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7. Growth of rent supposed by Mr. Ricardo to be retarded by improvements
in cultivation. Interests of the landlord supposed to be promoted by dimi-
nution in the supply of food, and increasing poverty of the laborer. Facts
and theories not in harmony with each other
8. Mr. Ricardo's theory one of universal discords. Its inconsistencies, and
its tendency to the production of wars of classes and of nations. Harmony
and beauty of the real laws
151
153
9. Capitalists' proportion declines, and that of the laborers increase, as the
societary circulation becomes more rapid Historical illustrations.
10. The more rapid the circulation, the greater the tendency towards equality
and freedom among the people, and towards strength in the State
§ 11. Mr. Ricardo's theory of distribution based upon the assumption of an
imaginary fact. His successors continue to maintain that theory, although
the fact has disappeared. Inconsistencies of modern economists.....
12. Attempt to maintain the theory by means of imaginary suspension of
great natural laws ................................
............. 155
159
160
13. Revolutionary tendencies of the system. War among nations, and dis-
cord among individuals, grow with the growth of monopoly of the land.
That monopoly a necessary consequence of the British policy. With every
stage of its progress, the more must the people suffer in the distribution be-
tween themselves and the State
166
167
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUed.
21. Of distribution between the people and the State. Small security obtained
at the cost of heavy contributions, in the early stages of society. As employ-
ments become diversified, and men are more enabled to combine together,
security increases, and is obtained at diminished cost
171
2. Necessity for indirect taxation in the early period. Diminishes as fixed
property increases in the proportions borne by it to that which is movable... 173
3. Commerce tends to become more free, as the proportion of movable to
fixed property declines. Phenomena presented for consideration by France
and the United States
174
4. Tendency towards increase of indirect taxation, an evidence of declining
civilization. Phenomena presented for consideration by Greece and Rome, 178
5. Indirect taxation of Holland, Turkey, Sicily, and other countries that are
becoming more subject to the dominion of the trader
180
26. Substitution of indirect for direct taxation, in Great Britain......................
27. Labor and land the ultimate payers of all contributions for the support of
government. The more direct the application to them, the lighter the bur-
then of taxation
185
186
8. The real payers of British taxes, the land and labor of the various coun- tries which furnish the raw materials consumed in British workshops. Con- sequent exhaustion of all those countries
188
29. Revenue system of the United States. The countries in which direct
taxation tends to supersede those which are indirect, are those which have
protected themselves against the British system. Failure of the United States
in this respect
..... 191
10. The more direct the taxation, the less will be its proportion to production, 192
11. Revenue system of Central and Northern Europe. Tendency towards
direct taxation......
193
12. The more rapid the circulation, the less the power for interference with
commerce, by means of indirect taxes, and the greater the tendency towards
improvement in the condition of man................
13. Why not, then, at once abolish all indirect taxation? Because the power
of direct taxation - being an evidence of that high civilization which is
marked by the near approach of the prices of rude products and finished
commodities—cannot be exercised in any country that has not prepared for
it, by placing consumers and producers in close proximity to each other
14. The more perfect the power to apply directly to the land and labor of the
country, the greater is the strength of the State
15. Preference of British economists for indirect taxation ...................
216. Wide difference between the doctrines of modern economists, and those
of Adam Smith
17. Protection looks to increasing the value of land and labor, and thus cre-
ating the power of direct taxation. Interferences with commerce for merely
revenue purposes, look to the permanence of indirect taxation. The first
tends towards concentration and freedom. The last, towards centralization,
and the extension of slavery among mankind.
195
198
201
202
205
206
CHAPTER XLIV.
OF CONCENTRATION AND CENTRALIZATION.
209
1. Concentration tends to development of the individual faculties, to increase
in the power of association, and to the promotion of commerce
22. Doctrines of Adam Smith, in regard to concentration and centralization.. 213
23. The more rapid the societary circulation, the greater the tendency towards
concentration, harmony, and peace.
.... 215
8 4. Centralization tends to diminish as land and labor acquire value ............ 218
25. Centralization grows with the growth of the trader's power.................. 219
6. Of all oppressions, none comparable with that of trading centralization.. 220
87. Centralizing tendencies of the British system
.......
223
28. Theory of the American system, that of concentration and local action.
Practice of the government, that of centralization
224
29. Concentration tends towards the creation of power for direct taxation.
Centralization tends towards war and indirect taxation
226
10. How concentration increases the rapidity of the circulation. Central-
ization tends in the reverse direction
228
11. Absenteeism of the capitalist, and growing competition for the sale of
labor, the necessary attendants of centralization
231
CHAPTER XLV.
OF COMPETITION.
1. In the absence of competition for the purchase of labor-power, the laborer
becomes enslaved. That power the only commodity that cannot be preserved,
even for an instant, beyond the moment of its production
233
2. The more the competition for the purchase of labor, the more rapid the cir-
culation, the larger the production, and the greater the power of accumulation, 234
3. Competition for the purchase of labor tends toward freedom. The trader
desires to produce competition for its sale
235
24. Trading centralization seeks to produce competition for the sale of raw
materials and labor. Therefore adverse to the growth of value in land
or man. Stoppage of the circulation the mode by which it produces the
effect desired. How it operates in the free trade countries of the world...... 237
25. Effect of trading centralization upon the condition of the British people, 242
26. How protection produces competition for the purchase of labor. The
free-trade system looks to producing competition for its sale. Results of
American experience
246
27. Increasing competition for the sale of raw materials, in all purely agricul-
tural countries. Growth of competition for their purchase, in the protected
countries of Europe
247
28. Trading centralization deteriorates the condition of the laborers of the
world. Necessity for resistance thereto
248
29. Freedom of commerce grows in those countries which have adopted mea-
sures of protection against the British system
................
