necessary by funds for the purpose, without looking for any other return than the natural results to Society of this educated ability. It could even, by extended State management, and by an enlarged public service, provide places for the best, without largely curtailing private enterprise.

A Society in which, at all events, the shares of each would make a nearer approach to "fairness," in which the evils of Freedom of Contract, of private property and of competition would be tempered by considerations of Justice, is possible, without any need of adventuring into the terra incognita of the Collectivist State, in which we should all get either equal shares, or shares fixed entirely arbitrarily by State functionaries; and in which, while much would be doubtful and at hazard, it is most probable that the working classes, even with Rent and Interest thrown into the general Wage Dividend, and the present great Wages of Management of employers cut down, would not after all secure so large a share as they do under the present system, imperfect as it may be.

CHAPTER VII.

IN THE SOCIALIST STATE (continued).

THE SUPPRESSION OF MONEY AND MARKETS.

1.

IT is the special boast of the new Socialism that it would effectually kill all the parasites of industry which riot to day under the abused name of Freedom of Industry or are sheltered under our property laws. First would go the landlord, the land becoming collective property, then the capitalist employer, who, however, as regards his profits, is rather viewed as the spoliator of the labourer than a parasite of industry. Next will go the mostly unnecessary middleman, who interposes between producers and consumers, and by his profits swells the price on the latter for little or no real service. Then by the abolition of markets in general and market prices, the chance of the general speculator and cornerer will be gone; by the suppression of private enterprise and investments, and by the consequent abolition of the stock and share market the financier, the company promoter, the director, the monopolist, the "rentier," the speculator on the stock exchange, and numerous other types will lose their opportunities; and, lastly,

by the abolition of money and the money market, the prohibition of loans at interest and of all credit transactions involving interest, the functions of the banker and bill discounter and of the money-lender will no longer be necessary. Money, credit, stocks, shares, bonds, debentures, will no longer exist, and all at present connected with their manipulation, the "whole unclean brigand aristocracy of the Bourse," as Schæffle rather severely and indiscriminately styles them, will be compulsorily retired.

And a good riddance, many would say who are not conscious Socialists. The question is how far such sweeping change could be carried out, and how far it would be really desirable. In the first place, as regards the middlemen, even under Collectivism there would be some required. There would be carriers, and there would be official distributors in the State magazines, though agents, travellers, and the advertising sheet would be unnecessary. The number of the distributors would not be so great as now; moreover, they would be paid in proportion to their hours of work, and presumably according to ability, though there would be much less scope for the kind of ability that at present secures large fortunes, which consists in the various methods, good and bad, of widening one's connexion, but for which there would be no proper scope under Collectivism. The distributors would be paid less, and there would be less of them, wherein would lie the chief gain to the public.

At the same time it must be noted that the process of eliminating unnecessary intermediaries, of diminishing the series as well as the numbers in each series,

has been going on for a considerable time, and is now proceeding even more rapidly. Not only the great co-operative stores and the mammoth "providers," such as Whiteley's, have reduced the number, but at present, by the formation of Trusts and Syndicates, which are at once producers and distributors, the number of middlemen is being further reduced; the general result being that the displaced small traders and other middlemen lean rather illogically to Socialism, which theoretically condemns them, but which at the same time is the general refuge of all the victims of the present order.

As to the proposed abolition of money, I venture to doubt its possibility, so long at least as the labcur cheques are issued and are transferable. Coined metallic money could, under certain conditions, be dispensed with in the Socialist State for internal uses, as it has been wherever inconvertible paper has been used for money, and as it even now is largely replaced by paper substitutes-bank notes, bills of exchange, cheques, and book credit. Under Collectivism the labour cheques would take the place of money; they would be an inferior inconvertible paper moncy. They would acquire the functions of money, as at the outset they possess its two principal ones, that of being a measure of values, and-if not precisely a medium of exchange, as exchanges will be nominally forbidden—at least a means of purchase, a means of procuring what we desire at the warehouses, or such services as we need. The labour cheque would be a general order on goods or services, which, according to Adam Smith and Mill, is the essential

thing in money. power in whosesoever hand it may be. And if the State produces all desirable things, or nearly all now procurable with money, and if on presenting labour cheques in sufficient number I can command any of these things, what more, it might be asked, can be desired, what more can be done with money now?

It would be general purchasing

The cheques would indeed be money; but would they be good money? They would fulfil some functions, would they fulfil all? Would they have that steadiness in value which it is desirable that a standard and measure of value should have?

They

They would not possess this desired attribute of steadiness. would be liable to all the evils of inconvertible paper, together with certain indefinite evils peculiar to themselves. We have seen before that it would be im. possible to keep the values of things with reference to each other invariable; that the arbitrary assessment of values according to the calculated labour time could not be maintained. It is now to be shown that not alone would values alter, but that the labour cheques for a day's work would more and more be discounted on presentation, whether at the warehouses or to the dispensers of services. They would procure less and less. So far as there is saving and accumulation of the cheques, there would be a constant increase in the outstanding uncancelled cheques, and so far as they were offered for services or passed as money from one to another, that is, so far as they formed a circulating medium, they would fall in value. More would be demanded for a given service; and, spite of the good will of the State to fulfil its engagements,