In1700-1800.1800-1825.1824-1846.bybybyFrance,14116132Naples,1518149|Piedmont,1618150Lombardy,1940180|England and Wales,1642136Scotland,1316134Ireland,1780177|Holland,1314195|Belgium,1544136Prussia,1717168Hanover,1612132Württemberg,1712156Bohemia,1627173|
[253-2]"The useful rearing of children the most productive of all outlay." (Roesler.)
[253-3]CompareJ. Harrington(ob. 1677), Prerogative of a popular Government, I, ch. II;Sir J. Stewart, Principles, I, ch. 18;Malthus, Principle of Population, IV, ch. 1;McCullochvery happily shows how seldom those who can live comfortably without it are extraordinarily active. The Malthusian law prevents this ever becoming the condition of the majority. Precisely during those years that man is most capable of labor, there is a prospect of a great increase of outlay, in case one does not remain single, which would inevitably degrade every one, a few over-rich excepted, who had not taken care to provide for a corresponding increase of income. Were it not for this, human progress would become slower and slower, for the reason that thedura necessitaswould be felt less and less.
[253-4]According toPurves, Principles of Population, 1818, 456, there were, in England (London not included):
In the sevenmost denselypopulated counties.In the sevencounties ofaveragepopulation.In the fivemost sparselypopulatedcounties.Inhabitants per geographical sq. mile,4,9042,2291,061One man with £60 income in every034 inhabitants037477One man with £200 income in every193 inhabitants199472Aggregate of all incomes over £200 per square mile,£25,118£12,676£2,441
CompareRau, Lehrbuch, II, § 13. Something analogous has frequently been observed as to taxation capacity. Thus, for instance, the Hessian provinces paid in direct taxation and taxation on wines, liquors, etc.; and the density of the population was in the ratio—
In Rhenish Hessen,100100.In Starkenburg,6564.In Upper Hessen,6459.
(Rau, Lehrbuch, III, § 280.) In many European countries, the population has for a long period of time, and in a comfortable way, increased most rapidly where it has been densest. Thus, for instance, the kingdom of Saxony was, in 1837, the most densely populated of all the monarchical states of Germany (6,076 inhabitants per square mile), Hanover (2,416) and Mecklenburg-Schwerin (2,004) were among the most sparsely peopled. And yet the annual increase of population between 1837 and 1858 was greatest in Saxony (1.36 per cent.) while Hanover (0.44) and Mecklenburg-Schwerin (0.59) stood very low in this respect. In very thinly populated countries, nature permits even the civilized man to deteriorate: thus the French in Canada, the Spaniard in the valley of the La Plata.
[253-5]This excellent expression seems to have been first used byGerstner, Grundlehren der Staatsverwaltung, 1864, II, 1, 176 ff. It must indeed be distinguished from a rapidly growing, but for the time being, a sparsely settled country. A nation with an equal population on a larger surface is, frequently in the immediate present weaker than another in which the population is more dense; but it has the advantage of a greater possibility of growth in the future. Think of the electorates of Saxe and of Brandenburg in the sixteenth century. Just asThaer, Landwirthschaftliche Gewerbelehre, § 149, advises that a mere annuitant should, values being the same, rather purchase a smaller fertile estate; a very able husbandman the reverse.
[253-6]We need only call to mind such facts as for instance that the United States wealth of coal is 22 times as great as that of Great Britain. (Rogers, The Coal Formation and a Description of the Coal Fields of North America and Great Britain, 1858.) In addition to this, only about 16 per cent. of the combustible material is really used in the way furnaces are now generally filled, only 10 per cent. in foundry furnaces, and from 14 to 15 per cent. in the transportation of passengers on railways. The Falls of Niagara afford a water-power equal to 2/3 of all the steam engines which existed, a short time since, in the whole world. (E. Hermann, Principien der Wirthschaft, 1873, p. 49, 153, 243.) But that single families, houses, branches of business, etc. may be over-peopled, and the impoverishing disproportion between numbers and the means of subsistence not be susceptible of immediate removal by the unaided power of the crowded circle, cannot be questioned.
[253-7]Aristotlehad recognized the possibility of over-population. (Polit., II, 4, 3, 7, 4; VII, 4, 5; VII, 14.)Schmitthenner,[TN 106]Staatswisensschaften, I, distinguishes between relative and absolute over-population: the former is remediable by intellectual and especially by political development, while the latter borders on the extreme physical and possible limits of the means of subsistence.W. Thornton, Over-population and its Remedy, 1849, 9, considers a country in English circumstances over-populated when a man between twenty and seventy years of age is not in a condition to support, by means of his wages, 1¼ persons in need of assistance (children under 10, women over 60, and men over 70 years of age).
[253-8]Thus, for instance, in war, one million of peasants are infinitely more powerful, especially in case of a protracted defensive war, than two millions of proletarians. Alaric's saying: "thick-growing grass is most easily mowed."
SECTION CCLIV.
THE IDEAL OF POPULATION.
