ecay of these communal institutions
came mainly from the incapacity of men of combining the village with the
city, the peasant with the citizen, so as jointly to oppose the growth
of the military states, which destroyed the free cities.

The history of mankind, thus understood, does not offer, then, an
argument against Communism. It appears, on the contrary, as a succession
of endeavours to realize some sort of communist organization, endeavours
which were crowned here and there with a partial success of a certain
duration; and all we are authorized to conclude is, that mankind has not
yet found the proper form for combining, on communistic principles,
agriculture with a suddenly developed industry and a rapidly growing
international trade. The latter appears especially as a disturbing
element, since it is no longer individuals only, or cities, that enrich
themselves by distant commerce and export; but whole nations grow rich
at the cost of those nations which lag behind in their industrial
development.

These conditions, which began to appear by the end of the eighteenth
century, took, however, their full development in the nineteenth century
only, after the Napoleonic wars came to an end. And modern Communism has
to take them into account.

It is now known that the French Revolution, apart from its political
significance, was an attempt made by the French people, in 1793 and
1794, in three different directions more or less akin to Socialism. It
was, first, _the equalization of fortunes_, by means of an income tax
and succession duties, both heavily progressive, as also by a direct
confiscation of the land in order to sub-divide it, and by heavy war
taxes levied upon the rich only. The second attempt was a sort of
_Municipal Communism_ as regards the consumption of some objects of
first necessity, bought by the municipalities, and sold by them at cost
price. And the third attempt was to introduce a wide _national system of
rationally established prices of all commodities_, for which the real
cost of production and moderate trade profits had to be taken into
account. The Convention worked hard at this scheme, and had nearly
completed its work, when reaction took the upper hand.

It was during this remarkable movement, which has never yet been
properly studied, that modern Socialism was born--Fourierism with
L'Ange, at Lyons, and authoritarian Communism with Buonarroti, Babeuf,
and their comrades. And it was immediat