Liberty of
industry and commerce figure in our constitutions on a level with
political liberty. To this liberty, in short, France owes the
growth of her wealth during the last sixty years.
After this capital fact, which establishes so triumphantly the
necessity of competition, I ask permission to cite three or four
others, which, being less general in their nature, will throw
into bolder relief the influence of the principle which I defend.
Why is our agriculture so prodigiously backward? How is it that
routine and barbarism still hover, in so many localities, over
the most important branch of national labor? Among the numerous
causes that could be cited, I see, in the front rank, the absence
of competition. The peasants fight over strips of ground; they
compete with each other before the notary; in the fields, no.
And speak to them of emulation, of the public good, and with what
amazement you fill them! Let the king, they say (to them the
king is synonymous with the State, with the public good, with
society), let the king attend to his business, and we will attend
to ours! Such is their philosophy and their patriotism.
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