24 Social Environment 



Particularly to the serf, who must fight with- 

 out the weapon of property, did it prove a ques- 

 tionable blessing. Under feudalism he had, of 

 course, been exploited, but he had at least been 

 somewhat secure in his humble position; now, 

 as the commercial point of view came to pre- 

 vail among the upper classes he was urged 

 from his attachment to the soil into the pre- 

 carious, if bracing, atmosphere of freedom. 

 When wage conditions were unusually good he 

 required only the urging of his own interests; 

 at other times he was driven forcibly from his 

 humble cottage on the manorial estate into vag- 

 abondage by the superior competition of the 

 sheep-raising industry, which did not require 

 so many laborers as did agriculture. Thus 

 developed that individual freedom in commer- 

 cial competition which later times have so ex- 

 cessively glorified as the foundation principle 

 of justice — a principle which in the concrete 

 spelled unrestricted wealth to noble and mer- 

 chant, but starvation or crime to multitudes of 

 the dispossessed peasants. 



2. The Industrial Revolution 



The evolution of business was a slow mat- 

 ter involving many revolutionary political 



