THAT PROPERTY IS IMPOSSIBLE.
The last resort of proprietors,--the overwhelming argument whose invincible potency reassures them,--is that, in their opinion, equality of conditions is impossible."Equality of conditions is a chimera," they cry with a knowing air; "distribute wealth equally to-day--to-morrow this equality will have vanished."To this hackneyed objection, which they repeat everywhere with the most marvellous assurance, they never fail to add the following comment, as a sort of GLORY BE TO THE FATHER: "If all men were equal, nobody would work."This anthem is sung with variations.
"If all were masters, nobody would obey.""If nobody were rich, who would employ the poor?"And, "If nobody were poor, who would labor for the rich?"But let us have done with invective--we have better arguments at our command.
If I show that property itself is impossible--that it is property which is a contradiction, a chimera, a utopia; and if I show it no longer by metaphysics and jurisprudence, but by figures, equations, and calculations,--imagine the fright of the astounded proprietor! And you, reader; what do you think of the retort?
Numbers govern the world--mundum regunt numeri.This proverb applies as aptly to the moral and political, as to the sidereal and molecular, world.The elements of justice are identical with those of algebra; legislation and government are simply the arts of classifying and balancing powers; all jurisprudence falls within the rules of arithmetic.This chapter and the next will serve to lay the foundations of this extraordinary doctrine.
Then will be unfolded to the reader's vision an immense and novel career; then shall we commence to see in numerical relations the synthetic unity of philosophy and the sciences; and, filled with admiration and enthusiasm for this profound and majestic simplicity of Nature, we shall shout with the apostle: "Yes, the Eternal has made all things by number, weight, and measure!" We shall understand not only that equality of conditions is possible, but that all else is impossible; that this seeming impossibility which we charge upon it arises from the fact that we always think of it in connection either with the proprietary or the communistic regime,--political systems equally irreconcilable with human nature.We shall see finally that equality is constantly being realized without our knowledge, even at the very moment when we are pronouncing it incapable of realization; that the time draws near when, without any effort or even wish of ours, we shall have it universally established; that with it, in it, and by it, the natural and true political order must make itself manifest.
It has been said, in speaking of the blindness and obstinacy of the passions, that, if man had any thing to gain by denying the truths of arithmetic, he would find some means of unsettling their certainty: here is an opportunity to try this curious experiment.I attack property, no longer with its own maxims, but with arithmetic.Let the proprietors prepare to verify my figures; for, if unfortunately for them the figures prove accurate, the proprietors are lost.
In proving the impossibility of property, I complete the proof of its injustice.In fact,--That which is JUST must be USEFUL;
That which is useful must be TRUE;
That which is true must be POSSIBLE;
Therefore, every thing which is impossible is untrue, useless, unjust.Then,--a priori,--we may judge of the justice of any thing by its possibility; so that if the thing were absolutely impossible, it would be absolutely unjust.
PROPERTY IS PHYSICALLY AND MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
DEMONSTRATION.
AXIOM.--Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over any thing which he has stamped as his own.
This proposition is purely an axiom, because,--1.It is not a definition, since it does not express all that is included in the right of property--the right of sale, of exchange, of gift; the right to transform, to alter, to consume, to destroy, to use and abuse, &c.All these rights are so many different powers of property, which we may consider separately;but which we disregard here, that we may devote all our attention to this single one,--the right of increase.
2.It is universally admitted.No one can deny it without denying the facts, without being instantly belied by universal custom.
3.It is self-evident, since property is always accompanied (either actually or potentially) by the fact which this axiom expresses; and through this fact, mainly, property manifests, establishes, and asserts itself.
4.Finally, its negation involves a contradiction.The right of increase is really an inherent right, so essential a part of property, that, in its absence, property is null and void.
OBSERVATIONS.--Increase receives different names according to the thing by which it is yielded: if by land, FARM-RENT; if by houses and furniture, RENT; if by life-investments, REVENUE;if by money, INTEREST; if by exchange, ADVANTAGE, GAIN, PROFIT(three things which must not be confounded with the wages or legitimate price of labor).
Increase--a sort of royal prerogative, of tangible and consumable homage--is due to the proprietor on account of his nominal and metaphysical occupancy.His seal is set upon the thing; that is enough to prevent any one else from occupying it without HISpermission.
This permission to use his things the proprietor may, if he chooses, freely grant.Commonly he sells it.This sale is really a stellionate and an extortion; but by the legal fiction of the right of property, this same sale, severely punished, we know not why, in other cases, is a source of profit and value to the proprietor.
