The correspondence1 of P. J. Proudhon, the first volumes of which we publish today, has been collected since his death by the faithful and intelligent labors of his daughter, aided by a few friends. I...

The following letter served as a preface to the first edition of this memoir:⁠— “To the Members of the Academy of Besançon. “Paris, June 30, 1840. “Gentlemen⁠—In the course of your debate of the 9th o...

If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required to show...

If I were asked to answer the following question: What is slavery? and I should answer in one word, It is murder, my meaning would be understood at once. No extended argument would be required to show...

The Roman law defined property as the right to use and abuse one’s own within the limits of the law⁠—jus utendi et abutendi re suâ, guatenus juris ratio patitur. A justification of the word abuse has ...

The Declaration of Rights has placed property in its list of the natural and inalienable rights of man, four in all: liberty, equality, property, security. What rule did the legislators of ’93 follow ...

It is remarkable that, at those meetings of the State Council at which the Code was discussed, no controversy arose as to the origin and principle of property. All the articles of Vol. II, Book 2, con...

Pothier seems to think that property, like royalty, exists by divine right. He traces back its origin to God himself⁠—ab Jove principium. He begins in this way:⁠— “God is the absolute ruler of the uni...

Nearly all the modern writers on jurisprudence, taking their cue from the economists, have abandoned the theory of first occupancy as a too dangerous one, and have adopted that which regards property ...

Was I wrong in saying, at the beginning of this chapter, that the economists are the very worst authorities in matters of legislation and philosophy? It is the father of this class of men who clearly ...

In the extract from Say, quoted above, it is not clear whether the author means to base the right of property on the stationary character of the soil, or on the consent which he thinks all men have gr...

The right of property was the origin of evil on the earth, the first link in the long chain of crimes and misfortunes which the human race has endured since its birth. The delusion of prescription is ...

We shall show by the maxims of political economy and law, that is, by the authorities recognized by property⁠— That labor has no inherent power to appropriate natural wealth. That, if we admit that la...

Admit, however, that labor gives a right of property in material. Why is not this principle universal? Why is the benefit of this pretended law confined to a few and denied to the mass of laborers? A ...

When the St. Simonians, the Fourierists, and, in general, all who in our day are connected with social economy and reform, inscribe upon their banner⁠— “To each according to his capacity, to each capa...

It is objected⁠—and this objection constitutes the second part of the St. Simonian, and the third part of the Fourierstic, maxims⁠— “That all kinds of labor cannot be executed with equal ease. Some re...

This proposition is the logical result of the two preceding sections, which we have just summed up. The isolated man can supply but a very small portion of his wants; all his power lies in association...

The last resort of proprietors⁠—the overwhelming argument whose invincible potency reassures them⁠—is that, in their opinion, equality of conditions is impossible. “Equality of conditions is a chimera...

This proposition is purely an axiom, because⁠— It is not a definition, since it does not express all that is included in the right of property⁠—the right of sale, of exchange, of gift; the right to tr...

The discussion of this proposition covers the same ground as that of the origin of farm-rent, which is so much debated by the economists. When I read the writings of the greater part of these men, I c...

The preceding proposition was legislative in its nature; this one is economical. It serves to prove that property, which originates in violence, results in waste. “Production,” says Say, “is exchange ...

To pay a farm-rent of one hundred at the rate of ten percent of the product, the product must be one thousand; that the product may be one thousand, a force of one thousand laborers is needed. It foll...

If the right of increase could be subjected to the laws of reason and justice, it would be reduced to an indemnity or reward whose maximum never could exceed, for a single laborer, a certain fraction ...

When the ass is too heavily loaded, he lies down; man always moves on. Upon this indomitable courage, the proprietor⁠—well knowing that it exists⁠—bases his hopes of speculation. The free laborer prod...

What is government? Government is public economy, the supreme administrative power over public works and national possessions. Now, the nation is like a vast society in which all the citizens are stoc...

I. If, with the economists, we consider the laborer as a living machine, we must regard the wages paid to him as the amount necessary to support this machine, and keep it in repair. The head of a manu...

If men, living in equality, should grant to one of their number the exclusive right of property; and this sole proprietor should lend one hundred francs to the human race at compound interest, payable...

I. By the third corollary of our axiom, interest tells against the proprietor as well as the stranger. This economical principle is universally admitted. Nothing simpler at first blush; yet, nothing m...

The development of this proposition will be the résumé of the preceding ones. 1. It is a principle of economical justice, that products are bought only by products. Property, being capable of defence ...

Property is impossible; equality does not exist. We hate the former, and yet wish to possess it; the latter rules all our thoughts, yet we know not how to reach it. Who will explain this profound anta...

The philosophers have endeavored often to locate the line which separates man’s intelligence from that of the brutes; and, according to their general custom, they gave utterance to much foolishness be...

The philosophers have endeavored often to locate the line which separates man’s intelligence from that of the brutes; and, according to their general custom, they gave utterance to much foolishness be...

I insist upon the fact, which I have just pointed out, as one of the most important facts of anthropology. The sympathetic attraction, which causes us to associate, is, by reason of its blind, unruly ...

The reader, perhaps, has not forgotten what was said in the third chapter concerning the division of labor and the speciality of talents. The sum total of the talents and capacities of the race is alw...

The true form of human society cannot be determined until the following question has been solved:⁠— Property not being our natural condition, how did it gain a foothold? Why has the social instinct, s...

The true form of human society cannot be determined until the following question has been solved:⁠— Property not being our natural condition, how did it gain a foothold? Why has the social instinct, s...

I. I ought not to conceal the fact that property and communism have been considered always the only possible forms of society. This deplorable error has been the life of property. The disadvantages of...

Then, no government, no public economy, no administration, is possible, which is based upon property. Communism seeks equality and law. Property, born of the sovereignty of the reason, and the sense o...

Paris, April 1, 1841. Monsieur⁠— Before resuming my Inquiries Into Government and Property, it is fitting, for the satisfaction of some worthy people, and also in the interest of order, that I should ...

In the French edition of Proudhon’s works, the above sketch of his life is prefixed to the first volume of his correspondence, but the translator prefers to insert it here as the best method of introd...