All this is simply theft. His own definition of property is, “The right to enjoy the fruits of industry, or of the labour of others, or to dispose of those fruits to others by will.”[628]
The theme is not new, and the line of thought will be resumed—by Rodbertus among others. The originality of the work consists not so much in the idea as in the brilliance of the exposition, the vehemence of the style, and the verve of the polemics hurled against the old arguments which based property upon labour, upon natural right, or upon occupation. A German writer[629] has said that, published in Germany or in England, the book would have passed unnoticed, because in both those countries the defence of property had been much more scientific than in France.[630]
The whole force of the work lies, not in itself, but in the weakness of the opposing arguments, and this fact is quite sufficient to give it a certain permanent value. The treatise sent an echo through the whole world, and its author may be said to have done for French socialism what Lassalle did for German. The ideas set forth are not new, but they are expressed in phrases of wonderful penetration.
There is also a wealth of ingenious remarks, which, if not, perhaps, true, deserve retention because of their originality. How such spoliation on the part of capitalists and proprietors can continue without a revolt of the working men is a question which has been asked by every writer on theoretical socialism, without its full import ever being realised. Is there not something very improbable in this? The problem is a curious one, indeed, and requires much ingenuity for its solution. Marx disposed of it by his theory of surplus value. Rodbertus in a simpler fashion showed the opposition between economic distribution as realised in exchange and the social distribution which lurks behind it. Proudhon has his own solution. There is, says he, between master and men continual miscalculation.[631] The master pays each workman in proportion to the value of his own individual labour, but reserves for himself the product which results from the collective force of all—a product which is altogether superior to that yielded by the sum of their individual efforts. This excessive product represents profits. “It is said that the capitalist pays his workmen by the day. But to be more exact we ought to say that he pays a per diem wage multiplied by the number of workmen employed each day—which is not the same thing. For that immense force which results from union and from the harmonious combination of simultaneous efforts he has paid nothing. Two hundred grenadiers can deck the base of the Louqsor statue in a few hours, a task which would be quite impossible for one man though he worked two hundred days. According to the capitalist reckoning the wages paid in both cases would be the same.”[632] “And so the worker is led to believe that he is paid for his work, whereas in reality he is only partly paid for it. Even after receiving his wage he still retains a right of property in the things which he has produced.”[633] His explanation, though very subtle, is none the less erroneous.
The appearance of the pamphlet made Proudhon famous, not merely in the eyes of the public, who knew little of him beyond his famous formula, but also in the opinion of the economists. Blanqui and Garnier, among others, interested themselves in his work. “It is impossible to have a higher opinion of anyone than I have of you,” writes the former.[634] Blanqui by his favourable report to the Academy of Moral Sciences was instrumental in thwarting the legal proceedings which the Minister of the Interior was anxious to take against Proudhon. And it was upon Garnier’s advice that the publisher Guillaumin, although a strong adherent of orthodox economics, consented to issue a new work by Proudhon in 1846. The book was entitled Les Contradictions économiques, and Guillaumin was not a little startled by it.[635]
The sympathy of the economists is easily explained. They realised from the first that Proudhon was a vigorous opponent of their views, but it was not long before they discovered that he was an equally resolute critic of socialism. Let us briefly examine his attitude with regard to the latter.
No one has ever referred to socialists in harsher terms. “The Saint-Simonians have vanished like a masquerade.”[636] “Fourier’s system is the greatest mystification of our time.”[637] To the communists he writes as follows: “Hence, communists! Your presence is a stench in my nostrils and the sight of you disgusts me.” Elsewhere he says: “Socialism is a mere nothing. It never has been and never will be anything.”[638] The violence of his attitude towards his predecessors springs from a fear of being confused with them. The procedure is intended to put the reader on his guard against all equivocation, and to afford him valuable preparation for appreciating Proudhon’s solutions by showing how utterly impossible the other solutions are.
His attack upon the socialists roughly amounts to a charge of failure to realise that the destruction of the present régime would involve taking a course in the opposite direction. The difficult problem which he set out to solve was not merely the suppression of existing economic forces, but also their equilibration.[639] He never contemplated “the extinction of such economic forces as division of labour, collective effort, competition, credit, property, or even economic liberty.”[640] His chief concern was to preserve them, but at the same time to suppress the conflict that exists between them. The socialists aim merely at destruction. For competition they would substitute an associative organisation of labour; instead of private property they would set up community of goods[641] or collectivism; instead of the free play of personal interest they would, according to Fourier, substitute love, or love and devotion, as the Saint-Simonians put it, or the fraternity of Cabet. But none of these satisfies Proudhon.
He dismisses association and organisation as being detrimental to the liberty of the worker.[642] Labour’s power is just the result of “collective force and division of labour.” Liberty is the economic force par excellence. “Economic perfection lies in the absolute independence of the workers, just as political perfection consists in the absolute independence of the citizens.”[643] “Liberty,” he remarks in an address delivered to the electors of the department of the Seine in 1848, “is the sum total of my system—liberty of conscience, freedom of the press, freedom of labour, of commerce, and of teaching, the free disposal of the products of labour and industry—liberty, infinite, absolute, everywhere and for ever.” He adds that his is “the system of ’89,” and that he is preaching the doctrines of Quesnay, of Turgot, and of Say. Indeed, it would not be difficult to imagine ourselves reading the Classical rhapsodies concerning the advantages of Free Trade over again.[644]