the same amount of wages per week, the cost of making
"a block would, in the latter instance, be reduced to less
"than a sixteenth part of the price which must be paid for
"it in the former.
350 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"I do not say that equal advantages could be extended
"to the business of a cabinet-maker; but merely that the
"more extensively you can divide this, or any other kind
"of manufacturing business, into distinct operations, and
"the more those operations are divided amongst different
"persons, the more productive will be the labour of each.
"Upon the whole, I am led to the belief, —
"That an error has been committed at Orbiston, in
"admitting persons indiscriminately, and before any trades
"had been fixed upon, in which it was ascertained that their
"services would be required:
"That it will be necessary for the proprietors to dismiss
"from the community all persons who are filling situations,
"or performing duties, for which their previous occupations
"in life have unfitted them:
"That it will be essentially necessary to the success of
"the establishment, for the proprietors, and not the tenants,
"to fix upon the trades to be followed:
"That it will be necessary for the proprietors to select,
"ivith the utmost caution, persons of good character, and
"competent ability, to be employed in the trades that are
"to be followed, and to perform the offices that may arise
"in the domestic department:
"That in the selection of the trades, care ought to be
"takent hat the goods manufactured be such as there is
"little doubt of being disposed of to advantage; that the
"trades be well suited to the localities of Orbiston; that
"they be such as can be conducted in the best manner, and
"on a large scale; and that they also be such as afford
"good wages in the present state of society:
, "That the conductors or managers of them be the most
"competent men that can be procured, and that their
"utmost exertions be ensured, and their interests bound up
"in the success of their respective departments, by the
"payment of a liberal reward for their labours:
"And, lastly, that on no consideration whatever, ought
"more than two or three distinct trades to be attempted.
APPENDIX. 351
"In troubling the good people of Orbiston with the
"foregoing observations, I am well aware that I have
"stated opinions that are very hostile to some of their
"notions, and I neither look for their thanks nor approba-
"tion. I have stated what I believe to be true, without
"the least regard to the consideration of whom it may
"please, or whom it may offend. I have seen, with regTet,
"the effects of a tame and indecisive mode of procedure,
"which I attribute entirely to an unbounded kindness of
"disposition, uncontrolled by any of those sterner qualities
"of mind, which I regard as indispensable to the proper
"management of an extensive undertaking like Orbiston;
"and I am perfectly certain, that neither that, nor any
"other establishment, can prosper, except upon a complete
"and well digested plan of operations, enforced with the
"utmost determination and vigour."
Such is the language which I addressed to the Orbiston
Society, on the 29th Jane, 1826. Cast not, therefore, in
my teeth, the fallen Babylon—or Bobolon, as the country
people called it, from the first day of its erection—for,
whatever its failure says respecting my judgment, is for,
and not against it.
I cannot, however, conclude this notice of the Orbiston
establishment, without offering my humble tribute of respect
to the memory of one who fell, prematurely, the victim of
his own indefatigable industry and enthusiasm in the cause
in which he had embarked,—I mean the late Mr Abram
Combe.
Possessed of a vigorous and enthusiastic mind, upon which
the anomalies of the existing state of things had made an
indelible impression, that something must be wrono* in the
present constitution of society, Mr Abram Combe was one
of Mr Owen's earliest and most faithful adherents, and his
mind was soon turned towards the adoption of practical
measures for the relief of that distress, which he attributed,
and justly, to the defective institutions of society. Too
little of a theorist, however, his mind was very prematurely
352 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
devoted to practical measures: he had got fast hold of an
indefinite something, which he believed to be valuable, and
instead of devoting, as I humbly submit he should have done,
years of mental labour to the formation of a well digested
theory, he commenced to work, like a builder without a
plan, or like an author without a subject: and he vainly
hoped that time and experience would develope that in
practice which he appears never to have been aware should
have first existed, not generally, but definitively, and
minutely, in theory.
The truth of these observations is abundantly proved, as
well by Mr Combe's writings as by his proceedings at
Orbiston. In a little work which he published in 1823,
entitled, Metaphorical Sketches of the Old and New Systems,
there is a considerable sprinkling of forcible observation and
satire upon the folly of the existing state of things and of
opinions, mixed up with a much greater quantity of that
which is vague and unsatisfactory. Like the "Ruins" of
Volney, which in some other respects also it resembles, it
abounds with that which is calculated to excite inquiry
rather than to satisfy it. The three great divisions of Social
Science,—production, exchange, and distribution,—remain
unnoticed in any systematic form which can be examined,
criticised, approved of, or objected to, and co-operation and
equal distribution are all that we find oifered in their stead:
the one of these, the political economists assert, already
exists, and the other is condemned as contrary to every
principle of justice by that system of nature, of which Mr
Combe was himself an especial admirer.
Mr Combe's opinions, however, were very deeply rooted:
he put his trust entirely in the main principle of co-operation,
and as the event has fully proved, neglected, to his cost, the
important consideration, that a principle in Social Science,
like the great power of its mechanical department, requires
to be directed, controlled, and regulated, upon a perfectly
organized plan, wanting which its power is but a name, and
itself but vapour.
