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John Prince-Smith: Excerpts from his Collected Writings (1843-63)

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intrigues of special interests, gave shape to a lively course of development that, to the extent that it runs contrary to nature, must also be untenable. Great losses in property, which force one to disadvantageous application, will be the lesser evils. The harm will lie in how one involves a great working population in industrial branches that – insofar as they are inappropriate for the conditions of a country and not rooted in indigenous soil – cannot expand with the growth of the people and its needs and that, through unproductive application, reduce rather than increase the sources for earning a living altogether. The inevitable punishment for such mistakes lies in social crises whose outbreak will be felt first and most harshly by the creators of these ills. It is no longer the era in which one may pursue his profit without regard for the consequences to the mass of the people. The era of communist agitation is not a time in which consumers might be taxed by individual capitalists, – not a time in which the general interest may be sacrificed to the special interest. The century of railroad construction is not a time for restricting gainful commerce.


Source: John Prince-Smith, "Ueber die Nachtheile der Industrie durch Erhöhung der Einfuhrzölle," in John Prince-Smith’s gesammelte Schriften, eds. Otto Michaelis and Karl Braun-Wiesbaden. Berlin: Verlag von F.A. Herbig, 1877-80, vol. 2, pp. 177-79.

Translation: Jeremiah Riemer



III. The Market (1863)

In the labor market, the most numerous class of human beings, those with no material capital and, owing to a lack of education, only a little personal capital, seeks to unite with the greater material and personal capital that can help it achieve the necessary means of subsistence. It hires out its labor power to qualified capitalists. The wage or hire price of labor is directly dependent, as with any price, on the relationship between supply and demand. The size of the demand for labor is determined by the size of accumulated capital; for the capitalist has the most immediate interest in employing as many workers as he, depending on the kind of company he has, can furnish with the necessary equipment and advance payments.* The size of the labor supply is determined by the number of wage-seekers and their degree of efficiency. Improving wages is only possible when capital is increased more robustly than the number of workers. The individual worker can only receive more payment funds when his work is supported by more capital and more payment funds are thereby created. All endeavors and proposals aiming at something other than this are illusions. In order for the largest class of human beings (by far) to enjoy more, they need to create more goods for consumption, and this can only happen on the path of general economic progress, through increasing and perfecting productive aids and equipment, and through improved training of the labor force.


* When, however, fear of political or economic disturbances prevails, many capitalists prefer to let their funds lie fallow, which is why such crises can occasionally diminish the demand for labor considerably – original footnote.

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