Hence it was not an erroneous policy that most governments have sought to promote the increase of population in undeveloped nations. So far as the influence of the acts of government can reach, such a course must tend to the earlier maturity of a people's economy. Much more questionable are positive provisions by government intended to hinder the further increase of population in a country already supposed to be fully peopled; if for no other reason, because even the deepest, most varied and extensive knowledge can scarcely ever predict with certainty that no further extension of the field of food is possible under the spur of momentary over-population; and also because questions of population reach so far into the life and tenderest feelings of the individual that a government which has regard for the personal freedom of its subjects, instead of promoting or hindering marriage, emigration etc. by police regulations, cannot but limit itself to a statistical knowledge and legislative regulation of these relations.[254-1][254-2]
Whether the population of a country increase in a well-to-do or proletarian manner; whether, therefore, the state should rejoice or lament over such increase, may generally be inferredwith some certainty from the other conditions of the country's economy, especially from the height of the rate of wages and from the consumption of the nation (§ 230). Thus, for instance,the population of England, between 1815 and 1847, increased 47 per cent.; but during the same period the value of its exports increased 63 per cent.; the tonnage of its merchant marine, 55 per cent.; the amount yielded by the tax on legacies, and therefore moveable property, by 93 per cent.; the value of immoveable property by 78 per cent. Wherever in agriculture the ancient system of triennial rotation (Dreifelder-system=three-field system) has been exchanged for the so-called English system, not only is a greater number of men supported, but, as a rule, each is more abundantly provided for.[254-3]The construction of new houses is an especially good symptom, because a habitation is a want which governs many others, and which, at the same time, may be much curtailedin case of need. Only, there should be no thoughtless building speculations, the existence or absence of which may readily be inferred from the ratio between the rent of houses and the rate of interest usual in the country. In England and Wales there was, in 1801, one house to every 5.7 inhabitants; in 1821, to every 5.8; in 1841, to every 5.4; in 1861, to every 5.39; in 1871, to every 5.35.[254-4]
The taking of the census at regular intervals in accordance with the principles of modern science, and with the apparatus of modern art, is one of the chief means to enable us to form a correct judgment of the health of the national life and of the goodness of the state.[254-5]
[254-1]CompareR. Mohl, Polizeiwissenschaft, I, § 15.
[254-2]There may be observed a regular ebb and flow in the opinions of theorizers on this subject. During the latter, great enthusiasm is manifested over the increase of population, which is considered an unqualified benefit; later, over-population gives rise to uneasiness. Not many had as much insight as Henry IV.:la force et la richesse des rois consistent dans le nombre et dans l'opulence des sujets. (Edict., inWolowskiin the Mémoires de l'Acad. des Sciences morales et politiques, 1855.) Thus, for instance,Luther, in his sermons on the married state, advises all young men to marry at 20, and all young women at from 15 to 18 years of age. The person who fails to marry because he cannot support a family has no real confidence in God. God will not allow those who obey his command to want the necessaries of life. Werke byIrmischer, XX, 77 ff. In England, great dread of depopulation under the first two Tudors: 4 Henry VII., c. 19; 3 Henry VIII., c. 8.J. Bodinus, De Rep., VI, is charmed with the Lex Julia et Papia Poppæa. Its repeal was immediately followed by the greatest looseness of morals and by depopulation.
On the other hand, a great dread of over-population prevailed among English political economists at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. They recommended their colonial projects by saying that they desired to avert this danger. Thus, for instance,Raleigh, History of the World, I, ch. 4;Bacon, Sermones fid., 15, 33, and his essay, De Colonies in Hiberniam deducendis. CompareRoscher, Zur Geschichte der englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre, 24, 26, 31, 34, 42. Similarly, at the end of the fifteenth century, in highly developed Italy, which had become stationary. According toF. Patricius(De Inst. Republ., VI, 4; VII, 12):incolarum multitudo periculosa est in omni populo. SinceColbert'stime, the opposite opinion has become the prevailing one. The densest population had been observed in the wealthiest and relatively the most powerful countries, and people thought they had here sufficient data for a wide generalization. The thought of military conscription by degrees obtained weight in this connection. Thus,Saavedra Faxardo, Idea Principis christiano-politici (1649), Symb. 66;De la Court, Aanwysing (1699), I, 9.Sir W. Temple, says that the fundamental cause of all commerce and wealth lies in a dense population, which compels men to the practice of industry and frugality. (Works, I, 162 ff., 171, III, 2.)Imperii potentia ex civium numero astimanda est.(Spinoza, Tract, politicus, VII, 18.)
ThusPettysays that 1,000 acres which can support 1,000 men are better than 10,000 which do the same thing. He would give Scotland and Ireland up entirely, and have the inhabitants settle in England. In this way all combination for common purposes would be facilitated. (Several Essays, 107 seq., 147 ff.) Peter the Great is said to have entertained a similar view: Œuvres de Frédéric le Grand, II, 23. More moderate isChild, Discourse of Trade, 298, and still more so in 368 ff.;Locke, Works, I, 73 ff.; II, 3, 6, 191. In Germany,v. Seckendorffadvises that great establishments for children should be erected, in which orphans and even the children of poor parents should be brought up at the expense of the state, simply with the object of increasing the number of healthy men. (Teutscher Fürstenstaat, ed. 1678, 203, Add. 179.)Becher, Polit. Discours, 21, would have murderers punished because they detract from population, although he elsewhere in his definition of a city, "a nourishing populous community," is no blind enthusiast over-population. According tov. Horneck; Oesterreich über Alles, 1684, 29 ff., the third fundamental rule of public economy is the greatest possible increase and employment of men.Vera regni potestas in hominem numero consistit; ubi enim sunt homines, ibi substantiæ et vires.(Leibnitz, ed., Dutens, IV, 2, 502.) According toVauban, Dîme royale, 150, Daire, no child can be born of a subject by which the king is not a gainer. Compare 46,145. Numbers of People the greatest riches. (Law, Trade and Money, 209.) Similarly, Law's discipleMélon, Essai politique sur le Commerce, ch. I, 3. The number of people is both means and motive to industry (Berkeley, Works, II, 187) and hence the public are interested in nothing so much as in the production of competent citizens. (Querist, Nr., 206.)Süssmilch, Göttl. Ordnung, I, Kap. 10; Œuvres de Frédéric M. IV, 4; VI, 82.
