ABC of Economics

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ABC of Economics(1933), Part 1

Ezra Pound

2,306 words

Part 1 of 5

The aim of this brochure is to express the fundamentals of economics so simply and clearlythat even people of different economic schools and factions will be able to understand each

other when they discuss them

!fter about forty pa"es # shall not $descend%, but # shall certainly "o into, $"o down into%

repetitions and restatements in the hope of reachin" this clarity and simplicity

Chapter I

# shall have no peace until # "et the sub&ect off my chest, and there is no other way of

protectin" myself a"ainst char"es of unsystemati'ed, uncorrelated thou"ht, dilettantism, idle

eclecticism, etc, than to write a brief formal treatise

1Dissociations: Or preliminary clearance of the ground.

# be" the reader not to see( implications )hen # express a belief # will say so )hen # am

tryin" to prove somethin", # will say so !t the start # am attemptin" merely to "et the reader

to distin"uish between certain thin"s, for the sa(e of his own mental clarity, before he

attempts to solve anythin"

# shall use the term property as distinct from the term capital

$*apital% for the duration of this treatise implies a sort of claim on others, a sort of ri"ht to

ma(e others wor( Property does not
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+or example y bust by -audier is my property .obody is expected to do anythin" about

it

y bond of the / and railroad is capital omebody is supposed to earn at least 60 dollars

a year and pay it to me because # own such a bond

Therefore it would be possible to attac( the $ri"hts% or $privile"es% of capital without

attac(in" the ri"hts or privile"es of property

nce a"ain, please do not imply Please do not thin( # mean one whit more than what # have

written )hen # want to mean somethin" further # will say it

4issociation 2 verproduction did not be"in with the industrial system .ature habitually

overproduces *hestnuts "o to waste on the mountain side, and it has never yet caused a

world crisis

Chapter II

1 ane en"ineers and wise men tell us that the uestion of production is solved The world%s

producin" plants can produce everythin" the world needs

There is not the faintest reason to doubt this

2 !s mechanical efficiency increases, the abovementioned production will reuire

pro"ressively less human time and effort

3 ane economy demands that this effort should be, for various reasons, apportioned to avery considerable number of people This is not absolutely necessary, but it is advisable #t is

not necessary, since a few million slaves or temperamentally busy human bein"s could

indubitably do the whole wor( for the lot of us They did it for the 7oman 8mpire and

nobody ob&ected save an occasional slave

9 b&ections to slavery are in part ideal and sentimental penly avowed slavery has

nevertheless "one out of fashion

5 #t is pure do"ma to assert that an adult human bein" should be ready to do a reasonable

amount of wor( for his (eep #t is empiric opinion that a man who is constantly tryin" to

spon"e on others and who is unwillin" to do anythin" whatever conducive to the "eneralcomfort or to the maintenance of civili'ation is a mere s(un( and that he ultimately becomes

a blasted bore not only to others but to his own blasted self

6 # assert a simple do"ma an should have some sense of responsibility to the human

con"eries

: !s a mater of observation, very few men have any such sense

; .o social order can exist very lon" unless a few, at least a few, men have such a sense


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4emocracy implies that the man must ta(e the responsibility for choosin" his rulers and

representatives, and for the maintenance of his own $ri"hts% a"ainst the possible and probable

encroachments of the "overnment which he has sanctioned to act for him in public matters

efferson and >ohn !dams observed that in their youn" days

very few men had thou"ht about $"overnment% There were very few writers on

$"overnment% The study of economics is a later arrival !n economic library in 1;00 could

have been pac(ed in a trun(

10 ome economic problems could perhaps be considered viapolitical analo"y, but a "reater

number cannot

Probably the only economic problem needin" emer"ency solution in our time is the problem

of distribution There are enou"h "oods, there is superabundant capacity to produce "oods in

superabundance )hy should anyone starve?

That is the crude and rhetorical uestion #t is as much our uestion as @amlet%s melancholy

was the problem of the renaissance dyspeptic

!nd the answer is that nobody should The $science% or study of economics is intended to

ma(e sure no one does

There is 8nou"h

@ow are you "oin" to "et it from where it is, or can be, to where it is not and is needed?

# spare the reader the old history of barter, etc !pples for rabbits= slips of paper from the

owner orderin" his servants to "ive to the bearer two barrels of beer= "enerali'ed to(ens of

"old, leather= paper inscribed with a $value% as of 16 ounces of copper= metal by wei"ht=

cheues with fantastic fi"ures= all serve or have served to shift wealth, wheat and beef from

one place to another or to move wool cloth from +landers to #taly

)ho is to have these To(ens?

bviously certain men deserve well of humanity or of other limited numbers of men

Those who "row wheat, those who ma(e cloth and harness, those who carry these thin"s

from where they are in superfluity to where they are needed, by pushcarts and airplanes, etc

!.4 !A T@8 who (now where thin"s are, or who discover new and easier means of

"ettin" them $out%, coal from the earth, ener"y from an explosion of "asoline

a(ers, transporters, facilitators and those who contribute to their pleasure or comfort or

whom it pleases them favour usual seuence of children, if they have or want children,

a"ed parents who have earned their affection

!ll of which would seem perfectly simple and idyllic, but then we come to the &am


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ome of these people who wor( or who could and would wor( are left without paper to(ens

omeone else has "ot all the to(ens= or someone else has done all the wor( $needed%

*B7#BA 8.B-@, despite the lon" howls of those who used to complain about bein"

oppressed and overwor(ed, the last thin" human bein"s appear to wish to share is )7C

The last thin" the exploiters want to let their employees divide is labour

#T # .8D87T@8A8 B.48.#!EA8 that if no one were allowed to wor( Fthis year

1


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)e artists have (nown this for a lon" time, and lau"hed )e too( it as our punishment for

bein" artists, we expected nothin" else, but now it occurs to the artisan, and there bein" a lot

of artisans, cler(s, etc, this devilment has led the world into misery There was room for the

artist to dod"e throu"h the crac(s, a few thousand artists could wan"le or ma(e a haul now

and then, but the crac(s won%t pass men by the million

o there has "ot to be some fairness in the issuin" of certificates, or at any rate somethin" has

"ot to be $done% to (eep people from, etc

Chapter IV

*!AA #T ! 4AA!7, or a uid or ten shillin"s or anythin" else you li(e #f a uid is a

certificate of wor( done F"oods producedG and if you produce twice as much as you did

yesterday, you have either "ot to have more uids 7 you have "ot to a"ree, all of you, that

the uid that meant one bushel now means two bushels That is to say if you, in any sense,

mean to play fair

To put it another way, if money is scarce and an ox sells at four pence you can conceivably

have economic &ustice at four pence per ox Eut you can not have social &ustice at four pence

per ox and ten shillin"s per beefstea(

#f ox is four pence, beefstea( must be some small fraction of a farden

!t some a"reed ratio the certificate must function +rom 1


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T@8 +#7T T8P is to (eep the wor(in" day short enou"h to prevent any one man doin"

two or three men%s paid wor(

T@8 8*.4 T8P is the provision of honest certificates of wor( done F"oods produced,

or transported, discoveries, facilitations, etcG

.obody can be left free to fill in cheues with lar"e fi"ures re"ardless of services rendered

es, yes, # have a cheue boo(, but if # "et fanciful the ban( doesn%t pay for my cheue

Eut there be some, alas my brother there be some who can write cheues for "reat fi"ures and

for mysterious reasons )ho, my brother, controlleth the ban(?

