[569]Molinari, "Comte," Dictionnaire de l'économie politique, p. 447.
[570]Charles Comte, Traité de la propriété, 2 vols. (Paris: Chamerot, Ducollet, 1834). Bruxelles edition, H. Tarlier, 1835. Although Comte's original plan had been to publish both the Traité de législation and Traité de la propriété together, his publisher was unwilling to publish such a large work at one go. There was the added problem that Comte may not have finished work on the second part and thus had some idea of publishing the work in serial form. His publisher had reservations about "serialising" the project over a period of years and persuaded a reluctant Comte not to proceed with the publication of Traité de la propriété immediately. Any intention of having the remaining volumes published were foiled by the events of 1830 and, as Charles Comte wryly noted, he had "more urgent matters" to attend to. Thus it was not until 1834 that Comte finally saw his life's work in print. Charles Comte, "Préface," Traité de la propriété, vol. 1, p. ii-iv.
[571]William H. Sewell, Jr., Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the OLd Regime to 1848 (Cambridge University Press, 1980), "A Revolution in Property," pp. 114-42.
[572]Donald R. Kelley and Bonnie G. Smith, "What was Property? Legal Dimensions of the Social Question in France (1789-1848)," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1984, vol. 128, no. 3, pp. 200-30.
[573]Donald R. Kelley, Historians and the Law in Postrevolutionary France (Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 129.
[574]Donald R. Kelley, Historians and the Law in Postrevolutionary France, p. 130.
[575]Donald R. Kelley, Historians and the Law in Postrevolutionary France , p. 130.
[576]David H. Pinkney, Decisive Years in France 1840-1847 (Princeton University Press, 1986). Not only did industrialisation begin in earnest in France in the 1840s but also the professionalization of the discipline of political economy. In 1842 the Société d'Économie Politique was formed, comprising the leading lights of the political economy movement, and soon afterwards the founding of the Journal des Économistes, the main organ of laissez-faire liberalism in France, and the establishment of the liberal publishing firm Guillaumin, which published an extraordinary quantity of statistical, historical, economic and theoretical material. Thus, overall the 1840s is crucial for both the theory and practice of industrial political economy.
[577]Jean-Baptiste Say, Traité d'économie politique, ou simple exposition de la manière dont se forment, se distribuent et se consomment les richesses (1st edition 1803, Paris: Deterville).4th edition, Paris: Deterville, 1819. The last edition of the Traité which appeared during Say's life was the 5th in 1826 by Rapilly and included Augmenté d'un volume, et à laquelle se trouvent joints Un Épitome des principes fondamentaux de l'économie politique, et un index raisonné des matières. A widely used edition of the Traité was the 6th edition which incorporated Say's final revisions and edited by his son Horace Say. It was reprinted in a series of major economic works by the liberal publishing firm of Guillaumin. I was volume 9 of the Collection des principaux économistes, ed. Horace Say (Paris: Guillaumin, 1841. Reprinted Osnabrück: Otto Zeller, 1966). On Say's life and works see E. Dubois de l'Estang, "Say (Jean-Baptiste) (1767-1832)," Nouveau dictionnaire d'économie politique, vol. 2, pp. 783-91; "Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de Jean-Baptiste Say," Oeuvres diverses de J.-B. Say, contenant: Catéchisme d'économie politique, Fragments et opuscules inédits, Correspondance générale, Olbie, Petit volume, Mélanges de morale et de litérature..., ed. Charles Comte, E. Daire, et Horace Say (Paris: Guillaumin, 1848), pp. i-xviii; Gaston Leduc, "Say, Jean Baptiste," International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, (1968), pp. 23-25; Meitzel, "Say, Jean Baptiste," Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, ed. J. Conrad et al. (Jena: Gustave Fischer, 1911), vol. 7, pp. 191-93; Edgard Allix, "La méthode et la conception de l'économie politique dans l'oeuvre de J.-B. Say," Revue d'histoire économique et sociale, 1911, vol. IV, pp. 321-60; Georges Michel, "Une dynastie d'économistes," Journal des économistes, Mai 1898, no. 2, pp. 170-91; Alfred Amonn, "Say, Jean Baptiste," Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, ed. Erwin von Berkerath et al. (Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer, 1956), vol. 9, pp. 93-95; Ernest Teilhac, "Say, Jean-Baptiste (1767-1832)," Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1936?), pp. 559; Edgar Allix, "J.-B. Say et les origines de l'industrialisme," Revue d'économie politique, 1910, vol. XXIV, pp. 303-13 and 341-63; Charles Comte, "Notice historique sur al vie et les ouvrages de J.-B. Say," Mélanges et correspondance d'économie politique. Oeuvre posthume de J.-B. Say, ed. Charles Comte (Paris: Chamerot, 1833), pp. i-xxviii.
[578]Jean-Baptiste Say, Cours complet d'économie politique pratique. Ouvrage destiné à mettre sous les yeux des hommes d'état, des propriétaires fonciers et des capitalistes, des savans, des agriculteurs, des manufacturiers, des négocians, et en général de tous les citoyens, l'économie des sociétés, (Paris: Rapilly, 1828-9). A second revised edition edited by his son Horace Say (Paris: Guillaumin, 1840).