251
10. Harmony of the real interests of all mankind. All nations interested in
the adoption of measures tending to promote competition for the purchase of
raw materials and labor..........
11. The two communities which claim to be leaders in the cause of freedom,
those whose measures tend to produce competition for the sale of labor-
thus extending slavery. The despotic countries of Europe, on the contrary,
those whose measures look to competition for its purchase-thus extending
freedom.......
......... 253
12. Competition for the control of nature's services raises the value of both
land and man ...............
13. Competition for the purchase of labor produces demand for the higher
human faculties, and thus raises the standard of man. Competition for its
sale produces the reverse effect
.................
254
255
14. Competition for the purchase of labor tends to strengthen custom into
law, in favor of the laborer. Competition for its sale tends to the annihila-
tion of customary rights, in favor of the capitalist. The former grows in all
the countries that have protected themselves against trading centralization.
The latter grows in all subjected to it. In the one, the societary circula-
tion becomes more rapid. In the other, it becomes more sluggish, with
constant growth of the disease of over-population
257
CHAPTER XLVI.
OF POPULATION.
1. That the earth may be subdued, man must multiply and increase. - Ten-
dency to assume the various forms of life greatest at the lowest point of
organization. Fecundity and development in the inverse ratio of each other.
Man, the being of highest development, should, therefore, increase but very
slowly. Time required for the duplication of population. However long
that period, if the procreative tendency is a fixed and positive quantity,
always liable to be excited into action, the time must arrive when there will
be but standing-room for the population. Is it so? Can the Creator have
subjected man to laws, in virtue of which he must become the slave of nature
and of his fellow-man?
2. Physical science testifies that order, harmony, and reciprocal adjustment,
reign throughout all the realms it has yet explored. Modern economists
have mistaken facts for laws. Laws are rules, permanent, uniform, and uni-
versal, in their action. Theory of Mr. Malthus deficient in all these charac
teristics. The procreative function, in common with all others, placed under
the law of circumstances and conditions. Law of human life must be assumed
to be in harmony with the Creator's design. Are war and pestilence required
for correcting errors of the Creator, or has the Creator so adjusted the pro-
creative tendency as to provide the means of correcting human error? No
instance, throughout nature's realm, in which the laws of the subject break
the harmony of the scheme of creation. Not the divine order, but man's
disorder, that limits his earthly life so far within the period of utility and
enjoyment
23. Power of progress in the ratio of dissimilarity of the parts and perfection
of organization. Man, therefore, the being most susceptible of change-
passing from the merely animal man, and becoming the real MAN, responsible
to his family, his fellow-man, and his Creator. Responsibility grows with
the growing power of association, and with division of the land
24. Growth of population modified by the development of that feeling of
responsibility which comes with the ownership of land. Facts presented for
consideration by the countries of Central and Northern Europe - those in
which employments are becoming more diversified, and in which the prices
of rude products and finished commodities most tend to approach each
other...........................
263
265
273
276
--
5. Phenomena exhibited by the purely agricultural countries those which
follow in the lead of Britain. Recklessness and poverty consequent upon
absence of diversity in the modes of employment, and consolidation of the
land. Adaptability of the procreative power to the circumstances in which a
community is placed...... 281
287
293
¿ 6. Consolidation of the land, and the disease of over population, necessary
consequences of a policy which looks to the cheapening of labor, and of the
rude products of the earth. British system tends to the production of these
effects. Its results, as exhibited in the condition of the English people..
7. Pioneer life favorable to increase of numbers. The American system,
here as every where, one of contrasts-localization being the theory, and
centralization the practice. Effects, as exhibited in the duration of life......
28. Reproductive function not a constant quantity. Adjusted to the various
conditions of the race. Nature's pledge of harmony between the rate of pro-
creation and subsistence. General predominance of the nutritive and sexual
functions. Antagonism of the animal propensities and higher sentiments.
Special opposition between the nervous and sexual functions. Fertility of
the drudges of an imperfect civilization. Infertility of the hunter tribes.
Activity of the intellect checks procreation. Cerebral and generative powers
of man mature together. Fecundity in the inverse ratio of organization.
Facts presented by physiology. Cerebral power of woman abated by the
uterine function. Various effects of the different mental and moral qualities.
Relation of fecundity and mortality. A self-acting law of population secures
harmony in the growth of numbers and of food. Prospective changes in the
ratio of procreation, tending to promote the highest welfare of the race...... 296
29. In the physical world, the most important effects due to the slow but steady
action of minute and almost unseen machinery-the coral insect making
changes that are permanent, while the elephant leaves behind him no evi-
dence of his existence. So, too, in the social world-the Creator having
there provided such machinery for carrying into full effect the purposes of
man's creation. Wars, pestilences, and famines, not required. Over-popu-
lation theory an effort to account for the consequences of human error, by
means of supposed error of man's Creator.
? 10. Harmony in the social, as in the physical world, a result of the equal
action of opposing forces. The more perfect the balance, the greater the
tendency towards development of the real MAN, and towards harmony be-
tween the demands upon the earth, and her power to meet demands
308
312
CHAPTER XLVII.
OF FOOD AND POPULATION.
1. Population makes the food come from the rich soils of the earth-depopu-
lation driving men back to the poorer ones. Increase in the regularity of
the supply of the necessaries of life, consequent upon the increased demands
of a population that is growing in numbers and in power. Diminution in
the waste of human force that attends increase in the supply of food 313