CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
In what relation does economical progress stand to the advancement of the working classes! What value has a higher or lower standard of living for the economical power development of a nation ? These questions have long been subjects of controversy. There is certainly a development noticeable in the arguing of different opinions. One view was originally only opposed by few; as time went on this was universally vetoed by science, and the opposite opinion almost generally accepted, whilst the former view was still adhered to and defended only by a minority, especially by practical men in countries and in industries which have lagged behind in economics.
The discussion takes different phases at different periods. So long as wages maintained a normal fixed position the variation in the price of wheat was the deciding element for the standard of living of the working classes. It was therefore asked whether high or low prices of food were essential for the economical development of a nation. To which in England was added the further query, whether the State by means of legislative measures, and especially by bounties on the export of wheat, should or should not keep the prices of human necessaries high (1). But since, in this century, the fixing of wages by custom and law has disappeared, the question has been amended to whether low or high wages have to be viewed as an economical advantage for a country; whether economical progress—and in this connection we think at the present time principally about the development of the centralised industrial system (2)—means the elevation or retrogression of the classes in its service.
1. K. Faber: “ Die Entstehung des Agrarschutzes in England ” (Strassburg , 1888), pp. 112—114.
2. That is, the factory system.— Translator,