登陆注册
5381100000020

第20章

Usury, or in other words the price of use, is the emolument, of whatever nature, which the proprietor derives from the loan of his property.Quidquid sorti accrescit usura est, say the theologians.Usury, the foundation of credit, was one of the first of the means which social spontaneity employed in its work of organization, and whose analysis discloses the profound laws of civilization.The ancient philosophers and the Fathers of the Church, who must be regarded here as the representatives of socialism in the early centuries of the Christian era, by a singular fallacy, -- which arose however from the paucity of economic knowledge in their day, -- allowed farm-rent and condemned interest on money, because, as they believed, money was unproductive.

They distinguished consequently between the loan of things which are consumed by use -- among which they included money -- and the loan of things which, without being consumed, yield a product to the user.

The economists had no difficulty in showing, by generalizing the idea of rent, that in the economy of society the action of capital, or its productivity, was the same whether it was consumed in wages or retained the character of an instrument; that, consequently, it was necessary either to prohibit the rent of land or to allow interest on money, since both were by the same title payment for privilege, indemnity for loan.It required more than fifteen centuries to get this idea accepted, and to reassure the consciences that had been terrified by the anathemas pronounced by Catholicism against usury.But finally the weight of evidence and the general desire favored the usurers: they won the battle against socialism; and from this legitimation of usury society gained some immense and unquestionable advantages.Under these circumstances socialism, which had tried to generalize the law enacted by Moses for the Israelites alone, Non foeneraberis proximo tuo, sed alieno, was beaten by an idea which it had accepted from the economic routine, -- namely, farm-rent, - - elevated into the theory of the productivity of capital.

But the economists in their turn were less fortunate, when they were afterwards called upon to justify farm-rent in itself, and to establish this theory of the product of capital.It may be said that, on this point, they have lost all the advantage they had at first gained against socialism.

Undoubtedly -- and I am the first to recognize it -- the rent of land, like that of money and all personal and real property, is a spontaneous and universal fact, which has its source in the depths of our nature, and which soon becomes, by its natural development, one of the most potent means of organization.I shall prove even that interest on capital is but the materialization of the apllorism, All labor should leave an excess.

But in the face of this theory, or rather this fiction, of the productivity of capital, arises another thesis no less certain, which in these latter days has struck the ablest economists: it is that all value is born of labor, and is composed essentially of wages; in other words, that no wealth has its origin in privilege, or acquires any value except through work;

and that, consequently, labor alone is the source of revenue among men.

How, then, reconcile the theory of farm- rent or productivity of capital -- a theory confirmed by universal custom, which conservative political economy is forced to accept but cannot justify -- with this other theory which shows that value is normally composed of wages, and which inevitably ends, as we shall demonstrate, in an equality in society between net product and raw product?

The socialists have not wasted the opportunity.Starting with the principle that labor is the source of all income, they began to call the holders of capital to account for their farm-rents and emoluments; and, as the economists won the first victory by generalizing under a common expression farm-rent and usury, so the socialists have taken their revenge by causing the seignorial rights of capital to vanish before the still more general principle of labor.Property has been demolished from top to bottom: the economists could only keep silent; but, powerless to arrest itself in this new descent, socialism has slipped clear to the farthest boundaries of communistic utopia, and, for want of a practical solution, society is reduced to a position where it can neither justify its tradition, nor commit itself to experiments in which the least mistake would drive it backward several thousand years.

In such a situation what is the mandate of science?

Certainly not to halt in an arbitrary, inconceivable, and impossible juste milieu; it is to generalize further, and discover a third principle, a fact, a superior law, which shall explain the fiction of capital and the myth of property, and reconcile them with the theory which makes labor the origin of all wealth.This is what socialism, if it wishes to proceed logically, must undertake.In fact, the theory of the real productivity of labor, and that of the fictitious productivity of capital, are both essentially economical: socialism has endeavored only to show the contradiction between them, without regard to experience or logic; for it appears to be as destitute of the one as of the other.Now, in law, the litigant who accepts the authority of a title in one particular must accept it in all;

it is not allowable to divide the documents and proofs.Had socialism the right to decline the authority of political economy in relation to usury, when it appealed for support to this same authority in relation to the analysis of value? By no means.All that socialism could demand in such a case was, either that political economy should be directed to reconcile its theories, or that it might be itself intrusted with this difficult task.

