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manifesto of the communist party-第2章

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everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois

epoch from all earlier ones。  All fixed; fast…frozen relations;

with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and

opinions;

are swept away; all new…formed ones become antiquated before they

can ossify。  All that is solid melts into air; all that is holy

is profaned; and man is at last compelled to face with sober

senses;

his real conditions of life; and his relations with his kind。



The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases

the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe。  It must

nestle

everywhere; settle everywhere; establish connexions everywhere。



The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world…market

given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in

every country。  To the great chagrin of Reactionists; it has

drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on

which it stood。  All old…established national industries have

been destroyed or are daily being destroyed。  They are dislodged

by new industries; whose introduction becomes a life and death

question for all civilised nations; by industries that no longer

work up indigenous raw material; but raw material drawn from the

remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed; not only

at home; but in every quarter of the globe。  In place of the old

wants; satisfied by the productions of the country; we find new

wants; requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant

lands and climes。  In place of the old local and national

seclusion and self…sufficiency; we have intercourse in every

direction; universal inter…dependence of nations。  And as in

material; so also in intellectual production。  The intellectual

creations of individual nations become common property。  National

one…sidedness and narrow…mindedness become more and more

impossible; and from the numerous national and local literatures;

there arises a world literature。



The bourgeoisie; by the rapid improvement of all instruments of

production; by the immensely facilitated means of communication;

draws all; even the most barbarian; nations into civilisation。

The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with

which it batters down all Chinese walls; with which it forces the

barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to

capitulate。  It compels all nations; on pain of extinction; to

adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to

introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst; i。e。; to

become bourgeois themselves。  In one word; it creates a world

after its own image。



The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the

towns。  It has created enormous cities; has greatly increased the

urban population as compared with the rural; and has thus rescued

a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural

life。  Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns; so

it has made barbarian and semi…barbarian countries dependent on

the civilised ones; nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois;

the East on the West。



The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the

scattered state of the population; of the means of production;

and of property。  It has agglomerated production; and has

concentrated property in a few hands。  The necessary consequence

of this was political centralisation。  Independent; or but

loosely connected provinces; with separate interests; laws;

governments and systems of taxation; became lumped together into

one nation; with one government; one code of laws; one national

class…interest; one frontier and one customs…tariff。  The

bourgeoisie; during its rule of scarce one hundred years; has

created more massive and more colossal productive forces than

have all preceding generations together。  Subjection of Nature's

forces to man; machinery; application of chemistry to industry

and agriculture; steam…navigation; railways; electric telegraphs;

clearing of whole continents for cultivation; canalisation of

rivers; whole populations conjured out of the ground  what

earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive

forces slumbered in the lap of social labour?



We see then: the means of production and of exchange; on whose

foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up; were generated in

feudal society。  At a certain stage in the development of these

means of production and of exchange; the conditions under which

feudal society produced and exchanged; the feudal organisation of

agriculture and manufacturing industry; in one word; the feudal

relations of property became no longer compatible with the

already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters。

They had to be burst asunder; they were burst asunder。



Into their place stepped free competition; accompanied by a

social and political constitution adapted to it; and by the

economical and political sway of the bourgeois class。



A similar movement is going on before our own eyes。  Modern

bourgeois society with its relations of production; of exchange

and of property; a society that has conjured up such gigantic

means of production and of exchange; is like the sorcerer; who is

no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he

has called up by his spells。  For many a decade past the history

of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of

modern productive forces against modern conditions of production;

against the property relations that are the conditions for the

existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule。  It is enough to

mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put

on its trial; each time more threateningly; the existence of the

entire bourgeois society。  In these crises a great part not only

of the existing products; but also of the previously created

productive forces; are periodically destroyed。  In these crises

there breaks out an epidemic that; in all earlier epochs; would

have seemed an absurdity  the epidemic of over…production。

Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary

barbarism; it appears as if a famine; a universal war of

devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence;

industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why?  Because

there is too much civilisation; too much means of subsistence;

too much industry; too much commerce。  The productive forces at

the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development

of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary; they

have become too powerful for these conditions; by which they are

fettered; and so soon as they overcome these fetters; they bring

disorder into the whole of bourgeois society; endanger the

existence of bourgeois property。  The conditions of bourgeois

society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them。

And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises?  On the one

hand inforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the

other; by the conquest of new markets; and by the more thorough

exploitation of the old ones。  That is to say; by paving the way

for more extensive and more destructive crises; and by

diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented。



The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the

ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself。



But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring

death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who

are to wield those weapons  the modern working class  the

proletarians。



In proportion as the bourgeoisie; i。e。; capital; is developed;

in the same proportion is the proletariat; the modern working

class; developed  a class of labourers; who live only so long

as they find work; and who find work only so long as their labour

increases capital。  These labourers; who must sell themselves

piece…meal; are a commodity; like every other article of


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