The Closed Commercial State

Seventh Chapter: The result of these measures

Seventh Chapter The result of these measures Within the country agriculture and the factories have now been brought to the intended degree of perfection, and the ratio of each to the other, of trade to both of them, and of the public officials to all three, has been calculated, ordered, and fixed. The state has advanced into its natural borders in relation to foreign countries and has nothing either to demand from its neighbor or cede to it. Once all this has happened, the commercial state will be completely closed, and the constitution of public commerce will be just as was described in the first book. As a consequence of the improvements made before closure, the people will find itself in a state of considerable prosperity, and all will receive their fitting share of this pros‑ perity. Whatever a citizen needs and should have, a fellow citizen of his, who has taken his needs into account, will certainly have, and the former can receive it as soon as he wants. If someone has anything left over, then another citizen, whose needs take the other’s surplus into account, will surely need it, and the former can deliver it to him as soon as he wants. Every piece of money that someone earns for himself will quite certainly remain forever worth these specific goods—e.g., this measure of grain—for him and his grandchildren and great‑grandchildren, and he will be able to exchange it for these goods at any time. The value of this money against these goods may indeed rise, but it can never fall.—Everyone can be sure that, as long as he continues to work, he will continue to enjoy the state of existence to which he is accustomed. Nobody can grow poor and suffer want, nor could this happen to his children and grandchildren—as long as they work as much as the common custom of the country demands of them. No one can be cheated, and no one will need to cheat another. And if he wished to do so out of a pure {505} love of fraud, he would not find anyone whom he could cheat.—I shall refrain altogether from looking at the consequences of such a constitution for the lawfulness and morality of the blessed people that [136] finds itself under it, but I will allow myself to invite the reader to such considerations. 191 192 Third Book From this point on, as I said, the commercial state will be completely closed. Everything that is used or sold within the country will have been cultivated or manufactured there, and, conversely, whatever is cultivated or manufactured within the country will also be used and sold there. Whereas in the period from the introduction of the national currency up to com‑ plete closure, the government was involved in foreign trade, now neither the private man nor the government will engage in even the most limited commerce with foreign countries. We can only think of one case in which foreign trade will be retained. The cultivation of one produce, say, wine, is in one climate, for example in countries located very far to the north, not altogether impossible, but nevertheless very disadvantageous. In another climate, however—say, in southern France—it can be grown most advan‑ tageously. On the other hand, in the northern climate the cultivation of, say, grain is highly advantageous. Between such states, determined by nature itself to a continuing barter, a trade treaty could be set up in which the former would cultivate in perpetuity this set quantity of wine for the latter, and the latter in turn this set quantity of grain for the former. Neither of the sides entering into such a treaty may have a view to profit, but only the absolute equality of the value of the goods. Hence, this trade, which must be conducted by governments and never by private individuals, does not need any money, but only the keeping of a balance [Abrechnung]. That the prices will stay the same is guaranteed to the citizen by the government, and the continuation of the exchange itself is guaranteed by nature, since it indeed follows from our presupposition that this exchange is advantageous for both states, and that each needs the other. {506} There still remains a case where, both during the process of closing off and after the state is completely closed off, the residents could have need of world currency: namely, emigration and travel...