同类推荐
  • 翰林要诀

    翰林要诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 魏忠贤小说斥奸书

    魏忠贤小说斥奸书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 绝命辞

    绝命辞

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 诗品校定本

    诗品校定本

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 日本访书志

    日本访书志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 从此天涯都温柔

    从此天涯都温柔

    初见南霆,他芝兰玉树,校服加身。我仰着头,将他奉为一生的神。只是这一生还没过完,我便差点死在了他手里。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 华为如何应对国际化竞争与合作

    华为如何应对国际化竞争与合作

    本书讲述华为如何应对国际化竞争与合作。以及在合作竞争中应该注意的事项跟遇到的问题。
  • 微光迷失的尘夏

    微光迷失的尘夏

    十一岁时,因为一时任性,秦暖风间接害死了自己的继父,从而让继父的儿子丁煜憎恨不已。丁煜不断的找她麻烦,而她因为心存愧疚,任他欺负。那个夏天,秦暖风高考的前一天,丁煜面临离开,压抑许久的情感终于爆发,却对她造成了不可弥补的伤害,而后他意外消失。十年后,丁煜已经是国际级的球星,回国治伤与秦暖风意外相遇,他蛰伏了十年的情感被再次唤醒,而同时秦暖风的男朋友向暖风求婚,三个陷入纠缠而无法自拔......
  • 中国当代文学经典必读·1996中篇小说卷

    中国当代文学经典必读·1996中篇小说卷

    《中国当代文学经典必读·1996中篇小说卷》选取了1996发表的中篇小说七篇,选录了当时文学名家创作的优秀作品,代表了当年中篇小说创作的最高水平。本书主编为中国最权威文学研究机构中国现代文学馆馆长、著名文学评论家吴义勤,以专业的眼光严格遴选年度最值得阅读的中篇小说,并附有专业的评论。
  • 凰染天下雪舞离殇

    凰染天下雪舞离殇

    混沌界面,分为上,中,下三个主界,而混沌界面的核心,便是神圣天域,世代由灵女掌管。
  • 至死方休无关记忆:忘爱

    至死方休无关记忆:忘爱

    失忆后的恋爱,能否还能得到神的祝福,放开爱的手还能否有再次牵起来的机会?伊澈失忆后四年,邂逅了程安。她不知道程安是否真的是自己命中的恋人,她只知道,无论何时何地,她只爱程安一人……仅此而已。——灰姑娘的故事如果到了真实的世界,究竟是荒谬的假说,还是从头至尾的骗局?程安如果真的是他的命定情人,到最后她能得到她的爱情吗?
  • 阴阳眼之错惹高冷男神

    阴阳眼之错惹高冷男神

    天生阴阳眼的结果便是看到的人,并不全是人,还有鬼魂。人分好人坏人,鬼也分好鬼恶鬼,野晴偶然遇到一个有爱心的好鬼,并且救了他,却招惹了猎诡人龙腾,自此在哪都能遇到他,怎么都无法摆脱他,还真是惹上容易,甩掉难呀。高大峻冷,出身良好,还是龙氏集团的当家总裁,却有着另一重身份,猎诡人!在龙腾的眼里,阴阳有别,不管是好鬼还是恶鬼,打散或者送走鬼魂便是他的任务。野晴这个小女人老是在他的捉鬼过程中帮忙,帮倒忙,实在让他头痛不已,为了对付这个女人,他决定,让她爱上他!
  • 重生之帝师难驯

    重生之帝师难驯

    商女重生归来,身怀驭兽之术,纯良只是表象,杀伐狡诈才是真面目!当心机女遇上风华绝代的美人帝师,腹黑对上腹黑,成功让两个不要脸的勾搭到了一起……
  • 火爆小医女:天下第一绝宠

    火爆小医女:天下第一绝宠

    一朝重生,她从天之骄女,沦为未婚先孕、败坏门庭的炮灰嫡女。幸好自带空间神器,又得神镜相助,还有两个萌萌哒的可爱宝宝相爱相随,从此,炮灰女踏上逆袭之路,绽放绝世风华,人人敬仰,万兽臣服,倾尽世间男子,重登那巅峰之上……【女强,宠文,1V1,双处】推荐九月的完结文:《神医下堂妃》、《弃妇重生豪门:千金崛起》、《惊世弃后:神医小萌宝》,微博请关注:云起-龙九月。
  • 是应篇

    是应篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。