APPENDIX. 353
In his religious principles, Mr Combe was a strict neces-
sitarian: lie looked upon man as a drop in the ocean, which,
regulated by its own specific gravity, and the impulses
that surround it, is driven to and fro by a power over which
it has itself no control. Influenced, as a consequence of
this opinion, by a disposition to compassionate, rather than
to blame, those who, in mind as well as in circumstances,
were little to be envied, he admitted, with a fatal want of
due selection, persons into the Orbiston establishment, who
were totally incompetent to do any thing in this world save
talk: he believed his principle to be so powerful, that out
of any materials he could construct a beautiful edifice—a
lasting monument of co-operative superiorit}': but in this
he was mistaken.
His errors, however, were those of judgment, and of
judgment only; for, in sincere, ardent, and disinterested
disposition to do good—to benefit his fellow-creatures,
and not this or that man, for the sake of the individual
flattery or gratitude it might obtain him in return, but
mankind in general, — Abram Combe was surpassed by few
inhabitants of the globe. Unobtrusive, and as indifferent
to the opinion of the world, as to the current of a passing
wind, his bodily and mental energies were entirely devoted
to the cause in which he had embarked—to the endeavour
to promote the happiness of the human race—and the
reward he expected was an approving conscience.
And he obtained it. Holding in utter contempt whatever
contributed to produce mere empty effect upon the minds of
other men, he submitted with a patient and unostentatious
resignation to his last severe and protracted illness. By
over-exertion with the spade—an instrument he was not
ashamed to use—he caught a severe cold, which settled on
his lungs; consumption ensued, and death, if I may use the
term, gave him notice, that though it would not be sudden,
nor very soon, his call would not be much longer delayed.
At length it came, and, on the 11th August, 1827, his
sufferings terminated.
i Z
354 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
Remembering, however, Abram Combe, which I shall
ever do, as one of the earliest friends and promoters of the
Social System,—for under whatever specific plan or modifi-
cation that system will be established, established it will be,
sooner or later, as certainly as the sun will continue to shine
upon the earth, — I cannot do justice to my own feelings
upon this subject, without transferring to a less perishable
form than that in which it has hitherto existed, the following
memoir, which was drawn up, shortly after the death of Mr
Abram Combe, by a friend who had the best means of
knowing his character, disposition, and pursuits. For the
sake of brevity, a few unimportant passages are suppressed.
MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR ABRAM COMBE.
"It is our painful duty to announce," says the Orbiston
Register, of the 19th September, 1827, "that Mr Abram
"Combe died at Edinburgh on the 11th August, after a
"long and severe illness.
"He was born on the 15th January, 1785. After
"receiving instruction in English reading, he commenced
"Latin under the late Mr Greig. He was thereafter
"entered to the High School of Edinburgh, and joined a
"Latin class taught by the late Mr Luke Fraser, who
"then enjoyed a high reputation. At the end of the fourth
"year of Mr Fraser's tuition, the class passed over to Dr
"Alexander Adam, the rector of the school; under whom
"Mr Combe studied for one year. He learned writing
"and arithmetic with Mr Swanston, in the High Street,
"and geography from a private teacher : and this comprised
"the extent of his youthful education.
"He had naturally a taste for knowledge, and an aptitude
"for languages; but, from his earliest years, he was a devoted
"admirer of utility. He could not discover any practical
"advantage to be derived from his Latin studies; and,
"therefore, never gave his mind to them, and learned
"just as much as enabled him to escape with a moderate
APPENDIX. 355
"share of the severe chastisement with which Mr Fraser
"visited all who were not perfect in their lessons. If his
"own intellect could perceive few advantages in the study
"of Latin, Mr Fraser did little to enlighten his perceptions,
"or to render the labour itself attractive. Apparently
"absorbed in admiration of the Roman classics, and unac-
"quainted with human nature, that good man practised
"only one method of making scholars, and that was, to flog
"to the last extremity all who were deficient in any part of
"the prescribed exercises. Mr Combe never looked.back
"to this period of his life but with dislike and great regret,
"not only for the suffering needlessly inflicted on him, but
"for the loss of valuable time, which, under more enlightened
"direction, might have been advantageously employed in
"acquiring knowledge of practical value. Dr Adam was
« more gentle in his nature, and possessed the faculty of
"gaining the affections of his scholars. Mr Combe was
"not unhappy under his instruction; and, while he spoke
"with uniform dislike of Mr Fraser, he cherished a sincere
"respect for the virtues and intelligence of Dr Adam.
"Mr Combe's father was a brewer in Edinburgh, and
"adjoining to the brewery were several tan works. This
"accidental circumstance led him to choose the trade of a
"tanner for the business of his life, an occupation which,
"in many respects, was not the best suited to his mind.
"Every parent experiences a difficulty in selecting trades
"or professions for his sons; and boys are equally at a loss
"in making a choice for themselves. This arises from two
"causes,—ignorance, on the part of the parents, of the
"talents and dispositions of their children, so that they
"really feel themselves incapable of judging how they may
"fill different situations; and, secondly, ignorance in bovs
"of the nature of trades and professions. The phrenologists
"hold out a promise of removing the first obstacle; but a
"work adapted for the youthful mind, giving a correct and
"intelligible description of the various occupations of
356 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"civilized men, is still wanting: such a work ought to
"mention very explicitly the bodily labour requiring to be
"performed in each trade; also the principles in human
"nature on which it is founded, and the mental qualities
"requisite for its successful prosecution.