[579]Jean-Baptiste Say, A Treatise on Political Economy; or the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth, trans. C.R. Princep (Philadelphia: Grigg and Elliott, 1832. 5th American edition), Book 1, chapter XIV "Of the Right of Property," pp. 72-76. Quotation taken from p. 72.
[580]Thomas Hodgskin makes the important distinction between "natural" and "artificial" rights to property and concludes that much of the landed wealth of Europe fell into the latter category, i.e. it had been acquired unjustly. Herbert Spencer for slightly different reasons thought it immoral to own land, though he changed his mind later in life. Augustin Thierry based his entire theory of history on the idea of racial conquest where one race invaded and stole the land of another racial group. Frédéric Bastiat defended the liberal idea of private property in land but attributed poverty and the condition of the working class to "disturbing factors" which upset economic harmony. One of the disturbing factors was continued presence of unjustly held land titles in Europe carried over from feudal times. See Thomas Hodgskin, The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted... (London: B. Steil, 1832) reprinted (Clifton, New Jersey: Augustus M. Kelley, 1973); Herbert Spencer, Social Statics: The Conditions essential to Human Happiness specified, and the First of them developed (New York: Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 1970) first published 1851, "IX. The Right to the Use of the Earth," pp. 103-113; see any of Thierry's works but especially Augustin Thierry, Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands (Paris: Didot, 1825); Frédéric Bastiat, "Property and the Law," "Property and Plunder," in Selected Essays on Political Economy, trans. Seymour Cain and ed. George B. de Huszar (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1975), pp. 97-115, 152-193 and "Disturbing Factors," in Economic Harmonies, trans. W. Hayden Boyers and ed. George B. de Huszar (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1968), pp. 466-74.
[581]Comte, Traité de la propriété, Vol. 1, p. 3.
[582]Comte, Traité de propriété, p. 3.
[583]Charles Comte mentions by name Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Papinian, Paul and Ulpian, Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 5.
[584]Although Benjamin Constant developed his well-known distinction in relation to political rather than economic liberty Comte believed it was just as applicable here as elsewhere. Benjamin Constant, De la liberté des anciens comparée à celles des modernes. Discours prononcé à l'Athénée royal de Paris en 1819, in De la liberté chez les modernes. Écrits politiques, ed. Marcel Gauchet (Paris: Livre de poche, 1980), pp. 491-515.
[585]See Dunoyer, Charles, "Esquisse historique des doctrines auxquelles on a donné le nom industrialisme, c'est-à-dire, des doctrines qui fondent la société sur l'Industrie," Revue encyclopédique, février 1827, vol. 33, pp. 368-94. Reprinted in Notices d'économie politique, vol. 2 of Oeuvres, pp. 173-199.
[586]N. Loraux et P. Vidal-Naquet, "La formation de l'Athènes bourgeoisie: Essai d'historiographie 1750-1870," in Classical Influences on Western Thought A.D. 1650-1870. Proceedings of an International Conference held at King's College, Cambridge March 1977, ed. R.R. Bolgar (Cambridge University Press) pp. 169-222.
[587]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 4.
[588]Comte's hopes for reform of French legal study were partly realised in the course of the nineteenth century. With strong state opposition to liberal political economy being taught in special economics faculties the study of economics was done primarily in the law faculties or privately with the assistance of the economic press such as the Journal des économistes. This situation existed well into the late nineteenth century. Lucette le Van-Lemesle, "La promotion de l'économie politique en France au XIXe siècle jusqu'à son introduction dans les facultés (1815-1881)," Revue d' Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, April 1980, pp. 270-94 and Alain Alcouffe, "The Institutionalization of Political Economy in French Universities: 1819-1896," History of Political Economy, Summer 1989, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 313-44.
[589]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 51.
[590]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 55.
[591]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 51.
[592]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 52.
[593]"Thus we say that the wheat obtained by a cultivator of a plot of ground which he has brought into a state of cultivation and which he has not seized (ravir) from anyone else, and the fruit collected from a tree which he has planted and cared for, are (his) property. We can say the same thing about some cloth which a man has made, a picture which a painter has painted, finally everything which human industry has produced without taking anything from anyone else." Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 55.
[594]Charles Dunoyer, De la liberté du travail (1845) in Oeuvres de Charles Dunoyer (Paris: Guillaumin, 1886), vol. 2, book 12, chapter 3, "De la liberté des transmissions héréditaires," pp. 633-68.
[595]The importance Comte placed on labour creating a right to property can be gauged from the following quotations: "... by giving a piece of material of whatever kind some utility which it lacks or by making it suitable to satisfy a need, property is created or the importance of property already created is increased. It is the result of human industry and almost all property which mankind possesses comes from this," in Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 59.[595] And "Labour is therefore the principle which gives birth to property. Almost all (property) comes from this source...," Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 61.
