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| And Machines Replace Men . .
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| From Sismondi, Simonde. "Maux
causés par l'introduction des machines." As reproduced in
Documents of European Economic History, trans. S.
Pollard and C. Holmes, ed. S. Pollard and C.
Holmes, vol. I (New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1968), 543-545. |
| Simonde
Sismondi (1773-1842) was born the son of a Reformed
pastor in Geneva. When revolution overthrew the
Genevan government in 1792, the Sismondis fled to
England. Although the family returned to Geneva in
1794, only to face more severe persecution, Sismondi
had mastered the English language and become
acquainted with the economic theories of
Adam Smith during his short stay in England. He
dwelt for most of his life in Geneva, but on another
visit to England in 1818-19, Sismondi researched and
wrote works on what he viewed as the enslavery of
workers by capitalists, notably the two-volume
Nouveaux principes d'économie politique (1819),
and numerous articles, one of which is excerpted
here. In this writing, Sismondi exhibits both a
concern for poverty and for the impact of
industrialization on human beings, similar to the
ideas later espoused by Karl Marx. |
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| It is not only an unchecked
growth of population which can cause national suffering, by
breaking the equilibrium between the supply of, and demand
for, work. The introduction of a process which economises on
manual labour forces the journeyman to be content with wages
which are so wretched that the men can hardly support
themselves . . . one is sometimes ashamed for humanity to
see the depths of degradation to which it can descend, and
what it can do voluntarily in its attempts to earn a living,
and in spite of the advantages which society has derived
from the division of labour and the manufacturing
inventions, one is sometimes tempted to regret their
existence after seeing the effects they have on the lives of
individuals who were created our equals. . . .
The progress of craft work, the development of industry
and consequently even wealth and prosperity have resulted in
more economical production methods and the employment of
fewer workers. Animals replace men in almost all
agricultural tasks, and machines replace men in almost all
manufacturing operations. . . .
We must now decide the course of our future development.
According to the latest census figures, agriculture employs
770,199 families in England; in proportion to the amount of
land in use and the value of output, this number is
infinitely smaller than in any other European country; ought
one to offer a prize to the individual who discovers how to
do the same amount of work with 70,000 families and to the
individual who could manage with 7,000? In England, commerce
and manufactures employ 959,632 families, and this number is
sufficient to supply not only England but half of Europe and
half of the civilized inhabitants of America with
manufactured goods. England is a great manufacturing country
which, to maintain itself, is obliged to sell to all the
known world. Ought one to offer a prize to the person who
discovers a means of accomplishing the same work with 90,000
families or 9,000? If England succeeded in maintaining her
current production and profit levels and in carrying out all
the work in the fields and factories by steam-powered
machines with a population only as large as Geneva, should
the country be considered richer and more prosperous?
Mr. Ricardo says quite definitely, "yes." Provided, he
says, that its net and real income and its rents and profits
are the same, what does it matter if the population is 10 or
12 million? Well then! Prosperity is everything and men are
absolutely nothing! . . . Truly all that now remains is to
want the King to be alone in his Kingdom, constantly turning
a handle, having all the work in England accomplished by
automatons. . . .
A third of the workshops are already closed, and another
third will soon have to be closed and all the shops are
overflowing with goods! Everywhere goods are offered for
sale at reduced prices which do not cover half the costs of
manufacture, and all the letters from South America announce
that the large consignments of goods which had been sent
there can only be sold at a price which hardly covers
freight charges; in this universal distress, where the
worker is everywhere rejected and the English nation has
given his place in society to the machine . . . incentives
are still offered to the inventors of new machines, which
would make redundant those workers who still have a trade.
Certainly it seems that in the midst of so much suffering we
could dispense with encouraging those who, in the short term
at least, can only accentuate the suffering. The suppression
of privileges granted to the inventor of new processes would
probably not seriously affect scientific progress . . . but
it would rid the workers of the feeling that in this time of
distress the Government is also aligned against them. |
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