Brief Economic Interpretation of History

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November, 1947 THE EMPLOYEE Page 15

Brief Economic Interpretation of History I

T must first be analyzed from the

basic factor of history at all times.

And accordingly, this factor is economic. The mode of production and distribution, the division and consumption of wealth—the relationship of employer and employee—the class-war between the rich and the poor;—these determine in the long run every other aspect of life

—religious, moral, philosophical, scien- tific, literary and artistic. The sum of the relations of production constitutes the,economic structure of society, the real foundation on which the legal and political superstructure rests, and to which correspond the definite forms of social consciousness.

In illustrating this, it needed^ the tracing of the whole history of human- ity. But such tracing by division, should not be into Ancient, Medieval and Mo- dern, but rather into the Hunting and Pastoral Stage, the Agricultural and Handicraft Stage, the Industrial and the Machine Stage.

The great events are not political but economic. They are not the battle of Marathon or the Assasination of Caesar, or. the French Revolution—but Agricultural Revolution—passage from hunting to tillage—and the Industrial Revolution—the ,passage from domestic industry to factory system. Hence the forms of poverty and. wealth changed from time to time.

It can be seen that economic conditions determine the rise and fall of em- pires—political, moral, and social conditions have little to do with it—im- morality, luxury, refinement—are ef- fects and not causes.

It is very obvious that at the bottom of everything is the nature soil. This soil is fit for tillage or fit for hunting and pasturage. It - may contain minerals. So we can evaluate Egypt that became powerful because of iron, Ancient Britain because of its tin, and Modern Britain because of its iron and coal. The failing silver mines of Athens weakened her, the gold of Ma- cendon strengthened Philip and Alex1- ander. Rome fought Carthage for the silver mines of Spain. It could then be deduced that wars were fought for natural resources, or trade opportunities of some foreign lands.

To simplify trade opportunities is to ask the following question: Why did the Greeks fight the Trojan War?—

The Greeks were anxious to oust their rivals, the Phoenicians and their allies, from a city -that controlled the water route to Asia. The naval fleet built by Themiatocles against Xerxes was

By B. P.

the basis of the Athenian commercial power in the fifth century before Christ. And that the money of the Delian Confederacy made Athens rich

•enough to adorn .the Acropolis with temples, and it was stolen gold that made this a perfect art. Most great periods of art have come after the amassing of national wealth. Athens made the mistake of depending upon imported food; all that Sparta had to do was to blockade' it. Athens starved, surrendered, and never recovered. The enslavement of the workers in Greece prevented industrial invention and development; the. enslavement of wo- men prevented the growth of normal love. The modes of production in material things determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual process of life. It is not the unconsciousness of men that determines their existence, but on the contrary their social existence determines their consciousness. The individual things that he has, evolved his ideas, . his system of philosophy/ his moral notions, his religious beliefs, his party prejudices, and his artistic preferences by,logical and impartial reasoning, never knowing how profoundly the under- lying economic conditions of his life- mould his very thought.

Considering Rome, she was essentially a slave-driving corporation—never Were masters so ruthless or so corrupt.

The farmers were gradually forced in- to bankruptcy, rich men bought up the land, .and imported' slaves to till it.

The slaves did their work listlessly and carelessly, the soil wa»- ruined, and Rome had to depend upon foreign food.

Great slave revolts tore the country to pieces. At the same time trade between Europe and Asia began to pass less and less through Rome, and more and more across the Bosphorus—Cons- tantinople grew, and Rome declined.

It is argued that during the Middle Ages, religion, not economic affairs ruled men’s life. This is apparently superficial view. The power of the Church began in the poverty of ruined or enslaved people, hungry for super- natural comfort and hope;—it flourish- ed on the ignorance and superstition that go with poverty, and with relapse from urban to rural life;—and it es- tablished itself firmly through gifts and bequests, appropriations like the

“donation of Constantine,” tithes and levies and Peter’s Pence, which to- gether” brought two-thirds of areable land of Europe into the possession of

the Church—this was the economic basis of her power. The Crusades was an attempt to recapture a trade route from the “infidels”. The Renaissance was the affloresence of gold that had come to northern Italy as the result . of renewed- trade between Europe and East through North-Italian ports;—

and the Reformation came when the princes of Germany made up their minds to keep for themselves the money that was pouring from the pockets of their people into the coffins of the

Vatican. t

In the case of the French Revolution, came, not because the Bourbons were corrupt, nor because Voltaire wrote the brilliant satires. It came because, through three hundred years, a new economic class appeared—the commercial bourgeoisie had been rising towards equality with the land-owning aristocracy; and because at last they had ac- quired more wealth and more economic power than those gilded futilities who fluttered about the court of Louis XVI. Political power sooner or later follow or later follows economic power, so successful revolutions are merely political' signatures to preceding economic victories. According to Herring- ton, the form of government depends upon the distribution of land; if most of it is owned, by one man, you have monarchy; if it is owned by a few, you have aristocracy; if it is owned by the people, you get democracy.

In the case of discovery of America, it was rather for gold more than for Christianity sake. The English won it from Spain, Dutch and French because England had the money to -build better fleets. The colonies revolted against England because they did not wish to pay unreasonable taxes, they wanted to end the tyranny of English aristocrats holding power over them by royal grants of land; they desired to trade without hindrance both in rum and slaves and they wished to pay their debts in a depreciated currency.

Professor Beard, revealed the economic causes of the American Consti- tution. and of Jeffersonian Democracy and of Webster’s New England Ances- tors, that considered respect for property. It demanded a parcelling -'out and division of the lands and necessary act fixed the future frame and form of government. The character therefore of their political institutions was determined by the fundamental laws respecting property. The freest government would not be long acceptable, if the tendency of the laws were to

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November, 1947

Page 34 THE EMPLOYEE

THE CHALLENGE...