About the middle of the 18th century, we find a whole school of political thinkers who decide every question from the standpoint of the influence of the solution on the increase of population. (Excellently refuted bySchlözer,Anfangsgründe, II, 15 ff.) Thus especiallyTucker, Important Questions, IV, 11; V, 5; VII, 4; VIII, 5. Four Tracts, 70.Forbonnais, Finances de France, I, 351, who considered it one of the principal objects of a good industrial policy to employ the greatest possible number of men.Necker, Sur le Commerce et la Législation des Grains, 1776.v. Sonnenfels, Grundsätze der Polizei, Handlung und Finanz (1765), in which the principle of population is called the highest principle of all four sciences of the state (I, § 25 ff.). These writers understand the "balance of trade" in such a way, that a nation always operates most advantageously which gives employment to the largest number of men with its export articles, (v. Sonnenfels, II, § 210 ff., 354 ff.)v. Justi, Staatswissenschaft, I, 160 ff., says plainly that a country can never have too many men. According toDarjes, Erste Gründe, 379, "even the increase of beggars brings something into the treasury by means of the excise tax which they pay." Compare, also,J. J. Rousseau, Contrat Social, III, 9;Galiani, Della Moneta, II, 4;Verri, Opuscoli, 325;Filangieri, Leggi Politiche[TN 107]ed Economiche, II, 2;Paley, Moral and Political Philosophy, III, ch. 11. On similar grounds,A. Younglaments that the increase of proletarians is greatly hindered by the English poor laws. (In later writings it is somewhat different: compare Travels in France, I, ch. 12.) How deeply such ideas had penetrated public opinion is apparent from the opening words of the Vicar of Wakefield, as well as from the declaration ofPittin parliament in 1796, that a man who had enriched his country with a number of children had a claim upon its assistance to educate them. Much more correctly,Voltaire, Dict. Philosophique, art. Population, sect. 2.
The reaction which attained its height in the Malthusians proper, set in with the Physiocrates andSteuart: Quesnay, Maximes générales, No. 26;Mirabeau, Phil. rurale, ch. 8, and Ami des Hommes (1762), VIII, 84. Similarly,J. J. Reinhard, who calls Baden over peopled "for its present system of agriculture." (Vermischte Schriften, 1760, I, 1 ff.; II, Varr.)MöserPatr. Phant., I, 33, 42; II, 1; IV, 15; V, 26. Also Ministerv. Stein: Leben von Pertz, V, 72; VI, 539, 887, 1184. Comparesupra, § 242. Of certain modern economists, it may be said that they deplore and condemn the birth of every child for whose support there has not been established a life long annuity in advance. A remarkable but unsuccessful attempt is made byCh. Périn, De la Richesse dans les Sociétés Chrêtiennes, at the end of the first volume, to reconcile the opposing views. Périn reproaches the Malthusians, and especiallyDunoyerandJ. S. Mill, with the advocacy ofl'onanisme conjugal, and thus desiring to restore the old heathen situation. Only the Church holds the proper mean between defect and excess, inasmuch as it permits complete continency or the procreation of children regardless of circumstances to its members; while, on the other hand, it, by celibacy and by the inculcation of industry, frugality, etc., guards against over-population. (How well the Roman Church has succeeded in this is best proved by the Roman Compagna!)
In Greece, too, in its first economic periods, especially at the time that the first colonies were sent out, great fears were expressed of over-population.Hesiodweighs the advantages and disadvantages of the married state against one another with great thoroughness. (Theog., 600 ff.) In the Cypria, even the Trojan war was explained by a divine decree, emitted with the intention of removing over-population.
[254-3]A. Young, Political Arithmetik, 160 ff. In the United States, in ten years, the increase of wealth to that of population, was as 61:33. (Tucker, Progress of the United States, 202 ff.) As a good measure for the well-being of the masses,J. J. Neumannrecommends the relative number attending higher schools, also that of shoemakers, tailors, etc., because the magnitude of the consumption of wool, leather, etc., can scarcely be directly ascertained. (Hildebrand'sJahrbb., 1872, I, 283, 294.)
[254-4]Statist. Journ., 1861, 251. In Liverpool, between 1831 and 1841, the population increased 40 per cent., and the number of houses 24 per cent., on account of the large immigration of Irish proletarians. (Edinb. Rev. LXXX, 80.) According toFregier, les Classes dangereuses, the number of good buildings continually increased under Louis Philippe,[TN 108]and that of the worst lodging houses continually diminished. In Prussia, between 1819 and 1858, the population increased 60.8 per cent., the number of houses, 30.1 per cent.; but the insurance-value of the houses seems to have increased in a still greater proportion, (v. Viebahn, Zollverein's Statist., II, 291, ff., 299.) According toHorn, Bevölk. Studien, I, 62, ff., there are to every 100 persons in France, 20 dwelling houses; in Belgium, 19; in Great Britain, 18; in Holland, 16; in Austria, 14; in Prussia, 12. Too much should not be inferred from this mere table, as, for instance, in English cities, a house is, on an average, smaller than in the Prussian. A French house has, on an average, only 5½ windows and doors; a Belgian house, on the other hand, 3½ rooms. And so, in villages, it is found that there are uniformly fewer persons to a house than in cities, especially large ones. In Belgium, for instance, the cities have to every 100 inhabitants, 66 rooms, the country only 62. In the largest parishes of France (over 5,000 inhabitants), the number of doors and windows is on the average almost six times as great as in the smallest (under 5,000 inhabitants); but only 4 times as many persons live in them. (Horn, loc. cit. I, 76 ff.)
[254-5]It was very well remarked, even of the Servian census:ut omnia patrimonii, dignitatis, ætatis, artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur, ac sic maxima civitas minimæ domus diligentia contineretur ... ut ipsa se nosset respublica. (Florus, I, 6, 8.)
SECTION CCLV.
MEANS OF PROMOTING POPULATION.
