The past, the present, and the future

Front matter

Class CLCXiJol

THE PAST, THE PRESENT,

AND

Chapter I. MAN AND LAND 9

II. MAN AND FOOD 77

III. WEALTH ' 94

IV. WEALTH AND LAND •• 137

V. MAN AND HIS STANDARD OF VALUE 157

VL MAN AND HIS FELLOW MAN 212

VIL MAN • 247

Vm. MAN AND HIS HELPMATE 262

IX. MAN AND HIS FAMILY 274

X. CONCENTRATION AND CENTRALIZATION 284

XL COLONIZATION 315

XHL INDIA.

XIV. ANNEXATION 410

XV. CIVILIZATION 415

THE LESSON OF THE PAST

TO

THE PRESENT.

CHAPTER I.

MAN AND LAND.

The first cultivator, the Robinson Crusoe of his day, provided however with a wife, has neither axe nor spade. He works alone. Population being small, land is, of course, abundant. He may select for himself, without fear of his title being disputed. He is surrounded by soils possessed, in the highest possible degree, of the qualities that fit them for yielding large returns to laboTir. They are, however, covered with immense trees that he cannot fell, or they are swamps that he cannot drain. To pass through them even is attended with no small difficulty. The first is a mass of roots, stumps, decaying logs, and shrubs, while into the other he sinks half leg deep at every step. The atmosphere, too, is impure. Fogs settle upon the low lands, and the dense foliage of the wood prevents the circulation of the air. He has no axe, but if he had, he would not venture there, for to do so, would be attended with certain loss of health and great risk of life. Vegetation, too, is so luxuriant, that before he could, with the imperfect machinery at his command, clear a single acre, a portion of it would be again so overgrown that he would have to recommence his labour, which would be almost, if not quite, that of Sisyphus. The higher lands, comparatively bare of timber, are ill calculated to yield a return to his B 9 labour. Nevertheless there are spots on the hill where the thin soil has prevented the growth of trees and shrubs, or there are spaces among the trees, that can be cultivated while they still remain standing, and when he pulls up by the roots the few shrubs scattered over the surface, he feels no apprehension of their being speedily replaced.

With his hands he may even succeed in barking the trees, or, by the aid of fire, he may so far destroy them that time alone is needed to give him a few cleared acres, upon which he may plant his grain, with little fear of weeds. To attempt these things upon the richer lands would be loss of labour. In some places the ground is always wet. In others, the trees are too large to be seriously injured by fire, and its only effect would be to stimulate the growth of weeds and brush. He, therefore, commences the work of cultivation far up the hill, where, making with his stick holes in the light soil that drains itself, he drops the grain an inch or two below the surface, and in due seasoli obtains a return of double the amount of his seed. He pounds this between stones, and obtains bread. His condition is improved. He has ■succeeded in making the earth labour for him, while himself engaged in trapping rabbits or squirrels, and in gathering fruits. In process of time, he succeeds in sharpening a stone, and thus obtains a hatchet by aid of which he is enabled to proceed more rapidly in girdling the trees, and in removing the sprouts and their roots, which is nevertheless a very slow and laborious operation. At the next step, we find him bringing into activity a new soil, whose food-producing powers were less obvious to sight than those of that first attempted. He finds an ore of copper, and by the aid of some of his fallen and decayed timber, succeeds in burning it, and thus obtains a better axe, with far less labour than was required for the first. He has also something like a spade.

He can now make holes four inches deep with less labour than with his stick he could make those of two. He penetrates to a lower soil, and being enabled to stir the earth and loosen it, the rain is now absorbed instead of running off from the hard ground, and he finds his new one far better and more easily worked than that upon which he has heretofore wasted his labour. His seed, better protected, is less liable to be frozen out in winter, or parched in summer, the consequence of which is that he gathers thrice the quantity sown. His new soil gives him larger returns with less labour. At the next step, we find him bringing into action another new soil. He has found that which, on burning, yields him zinc, and by combining this with his copper he has brass. His machinery improves, and he proceeds more rapidly. He sinks deeper into the land first occupied, and is enabled to clear other lands upon which vegetation grows more luxuriantly, because he can now exterminate the shrubs with some hope of occupying the land before they are replaced with others equally valueless for the supply of his wants. His children, too, have grown, and they can weed the ground and assist him in removing the obstacles by which his progress is impeded. At another step, we find him burning a piece of the iron soil which surrounds him in all directions, and now he is enabled to obtain a real axe and spade, inferior in quality, but still much superior to those by which his labour has been thus far aided.