#n one country the east wind, and in another country, the west wind #n 8n"land a private firm

has for so lon" done it so uietly that the world has for"otten it !ll that our "reat

"randfathers did for the liberation of the !merican treasury before our fathers were yet in the

e"", has been allowed to slip into oblivion, and we are so little tau"ht economics Fa dry, dulland damned sub&ectG that there are not ten thousand !mericans who are the least aware that a

similar movement, a similar step toward liberty or democracy or individual responsibility and

state control of the national finances simply never occurred in 8n"land o clever was the

Eritish cliue, so astute and so prudent that the $issue has never arisen% The !merican in the

street (nows that 8n"land has a $curious old institution called royalty% Ffunny old thin" out of

the po(er dec(G, but he supposes that the two nations have the same fiscal system Fthat is, if

he ever stops to consider itG

Chapter VII

#t may not be a matter of names ! free private company may administer a nation%s credit as

&ustly and with as little "raft as a board nominally of "overnment officials, bribed or

$influenced% by cliues of friends and acuaintances

The economist is the man who (nows )@!T the board, official or unofficial @BA4 do

for the continued wellbein" of the nation #n other worlds, where and how it should allocate

its certificates of wor( done or its orders to do further wor( and to deliver such and such

products

ABC of Economics(1933), Part 2Ezra Pound
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1,6:; words

Part 2 of 5

Chapter I

On Volition

#t will be ob&ected that # am tryin" to base a system on will, not on intellect !nd that is one

of the main reasons for my writin" this treatise

The criminal classes have no intellectual interests #n proportion as people are without

intellectual interests they approach the criminal classes, and approach criminal psycholo"y

.o economic system is worth a hoot without $"ood will% .o intellectual system of

economics will function unless people are prepared to act on their understandin"

People indifferent to the definition of liberty as $le droit de faire tout ce ui ne nuit pas aux

autres% Ithe ri"ht to do anythin" that does not in&ure others 8dJ will not 4 anythin" about

their economic (nowled"e, whatever be the de"ree of that (nowled"e

People with no sense of responsibility fall under despotism, and they deserve all the possible

casti"ations and afflictions that the worst forms of despotism provide

.o economic system can be effective until a reasonable number of people are interestedin

economics= interested, # should say, in economics as part of the problem what does and what

does not in&ure others That the answer to this is probably identical with the answer to what

is the most enli"htened form of e"otism, does not affect the matter

.o e"oist has the ener"y to attain the maximum of e"oistic enli"htenment

Chapter II

arx has aroused interest far less than the importance of his thou"ht mi"ht seem to have

warranted @e (new, but for"ot or at any rate failed to ma(e clear, the limits of his

economics That is to say, arxian economics deals with "oods for sale, "oods in the shop

The minute # coo( my own dinner or nail four boards to"ether into a chair, # escape from thewhole cycle of arxian economics
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$*an%t move %em with a cold thin" li(e economics%, said r -riffith, the inventor of inn

+ein

.ot one man in a thousand can be aroused to an interest in economics until he definitely

suffers from the effects of an evil system # (now no sub&ect in which it is harder to arouse

any interest whatsoever The cost of thin"s which really interest human bein"s has nothin"whatever to do with their uality ! pleasant woman cost no more than an unpleasant one, in

fact, she probably costs infinitely less

#t costs no more to coo( a dinner well than to coo( it badly ou can, # admit, probably pay

more for a "ood dinner than for a bad one, but what you "et is due to your (nowled"e and not

to the cate"ory of the hotel

The artsof commerce are built on personal application of the laws of value Farxian

metaphysics and the $psycholo"y% of !merican business ballyhooG

ou will "et not further with economics $as a science% until you are ready to mar( out thescope of that science, as you do in the study of chemistry, physics, mathematics

-oods in the window are worth more than the "oods in the basement

The art of commerce whereby the proprietor of one cafK acuires a clientele and his

nei"hbour does not

The luxury of the poor, the luxuriousness of the poor which has for a"es sanctioned the small

shop and the middleman The savin" of steps, # buy my coffee at my front door, not at the

lar"e shop 90 yards off The same applies to my tailor F?G, cobbler and butter merchant

ver a decade a"o, a&or 4ou"las admitted that # had made a contribution to the sub&ect

when # pointed out that my "randfather had built a railroad probably less from a desire to

ma(e money or an illusion that he could ma(e more that way than some other, than from

inherent activity, artist%s desire to !C8 somethin", the fun of constructin" and the play of

outwittin" and overcomin" obstruction

Dery well, # am not proceedin" accordin" to !ristotelian lo"ic but accordin" to the

ideo"ramic method of first heapin" to"ether the necessary components of thou"ht

.one of these $incoherent% or contradictory facts can be omitted ! problem in the resolutionof forces can only be solved when all the forces are ta(en count of #f there be any of them

whose variants we cannot reduce to an euation, that one must remain at least temporarily

outside our $science%

#f # remember it correctly my $Part ne% was concerned mainly with science

The science of economics will not "et very far until it "rants the existence of will as a

component= i.e.will toward order, will toward $&ustice% or fairness, desire for civili'ation,

amenities included The intensity of that will is definitely a component in any solution

Chapter III


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O!ections

(Cf" Part I, Chapter III)

The certificate of wor( done must eual that wor(

EBT

when it is certified that too much corn has been "rown the certificates of its "rowth, or orders

to deliver it, will be less pri'ed That is to say, the tic(et for some particular substance

depreciates in relation to the "eneral tic(et FmoneyG The finance of financiers is lar"ely the

&u""lin" of "eneral tic(ets a"ainst specific tic(ets !s, per example, decline of price in the

wheat pit !ll of which would seem to have been wor(ed out and to be fairly familiar

)hen the certificate is not $money% or common carrier, but a particulari'ed certificate, it is

$&ust% in the sense that the order to deliver so many bushels already $paid for% implies so many

bushels

! certificate made out in $common carrier% will not automatically stabili'ed currency or

produce &ustice, unless some common sense is used in the production of "oods Ffood, etcG

@ence the cries for plannin", etc # mean to say all the ob&ections, etc, to my main thesis lead

us bac( into familiar phenomena

8ither the individual must use his intelli"ence, or some con"eries of individuals Fstate or

whateverG must persuade or foresee or advise or control

.ature overproduces verproduction does no harm until you overmar(et FdumpG

#n politics the problem of our time is to find the border between public and private affairs

#n economics to find a means whereby the commoncarrier may be in such way (ept in

circulation that the individual%s demand, or at any rate his necessary reuirement, shall not

exceed the amount of commoncarrier in his poc(et at any moment, or at his proximate

disposal

! new school of economists says it should be put into his poc(et Fevery wee(, every

mornin", every six months???G

!n old type of mentality as(s whether this would maintain the said individual%s sense of

responsibility, and answers the uestion very emphatically in the ne"ative

# fall bac( on a profession of faith The simplest starting-pointappears to me to be the

individual%s willin"ness to wor( four hours a day between the a"es of twenty and forty

There are doubtless, in modern industry, various directive &obs, etc, that need more

prolon"ed attention, but very few in which an euivalent stint would not serve Ten years at

ei"ht hours a day, as proportionate

*ountin" money as certificate of wor( done, the simplest means of (eepin" moneydistributed Fin le"altender creditslipsG sis to (eep wor( distributed # do not say it is the only