The following are the principal means which have been used to artificially promote the increase of population:
A. Making marriage and the procreation of children obligatory by direct command. Among almost all medieval nations so strong is the family feeling, that it seems to men to be a sacred duty to keep their family from becoming extinct. Where a person is not in a condition physically to fulfill this duty, the law supplies a means of accomplishing it by juridical substitution[255-1]at least. Most national religions[255-2]operate in the same direction, as well as the influence of political law-givers, who fully share in the contempt for willful old bachelors and sterile women, which runs through the national feeling of all medieval times.[255-3]In addition to this, there are the positiverewards offered for large families of children.[255-4]Even Colbert, in 1666, decreed that whoever married before his 20th year should be exempt from taxation until his 25th; that anyone who had 10 legitimate children living, not priests, should be exempt from taxation for all time;[255-5]that a nobleman having 10 children living should receive a pension of 1,000 livres, and one having 12, 2,000 livres. Persons not belonging to the nobility were to receive one-half of this, and to be released from all municipal burthens.[255-6]Such premiums are, indeed, entirely superfluous. No nobleman would desire 12 children simply to obtain a pension of 2,000 livres! Colbert himself abandoned this system of premiums shortly before his death.[255-7][255-8]
In the case of morally degenerated nations, in which an aversion to the married state had gained ground, efforts have sometimes been made to work against it by means of new premiums. Thus, especially in Rome, since the times of Cæsar and Augustus, although with poor success. It little becomes one who is himself a great adulterer to preach the sixth commandment.[255-9]
[255-1]In Sparta, impotent husbands were obliged to allow another man to have access to their young wives. (Xenoph., De Rep. Laced., I.Plutarch, Lycurg., 15.) CompareJ. Grimm, Weisthümer, III, 42. Great importance of adoption in Roman law.
[255-2]Thus, the Indian laws of Menu, concerned principally with the necessity of sacrifices to assure parents an existence after death. Similarly, Zoroaster and Mohammed. In the Bible the periods should be accurately distinguished: I Moses, 2, 18; V Moses, 26, 5; Judges, 10, 4; 13, 14; Proverbs, 14, 28; 17, 6, and the Preacher, 4, 8 apparently agree; also I Corinth., 7, written under essentially different circumstances but precisely on this account not in contradiction with those passages of the Old Testament.
[255-3]Genesis, 30, 23. In Sparta, willful bachelorhood was almost infamous. (Plutarch, Lycurg., 15.) In Athens, a person might be charged withagamyas with a crime. (Pollux, VIII, 40.) Concerning the ancient censorial punishments inflicted on those who had no children and the rewards of prolificacy, seeValer. Max., II, 9, 1;Livy, XLV, 15;Gellius, I, 6: V, 19. Festus v. Uxorium. Many German cities made marriage a qualification for the holding of certain public offices, etc. In some places, the public treasury was made the heir of bachelors, a custom not abolished in Hanover until 1732. CompareLudewig, on the Hagestolziatu (1727), but alsoSelchow, Elem. Juris Germ., § 290. On the fines imposed on old bachelors in Spain, during the middle ages, seeGans, Erbrecht, III, 401 seq. Recently recommended very strongly byHermes, Sophiens Reise (3 aufl.), I, 660.
[255-4]Yearly rewards forpolyteknyin Persia:Herodot., I 136. In Sparta, a father with three children was relieved of guard duty; and one with four, of all public burthens. (Aristot., Polit., II, 6, 13.Aclian, V. H., VI, 6.) Between 1816 and 1823, 250 fathers received the royal gift made to godchildren at their christening in the district of Oppeln, for the seventh son. (v. Zedlitz, Staatskräfte der preuss. Monarchie, I, 285.) The king of Hannover paid annually about 900 thalers in such gifts.Lehzen, Hannovers Staatshaushalt, II, 346.
[255-5]Children who had fallen in the service of their country were considered as still living. Precisely similar laws had existed in Spain from 1623 (de Laet, Hispania Cap., 4); in Savoy from 1648 (Keysslers, Reise, I, 209).
[255-6]Russian law which required the serf master to emancipate his male serfs who were not married by their 20th year, and female serfs not married by their 18th. He could not charge them with desertion in such case, even where combined with theft. (Karamsin, Russ. Gesch., XI, 59.) An ancient Prussian law provides that the country people shall marry at the age of 25. Corpus Const., March, V, 3, 148, 274.
[255-7]Lettres, etc. de Colbert,éd. Clément, II, 68, 120.Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XIV. ch. 29, bitterly complains of this; and alsoBerkeley, Works, II, 187, andForbonnais, Finances de France, I, 391. On the other hand,Ferguson, Hist, of Civil Society, III, 4, asks: what fuel can the statesman add to the fires of youth? Similarly,Franklin, Observations, etc. It should not be forgotten that the taxes necessary to supply the so-called marriage-fund, intended to enable poor couples to marry at the expense of the state, make marriage more difficult for other couples. (Krug, Staats-Oek., 31.)
[255-8]Frederick the Great limited the mourning time of widowers to 3 months and of widows to 9. His abolition of ecclesiastical punishment for those who had fallen, and his prohibition of censuring them under penalty of fine, was based as much on his population policy as on philanthropic grounds. (Preuss. Geschichte, Friedrich's M., II, 337.) Similarly in Sweden:Schlözer, V. W., V, 43. In Iceland, after a great plague, even in the last century, it was provided that it should be no disgrace to a young woman to have as many as six illegitimate children. (Zacchariä, Vierzig Bücher vom Staate, II, 112.) The marshal of Saxony wished, in the interest of the recruiting of the army, that marriages should be contracted only for a term of five years. (Rêveries de Maurice, etc., 345.) The sterile women of Egypt visit the Tantah, a place of pilgrimage and fair-town, where, under the cloak of religion, they give themselves up to unbridled and promiscuous intercourse. (Wachenhufen, vom ägypt. armen Mann, II, 151 ff.)
[255-9]Even in the year 131 B. C., the censor Metellus demanded that citizens should, for political reasons be compelled to marry. (Livy, LIX,Sueton., Oct. 89.)Aes uxoriumfor bachelors. (Valer. Max., II, 9, I.) Cæsar distributed land by way of preference among those who had three or more children. (Sueton., Cæs. 20.) Augustus' celebrated Lex Julia et Papia Poppæa sought to urge even widows to marry again in opposition to the moral public conscience. (Partly augendo ærario:Tacit., Ann., III, 25.)Dio Cass., LVI, 1 ff. Trajan did more yet, inasmuch as he gave great assistance to impoverished parents, even of the highest classes, to enable them to educate their children.Sub te liberos tollere libet, expedit!(Plin., Paneg., 26.) Of what little assistance all this really was,Tacitus, Ann., III, 25, IV, 16, andPlin., Epist. IV, 15, bear witness. If, under the Cæsars, the damage done to the childless in the case of inheritance was a frequent motive of divorce (Friedländer, Sittengeschichte I, 389), the L. Julia, in fact, operated in a direction contrary to that in which it was intended to work.
