COOPERATION, COERCION, COMRETITION. 529 



of organization rather than with the kinds of capital required for the 

 development of the industrial surplus source.' 



For trade and commerce the familial system was found inadequate 

 from the outset. For handicraft and manufacture also the domestic 

 system was only applicable in certain circumstances and to a limited 

 extent at that. On the whole, therefore, the development of industry 

 and commerce is characterized by the extensive and intensive a])plica- 

 tion of the personal system of association. During the early days of 

 the craft and merchant guilds the cooperative system included all classes 

 of producers, the apprentices, the journeymen and the guild masters. 

 Later on when the wage system was established there was a differentia- 

 tion of cooperative groups, the apprentices and Journeymen cooperating 

 henceforth as industrial laborers, and the masters combining as capital- 

 ists in partnerships, companies and corporations. This differentiation 

 of cooperative groups was due to the gradual monopolization of the 

 sources of the industrial surplus. We should accordingly shift our 

 standpoint slightly and study the subject from this side. 



At first the sources of the industrial surplus were too widespread to 

 admit of monopolization. As a result, the early guilds were organized 

 along purely cooperative lines. As each guild chose its particular line 

 of production, the then existing surplus sources came in time by custom 

 to be regarded as monopolies of the several guilds. But as every mem- 

 ber of the community was allowed to Join a guild and rise from appren- 

 tice to Journeyman, to master, such collective monopolies worked 

 no injury to any one. It had the effect, however, of restricting the 

 normal development of industry. Beyond the limited lines of produc- 

 tion controlled by the guilds there were practically limitless industrial 

 opportunities open to those who would work for themselves. This being 

 the case, the guilds — even though they sought and for the most part 

 obtained the support of the state — were not able to hold their artificial 

 monopolies of the surplus sources. Not to go into the history of the 

 subject, suffice it to say that in some countries by revolution and in 

 others through peaceful progress, the older guild privileges were every- 

 where broken down and industrial opportunities opened to all. In this 

 manner the way w^as cleared for the development of the competitive 

 system, which was a compromise of the older cooperative and coercive 

 systems, and a transitional stage, as it were, between the two. 



Under the new regime the surplus sources were opened to competi- 

 tion, and by the laws of private property each producer was al- 

 lowed to hold and pass by testament so much of the surplus source as 

 he succeeded in developing. In considering the conditions of this con- 

 test it should be noted at the outset that for the development of the 

 industrial surplus organized labor was not enough ; a certain amount — 



VOL. LXIII. — 34. 



