ABSTRACT
The French Revolution amounted to nothing more nor less than the political revolt of the bourgeoisie, who were already in possession of capital and its revenues, and aspired to their natural complement, political sovereignty. The fundamental idea of the work—that economic revenue is the basis of political sovereignty—appears inadmissible to an eminent writer, Tarde, on the contrary, that logically and historically it is political power that determines economic influence. Financial phenomena are only connected in the way with a further cause which is itself far from simple and susceptible of still further analysis; but the same may be said of all the political phenomena. The sciences progress through simplification and by reducing the most diverse phenomena to a single fundamental fact. The hardy initiative of the man is in revolt against the narrow limits within which materialistic science wishes to confine human life.”
