The Right And The Left Hand
[Report to the King.]
SIRE--When we see these men of the Libre Echange audaciously
disseminating their doctrines, and maintaining that the right of buying
and selling is implied by that of ownership (a piece of insolence that
M. Billault has criticised like a true lawyer), we may be allowed to
entertain serious fears as to the destiny of national labor; for what
will Frenchmen do with their arms and intel
The Ministry which you have honored with your confidence has naturally
paid great attention to so serious a subject, and has sought in its
wisdom for a protection which might be substituted for that which
appears compromised. It proposes to you to forbid your faithful subjects
the use of the right hand.
Sire, do not wrong us so far as to think that we lightly adopted a
measure which, at the first glance, may appear odd. Deep study of the
protective system has revealed to us this syllogism, on which it
entirely rests:
The more one labors, the richer one is.
The more difficulties one has to conquer, the more one labors.
Ergo, the more difficulties one has to conquer, the richer one is.
What is protection, really, but an ingenious application of this
formal reasoning, which is so compact that it would resist the subtlety
of M. Billault himself?
Let us personify the country. Let us look on it as a collective being,
with thirty million mouths, and, consequently, sixty million arms. This
being makes a clock, which he proposes to exchange in Belgium for ten
quintals of iron. But, we say to him, make the iron yourself. I
cannot, says he; it would take me too much time, and I could not make
five quintals while I can make one clock. Utopist! we reply; for
this very reason we forbid your making the clock, and order you to make
the iron. Do not you see that we create you labor?
Sire, it will not have escaped your sagacity, that it is just as if we
said to the country, Labor with the left hand, and not with the right.
The creation of obstacles to furnish labor an opportunity to develop
itself, is the principle of the restriction which is dying. It is also
the principle of the restriction which is about to be created. Sire,
to make such regulations is not to innovate, but to preserve.
The efficacy of the measure is incontestable. It is difficult--much more
difficult than one thinks--to do with the left hand what one was
accustomed to do with the right. You will convince yourself of it, Sire,
if you will condescend to try our system on something which is familiar
to you,--like shuffling cards, for instance. We can then flatter
ourselves that we have opened an illimitable career to labor.
When workmen of all kinds are reduced to their left hands, consider,
Sire, the immense number that will be required to meet the present
consumption, supposing it to be invariable, which we always do when we
compare differing systems of production. So prodigious a demand for
manual labor cannot fail to bring about a considerable increase in
wages; and pauperism will disappear from the country as if by
enchantment.
Sire, your paternal heart will rejoice at the thought that the benefits
of this regulation will extend over that interesting portion of the
great family whose fate excites your liveliest solicitude.
What is the destiny of women in France? That sex which is the boldest
and most hardened to fatigue, is, insensibly, driving them from all
fields of labor.
Formerly they found a refuge in the lottery offices. These have been
closed by a pitiless philanthropy; and under what pretext? To save,
said they, the money of the poor. Alas! has a poor man ever obtained
from a piece of money enjoyments as sweet and innocent as those which
the mysterious urn of fortune contained for him? Cut off from all the
sweets of life, how many delicious hours did he introduce into the bosom
of his family when, every two weeks, he put the value of a day's labor
on a quatern. Hope had always her place at the domestic hearth. The
garret was peopled with illusions; the wife promised herself that she
would eclipse her neighbors with the splendor of her attire; the son saw
himself drum-major, and the daughter felt herself carried toward the
altar in the arms of her betrothed. To have a beautiful dream is
certainly something.
The lottery was the poetry of the poor, and we have allowed it to escape
them.
The lottery dead, what means have we of providing for our
proteges?--tobacco, and the postal service.
Tobacco, certainly; it progresses, thanks to Heaven, and the
distinguished habits which august examples have been enabled to
introduce among our elegant youth.
But the postal service! We will say nothing of that, but make it the
subject of a special report.
Then what is left to your female subjects except tobacco? Nothing,
except embroidery, knitting, and sewing, pitiful resources, which are
more and more restricted by that barbarous science, mechanics.
But as soon as your ordinance has appeared, as soon as the right hands
are cut off or tied up, everything will change face. Twenty, thirty
times more embroiderers, washers and ironers, seamstresses and
shirt-makers, would not meet the consumption (honi soit qui mal y
pense) of the kingdom; always assuming that it is invariable, according
to our way of reasoning.