"Mr Combe served an apprenticeship as a tanner and
"currier, with Mr John Somervail of Edinburgh, and resided
"in his father's house. His parents were strict Calvinists,
"and sedulously instructed him in the principles of that
"persuasion. High walls and a gate enclosed and shut in his
"father's house, brewery, and a small garden. During six
"days of the week, he was engaged in labour at his trade,
"from seven in the morning till eight in the evening. On
"Sunday, he was carried twice to the parish church, and,
"during the remainder of the day, confined within the
"precincts of this small enclosure, occupied in getting by
"heart the larger and shorter catechisms, psalms, para-
"phrases, and chapters of the Bible, and in reading sermons,
"and the Scriptures. The picture of man's estate, being
"one of 'sin and misery,' was realized in his personal
"experience; and he used frequently to remark, in after
"life, that, between the positive sufferings inflicted at the
"High School, the restraints imposed on him at home, and
"the absence of every thing that could gratify his moral or
"intellectual faculties in a natural manner, his boyhood
"and youth were rendered as essentially dreary and melan-
"choly, as if the object of his parents had been to mar his
"enjoyment, which he knew was the very opposite of
u their intentions.
"He was never, at any period, addicted to vice; on
"the contrary, he was constitutionally averse to sensual
"debauchery of every kind, and took no interest in coarse
"or profligate amusements. He was fond of reading and
"conversation; and, in the brief intervals of toil and
"religious instruction, devoured Burns and Shakespeare,
"the Spectator, Roderick Random, Don Quixote, and other
APPENDIX. . 357
"books of a similar description. He followed, however, no
"systematic course of reading, and received no scientific
"education.
"After finishing his apprenticeship, he went to London to
"complete a knowledge of his trade. Here he saw manners
"widely different from those to which he had been pre-
"viously accustomed; and, in particular, he used to say,
"that he discovered, for the first time, that life could be
"enjoyed without infringement of morality. He remained
"in that city for about two years; thereafter he went to
"Glasgow, where he commenced business as a currier;
"but not satisfied with his success, he returned to Edin-
"burgh, and set up as a tanner about the year 1807; which
"trade he continued to carry on till his death.
"After he became master of his own time, it was obvious
"that he possessed faculties which did not find scope and
"full employment in his trade. He had, at all times, a
"pursuit to which he dedicated his affections; and
"mechanics formed the first object of his liking. At one
"time he laboured at inventing new methods of propelling
"boats by oars or paddles; and, at another, he was
"anxiously engaged with another individual in construct-
"ing machinery for shaving hides, an operation of con-
u siderable importance in tanning, which is still generally
"performed by the hand.
"In September, 1812, he married Miss Agnes Dawson
"of Dalkeith, and soon became a father. This change of
"circumstances did not change his habits; he continued
"fond of amusements, and exhibited a playfulness of dis-
"position, and a hearty relish for enjoyment, rarely the
"accompaniments, in an equal degree, of married life, in
"the present state of society.
"He possessed from nature a talent for imitation, and a
"keen sense of the ludicrous. These he applied in satirizing,
"often with great severity, all those whose conduct or
"manners differed from the standard which appeared to
358 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"him to be that of propriety. He wrote verses, also, full
"of point and drollery: one stanza on a village poet, who
"wore excessively long hair, may be cited as a specimen,—
Oh, Nature! say, in what untimely hour
Upon this poet's numskull thou didst shower
Such an excrescence of black bushy hair,
As if to shield the brains that are not there.
"He was the author, also, of a parody of The Man of
"Thessaly, which, connected with the phrenological con-
"troversy, subsequently made the tour of the globe in the
"English newspapers, and was translated on the continent,
"and reprinted in the United States.
"Between 1807 and 1820, at which last period a new
"direction was given to his faculties, he pursued his
"personal interests with the usual degree of ardour dis-
"played by manufacturers and merchants, and his benevo-
"lence evaporated in a general wish for the welfare of
mankind, which led to no active measures for promoting
u their enjoyment. As he was always scrupulously just,
"and had discernment enough to discover that self-interest
"in trade is best promoted by fairness and liberality, those
"who knew him only in business were less sensible of any
"change in his dispositions in the latter years of his life;
"but by his relatives his affections were regarded during
"this interval as rather exclusively concentrated in himself
"and his own family; and he was looked upon as sympa-
"thizing but little with the good or evil that befel others. He
"was then a firm believer in the doctrine that men formed
"their own characters and dispositions; and hence, when
"any one acted contrary to what he conceived to be right,
"he did not spare severity of remark on his conduct. At
"the same time, he was far from malevolent; and if he
"could benefit any one whom he liked, without injuring
"himself, he readily did so. He was fond of the country,
"and engaged, with keen relish, in rural excursions. He
APPENDIX. 359
"was an enviable companion on these occasions, as his
"cheerfulness and humour kept the party in a pleasing
"excitement for days in succession, without becoming
"tiresome, or approaching to commonplace. The theatre
"also was a great field of interest to him in winter.
