Moribund Society and Anarchy

existence” having begun as the sole law for individuals, to eat in order not to be eaten was their sole preoccupation. But when they commenced unconsciously to practice this other and higher vital law, assistance in struggle, heredity having developed in them the instincts of combativeness, of oppression towards the victim, (everything being a prey to man, even man himself) it follows according to all the evidence that this spirit of struggle and domination, stored up in the brain by past generations, sought to gain like precedence in the organized collectivity. Those persons who possessed it in the highest degree imposed their will upon those who possessed it in a lesser degree. This authority, being established, followed the fluctuations of human intelligence, and transformations of the social organization were effected accordingly as force, the religious spirit, or commercialism, were triumphant. Authority under its divers modes of operation, therefore, has maintained itself up to the present time, and will maintain itself until man, freed from error and prejudice, reconquers himself entirely, renouncing the imposition of his will upon others in order not to have to submit to the will of those stronger than himself.

But the divine origin of authority and property being denied by bourgeois science itself, the bourgeoisie have sought to give them solid and natural bases. The economists have taken social facts resulting from a bad organization, and setting them up as “natural laws,” making them the cause of what exists while they are but the effects, decorating these absurdities with the name of science, they have pretended to legitimize the most monstrous social crimes, the most heinous piracies of capitalism, blaming the causes of poverty upon the poor themselves, setting up the most monstrous egoism as a law of social conservation, when, on the contrary, as we have seen in one of the preceding chapters, egoism is but a cause of conflict, of loss of energy, and retrogression, if it be not tempered and softened by this other more evolved and humane law of solidarity.

Bourgeois society being founded upon capital, and this being represented by money, the economists, in order to mask the peculiar role it plays in the work of production and exchange, have reduced everything to capital. The man who impregnates his wife and begets children, expends capital; but he creates some also, for the child, become a man, will be⁠—capital! The muscular power which the workman spends in production⁠—capital! (Observe, by the way, that besides their arms the workmen, in the performance of no matter what sort of work, bring to bear an amount of intelligence often superior to that of the contractor; but as it would then be necessary to count two portions of capital for the workman, and as that would embarrass the economists in their calculations, they pass this over in silence). Yet as all this reduction of human activity to capital does not explain the origin of money-capital, the economists have discovered that “money-capital is that portion of labor which industrious and provident persons have not immediately consumed and have held in reserve for future needs.” Right here the calculation becomes interesting. All capital put into use, the economists dogmatically affirm:⁠—

1. It ought to produce a sum equal to its own value, that it may reconstitute itself completely;

2. As this employed capital runs risks, it should produce a surplus value, which represents an insurance-premium to cover the said risks.

Now, the workman, who is paid right along for his labor and consequently runs no risks, has a right to the first claim only, permitting him to replace his capital expended; that is to say, to feed, clothe, and lodge himself and finally to repair the strength which he has depleted. He should not produce more children than the excess of his wages permits him to bring up.

But the employer⁠—Oh! it is a different affair with him! In the first place he invests an original capital, the money necessary to pay the workmen, settle for purchases, etc., which represents the pleasures of which he has deprived himself. This capital, like that of the workman, ought to bring in sufficient to replace itself, but in addition the insurance premium for the risks it runs, which constitutes the profit of the exploiter. Secondly, if it be an industrial enterprise, there are buildings and machines for the employees⁠—still more capital to be reproduced and to bring in its insurance premium. But this is not all. The exploiter’s intelligence is capital, too, and none of the least. A capitalist must know how to make judicious employment of his capital, how to manage his business and himself; he must inquire as to what products it is advantageous to produce, where they are in demand, etc. This third capital must be restored out of the enterprise. Observe that if the investor be an engineer, a scholar, or a doctor, the premium must be much greater, because, costing more dearly to establish, they consequently cost much more dearly to repair.

This subtle distinction established, transforming into capital the divers elements of production, the division seems fair: the capitalist pockets three-fourths of the product for his share and the trick is played. The workman has received his pay, why should he complain? Let him economize also and he may likewise invest his savings in enterprises and triple his share! Let him stop spending his money foolishly in saloons! Let him not have so many children! The struggle is hard; they must learn how to curtail their pleasures if they want to increase them later, pack of loafers that they are!

Would the gentlemen economists, who talk to us of the greater intelligence of the capitalists, venture to affirm that those who, by a stroke on the bourse, by stock-jobbing and monopolies, sweep away millions, have expended an intelligence a million times superior, we will not say to that of the workman who may pass as an artist at his trade, but to that of even the humblest workman in the lowest trade? Take a