Property has had a succession of blows aimed at it in the name of this principle, false as I think, true according to the Economists and Egalitaires, namely, that natural agents possess or create value. This is a postulate upon which all schools are agreed. They differ only in the boldness or timidity of their deductions.
The Economists say that property (in land) is a monopoly, but a monopoly which is necessary, and which must be maintained.
The Socialists say that property (in land) is a monopoly, but a monopoly which is necessary, and which must be maintained,—and they demand compensation for it in the shape of right to employment [le droit au travail].
The Communists and Egalitaires say that property (in general) is a monopoly, and must be destroyed.
For myself, I say most emphatically that PROPERTY IS NOT A MONOPOLY. Your premises are false, and your three conclusions, although they differ, are false also. Property is not a monopoly, and consequently it is not incumbent on us either to tolerate it by way of favour, or to demand compensation for it, or to destroy it.
Let us pass briefly in review the opinions of writers of various schools on this important subject.
The English Economists lay down this principle, upon which they appear to be unanimous, that value comes from labour. Were they consistent in their use of terms, it might be so; but are they consistent? The reader will judge. He will see whether they [p252] do not always and everywhere confound gratuitous Utility, which is incapable of remuneration, and destitute of Value, with onerous Utility, which we owe exclusively to labour, and which according to them is alone possessed of value.
Adam Smith.—“In agriculture nature labours along with man; and although her labour costs no expense, its produce has its value, as well as that of the most expensive workmen.”[55]
Here we have nature producing value. The purchaser of corn must pay for it, although it has cost nothing to anybody, not even labour. Who then dares come forward to demand this pretended value? Substitute for that word the word utility, and all becomes clear, Property is vindicated, and justice satisfied.
“This rent,” proceeds Smith, “may be considered as the produce of those powers of nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer. . . . . It (rent!) is the work of nature, which remains after deducting or compensating everything which can be regarded as the work of man. It is seldom less than a fourth, and frequently more than a third of the whole produce. No equal quantity of productive labour employed in manufactures can ever occasion so great a reproduction. In them nature does nothing; man does all.”[56]