by Karl Polanyi
(b) The human degradation of the laboring classes under early capitalism was the result of a social catastrophe not measurable in economic terms.
Robert Owen observed of his laborers as early as 1816 that “whatever wage they received the mass of them must be wretched.…” (To the British Master Manufacturers, p. 146). It will be remembered that Adam Smith expected the land-divorced laborer to lose all intellectual interest. And M’Farlane expected “that the knowledge of writing and accounts will every day become less frequent among the common people” (Enquiries Concerning the Poor, 1782, pp. 249–50). A generation later Owen put down the laborers’ degradation to “neglect in infancy” and “overwork,” thus rendering them “incompetent from ignorance to make a good use of high wages when they can procure them.” He himself paid them low wages and raised their status by creating for them artificially an entirely new cultural environment. The vices developed by the mass of the people were on the whole the same as characterized colored populations debased by disintegrating culture contact: dissipation, prostitution, thievishness, lack of thrift and providence, slovenliness, low productivity of labor, lack of self-respect and stamina. The spreading of market economy was destroying the traditional fabric of the rural society, the village community, the family, the old form of land tenure, the customs and standards that supported life within a cultural framework. The protection afforded by Speenhamland made matters only worse. By the 1830s the social catastrophe of the common people was as complete as that of the Kaffir is today. One and alone, an eminent Negro sociologist, Charles S. Johnson, reversed the analogy between racial debasement and class degradation, applying it this time to the latter: “In England, where, incidentally, the Industrial Revolution was more advanced than in the rest of Europe, the social chaos which followed the drastic economic reorganization converted impoverished children into the ‘pieces’ that the African slaves were, later, to become.… The apologies for the child serf system were almost identical with those of the slave trade” (“Race Relations and Social Change,” in E. Thompson, Race Relations and the Race Problem, 1939, p. 274).
Index
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Acland, John, 296
Act of Settlement, 82, 90, 92, 98–99, 109, 110, 142, 289–290
Africa, 6, 19, 54, 63; colonies, 221; conditions of natives, 172; effect of white man on native culture, 165–6; exploitation of, 166
Agrarian Society, 43
Agrarianism, 197
Agriculture, 47, 70
Aid-in-rent, 101
Aid-in-wages, 86, 92, 97–98, 106, 285
Algiers, 6, 13
Allotments, 292
Allowance system in industrial towns, 292 ff.
Aluminium industry, 149
Andaman Islanders, 278
Angell, Norman, 198
Angoulême, Due d’, 5
Anti-Combination Laws, 85, 126, 219, 271
Anti-Corn Law Bill, 144, 174
Antwerp, 66
Applegarth, Robert, 296
Apprenticeship, 90–91
Arnold, Thurman, 155
Ashley, Sir William James, 283, 297
Asia, 19
Atwood of Birmingham, 235
Australians (aborigines), 62
Austria, 5, 8, 13, 19, 24, 32, 154, 196, 197, 298; and currency, 26, 238; and Fascism, 246, 249; and labour, 251
Austro-Hungary, 183
Autarchist empires, 24
Babylonia, 54, 280
Baghdad Railway, 13; bibliography, 272–273
Balance of power, 3, 6 ff, 17, 30, 249; bibliography, 272; and Bismarck, 19; and disarmament, 22; and peace, 19; System, 8 ff., 23, 220, 269 ff.
Balkans, 19, 222
Baltic States, 24
Bank of England, 10, 27, 233
Bank of Exchange, 113
Banking: international, 10 ff.; national, 11, 13–14; in United States, 237. See also Central Banking.
Barnes-Becker-Becker, 272
Barter, 71. See also Exchange; Trade, Markets.
Basra, 13
Bauer, Otto, 26
Beer, Max, 287
Belasco, P.S., 297
Belgium, 5, 6, 8; and currency, 238
Bellers, John, 110 ff., 115
Belsham, Will, 296
Benedict, Ruth, 278
Bentham, Jeremy, 88, 111 ff., 122, 124 ff., 145–146, 177, 189, 233, 285, 286, 296
Bentham, Sir Samuel, 111
Bergdama (tribesmen), 53
Berkshire magistrates, 82, 85, 88
Berlin, 24, 181
Berlin, Congress of. See Congress of Berlin.
Birmingham, 154
Bismarck-Schönhausen, Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von, 19, 26, 183, 222; and Austria, 8; and the Concert of Europe, 8; and Protectionism, 213
Blackmore, J. S., 297
Blake, William, 102
Blanc, Louis, 111, 113
Bleichroeders, 276
Bolshevism, 197, 199, 251, 254–255
Borkenau, Franz, 191
Bourbons, 271
Bourse of Paris. See Paris, Bourse.
