The Conquest of Bread

_By_ PETER KROPOTKIN

_Author of "Fields, Factories, and Workshops"

"The Memoirs of a Revolutionist," Etc._

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

VANGUARD PRESS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THE MAN (1842-1921):

_Prince Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin_, revolutionary and scientist, was

descended from the old Russian nobility, but decided, at the age of

thirty, to throw in his lot with the social rebels not only of his own

country, but of the entire world. He became the intellectual leader of

Anarchist-Communism; took part in the labor movement; wrote many books

and pamphlets; established _Le Révolté_ in Geneva and _Freedom_ in

London; contributed to the _Encyclopedia Britannica_; was twice

imprisoned because of his radical activities; and twice visited America.

After the Bolshevist revolution he returned to Russia, kept himself

apart from Soviet activities, and died true to his ideals.

THE BOOK:

_The Conquest of Bread_ is a revolutionary idyl, a beautiful outline

sketch of a future society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. It

is, in Kropotkin's own words, "a study of the needs of humanity, and of

the economic means to satisfy them." Read in conjunction with the same

author's "Fields, Factories and Workshops," it meets all the

difficulties of the social inquirer who says: "The Anarchist ideal is

alluring, but how could you work it out?"

I. OUR RICHES 1

II. WELL-BEING FOR ALL 12

III. ANARCHIST COMMUNISM 23

IV. EXPROPRIATION 34

V. FOOD 47

VI. DWELLINGS 73

VII. CLOTHING 84

VIII. WAYS AND MEANS 87

IX. THE NEED FOR LUXURY 95

X. AGREEABLE WORK 110

XI. FREE AGREEMENT 119

XII. OBJECTIONS 134

XIII. THE COLLECTIVIST WAGES SYSTEM 152

XIV. CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION 168

XV. THE DIVISION OF LABOUR 176

XVI. THE DECENTRALIZATION OF INDUSTRY 180

XVII. AGRICULTURE 191

NOTES 213

PREFACE

One of the current objections to Communism, and Socialism altogether, is

that the idea is so old, and yet it has never been realized. Schemes of

ideal States haunted the thinkers of Ancient Greece; later on, the early

Christians joined in communist groups; centuries later, large communist

brotherhoods came into existence during the Reform movement. Then, the

same ideals were revived during the great English and French

Revolutions; and finally, quite lately, in 1848, a revolution, inspired

to a great extent with Socialist ideals, took place in France. "And yet,

you see," we are told, "how far away is still the realization of your

schemes. Don't you think that there is some fundamental error in your

understanding of human nature and its needs?"

At first sight this objection seems very serious. However, the moment we

consider human history more attentively, it loses its strength. We see,

first, that hundreds of millions of men have succeeded in maintaining

amongst themselves, in their village communities, for many hundreds of

years, one of the main elements of Socialism--the common ownership of

the chief instrument of production, the land, and the apportionment of

the same according to the labour capacities of the different families;

and we learn that if the communal possession of the land has been

destroyed in Western Europe, it was not from within, but from without,

by the governments which created a land monopoly in favour of the

nobility and the middle classes. We learn, moreover, that the medieval

cities succeeded in maintaining in their midst, for several centuries in

succession, a certain socialized organization of production and trade;

that these centuries were periods of a rapid intellectual, industrial,

and artistic progress; while the decay of these communal institutions

came mainly from the incapacity of men of combining the village with the

city, the peasant with the citizen, so as jointly to oppose the growth

of the military states, which destroyed the free cities.

The history of mankind, thus understood, does not offer, then, an

argument against Communism. It appears, on the contrary, as a succession

of endeavours to realize some sort of communist organization, endeavours

which were crowned here and there with a partial success of a certain

duration; and all we are authorized to conclude is, that mankind has not

yet found the proper form for combining, on communistic principles,

agriculture with a suddenly developed industry and a rapidly growing

international trade. The latter appears especially as a disturbing

element, since it is no longer individuals only, or cities, that enrich

themselves by distant commerce and export; but whole nations grow rich

at the cost of those nations which lag behind in their industrial

development.

These conditions, which began to appear by the end of the eighteenth

century, took, however, their full development in the nineteenth century

only, after the Napoleonic wars came to an end. And modern Communism has

to take them into account.

It is now known that the French Revolution, apart from its political

significance, was an attempt made by the French people, in 1793 and

1794, in three different directions more or less akin to Socialism. It

was, first, _the equalization of fortunes_, by means of an income tax

and succession duties, both heavily progressive, as also by a direct

confiscation of the land in order to sub-divide it, and by heavy war

taxes levied upon the rich only. The second attempt was a sort of

_Municipal Communism_ as regards the consumption of some objects of