Prev | Current Page 194 | Next

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883

"Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte"

The election of December 10, 1848, is not
carried out until the "coup d'etat" of December 2, 1851.
The allotment farmers are an immense mass, whose individual members
live in identical conditions, without, however, entering into manifold
relations with one another. Their method of production isolates them
from one another, instead of drawing them into mutual intercourse. This
isolation is promoted by the poor means of communication in France,
together with the poverty of the farmers themselves. Their field of
production, the small allotment of land that each cultivates, allows no
room for a division of labor, and no opportunity for the application
of science; in other words, it shuts out manifoldness of development,
diversity of talent, and the luxury of social relations. Every single
farmer family is almost self-sufficient; itself produces directly the
greater part of what it consumes; and it earns its livelihood more by
means of an interchange with nature than by intercourse with society. We
have the allotted patch of land, the farmer and his family; alongside of
that another allotted patch of land, another farmer and another family.


Pages:
182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206