He next, with the aid of his sons, grown to man's estate, removes the light pine of the hill-side, leaving still untouched, however, the heavy oak of the river bottom. His cultivable ground is increased in extent, while he is enabled with his spade to penetrate still deeper than before, thus bringing into action the powers of the several soils lying within half a dozen inches of the surface. He finds, with great pleasure, that the light soil is underlaid with clay, and that by combining the two he obtains a new one far more productive than that first brought into activity. He finds, too, that by turning the top soil down, the process of decomposition is facilitated, and that thus, with each new operation, he receives an increasing reward for his labour. His family has increased, and he has obtained the important advantage of combination of exertion. Things that were needed to be done to render his land more rapidly productive, but which were to one man impracticable, become simple and easy when now attempted by himself and his half dozen sons, each of whom obtains far more food than he alone could at first command, and in return for far less severe exertion. He next extends his operations downwards, towards the low grounds of the stream, girdling the large trees, and burning the brush, and thus facilitating the passage of air so as to render the land by degrees fitted for occupation. He now finds that his sons can perform all the labours of the field,*and that by devoting his. own attention to the cultivation of the iron soil, he can render more aid, and with less severe labour, than in any other manner.

He invents a hoe, by means of which his grandchildren are enabled to keep the ground free from weeds, and to tear up some of the roots by which his best lands — those last brought into cultivation — are yet infested. He has succeeded in taming the ox, but as yet has had no use for his services. He now invents the plough, and by means of a piece of twisted hide is enabled to attach the ox, and to turn up a deeper soil, while extending his cultivation over land more distant from the place of his first little cabin, on the spot first occupied. His family grows, and vnth. it grows his wealth. He has better machinery, and he has reduced to cultivation more and better lands. Food and clothing are more abundant, and the air on the lower lands is improved by the clearing of the trees. His house, too, is better. In the outset, it was a hole in the ground. Afterwards it was composed of such decayed logs as his unaided efforts could succeed in rolling and placing one upon the other. A chimney was an unhoped-for luxury, and he must live in perpetual smoke, or almost perish of cold. A window was a luxury unthought of. If the severity of the weather required him to close his doors, he was stifled with smoke, and he passed his days in darkness. His time, therefore, during a large portion of the year, was totally unproductive, while his life was liable to be shortened by disease produced by foul air within, or severe cold without, his miserable hut. With increase of population he has acquired wealth, derived from the cultivation of new and better soils ; and he has acquired also the power of combining his labour with that of others, thus rendering that of all more productive.

They now fell the heavy oak and the enormous pine, and avail themselves thereof for the construction of additional houses, each in regular succession better than the first. Health improves, and population increases more rapidly. Some of the sons are now employed in the field, while others prepare the skins and render them more fit for clothing: and a third set make axes, spades, hoes, ploughs, and other implements calculated to aid the labours of the field, and those of construction. The supply of food increases rapidly, and with it the power of accumulation. In the first years, there was perpetual danger of famine. Now, there is a surplus, and a part is stored to provide against the danger of short crops. Cultivation extends itself along the hill-side, where deeper soils now laid open by the plough, afford a better return, while down the slope of the hill each successive year is marked by the disappearance of the great trees by which the richer lands have heretofore been occupied, the intermediate spaces becoming meanwhile enriched by the decomposition of the enormous roots, and more readily ploughed because of the gradual decay of the stumps. A single ox to the plough can now turn up a greater space than in the outset could be done by two. A single ploughman can now do more than on the ground first cultivated could have been done by a hundred men armed with pointed sticks. The family are next enabled to drain some of the lower lands, and copious harvests of grain are obtained from the new soil now first cultivated. The oxen have heretofore roamed the woods, gathering what they could. The meadow is now granted to their use, the axe and the saw enabling the family to enclose them, and thus to lessen the labour attendant upon obtaining supplies of meat, milk, butter and hides. Heretofore their chief domestic animal has been the hog, which could live on mast. Now, they add beef, and perhaps mutton, the lands first cultivated being abandoned to the sheep. They obtain far more meat and grain, and with less labour than at any former period, although their numbers have so greatly increased. The father and grandfather have passed away, and the younger generations are now profiting by the wealth they had accumulated, while applying their own labour with daily increasing advantage : and obtaining a constantly increasing return, with increasing power of accumulation, and decreasing severity of application. They now bring new powers to their aid, and the water no longer is allowed to run to waste : the air itself is made to work. Windmills grind the grain, and sawmills cut the timber, which disappears more rapidly, while the work of drainage is in course of being improved by more efficient spades and ploughs. The little furnace makes its appearance and charcoal is now applied to the reduction of the soil yielding iron, when it is found that the labour of a single day becomes more productive than was before that of half a dozen.

