ABSTRACT
Introduction Chapter 1. The crisis of 1815 Chapter 2. The crisis of 1825 Chapter 3. The crisis of 1836-1839 Chapter 4. The crisis of 1847 Chapter 5. The crisis of 1857 Chapter 6. The crisis of 1866 Chapter 7. The crisis of 1873 Chapter 8. The crisis of 1882 Chapter 9. The crisis of 1890 Chapter 10. Remedies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION. Tm causes and effects of industrial crises must be of their industrial, commercial, and financial at the very moment when the great of those who are directly engaged of the greatest apparent prosperity, of wages-at that of commodities or is now commonly the case, a
reckoned- among the most important subjects for consideration in the concluding years of the nine- teenth century. From time to time all civilised countries are now exposed to a complete upset
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whole group of nations, finds itself in the mtdst of a dangerous crisis, without knowing the why of the crash. at different times ; and some of the dis- or temporary effects. As science advances or that within a conceivable period our descen- be met
or the wherefore ow if this recurrence of financial and in- dustrial disasters could be traced to well-defined natural causes, mankind would, in this in other drought proves to be, like monarchs, amenable to skilfully-used ex- plosives in the higher air. Many of the trade difficulties of ancient times of the middle ages can be directly traced to drought, or to flood, in the same way that
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by freely using the surplus of one country, or one of scarcity were prepared for of their annual of what is now known as of the of greatest
district, to make up the deficiency in another. Formerly, periods by the establishment of granaries and grain pits, which were not opened until such time as failure of the crops in the particular region e system of production, that is to say, of articles of social use for profit, by free labourers who are paid wages-did difficulties arise in the trade or finance of any t>..omrounity from an actual super- fluity of the wealth which the members of that
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times when there is a complete glut of the com- of the middle-classes due xtension of their political power was of the local into of Industry," puts the matter
modities which they need and which they make. Local gluts and national crises due to the same cause, which now take so wide a range, have been recorded before the present century. " In the common way of living on trade, men, their wives or children, often lose half what they get eith er by dear bargains, bad debts or law suits of which there will be neither in the college ; and if the earth gives but forth its fruit,
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him, use, or for the direct use of others in their locality, of turning out commodities or of use in the social conditions of the of the wealth-creating machine. of labour came in, of no use to them for the of others at a distance, the limit<J of whose of a social function, to of the process as we of life or subsistence in their trade; which wages of the
market; and, above all, his products are owned and are dealt with under his own con- trol. So soon, however, as in the course of economical development, the workers began to produce no longer as individuals for their own
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or employer, he has still retained the of his profits namely. Thus we have here a dis- of our modern system of wealth-creation, of the of thought in regard to political economy to-day of wages. is precisely this original antagonism at the present time. of those modern crises arising from
right of individual appropriation or ownership, and with it the power to exchange, which form- erly belonged to the individual workers. The workers are working socially for social objects : the employer appropriates individually, and
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superfluity and glut, followed by the discharge of work-people and the general distress, which of crises has beer. confi-
such grave anxiety to every thinking man. Thus the problem dently solved by a reference to over-population, and there persist in this explanation ; though it bas been conclusively proved time after time that the power of man to produce wealth is increasing in every civilised country in a far more rapid ratio than any increase of population ever recorded
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in the Zoological Gardens ; and that the genius before whose shrine our Professors 0f Politi-of blunders. of crises yet of the symptoms which pre- of the public in accepting unsound of luxury ; the rise of of wages, etc., etc.-all these are pre- of an industrial crisis, but they cannot be of the antagonism between that social of production and individual form of ap- of the middle ages. or influence either the or the disposal of the commodities. From
cal Economy at Oxford and Cam bridge still prostrate themselves had only G'.lded another to his long list The ablest summary of the causes .ormulated outside of the school of Marx is really
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appears in the bankruptcy court, and the fury of competition rages on as before over his business remains. But this cannot go on permanently. Though the markets are larger than ever they were, and the cheapening of goods perpetually going of production in other countries,
on enables the machine industry to conquer the old forms nevertheless, the crisis is approaching. There is no social control whatever exercised over the individual rush for profit. As the labour in the
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at last. Consequent! y, the capitalist system been pushed too far. There a rush to dis-count bills and to obtain advances on securit.ics, or to sell out and out for cash at reduced prices.
production involves an antagonism betwe<:'n ey and commodities. the circulation of the capitalist's commodities is checked, or the realisation of his paper repre· senting work done is impeded, then the work cannot be carried on at all, but must be stopped altogether. But before this point is reached, doubts arise as to whether matters have not
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of work, goods unsaleable, and at intervals at the expense of the workers : and in due course, after a period of stagnation and of the manufactured would be
a commercial and financial crash. What has happened? The capitalist class has virtually declared its own inability to conduct the busiuess of the community. The form of ion has revolted against the form of
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modified and partially transformed. How the of the economic and class anta-
changes which are now being brought about, un- consciously and anarchically, may the near future be r:arried on consciously and in an orderly fashion by an educated and organised democracy, will be partia,lly suggested in the
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by the Directors was no longer possible
In this case, as in many others of a like kind, the
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rent that nothing short of a complete revolut
ill afford to lose joined in the chase,
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to develop new enterprises. They, in theory, deal
ky description required to be financed,
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at the European centres, due to
it had at the commencement of the month of May, 1873, but
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their creditors. The whole country looked
nt of a good standard at high wages, and now to find whole towns full