"In October, 1820, he made an excursion to Lanark,
"and was introduced to Mr Owen. He heard this gentle-
"man expound his views about the formation of character—
"the defective institutions of old society—the advantages
"of co-operation—and the great imperfections in the
"common systems of education; he saw the schools at
"New Lanark, and beheld, with great interest, the children
"clean, cheerful, and intelligent; he contrasted the views
"presented to him with his own past experience and
u observations, and retired deeply impressed with the idea
"that there must be important errors in the principles and
"practices of society, as generally constituted, which
"occasioned the misery every where abounding, and much
"gratified with the prospect of brighter scenes held forth
"by Mr Owen. The effect produced on his mind was
"deep and permanent. For some time he merely related
"what he had heard, and described what he had seen,
"without announcing any decided opinion of his own; but
"after months of consideration, and hearing Mr Owen
u again, and reading his works, he at length became a
"complete convert to his views. With him conviction
"and practice were closely connected; he first became a
"zealous advocate of the new views in conversation, and by
"the press, and thereafter assisted in setting on foot a
"co-operative society in Edinburgh, as nearly on Mr Owen's
"principles as was compatible with external circumstances.
"The society opened a store for the sale of the necessaries
"of life, on as low a profit as would suffice to defray the
"necessary expenses of the establishment; they met in
"the evenings for mutual instruction and social enjoyment;
"conversation, music, and dancing, constituted their
u amusements; abstinence from spirituous liquors, tobacco,
360 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"and profane swearing, were conditions of admission;
"and a school, on tlie plan of those at New Lanark, was
"established for the children. At first, the society
"prospered amazingly. The members, full of moral
"enthusiasm, experienced delightful emotions, and antici-
"pated vast advantages; some conceived that earth was
"immediately to be changed into heaven, and that sin and
"sorrow were about to be banished from the land.
"Mr Combe himself was sanguine of great results; a
"complete revolution took place in his mind, and he became
"the sincere advocate of the doctrine, that the characters of
"men are formed by their natural constitutions and external
"circumstances. While he regarded men as free agents,
"(meaning, by this expression, beings who could adopt
"whatever modes of feeling, thinking, and acting they
"chose,) he was a severe satirist of their faults, but-
"thought it quite unnecessary to pursue any other means
"for their reformation, beyond expressing his contempt or
"disgust at their actual conduct. When converted to the
"new views, he regarded every man as unfortunate, in
"proportion to his moral debasement, and intellectual
"ignorance, and extended towards him an active sympathy,
"not only forgiving offences towards himself, but sedulously
"elevating his moral and intellectual nature in unhesitating
"conviction, that, if he succeeded in improving the mind
"of the individual, more perfect actions would necessarily
"follow. Under his old notions, he preferred his private
"interests to all others; and among those who knew him
"best, he was regarded as selfish rather than generous.
"After the change in his sentiments, he openly professed
"the belief, that the active pursuit of the welfare of others
"constituted man's first duty and happiness; that this was
"also the true way of attending to his own interests, and
"he boldly practised his precepts. We know, from the
"best sources of information, that a number of his relatives,
"who had stood on a footing of little more than acquaintance-
ship with him before, now felt his whole character change;
6C
APPENDIX. 361
"formerly they dreaded his lash, now they found his affections
"overflowing on them; formerly he wrote satires, epigrams,
"and lampoons, now he devoted himself to the composition
"of precepts of universal benevolence and justice; in
"short, a change of character, resembling that usually styled
"< conversion/ was, in his case, undeniable. He carried
"his principles so far, that he gave up the use of animal
"food and fermented liquors; and the theatre became to
"him an object of dislike, on account of the low motives
"and false maxims which abounded in dramatic pieces, and
"which he now felt to be offensive to his moral sentiments.
"He continued, from time to time, to publish short and
"practical treatises on the subject of the co-operative plan.
"In 1823 appeared An Address to the Conductors of the
"Periodical Press, upon the Causes of Religious and
"Political Disputes; also, Metaphorical Sketches of the
"Old and New Systems, with Opinions on Interesting
"Subjects; in 1824, he published The Religious Creed of
"the New System, with an Explanatory Catechism, fyc*
"These works are replete with meekness and charity;
"contain many practical remarks of great importance;
"and are composed in a clear, forcible, and didactic style.
"In co-operation with A. J. Hamilton, Esq. of Dalzell,
"and several other benevolent individuals, both in England
"and Scotland, he, in 1825, set seriously about trying the
"experiment of the New System on an extensive scale.
"They feued the estate of Orbiston, containing two
"hundred and ninety-one statute acres, and lying nine
"miles east of Glasgow, and almost contiguous to the south
"road from that city to Edinburgh, for the sum of £20,000;
"they erected extensive buildings, capable of accommodating
"upwards of three hundred individuals, with public rooms,
"storeroom, and other conveniencies for common occupa-
"tion; and also a manufactory on the Calder river, which
"bounds the property on the southeast. Mr Combe now
"assumed two copartners into his business in Edinburgh,
,362 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
removed with his family to Orbiston, devoted his whole
time and exertions, and by far the larger portion of his
property, to the undertaking; and sought his reward in
the delightful feelings excited in his own mind by
practical benevolence, and the prospects of success which
continued to animate him to the last moment of his life.
"Too soon, however, was the grave destined to close
upon his exertions. The labour and anxiety which he
underwent at the commencement of the undertaking,
gradually impaired an excellent constitution, which, too,
had been weakened by his previous temporary abstinence
from animal food. Without perceiving the change, he, by
way of setting an example of industry, took to digging
with the spade, and wrought for fourteen days at this
occupation, although for a long time previous unaccus-
tomed to labour. This produced hsemoptysis, or spitting
of blood from the lungs. Being unable now for bodily
exertion, he dedicated his time to directing and instructing
the community, and for two or three weeks spoke almost
the whole day, the effusion from his lungs continuing.