It is true that this supposition might be denied by cold-blooded
theorists, for dresses and shirts would be dearer. But they say the
same thing of the iron which France gets from our mines, compared to the
vintage it could get on our hillsides. This argument can, therefore, be
no more entertained against left-handedness than against protection;
for this very dearness is the result and the sign of the excess of
efforts and of labors, which is precisely the basis on which, in one
case, as in the other, we claim to found the prosperity of the working
classes.
Yes, we make a touching picture of the prosperity of the sewing
business. What movement! What activity! What life! Each dress will busy
a hundred fingers instead of ten. No longer will there be an idle young
girl, and we need not, Sire, point out to your perspicacity the moral
results of this great revolution. Not only will there be more women
employed, but each one of them will earn more, for they cannot meet the
demand, and if competition still shows itself, it will no longer be
among the workingwomen who make the dresses, but the beautiful ladies
who wear them.
You see, Sire, that our proposition is not only conformable to the
economic traditions of the government, but it is also essentially moral
and democratic.
To appreciate its effect, let us suppose it realized; let us transport
ourselves in thought into the future; let us imagine the system in
action for twenty years. Idleness is banished from the country; ease
and concord, contentment and morality, have entered all families
together with labor; there is no more misery and no more prostitution.
The left hand being very clumsy at its work, there is a superabundance
of labor, and the pay is satisfactory. Everything is based on this, and,
as a consequence, the workshops are filled. Is it not true, Sire, that
if Utopians were to suddenly demand the freedom of the right hand, they
would spread alarm throughout the country? Is it not true that this
pretended reform would overthrow all existences? Then our system is
good, since it cannot be overthrown without causing great distress.
However, we have a sad presentiment that some day (so great is the
perversity of man) an association will be organized to secure the
liberty of right hands.
It seems to us that we already hear these free-right-handers speak as
follows in the Salle Montesquieu:
People, you believe yourselves richer because they have taken from you
one hand; you see but the increase of labor which results to you from
it. But look also at the dearness it causes, and the forced decrease in
the consumption of all articles. This measure has not made capital,
which is the source of wages, more abundant. The waters which flow from
this great reservoir are directed into other channels; the quantity is
not increased, and the definite result is, for the nation, as a whole, a
loss of comfort equal to the excess of the production of several
millions of right hands, over several millions of left hands. Then let
us form a league, and, at the expense of some inevitable disturbances,
let us conquer the right of working with both hands.
Happily, Sire, there will be organized an association for the defense
of left-handed labor, and the Sinistrists will have no trouble in
reducing to nothing all these generalities and realities, suppositions
and abstractions, reveries and Utopias. They need only to exhume the
Moniteur Industriel of 1846, and they will find, ready-made, arguments
against free trade, which destroy so admirably this liberty of the
right hand, that all that is required is to substitute one word for
another.
The Parisian Free Trade League never doubted but that it would have
the assistance of the workingmen. But the workingmen can no longer be
led by the nose. They have their eyes open, and they know political
economy better than our diplomaed professors. Free trade, they
replied, will take from us our labor, and labor is our real, great,
sovereign property; with labor, with much labor, the price of articles
of merchandise is never beyond reach. But without labor, even if bread
should cost but a penny a pound, the workingman is compelled to die of
hunger. Now, your doctrines, instead of increasing the amount of labor
in France, diminish it; that is to say, you reduce us to misery.
(Number of October 13, 1846.)
It is true, that when there are too many manufactured articles to sell,
their price falls; but as wages decrease when these articles sink in
value, the result is, that, instead of being able to buy them, we can
buy nothing. Thus, when they are cheapest, the workingman is most
unhappy. (Gauthier de Rumilly, Moniteur Industriel of November 17.)
It would not be ill for the Sinistrists to mingle some threats with
their beautiful theories. This is a sample:
What! to desire to substitute the labor of the right hand for that of
the left, and thus to cause a forced reduction, if not an annihilation
of wages, the sole resource of almost the entire nation!
And this at the moment when poor harvests already impose painful
sacrifices on the workingman, disquiet him as to his future, and make
him more accessible to bad counsels and ready to abandon the wise course
of conduct he had hitherto adhered to!
