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Leftist Reading: The Conquest of Bread, Part 16
This week’s reading is the last reading of The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin.
The full book is available online here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23428/23428-h/23428-h.htm
[Part 1]
I. Our Riches
[Part 2]
II. Well-Being for All
[Part 3]
III. Anarchist Communism
[Part 4]
IV. Expropriation
[Part 5]
V. Food: i - iii
[Part 6]
V. Food: iv - vii
[Part 7]
VI. Dwellings
VII. Clothing
[Part 8]
VIII. Ways and Means
IX. The Need for Luxury: i. - iii.
[Part 9]
IX. The Need for Luxury: iv. - v.
X. Agreeable Work
[Part 10]
XI. Free Agreement
[Part 11]
XII. Objections: i. - iii.
[Part 12]
XII. Objections: iv.
XIII. The Collectivist Wages System: i. - iii.
[Part 13]
XIII. The Collectivist Wages System: iv.
XIV. Consumption and Production: i. - ii.
[Part 14]
XV. The Division of Labour
XVI. The Decentralization of Industry i-iii.
[Part 15]
XVII. Agriculture: i. - iii.
[Part 16 – This Week]
XVII. Agriculture
iv. - 00:41
v. - 06:16
vi. - 14:13
Footnote – 13:52
Summing up the figures given on agriculture, figures proving that the inhabitants of the two departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise can live perfectly well on their own territory by employing very little time annually to obtain food, we have:
Departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise
Number of inhabitants in 1889: 3,900,000
Area in acres: 1,507,300
Average number of inhabitants per acre: 2.6
Areas to be cultivated to feed the inhabitants (in acres):—
Corn and Cereals: 494,000
Natural and artificial meadows: 494,000
Vegetables and fruit: from 17,300 to 25,000
Leaving a balance for houses, roads, parks, forests: 494,000
Quantity of annual work necessary to improve and cultivate the above surfaces in five-hour workdays:—
Cereals (culture and crop): 15,000,000
Meadows, milk, rearing of cattle: 10,000,000
Market-gardening culture, high-class fruit: 33,000,000
Extras: 12,000,000
——————
Total: 70,000,000
If we suppose that only half of the able-bodied adults (men and women) are willing to work at agriculture, we see that 70 million work-days must be divided among 1,200,000 individuals, which gives us fifty-eight work-days of 5 hours for each of these workers. With that the population of the two departments would have all necessary bread, meat, milk, vegetables, and fruit, both for ordinary and even luxurious consumption. To-day a workman spends for the necessary food of his family (generally less than what is necessary) at least one-third of his 300 work-days a year, about 1,000 hours be it, instead of 290. That is, he thus gives about 700 hours too much to fatten the idle and the would-be administrators, because he does not produce his own food, but buys it of middlemen, who in their turn buy it of peasants who exhaust themselves by working with bad tools, because, being robbed by the landowners and the State, they cannot procure better ones.
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This week’s reading is the last reading of The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin.
The full book is available online here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23428/23428-h/23428-h.htm
[Part 1]
I. Our Riches
[Part 2]
II. Well-Being for All
[Part 3]
III. Anarchist Communism
[Part 4]
IV. Expropriation
[Part 5]
V. Food: i - iii
[Part 6]
V. Food: iv - vii
[Part 7]
VI. Dwellings
VII. Clothing
[Part 8]
VIII. Ways and Means
IX. The Need for Luxury: i. - iii.
[Part 9]
IX. The Need for Luxury: iv. - v.
X. Agreeable Work
[Part 10]
XI. Free Agreement
[Part 11]
XII. Objections: i. - iii.
[Part 12]
XII. Objections: iv.
XIII. The Collectivist Wages System: i. - iii.
[Part 13]
XIII. The Collectivist Wages System: iv.
XIV. Consumption and Production: i. - ii.
[Part 14]
XV. The Division of Labour
XVI. The Decentralization of Industry i-iii.
[Part 15]
XVII. Agriculture: i. - iii.
[Part 16 – This Week]
XVII. Agriculture
iv. - 00:41
v. - 06:16
vi. - 14:13
Footnote – 13:52
Summing up the figures given on agriculture, figures proving that the inhabitants of the two departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise can live perfectly well on their own territory by employing very little time annually to obtain food, we have:
Departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise
Number of inhabitants in 1889: 3,900,000
Area in acres: 1,507,300
Average number of inhabitants per acre: 2.6
Areas to be cultivated to feed the inhabitants (in acres):—
Corn and Cereals: 494,000
Natural and artificial meadows: 494,000
Vegetables and fruit: from 17,300 to 25,000
Leaving a balance for houses, roads, parks, forests: 494,000
Quantity of annual work necessary to improve and cultivate the above surfaces in five-hour workdays:—
Cereals (culture and crop): 15,000,000
Meadows, milk, rearing of cattle: 10,000,000
Market-gardening culture, high-class fruit: 33,000,000
Extras: 12,000,000
——————
Total: 70,000,000
If we suppose that only half of the able-bodied adults (men and women) are willing to work at agriculture, we see that 70 million work-days must be divided among 1,200,000 individuals, which gives us fifty-eight work-days of 5 hours for each of these workers. With that the population of the two departments would have all necessary bread, meat, milk, vegetables, and fruit, both for ordinary and even luxurious consumption. To-day a workman spends for the necessary food of his family (generally less than what is necessary) at least one-third of his 300 work-days a year, about 1,000 hours be it, instead of 290. That is, he thus gives about 700 hours too much to fatten the idle and the would-be administrators, because he does not produce his own food, but buys it of middlemen, who in their turn buy it of peasants who exhaust themselves by working with bad tools, because, being robbed by the landowners and the State, they cannot procure better ones.