The Closed Commercial State

Third Chapter: On the presupposed division of the branches of labor in a rational state

Third Chapter On the presupposed division of the branches of labor in a rational state One or the other reader may believe that we have surreptitiously reached the conclusions of our theory by hiding them in our premises, since we do not posit property, as is customary, in the exclusive possession of an object, but rather in the exclusive right to a free act, with the free acts necessary to sustain human life being divided up in an entirely arbitrary way into several estates. Such a division, they might say, is something wholly acci‑ dental, wholly inessential to the state as such. States could exist in which every resident has his own piece of arable land on which he grows his food, keeps a few livestock, carves wooden shoes for himself, spends the winter days weaving the linen for his coat from the hemp he grew himself, and so forth. A state such as this would have neither a particular estate of artisans, nor a balance between these and the producers, nor {422} trade and merchants—not a single aspect of my theory would apply to it, and yet I should never wish, on this account, to deny it the name of a just state. Ordinances concerning trade and industry would then be only a matter of what is advantageous or prudent, [71] and, to this extent, entirely arbitrary and in no way a matter of rigorous Right. In answer to this, I will remark first of all that even in such a state the right to property does not directly concern the arable land as such, but rather the exclusive right to use this as one pleases. I shall say more about this point later on. But it is of no consequence to our present investigation. I will further remark that a nation in the state of existence we described is an impoverished nation, remaining halfway in barbarism. If such a nation is governed from within [aus ihrer eigenen Mitte], and its rulers have only the degree of culture that one can obtain within it, there could hardly be any thought of having a wise legislation and a well‑organized state. If I should refuse to call a state administration such as this—a state administration that, under these circumstances, counts, in its giving of laws, on the present 109 110 First Book and continuing existence of such a state of things—contrary to Right, it is only in consideration of the fact that one can no more be obliged to pass beyond the limits of one’s knowledge than to pass beyond the limits of one’s capabilities. But if a government that knows, or is able to know, something better than this should set this same goal for itself and make the same sort of calculations, not making the slightest effort to depart from this wretched state of affairs and wrest the nation from it as well, I would have no choice but to call it contrary to Right. It is no mere pious wish of humanity, but the absolutely necessary [unerläßlich] demand issuing from its Right and its vocation, that it live on the earth as easily, as freely, with as much command over nature, in as truly human a way, as nature will permit. Man should labor, and yet not as a beast of burden who sinks into sleep under the weight {423} of its load and, having just barely refreshed its exhausted forces, is roused to bear it anew. He should labor without fear, with pleasure and joy, and have time left over to raise his spirit and eye to the heavens, which he has been formed to behold. He should not simply eat together with his beast of burden, but his meals should differ as much from its feed, his dwelling from its stall, as the build of his body differs from its build. This is his right, simply because he is a human being. There is much and frequent talk of national riches, the national state of prosperity, and the like. It will be necessary for me to indicate in the course of this writing most of the meanings these terms can have. Here we hit on the following: the intrinsic essential state of prosperity consists in being able to procure for oneself the most truly human pleasures with the least [72] difficult and time‑consuming labor. This should be the state of prosperity of the nation as a whole and...