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conceivable means, but # definitely assert that it is the most available means, the simplest, the

one reuirin" least bureaucracy and supervision and interference

!s for overtime

Aet it mean overtime Aet the man wor( four hours for pay, and if he still wants to wor( afterthat, let him wor( as any artist or poet wor(s, let him embellish his home or his "arden, or

stretch his le"s in some form of exercise, or croo( his bac( over a pooltable or sit on his

rump and smo(e @e would "et a "reat deal more out of life, and, supposin" him to have any

rudiments of intelli"ence, he would be infinitely more li(ely to use it and let it "row, and in

any case he would $"et a "reat deal more for his money%

# (now, not from theory but from practice, that you can live infinitely better with a very little

money and a lot of spare time, than with more money and less time Time in not money, but it

is almost everythin" else

8ven suppose that the wa"e for a fourhour day should be $cut% to half the wa"e of an ei"hthour day Fwhich is for various simple reasons unnecessaryLvide infra, *hap #DG, but even

supposin" it were necessary and were done The man on that wa"e, once he were assured of

its continuance, once he had $arran"ed his life% in accordance, and or"ani'ed his other four

hours for private activity, could have a damn si"h better life than he now "ets

Chapter IV

# say $which is for various reasons unnecessary% because the $wa"e% is now measured in

currency which is merely a convention, and a bit of paper with 10 on it is no more difficult to

provide than a bit of paper with 5 or with 20

There are various credit schemes which could ta(e care of the problem of leavin" the fi"ure

10 on the bit of paper, even thou"h the day%s wor( were cut in half

4ou"las would pass out slips to the middleman # have outlined a scheme for passin" them

out viathe factory .either scheme is necessary ! few months a"o the -erman "overnment

proposed an inflation without, apparently, any control

The $need% of such a scheme is possibly due more to the stren"th of habits of mind, to

conventionality in the populace%s thou"hts about money, than to anythin" else

+reedom from worry, inherent in the reasonable certainty of (eepin" one%s &ob, must be worth

at least 25M of !. income

.T8 that this reasonable certainty can only exist when the necessity of pro"ressively

shortenin" the wor(in" day, pari passu with mechanical invention, is "enerally reco"ni'ed

.o arbitrary number of hours set for 1


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Ezra Pound

2,115 words

Part 3 of 5

Chapter I

Costin#

# don%t uite see how anyone is "oin" to dod"e Ffor everG the a&or%s I* @ 4ou"lasNJ

euations

There are various verbal manifestations and various terminolo"ies and various approaches to

the problem

# have be"un with distribution of wor( ! point at which the 4ou"lasites disli(e to be"in #

have "one on to the demand for &ustice in the distribution of credit slips, but that does not

invalidate the a&or%s contention that under the present system there are never enou"h credit

slips to deal with the product= to distribute the product= to purchase the product= to con&u"ate

!. of the necessary verbs of sane economics or of a decent and a"reeable life

The a&or has pointed out the superstition in the computation of costs The reader can loo(

up the details in a number of contemporary wor(s

@e will not find a simpler statement than 4ou"las%s ou pay for the tree every time you buy

a bit of the fruit

bviously the tree has to be maintained, some fraction over and above the worth of the fruit

must be added, but the computation of the faction can and should be free from "ross error

-ross error here could undoubtedly undo the "ood effects of a short wor(in" day !s a

patient may easily die of one disease after you have cured him of another

The reuirements so far on our list are

F1G $oney% as certificate of wor( done
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F2G $)or( done% to be in a sense $inside a system%, that is to say, it must be $necessary% or at

any rate it must be wor( that someone )!.T done The product must be what someone

lac(s SicL# lac( half a loaf of bread daily or thereabouts # lac( a few suits of clothesper

annum, etc

F3G There must be some way for everyone to "et enou"h money or commoncarrier to satisfya reasonable number of lac(s

The simplest road is via wor(, and # suspect any other This is also the first instinctive outcry

#t is empirically observable that the first thin" men as( for is wor(= and only after refusal do

they cry out for free food #f this statement indicates a "reat naOve trust in humanity # am

willin" to stand the char"e

F9G +airness in the issuance of certificates F# thin( the various 4ou"las plans fall mainly

under this headin"G

Chapter II

$i%e is &ot 'one

Time is not money, but is nearly everythin" else That is to say #t is not money, food, raw

materials, women or various fundamental necessities which # cannot at the moment

remember, includin" possibly health, but it is a very important lever to most of them

$.obody, but socialists%, read arx, and there is conseuently little enli"htened discussion of

either his history or his $errors%

# have never, so far as # can recall, seen a contemporary reco"nition of the plain fact that a

man with a lot of spare time can "et a "reat deal more out of life with a very little money,

than an overwor(ed man with a "reat deal # mean apart from polyana

Aeisure is not "ained by simply bein" out of wor( Aeisure is spare time free from anxiety

!ny spare time not absolutely obsessed by worry can be made the means to a $better life%

arx deals with "oods in the shop window or the shop basement The minute # coo( my own

dinner or ma(e the chair that # sit on # escape from the whole cycle of arxian economics #n

consideration of which fact # remain a >effersonian republican, and # believe the presenttroubles, or at any rate the present B !merican or 8n"lish troubles, can be treated from a

>effersonian an"le

ou can throw in *onfucius and Dan Euren, but you must distin"uish between 1;20 and

1


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ne commissioner of labor whose name # have for"otten, did definitely advocate a shorter

wor(in" day .o one has raised any coherent or even publicly avowable ob&ection

.o one has ventured to say that a shorter day would not decrease the number of totally

unemployed

.o one has claimed that it would lead to the creation of more $bureaus% and more

bureaucrats, and more sassy typists to ta(e notes of vacuous commissioners and sit on their

obese laps in "overnment offices

.aturally there is no very clear outcry for shorter hours from the wor(men themselves

The labor party in !merica is not rich in economist ou can%t arouse any very fiery passion

on the bare plea of less wor( #t spells less pay to most hearers

Ey simple extensions of credit Fpaper creditG it would probably be possible to leave the

nominal pay exactly where it is, but it reuires an almost transcendent comprehension of

credit to understand this

The plain man cannot in any way comprehend that the accelerated movement of money when

everybody has a little means "reater comfort than the constipated state of thin"s when a lot of

people have none

The fiery laborite wants the unemployed paid out of the rich man%s poc(et The rich man%s

poc(et happens to be a mere pipe and not an inexhaustible upsprin"in" fountain

.aturally all men desire to pass the buc( The immediate effect of distributin" wor(, under

the present system, means that wor(in" men would have to divide with wor(in" men #tcannot, therefore, be a very popular cause

The benefits of a shorter day would be diffused, everyone would in a few months 78ceive

them, but it would ta(e probably lon"er to P87ceive them !nnoyances stri(e more uic(ly

than comforts

Tell any man that he can live better on 90 shillin"s a wee( and an extra two hours per day to

himself, than he can on 50 shillin"s without the two hours and see how little he believes you

The idea that prices would come down sounds li(e a pipe dream Prices have always ad&usted

themselves to the current spendin" powers of the "eneral public, but that a"ain is a "eneralidea

Two hours more per day to loaf, to thin(, to (eep fit by exercise of a different set of muscles,

as distinct from overwor( and the spectacle of several millions in idleness H

# am an expert # have lived nearly all my life, at any rate all my adult life, amon" the

unemployed !ll the arts have been unemployed in my time

Chapter III

ree $rade


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+ree Trade mi"ht be possible between two countries if they had for each other a full and

wholly enli"htened "ood will, provided they had first attained an almost perfect ad&ustment of

their own internal affairs

#t need hardly be said that for the last century or more, the practice of "overnments has been

to ne"lect internal economy= to commit every conceivable villainy, devilry, and idiocy and toemploy forei"n affairs, conuests, dumpin"s, exploitations as a means of distractin" attention

from conditions at home, or to use the spoils of sava"es as palliatives to domestic sores or in

producin" an eyewash of $prosperity% #n the sense that such prosperity is useful as $bait%= as

spectacular fortunes= as $the chance% of "ettin" rich

Chapter IV

'althus

#n practice it has been shown that families who do not overproduce, that is, who be"et no

more children than they can support, have been able to maintain decent standards of livin",and that other families do not