Brinkmann, C., 172, 189
Bristol Corporation for the Poor, 111
British Blue Book, 254
British Dominions, 270
Brüning, John, 237, 250
Budapest, 24, 181
Buecher, Carl, 279, 280, 285
Buell, R. L., 272
Bulgaria, 6, 24, 24; currency, 27; Fascism, 245, 249
Bullion report, 299
Burgesses, 67, 68
Burke, Edmund, 88, 97, 121 ff., 133, 232, 235, 270, 285, 297
Cadiz, Spain, 5
Calvin, John, 116
Canada, 221
Cannan, E., 129
Canning, Charles John, 97, 222, 269, 274
Capital, 16, 25, 38, 69, 137
Capitalism, 16, 29, 84, 102, 166, 168, 175, 221, 231, 233, 245, 251; in England, 188; in France, 188
Carlyle, Thomas, 102
Carr, E. H., 213, 272
Cartels, 7, 213
Cary, John, 111
Central banking, 201 ff., 219
Central Europe, 24, 192, 196, 224
Centralized State, 69
Chaddar, 167
Chaga, 65
Chamberlain, Joseph, 154
Chamberlain, Neville, 254
Change, 35, 39, 158 ff., 245 ff.; to one party system, 252
Charles I, King, 233
Charles II, King, 233
Chartism, 234
Chartist Movement, 180 ff., 233
Child labour, 121, 164, 179–180, 303
Chimney Sweepers’ Act, 152
China, 6, 54, 280
Chrestomathic Day School, 126
Christian Socialists, 249
Christianity, 133, 177, 180, 268
Churchill, Winston, 26
City of London, 14, 27, 221, 253, 274
City-states, 6
Civilization, 3, 4, 21, 31, 245, 257 ff., 265
Clapham, J. H., 43, 97, 102, 272, 287, 297
Class interest, 158 ff., 259
Classes, 105–106, 120, 138–139, 158– 159, 182. See also Middle class.
Clergy, 194–195
Clive, Lord (Robert), 222
Cloth trade, 68
Cobbett, William, 234
Cobden, Richard, 192
Code Napoléon, 189
Cole, G. D. H., 176, 226
Collectivism, 151, 155, 161, 169–170, 283, 287
“Collectivist Conspiracy,” 156, 163, 213, 223
Collectivization of farms, 255
Colleges of industry, 110 ff.
Collier, John, 168, 302
Colonial policy, 224
Colonies, 221–225
Coloured races, 300 ff.
Comintern. See Congress of the Comintern.
Commerce between belligerents, 16–17
Commercial revolution, 29, 69
Commercial society, 43, 120
Commercialization of the soil, 188
Commodity fiction, 75, 138, 204
Commodity money. See Money, commodity.
Commodity prices, 18, 190
Common Law, 73
Commonwealth, British, 41, 99
Communism. See Bolshevism.
Concert of Europe, 8–10, 17 ff., bibliography, 273
Condorcet, Marie Jean, Marquis de, 118
Congress of Berlin, 8
Congress of the Comintern, 251
Conscience, freedom of, 261
Constitution, 233–234
Constitutionalism, 14, 233
Consumers’ Co-operatives, 177
Contagious Diseases Act, 152
Cooke, Edward, 118
Coolidge, Calvin, 26
Cooper, Alfred Duff, 254
Copyhold Acts, 189
Corn Laws, 198
Corn markets and prices, 289, 291
Correspondence Societies, 127
Corti, Egon Cæsar, 275
Cotton industry, 36, 39, 77, 97, 121, 142, 145
Counter-revolutions, 248
Countryside, against town, 294–295; depopulation and overpopulation, 295–296
Cowe, James, 296
Cowell, 291
Credit, 23, 199, 203, 240, 274
Crimean War, 5, 17
Crossman, R. H. S., 272
Crumple, Samuel, 296
Cunningham, William, 77, 212, 272, 284, 287, 293
Currency, 18, 24, 25, 143, 203, 206, 211, 216, 219, 223, 228, 235, 239– 240; depreciation, 27; in Europe, 199; in Great Britain, 236, 242; international, 273; restoration, 23; stabilization, 148; stabilization table, 275; United States, 242. See also Money.
