48 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



Political which exists among semi-barbarous societies, having 

 Economy, introduced slavery at the remotest era. The stronger 

 found it more convenient to procure workmen by the 

 abuse of victory than by bargain. Yet so long as the 

 head of each family laboured along with his children 

 and slaves, the condition of the latter was less wretch- 

 ed ; the master felt himself to be of the same nature 

 with his servant ; he experienced the samewants and the 

 same fatigue ; he desired the same pleasures, and knew 

 by experience that he would obtain little work from a 

 man whom he fed badly. Such was the patriarchal 

 mode of cultivation, that of the golden days of Italy 

 and Greece ; such is that of free America ; such appears 

 to be that of Africa in its interior; and such, finally, 

 but without slavery, and therefore with still more do- 

 mestic comfort, is that of Switzerland, where the pea- 

 sant proprietor is happier than in any other country of 

 the world. 



Among the states of antiquity, the farms under cul- 

 tivation were small ; and the number of freemen la- 

 bouring in the fields always greatly surpassed that of 

 slaves. The former had a full enjoyment of their per- 

 sons and the fruits of their labour ; the latter, degraded 

 rather than unhappy, like the ox, man's companion, 

 which interest teaches him to spare, seldom experienced 

 suffering, want still more rarely. The head of each fa- 

 mily alone receiving the total crop, did not distinguish 

 the rent from the profit or the wages ; with the excess 

 of what he wanted for food, he procured the produce 

 of the town in exchange, and this excess supported all 

 other classes of the nation. 



But the progress of wealth, of luxury, and idleness, 

 in all the states of antiquity, substituted the servile for 

 the patriarchal mode of cultivation. The population 

 lost much in happiness and number by this change ; 

 the earth gained little in productiveness. The Roman 

 proprietors extending their patrimonies by the con- 

 fiscated territories of vanquished states, the Greeks by 

 wealth acquired from trade, first abandoned manual 

 labour, and soon afterwards despised it. Fixing their 

 residence in towns, they entrusted the management of 

 their estates to stewards and inspectors of slaves ; and 

 from that period, the condition of most part of the 

 country population became intolerable. Labour, which 

 had once been a point of communion betwixt the two 

 ranks of society, now became a barrier of separation ; 

 contempt and severity succeeded to affectionate care; 

 punishments were multiplied as they came to be in- 

 flicted by inferiors, and as the death of one or several 

 slaves did not lessen the steward's wealth. Slaves who 

 were ill-fed, ill-treated, ill-recompensed, could not fail 

 to lose all interest in their master's affairs, and almost all 

 understanding. Far from attending to their business 

 with affection, they felt a secret joy every time they 

 saw their oppressor's wealth diminished, or his hopes 

 deceived The study of science, accompanied with 

 habits of observation, certainly advanced the theory of 

 agriculture; but its practice, at the same time, rapidly 

 declined ; a fact, which all the agricultural writers of 

 antiquity lament. The cultivation of land was en- 

 tirely divested of that intelligence, affection, and zeal, 

 which had once hastened its success. The revenues 

 were smaller, the expences greater ; and from that pe- 

 riod it became an object to save labour, more than to 

 augment its produce. Slaves, after having driven every 

 free cultivator from the fields, were themselves rapidly 

 decreasing in number. During the decline of the Ro- 

 man empire, the population of Italy was not less redu- 



ced than that of the Agro Romano is in our days ; Political 

 while at the same time it had sunk into the last degree Economy, 

 of wretchedness and penury. The cultivation of the s """ "V""" / 

 colonies situated on the Mexican Gulf, was founded, 

 in like manner, on the baneful system of slavery ; it 

 has in like manner consumed the population, debased 

 the human species, and deteriorated the system of agri- 

 culture. The negro trade has of course filled up those 

 voids, which the barbarity of planters annually produced 

 in the agricultural population ; and doubtless, under a 

 system of culture, such that the man who labours is 

 constantly reduced below the necessaries of life, and 

 the man who does not labour keeps all for himself, 

 the net produce has always been considerable ; but the 

 gross produce, with which alone the nation is concern- 

 ed, has uniformly been inferior to what would have 

 arisen from any other system of cultivation, whilst the 

 condition of more than seven-eighths of the popula- 

 tion has continued to be miserable. 



The invasions of the Roman empire, by the barba- 

 rians, introduced new manners, and, with them, new 

 systems of cultivation. The conqueror, who had now 

 become proprietor, being much less allured by the en- 

 joyments of luxury, had need of men still more than of 

 wealth. He had ceased to dwell in towns, he had es- 

 tablished himself in the country ; and his castle formed 

 a little principality, which he wished to be able to de- 

 fend by his own strength, and thus he felt the neces- 

 sity of acquiring the affection of such as depended on 

 him. A relaxation of the social bond, and the inde- 

 pendence of great proprietors, produced the same ef- 

 fects without the limits of the ancient Roman empire 

 as within. From the epoch of its downfall, masters in 

 every part of Europe began to improve the condition 

 of their dependents ; and this return to humanity pro- 

 duced the natural effect ; it rapidly increased the po- 

 pulation, the wealth, and the happiness of rural la- 

 bourers. 



Different expedients were resorted to for giving 

 slaves and cultivators an interest in life, a proper- 

 ty, and an affection for the place of their nativity, 

 as well as for its lord. Adopted by various states, 

 these expedients produced the most decisive influence 

 on territorial wealth and population. In Italy, and 

 part of France and Spain, and probably in most part 

 of the former Roman empire, the master shared the 

 land among his vassals, and agreed with them to share 

 the crops in a raw state. This is cultivation for half 

 produce. In Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, and all that 

 portion of Germany occupied by Sclavonic tribes, the 

 master much more rarely enfranchised his slaves. 

 Keeping them always under an absolute dependance, 

 as serfs attached to the soil, he gave them, however, 

 one half of his land, reserving the other to himself. He 

 wished to share, not the fruits of their labour, but their 

 labour itself, and therefore he obliged them to work 

 for him two, three, and in Transylvania, four days of 

 each week. This is cultivation by corvees. In Russia, 

 and several provinces of France and England, masters 

 likewise distributed their lands among vassals ; but, in- 

 stead of wishing to participate either in the lands or 

 the harvests, they imposed a fixed capitation. Such 

 was the abundance of uncultivated land always ready 

 to be cleared, that, in the eyes of those proprietors, the 

 only difference in the condition of agricultural families 

 was the number of workmen included in them. To 

 capitation was always joined the obligation of personal 

 services, and the vassal's continuance in a servile state. 



