Agriculteurs 61.46 per cent. in 1851, 51.49 per cent. in 1866;
Industriels et commerçants 25.95 per cent. in 1851, 32.78 per cent. in 1866;
Professions libérales 9.73 per cent. in 1851, 9.48 per cent. in 1866.
To which it must be added, that, in 1851, there were 2.86 sans profession ou dont les professions n'ont pu être constatées; and that, in 1866, on the other hand, there were 2.87 per cent. in professions se rattachant à l'agriculture, industrie et commerce. (Legoyt.) In England and Wales, leaving the domestic class out of consideration (women without an independent means of employment, school children, servant girls etc.), and also the “indefinite class,” there were, in 1861, 25.3 per cent. of the population engaged in agricultural pursuits; 60.7 in industrial; 7.8 in commercial; and 6.06 in professional pursuits. In Italy, omitting housewives, children and infirm persons, there were, in 1862, 57.4 per cent. of the population engaged in agriculture; 22.9 in industrial pursuits; 4 in commerce; and 3.9 per cent. in the army and in the liberal professions. (Annali univ. di Statistica, Febbr., 1866.) On Holland, in the middle of the 17th century, see J. de Wit, Mémoires, 34 seq.
Considering the aversion exhibited against private property by J. J. Rousseau, and the unlimited power which he accords to the majority for the time being in the state (Contrat Social, 1761, II, ch. 4), it cannot be denied that his freedom and equality contain, to say the least, germs of communism by no means insignificant. But, he would, in the present state of civil society, have a feeling of respect for the rights of property implanted in the mind of the child very early, and even before the feeling of liberty is developed. (Emile, 1762, Livre II.) About the same time Morelly published his Basiliade ou Naufrage des Iles flottantes, 1753, a political romance in the interest of communism. See the same author's Code de la Nature, 1755. Mably, in his two works, Doutes proposés aux Economistes, 1768, and La Législation ou Principes des Lois, 1776, recommended the abolition of all inequality and a real community of goods. The introduction of property seems to him, une faute qu'il était presque impossible de faire. Even Beccaria calls property a dreadful but perhaps a necessary right which has left to the unfortunate nothing but a naked existence. (Dei Delitti e delle Pene, 1765, cap. 22.) The French Reign of Terror came pretty near carrying these ideas into effect. We need only refer to the abolition of the census, the payments made to the workingmen who attended the section meetings, two francs per diem, the enormous extension of confiscation, requisitions and forced loans, the revolution effected in the fortunes of individuals by the system of issuing assignats, the maximum affixed to the price of all the necessaries of life, the abolition of indirect taxes, and of what remained of the economic institutions handed down from the middle ages. According to St. Just: l'opulence est une infamie; il ne faut ni riches ni pauvres. The Cahier des Pauvres demands, first of all, that salaries “should no longer be estimated in accordance with the murderous principles of unbridled luxury.” See Forster's letter dated November 15, 1793. (Sämmtl. Schriften, IX, 125.) On the conspiracy of Baboeuf, who was executed in 1796, and who wanted to see the completest equality and community of labor, of enjoyment and education, the abolition of large cities etc., see Buonarotti, La Conjuration de B., 1821. This book contributed powerfully towards the revival of communistic ideas after the July revolution. Among modern communists who are to be distinguished from the more ancient, especially by the industrial coloring given to their theories, Cabet, Voyage en Icarie, 1840, II, holds a very prominent place. He declares the abolition of religion, of the family and of the state, to be open questions, and desires to bring the practice of a community of goods to a successful issue only through the peaceful channel of conviction.
Compare Reybaud, Etudes sur les Réformateurs contemporains ou Socialistes modernes, 1840. L. Stein, Der Socialismus und Communismus des heutigen Frankreich. See, also, the learned history of socialistic systems in Marlo's Weltökonomie, I, 2, 435 ff.; and in what concerns the most recent time, R. Meyer, Der Emancipationskampf des vierten Standes, II, 1874, seq.; a book which, in spite of its many defects, both doctrinal and journalistic, is as rich in thought, and in the knowledge of the subject it treats of, as it is permeated by a love of truth regardless of consequences. Among the opponents of socialism and communism, Malthus, On Population, B. III, ch. 3, and B. Hildebrand, Die Nationalökonomie der Gegenwart und Zukunft, vol. I, 1848, hold a very distinguished place. J. S. Mill, Principles, II, ch. 1, 3, calls attention to the fact that hitherto the principle of free property has never been consistently carried out. The first social arrangement of modern society was almost everywhere the result of conquest and violence, large traces of which yet remain. Things have always been made property which ought not to be property. Governments have endeavored to intensify the darkness of the dark side of property, and favored the concentration instead of the diffusion of wealth etc. Hence, no one can claim that the social wrongs, so-called, had their origin in property as such. Schäffle, Kapitalismus und Socialismus, 1870, has made a very note-worthy effort to recognize whatever of truth there is in socialism, and to combat its errors.
A similar development among the Greeks:
A. Rigorous slavery for debt, which Kypselos moderated at Corinth. (Pausan., V. 17, 2), and Solon abolished in Athens. (Plutarch, Sol., 15. Demosth., de fals. Legat., 412.)
B. The reckless creation of debts as seen in Aristophanes; while outside of Athens slavery for debt lasted yet a long time. (Hermann, Griech. Privatalterth., § 57, 20.) In the time of Demosthenes, the merchant in arrears in the payment of his debts was cast into prison, and the bottomry-debtor who deprived his creditor of his security might be punished with death, (Demosth. adv. Pharm., 922, 958), and this although the cessio honorum was introduced. Hermann, § 70, 3. Compare Xenoph., Vectigg., 3, Demosth. adv. Apat., 892; adv. Lacrit., and adv. Dionys. In Corinth, the state superintended expenses made by parties. This was part of its credit-policy. (Athænæus, VI, 227.) For a remarkable Rhodian law relating to debts, see Sext. Emp., Hypot. I, 149.
In Rome:
A. The chief characteristic of the ancient law in this matter was the eventual sale of the person of the debtor on the getting of the loan (nexum); the power of the creditor to put the addictus to death or to sell him in foreign parts; finally, the in partes secanto, in the concourse of creditors. Without these rigorous provisions, the borrower might easily have evaded his debts, by the emancipation of his son and turning over his property to him. (Niebuhr, Rom. Gesch., II, 770 ff; Savigny in the Abb. der Berliner Acad., 1833. Zimmern, Gesch. des röm. Privatrechts, III, 131 ff.)
B. Later, we find nothing of the execution of the debtor, or of the sale of his person; but he might be compelled to do slave labor for his creditor without any protection against ill-treatment. Slavery for debt was restricted by the Lex Poetelia. (Niebuhr, III, p. 178; Mommsen, III, 494.) The Prætorian law introduced the custom of putting the creditor in possession of the goods of the debtor, with power of sale, which proceeding rendered the debtor infamous. See several passages in Walter., Röm Rechtsgesch, 763 ff; Tertull., Apol., 4; Tab. Herac. I, 115 ff. Later, Cæsar's Lex Julia permitted the honest debtor to escape imprisonment by the assignment of his goods.