Page:Ferdinand Lassalle - The Working Man's Programme - tr. Edward Peters (1884).djvu/25

 earlier one which has been described: whereas formerly the demand preceded the offer of the merchandise, and the production of it, and drew this latter in its train, and determined it, formed its guide and its well known measure, now on the contrary the production, the offer of the goods precedes the demand, and seeks to force it into existence. Goods are no longer produced for the locality, for the ascertained needs of neighbouring markets, but for the markets of the world. They are produced on the largest scale and for every part of the world in general, to supply a need entirely unknown and not to be measured, and the produce is able to force the demand for it into being, provided that a single weapon is given to it, namely cheapness. Cheapness is the weapon of production, with which on the one hand it conquers the purchaser, and on the other hand drives all other goods of the same kind out of the market, which may be likewise pressed upon the purchaser, so that in fact under the system of free competition, every producer may hope, however great the quantity of goods he produces, to find a market for all these if he is only able by the better arming of his wares with cheapness to make the wares of his competitors unable to maintain the contest.

The prevailing character of such a community is vast, immeasurable wealth, on the other hand a great mobility of all relations, an almost constant, anxious insecurity in the position of individuals and a very unequal apportionment of the proceeds of production amongst those who work together to secure them.

You see then, gentlemen, how vast was the change which the quiet, revolutionary, and undermining activity