FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[169]The remarks of Prof. Issaieff—a thorough investigator of petty trades in Russia, Germany and France—(seeWorks of the Commission for the Study of Petty Trades in Russia(Russian), St. Petersburg, 1879-1887, vol. i.) were for me a valuable guide when I prepared the first edition of this book. Since that time the two industrial censuses of 1895 and 1907 have yielded such a valuable material, that there are quite a number of German works which came to the same conclusions. I shall mention them further on.[170]See K. Buecher’s Preface to theUntersuchungen über die Lage des Handwerks in Deutschland, vol. iv.[171]The foundation for this creed is contained in one of the concluding chapters of Marx’sKapital(the last but one), in which the author spoke of the concentration of capital and saw in it the “fatality of a natural law.” In the “forties,” this idea of “concentration of capital,” originated from what was going on in the textile industries, was continually recurring in the writings of all the French socialists, especially Considérant, and their German followers, and it was used by them as an argument in favour of the necessity of a social revolution. But Marx was too much of a thinker that he should not have taken notice of the subsequent developments of industrial life, which were not foreseen in 1848; if he had lived now, he surely wouldnothave shut his eyes to the formidable growth of the numbers of small capitalists and to the middle-class fortunes which are made in a thousand ways under the shadow of the modern “millionaires.” Very likely he would have noticed also the extreme slowness with which the wrecking of small industries goes on—a slowness which could not be predicted fifty or forty years ago, because no one could foresee at that time the facilities which have been offered since for transport, the growing variety of demand, nor the cheap means which are now in use for the supply of motive power in small quantities. Being a thinker, he would have studied these facts, and very probably he would have mitigated the absoluteness of his earlier formulæ, as in fact he did once with regard to the village community in Russia. It would be most desirable that his followers should rely less upon abstract formulæ—easy as they may be as watchwords in political struggles—and try to imitate their teacher in his analysis ofconcreteeconomical phenomena.[172]The Economic Interpretation of History.[173]Les Progrès de la Science économique depuis Adam Smith, Paris, 1890, t. i., pp. 460, 461.[174]See the discussions in the Reichstag in January, 1909, on the Polish Syndicates, and the application that is made to them of the paragraph of the law of the associations relative to language (Sprachenparagraph).[175]SeeAppendix X.[176]SeeAppendix Y.[177]Here is the distribution of workpeople in all the industries, according to theAnnuaire Statistiquefor the year 1909: Artisans working single-handed or with the aid of their families, 165,000 establishments; very small industry, from one to four workpeople, 54,000 establishments, 95,000 workpeople; small industry, from five to forty-nine workpeople per factory, 14,800 establishments, 177,000 employees; middle-sized and great industry, from 50 to 499 workpeople per factory, 1,500 establishments, 250,000 employees; very great industry, above 500 workpeople per factory, 200 establishments, 160,000 employees. Total, 236,000 employers great and small; or 71,000 employers out of 7,000,000 inhabitants if we do not count the independent artisans.[178]When shall we have for the United Kingdom a census as complete as we have it for France, Germany, and Belgium? that is, a census in which the employed and the employers will be counted separately—instead of throwing into one heap the owner of the factory, the managers, the engineers, and the workers—and their distribution in factories of different sizes will be given.[179]Textile Industries: Artisans working single or with the aid of their families, 1,437; from one to four workmen, 430 establishments, 949 workpeople; from five to forty-nine workpeople, 774 establishments, 14,051 workers; above fifty, 379 establishments, 66,103 workers.[180]Since 1907 the Russian Government has inaugurated this policy, and has begun to destroy by violence the village community in the interest of the landlord and the protected industries.[181]It appears from the house-to-house inquiry, which embodies 855,000 workers, that the yearly value of the produce which they use to manufacture reaches £21,087,000 (the rouble at 24d.), that is, an average of £25 per worker. An average of £20 for the 7,500,000 persons engaged in domestic industries would already give £150,000,000 for their aggregate production; but the most authoritative investigators consider that figure as below the reality.[182]Some of the produces of the Russian rural industries have lately been introduced in this country, and find a good sale.[183]Prugavin, in theVyestnik Promyshlennosti, June, 1884. See also the excellent work of V. V. (Vorontsoff)Destinies of Capitalism in Russia, 1882 (Russia).[184]I may add from my own experience that such is also the opinion of several Manchester employers: “I am saving a great deal by using municipal electric power in my factory, instead of the steam-engine.” I was told by one of the most respected members of the Manchester community: “I pay for motive power according to the number of persons I employ—two hundred at certain times, and fifty in other parts of the year. I need not buy coal and stock it in advance for all the year; I have saved the room that was occupied by the steam-engine; and the room above it is not heated and shaken by the engine as it used to be.”

