fore produced without it; but then, the question presents itself,—to whom shall this additional product be sold? The share of the workingman in this largely increased product must be much smaller in proportion to what his share was before the introduction of the new machinery, otherwise production will not have been made cheaper. There will, therefore, be a larger product to dispose of than there ever was before, and the difficulty of finding customers becomes insuperable.
It may be argued that the additional product which the workingmen will be unable to buy up will be taken up by the capitalists. This seems a very simple way out of it, and sounds very plausible. As a matter of fact, for long centuries this is the way things usually adjusted themselves. Under the old slave and feudal systems there never was such a problem as over-production, for the reason that production being for home consumption the only question that ever presented itself was: how much of the product produced shall be given to the slave or serf and how much of it should go to the slave-holder or feudal baron. When, however, the respective shares of the two classes were determined upon, each proceeded to consume its share without encountering any further trouble. In other words, the question always was, how the products should be divided, and there never was any question of over-production, for the reason that the product was not to be sold in the market but was to be consumed by the persons immediately concerned in its production, either as master or slave. There was no production for the market, and consequently no overstocking of the market. When, by chance, production increased out of all proportion, the product could simply be stored away, and it never interfered with the proper prosecution of the industries in the future.
Not so, however, with our modern capitalistic industry. It is true that all of the product with the exception of that portion which goes to the workingman goes, now as before, to the master, now the capitalist. This, however, does not
