Hitman Physiology. 4.21 



category. He lives upon the public, who are taxed in need- 

 less profits, and often by all the frauds of commerce, for his 

 support. 



Co-operation, merely in the purchase of goods by those who 

 charge a profit to outsiders for their own benefit, is not a very 

 important social reform, and is useful chiefly in showing that 

 there may be a better system. But the wliole system of trade 

 and commerce needs a radical reform. It is immoral in prin- 

 ciple, and demoralising in practice. There is no equity in 

 buying cheap and selling dear. A thing is worth what it costs 

 to produce it worth its equivalent. There is a true value, a 

 proper price for every article one can buy or sell. To take 

 more, or to give less, is theft. If I sell an article for a penny 

 more than its equitable value, I steal a penny. And trade is 

 accounted dishonourable, and tradesmen are not considered 

 gentlemen, simply and only because trade is dishonest, and 

 therefore dishonourable. The highest noble in the land may 

 exchange anything he has for its fair equivalent, but the moment 

 he takes more he does a mean, dishonest, and disgraceful 

 action, which is as bad as cheating at cards or picking a pocket. 

 Commerce will be considered honourable when it is so; and it 

 ought not to be a day before. In a reformed society all this 

 would be changed. All exchanges of commodities should be 

 managed by competent agents, and upon the rigid principles 

 of justice and equity. 



In a true system of trade, every article produced should be 

 registered at the actual cost of its production, and the standard 

 price should cover a fair average. Articles could then be 

 exchanged, value for value, cost for cost, including, of course, 

 transport, storage, etc. Profit, the speculating, gambling gains 

 of trade, where ignorance or necessity are taken advantage of 

 by unscrupulous greed, should be banished from all decent 

 society. It is a question of economy as well as justice. 

 Proudhon said, "Property is theft." It is very true that much 