[169]The remarks of Prof. Issaieff—a thorough investigator of petty trades in Russia, Germany and France—(seeWorks of the Commission for the Study of Petty Trades in Russia(Russian), St. Petersburg, 1879-1887, vol. i.) were for me a valuable guide when I prepared the first edition of this book. Since that time the two industrial censuses of 1895 and 1907 have yielded such a valuable material, that there are quite a number of German works which came to the same conclusions. I shall mention them further on.

[170]See K. Buecher’s Preface to theUntersuchungen über die Lage des Handwerks in Deutschland, vol. iv.

[171]The foundation for this creed is contained in one of the concluding chapters of Marx’sKapital(the last but one), in which the author spoke of the concentration of capital and saw in it the “fatality of a natural law.” In the “forties,” this idea of “concentration of capital,” originated from what was going on in the textile industries, was continually recurring in the writings of all the French socialists, especially Considérant, and their German followers, and it was used by them as an argument in favour of the necessity of a social revolution. But Marx was too much of a thinker that he should not have taken notice of the subsequent developments of industrial life, which were not foreseen in 1848; if he had lived now, he surely wouldnothave shut his eyes to the formidable growth of the numbers of small capitalists and to the middle-class fortunes which are made in a thousand ways under the shadow of the modern “millionaires.” Very likely he would have noticed also the extreme slowness with which the wrecking of small industries goes on—a slowness which could not be predicted fifty or forty years ago, because no one could foresee at that time the facilities which have been offered since for transport, the growing variety of demand, nor the cheap means which are now in use for the supply of motive power in small quantities. Being a thinker, he would have studied these facts, and very probably he would have mitigated the absoluteness of his earlier formulæ, as in fact he did once with regard to the village community in Russia. It would be most desirable that his followers should rely less upon abstract formulæ—easy as they may be as watchwords in political struggles—and try to imitate their teacher in his analysis ofconcreteeconomical phenomena.

[172]The Economic Interpretation of History.

[173]Les Progrès de la Science économique depuis Adam Smith, Paris, 1890, t. i., pp. 460, 461.

[174]See the discussions in the Reichstag in January, 1909, on the Polish Syndicates, and the application that is made to them of the paragraph of the law of the associations relative to language (Sprachenparagraph).

[175]SeeAppendix X.

[176]SeeAppendix Y.

[177]Here is the distribution of workpeople in all the industries, according to theAnnuaire Statistiquefor the year 1909: Artisans working single-handed or with the aid of their families, 165,000 establishments; very small industry, from one to four workpeople, 54,000 establishments, 95,000 workpeople; small industry, from five to forty-nine workpeople per factory, 14,800 establishments, 177,000 employees; middle-sized and great industry, from 50 to 499 workpeople per factory, 1,500 establishments, 250,000 employees; very great industry, above 500 workpeople per factory, 200 establishments, 160,000 employees. Total, 236,000 employers great and small; or 71,000 employers out of 7,000,000 inhabitants if we do not count the independent artisans.

[178]When shall we have for the United Kingdom a census as complete as we have it for France, Germany, and Belgium? that is, a census in which the employed and the employers will be counted separately—instead of throwing into one heap the owner of the factory, the managers, the engineers, and the workers—and their distribution in factories of different sizes will be given.

[179]Textile Industries: Artisans working single or with the aid of their families, 1,437; from one to four workmen, 430 establishments, 949 workpeople; from five to forty-nine workpeople, 774 establishments, 14,051 workers; above fifty, 379 establishments, 66,103 workers.

[180]Since 1907 the Russian Government has inaugurated this policy, and has begun to destroy by violence the village community in the interest of the landlord and the protected industries.

[181]It appears from the house-to-house inquiry, which embodies 855,000 workers, that the yearly value of the produce which they use to manufacture reaches £21,087,000 (the rouble at 24d.), that is, an average of £25 per worker. An average of £20 for the 7,500,000 persons engaged in domestic industries would already give £150,000,000 for their aggregate production; but the most authoritative investigators consider that figure as below the reality.

[182]Some of the produces of the Russian rural industries have lately been introduced in this country, and find a good sale.

[183]Prugavin, in theVyestnik Promyshlennosti, June, 1884. See also the excellent work of V. V. (Vorontsoff)Destinies of Capitalism in Russia, 1882 (Russia).

[184]I may add from my own experience that such is also the opinion of several Manchester employers: “I am saving a great deal by using municipal electric power in my factory, instead of the steam-engine.” I was told by one of the most respected members of the Manchester community: “I pay for motive power according to the number of persons I employ—two hundred at certain times, and fifty in other parts of the year. I need not buy coal and stock it in advance for all the year; I have saved the room that was occupied by the steam-engine; and the room above it is not heated and shaken by the engine as it used to be.”

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