Economic Sophisms

The Bordeaux petitioners take no labour into account but that of the manufacturers; and for that reason they would admit them to the benefits of…

"Raw materials are commodities upon which no human labour has been bestowed. In principle, we should not tax them. Manufactured products can no…

It is not our business in this place to inquire whether protection to national industry is reasonable. M. de Saint-Cricq and the Bordeaux gentlemen…

Our present business is to discover whether it is by M. de Saint-Cricq, or by the Bordeaux petitioners, that the word labour is used in a correct…

But, on the other hand, if I demonstrate to you that there is as much labour worked up in a 100 fr. worth of wool as in a 100 fr. worth of textile…

Now, why is this sack of wool worth 100 fr.? Is it not because that is its cost price? and what does its cost price represent, but the aggregate…

M. de Saint-Cricq: Undoubtedly nature creates the elements of all these things, but it is labour which produces the value. I was wrong myself in…

And it is because these operations are spread over several branches of industry, in order to accelerate and facilitate the accomplishment of the…

The Petitioners: Yes; we begin to see that corn, like wool, is not exactly a product of which it can be said that no human labour has been bestowed…

M. de Saint-Cricq: But its value resolves itself exclusively into labour. I am happy that nature concurs in the material formation of grain. I…

But, as you state the case, manufactured commodities are no longer the exclusive products of labour. Is the manufacturer not beholden to nature in…

The Petitioners: Well, this is the case of the wool over again; but coal is assuredly the work, the exclusive work, of nature. It is indeed a product…

* I do not particularize the parts of the remuneration falling to the lessee, the capitalist, etc., for several reasons:--1st, Because, on looking at…

Thus far we see that M. de Saint-Cricq has the best of the argument; that the value of raw materials, like that of manufactured commodities,…

The rejoinder to this, I am quite sure, will be, that a nation derives more advantages from importing what are called raw materials, whether produced…

"Raw materials," says the same document in another place, "open up an unlimited field of work for the inhabitants of the countries into which they…

"Raw materials," says the Havre petition, "constituting as they do the elements of labour, must be submitted to a different treatment, and be…

"Among other articles, the low price and abundance of which are a necessity," says the Lyons petition, "manufacturers include all raw materials."

We have seen that all value represents labour. Now, it is quite true that manufacturing labour increases tenfold, sometimes a hundredfold, the…

Let us see, then, what is the real object secretly aimed at by the shipowners of Bordeaux and Havre, and the manufacturers of Lyons, and which is…

The Havre petitioners "consider that it is indispensable to reduce gradually the duty on raw materials to the lowest rate, in order that our…

The manufacturers could not remain behindhand in politeness towards the shipowners. So the Lyons petition asks for the free introduction of raw…

Well, gentlemen, we have come at length to see what you are aiming at, and the object of your subtle economical distinctions. You desire that the law…

I expect that railway shareholders, the moment they are in a majority in the Chambers, will proceed to make a law forbidding the manufacture of the…

Manufactures, shipping, labour--all have for end the general, the public good; to create useless industries, to favour superfluous conveyances, to…

A sophism sometimes expands, and runs through the whole texture of a long and elaborate theory. More frequently, it shrinks and contracts, assumes…

May God protect us from the devil and from metaphors! was the exclamation of Paul-Louis. And it is difficult to say which of them has done most…

Let us see in what way this takes place. Ambitious men are often actuated by sinister and wicked intentions; their design, for example, may be to…

The same thing holds of the use made of the word _inundation_. This word is ordinarily used in a bad sense, for we often see our fields injured,…

And what distinguishes our remittance of £20,000 which we have made to Germany from a tribute paid to her is this, that she has not received the…

Do not let it be supposed that these are instances of a mere _lapsus linguo_ on the part of certain ignorant writers! For one writer who abstains…

A celebrated modern philosopher has added to the categories of Aristotle the sophism which consists in employing a phrase which includes a _petitio…

Money leaves the country to satisfy the rapacity of a victorious enemy. Money also leaves the country to pay for commodities. An analogy is…

Yet this circumstance--that is to say, the non-reimbursement in the first case, and the reimbursement voluntarily agreed upon in the…

All the sophisms which I have hitherto exposed have reference to a single question--the system of restriction. There are other tempting subjects,…

Nor does Social Economy confine herself to this limited circle. _Fourierisme, Saint-Simonisme_, communism, mysticism, sentimentalism, false…

Error is multifarious and of an ephemeral nature; and the work which combats it does not carry in itself a principle of greatness and duration.

But if the power, and perhaps the occasion, have been wanting to enable me to proceed in the manner of Laplace and of Say, I cannot help thinking…

A refutation of vulgar errors and prejudices cannot occupy this high position. It aspires merely to clear the road before the march of truth, to…

It is, above all, in the department of Social Economy that this hand-to-hand struggle, that these constantly-recurring battles with popular errors,…

One of these classes may be known only to _savans_. It includes those sciences the application of which constitutes the business of special…

But there are sciences which exercise on the public mind an influence which is only in proportion to public enlightenment, and derive all their…

From what I have said, two things result--1st, That the social sciences must abound more in sophisms than others, because in them each man takes…

In the question I have treated, each sophism has undoubtedly its own formula, and its special bearing, but all may be traced to a common root,…

"It is very possible that the secret of trade does not consist, like the secret of arms (if we adopt the definition of the bully in the _Bourgeois…

"Then, without being quite convinced by his arguments, to which I know not whether to give the name of reasonings or of paradoxes, I shall apply…

Force employed to effect spoliation forms the groundwork of human annals. To trace back its history, would be to reproduce very nearly the history of…

But civilized nations, at least, composed of men who produce wealth, have become sufficiently numerous, and sufficiently strong to defend themselves.…

I go further still. When Spoliation has once become the recognised means of existence of a body of men united and held together by social ties,…

Lastly comes Monopoly. Its distinguishing character is to leave in existence the great social law of service for service, but to bring force to…

Others are very complicated. The masses are frequently despoiled without knowing it. They may even imagine that they owe all to spoliation--not…

Were this little book destined to last for three or four thousand years, and, like a new Koran, to be read, re-read, pondered over, and studied…

A thief for the very reason that he does his work secretly, has always public opinion against him. He frightens all who are within his reach. Yet…

We may note another check--a superior and growing morality. But the object of this is to multiply virtuous actions. How then can morality restrain…

The wars waged by a conquering nation are not always offensive and aggressive wars. Such a nation is sometimes so unfortunate as to be obliged to…

It is the fear of this punishment, and not the progress of philosophy, which retains arms in the arsenals; for we cannot deny that nations the most…

Spoliation by force assumes still another form. No man will engage voluntarily in the business of production in order to be robbed of what he…

Slavery affords a second and striking example of the insufficiency of religious and philanthropical sentiments, when set in opposition to the…

In the West Indies, ever since the introduction of slavery, the masters, from father to son, have professed the Christian religion. Many times a…

And they continue to have slaves. Nothing appears to them more natural and legitimate. Do modern reformers expect that their system of morals will…