[956] Dupont-White’s individualism is as unimpeachable as Wagner’s, which proves that an individualist need not always be a Liberal. “The author of Liberty,” says he in his preface to Mill’s Liberty, p. lxxxix, “has a keen sympathy for individualism, which I share to the full, though without any misgivings as to the future destiny of this unalterable element. Individualism is life. In that sense individualism is imperishable.”
[957] Cf., for example, Schmoller’s open letter to von Treitschke (1874-75), translated in his Politique sociale et Économie politique (Paris, 1902). To the objection that the civil list of European monarchs is condemned in principle Schmoller replies that he is “speaking of the average man,” but that “the Hohenzollerns, when considered in this light, have no more than they deserve” (p. 92). We suspect that this argument will not carry much weight outside Germany.
[958] Wagner recognises the arbitrary nature of his suggestions. Theoretically, he says, this method of procedure is quite legitimate, but practically it is not so simple, “for the object, in short, is to employ the principles of equity and of social utility, which are by no means difficult to formulate, and to transmute those principles into legislative enactments, so as to put a check upon the arbitrary and excessive accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few individuals, such as is the case under a régime of free competition.” (Finanzwissenschaft und Staatssozialismus, p. 719.)
[959] P. 398.
[960] Finanzwissenschaft und Staatssozialismus, p. 718.
[961] The imperial message of November 17, 1881, announcing the celebrated series of Insurance Acts admits the necessity for a more marked policy of State intervention: “To lay hold of the ways and means whereby the working classes may best be helped is by no means an easy task, but it is one of the highest which a moral and Christian community can set its heart upon.” Bismarck, in his speech of May 9, 1884, said: “I unhesitatingly recognise the rights of labour, and so long as I occupy this place I shall uphold them. In so doing I base my plea, not upon socialism, but upon the Prussian Landrecht.” Section 2 of Art. XIX of the second part of the Prussian Landrecht (February 5, 1794) reads as follows: “To such as have neither the means nor the opportunity of earning their own livelihood or that of their family, work shall be given, adapted to their strength and capacity.” Despite its general tone, it did not contemplate giving relief.
[962] Speech delivered on March 18, 1889, quoted by Brodnitz, Bismarcks Nationalökonomische Ansichten, p. 141 (Jena, 1902).
[963] The well-known German economist Professor Lexis has unfortunately not been mentioned in this chapter, for the Göttingen professor has the misfortune of being neither a State Socialist nor a member of the Historical school. His works, dealing with various topics—money, the population theory, and general economic theory—are scattered through a number of reviews and other publications, especially the Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Schönberg’s Handbuch, and the great Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften. His writings are distinguished not only by a definitely scientific method of treatment, but also by a remarkable clearness of thought. While appearing to continue the tradition of the Classical school, he takes care to reject the optimistic conclusions which are too often regarded as an inseparable element of that tradition. In 1900 Lexis gave us a general résumé of his teaching in the Allgemeine Volkswirtschaftslehre, where he treats of the economic world as concerned merely with the circulation of goods. In addition to an interesting theory of crises, upon which we cannot dwell just now, the most original part of the work consists of a theory concerning the method of distributing the social product between workers and capitalists. Lexis thinks that all material goods are produced by labour and measurable in terms of labour. The problem then is to determine where the capitalist gets his income. The capitalist’s profit is not the result of exploitation, as Marx thought, but is simply what is added to the sale price—a sum corresponding to the capitalist’s interest is added to the sum representing the workmen’s wages. Profit originates in the sphere of circulation. But how will this increased sale price benefit the capitalists, seeing that under existing conditions the workers can only buy the equivalent of the products which they have already helped to produce? We need to remember, however, that they produce for the capitalist as well as for themselves, and with the money thus obtained the working classes are enabled to buy whatever they need at market prices, i.e. at a price that includes interest, which constitutes the capitalist’s profit. Whenever the capitalists themselves purchase goods made by themselves they are reciprocally benefiting one another. Their class position is not modified by such procedure, for each entrepreneur simply draws profits in proportion to his capital. And so we avoid the most serious objection which can be raised to Marx’s theory. This explanation of the surplus value received by the capitalists is at least very ingenious. Lexis has been mostly influenced by Marx and Rodbertus, and has attempted a fusion of their more vigorous conceptions. Despite the objections that might be raised to it, the work is certainly one of the most original of recent years.
[964] Karl Marx, generally spoken of as a Jew, was born on May 5, 1818, of Jewish parents who had been converted to Protestantism. Born of a respectable bourgeois family and wedded to the daughter of a German baron, few would have predicted for him the career of a militant socialist. Such was to be his lot, however. In 1843, at the age of twenty-five, the authorities having suppressed a newspaper which he was conducting, he fled to Paris, and thence to Brussels. Returning to Germany during the Revolution of 1848, in which he took an active part, he was again expelled, and this time took refuge in London (1849). Here he spent the rest of his life (about thirty years), leaving for France a short time before his death in 1883. He died at London on March 14 in that year.
Although Marx was one of the founders and directors of the famous association known as the “International,” which was the terror of every European Government between 1863 and 1872, he was not a mere revolutionary like his rival Bakunin, nor was he a famous tribune of the people like Lassalle. He was essentially a student, an affectionate father, like Proudhon, an indefatigable traveller, and a man of great intellectual culture.