Thus the expropriation of the bourgeoisie will be a much easier task than was the expropriation of the artisan by the bourgeois a few centuries ago. In the past it was a case of the few subjugating the many, but in the future the many will overwhelm the few—thanks to the law of concentration.
But what is to be the outcome of the Marxian programme (we cannot speak of its aim or ideals, for Marx scorned such terms)? The general opinion seems to be that it involves the abolition of private property, and that the opinion is not altogether without foundation may be seen from a perusal of the Manifesto, where we read that “the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”[989]
The Manifesto also explains in what sense we are to understand this. The private property which so much needs suppressing is not the right of the worker to the produce of his own toil, but the right of others to appropriate for themselves the produce of that labour. This is private property as they understand it. They think, however, it would be better to call it bourgeois property, and they feel quite confident that it is destined to disappear under a collectivistic régime. As to a man’s right to the product of his own labour, that surely existed formerly, before the peasant and the craftsman were overwhelmed by capitalism and replaced by the proletariat. Collectivism, far from destroying this kind of property, will rather revive it, not in the antiquated individualistic form of letting each man retain his own, which is obviously impossible under division of labour and production on a large scale, but of giving to every man a claim upon the equivalent of what he has produced.[990]
This twofold task can only be accomplished by undoing all that capitalism has done; by taking from the capitalists the instruments of production which they now possess and restoring them to the workmen, not individually—that would be impossible under modern conditions—but collectively. To adopt the formula which figures at the head of the party’s programme, this means the socialisation of the means of production—land, including surface and subsoil, factories and capital. The produce of everyone’s labour, after allowing for certain expenses which must be borne by the community as a whole, will be distributed according to each one’s labour. Surplus labour and surplus value will thus disappear simultaneously.
This expropriation of the capitalists will be the final stage, for, unlike the preceding movements, it will not be undertaken for the benefit of a single class—not even for the benefit of the workers. It will be for the interest of everybody alike, for the benefit of the nation as a whole. It will also be adequate to cope with the change which industry has recently undergone; in other words, both production and distribution will be on a collective basis.
II: THE MARXIAN SCHOOL
After this summary exposition of the principal theories of Karl Marx, we must now try to fix the general character of the school that bears his name[991] and to distinguish it from the other socialist schools that we have already studied.
(a) In the first place, it proudly claims for its teaching the title of scientific socialism, but much care must be exercised in interpreting the formula. No economist has ever shown such contempt or betrayed such passion in denouncing Phalanstères, Utopias, and communistic schemes of every kind. To think that the Marxians should add to the number of such fantastic dreams! What they claim to do, as M. Labriola points out (may the shades of Fourier forgive their presumption!), is to give a thoroughly scientific demonstration of the line of progress which has actually been followed by civilised societies.[992] Their one ambition is to gauge the significance of the unconscious evolution through which society has progressed and to point the goal towards which this cosmic process seems to be tending.
The result is that the Marxian school has a conception of natural laws which is much nearer the Classical standpoint than that of its predecessors. Of this there can be no doubt. The Marxian theories are derived directly from the theories of the leading economists of the early nineteenth century, especially from Ricardo’s. Marx is in the line of direct succession. Not only is this true of the labour-value theory and of his treatment of the conflict between profits and wages, but it also applies to his theory of rent and to a whole host of Ricardian doctrines that have been absorbed wholesale into the Marxian philosophy. And, paradoxical as it may sound, his abstract dogmatic method, his obscure style, which encourages disciples to retort that the critics have misunderstood his meaning and to give to many a passage quite an esoteric significance, is of the very essence of Ricardo.[993] Marx’s theories are, of course, supported by a wealth of illuminating facts, which unfortunately have been unduly simplified and drawn upon for purely imaginary conclusions. We have already had occasion to remark that Ricardo also owes a good deal more to the observation of facts than is generally believed, and his practice of postulating imaginary conditions is of course notorious. The impenitent Marxian who still wishes to defend some of the more untenable theories of Marx, such as his doctrine of labour-value, generally finds himself forced to admit that Marx had supposed (the use of suppositions is an unfailing proof of Ricardian influence) the existence of society wherein labour would be always uniform in quality.[994]