The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities [ 77 ]
and natural substance as well as its business organization was pro-
tected against the ravages of this satanic mill.
The extreme artificiality of market economy is rooted in the fact
that the process of production itself is here organized in the form of
buying and selling. No other way of organizing production for the
market is possible in a commercial society* During the late Middle
Ages industrial production for export was organized by wealthy bur-
gesses, and carried on under their direct supervision in the home
town. Later, in the mercantile society, production was organized by
merchants and was not restricted any more to the towns; this was the
age of "putting out" when domestic industry was provided with raw
materials by the merchant capitalist, who controlled the process of
production as a purely commercial enterprise. It was then that indus-
trial production was definitely and on a large scale put under the orga-
nizing leadership of the merchant. He knew the market, the volume as
well as the quality of the demand; and he could vouch also for the sup-
plies which, incidentally, consisted merely of wool, woad, and, some-
times, the looms or the knitting frames used by the cottage industry. If
supplies failed it was the cottager who was worst hit, for his employ-
ment was gone for the time; but no expensive plant was involved and
the merchant incurred no serious risk in shouldering the responsibil-
ity for production. For centuries this system grew in power and scope
until in a country like England the wool industry, the national staple,
covered large sectors of the country where production was organized
by the clothier. He who bought and sold, incidentally, provided for
production—no separate motive was required. The creation of goods
involved neither the reciprocating attitudes of mutual aid; nor the
concern of the householder for those whose needs are left to his care;
nor the craftsman's pride in the exercise of his trade; nor the satisfac-
tion of public praise—nothing but the plain motive of gain so familiar
to the man whose profession is buying and selling. Up to the end of the
eighteenth century, industrial production in Western Europe was a
mere accessory to commerce.
As long as the machine was an inexpensive and unspecific tool
there was no change in this position. The mere fact that the cottager
could produce larger amounts than before within the same time
might induce him to use machines to increase earnings, but this fact
* Cunningham, W., "Economic Change," in
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I.