Population spreads itself along the faces of the hills and down into the lower lands, becoming more and more dense at the seat of the original settlement, and with every step we find increasing tendency to combination of action for the production of food, the manufacture of clothing and household utensils, the construction of houses, and the preparation of machinery for aiding in all these operations. The heaviest timber : ihat growing on the most fertile land : now disappears, and the deepest marshes are now drained. Roads are next made to facilitate the intercourse between the old settlement and the newer ones that have been formed around it, and to enable the grower of corn to exchange his product for improved spades and ploughs, and for clothing and furniture. Population again increases, and wealth still further increases, and therewith man acquires more leisure for reflection on the results furnished by the experience of himself and his predecessors. His mind becomes more and more stimulated into action. The sand in the neighbourhood is found to be underlaid with marl, and by the aid of the improved machinery now in use, the two are brought into combination, thereby producing a soil of power far exceeding that of those heretofore cultivated. The return to labour increases, and all are better fed, and clothed, and housed, and all are incited to new exertions, while improved health and the power of working in-doors and out-of-doors, according to the season, enable them to apply their labour more steadily and regularly.

Thus far, however, they have found it difficult to gather their crops in season. The harvest time is short, and the whole strength of the community has been found insufficient to prevent much of the grain remaining on the ground until, over ripe, it was shaken out by the wind, or in the attempt to gather it : and not unfrequently it has been totally ruined by changes of weather after it was fit to be harvested. The progress of cultivation has thereby been arrested, and labour has been superabundant during the year, while harvest produced a demand for it that could not be supplied. The reaping-hook takes the place of the hand, and the scythe enables the farmer to cut his hay. The cradle and the horse-rake follow, and all tend to increase the facility of accumulation, and thus to increase the power of applying labour to new soils, deeper or more distant, more heavily burdened with timber, or more liable to be flooded, and thus requiring embankment as well as drainage. New combinations, too, are formed. The clay is found to be underlaid with the soil called lime, which latter, like the iron soil, requires preparation to fit it for the task of combination. The road, the wagon, and the horse facilitate the work, by enabling the farmer readily to obtain supplies of the carbon-yielding soil, called coal, and he now obtains, by burning the lime and combining it with the clay, a better soil than at any former period : one tliat will yield more corn, and that requires far less severe labour fi-om himself, his oxen, or his horses. Population and wealth again increase, and the steam-engine facilitates the work of drainage, while the railroad and the engine facilitate the transportation to market of his products. His cattle are now fattened at home, and a large portion of the produce of his rich meadow-land is left at home, in the form of manure, to be applied to other soils, yet found incapable of yielding a return to labour. Instead of sending food to fatten them at market, he now obtainsyrom market their refuse in the form of bones, and the" productiveness of labour is greatly increased. Passing thus, at every step, from the poor to the better soils, the supply of food, and of all other of the necessaries of life increases daily, and men consume more, while accumulating wealth with constantly increasing rapidity.

MAN AND LAND.

The danger of famine and disease passes away. Increased^ returns to labour and daily improving condition render labour pleasant, and man applies himself more steadily as his work becomes less severe. Population increases, and the rapidity of its increase is seen to be greater with each successive generation; and with each is seen an increase of the power of living in connection with each other, by reason of the power of obtaining constantly increasing supplies from the same surface : with each is seen an increase in the tendency to combination of action, by which their labours are rendered more productive — their wants increased — the desire and the facilities of commerce augmented: tending to produce harmony and peace, and security of person and property among themselves, and with the world : accompanied by constant increase of numbers, wealth, prosperity and happiness.

Nearly forty years have elapsed since Mr. Ricardo communicated to the world his discovery of the nature and causes of rent, and of the law of its progress. The work by means of which it was first made known has since been the text-book of that portion of the English community, who style themselves, par excellence, political economists, and any thing short of absolute faith in its contents is regarded as heresy, worthy of excommunication, or as evidence of an incapacity to comprehend them, worthy only of contempt. Nevertheless, imitating in this the action of the followers of Mahomet, in regard to the Koran, the professors, one and all, who have undertaken to teach this doctrine, insist upon construing it after their own fashion, and modifying it to suit their own views and the apparent necessities of the case ; the consequence of which is, that the inquirer is at a loss to determine what it is that he is required to believe. Having studied carefully the works of the most eminent of the recent writers on the subject, and having found no two of them to agree, he turns, in despair, to Mr. Ricardo himself, and there he finds, in the celebrated chapter on rent, contradictions that cannot be reconciled, and a series of complications such as never before, as we believe, was found in the same number of lines. The more he studies, the more he is puzzled, and the less difficulty does he find in accounting for the variety of doctrines taught by men who profess to belong to the same school, and who all agree, if in little else, in regarding the new theory of rent as the great discovery of the age.

