Key Arguments

• He transforms three hundred wheat-producers into a variety of artisans and functionaries—"one hundred gardeners and wine-growers, sixty shoemakers and tailors, fifty carpenters and blacksmiths, eighty of various professions, and, that nothing may be lacking, seven schoolmasters, one mayor, one judge, and one priest"—each supplying the community.
• He sets a baseline where "the total production being one thousand, each laborer’s consumption is one; namely, wheat, meat, and grain, 0.7; wine and vegetables, 0.1; shoes and clothing, 0.06; ironwork and furniture, 0.05; sundries, 0.08; instruction, 0.007; administration, 0.002; mass, 0.001. Total 1."
• When a ten percent revenue is due, he notes it does not matter whether only farmers or all workers pay: "The farmer raises the price of his products in proportion to his share of the debt; the other laborers follow his example. Then, after some fluctuations, equilibrium is established, and all pay nearly the same amount of the revenue. It would be a grave error to assume that in a nation none but farmers pay farm-rent⁠—the whole nation pays it."
• He recalculates each laborer’s consumption under the tax: "wheat, 0.63; wine and vegetables, 0.09; clothing and shoes, 0.054; furniture and ironwork, 0.045; other products, 0.072; schooling, 0.0063; administration, 0.0018; mass, 0.0009. Total 0.9."
• Therefore, "The laborer has produced 1; he consumes only 0.9. He loses, then, one-tenth of the price of his labor; his production still costs more than it is worth," meaning a structural percentage of labor-time is not compensated by any utility for the worker.
• As in the simpler model, he insists the proprietors’ tenth is equally waste: they are "laborers themselves" who already "possess in the nine-tenths of their product the wherewithal to live: they want for nothing. Why should they wish their proportion of bread, wine, meat, clothes, shelter, etc., to be doubled, if they can neither consume nor exchange them? Then farm-rent, with them as with the rest of the laborers, is a waste, and perishes in their hands."

Source Quotes

In such a society, one-tenth of the product being inconsumable, one-tenth of the labor goes unpaid⁠—production costs more than it is worth. Now, change three hundred of our wheat-producers into artisans of all kinds: one hundred gardeners and wine-growers, sixty shoemakers and tailors, fifty carpenters and blacksmiths, eighty of various professions, and, that nothing may be lacking, seven schoolmasters, one mayor, one judge, and one priest; each industry furnishes the whole community with its special product. Now, the total production being one thousand, each laborer’s consumption is one; namely, wheat, meat, and grain, 0.7; wine and vegetables, 0.1; shoes and clothing, 0.06; ironwork and furniture, 0.05; sundries, 0.08; instruction, 0.007; administration, 0.002; mass, 0.001.

Now, change three hundred of our wheat-producers into artisans of all kinds: one hundred gardeners and wine-growers, sixty shoemakers and tailors, fifty carpenters and blacksmiths, eighty of various professions, and, that nothing may be lacking, seven schoolmasters, one mayor, one judge, and one priest; each industry furnishes the whole community with its special product. Now, the total production being one thousand, each laborer’s consumption is one; namely, wheat, meat, and grain, 0.7; wine and vegetables, 0.1; shoes and clothing, 0.06; ironwork and furniture, 0.05; sundries, 0.08; instruction, 0.007; administration, 0.002; mass, 0.001. Total 1. But the community owes a revenue of ten percent, and it matters little whether the farmers alone pay it, or all the laborers are responsible for it⁠—the result is the same.

Then, after some fluctuations, equilibrium is established, and all pay nearly the same amount of the revenue. It would be a grave error to assume that in a nation none but farmers pay farm-rent⁠—the whole nation pays it. I say, then, that by this tax of ten percent each laborer’s consumption is reduced as follows: wheat, 0.63; wine and vegetables, 0.09; clothing and shoes, 0.054; furniture and ironwork, 0.045; other products, 0.072; schooling, 0.0063; administration, 0.0018; mass, 0.0009.

It would be a grave error to assume that in a nation none but farmers pay farm-rent⁠—the whole nation pays it. I say, then, that by this tax of ten percent each laborer’s consumption is reduced as follows: wheat, 0.63; wine and vegetables, 0.09; clothing and shoes, 0.054; furniture and ironwork, 0.045; other products, 0.072; schooling, 0.0063; administration, 0.0018; mass, 0.0009. Total 0.9. The laborer has produced 1; he consumes only 0.9.

Total 0.9. The laborer has produced 1; he consumes only 0.9. He loses, then, one-tenth of the price of his labor; his production still costs more than it is worth. On the other hand, the tenth received by the proprietors is no less a waste; for, being laborers themselves, they, like the others, possess in the nine-tenths of their product the wherewithal to live: they want for nothing.

Why should they wish their proportion of bread, wine, meat, clothes, shelter, etc., to be doubled, if they can neither consume nor exchange them? Then farm-rent, with them as with the rest of the laborers, is a waste, and perishes in their hands. Extend the hypothesis, increase the number and variety of the products, you still have the same result.

Key Concepts

• Now, change three hundred of our wheat-producers into artisans of all kinds: one hundred gardeners and wine-growers, sixty shoemakers and tailors, fifty carpenters and blacksmiths, eighty of various professions, and, that nothing may be lacking, seven schoolmasters, one mayor, one judge, and one priest; each industry furnishes the whole community with its special product.
• Now, the total production being one thousand, each laborer’s consumption is one; namely, wheat, meat, and grain, 0.7; wine and vegetables, 0.1; shoes and clothing, 0.06; ironwork and furniture, 0.05; sundries, 0.08; instruction, 0.007; administration, 0.002; mass, 0.001. Total 1.
• It would be a grave error to assume that in a nation none but farmers pay farm-rent⁠—the whole nation pays it.
• I say, then, that by this tax of ten percent each laborer’s consumption is reduced as follows: wheat, 0.63; wine and vegetables, 0.09; clothing and shoes, 0.054; furniture and ironwork, 0.045; other products, 0.072; schooling, 0.0063; administration, 0.0018; mass, 0.0009. Total 0.9.
• The laborer has produced 1; he consumes only 0.9. He loses, then, one-tenth of the price of his labor; his production still costs more than it is worth.
• Then farm-rent, with them as with the rest of the laborers, is a waste, and perishes in their hands.

Context

Second numerical model in the Second Proposition, where Proudhon generalizes from pure agriculture to a differentiated economy with services and administration, demonstrating that a general rent of 10% depresses all workers’ real consumption below their production and that proprietors’ extra share is economically useless, reinforcing his claim that property makes production more costly than the utility it yields.