CHAPTER III

THE MEANS BY WHICH THE GREAT MAN APPLIES HIS GREATNESS TO WEALTH-PRODUCTION

All gain by the domination of the fittest, except the few who fail to secure power for themselves • 151

We must consider, however, that the great men who struggle for domination would not do so without some strong motive; • 152

and also that they cannot dominate others except by some particular means • 153

Now the question of motive we will treat of hereafter. At present we will confine ourselves to the question of means • 153

These vary in each domain of social activity • 153

In some they are too obvious to need discussion • 154

We need consider what they are only in the domains of politics and wealth-production • 155

The question is most important in its bearings on wealth-production • 156

The great man in wealth-production can influence the actions of others by two means only—by the slave-system and the wage-system • 157

The slave-system secures obedience by coercion, the wage-system by inducement • 157

Wage-capital, not fixed capital, gives the primary power to capitalism as a productive agent • 158

Wage-capital is an accumulation of the necessaries of life, • 159

owned or controlled by a few persons, • 159

and apportioned by them amongst many, on certain conditions • 160

Karl Marx entirely misunderstood what these conditions are • 160

The essence of these conditions is that the many shall be technically directed by the few • 161

The question of how much the few appropriate of the product is a separate question altogether • 162

The _corvée_ system or slavery would make wage-capital superfluous; and this shows what the essential function of wage-capital is • 162

So-called “co-operation” is merely the wage-system disguised • 163

There are, then, only two alternatives—the wage-system and the slave-system; • 164

as we shall find by considering how the socialists can only escape the wage-system by substituting slavery • 165

For they would secure industrial obedience by coercion, • 166

not through the worker’s desire to earn his living. And this is the essence of slavery • 166

Next let us consider the means by which the great directors of industry compete against one another • 167

Under capitalism they do so, owing to the fact that the man who cannot direct industry so as to please the public loses his capital, and with it the means of direction • 167

The wage-system is the only efficient means of competition of this kind • 168

The socialists, though they affect to be opposed to competition altogether, • 168

re-introduce it into their own system, • 170

the only change being that it is associated with the slave-system, which is very cumbrous and inefficient • 170

Competition between employers, then, is a part of every system that permits of progress; • 172

and since the re-introduction of slavery is practically impossible, we must regard the wage-system as a permanent feature of progressive societies • 172

We might reduce society to ashes, but this system and capitalistic competition would arise out of them; • 173

for capitalistic competition means the domination of the fittest great men • 174

The industrial obedience of the many to the few is the fundamental condition of progress • 174