itude:
"only the bond of help and gratitude will exists between employer and
employee."[2175]--He who works for another citizen belongs to his family
and sits at his table."[2176]--Through the transformation of lower
social classes into middle class conditions we restore human dignity,
and out of the proletarian, the valet and the workman, we begin to
liberate the citizen.

VII. Socialist projects.

Repression of Egoism.--Measures against farmers,
manufacturers and merchants.--Socialist projects.
--Repression of Federalism.--Measures against the local,
professional and family spirit.

Two leading obstacles hinder the development of civism, and the first is
egoism. Whilst the citizen prefers the community to himself, the egoist
prefers himself to the community. He cares only for his own interest, he
gives no heed to public necessities; he sees none of the superior
rights which take precedence of his derived right; he supposes that his
property is his own without restriction or condition; he forgets
that, if he is allowed to use it, he must not use it to another's
detriment.[2177] This even the middle or low class, who possess goods
essential for survival, will do. The greater the demand for these
goods the higher they raise their prices; soon, they sell only at an
exorbitant rate, and worse still, stop selling and store their goods or
products, in the expectation of selling them dearer. In this way, they
speculate on another's wants; they augment the general distress and
become public enemies. Nearly all the agriculturists, manufacturers
and tradesmen of the day, little and big, are public enemies--farmers,
tenant farmers, market-gardeners, cultivators of every degree, as well
as foremen, shopkeepers, especially wine-dealers, bakers and butchers.

"All merchants are essentially anti-revolutionaries, and would sell
their country to gain a few pennies."[2178]

We will not tolerate this legal brigandage. Since "agriculture has done
nothing for liberty and has sought only its own gain,"[2179] we will put
it under surveillance, and, if necessary, under control. Since
"commerce has become a species of miserly tyrant," since "it has become
self-paralyzed," and, "through a sort of anti-revolutionary contempt,
neglected the manufacture, handling and expedition of diverse
materials," we will thwart "the calculations of its barbarous
arithmetic, and purge it of the aristocratic and corrupting ferment