We are confident, Sire, that thanks to such wise reasonings, if a
struggle takes place, the left hand will come out of it victorious.
Perhaps, also, an association will be formed in order to ascertain
whether the right and the left hand are not both wrong, and if there is
not a third hand between them, in order to conciliate all.
After having described the Dexterists as seduced by the apparent
liberality of a principle, the correctness of which has not yet been
verified by experience, and the Sinistrists as encamping in the
positions they have gained, it will say:
And yet they deny that there is a third course to pursue in the
midst of the conflict; and they do not see that the working classes
have to defend themselves, at the same moment, against those who wish
to change nothing in the present situation, because they find their
advantage in it, and against those who dream of an economic
revolution of which they have calculated neither the extent nor the
significance. (National of October 16.)
We do not desire, however, to hide from your Majesty the fact that our
plan has a vulnerable side. They may say to us: In twenty years all left
hands will be as skilled as right ones are now, and you can no longer
count on left-handedness to increase the national labor.
We reply to this, that, according to learned physicians, the left side
of the body has a natural weakness, which is very reassuring for the
future of labor.
Finally, Sire, consent to sign the law, and a great principle will have
prevailed: All wealth comes from the intensity of labor. It will be
easy for us to extend it, and vary its application. We will declare,
for instance, that it shall be allowable to work only with the feet.
This is no more impossible (for there have been instances) than to
extract iron from the mud of the Seine. There have even been men who
wrote with their backs. You see, Sire, that we do not lack means of
increasing national labor. If they do begin to fail us, there remains
the boundless resource of amputation.
If this report, Sire, was not intended for publication, we would call
your attention to the great influence which systems analogous to the one
we submit to you, are capable of giving to men in power. But this is a
subject which we reserve for consideration in private counsel.
More
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Abundance Scarcity
Which is the best for man or for society, abundance or scarcity? How, it may be exclaimed, can such a question be asked? Has it ever been pretended, is it possible to maintain, that scarcity can be the basis of a man's happiness? Yes; this ha... Appendix
We published an article entitled Dearness-Cheapness, which gained for us the two following letters. We publish them, with the answers: DEAR MR. EDITOR:--You upset all my ideas. I preached in favor of free trade, and found it very convenient ... Balance Of Trade
Our adversaries have adopted a system of tactics, which embarrasses us not a little. Do we prove our doctrine? They admit the truth of it in the most respectful manner. Do we attack their principles? They abandon them with the best possible grace.... Capital And Interest
My object in this treatise is to examine into the real nature of the Interest of Capital, for the purpose of proving that it is lawful, and explaining why it should be perpetual. This may appear singular, and yet, I confess, I am more afraid of be... Capital And Interest
I address this treatise to the workmen of Paris, more especially to those who have enrolled themselves under the banner of Socialist democracy. I proceed to consider these two questions: 1st. Is it consistent with the nature of things, and with ju... Commentary
If this little book were destined to live three or four thousand years, to be read and re-read, pondered and studied, phrase by phrase, word by word, and letter by letter, from generation to generation, like a new Koran; if it were to fill the libra... Conclusion
All the Sophisms which I have so far combated, relate to the restrictive policy; and some even on this subject, and those of the most remarkable, I have, in pity to the reader, passed over: acquired rights; unsuitableness; exhaustion of money, etc... Conflicting Principles
There is one thing which embarrasses me not a little; and it is this: Sincere men, taking upon the subject of political economy the point of view of producers, have arrived at this double formula: A government should dispose of consumers subje... Dearness Cheapness
I consider it my duty to say a few words in regard to the delusion caused by the words dear and cheap. At the first glance, I am aware, you may be disposed to find these remarks somewhat subtile, but whether subtile or not, the question is whether... Discriminating Duties
A poor laborer of Gironde had raised, with the greatest possible care and attention, a nursery of vines, from which, after much labor, he at last succeeded in producing a pipe of wine, and forgot, in the joy of his success, that each drop of this ... Does Protection Raise The Rate Of Wages?