#t is probably useless to propound theories of perfect "overnment or of perfect economics for

human bein"s who are too demnition stupid and too i"norant to acuire so rudimentary a

perception of cause and effect

b&ections to this system are raised and are conceivably raisable on the score of national

"reatness, etc .evertheless we are told that @olland has maintained decent standards of

livin", etc, by not over populatin" herself The system is supposed Ffor wholly arcane

reasonsG to wor( for a small nation and not for a lar"e

#t would wor( The only ob&ection to it is that curtailment of the philopro"enitive instinct may

not be necessary r possibly on practical "rounds, that the present state of bi"otry and idiocy

prevent the curtailment, and that the inadeuate pro"ress of education is not able to achieve

it et sparely populated districts are not necessarily the most prosperous The remedy is to

be recommended only at close ran"e for the individual family livin" in a bad economic

system #t cannot be made the bac(bone of enli"htened economics on the "rand scale uch

economics, now, bein" little more than a study of how we can B8 our resources, not how

we can refrain from employin" them

Bntil we have decent economics the sane man will refuse to overbreed !nd pity for the lar"epoor family will continue to be pity for idiotic lac( of prevision

#t may be that all, or most, sciences start from sufferin" or from pity= but once a science is

started these emotions have no place in that science

-ive a people an almost perfect "overnment, and in two "enerations they will let it run to rot

from sheer la'iness Fvidethe B! where not one person in ten exercises his ri"hts and not

one person in ten thousand has the faintest idea of the aims and ambitions of the country%s

"reat founders and lawma(ers Their dun" has covered their headsG

#t is nevertheless one%s duty to try to thin( out a sane economics, and to try to enforce it bythat most violent of all means, the attemptin" to ma(e people thin(


15/34

Proof of this last statement is very obscure # suppose the only warrant for it is the capacity to

thin( and the sense of obli"ation thereby conferred

Chapter V

*elf+elp

The fore"oin" is not mere nihilism, or mere invainism or mere uietism, nor is it so far off

the sub&ect as it mi"ht seem= the point is that . .8 in any society has the ri"ht to blame

his troubles on any one else Aiberals and liberal thou"ht socalled have been a mess of mush

because of this unac(nowled"ed assumption, and a tendency to breed this state of mind

The law of nature is that the animal must either adapt itself to environment or overcome that

environmentLsoft life and decadence

4ecline of the !merican type, often bewailedH +irst the pioneer, then the boob and the soft

headH +loodin" of peasant type, without peasant perseverance and peasant patience in face oflow returnH

!bility to thin(, part of the adaptation to environmentH

Aa'iness of whole "enerationsH !ll the bac(bone of >efferson%s thou"ht and of Dan Euren%s

for"ottenH Eenefits of the latter, lost in civil war and post civil war financeH

!ll of which is not wholly alien to my sub&ect

!ll uestions of how measures can be ta(en, how enforced, are uestions of politics

8*.#* is concerned with determinin" )@!T financial measures, what methods or

re"ulations of trade, etc, must be ta(en, or can most advanta"eously be ta(en of decreed by

"overnment whatever its nature, or by whatever elected or hapha'ard or private or dictatorial

bodies or individuals control trade, credit, money, etc

*ertain thin"s are wise, let us say, for the "overnors of the Ean( of 8n"land Fa private

corporationG and wise for the B +ederal 7eserve Eoard, appointed by an elected president,

and would be eually wise or eually foolish for a body directly elected by the people

8n"land, as we have remar(ed, "ave herself to a "an" of ban(ers a"es a"o .o oneremembers why #t is no concern of a forei"ner The Eritish wished it or at least some Eritish

wished it, and now the rest don%t, apparently, mind

!ll these thin"s are part of politics 8conomics is concerned with what should be done, not

with how you are "oin" to "et a controllin" "roup of men to carry out an idea= but with the

idea, with the proper euations !s you mi"ht say the Ealdwin Aocomotive )or(s are

concerned with ma(in" en"ines that will pull trains, not with which direction they are to run

-ood economics are as sound for 7ussia as for the B!

There may even be several economic solutions to any problem -asoline and coal both serveas fuel


16/34

ABC of Economics, Part -

Ezra Pound

9,:;1 words

Part 9 of 5

Chapter I

Politics, . &ecessar Di#ression

cience or no science an economic system or lac(ofsystem is bound to be affected by the

political system in which or beside which it exists, and more especially by the preconceptions

or pre&udices or predispositions and attitudes implied in the political system

The preconception of democracy, let us say at its best, democracy as it existed in the minds of

>efferson and Dan Euren, is that the best men, kaloikagathoi, etc, )#AA T!C8 T@8

T7BEA8 to place their ideas and policies before the ma&ority with such clarity and

persuasiveness that the ma&ority will accept their "uidance, ie $be ri"ht%

The preconception of let us say the !damses, or aristodemocratic parties is that privile"e, alittle of it, will breed a sense of responsibility

The further Toryism is that the best should be served

#n practice it is claimed that the best "et tired or fail to exert themselves to the necessary

de"ree

#t seems fairly proved that privile"e does .T breed a sense of responsibility #ndividuals, let

us say exceptional individuals in privile"ed classes, maintain the sense of responsibility, but

the "eneral ruc(, namely


17/34

This is as true of financial privile"e as of political privile"e

The apparent exception seems to occur at the birth of any new privile"ed class, which

amounts to sayin" that any new "overnin" class is bound to be composed of exceptional men,

or at any rate of men havin" more ener"y and bein" therefore more fit FaptG to "overn than

their fellows

The dross of the intelli"ent'ia, lac(in" the force to "overn, constantly try to spread the belief

that T@8 are the $best%, the agathoi, etc

bviously no best, no even "ood, "overnin" class can be spineless= this applies even to an

administrative class, or people administerin" economics The term $"ood% in either case must

include a capacity for action= some sense of relation between action and mere thou"ht or tal(

! lot of rot is tal(ed and written on the assumption of political and economic laws existin" in

vacuo

# "o on writin" because it appears to me that no thou"htful man can in our time avoid tryin"

to arran"e those thin"s in his own mind in an orderly fashion, or shir( comin" to conclusions

about them, ie as man livin" perforce amon" other men, affected by their actions, and by his

affectin" them

To separate ideas that are not identical and to determine their relations

!s to the history of the sub&ect, a fi" for that history save in so far as it applies to the present

and to the day after tomorrow

! democracy, the ma&ority which $decides% in a democracy functionin" as such, would

presumably choose sound economics shortly after it had learned to distin"uish the sound

from the unsound ub&ects of an autocrat would obey, and continue obeyin" the economic

decisions of their ruler or rulers as lon" as the orders were economically sound, and for a

considerable period after those orders were unsound Darious durations of patience in

intermediate forms of "overnment

! brea(, revolution, chaos, need not imply any new discovery or ambition or new form of

soundness= it is, nevertheless, usually en"ineered in the name of some form of &ustice, or

some social belief with economic implications

The point is that the orders of an omniscient despot and of an intelli"ent democracy would be

very much ali(e in so far as they affected the main body of the country%s economics )hether

as independent citi'ens, individuals, etc, or as pac( animals, the nutrition of the population

would have its importance

+or any particular country, the most immediate road thereto has a "ood deal to be said in

its favor and that road would start +7 the conditions in which the said country finds itself

at the moment

The present moment, the moment under consideration

Chapter II


18/34

*apital is "enerally considered as perdurable, eternal and indestructible This is probably an

error -old coin in circulation wears down, whence paper currency, to save attrition Paper

has to be renewed The expense is triflin" but mathematically extant

>ewels mi"ht seem to be property and not capital They or precious metal can be buried in

cellars )hence they wor( as a ma"net

bserve the force of the wildest and mildest hopes of profit, and consider the imponderabilia

that enter into any consideration of credit F$the expectation that the other man will pay%G

