The principal cause of the evil lay in the accumulation and immobility of capital of all sorts,--an immobility which prevented labor, enslaved and subalternized by haughty idleness, from ever acquiring it.The necessity was felt of dividing and mobilizing wealth, of rendering it portable, of making it pass from the hands of the possessor into those of the worker.Labor invented MONEY.Afterwards, this invention was revived and developed by the BILL OF EXCHANGE and the BANK.For all these things are substantially the same, and proceed from the same mind.The first man who conceived the idea of representing a value by a shell, a precious stone, or a certain weight of metal, was the real inventor of the Bank.What is a piece of money, in fact? It is a bill of exchange written upon solid and durable material, and carrying with it its own redemption.By this means, oppressed equality was enabled to laugh at the efforts of the proprietors, and the balance of justice was adjusted for the first time in the tradesman's shop.The trap was cunningly set, and accomplished its purpose so thoroughly that in idle hands money became only dissolving wealth, a false symbol, a shadow of riches.An excellent economist and profound philosopher was that miser who took as his motto, "WHEN A GUINEAIS EXCHANGED, IT EVAPORATES." So it may be said, "When real estate is converted into money, it is lost." This explains the constant fact of history, that the nobles--the unproductive proprietors of the soil--have every where been dispossessed by industrial and commercial plebeians.Such was especially the case in the formation of the Italian republics, born, during the middle ages, of the impoverishment of the seigniors.I will not pursue the interesting considerations which this matter suggests; I could only repeat the testimony of historians, and present economical demonstrations in an altered form.
The greatest enemy of the landed and industrial aristocracy to-day, the incessant promoter of equality of fortunes, is the BANKER.Through him immense plains are divided, mountains change their positions, forests are grown upon the public squares, one hemisphere produces for another, and every corner of the globe has its usufructuaries.By means of the Bank new wealth is continually created, the use of which (soon becoming indispensable to selfishness) wrests the dormant capital from the hands of the jealous proprietor.The banker is at once the most potent creator of wealth, and the main distributor of the products of art and Nature.And yet, by the strangest antinomy, this same banker is the most relentless collector of profits, increase, and usury ever inspired by the demon of property.The importance of the services which he renders leads us to endure, though not without complaint, the taxes which he imposes.
Nevertheless, since nothing can avoid its providential mission, since nothing which exists can escape the end for which it exists the banker (the modern Croesus) must some day become the restorer of equality.And following in your footsteps, sir, I have already given the reason; namely, that profit decreases as capital multiplies, since an increase of capital--calling for more laborers, without whom it remains unproductive--always causes an increase of wages.Whence it follows that the Bank, to-day the suction-pump of wealth, is destined to become the steward of the human race.
The phrase EQUALITY OF FORTUNES chafes people, as if it referred to a condition of the other world, unknown here below.
There are some persons, radicals as well as moderates, whom the very mention of this idea fills with indignation.Let, then, these silly aristocrats abolish mercantile societies and insurance companies, which are founded by prudence for mutual assistance.For all these social facts, so spontaneous and free from all levelling intentions, are the legitimate fruits of the instinct of equality.
When the legislator makes a law, properly speaking he does not MAKE it,--he does not CREATE it: he DESCRIBES it.In legislating upon the moral, civil, and political relations of citizens, he does not express an arbitrary notion: he states the general idea,--the higher principle which governs the matter which he is considering; in a word, he is the proclaimer, not the inventor, of the law.So, when two or more men form among themselves, by synallagmatic contract, an industrial or an insurance association, they recognize that their interests, formerly isolated by a false spirit of selfishness and independence, are firmly connected by their inner natures, and by the mutuality of their relations.They do not really bind themselves by an act of their private will: they swear to conform henceforth to a previously existing social law hitherto disregarded by them.And this is proved by the fact that these same men, could they avoid association, would not associate.
Before they can be induced to unite their interests, they must acquire full knowledge of the dangers of competition and isolation; hence the experience of evil is the only thing which leads them into society.