Workmen, your situation is singular! you are robbed, as I will presently prove to you.... But no; I retract the word; we must avoid an expression which is violent; perhaps indeed incorrect; inasmuch as this spoliation, wrapped in the sophisms whic... Effort Result
We have seen that between our wants and their gratification many obstacles are interposed. We conquer or weaken these by the employment of our faculties. It may be said, in general terms, that industry is an effort followed by a result. But by ... Equalizing Of The Facilities Of Production
It is said ... but, for fear of being accused of manufacturing Sophisms for the mouths of the protectionists, I will allow one of their most able reasoners to speak for himself. It is our belief that protection should correspond to, should be th... Fourth Tableau
The Agitation. Jacques Bonhomme. Parisians, let us demand the reform of the octroi; let it be put back to what it was. Let every citizen be FREE to buy wood, butter and meat where it seems good to him. The People. Hurrah for LIBERTY! Pierre.... Human Labor National Labor
Destruction of machinery--prohibition of foreign goods. These are two acts proceeding from the same doctrine. We do meet with men who, while they rejoice over the revelation of any great invention, favor nevertheless the protective policy; but s... Inferior Council Of Labor
What! You have the assurance to demand for every citizen the right to buy, sell, trade, exchange, and to render service for service according to his own discretion, on the sole condition that he will conduct himself honestly, and not defraud the r... Introduction
My object in this little volume has been to refute some of the arguments usually advanced against Free Trade. I am not seeking a combat with the protectionists. I merely advance a principle which I am anxious to present clearly to the minds of s... Metaphors
A Sophism will sometimes expand and extend itself through the whole tissue of a long and tedious theory. Oftener it contracts into a principle, and hides itself in one word. Heaven preserve us, said Paul Louis, from the Devil and from the spiri... National Independence
Among the arguments advanced in favor of a restrictive system, we must not forget that which is drawn from the plea of national independence. What will we do, it is asked, in case of war, if we are at the mercy of England for our iron and coal? ... Natural History Of Spoliation
Why do I give myself up to that dry science, political economy? The question is a proper one. All labor is so repugnant in its nature that one has the right to ask of what use it is. Let us examine and see. I do not address myself to those ... Obstacle Cause
The obstacle mistaken for the cause--scarcity mistaken for abundance. The sophism is the same. It is well to study it under every aspect. Man naturally is in a state of entire destitution. Between this state and the satisfying of his wants, th... Obstructed Rivers Pleading For The Prohibitionists
Some years since, being at Madrid, I went to the meeting of the Cortes. The subject in discussion was a proposed treaty with Portugal, for improving the channel of the Douro. A member rose and said: If the Douro is made navigable, transportation m... Our Productions Are Overloaded With Taxes
This is but a new wording of the last Sophism. The demand made is, that the foreign article should be taxed, in order to neutralize the effects of the tax, which weighs down national produce. It is still then but the question of equalizing the fac... Petition From The Manufacturers Of Candles
To the Honorable the Members of the Chamber of Deputies: GENTLEMEN,--You are in the right way: you reject abstract theories; abundance, cheapness, concerns you little. You are entirely occupied with the interest of the producer, whom you are anx... Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
After this, therefore on account of this. The most common and the most false of arguments. Real suffering exists in England. This occurrence follows two others: First. The reduction of the tariff. Second. The loss of two consecutive harv... Raw Material
It is said that no commerce is so advantageous as that in which manufactured articles are exchanged for raw material; because the latter furnishes aliment for national labor. And it is hence concluded: That the best regulation of duties, woul... Reciprocity
We have just seen that all which renders transportation difficult, acts in the same manner as protection; or, if the expression be preferred, that protection tends towards the same result as obstacles to transportation. A tariff may then be tru... Reciprocity Again
Mr. de Saint Cricq has asked: Are we sure that our foreign customers will buy from us as much as they sell us? Mr. de Dombasle says: What reason have we for believing that English producers will come to seek their supplies from us, rather than f... Robbery By Bounties
They find my little book of Sophisms too theoretical, scientific, and metaphysical. Very well. Let us try a trivial, commonplace, and, if necessary, coarse style. Convinced that the public is duped in the matter of protection, I have desired to pr... Salt Postage And Customs