(Continued from page 11) As Chairman of the Organization Committee, I hurl the challenge to you.

It is your great task to help up strength- en our organization of recruiting new members, of planning drives to enduce non-members to join the PGEA, of cur- ing our weakness afld defects, and of solving many problems in the way of solidifying the PGEA.

I have found out that we are 18,000 strong (97 chapters.) But their mem- bership fees and dues are not paid re- gularly. This reflects the one great weakness of our association which not I nor anybody else, but we all can solve.

Another is the lack of chapter activities. A chapter, in order to be an asset must be alive and functioning. A chapter, according to our active President, is no chapter at all if it is only a paper chapter and does pot work.

Another is in the National Organiza- tion. I plead for a concerted action, and this regard request the members of the Legislative Council to please attend all meetings, so that they will be well versed and posted in the undertakings that the association is pursuing. It is our su- preme duty to attend the meetings because if we do not, we lose track of the activities of the PGEA. We lose interest in our struggle for non-attend- ance, we withhold action, because our ab- sences prevent the existence of quorum.

I appeal to each and everyone to do his part. Our work will succeed only when all of us are holding on the line and pulling with our strength. Help the Officers by attending the meetings.

Pay your monthly dues also.

.Friends, there is still a great task to be done. What we have attained so far are but too small a part of the great benefits that lay before us. Let us unite by joining the PGEA. Brave the rough gales that confront your conscience. Join the caravan of peaceful citizens who love their cause, their freedom and their country. The PGEA challenges you. Act now, and say I am a PGEAN. “And when you have done your part, you can proudly say, I have done my duty in the hour of call.”

BRIEF ECONOMICS...

(Continued from page 15) create a rapid accumulation of property in a few hands and to render the great mass of the population dependent and penniless. In such a case the popular power must break in upon the rights of property, or else the influence of property must limit and control the exercise of popular power. Univer- sal suffrage therefore could no longer exist in-a community where there was great inequality of property.

In case of the Russian Revolution, it did not follow the idea that political institutions are determined by economic conditions and that revolutions can succeed only when they are backed by a group already possessed of the balance of economic power. It appears that it really did not. However, political form must bend and break slowly before the economic reality. (According to some philosopher, a proletarian revolution in a country of peasants must bring, sooner or later, a government that will keep a proletarian show-win- dow, perhaps, but will be essentially the instrument of those who control the land.)

Under the modern society birth control, in effect gives advantage to the Catholic Church—which in its ancient wisdom prohibits family limitation among the faithful. But what are the bases of birth-control? They are economic causes—a higher standard of living—urban congestion and land laws which compel parents to bequeath their property in equal shares to their sons.

The case of the conquest of Asia by the European Nordics, is by accident, their priority in the Industrial Revolu- tion. What would happen to the Nor- dics in Asia if China becomes, indus- trialized? Of course to consider groups, and individuals, are often moved by non-economic motives—racial, religious, patriotic, sexual—yet where their action enters into the determination of history—are manipulated by persons quite conscious of economic interest.

Those responsible of sending soldiers to battle are not altogether innocent of - economic motives. Columbus sought the Indies having in mind to present New Christian to the Pope. But Fer- dinand and Isabella helped him, not for that reasons. This condition, if individuals, does not apply economic deter- minism. The individuals by moral forces revolt against slavery have nothing to do with economic,history. For there are no moral forces in history. Eco- nomic factors lurk behind every great event. Those who, like Garrison and Wilberforce, morally appeal against slavery made no headway. When Abra- ham Lincoln freed the slaves, it was as a war measure—intended to weaken the South: he said frankly that he would have left them slaves if that would have made for peace. The So.uth wanted to separate from the North, because it was being injured by the tariff, and had lost all hopes of ever again controlling Congress; the North wanted to keep the South as a market for manufactures and source of food and raw materials. The “ideals” on either side were fig-leaves. In every case and ideal is a material need, dis- guise as a moral aspiration.

DEMOCRACY. ..

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and under any condition. Consequent- ly when somebody starts shoutin’ "democracy” to the four winds, pose him the question: “Democracy—what class?

Greek. English, American, Philippines, French, Dutch, Japanese, or Russian?

We must have to inquire deeply into the nature of democracy in order to escape betrayal or deception by the ballyhoo of our era. We must guard against pseudo-democracy, slave democracy, royal democracy, colonial democracy, favoritism democracy, and fas- cistic democracy. Eternal vigilance is the fixed price of liberty!

With vigilanee, the political and economic masters of our century can hold the world in bondage for sometime only. In the sheep’s clothing of “democracy”, they can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time, but'never all .the people all the time.

The wave of enlightenment and mi- litant expression is now spreading fast around the globe. The instruments of progress are awakening fully and unifying solidly the men who are ex- ploited like bensts of burden by other men. Soon, lip-service and platform- exhibition democracy shall be swept aside like a cobweb. Soon, we shall have not only theoretical but also ac- tual government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Soon, men and not money shall rule the world.

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THE PUBLIC DEFENDER...

(Continued from page 6) es, the downtrodden and the oppressed.

The President of the Philippines, Congress and the Secretary of Labor should remedy the plight of the poor champion of the people, the public defender.

REBELLION

Rebellion to tyrants' is obedience to God. Motto on Jefferson’s seal RELIGION

Men will wrangle for religion; write for it, fight for it; die for it; any- thing-but—live for it.

LABOR...

Labor is prior to, and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of about and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Lincoln—Message to Congress, 1861 Capital is dead labor that, vaimpire- like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.

Karl Marx—Capital