In looking round, he sees that all the recognised laws of nature are characterized by the most perfect simplicity, and the greatest breadth. He sees that they are of universal application, and that those by whom they are taught are freed from any necessity for resorting to narrow exceptions to account for particular facts. The simplicity of Kepler's law of 'equal areas in equal times' is perfect. Its truth is universal, and all to whom it is explained feel assured not only that it is true, but that it must continue to be so in relation to all the planets that may be discovered, numerous though they may be, and however distant from the sun and from us. A child may comprehend it, and the merest novice may make himself so fully master of it as to enable him to teach it to others. It needs no commentary, no modification. Such is not the case with the law to which we now desire to call the attention of our readers. Whatever else may be its merits, it cannot be charged with either simplicity or universality.

At first sight, it looks, however, to be exceedingly simple. Rent is said to be paid for land of the first quality, yielding one hundred quarters in return to a given quantity of labour, when it becomes necessary, with the increase of population, to cultivate land of the second quality, capable of yielding but ninety quarters in return to the same quantity of labour: and the amount of rent then paid for No. 1 is equal to the difference between their respective products. No proposition could be calculated to command more universal assent. Every man who hears it sees around him land that pays rent. He sees that that which yields forty bushels to the acre pays more rent than that which yields but thirty, and that the difference is nearly equal to the difference of product. He becomes at once a disciple of Mr. Ricardo, admitting that the reason why prices are paid for the use of land is that soils are different in their qualities, when he would, at the same moment, regard it as in the highest degree absurd if any one were to undertake to prove that' prices are paid for oxen because one ox is heavier than another : that rents are paid for houses because some will accommodate twenty persons and others only ten : or that all ships command freights because some ships differ from others in their capacity.

A certain portion of the world now thinks that it sees in this difference in the qualities of soils the reason why rent is paid for any soils. It is not a very large portion, for the theory has made but little way out of England. It is taught by a few in France, and by some in America, but elsewhere, it has, we believe, made no progress whatsoever, which would certainly not have been the case had it been, like other of the laws of nature, characterized by that simplicity which is essential to universality of application.

In former times it was obvious to the whole world that the earth remained unmoved, and that the sun performed a daily revolution around it. It was not to be doubted that such was the case, but if any one so far ventured, he was referred to the Scriptures for unquestionable evidence of the fact. Careful observers, however, detected numerous other facts whose existence was incompatible with that of the one great and universally admitted fact. Further observation confirmed them in the doubts thus raised, and it was found, at length, that, patch the Ptolemaic theory as its professors might, it could not be made to cover facts whose existence was undeniable. It was too long for some, and too short for others. To disbelieve it, however, was rank heresy, worthy not only of excommunication, but of punishment by fire, Copernicus nevertheless dared to declare his disbelief, and to proclaim to the world that the sun stood still, and that the earth it was that moved. Persecution embittered the remaining years of his life, and his disciple Galileo was compelled, on his knees, to recant his declaration of belief in the monstrous doctrine, yet the whole civilized world now unites with him in the assertion that " still it moves." .

The doctrine of Mr. Ricardo has, in like manner, been found quite too long for some facts, and as much too short for many others, and hence the numerous modifications it has undergone.* Every new teacher tries to stretch it

* Among the earliest and most distinguished of the advocates of Mr. Ricardo's doctrine was the author of the Templar's Dialogues. In a recent •work by the same author we find the following passage : —

" The tendencies of a natural law like that of rent it is always right to expose, and Ricardo first did expose them. Others had discovered the law ; he first applied his sagacious sense to its consequences upon profits, wages, price ; and through them upon universal economy. That was right; for that we are irredeemably his debtors. But it was not right to keep studiously out of sight that eternal counter-movement which tends, by an equivalent agency, to redress the disturbed balance. This concealment has had the effect of introducing marvels into a severe science ; since else, what other than a miracle is it that rent has not long since absorbed the whole landed produce — a result to which it so manifestly tends. * * * Our own social system seems to harbour within itself the germ of ruin. Either we must destroy rent, i. e. that which causes rent, or rent will destroy us," &p. — Logic of Political Economy, p. 190.

in the direction necessary to cover some well-observed fact, the consequence of which is, that others are left uncovered. In the effort to conceal the head and arms, the feet are exposed, and when the cloak is stretched so as to cover the feet and head, the arms present themselves to view. Such precisely was the case with the system of Ptolemy. It was neither broad nor simple. It was based on a few facts, omitting all reference to a thousand others, and hence its downfall, the necessary consequence of its untruth.

