The Mercantile System and its Historical Significance [1]
received their peculiar stamp from the prevalence at each period of a village economy, a town economy, a territorial economy, or a national economy; from the splitting asunder of the people into a number of village- and town-economies loosely held together, or from the rise of territorial or national bodies which have taken up into themselves and brought under their control the earlier economic organs. Political organisms and economic organisms are by no means necessarily conterminous; and yet the great and brilliant achievements of history, both political and economic, are wont to be accomplished at times when economic organisation has rested on the same foundations as political power and order.
The idea that economic life has ever been a process mainly dependent on individual action, -- an idea based on the impression that it is concerned merely with methods of satisfying individual needs,- is mistaken with regard to all stages of human civilisation, and in some respects it is more mistaken the further we go back. The most primitive tribe of hunters or shepherds maintains its existence only by means of an organisation based on kinship, wherein union for purposes of defence, joint journeyings to summer and winter pastures, communistic acquisition for the benefit of the whole tribe, communistic guidance by the tribal prince, play the most important parts. The first settlement and occupation of the soil is never a matter for individuals, but for tribes and clans. Then, while the life of religion, of language, of war, and of politics remains common for wider circles, the centre of gravity of economic life passes to the mark and the village. They become the bodies which for centuries rule the economic life of the mass of the people. The individual possesses, in the way of house and yard, garden and fields, only what the mark- or village community concedes to him and under the conditions it allows; he uses the pasture and the wood, the fisheries, and the hunting-ground on such terms as the commune (Gemeinde) permits; he ploughs and reaps as the village-community desires and ordains. It is hardly possible for him to come into closer intercourse with outsiders; for to remove any of the products, whatever they may be, derived directly or indirectly from the common land, is forbidden.(1*)To take wood from the common forest can only be allowed so long as no one exports wood or charcoal or tar; to turn out cattle at pleasure on the common pasture can only be recognised as a right when every one is feeding his own cattle for his own use and not for strangers. To alienate land to a non-member of the community is forbidden; and, indeed, as a rule, all sorts of formalities are put in the way even of the free yardling (Hufner) who wishes to leave the village. The village is an economic and commercial system complete in itself, and closed against the outside world. Its old constitution has to be broken up by the creation of great states and by other forces, before another and higher development of economic life can make its appearance. As the village, so likewise does the town, - and even more conspicuously, - grow into an economic body (or organism), with a peculiar and vigorous life of its own, dominating every particular. To begin with, the choice of a locality, the laying-out of the plan, the construction of roadways, of bridges, and of walls; then the paving of the streets, the bringing of water, and the setting-up of lights; and, finally, the common arrangements which are necessary for the market, and which lead to common market-houses, public scales, etc. - these, together with the close juxtaposition of residences, and the higher forms of division of labour, of currency, and of credit, all create a mass of uniform, common institutions, and bring about an association of a far closer character than before. This necessarily makes itself felt both inside and outside the town. For centuries economic progress is bound up with the rise of the towns and the formation of civic institutions. Each town, and especially each of
The idea that economic life has ever been a process mainly dependent on individual action, -- an idea based on the impression that it is concerned merely with methods of satisfying individual needs,- is mistaken with regard to all stages of human civilisation, and in some respects it is more mistaken the further we go back. The most primitive tribe of hunters or shepherds maintains its existence only by means of an organisation based on kinship, wherein union for purposes of defence, joint journeyings to summer and winter pastures, communistic acquisition for the benefit of the whole tribe, communistic guidance by the tribal prince, play the most important parts. The first settlement and occupation of the soil is never a matter for individuals, but for tribes and clans. Then, while the life of religion, of language, of war, and of politics remains common for wider circles, the centre of gravity of economic life passes to the mark and the village. They become the bodies which for centuries rule the economic life of the mass of the people. The individual possesses, in the way of house and yard, garden and fields, only what the mark- or village community concedes to him and under the conditions it allows; he uses the pasture and the wood, the fisheries, and the hunting-ground on such terms as the commune (Gemeinde) permits; he ploughs and reaps as the village-community desires and ordains. It is hardly possible for him to come into closer intercourse with outsiders; for to remove any of the products, whatever they may be, derived directly or indirectly from the common land, is forbidden.(1*)To take wood from the common forest can only be allowed so long as no one exports wood or charcoal or tar; to turn out cattle at pleasure on the common pasture can only be recognised as a right when every one is feeding his own cattle for his own use and not for strangers. To alienate land to a non-member of the community is forbidden; and, indeed, as a rule, all sorts of formalities are put in the way even of the free yardling (Hufner) who wishes to leave the village. The village is an economic and commercial system complete in itself, and closed against the outside world. Its old constitution has to be broken up by the creation of great states and by other forces, before another and higher development of economic life can make its appearance. As the village, so likewise does the town, - and even more conspicuously, - grow into an economic body (or organism), with a peculiar and vigorous life of its own, dominating every particular. To begin with, the choice of a locality, the laying-out of the plan, the construction of roadways, of bridges, and of walls; then the paving of the streets, the bringing of water, and the setting-up of lights; and, finally, the common arrangements which are necessary for the market, and which lead to common market-houses, public scales, etc. - these, together with the close juxtaposition of residences, and the higher forms of division of labour, of currency, and of credit, all create a mass of uniform, common institutions, and bring about an association of a far closer character than before. This necessarily makes itself felt both inside and outside the town. For centuries economic progress is bound up with the rise of the towns and the formation of civic institutions. Each town, and especially each of