! further point is that not only particular masses of credit may rot, but that the credit of !.

economic system, ua system, may rot

.ot only may a year%s crop fail, but the tree itself may

There have been socalled systems based not on any sound thou"ht or euation but on

nothin" more than a temporary accident= as say the chance of swappin" "lass beads to theheathen, or the monopoly of a trade route, or the willin"ness of #ndians to swap forty suare

miles of land for a rifle

ome of these systems have lasted for a least three hundred years .ile tolls are at the

be"innin" of history Cublai understood paper currency The antuans in the uattrocento

considered a cloth pool on the lines of the @oover "overnment%s buyin" of wheat There is

probably no inventable scheme or measure that can%t be upholstered with historic

bac("round

Chapter III

In 1933 /here are /e0

1 +or civili'ed countries the problem of production is solved There are doubtless particular

products not producible in particular "eo"raphic areas, and particular uncivili'ed areas where

industriali'ation, improved methods of production would solve the local troubles, but for the

$"reat powers% etc, the problem is not production

2 The shortenin" of the wor(in" day Fsay to five or four hoursG would so aid the "eneral

distribution in all civili'ed countries that they could carry on without other chan"es for a

considerable period

3 Eut this would not in the lon" run permit them perpetually to dod"e the problem of a fair

andor adeuate distribution of credit slips *alled the problem of money or of the fiduciary

system

That is the main uestion and the overwhelmin" uestion of economic science #t is, # should

assert, open to permanent solution cientific solution

9 Eut a permanent and scientific solution of it would still leave us with the necessity

of practicin" the !7T of economics= that is to say, we should still have to exercise constant

vi"ilance with the same ca"iness that the peasant shows in selectin" his next crop There is noway of dispensin" with the perceptive faculties +ive year planners, ten year planners, clever


19/34

men, etc, will for ever have to "uess and to try to "uess ri"ht reLwhat is to be produced and

how much and when

a(e fair the distribution of paper slips certifyin" wor( done, (eep the wor( distributed

amon" a sufficient proportion of the people, and you still must have constant ca"iness not to

find yourself in ctober with nothin" but wheat, or nothin" but aluminium fryin" pans

!nd toward this end, there is probably no euation other than the "reatest watchfulness of the

"reatest number of the most competent

ne man asleep at a switch can very "reatly discommode uite a "ood railway

#n a world of Creu"ers and ellons you mi"ht say the switchboards are enveloped Fon

purposeG in dar(ness )hat # am "ettin" at is, that with all the solvable problems solved, clear

and in the open, there will still be $opportunity%, there will still be need to use wits

Chapter IV

Inflation

(*cience as possil distinct fro% art in econo%ics)

#nflation was said to be $understood% in -ermany after the war There are now almost

universal cries for inflation F-ermany, B!, and elsewhereG

There are very few demands for controlof inflation

#nflation is perhaps the ambi"uous or camoufla"in" homonym for a do'en or more

manoeuvres

4issociate what we can +or many people it means merely abandonin" the "old standard

erely havin" certificates for somethin" other than precious metal

The ban(s Fthe bo"ymenG inflate and deflate at will, or appear to

)e are told that the tariffs on money are too hi"h, and the tellers are answered that the ban(

rates on overni"ht money are almost nil o that is not the real crux The ban(s possibly use

their freedom to inflate and deflate to their own disproportionate advanta"e

T) sorts of nations exist those which control their finances and those which $are

financed%

There are, # ta(e it, intermediate de"rees, nations that try more or less to control part of their

finances, or that exercise a semiconscious control over their finances, or have an

unconscious influence on them

The !merican FBG treasury was $freed% about a century a"o #t was somewhat confused by

the civil war, etc


20/34

nce a"ain we are not even concerned with @) a people or nation is to "et control of its

economics but with )@!T it ou"ht to do with them if it did "et control

!nother form of the uestion is what price should it insist on "ettin" from the present

controllers if it continues to tolerate their control, ie what is the minimum For maximumG of

intelli"ence and of intelli"ent measures it should demand of its $owners% or financiers

)e have stated at least part of this in the formula

!48QB!T8 Fand more or less &ustG distribution of credit slips Fcertificates of wor( done,

etcG

# have put $!48QB!T8% in capital and $&ust% in lower case because that is the order of their

importance

There is a very "reat mar"in of error, a very "reat coefficient of in&ustice possible in a uite

wor(able and uite comfortable economic system The iller of 4ee and the rest of it ncea human bein" is comfortable, even tolerably comfortable without actual sufferin" and free,

more or less, from #84#!T8 worry, he will not bother Fto an almost incredible de"ree he

will refuse to botherG about economics

Eut an inadeuate distribution of creditslips will upset the whole system, any system= it will

heap up obstacles before anyone is aware, it will heap them up all over the place and without

ascribin" responsibility to anyone in particular, and without offerin" handy solutions

Chapter V

.deuate 4ith 5ueries aout *olutions

The ahometans ran on a shareout system

# for"et whether every fanatic "ot an eual share #t don%t much matter, it was so lon" a"o,

but at any rate they had national dividends, at least as lon" as they continued to conuest

#t is difficult to conceive national dividends in our day and in our countries without a noisome

increase in bureaucracy

.ational dividends have wor(ed in the past Bndoubtedly most people would li(e to receiveten "uineas a month is crisp bills from the postman or other trusted minion of officialdom

#t sounds so easy, so easy that hardly anyone Fincludin" the authorG can believe it

#t seems as if the recipients ou"ht at least to "o throu"h the motions, or to hold themselves

ready to do somethin" useful in return for the bonan'a, or at least to (eep awa(e and ma(e

sure that somethin" was bein" done, that the "reenbac(s or Eradbury%s or whatever, meant

and continued to mean somethin" other than "reenbac(s

# seem to remember a time when a&or 4ou"las wrote boo(s without mention of national

dividends


21/34

# am now ma(in" simply a catalo" or list of offered $solutions% # am inclined to leave the

national dividendists to show @) they will insure the perennial delivery of needed "oods

a"ainst distributed "reenbac(s # am not denyin" the possibility # merely await fuller

enli"htenment

!s nearly as # can recall 4ou"las%s early expositions, he claimed that in the present system acertain proportion of the creditslips, or what should be the uantity of same, were suc(ed up

or absorbed or caused to disappear

# am purposely puttin" this the $other way on% to see whether the idea is sufficiently will

constructed to stand bein" &o""led about

#n the $present industrial system%, wor( is done, "oods produced, and the manufacturers,

owners, traders, etc, demand from the public more creditslips than the wor( is worth, or at

any rate more creditslips than the "overnments and ban(s will permit to be available a"ainst

that wor(

!nd the effect is cumulative There are constantly more "oods and constantly fewer and

fewer valid certificates, which same leads to constipation

!nd a"ain, if # remember ri"htly, a&or 4ou"las explained how the wan"le was wan"led