SECTION CCLVI.
IMMIGRATION.
B. Calling for immigrants. This is a means all the more in favor, inasmuch as it provides the country not only with new-born children, but with mature men, who frequently, when they come from thickly peopled and highly civilizedcountries, promote the industries of the country of their adoption, and become the teachers of a higher civilization. I need only mention the inhabitants of the Low Countries, who in the twelfth century settled as agriculturists in Northern Germany,[256-1]and in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries in England, as artisans; the German miners and inhabitants of cities, who, during the middle ages, colonized Hungary, Transylvania[256-2]and Poland,[256-3]and the French Huguenots, who fled to the Independent Protestant countries. Nearly all the remarkable Russian princes since Ivan III. have endeavored in this way to induce Germans to settle in Russia, and, for the same reason, Peter the Great refused to give up his Swedish prisoners of war.[256-4]The great Prussian rulers have cultivated the policy of immigration on an extensive scale, and thus maintained the original character of their parent provinces as the colonial land of the German people.[256-5][256-6]
Such immigrants have been generally accorded a release from taxation and from military duty for a number of years; a proper measure since the state thereby only surrendered an advantage temporarily which it otherwise would not have possessed at all. Where the land of the state receiving the immigrants was still almost valueless, it has frequently been made over in parcels to well-to-do colonists without consideration.[256-7]Assistance exceeding these limits is a very questionable boon. It should not be forgotten that the influx of men who bring no capital whatever with them, and who are not good workmen, is of no advantage. Nor are they always the best elements of a people who emigrate. They are very frequently men who, through their own fault, did not prosper at home, and who come to the new country, with all their old faults.[256-8]This is, of course not true of those who emigratefrom their attachment to some great principle; for instance, it is not true of those who emigrate in search of freedom of conscience. These may become, provided they are in harmony with their new environment, a support and ornament to their adopted country.[256-9]But there is always danger that they may not be able to adapt themselves to their new economic relations, and that thus they may in consequence succumb to the pressure of circumstances.[256-10]
Oriental despotisms have frequently endeavored to assure themselves the possession of newly conquered countries bytransporting its most vigorous inhabitants in whole masses to a distant part of their old empire. Thus, the Jews were carried into Assyria and Babylon; the Eretrians into Persia; the inhabitants of Caffa by Mohammed II.; the Armenians by Abbas the Great. The Russians, too, undertook a similar transportation of people under the Ivans.[256-11]
C. The prohibition of emigration, which, in the case of serfs, vassals and state-villeins, it seems natural enough, was very usual in periods of absolute monarchical power. Thus, for instance, Frederick William I. forbade the emigration of Prussian peasants under penalty of death. Whoever captured an emigrant received a reward of two hundred thalers.[256-12]The public opinion of modern times is very decidedly opposed to this compulsion, which would make the state a prison.[256-13]"A really excessive population would still find an exit toescape, namely, through the gates of death." (J. B. Say.) The statesman, on the other hand, who opposes the withdrawal of political or ecclesiastical malcontents should take care, lest he act like the physician who prevents the discharge of diseased matter from the sick body, and causes it to take its seat in some vital organ.[256-14]Hence, even where emigration is considered detrimental to the country, no governmental condition should be attached to it, except that the person desiring to emigrate should give timely notice of his intention, and receive his passport only after it has been shown that he has discharged all his military duties, paid his taxes and his debts.[256-15][256-16]
The severe penalties imposed in Athens on emigration, after the defeat at Chæronea, when general discouragement threatened the state with total dissolution, belong to an entirely different mode of thought.[256-17]
[256-1]v. Wersebe, Ueber die Niederlandischen Kolonien in Deutschland, II, 1826.
[256-2]The immigration of the so-called Saxons into Transylvania began between 1141 and 1161, in consequence of the great inundations in the Netherlands. CompareSchlözer, Kritische Sammlungen zur Gesch. der Deutschen in Siebenb., 1795.
[256-3]In Poland, a multitude of German colonists established themselves during the thirteenth century on the domains of the crown and of the church. As a rule, they obtained the land in consideration of moderate services and rents, which, however, did not begin to run until after eight years, nor until after thirty for uncleared land. In addition to this, they were governed by the German law, and their communal authorities were for the most part German. (Roepell, Gesch. von Polen, I, 572 ff.)
[256-4]Later, the ambassador of Peter the Great endeavored to attract into Russia the Swedes, whom the Russian invasion had prevented from continuing the operation of their mines, saw mills, etc. (Schlosser, Gesch. des 18 Jahrhund., I, 205.) Catherine's colonization, especially on the Volga and in. Southern Russia, 1765 and 1783. About 1830, the number of the colonists was estimated at 130,000, mostly Germans.
[256-5]It is estimated that Frederick William I. spent 5,000,000 thalers in establishing colonists. Up to 1728, 20,000 new families were received into Prussia alone.Stenzel, Preuss. Gesch. III, 412 ff. Frederick the Great endeavored above all to retain in the country the strangers who came there periodically. Thus, the harvesters of Vogtland, in the neighborhood of Magdeburg, and the Vogtland masons in the suburbs of the capital (1752). Comparev. LamotteAbhandlungen, 1793, 160 ff. He is said to have settled 42,600 families, mostly foreigners, in 539 villas and hamlets. Besides, the population of Prussia, between 1823 and 1840, increased by 751,749 immigrants, without any positive favors shown them (Hoffmann, Kleine Schriften, 5 ff.), and the greater part of these were not very poor.
