Political economists justify the depopulation of the countryside by arguing that it increases the surplus produce available for manufacturing and national wealth.
By Karl Marx, from Le Capital : Critique de l'économie politique
Key Arguments
- Even if men are not seen working in the fields, more labor is produced overall
- Joint labors on a single large farm produce a greater surplus than scattered small farms
- This surplus feeds the growth of manufactures, which are the 'mines of the nation'
Source Quotes
Let us hear for a moment a defender of enclosures and an opponent of Dr Price. ‘Nor is it a consequence that there must be depopulation, because men are not seen wasting their labour in the open field…If, by converting the little farmers into a body of men who must work for others, more labour is produced, it is an advantage which the nation’ (to which, of course, the people who have been ‘converted’ do not belong) ‘should wish for…the produce being greater when their joint labours are employed on one farm, there will be a surplus for manufactures, and by this means manufactures, one of the mines of the nation, will increase, in proportion to the quantity of corn produced.’ The stoical peace of mind with which the political economist regards the most shameless violation of the ‘sacred rights of property’ and the grossest acts of violence against persons, as soon as they are necessary in order to lay the foundations of the capitalist mode of production, is shown by Sir F.
Key Concepts
- Nor is it a consequence that there must be depopulation, because men are not seen wasting their labour in the open field
- converting the little farmers into a body of men who must work for others
- manufactures, one of the mines of the nation, will increase, in proportion to the quantity of corn produced
Context
Marx presenting the apologetic arguments of political economists who defended the enclosures against Dr. Price's critique