!ccordin" to him, if # translate correctly, a certain part of the creditslips received by the

entrepreneurswas wormed down a sort of tube, i.e.instead of eualin" the cost for the thin"

made and "iven for it, it eualed that cost plus part of the machinery used in producin" the

article Fpart of the plantG

!nd nothin" was done a"ainst this amount of credit ta(en in from the public and hidden #tflowed continually down into the "round, down into somebody%s poc(et

7esultLconstantly more and more "oods for saleLconstantly fewer certificates of wor(

done

o that to (eep thin"s even, one would have either to print more slips, or to compute the cost

in some other way, ie to distin"uish between real cost and costs accordin" to the traditional

boo((eepin"

!ccordin" to traditional boo((eepin" the a&or%s reuirements would have meant that

impossible thin" sales under cost Eut he fi"ured that they would not be less than the realcost, and that the paradox was all on paper

!ll of which reuires a bit of thin(in"

anifestly we have seen companies buildin" new plants out of $profits% anifestly we have

seen crises

Chapter VI

The fore"oin" is perhaps very confusin" # state in one place the ma(er ou"ht to "et

certificate of wor( done, a fair certificate euivalent T the wor( done


22/34

Then # appear Fto some readersG to say that he "ets too much )hen # ou"ht apparently to say

that he "ets too little

There is no contradiction @e "ets too much, or as(s too much for some of his product, and is

unable to "et anythin" for the rest

Aet us say he ma(es one million brooms that really cost him 3d each

@e asserts Fin accordance to inherited beliefs of his accountantsG that they cost him 5d and

must be sold for 6d

@e sells 900,000 for 6d, has 600,000 left on his hands, and ultimately "oes bust 4espite the

fact that five hundred or seven hundred thousand people could use the brooms

That is an $impossible case% r rather it is a crude statement, and there are various

intermediate conditions

ay he drops his price to 1d and sells his six hundred thousand spare brooms, and thereby

ruins some other manufacturer, etc, etc

y ima"inary example is merely to show that hi"h price needn%t ensure perpetual success,

and needn%t be the best possible commerce

The issue of credit For moneyG must be &ust, ie neither too much nor too little

!"ainst every hour%s wor( Fhuman or (ilowatt hourG, an hour%s certificate That can be the

first step That can be scientific Bltimately it must be scientific

Eut it will not "et you out of the necessity of usin" intelli"ence reLwhat and how much you

produce

)hat? can be answered by $8verythin" useful or desirable%

!nd the how much can be answered by $all that is wanted% with allowance over for accidents

That may sound very va"ue, but it is nevertheless reducible to mathematical euations and

can be scientifically treated

The euations Fal"ebraic euationsG will not mean merely any old uantity turned out

hapha'ard

Their answer will "overn the len"th of the wor(in" day Ey which # still mean the number of

hours% wor( per day for which a man ispaid ver and above which, he can paint pictures on

his wall, stuff his armchairs, breed fi"htin" coc(s, buy lottery tic(ets, or indul"e in any form

of fru"ality or wastefulness that suits his temperament so lon" as he confines his action to his

ownpropertyFvidedefinition in Part #, *hapter #G

o lon" as his action is confined to his own home and front yard

Chapter VII


23/34

Di#ression perhaps 6nnecessar

Personally # favor a home for each individual, in the sense that # thin( each individual should

have a certain amount of cubic space into which he or she can retire and be exempt from any

outside interference what so damn ever

+rom that # should build individual ri"hts, and as they move out from that cubicle or inverted

trape'oid they should be modified by balancin" and counterpoise of the samesprun" ri"hts

of others, up to the ri"hts of the state or the con"eries

Parallels political and economic

Chapter VIII

Econo%ics

There would seem to be the followin" (inds of error or crime in the issuance of creditslipsa"ainst wor(

1 The issuers may refuse to issue any slips, or adeuate slips a"ainst the wor(

2 They may issue too many

3 They may issue them in such a way that for products produced and distributed in a

complicated manner too much of the credit "oes to some, or some (ind of the labour, and not

enou"h to some other

The terms $labour%, $wor(%, throu"hout this discussion apply to the man with a shovel, the

cler(, the transporter, the entrepreneur, etc 8veryone who acts in the transposition of the

article from mother earth to the eater Feye of beholder, hand of userG

Chapter I7

# (now of no alphabetic or primer simplification of the uestions of de and inflation # mean

nothin" easier to comprehend than the history of some particular instance, say the story of

Dan Euren versus Eiddle in the 1;30s

!t the other end of the scale, 4ou"hty%sArabia Desertaor Aeo%s history of the ei"hth andninth centuries can illumine the reader reLwhat occurs when there is . production

The point is that in any system, in any conceivable system, there arise similar problems,

whether under oviet or +lorentine Ean(er

1 The "oods needed,

2 The transport,

3 The use or consumption The necessity of motion, which means both of "oods and of the

$carrier%,


24/34

9 onetary carrier

! small amount of $money% chan"in" hands rapidly will do the wor( of a lot movin" slowly,

etc, etc

!s in mechanics some si'es of machine are found fit for some wor(, etc, detailedapplications without chan"e of principle +ruits of experience as to detail ideas as to main

causes

This loo(s li(e a mare%s nest or li(e wilful confusionH )hat the a&or said fifteen years a"o

matters less than "ettin" a valid and clear statement

The manufacturer is $paid% in two ways under the present system @e "ets $money% or $is

owed% money for what he sells, and he "ets ability to borrow from ban(s, ie his action and

potentiality to produce enable him to "et credit as will as payments Fcash and deferredG and

the ban(s "et more credit than they "ive @#, ie he has to hand part of it bac( to them, and

for the part he hands bac( he "ets no direct credit, thou"h he may "et the ability to have moreFon similar termsG

Perhaps the only value of these statements is a test value # mean that # am merely sayin" 5

and 2 ma(e : in place of the other economists% statements that 2 and 5 ma(e :, to see whether

either they or their readers understand their previous statements

!fter all, this is a very rudimentary treatise

Ey the time the ban(s have "ot more credit than they "ave the manufacturer, the potential

consumer hasn%t enou"h credit to purchase the needed "oods )here would he "et it? Theban(s will always "ive him less than he has to "ive them They are not there for their health

The boo((eepin" cost of the "oods is the cost FrealG of the "oods plus the cost of the money,

or the rent of the money

# ta(e it that in the perfect economic state the cost of the money is reduced almost to nothin",

to somethin" li(e the mere cost of posta"e, and that this cost is borne by the state, i.e.

distributed so as to be a burden on no one in particular

nce that end is attained, the "eneral intelli"ence can apply itself to the problem of what and

how much to produce

The state conceived as the public convenience oney conceived as a public convenience

.either as private bonan'a

Chapter 7

&o8elties

The possibility of novelties in economics is probably somewhat exa""erated @ume by 1:50

is already tal(in" of paper credit and cites someone or other to the effect that the "reat

amount of "old coin in !thens seemed to be no use to the !thenians save in facilitatin"arithmetic


25/34

Twenty years a"o we were as(ed to thin( that someone was bein" a $modern% with a lar"e