[256-6]In antiquity, nothing so much contributed to the rise of Athens and Rome as their reception of noble refugees during its earlier periods.
[256-7]In Russia, the Emperor Alexander, in 1803, promised the colonists a full release from taxation during ten years, a reduction of taxation for ten more, and freedom from civil and military service for all time; besides 60dessatinesof land per family gratis, an advance of 300 rubles for housebuilding, etc. and money to enable them to maintain themselves until their first harvest. The provision relating to Poland (1833) was much less favorable: importation of movable property free of duty, freedom from military duty and from taxation for six years, and perpetual quit rents (Erbzinsgüter) to agriculturists who owned a certain amount of capital. Brazil promised immigrants, in 1820, land and ten years' freedom from taxation. CompareJahn, Beiträge, z. Einwanderung und Kolonisation in Br. (1874), 37 ff. Hungary, in 1723, accorded settlers freedom from taxation for six years and artisans for fifteen years. (Mailath, Oesterreichische Gesch., IV, 525.) The ordinance of 1858 affords too little security for non-Catholics and is not adapted to farmers, but only to purchasers.
[256-8]Many of Frederick the Great's colonists turned out very badly. They were attracted only by the premiums offered, and they became dissolute after they had consumed them. Many of them thought that they were to be of use only by giving children to the state (Meissner, Leben des Herrn v. Brenkenhof, 1782), and that the land donated them was to be cultivated by others at the expense of the state!Dohmmentions villages of colonists which had to a great extent changed hands four times in 20 years. Whether the king would not have better attained his object had he employed the younger sons of Prussian peasants as colonists,quære. (Dohm, Denkwürdigkeiten, IV, 390 ff.) EvenSüssmilchsays: "A native subject is, in most cases and for most purposes, better than two colonists." (Göttl. Ordnung, I, 14, 275.) Compare the work: Wie dem Bauernstande Freiheit und Eigenthum verschafft werden könne, 1769, 16. Every family of colonists in South and new East Prussia is said to have cost the state 1,500 thalers. (Weber, Lehrbuch der polit. Oekonomie, 1806, II, 172); but according toBüsching(Beiträge z. Regierungsgeschichte Friedrichs,[TN 109]II, 239), only 400 thalers.J. Möseris strongly opposed to the encouragement of immigration by direct appeals to it. (P. Ph., I, 60.) According toBülau, Staatswirthschaftslehre, 24, only those immigrants are welcome who are attracted to the country by the whole character of its national institutions and circumstances. It is a different matter when, for instance, the government in New South Wales permits the colonists, by the payment of very moderate contributions, to have their workmen, friends and relations come after them from England in ships owned by the government. Between 1832 and 1858, £1,700,000 were paid out for such transportation. (Novara-Reise, III, 53.)
[256-9]Dutch Remonstrants since 1619 in Schleswig; Huguenots established since 1685, in Prussia, to the number of about 11,000; Waldenses in Prussia since 1686; natives of Salzburg[TN 110]and of the Palatinate in Prussia. For a state which is the representative of a religious or political principle, it may be a matter of honor, and then certainly useful, to afford an asylum to persons, adherents of that principle.
[256-10]On the German colonists whom Olavides settled in Spain, in 1768 etc., seeSchlözer'sBriefwechsel, 1779, IV, 587 ff. See adv.: Ueber Sitten, Temperament etc., Spaniens von einem reisenden Beobachter in den J., 1777 und[TN 111]1778, Leipzig, 1781, p. 260, ff.
[256-11]Canale Crimea, III, 346 ff.Karamsin, Russ. Geschichte, VIII, 97, 424.
[256-12]Ordinance of 1721. CompareWolf'sVernünftige Gedanken, § 483, who at that time highly disapproved of such compulsion. Quite the reverse, the Prussian Landrecht, II, Tit. 17, § 133 ff. On the other hand, in Spires,[TN 112]in 1765 and 1784, persons of good conduct, good workmen and others of sufficient means, were forbidden to emigrate. Prohibition under pain of death, in Spanish Milan; Novæ Constitut., 29, 145. The work: Les Intérêts de la France maletendus (1752), 258, advocates the prohibition of emigration as a species ofles majesté.
[256-13]Beccaria, Dei Delitti e delle Pene, 1765, cap. 52. Similarly,Mirabeau, in his congratulatory letter to Fred. Wil. II., andBenjamin Franklin, On a proposed Act for preventing Emigration: Works, IV, 458 ff. The Dutch were very early advocates of freedom of emigration. CompareU. Huber, De Jure Civit., 1672, II, 4;Pufendorff, Jus. Natur. (1672), VIII, 11. Theorizers otherwise the most opposite in their views are here agreed.Jeremy Benthamsays that properly speaking a prohibition against emigration should begin with the words: We, who do not understand the art of making our subjects happy; in consideration that if we should allow them to take flight, they would all betake themselves to strange and better governed countries, etc. Des Récompenses et des Peines, II, 310. But alsoK. L. v. Haller, Restauration der Staatswissenschaft, I, 429 ff., 508, demands most strenuously that there should be freedom of emigration, for the reason that every man, without prejudice to any one else, might seek the state constitution which he wanted,J. Tuckerentirely approved the English law prohibiting the emigration of workmen. Compare alsoJ. Bodin, De Republ., I, 6.
[256-14]English prohibition of emigration under Charles I., 1637.Rymer, Fœdera XX, 143. The story that Cromwell and Hampden were thus detained in the country may be false, however. (Bancroft, History of the United States, I, 445.) Earlier prohibition of emigration of the Norwegian king in relation to Iceland. (Schlegel, Grâgas, Comment Crit. p. XV.) In ancient Greece, the restriction of emigration by foreign powers contributed very largely to the democratization of the mother country. Something similar is impending over Germany if the present emigration towards North America should be much weakened by a change of circumstances there.
