Page:Karl Marx - The Poverty of Philosophy - (tr. Harry Quelch) - 1913.djvu/217

 210 APPENDIX

exceeded threepence. And, then, in the year 1834, when tell us? You said, ‘If you are poor, it is only because you tell us? You said,‘If you are poor, it is only because you have too many children, and your marriages are more productive than your labor!’

“These are the very words you spoke to us, and you set about making new Poor Laws, and building work- houses, those bastilles of the proletariat.”

To this manufacturers replied,—

“You are right, worthy laborers: it is not the price of corn alone, but competition of the hands among them- selves as well, which determines wages.

“But just bear in mind the circumstance that our soil consists of nothing but rocks and sandbanks. You surely do not imagine that corn can be grown in flowerpots! Therefore, if, instead of wasting our labor and capital upon a thoroughly sterile soil, we were to give up agriculture, and devote ourselves exclusively to com- merce and manufacture, all Europe would abandon its factories, and England would form one huge factory town, with the whole of the rest of Europe for its agricultural districts.”

While thus haranguing his own workingmen, the manufacturer is interrogated by the small tradesmen, who exclaim,—

“If we repeal the Corn Laws, we shall indeed ruin agriculture; but, for all that, we shall not compel other nations to give up their own factories, and buy our goods. What will the consequences be? TI lose my customers in the country, and the home market is destroyed.”

The manufacturer turns his back upon the working- men and replies to the shopkeeper,—

“As to that, you leave it to us! Once rid of the duty