$% economist because he $left out money%

ome (now and many fail to state or (eep clearly in mind the need of money, which is the

need of a common denominator +7 T@8 !C8 + !**B.T#.-, so as not to send

boo((eepers cra'y with columns of ten horses, twelve cows, nine locomotives *onsider thechips in a po(er "ame, more convenient than to have each man bettin" his shirt, watch and

cufflin(s

! -7!D87 +!#AB78 to dissociate is in the nature of wealth *rises in the shei( and sheep

trade seldom occur # mean that the primitive "ra'er counts his property in sheep and is not

continually worried if he cannot sell out his whole herd

@alf the modern trouble is the mania or hallucination or ide fixeof !7C8T and mar(et

value The fundamental difference in wealth is that of animal, ve"etable and mineral

(in"doms

!ll manufactured articles parta(e of the main property of the latter, namely, they do not

increase and multiply

The shepherd%s sheep multiply, the crops that are sown multiply, and neither reuires much

wor( # mean the shepherd sits around, with a boy and a do" The dan"ers from bears and

wolves and other incidents of primitive shepherd%s life have been diminished #n le"endary

countries he may still do odd &obs of (nittin"

The sheep supply clothin" F>efferson%s calculation was that one sheep per person "ave

sufficient woolG The meat is disa"reeable but nutritive There is no uestion of (eepin" theshepherd +BAA employed

*rops demand wor( Ftoo muchG at special seasons

Eut with a minimum of care crops and sheep multiply

our possessions and mine do not multiply our tables, pianos, etc, remain set as a mineral,

but you can%t "et more by di""in" up the floor of your cellar

@ume already saw that $the increase and consumption Fitalics mineG of all the commodities,

which serve to the ornament and pleasure of li(e, are advanta"es to society= because, at thesame time they multiply those innocent "ratifications to individuals, they are a (ind of

storehouse Fitalics hisG of labour which in the exi"encies of the state, may be turned to the

public service%

@ume mi"ht have served as a warnin"= for his $exi"encies of state% are mainly war, which

fact ou"ht to have made people thin( a bit more deeply # su""est that it didn%t, for the simple

reason that they didn%t in the least understand his first proposition

.o boo( can do !AA a man%s thin(in" for him The utility of any statement is limited by the

willin"ness of the receiver to thin(


26/34

The practices of rent and interest arise out of the natural disposition of "rain and animals to

multiply The sense of ri"ht and &ustice which has sustained the main practice of rent and

interest throu"h the a"es, despite countless instances of particular in&ustice in the application,

is inherent in the nature of animals and ve"etable

There is no need to postulate any "reater perversion than natural indolence, and that in itselfis insufficient as postulate There has always been a supply of slac(ers, members of less

civili'ed tribes, or nonpossidentes ready and "lad to watch sheep for part of the wool The

impulse of the +rench in our day to "et wor( out of the *on"o is wholly traditional and

$normal%

!s for sellin" children into servitude, etc, the whole problem is no lon"erLbut at many

periods of history has been hardly more thanLthe duration of mortmain @ow lon" shall the

dead hand rule, and to what extent?

The two extremes superstitious sacrosanctity of $property% versus >efferson%s $The earth

belon"s to the livin"%, which was part do"ma, and part observation of a fact so obvious that ittoo( a man of "enius to perceive it

#t led >efferson to the belief that no nation has the ri"ht to contract debts not payable within

the lifetime of the contractor, which he interpreted to mean the lifetime of the ma&ority of the

contractors who were of a"e at the date of contract o that from a first estimate of thirtyfive

years, he finally fixed on nineteen years as the limit of validity of such debts

Ey the li"ht of his intelli"ence !merican economics improved from the time of the revolution

till the confusion of the B civil war

.o system of economics can be valid unless it ta(e count of this inherence in ve"etable and

animal nature Fwhich inherence includes or extends to $overproductionG

The term $overproduction% usually means $more of a thin" than will sell%I1J

Chapter 7I

Dissociate Per%anence fro% Per%anence

4issociate the perdurability of "ranite from the perdurability of "rain or of a species of

animals ome people seem to demand the same (ind of durability from a "erminatin"or"anism as they do from the lump of roc(

!t the other end of the scale they say ! ban( mana"er need (now nothin" save the

difference between a bill and a mort"a"e everal $"reat financiers% and pri'ereceivin"

$economists% in our time fail to ma(e this distinction

8conomic habits arise from the nature of thin"s Fanimal, mineral, ve"etableG 8conomic mess,

evil theories are due to failure to (eep the different nature of different thin"s clearly distinct

in the mind

The economic $revolution% or an economic revolution occurred when raw supply ceased to belimited tostaticmineral matter Fplus animal and ve"etable increasesG


27/34

The minute wor( be"an to be in "reat measure $raw supply% the need for a chan"e in

economic concepts arose

The minute you have practically unlimited stores of wor( at your disposal, by the simple

device of lettin" water run down hill throu"h a pipe onto a turbine For any other deviceG, you

have "ot to be"in to read&ust your mental derivatives

.ot only will sheep "o on be"ettin" each other, without much attention from the shepherd,

but li"hts will shine, stoves "ive heat, trains move, etc, while a couple of men watch a

dynamo

The cattle drover fed his family The turbine can wor( for the "roup 8ven the idea of

national dividends Fwhich # disli(eG seems less "oofy from this an"le

#t is as idiotic to expect members of a civili'ed twentiethcentury community to "o on

wor(in" ei"ht hours a day as it would be to expect the shepherd to try to "row wool on his

sheep by hand= the farmer to blow with his own breath on each buried seed to warm it= thepoulterer to sit on his hens% e""s

Chapter 7II

People are so little used, or shall we say the readers of boo(s and papers are so little used to

usin" their eyes, or so little traveled as never to have seen simple phenomena

@as the reader ever seen women at a well curb, or at a public spi"ot or pump?

Citchen plumbin", the spi"ot in the home, means half an hour%s idleness For leisureG per dayto every female member of the community F*ivili'ed community as compared with the

sava"e and with many very far from sava"e communitiesG

This is not a theory of the leisure class #t is a fact of leisure humanity Fie civili'ed human

lifeG

&ote

1 !fter the last war @enry +ord as an experiment bro(e up a number of armoured vessels @e

made no money profit, he "ot bac( what it cost him, and he was left with a "reat number of

en"ines, which, for all # (now, he still has There is no reason to suppose that these en"inesdo any harm, any more than the ruins of !i"ues ortes or *arcassonne

es, they occupy space ou don%t want %em in Piccadilly *ircus # have also seen a si"n

translatable as $ountain to let, capable of enalpin" 30,000 muttons% There is still room to

breathe and wal( about the face of the planet

ABC of Economics, Part &Conclusion

Ezra Pound

2,;10 words
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Part 5 of 5

Chapter I

'inor .ddenda and Varia

# have never met a "ambler with an ounce of intelli"ence, but the pre&udice a"ainst lotteries is

in the cate"ory of superstitions, totemism and taboo Aotteries can harm only the imbeciles

who buy tic(ets, but these imbeciles appear to be wholly in their own ri"ht !s a means of

collectin" money for state purposes no sound reason has ever been adduced a"ainst this sanesafety valve

The instinct has been romantici'ed, doubtless in special cases it is the only dan"er some men

can incur and the only chance of adventure they "et # doubt if it would "reatly survive in a

sane commonwealth, but the world has not yet seen such a commonwealth The pre&udice is

part of the puritan imbecility, which is at root a disease, be"otten of the worst in nature