[256-15]Many governments require proof that the person emigrating will be admitted into his contemplated new home, and that he has the means to cover the expenses of the journey. The threat of not receiving back returning emigrants has very little effect, for the reason that it is the most thoughtless who at the moment of emigration entertain the most rose-colored hopes.
[256-16]I shall treat of the so-called after-tax (Nachsteuer) in the fourth volume of my System.
[256-17]CompareLycurg259., adv., Leocrat.Cæsarforbade all persons of senatorial rank to emigrate out of Italy; other persons between 20 and 40 years of age were not to remain absent over three consecutive years at most. For the same reason, the time of military service was shortened. (Mommsen, R. G., III, 491.)
SECTION CCLVII.
SANITARY POLICE.
D. Hygienic measures and the improvement of the sanitary police of a country are of the utmost importance, not only to increase the number of inhabitants, but also to produce the conditions of population described in § 246.[257-1]
E. It is the indispensable condition precedent of all the measures which we have examined, if they would attain their end, that the means of subsistence of the people should be increased or at least more equally divided among them. Where this has been done the increase of population will, as a rule, take care of itself; where it has not, the artificially increased procreation of children can only produce new victims for the angel of death. A merely more equable distribution can, however, improve the condition of the people only in exceedingly rare cases. (§ 204). As a rule, the diseases which it is attempted to thus cure grow worse, or they at least increase in extent. (§ 80, ff., 250.) It is quite different, of course, when the more equable distribution coincides with an absolute growth of the nation's economy. We shall see, later, that, for instance, the freedom of land alienation and of industrial pursuits, when not accompanied by an important advance in the corresponding branches of economy may do more harm than good; but that under favorable circumstances a multitude of dormant forces are thereby awakened, and that then the national-economical dividend may be increased much more than the divisor. (§ 239.Roscher, Nationalökonomik des Ackerbaues, § 99, 139 ff.)
[257-1]Baconin his History of Life and Death, or of the Prolongation of Life, hopes the better physicians "will not employ their times wholly in the sordidness of cures, neither be honoured for necessities only; but that they will become coadjutors and instruments of the divine omnipotence and clemence in prolonging and renewing the life of man."
SECTION CCLVIII.
MEANS OF LIMITING THE INCREASE OF POPULATION.
A. The means which consists in rendering marriage less easy by legislation is surrounded with peculiar difficulties in densely populated countries, which are always highly civilized. The state would have here to swim against the stream, and it would be generally a much less difficult task to enlarge the field of food. If there remained from a former period any inducements held out to promote marriage, it is self evident that they should now be discontinued. A voluntary bachelor must now no longer be considered as a man who permits one more woman to become an old maid, but as one who facilitates marriage to another couple.[258-1]On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that, for men, generally, marriage is not only an occasion of increased outlay, but also an incentive to increased activity and greater economy.[258-2]Many states have endeavored to condition the founding of a family by requiring evidence that the father has a prospect of being able to support one.[258-3]Distinguished theorizers accede to this condition, inasmuch as they deny the right of over-population.[258-4]But, unfortunately, it is impossible, except in a few extreme cases, to assert or deny a prospect of being able to support a family.[258-5]How easily is the most remunerative power of labor destroyed by physical or mental disease. Scarcely less subject to change is the so-called certain opportunity of acquisition afforded by a profession or a trade, when it is not guarantied by the possession of considerable capital or of landed property, or by some legal privilege. The amount of property required by many laws is so small that it alone would suffice to support the family only for a few years.[258-6]And yet it has been generallyprovided that the proof of such a property gave one an unconditional right to establish a domicile and to marry. It is only where this is wanting that special consent is required. But who shall exercise this right of consent? The parish, perhaps, because on it the impoverished family would fall as a burthen. But it is to be feared that the course of procedure here would be too severe. Local narrow-heartedness might refuse the right of domicile to skillful and industrious candidates, who are in the best situation to maintain a family, but whose competition the older members of the parish might dread.[258-7]Hence, in most countries, the parish is treated as a party, on whose protest against the marriage the state itselfdecides[258-8]If the state authorities were to give the immediate decisions in such cases, we might expect, in ordinary times, a liberality which would frustrate the object of the law; but sometimes, also, considerable chicanery on grounds of so-called higher police.
Where there still exist classes and corporations with real independence, the members of which still attach a real value to the body, the matter takes care of itself. The journeyman, for instance, voluntarily retards his marriage until he has become a master workman, and once he has attained that degree, he "works the golden mine of his trade."[258-9]But wherever a numerous proletariat exists, the individuals of which have no better future to expect, whatever their present sacrifices and self-denial, and who know nothing of class-wants or class-honor, prohibitions of marriage are severely felt, and are far from being well enforced.[258-10]The rule which excites least opposition is the fixing of a normal age for marriage, under which males should not be allowed to undertake its engagements.[258-11]Of all privileges those attaching to age are viewedwith least aversion. Something similar is effected in most countries to-day by military conscription, which, on this account, in young countries, has a very restrictive effect on the increase of population.[258-12]The best means against thoughtless marriages certainly consists in increasing the measure of individual wants (§ 163); assuming, of course, that the added wants are proper and worthy.[258-13]There is always the consideration that all limitation of marriage, even voluntary self-limitation, by decreasing or postponing marriage, may prove disastrous to morals. It should, however, not be forgotten that there are other sins besides impurity, and that complete poverty constitutes one of the worst of temptations. Especially is it not the angel guardian of chastity.[258-14]
In England[258-15]and France, all governmental hinderances to marriage have long since ceased, and in Prussia, at least all general police hinderances; and we can by no means say that the consequences have been evil. On the other hand, no favorable results as to their influence on pauperism can be shown statistically from the restrictive laws of Württemberg. Rather do statistics point here to the unfavorable probableresult of an increase of illegitimate births.[258-16]According to the law of the North German Confederation of 1868, the contract of marriage, except in the case of soldiers, officials, clergymen and teachers, is so free, so far as police influence is concerned, that even actual poverty is no impediment.[258-17][258-18][258-19]
[258-1]In Ireland, the unsalaried condition of the Catholic clergy who depended entirely on marriage fees (as high as £20 being paid by poor farmers. Quart. Rev. No. 289), baptismal fees, burial fees, etc., operated as an artificial stimulus to the increase of population under the most unfavorable conditions. See § 254.