[596]Comte, Traité de la propriété, footnote, pp. 68-69.
[597]Comte, Traité de la propriété, pp. 60-61. The similarity to Robert Nozick's formulation of just titles in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Basic Books, 1974) is striking.
[598]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 37.
[599]Comte cites Pufendorf, De jure naturae et gentium, lib 4, cap 4, section 4.
[600]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 32.
[601]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 33.
[602]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 33.
[603]Comte discusses the consequences of the nomadic life in the Traité de la propriété in some detail in Book 3.
[604]Comte, Traité de la législation, book 5, chapter 23.
[605]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 40.
[606]See chapters 7,8,9. of Comte, Traité de la propriété.
[607]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 45.
[608]Comte quotes Gaius, Justinian on this matter, Traité de la propriété, p. 46.
[609]Comte cites Blackstone, Tomlins and Kent, Traité de la propriété, p. 47.
[610]The discussion can be found in chapter 10 of Comte, Traité de la propriété
[611]See Stanley Mellon's work on the political uses of history in Restoration France, The Political Uses of History: A Study of Historians in the French Restoration (Stanford University Press, 1958).
[612]Bastiat wrote a series of essays on the question of legalised plunder at the time of the 1848 Revolution in response to a number of socialist attacks on liberal property theory, including criticisms of the idea of property itself (largely prompted by Proudhon), schemes for the taxation and redistribution of property, and the National Workshop scheme to provide state subsidised employment. See Bastiat's essays "Property and Plunder," "Plunder and Law," and "The Law" in Selected Essays on Political Economy, trans. Seymour Cain and ed. George B. de Huszar (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1975). Also "The Physiology of Plunder" in Economic Sophisms, trans. Arthur Goddard (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1968). The idea of legalised plunder also pervades Bastiat's main although incomplete work Economic Harmonies, trans. W. Hayden Boyers and ed. George B. de Huszar (Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1968).
[613]Benjamin Constant, "De l'esprit de conquête et de l'usurpation dans leurs rapports avec la civilisation européene" (1814) in De la liberté chez les modernes, ed. Marcel Gauchet (Paris: Livre de poche, 1980).
[614]As Comte put the problem: "When one casts a superficial glance at even the best organised societies one sees a large number of men who live from the product of their land and next to them a much larger number who only have the product of their daily labour to live off. One is tempted to view the first group as clever usurpers and the second group as dupes or victims. One would naturally demand that the division of property be done over again so that each could have his share. This apparent injustice disappears, at least in large measure, when one recognises the principle that every man is the owner of the value which he has created; when one observes the way in which property is formed and the way in which the various classes increase their numbers. Fortunes made by fraud or violence are the only ones which morality and justice can condemn." Traité de la propriété, pp. 159-60.
[615]See the footnote, Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 160.
[616]Dunoyer also was sceptical of the benefits of revolutionary change having been disappointed too many times by the failure of revolution to provide long-lasting liberal reforms before succumbing to militarism and statism as his activities during the 1848 Revolution and the creation of the Second Empire reveal.
[617]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 140.
[618]See Chapter 7 for a discussion of what constitutes "The Territory Belonging to Each Nation" which Comte regards as being defined by so-called "natural" barriers such as mountain ranges and rivers or anything which interferes with trade or communication between people.
[619]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 148.
[620]Comte, Traité de la propriété, pp. 148-49.
[621]John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (New York: New American Library, 1965), Paragraph 33, p. 333.
[622]"I have shown that the man who passes from the life of a savage to the life of a farmer and who by the process of cultivation converts a fraction of the national territory into private property, far from committing an act of usurpation actually gives up the greatest part of his original property to the fatherland. I ought to now add that in cultivating a fraction of this original property the farmer increases the value of all the land surrounding his and that he therefore increases the wealth of his fellow citizens without causing them the slightest harm. This increase in the value of land which results from the industry applied to neighbouring land is sometimes so considerable that it is hard to believe unless one is willing to be convinced by factual evidence." In Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 151.
[623]An argument which does not occur to Comte is that a property owner who leaves land unimproved in the middle of a city is providing a conservation function of scarce resources for future generations. The expectation is that in the future unimproved land will be highly desirable by others and that by refraining from developing it in the present the property owner will be providing a service to others in the future by providing them with a scarce good. The reward for such abstinence is of course a high resale value in the future.
[624]"Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 152.
[625]"(The members of the tribe are) forced to cooperate in order to secure the subsistence which nature has provided and are not able to put aside provisions without the assistance of their fellows. They suffer the same hardships and enjoy the same abundance. Therefore it is impossible for one man to possess a large quantity of supplies while the others are condemned by necessity to engage in exhausting labour. In such a state no one is rich enough to purchase the labour of others and no one is so poor that they have to work for another to secure their livelihood." In Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 145.
[626]Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 144.
[627]Comte referred to a "chef de l'enterprise" in Traité de la propriété, p. 146.
[628]Emphasis added, Comte, Traité de la propriété, p. 146-47.