There is, however, every reason why the imbecile pastime should be isolated, ie confined in

its effect to those who voluntarily "amble, and that it should not be allowed to affect the price

of foodstuffs and necessities

The whinin"s of a )hitney and the yowls of stoc( &obbers are no better than any other form

of "an"ster%s sobstuff

The purpose of an act is one of its dimensions= is a component of its specific "ravity, and no

one ever yet claimed to have sold short, or ri""ed the stoc( mar(et, save in the hope of

pic(in" other men%s poc(ets

There is nothin" to be said a"ainst any "an" of thieves playin" po(er except that they are

playin" with other men%s money )hen members of a stoc( exchan"e play a"ainst each other

without affectin" the food and welfare of members of the community who have no chance of

profitin" by the play and in any case no voice in the layin" of the bets, the said bro(ers, etc,

cannot ma(e much showin" as sportsmen
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They have had a fair amount of time to show what they have done for their countries and so

far haven%t been able to di" up even a &ournalist liar to write them a tombstone !s a public

utility they are not a success

#t is perfectly easy to dissociate investment from speculation= it is fairly easy to spin cobwebs

over the borders of the dissociation ! stoc( exchan"e confined to the buyin" and sellin" forreal investors would doubtless be very very dull, and many of the present practitioners and

scoundrels would ta(e to "olf and chic(enfarmin" in preference to such ovine tranuillity,

but we are not out to "uarantee the private amusements of a few hundred or a few thousand

barons

#t would be much better from the bono publicostandpoint if they were to (ill themselves

racin" motorboats, "et their (ic(s playin" the races, and leave the small fry to roulette and

the lotteries 8conomics, as a science, has no messianic call to alter the instincts

hort of an absolute state ownership of all property there will always be plenty of chance for

men to $ma(e fortunes% with serious construction in industry The fewer fa(e diamond mines,the more li(ely new inventions and amplifications will be to find support

.T8 The printin" of fine boo(s improved "reatly after the 1


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The analo"y in the 1


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9 !.4 the certificates of value, preferably le"al tender and $"eneral%, in the sense that they

should be "ood for wheat, iron, lumber, dress "oods, or whatever the heart and stomach

desire

!nd Frepeatin" an earlier propositionG, everybody must be able to "et a certain number of

these certificates on what mi"ht be called decent conditions, ie without torture and withoutexcessive worry

Preferably on $fair terms%, namely that the conditions for "ettin" them must not be violently

different in the cases of !, E and *

+or the nth time, # repeat that the strai"htest road to such a desirable condition is via the

formula a small amount of wor( for everyone, with a certificate of wor( done as the

conseuence

The brains of the nation or "roup to be used to discernin" )@!T wor( is most needful, what

wor( is less necessary and what is desirable even thou"h not strictly necessary

uch wor( should be paid #t would not fill up any man%s day

The rest of his day he could employ in expressin" his difference of opinion with the ma&ority,

and in such $wor(% or activity as he Fas distinct from the brains of the country officially

or"ani'edG mi"ht consider proper, necessary or desirable

Bltimately your credit board or your ban( scoundrels or whoever is the financial and

economic executive would have one main function and would be &ud"ed intelli"ent or

imbecile accordin" as this was performed with competence They are there to determine, andso far as possible to (eep steady, the rate of increase in the printed certificates of value

!nd their motivation should be the bonum publicum, the commonweal and not the shiftin"

and sha(in" the sieve for the benefit of a few hi"hlyplaced croo(s, scoundrels and exploiters

The most opportune citation is from a paniard whose name is not, in my source, printed,

debatin" the new constitution, he observed that where the financial influences had been too

stron" and uncontrolled, freedom had suffered

T@8 E!8 + 8*.#* are so simple as to render the sub&ect almost wholly

uninterestin"

The complication of the sub&ect is hardly a complication, it arises

! from the extreme difficulty of foreseein" what will be wanted=

E from the rascally nature of certain men, from selfishness of exploiters and those in

$favoured positions% who fear to lose an $advanta"e%

The best system of "overnment, economically spea(in", is that which best balances the four

elements listed above, be it republic, monarchy, or soviet or dictatorship #n future it will

probably be a republic save in special cases, but republic or soviet, the "overnment which


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best mana"es this balance, which mana"es it with the least bun( and blah and the "reatest

honesty, will and should probably prevail $as a system of "overnment%

Chapter III

Dictatorship as a *i#n of Intelli#ence

Popular fancy and Audwi"ian cheap&ac(ery show the dictator as man of the hour, force of

will, favoured of fortune

The phrase $intelli"ence% is more interestin" ussolini as intelli"ent man is more interestin"

than ussolini as the Ei" tic( The 4uce%s aphorisms and perceptions can be studied apart

from his means of "ettin" them into action

$)e are tired of a "overnment in which there is no responsible person havin" a hind name, a

front name and an address%

$Production is done by machines but consumption is still performed by human bein"s%

Chapter IV

.lso his Perception of the Di%ension 5ualit

#t is somethin", it was indeed a bri"ht day when some ruler perceived that there was a limit to

the dimension uantity in the nation%s productivity, # mean a limit to uantity of production

that could be advanta"eous either to a "iven nation or to the world, but that there is no limit to

the dimension uality There have been attained maxima, videmy criticism of arts and lettersfor cited examples, but these attained maxima are not ineluctable limits .othin" forbids us to

desire a better art than that of the Quattrocento )e may be or may not be damned unli(ely to

"et it, but there is no harm in tryin" !t any rate, in the dimension QB!A#T there is ample

field for all human ener"y, no one need feel cramped at havin" only four hours a day for paid

wor(

!fter that, the problem of civili'ation is pretty well outside the domain of the economists

.either the billionaire nor the whole howlin" populace can bribe, coax or bully the artist into

surpassin" his own ualifications

+ive hundred people can "et any (ind of civili'ation they li(e, up tothe capacity of their bestinventor and ma(er Eut all they can do for him is to feed, clothe, and "ive him leisure and

space to wor( in

inale

)ithin twentyfour hours of writin" the above # find that 7 @ * Fin"e# nglish $eeklyfor

>une 16, 1


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$#nflation would consist in issuin" more tic(ets than there are seats%

That is the foundation stone of the .ew F4ou"lasG economics

Ceynes may have found it out by now= he was incapable of understandin" it in 1


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6 ! lot of rot is tal(ed because of failure to dissociate different meanin"s in the term $"old

standard%

-old could serve as measureeven with the new and newest fancy brands of economics, so

lon" as the issuance of money Fneeded for exchan"eG isn%t hamstrun" or exploited by people

who happen to have the "old at a "iven moment

#t is perfectly easy to increase the volume of money in circulation without debasin" its value

: #f any of the author%s opinions are wron" he will be only too "lad to chan"e %em on proof

bein" adduced to their contraries, but he will not alter them merely to please "unma(ers%

touts or subsidi'ed economists who for twenty or more years have done nothin" save their

utmost to wrap up the sub&ect in tissue paper, and to involve it in mystery Their opinions are

suspect because of probable motives, and they never meet open statement by open statement

but solely by avoidance or by runnin" off at a bias

# personally heard one of the chief and most despicable fa(ers describe himself as an$orthodox economist% $rthodox% and subsidi'ed physicists condemned -alileo

Political earin#

Eoth in 8n"land and in !merica the new party should be a !T87#!A P!7T with three

parts to its platform

1 )hen enou"h exists, means should be found to distribute it to the people who need it

2 #t is the business of the nation to see that its own citi'ens "et their share, before worryin"about the rest of the world

F#f not, what is the sense of bein" $united% or or"ani'ed as a state? )hat is the meanin" of

$citi'en%?G

3 )hen the potential production Fthe possible productionG of anythin" is sufficient to meet

everyone%s needs, it is the business of the "overnment to see that both production and

distribution are achieved

8 P'eb. ()*anno +, dell era 'ascista

ABC of Economics

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