The Servile State
The Servile State, published in 1912 by Hilaire Belloc, is an economic and political treatise that critiques both capitalism and socialism. Belloc warns of a 'servile state' where workers are compelled to labor for property owners, arguing that capitalism is inherently unstable and disrupts traditional social structures. He posits that while socialism presents an alternative, its implementation may inadvertently lead to greater totalitarianism. This work is notable for its historical analysis and remains significant in discussions of economic policy and social history.
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“In the perfect Capitalist State there would be no food available for the non-owner save when he was actually engaged in Production, and that absurdity would, by quickly ending all human lives save those of the owners, put a term to the arrangement.””
— Hilaire Belloc
“If we do not restore the Institution of Property we cannot escape restoring the Institution of Slavery; there is no third course.””
— Hilaire Belloc
“Man, like every other organism, can only live by the transformation of his environment to his own use. He must transform his environment from a condition where it is less to a condition where it is more subservient to his needs. That special, conscious, and intelligent transformation of his environment which is peculiar to the peculiar intelligence and creative faculty of man we call the Production of Wealth. Wealth is matter which has been consciously and intelligently transformed from a condition in which it is less to a condition in which it is more serviceable to a human need. Without Wealth man cannot exist. The production of it is a necessity to him, and though it proceeds from the more to the less necessary, and even to those forms of production which we call luxuries, yet in any given human society there is a certain kind and a certain amount of wealth without which human life cannot be lived: as, for instance, in England to-day, certain forms of elaborately prepared food, clothing, fuel, and habitation. Therefore, to control the production Of wealth is to control human life itself. To refuse man the opportunity for the production of wealth is to refuse him the opportunity for life; and, in general, the way in which the production of wealth is by law permitted is the only way in which the citizens can legally exist.””
— Hilaire Belloc
“The vast growth of the proletariat, the concentration of ownership into the hands of a few owners, and the exploitation by those owners of the mass of the community, had no fatal or necessary connection with the discovery of new and perpetually improving methods of production. The evil proceeded in direct historical sequence, proceeded patently and demonstrably, from the fact that England, the seed-plot of the Industrial System, was already captured by a wealthy oligarchy before the series of great discoveries began.””
— Hilaire Belloc
“Capitalism must be kept alive by non-capitalist methods.””
— Hilaire Belloc
“The legislator surveying the Capitalist State proposes as a remedy for certain of its evils the establishment of two categories in the State, compels the lower man to registration, to a tax, and the rest of it, and further compels the upper man to be the instrument in enforcing that registration and in collecting that tax.””
— Hilaire Belloc
