The capitalist system

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

Egoistic Altruism: We have it on the venerable authority of Adam Smith that, by pursuing his economic self-interest, every individual unconsciously promotes at the same time the economic interests of others. His intention is not generally to promote public interest but his own security and gain. In the process, however, he is led by an ‘invisible hand’ to promote an end which was no part of his original intention. By promoting his own interest, he promotes that of society more effectively than when he tries more consciously to promote it. This is the same familiar story now told in different words: the consumers always strive to get the greatest possible value for their money, whilst the producers struggle among themselves to make as much profit as possible and both in the process promote each other’s interests. In other words, by being blind to the interests of others, and by being concerned only with his own interest, an individual finds – we suppose to his pleasant surprise- that he has actually advanced the economic interests of his fellows. The ‘agency or the ‘invisible hand’ through which this uncontemplated, unintended, and unplanned altruistic result is brought about is supply and demand, or the price mechanism, alias market forces.

The religious acceptance and observance of these postulates has led to a number of astounding and epoch-making economic doctrines and practices which have proved to be painful and degrading in the extreme to mankind, down the ages. We shall have more to say on this later.

The achievements of capitalism appear to the best advantage against the background of the evil systems which it destroyed and replaced. Throughout his history, man’s innate driving force has been self-interest – greed. Under a system where he can keep what he acquires through the concrete translation of this driving force, the incentive to indulge his instinct of self and greed is enormous. What he needs as his initial armour, in addition to his self-interest or greed, are superb skill, cunning, and ruthlessness. As long as a particular system serves his selfish purposes, man makes the best use of it. If it no longer does, he discards it without the slightest hesitation or compunction. In the pursuit of his self- interest, whether as a feudalist, slave-owner, or capitalist, the only abiding standard recognized by him is SELF.

These attributes of man as a selfish animal were exhibited by the capitalist with undisputable excellence in his ruthless and uncompromising opposition to, and destruction of feudalism and slavery. Before the advent of capitalism the feudal lords kept everything that made life worth living at all under their control. The reins of agriculture, trade, industry such as there was, religion, government, and all, were firmly held in their hands. They frowned on freedom of enterprise, and regarded political freedom as anathema. In addition to their unconscionable exploitation of the serfs, they used governmental machinery to boost their private wealth .

Feudalism as a system was a well-knit monolithic organisation, from the monarch who was the overlord through his ministers right down to the smallest lord of the manor. Under this system it was not only the individual lord who must be enriched but the King and country must also be enriched. With the result that unrestricted serfdom was the rule at home; while piracy and plundering on the high seas, and harsh exploitation of overseas markets, all for individual profit and national enrichment and aggrandisement, were permissible.

In Part I, we have already seen something of the working of the slave-trade and slavery, and of the legitimatization of these evil enterprises.

It is on record, however, that it was not the poor miserable serfs that struck the blow which shattered and devastated feudalism: it was the capitalists who did. Similarly, the slaves were just too impotent to compel their own manumission. But when some of their masters discovered that it was much more profitable to own factories than to own plantations, and to employ former slaves as workers in their new and ever-growing factories, they gave them their freedom from slavery, but at the same time subjected them to a new form of soulless exploitation. The reason behind this ostensible act of mercy and humanity is simple. The profitability of a worker is greater than that of a slave. Because of his freedom, though limited, the worker was obliged to fend for himself under the same kind of-motive force – greed – which gave impetus to his employer. He was at once the producer and the consumer of what he was made to produce under the guidance of his employer who undoubtedly was more skilful, more cunning, and more resourceful in every respect. In the United States of America the need for employing slaves as free workers in the factory dawned much more quickly on the slave-owners in the Northern part of the country than on those in the Southern part. Though slave labour is, by its very nature, less efficient and hence less productive than free labour, its products are by the same token much cheaper than the products of free labour. In due course, a conflict arose between the former slave-owners of the North.and the extant owners of slaves in the South as a result of unfair competition on the part of the latter who were able to sell their goods cheaper than their Northern counterparts. We are told tha, one of the major causes of the American Civil War was the collision of the economic self- interests of the Northern employers of Negro labour and the Southern slave-owners. In the United Kingdom, they now preferred to buy raw materials (including palm oil) from, and sell finished products to Nigerians than to enslave them physicaliy in British overseas plantations.

As we have seen in Chapter I, the discovery of the River Niger was made by Mungo Park and the Landers under the auspices of capitalists, otherwise known as merchant adventurers, based in Liverpool. Other discoveries of different parts of the world which were made by Christopher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Frobisher, to name only a few, were sponsored by people who pursued their own self-interest regardless of the interests of others. They were the predecessors of contemporary capitalists.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

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