Nature rapidly sank under this erroneous mode of pro-
ceeding; he became breathless and weak, and at last
came to Edinburgh for medical advice. When the
structure and uses of his lungs were explained to him, and
when it was pointed out that his treatment of them had
been equally injudicious as if he had thrown lime or dust
into his eyes after inflammation, he was greatly amazed
at the extent and consequences of his own ignorance, and
exclaimed, How greatly he would have been benefited, if
one month of the five years which he had been forced to
spend in a vain attempt at learning Latin, had been
dedicated to conveying to him information concerning the
structure of his own body, and the causes which preserve
and impair its functions! He was ordered merely to give
his lungs repose, that is, to avoid walking, speaking, and
stimulating food, and by following this course for a
APPENDIX. 363
u fortnight in Edinburgh, he returned to Orbiston greatly
"recruited, and with the symptoms of disease evidently
"diminished.
"He continued, on the whole, to improve in health till
"towards the end of August, 1826, when he was overtaken
"in the manufactory at Orbiston, then roofed in, but not
"fitted with windows and doors, by a heavy rain. Afraid
u of getting wet, he stood for upwards of two hours exposed
"to a cold wind whistling through the building; and very
"soon afterwards felt himself worse. He again proceeded
*c to Edinburgh, and had just been one day in his brother's
"house there, when he was seized with violent inflammation
"of the lungs. With much difficulty this was subdued,
"but he never recovered his strength, nor was able to leave
"Edinburgh.
"His sufferings during the inflammation, in September,
"1826, were very great, and he said every day appeared
"like a fortnight in length; but, in the greatest pain, he
"never, for a moment, lost his equanimity, or wavered in
"principles. Indeed, his mind seemed interested in
"applying the latter to his circumstances, as the prospect
"of life or death alternately cheered or darkened the
"horizon. When in great uneasiness, he said—' Philo-
"c sophers have urged the institution of death as an argu-
"' ment against divine goodness, but not one of them
"' could experience for five minutes the pain which I now
"c endure, without looking upon it as a most merciful
"' arrangement. I have departed from the natural insti-
"' tutions; but, in death, I see only the Creator's benevo-
"' lent hand stretched out to terminate my agonies, when
"' they cease to serve a beneficial end.' After recovering
"from this attack, he suffered little pain, except on two
"nights, when he became exceedingly breathless. A few
"days before his death, he told his brother that he had
"been inquiring of the doctor whether the pain of dissolu-
u tion would be very severe. c If it were not to be worse
"' than the inflammation, and the two breathless nights, I
364 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"< tliink I could bear it.' The doctor told him, that it
"would not be nearly so severe, and that, in all probability,
"he would sleep away without feeling the change. 'If
"' that shall be the case,' said Mr Combe, ' I shall be very
"< happy; for, except on these three occasions, my illness
"' has really been far less painful than you would think.
"< Laudanum is a blessed medicine; for often in the
"' morning when I have been told that I had had a very
"< restless and weary night, I have said that it might be
"c so, but I knew nothing about it; in fact, I had been
"< quite unconscious of every thing/
"He frequently spoke of his past life, and approaching
"dissolution; and on many occasions said, that ' the last
"'five or six years of his life, during which he had been
"'actively engaged in promoting the welfare of others, had
"'been truly delightful; that all the previous part of it,
"' when he acted on the selfish system, had been com-
"< paratively dreary and barren; and that, were his life
"'offered to him over again, exactly as it had already been
"c spent, he would cheerfully accept the latter part of it,
"'but would decline the first.' He was waited on by some
"pious individuals, and particularly by one of the clergy-
"men of Edinburgh, who conversed with him about his
"religious opinions, and his dying prospects. He did full
"justice to the kind motives which had prompted their
"visits, but maintained calmly and firmly his own principles.
"In reporting the conversations with them, he said, that he
"had abstained from stating his opinion of the errors under
"which they appeared to him to labour, as he did not wish
"to cause them pain. He was very anxious not to be mis-
"understood or misrepresented on this point; and, on the
"9th August, about thirty-six hours before his death, he
"dictated to his eldest son, a boy of thirteen years of age,
"the following words, as his dying testimony: —
"' The long period during which I have been afflicted,
"' has given me ample opportunity to contemplate the past
"' doings of my life, and these contemplations, so far from
APPENDIX. 365
having been painful, have enabled me to say, that if any
epitaph is written on me, it may be simply this,-—
'that his conduct in life, met the approbation
of his own mind at the hour of death.'
"On the morning of 10th August, he was seized with a
"fit of weakness, approaching nearly to fainting, in which
"he thought he was dying, and as he felt no pain, his.