Proposing, as we do, to submit some views in opposition to this doctrine of the cause of rent, we would beg leave respectfully to suggest to the disciples of Mr. Ricardo, into whose hands this volume may chance to fall, that their confidence in its truth is not greater than was that of the followers of Ptolemy : that the evidence of the great fact upon which it rests is not as obvious as was that of the revolution of the sun ; nor the belief therein quite as universal : that as Ptolemy was ultimately proved to be in error, so may Mr. Ricardo, at some time, be : and that it is, therefore, within the bounds of possibility that it may not be an entire waste of time to read the brief examination of their favourite system that we shall now offer for their consideration. . That theory, in its simplest form, is contained in the following propositions : —

First : That in the commencement of cultivation, when population is small and land consequently abundant,

Mr. Ricardo taught that as population increased, the return to labour diminished, and the power of accumulation became less. Mr. De Quincey would have had him teach that as population increased, the power of accumulation also increased, and that by aid of the capital accumulated, the return to labour increased. Mr. Ricardo did not conceal this. He did not see it. Mr. De Quincey does see it, and a very Httle reflection will satisfy him that the facts and the theory are totally inconsistent with each other.

the best soils : those capable of yielding the largest return, say one hundred quarters to a given quantity of labour : alone are cultivated.

Second : That with the progress of population, land be comes less abundant, and there arises a necessity for cultivating that yielding a smaller return; and that resort is then had to a second, and afterwards to a third and a fourth class of soils, yielding respectively ninety, eighty and seventy quarters to the same quantity of labour.

Third : That with the necessity for applying labour less productively, which thus accompanies the growth of population, rent arises : the owner of land No. 1 being enabled to demand and to obtain, in return for its use, ten quarters, when resort is had to that of second quality : twenty when No. 3 is brought into use, and thirty when it becomes necessary to cultivate No. 4.

Fourth: That the proportion of the landlord tends thus steadily to increase as the productiveness of labour decreases, the division being as follows, to wit : —

Total. Labovir. Eent.

At the first period, when No. 1 alone is cultivated 100 100 00

« second period " No. 1 and 2 are cultivated 190 180 10 third period " No. 1, 2 and 3

fourth period " No. 1, 2, 3 and 4

fifth period « No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

sixth period « No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

seventh period " No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

270 240 30

340 280 60

400 300 100

450 300 150

490 280 210 and that there is thus a tendency to the ultimate absorption of the whole produce by the owner of the land, and to a steadily increasing inequality of condition : the power of the labourer to consume the commodities which he produces steadily diminishing, while that of the landowner to claim them, as rent, is steadily increasing.

Fifth : That this tendency towards a diminution in the return of labour, and towards an increase of the landlord's proportion, always exists where population increases : and most exists where population increases most rapidly: but is in a certain degree counteracted by increase of wealth, producing improvement of cultivation.

Sixth : That every such improvement tends to retard the growth of rents, while every obstacle to improvement tends to increase that growth : and that, therefore, the interests of the landowner and labourer are always opposed to each other, rents rising as labour falls, and vice versa.

We hope that this statement of the theory will be deemed by its advocates unexceptionable. We desire to state it with perfect fairness, but we know of few things more difficult, because of the numerous exceptions and modifications that have been required to make it fit the facts. So difficult, notwithstanding, has the operation of fitting been found, that some of its most distinguished advocates have seemed much disposed to think the fault is in the facts themselves.*

It will be perceived that the whole system is based upon the assertion of the existence of a single fact, viz., that in the commencement of cultivation, when population is small, and land consequently abundant, the soils capable of yielding the largest return to any given quantity of labour alone are cultivated. That fact exists, or it does not. If it has no existence, the system falls to the ground. That it does not exist ; that it never has existed in any country whatsoever ; and that it is contrary to the nature of things that it should have existed, or can exist, we propose now to show.