Page:The Conquest of Bread (1906).djvu/258



OOKING at society and its political organization from a different standpoint than that of authoritarian schools—for we start from a free individual to reach a free society, instead of beginning by the State to come down to the individual—we follow the same method in economic questions. We study the needs of individuals, and the means by which they satisfy them, before discussing Production, Exchange, Taxation, Government, etc.

To begin with, the difference may appear trifling, but in reality it upsets official Political Economy. If you open the works of any economist you will find that he begins with, the analysis of means employed nowadays for the creation of wealth; division of labour, manufacture, machinery, accumulation of capital. From Adam Smith to Marx, all have proceeded along these hues. Only in the latter parts of their books do they treat of, that is to say, of the means necessary to satisfy the needs of individuals; and, moreover, they confine themselves to explaining