THE METAPHYSICS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 133
produced within this antagonism, how the productive forces were developed at the same time as the antagonism of classes, how one of the classes, the bad side, the in- convenience of society, continued always to grow until the material conditions necessary to its emancipation had arrived at maturity. Is it not sufficient to say that the mode of production, the relations in which the productive forces are developed, are nothing less than eternal laws, but that they correspond to a determined development of men and of their productive forces, and that any change arising in the productive forces of men necessarily effects a change in their conditions of production? As it is above all important not to be deprived of the fruits of civilisation, of acquired productive forces, it is necessary to break the traditional forms in which they have been produced, From the moment this happens the revolu- tionary class becomes conservative.
The bourgeoisie commences with a proletariat which is itself a remnant of feudal times. In the course of its historical development, the bourgeoisie necessarily de- velops its antagonistic character, which at its first ap- pearance was found to be more or less disguised, and existed only in a latent state. In proportion as the bourgeoisie develops, it develops in its bosom a new proletariat, a modern proletariat: it develops a struggle between the proletarian class and the bourgeois class, a struggle which, before it is felt, perceived, appreciated, comprehended, avowed and loudly proclaimed by the two sides, only manifests itself previously by partial and momentary conflicts, by subversive acts. On the other hand, if all the members of the modern bourgeoise have an identity of interest, inasmuch as they form a class opposed by another class, they have also conflicting, antagonistic interests, inasmuch as they find themselves
