186 THE POVERTY OF PHILOSOPHY
and it is the economic system which has forced Parlia- ment to give this legal authorisation. In 1825 when, under the minister Huskisson, Parliament had to modify the law in order to bring it more into accord with a state of things resulting from free competition, it was necessary to abolish the laws which prohibited the com- bination of workmen. The more modern industry and competition develop, the more elements are there which provoke and support competition, and as soon as com- binations have become an economic fact, acquiring greater consistency day by day, they will not be slow in becoming a legal fact.
Thus the article of the penal code only proves at most that modern industry and competition were not suffi- ciently developed, under the Constituent Assembly and under the Empire, for the legal recognition of combina- tion.
The economists and the Socialists are agreed on one point. That is, in condemning combinations. Only they have different motives for their act of condemnation.
The economists say to the workers: Do not combine. By combining you hinder the steady progress of industry, you prevent the manufacturers from executing their orders, you disturb commerce and precipitate the intro- duction of machinery which, by rendering your labor in part useless, forces you to accept still lower wages. Otherwise you may do very well, your wages will be always determined by the relations between the demand for and the supply of hands, and it is an effort as ridiculous as dangerous to revolt against the eternal laws of political economy.
The Socialists say to the workers: Do not combine, because at the end of the account what will you have gained by it? An increase of wages? The economists