"eye beamed with joy, and his countenance expressed the
"most serene placidity. On recovering, he said, that he
"c was disappointed at finding himself here again; he
"' thought that he had arrived at the end, and was happy
"' that he had done so, as he would occasion no farther
"' trouble, for he felt he had been a heavy burden.' Mrs
"Combe remarked, that the trouble he gave to others need
"never cause him a moment's uneasiness, for it was the
"highest consolation of herself and relatives to afford him
"every solace. This expression deeply affected him, and
"as soon as lie had gathered a little strength, he dictated
"to his son a most endearing testimony of respect and
"affection for his wife, and several of his female relatives,
"who had been particularly attentive to him; returned them
"his warmest thanks, and used the last effort of remaining
"strength to append to it his signature, "Abram Combe,"
"and then waited patiently for death. In the course of
"the same day he repeated his entire satisfaction with
"Orbiston, and spoke of the happiness that he then felt
"from what he had done for others. On the afternoon of
"the same day, one of his brothers told him that Mr Owen
"was hourly expected in Edinburgh, and had expressed
"his ardent wish to see him. Mr Combe's countenance
"kindled into new vigour at the prospect, and said he
"should feel much gratified in seeing Mr Owen before he
"died. He spoke of Orbiston with all his wonted warmth,
"and confidence of success; and with much affection
"and esteem of the friends who had joined with him in
366 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
"promoting tlie undertaking. He delayed taking his
"sleeping draught till nine o'clock that night, expecting
"Mr Owen to call; and in drinking it, said, he would last
"over this night, but not another. In the morning, he was
"still quite sensible, and spoke of breakfast. Before it was
"ready, he was seized with a second fit of weakness, and
"expired, apparently without pain, at half-past eight of the
"morning of 11th August. Mr Owen called six hours
"after he expired, and greatly regretted the detention which
"had prevented him bidding his friend and follower his
"last adieu.
"Some weeks before his own death, Mr Combe heard of
"the decease of a relative, whose body had been opened to
"ascertain the nature of his disease, and said to his sister,
"who was then with him, ' It was very proper to open him.
"c If I could, by possibility, be present at my own dissec-
"6 tion, I would give my hearty consent to it.' His body
"was opened, and the right lung found deeply diseased,
"while the left, and all the other viscera, were in a healthy
"condition; proving, thereby, the fact that the disease was
"not constitutional consumption, but owed its origin to
"external causes."
Thus ended the career of one whose motives, in all that
related to the society of which he was the founder, were
not only pure, but unsuspected. Perhaps, in the demolition
of the Orbiston buildings, he would have experienced a
severer pang than that which terminated his mortal life;
but his adherents say, that, if he had continued to live,
Orbiston would have continued to stand and to prosper.
Widely, however, as I may dissent, and I do dissent widely
from many of the opinions of the late Mr Abram Combe, it
would be the argument of a child, of a bigot, or of a knave,
to appeal to the fate of the Orbiston establishment as con-
clusive evidence against the doctrines of which its founder
was * the advocate. What, of any considerable extent and
magnitude that has at any period occupied the attention of
APPENDIX. 367
mankind, has ever done otherwise than fail at its outset?
The whole history of mechanical science presents to our
view but an almost unbroken chain of failures, and yet,
what is it that is the present wonder of the world but the
result of the last attempt to do that which has been a
thousand times attempted before, only to end, for a time, in
disappointment and ruin? What wTas the first reception of
the gas light? what that of the steam engine, the steam
boat, and the steam coach?
But visionary—visionary—visionary—still continues to
be at once the observation, the comment, and the argument
of every self-satisfied dolt, who, being either too busy or
too fat to form a rational opinion for himself, and being, at
the same time, too proud to confess that he has never done
so, resolves every thing that is extensive and new into this
single wTord, which he repeats upon all occasions, like a
magpie or a daw; never failing, however, to take care that
the delivery thereof be sufficiently emphatic and dictatorial.
But the ipse dixits have had their reign. u /say that it
"is, or that it is not so," will not do now-a-days. "The
"schoolmaster is abroad," and the "march of intellect" —
nay, laugh not at the phrase, for it is ridicule proof—is
driving before it mere dogmatism, like a great overgrown
swine, sufficiently unwilling to move, but moveable never-
theless, and, therefore, made to go, however reluctantly.
The reasons having been stated, then, why, although I
came to Scotland for the express purpose of doing so, I never
had the least connection with the Orbiston establishment;
and being much too well pleased with Edinburgh to have
any disposition to return to the ocean of smoke, I resolved
to do something for myself here; and, after about a week's
consideration of the matter, I started, in 1825, the gratis
advertising paper, denominated The Edinburgh and Leith
Advertiser. This project succeeded too well: five professed
copies of it were almost immediately started in Scotland.
The newspaper people liked not the plan; they petitioned
the Treasury respecting it—got an act of parliament against
368 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
the publication of advertisements on unstamped paper —and
I was obliged to give up my business.
Having, however, the command of capital, I resolved to
convert the gratis paper into a newspaper, bearing the same
name, and this I did, taking, at the same time, my brother
into partnership. The Edinburgh and Leith Advertise?*
then commenced as a regular newspaper; but, between
the inexperience of its conductors in the trade in which
they had embarked, the deficiency of means necessary to
give it a lasting and up-hill trial, and the unfortunate
controversy respecting the currency, in which it espoused
the unpopular side, the paper went down, after the publica-
tion of fifty-three numbers.