[This chapter is an amusing dialogue relating principally to English Postal Reform. Being inapplicable to any condition of things existing in the United States, it is omitted.--Translator.] ... Something Else
--What is restriction? --A partial prohibition. --What is prohibition? --An absolute restriction. --So that what is said of one is true of the other? --Yes, comparatively. They bear the same relation to each other that the arc of the ... Spoliation And Law
[Footnote 16: On the 27th of April, 1850, after a very curious discussion, which was reproduced in the Moniteur, the General Council of Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce issued the following order: Political economy shall be taught by the g... Supremacy By Labor
As in a time of war, supremacy is attained by superiority in arms, can, in a time of peace, supremacy be secured by superiority in labor? This question is of the greatest interest at a time when no one seems to doubt that in the field of industr... The House
Mondor had a house. In building it, he had extorted nothing from any one whatever. He owed it to his own personal labor, or, which is the same thing, to labor justly rewarded. His first care was to make a bargain with an architect, in virtue of whic... The Little Arsenal Of The Free Trader
--If they say to you: There are no absolute principles; prohibition may be bad, and restriction good-- Reply: Restriction prohibits all that it keeps from coming in. --If they say to you: Agriculture is the nursing mother of the country-- R... The Plane
A very long time ago there lived, in a poor village, a joiner, who was a philosopher, as all my heroes are, in their way. James worked from morning till night with his two strong arms, but his brain was not idle, for all that. He was fond of reviewi... The Right And The Left Hand
[Report to the King.] SIRE--When we see these men of the Libre Echange audaciously disseminating their doctrines, and maintaining that the right of buying and selling is implied by that of ownership (a piece of insolence that M. Billault has cr... The Sack Of Corn
Mathurin, in other respects as poor as Job, and obliged to earn his bread by day-labor, became, nevertheless, by some inheritance, the owner of a fine piece of uncultivated land. He was exceedingly anxious to cultivate it. Alas! said he, to make dit... The Tax Collector
JACQUES BONHOMME, Vine-grower. M. LASOUCHE, Tax Collector. L. You have secured twenty hogsheads of wine? J. Yes, with much care and sweat. --Be so kind as to give me six of the best. --Six hogsheads out of twenty! Good heavens! You want ... The Three Aldermen
A DEMONSTRATION IN FOUR TABLEAUX. First Tableau. [The scene is in the hotel of Alderman Pierre. The window looks out on a fine park; three persons are seated near a good fire.] Pierre. Upon my word, a fire is very comfortable when the stoma... The Two Hatchets
Petition of Jacques Bonhomme, Carpenter, to M. Cunin-Gridaine, Minister of Commerce. MR. MANUFACTURER-MINISTER: I am a carpenter, as was Jesus; I handle the hatchet and the plane to serve you. In chopping and splitting from morning until nigh... Theory Practice
Partisans of free trade, we are accused of being theorists, and not relying sufficiently upon practice. What a powerful argument against Mr. Say (says Mr. Ferrier,) is the long succession of distinguished ministers, the imposing league of writer... There Are No Absolute Principles
The facility with which men resign themselves to ignorance in cases where knowledge is all-important to them, is often astonishing; and we may be sure that a man has determined to rest in his ignorance, when he once brings himself to proclaim as a... Third Tableau
Twenty Years After. Son. Father, decide; we must leave Paris. Work is slack, and everything is dear. Father. My son, you do not know how hard it is to leave the place where we were born. Son. The worst of all things is to die there of misery... To Artisans And Laborers
Many papers have attacked me before you. Will you not read my defense? I am not mistrustful. When a man writes or speaks, I believe that he thinks what he says. What is the question? To ascertain which is the more advantageous for you, restri... Two Systems Of Morals
Arrived at the end of the preceding chapter, if he gets so far, I imagine I hear the reader say: Well, now, was I wrong in accusing political economists of being dry and cold? What a picture of humanity! Spoliation is a fatal power, almost norm... Utopian Ideas
If I were His Majesty's Minister! --Well, what would you do? --I should begin by--by--upon my word, by being very much embarrassed. For I should be Minister only because I had the majority, and I should have that only because I had made it, a... Wonderful Discovery!
At this moment, when all minds are occupied in endeavoring to discover the most economical means of transportation; when, to put these means into practice, we are leveling roads, improving rivers, perfecting steamboats, establishing railroads, and...