The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction.
• Biographical and Critical.
• Author’s Preface to the First French Edition.
• Author’s Preface to the English Edition.
• Book I.: Evolution and Retrogression.
• Chapter I.: Social Retrogression.
• Chapter II.: Socialist Programmes.
• Chapter III.: Character of Political and Intellectual Progress.
• Chapter IV.: Character of Social Progress.
• Chapter V.: The Evolution of Property.
• Chapter VI.: Doctrinal Contradictions of the Socialists.
• Chapter VII.: Practical Self-contradiction of the Socialists.
• Book II.: Socialistic Sophisms.
• Chapter I.: Labour and Wealth.
• Chapter II.: On the Limits of Collectivist Society.
• Chapter III.: The Law of Supply and Demand.
• Chapter IV.: The %u201ciron Law%u201d of Wages.
• Chapter V.: Integral Wages.
• Chapter VI.: To Each According to His Needs.
• Chapter VII.: The Abolition of Wages.
• Chapter VIII.: Machinery.
• Chapter IX.: Excessive Production.
• Chapter X.: Economic Crises.
• Chapter XI.: Cheapness.
• Chapter XII.: The Game of the Gullible.
• Chapter XIII.: Socialistic Methods.
• Chapter XIV.: Facts Compared With Socialist Statements.
• Chapter XV.: Redistribution of Wealth.
• Book III.: Socialistic Legislation.
• Chapter I.: Putting Socialistic Sophisms In Force.
• Chapter II.: The Regulation of Child Labour.
• Chapter III.: Female Labour and the Law.
• Chapter IV.: Compulsory Idleness of Lying-in Women.
• Chapter V.: National Labour and Foreign Workmen.
• Chapter VI.: Trade Syndicates.
• Chapter VII.: Registry Offices.
• Chapter VIII.: Nature of %u201clabour Laws.%u201d
• Book IV.: Socialistic Morality and Respect For the Law.
• Chapter I.: Contempt For the Law.
• Chapter II.: Servile Labour and Free Labour.
• Book V.: Strikes and Social War.
• Chapter I.: Cost and Consequences of Strikes.
• Chapter II.: The Causes of Strikes.
• Chapter III.: During the Strike.
• Chapter IV.: Social War.
• Book VI.: Responsibilities.
• Chapter I.: Parliament and Strikes.
• Chapter II.: Subsidies to Strikers.
• Chapter III.: The Executive, the Judicature, and Strikes.
• Chapter IV.: Liberty and Anarchy.
• Chapter V.: The Socialism of Employers.
• Chapter VI.: Militarism, Protection, and Socialism.
• Conclusion.

CHAPTER XI.

CHEAPNESS.

Contradiction—Economic Evolution—Always Increase Production—No Fear of Excess.

Yes, but there are other crises, people say, crises which are the result of the low price of merchandise, of excessive supply. Has it not been found necessary to impose a tax of five francs on foreign corn, so as to raise the price of French corn, otherwise the farmer would no longer find it worth his while to till the land? Yes, the cost of production of the harvest far exceeded the payment for consumption, because the low price of his merchandise did not permit of the farmer recouping his advances.

But, then, what remedy is there beyond the duty of five francs, proposed by the societies of agriculture, the Ministers of Agriculture, and all those who speak more or less officially, and more or less authoritatively, in the name of the agriculturists? Do they not suggest improvements, such as better seeds, new modes of cultivation, all of which would, if they succeeded, result in an increased yield of corn? Would they not tend to increase the over-production, and depreciate the price? Have you ever heard an agriculturist assert that the remedy would be to diminish the yield of corn per acre? No. All have proposed to lessen the net cost of production, but how? By augmenting the production! In a word, all have suggested the depreciation of the price of corn, at the very moment when, by customs duties, they are trying to make it dearer. Does not this contradiction show, that in spite of all sophisms, economic evolution is to always produce as cheaply as possible, and thus to constantly add to the over-production, granting that there ever is an over-production of corn, when there are so many tens of millions of human beings in the world who eat not according to their appetite.