Having introduced the name of The Edinburgh and
Leith Advertiser, which was conducted upon politico-
economical principles, many of which I hold to be abun-
dantly absurd, it will be proper to add, that in the editing
of that paper I had no share. It was conducted entirely by
Mr James Gray, my brother. In one particular I entirely
agreed with him, which was, that so long as he should
continue to edit the paper, he ought to write his own senti-
ments upon whatever political subject should arise, whether
they should be right or wrong, popular or unpopular,
profitable or ruinous; and he did so. Farther than this our
sentiments went not very much together; and it is proper
to mention this, because many of the opinions that are
combated in the foregoing pages were defended^' in The
Edinburgh and Leith Advertiser : absenteeism, for instance,
was, in my brother's estimation, no injury to Ireland.
Into the famous currency controversy, he entered with
some enthusiasm. Gold was his text—paper that of his
opponents. There was, I conceive, but little to choose
between them: the man of gold would double the national
debt; the man of paper would halve it, and, at the same
time, constitute the fraternity of bankers commercial
deities in perpetuity. I agreed with neither the one nor
the other, but the opinions I entertained upon this subject
APPENDIX. 369
being unintelligible, considered abstractedly, and without
reference to the principle of exchange herein developed,
I never sought to obtrude them upon the notice of the
public. The interests of society between these combatants
appeared to me to be very much like Jessica, the Jew's
daughter, between father and mother, " gone both ways."
After The Edinburgh and Leith Advertiser failed, I
projected, planned, organized, and established the existing
North British Advertiser,—a newspaper published in
Scotland, containing only advertisements, and sent, gratis,
to eleven thousand persons, or families, every week,—
which, for the benefit of other people, has continued to
prosper, whilst the individual, by the unassisted energies of
whose mind, and the sweat of whose brow, it was established,
has but enough of this, a subject with which the public
of Edinburgh are already sufficiently acquainted.
From the Orbiston establishment, we turn by a very
easy transition to the co-operative plan of Mr Owen; but
here again we are much at a loss for a systematic treatise—
an aggregate of parts—which can be analyzed, objected to,
or approved. Substantially, however, the plan of Mr Owen
appears to embrace three distinct branches of human science:
m first, morality, or the formation of the human character;
secondly, political economy, or, as it is here denominated,
social science ; and, thirdly, domestic economy, or the art of
enjoying that which we possess.
On the first division of the subject I shall bestow but a
very few words, because it is impossible to go into it at any
length, without entering the mazes of religious disputation,
and this, I am fully resolved, shall form no part of the
present volume.
The essence of Mr Owen's opinion upon this subject, is,
that the character of an individual is formed for him, and
not by him; and that, by the adoption of a proper system
of training and education, "any general character, from
"the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to the most
"enlightened, may be given to any community, even to
"the world at large."
2 A
370 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
With respect to this doctrine, I have merely to observe,
that there is not the smallest necessity to train mankind
otherwise than they are at present trained in this country,
to supply every individual inhabitant of the habitable globe
with all the physical means of enjoyment; in other words,
to abolish unmerited poverty, and to establish, in its stead,
universal affluence: to do this, I say, it is not necessary
to make mankind one jot wiser, better, or more charitably
disposed towards each other, than the inhabitants of all
civilized nations are at present; save only to open their
eyes to a correct view of the single error which is so much
dwelt upon in these pages. Characters much worse than
the present average of the inhabitants of the city of Edin-
burgh, may be emancipated from poverty at any time, and
for ever, simply by making production the cause of demand.
Upon this change good feeling between man and man would
be consequent, but the task that is before the world is not
to make men friends that they may prosper, but to make
men prosper that they may be friends.
Upon this subject I am of opinion, that Mr Owen has
taken the means for the end, and the end for the means,
and that he and his disciples are labouring under the
delusion, that it is necessary to train men to be virtuous
that they may be rich. I deny the existence of any such
necessity, and say, if you would have mankind to become
virtuous, begin by improving their physical condition.
Secondly, on the three great subjects of production,
exchange, and distribution, Mr Owen has never sufficiently
explained his views to make them a fair subject for criticism;
but a community of mutual co-operation and equal distribu-
tion, as respects production, must do one of two things, —it
must either make within itself every thing it requires to
consume, or it must exchange a portion of its products for
the products of the labour of other people. To do the
former is quite impossible, and to do the latter, some
general branch of industry must be conducted upon so
extensive a scale, that the most wealthy of the existing
manufacturers can be competed with in the market. A
APPENDIX. 371
community, therefore, to succeed, must, I conceive, carry
on but one general branch of manufacture, the others being
merely of that subordinate character which always arise
wherever a large number of people are congregated together.
On the subjects of exchange and distribution, so far as
relates to what is produced or acquired by the community
for its own use or consumption, Mr Owen is explicit
enough,—equal distribution. I object to this, on every
principle of equity : and even expediency—that at all times
suspicious word — cannot be urged as its excuse. Equal
distribution would be a premium on idleness; it would
check the progress of, if not annihilate, the fine arts; for
surely no man could have the impudence to ask a com-
munity to keep him, whilst he should continue to devote
himself for years to the pursuit of painting, sculpture, or
the like, upon the chance of being at some time able to repay
the kindness in the produce of his art; and, moreover, it
would annihilate that principle, to the existence of which
we owe it, that almost every thing that is made to-day is
better, of its kind, than that which was made yesterday,—
individual competition.