Customs tariffs, 161, 213, 223, 226
Czech gold reserves, 254
Danson, J. T., 295
Dardanelles, 16
Darwin, Charles, 88, 118
Davies, David, 96
Dawes Plan, 224, 252
Death, 267
Debt Commission, 15
Debtor governments, 14
Decree of Muharrem, 15
Deflation, 203, 204, 241
Defoe, Daniel, 113 ff., 296
De Greef’s Law, 270
Delos, Isle of, 56
Democracy, 126, 234, 235
Denmark, 5, 9
Denudation of forests, 193
Depopulation, 37
Depressions: Great Depression, 1873–86, 223, 225–226; post-war, 1929 et seq., 20, 208
Detroit, 247
Dette Ottomane, 15
Dicey, A. V., 146, 153, 174, 189, 286, 287
Dickens, Charles, 102
Diderot, Denis, 88
Dieri (of Central Australia), 62
Diplomacy, 10
Disarmament, 22, 23
Disarmament Conference, 252
Disraeli, Benjamin, First Earl of Beaconsfield, 86, 174, 221
Doherty’s Trade Unions, 294
Drucker, Peter F., 180
Dust bowls, 193
Dyer, George, 296
Earle, Edward Mead, 276
East India Company, 168, 222
Eastern Europe, 24 ff.
Economic law, 38, 128
Economic liberalism, 31, 35, 121, 132, 138, 141 ff., 148, 155 ff., 195, 209, 225–226, 239, 276, 280
Economic Society. See Society.
Economic systems, 17–18, 42 ff., 57 ff.
Economic theory, 129–132
Economics and politics separated, 259
Eden, Sir Frederick Morton, 296
Egypt, 5, 20, 53; and currency, 280
Eldon, Lord, 105
Elizabeth, Queen, 222
Enclosure Act, 189
Enclosures, 36 ff., 73, 98
Enemy property, 17
Engels, Friedrich, 95, 102, 285
England, 5, 13, 19, 32 ff., 153; and the Balance of Power, 269–270; class government, 40; classes, 91; constitutionalism, 40; and Fascism, 25, 246, 249; immigration of craftsmen, 40; industrial revolution, 36 ff.; and the labour market, 81; Ministry of Health, 126; pauperism, 82 ff.; and the Poor Laws, 83; popular suffrage, 181; population, 97, 115; social legislation, 152–153; social conditions, 94–95, 102–103, 302–303; trade wars, 273
England, Bank of. See Bank of England.
Erosion, 193
Essential Works Order, 264
Estonia, 25, 249, 251
Eulenberg, F., 19
Europe, 188, 223, 231; and food, 199; and land, 192; governments after World War I (table), 274–275
Exchange, 28, 64, 71. See also Barter.
Exchanges, 202, 218, 238, 241
Expansion, 16
Exploitation, 168
Exports, 221, 227
Factory inspection, 153
Factory laws, 223
Factory system, 78 ff.
Fascism, 30, 32, 245 ff.; and Christianity, 268; and Roman Catholic Church, 249
Fay, S. B., 273
Federal Reserve Board, 27
Federal Reserve System, 211
Feis, H., 10, 273, 276
Fénelon, 269
Fernandez, Juan, 118, 119
Feudalism, 6, 17, 54, 90, 188, 192, 195, 280; abolished, 72–73; and famines, 167
Finance, 10 ff. See also Haute finance.
Fines and Recoveries Act, 189
Finland, 24, 197; and currency, 27; and Fascism, 245, 249, 251
Firth, R., 64, 277, 279, 281
“Flight of Capital,” 25
Food, 194, 199
Food prices, 94
Food supplies, 67
Fourier, François Marie Charles, 110, 113
Fox, Charles James, 270
France, 5, 7, 8, 19, 29, 153, 222, 237; and Bismarck, 19; and currency, 24; and Fascism, 246, 250; and Germany, 12, 226; and liberal government, 25; off the gold standard, 148; and the Ruhr, 251; and the trade wars, 273
Franco-Prussian War, 5
Francqui, Emile, 237
Frederick the Great, 17
Free trade, 18, 19, 23, 29, 38, 138, 141, 142, 144, 145, 169, 190, 198, 212, 223; India, 167; origin, 32. See also Trade.
Freedom, 258 ff.
Freedom of contract, 154, 191
Freezing of labour, 264
French Revolution, 7, 17, 88, 189, 228
Fuller, Major-General, 273
Funnell, William, 118
Gairdner, J., 38
General Allotment Act, 302
Geneva, 22, 23, 25, 27, 198, 221, 240–241, 253, 274
Gentz, Friedrich von, 7
George, Henry, 26