[258-2]It is very noteworthy in this connection that married people commit relatively fewer crimes than single persons. Thus, for instance, in Prussia, in 1861, of every 1,000 unmarried men over 16 years of age, 1.18 were sent to the house of correction; of every 1,000 married men, only 0.59; of every 1,000 divorced, 13.71! (Preuss. Statist. Zeitschr., 1864, 318 seq.) In Austria, 1858-59, there was one person under sentence in every 203 unmarried persons, in every 669 married, and in every 1,053 widows and widowers. Of the married, there was a larger proportion of criminals among the childless than among those with children (49.8 per cent. against 42.6 per cent.). Comparev. Oettingen, Moralstatistik, 759. This evidence is all the stronger since, circumstances being otherwise the same, fathers of families are harder pressed by cares for food than single persons.
[258-3]In Würtemberg, the authorities were for the first time enjoined in 1633, to dissuade people from untimely marriages; in 1712 the consent of the authorities to a marriage was made dependent on the evidence of a religious education and the capacity to support a family. Between 1807 and 1828, all restrictions on marriage because of incapacity to support a family were removed. According to the Bavarian Penal Code of 1751 (I, 11, § 7), persons who had married without governmental authorization, and who could not afterwards support themselves except by begging, were sentenced to at least one year in the workhouse and to be whipped once a week. Only a short time ago scarcely any one in Bavaria had a real and unquestionable right to marry. (Braun, Zwangscölibat für Mittellose inFaucher'sVierteljahrsschrift, 1867, IV, 8.) Austrian law relating to the proof of the certainty of maintaining one's self by one's trade etc: 12 Jan., 1815; 4 Sept., 1825.
[258-4]R. Mohl, in the 3d edition of his Polizeiwissenschaft, I, 152 ff., requires proof of the possession of a sufficiency of food, at least of the means to begin house-keeping. According toMarlo, Weltökonomie, III, 84 ff., andSchäffle, Kapitalismus und Socialismus, 689 ff., the compulsory insurance of widow and children should precede marriage.
[258-5]Thus the Württemberg law of 1833 prohibits the marriage of those who are under prosecution on account of repeated thefts, fraud, or carrying on the trade of a beggar; also all such as have been criminally punished within the two next preceding years, and all who within the three next preceding years have received alms from the public treasury, except in cases of misfortune, of the causes of which they were innocent. The Bavarian law of April 16, 1868, gives the parish a right of veto. According to the royal Saxon ordinance of 1840, male recipients of alms are permitted to marry only when their marriage makes an important amelioration of their circumstances probable, and does away with the necessity of public assistance in the future.
[258-6]During Iceland's middle age, prohibition of marriage for all who did not possess at least from 100 ounces of silver or 600 ellsvadhmal. (K. Maurer, Island, 443 seq.) In Bavaria (July 1, 1831), the right of domicile is made to depend on a landownership free of debt, and asteuersimplumof from 1 to 2 florins (in towns more) in country parishes; on the real (reales) right of carrying on a trade, or on a personal trade-concession sufficient for support. A tax of 1 florin in 1852 meant about 1,200 florins worth of property. In other cases it depended on whether the parish recognized the existence "complete and permanent of the means of livelihood." Here good repute and the possession of a considerable savings bank deposit were to be particularly considered. In cases of competition, discharged soldiers who had served out their term, and good servants of 15 years service were to be preferred. In Württemberg (1833) a sufficient guaranty that a person contemplating marriage possessed the means of support was: the personal capacity to exercise a liberal art or to follow a scientific career, to engage in commerce or agriculture, or some branch of industry, or follow a trade, with sufficient income therefrom to support a family; or the possession of a property, according to locality, of 1,000, 800 or 600 florins. The law of May 5, 1852, was more exacting, and required, besides personal competency, evidence that one's calling yielded a sufficient income, as well as of an amount of property free of debt, of the value of from 150 to 200 florins. In Baden (1831) a property considered sufficient to insure the means of livelihood amounted in the four largest cities to 1,000 florins, in 10 smaller ones to 600; in the remaining communities to 300 florins. In the electorate of Hesse, the amount (1834) was from 150 thalers (for small country communities) to 1,000 thalers. (Kassel.) An irreproachable character is required by many laws (in Württemburg, since 1832, the good reputation of both parties), and the community is empowered to dispense with the other material conditions. Long-continued savings-bank deposit speaks well for the parties' competency to support a family, because it bears testimony to an excellent economic disposition.
[258-7]Remarkable instance inRau, Lehrbuch, II, § 15 a., note b.
[258-8]In Bavaria, in 1808, the decision reserved to the royal boards of police.
[258-9]Those callings in which a certainesprit de corpsprevails such as that, for instance, of officials and officers, submit willingly to restrictions on marriage authoritatively imposed. The Catholic clergy submit even to a full prohibition of marriage. Such measures uniformly strengthen the isolation of the class from the nation as a whole. It is well known that, during the middle ages, theological views on the meritoriousness of all self-denial made voluntary celibacy very common. The Franciscan order counted at one time 150,000 monks and 28,000 nuns, the so-called members of the third order, or penitents, not included. (Helyot, Gesch. der Kloster und Ritterorden, V, 33.) The severity of the laws relating to fasting might also, according toVillermé, be regarded as a "preventive check." Comparesupra, § 240, note I.
[258-10]The Prussian law authorizing parents and guardians to put an interdict on marriages, because of a want of the necessary means, of vicious habits, disease, etc., may constitute a check in very good families and families of the middle class, but scarcely so in proletarian circles.