With respect to the rest of society, and to our transactions
with other countries, the subject of exchange is by Mr
Owen left untouched; as also are those vitally important
considerations which claim the first attention of the political
economist, — the accumulation of capital, population, and
the currency. These things must not be slurred over, or
treated as secondary and unimportant; for charcoal and
saltpetre are not more essential to the existence of gunpowder,
than are a sufficiency of capital and freedom of exchange to
national prosperity.
Upon the third division of the subject, that of domestic
economy, I look upon the plans of Mr Owen as opening to
our view a vast field for cultivation and improvement. A
town, as it is at present erected, is a libel upon human
taste. To look even at the Prince of Cities, Edinburgh,
from the top of a hill, one would be led to suppose that the
o-enius of confusion had been at work for a centurv. That
372 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
a series of detached symmetrical piles of building—such,
for instance, as the recent erections in the Regent's Park,
or those on the site of the late Carlton Palace, with proper
intervals between them, each distinct erection having
reference to the plan and proportions of all the rest, inter-
spersed with flower gardens, fountains, statuary, public
reading rooms, theatres, assembly rooms, temples, conser-
vatories, and the like, all built upon a plan, and in perfect
architectural harmony with each other—would give both
the appearance and the reality of comfort and elegance, in
a degree which would cast into the shade even the "City
"of Palaces," we cannot for a moment doubt; and so far
from adding to domestic expenditure, such a system of
building might easily be rendered the means of reducing it
prodigiously.
To ascertain to what extent menial service might be
superseded by mechanical arrangement, if towns were
built, as houses are at present, upon a plan, instead of being
added to piecemeal ad infinitum, would involve a very
extensive inquiry; but that domestic economy is a science
as yet in its cradle, there can be little doubt, and Mr Owen
—to whom, by the way, the numerous infant schools now
existing in this country owe their establishment—is the
father of the child.
But I forbear to pursue the subject of domestic economy.
In all that relates to the production, exchange, and distri-
bution of commodities, I believe the Social System, as here
explained, to be incomparably superior to any previously
existing theory; and in many respects, it is perfectly con-
sistent with the plan of Mr Owen. The Social System,
however, has this decided advantage: — To put it into
universal operation, it is not necessary to begin by improving
the human character: money, and a committee of intelligent
and practical men of business, could start it at any time,
and it would then go, of its own accord, like a steam
coach; whereas the plan of Mr Owen appears to require a
degree of mutual forbearance and consideration between
man and man, which, I humbly submit, can never become
APPENDIX. 373
the cause of physical improvement: it may be the conse-
quence of it.
The great evil of commercial society is, that there is no
tendency in demand to keep pace with production: it is
always easier to sell than it is to buy, and the cure must
consist in causing the one to be done as easily as the other.
At present, production keeps pace with demand: this must
be reversed—demand must keep pace with production, be
the motions of the latter ever so rapid.
A paper currency, increasing as produce increases* and
decreasing as produce is consumed, must compose the walls,
as a national capital must be the basis, of our temple of
prosperity. Let us erect them first; then let us call in the
aid of the painter, the sculptor, and the embellisher of every
denomination, to finish the work, as taste, elegance, and
experience shall suggest.
But, in all our proceedings, let us beware, lest, under
the specious pretext of utility, expediency, or the like, we
ever run counter to the laws of nature, for the law of
nature is the law of God, which, neither by societies nor
by individuals, can ever be violated with impunity. Let us
observe, with the utmost attention, the innate tendencies
of the human mind, and the essences of that material world
which abounds with all that is necessary to sustain, in health
and comfort, the body, and in active and delightful employ-
ment, the mind, of man; and which is rich enough to afford
to every man the entire quantity of that happiness which
his mortal nature is capable of enjoying, or could attain,
even were itself, and all that is within it, at his individual
command.
I cannot, perhaps, better conclude this work than by
requesting every individual reader of it to consider the fore-
going pages rather as a prospectus of a proposed national
undertaking, in the furtherance of which he himself is directly
interested, and towards the furtherance of which he can
certainly do something, and perhaps much, than as a mere
treatise, intended to convey information to the mind upon a
particular subject.
3
374 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.
It has been the general fate of important discoveries
to lie dormant for a century—for one age to make, and
for the next, or next, to apply them. And during the
reign of ignorance, and difficulty of circulating knowledge,
it was very natural that it should be so. But times have
changed: the British press is free, and its powers are mira-
culous. To discover truth, and to declare it, is the business
of individuals; to force it upon the public mind, and to
advocate the adoption of the practical measures to which
it is the index, is the especial office of the public press,
which, in all that relates to the collective affairs of men,
is omnipotent, whenever it zealously and perseveringly
espouses the cause of truth. And extensive as is the object
that is here contended for, and magnificent as would be the
result of its accomplishment, the public press of Great Britain
and Ireland has only to speak the word, and it is attained.
To arouse the public to a due sense of the importance of
the principle of exchange here developed, is the first step:
only let this be clone, and its practical adoption will speedily
follow.
Let each reader of the Social System, then, make up his
mind upon this subject, for as he thinks, so will he speak;
and if the principle be sound, his advocacy or abuse of it
will be of nearly equal assistance to the cause. I hold it to
be a maxim, that a man can seldom speak of that which is
true, without speaking, however unwillingly, for it.
THE END.
EDINBURGH:
Printed by Andrew Shortreed, Thistle

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