Key Arguments

• An isolated man can satisfy only a very small portion of his wants; real productive power lies in 'association, and in the intelligent combination of universal effort', so that division and cooperation of labor both multiply products and improve their quality.
• No worker, not even the farmer whom early economists hailed as 'the only real producer', produces by his 'own unaided effort' since he is 'housed, furnished, clothed, fed, and assisted' by numerous other trades (mason, carpenter, tailor, miller, baker, butcher, grocer, blacksmith, etc.).
• Proudhon stresses that 'one product cannot exist without another; an isolated industry is an impossible thing', and illustrates this through chains of mutual dependence: the savant needs the publisher, the printer needs the typecaster and machinist, who in turn depend on 'a multitude of other industries.'
• From this 'undisputed and indisputable fact of the general participation in every species of product' Proudhon infers that 'all individual productions' are thereby rendered 'common', since their existence presupposes the contribution of all.
• He formalizes this in a juridical-mathematical image: every product 'coming from the hands of the producer, is mortgaged in advance by society', and the producer is 'entitled to only that portion of his product, which is expressed by a fraction whose denominator is equal to the number of individuals of which society is composed.'
• Though each producer in return has 'a share in all the products of others'—a reciprocal claim upon all just as all have a claim upon him—this reciprocity concerns distribution of a common social stock rather than full ownership of a private, individually created thing.

Source Quotes

That, from the Standpoint of Justice, Labor Destroys Property This proposition is the logical result of the two preceding sections, which we have just summed up. The isolated man can supply but a very small portion of his wants; all his power lies in association, and in the intelligent combination of universal effort. The division and cooperation of labor multiply the quantity and the variety of products; the individuality of functions improves their quality.

The division and cooperation of labor multiply the quantity and the variety of products; the individuality of functions improves their quality. There is not a man, then, but lives upon the products of several thousand different industries; not a laborer but receives from society at large the things which he consumes, and, with these, the power to reproduce. Who, indeed, would venture the assertion, “I produce, by my own effort, all that I consume; I need the aid of no one else”?

Who, indeed, would venture the assertion, “I produce, by my own effort, all that I consume; I need the aid of no one else”? The farmer, whom the early economists regarded as the only real producer⁠—the farmer, housed, furnished, clothed, fed, and assisted by the mason, the carpenter, the tailor, the miller, the baker, the butcher, the grocer, the blacksmith, etc.⁠—the farmer, I say, can he boast that he produces by his own unaided effort? The various articles of consumption are given to each by all; consequently, the production of each involves the production of all.

Where would be the savant without the publisher; the printer without the typecaster and the machinist; and these, in their turn, without a multitude of other industries?⁠ ⁠… Let us not prolong this catalogue⁠—so easy to extend⁠—lest we be accused of uttering commonplaces. All industries are united by mutual relations in a single group; all productions do reciprocal service as means and end; all varieties of talent are but a series of changes from the inferior to the superior. Now, this undisputed and indisputable fact of the general participation in every species of product makes all individual productions common; so that every product, coming from the hands of the producer, is mortgaged in advance by society.

All industries are united by mutual relations in a single group; all productions do reciprocal service as means and end; all varieties of talent are but a series of changes from the inferior to the superior. Now, this undisputed and indisputable fact of the general participation in every species of product makes all individual productions common; so that every product, coming from the hands of the producer, is mortgaged in advance by society. The producer himself is entitled to only that portion of his product, which is expressed by a fraction whose denominator is equal to the number of individuals of which society is composed.

Now, this undisputed and indisputable fact of the general participation in every species of product makes all individual productions common; so that every product, coming from the hands of the producer, is mortgaged in advance by society. The producer himself is entitled to only that portion of his product, which is expressed by a fraction whose denominator is equal to the number of individuals of which society is composed. It is true that in return this same producer has a share in all the products of others, so that he has a claim upon all, just as all have a claim upon him; but is it not clear that this reciprocity of mortgages, far from authorizing property, destroys even possession?

Key Concepts

• The isolated man can supply but a very small portion of his wants; all his power lies in association, and in the intelligent combination of universal effort.
• There is not a man, then, but lives upon the products of several thousand different industries; not a laborer but receives from society at large the things which he consumes, and, with these, the power to reproduce.
• The farmer, whom the early economists regarded as the only real producer⁠—the farmer, housed, furnished, clothed, fed, and assisted by the mason, the carpenter, the tailor, the miller, the baker, the butcher, the grocer, the blacksmith, etc.⁠—the farmer, I say, can he boast that he produces by his own unaided effort?
• all industries are united by mutual relations in a single group; all productions do reciprocal service as means and end; all varieties of talent are but a series of changes from the inferior to the superior.
• this undisputed and indisputable fact of the general participation in every species of product makes all individual productions common; so that every product, coming from the hands of the producer, is mortgaged in advance by society.
• The producer himself is entitled to only that portion of his product, which is expressed by a fraction whose denominator is equal to the number of individuals of which society is composed.

Context

Opening of § 8 ('That, from the Standpoint of Justice, Labor Destroys Property'), where Proudhon moves from abstract argument about labor and value to a sociological description of the interdependence of industries, deriving from this interdependence a theory of products as socially mortgaged and only fractionally attributable to any individual.