Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin

He thus gave to the rich a kind of scientific argument against the ideas of equality; and we know that though all dominion is based upon force, force itself begins to totter as soon as it is no longer supported by a firm belief in its own…

Political economy never rises above the hypothesis of a limited and insufficient supply of the necessaries of life; it takes it for granted.

True, the formidable growth of the productive powers of man in the industrial field, since he tamed steam and electricity, has somewhat shaken Malthus’s doctrine.

Industrial wealth has grown at a rate which no possible increase of population could attain, and it can grow with still greater speed.

But the deeper one goes into the subject, the more new and striking data does he discover, and the more Malthus’s fears appear groundless.

While we are so often told that wheat-growing does not pay, and England consequently reduces from year to year the area of its wheat fields, the French peasants steadily increase the area under wheat, and the greatest increase is due to…

The “means of existence” drawn from the soil have thus grown about fifteen times quicker than the population.

In fact, a considerable progress has already been realised in French agriculture by labour-saving machinery during the last twenty-five years; but there still remains an immense field for further improvement.

But the more we study the modern achievements of agriculture, the more we see that the limits of productivity of the soil are not attained, even in Jersey.

For the last fifty years science--especially chemistry--and mechanical skill have been widening and extending the industrial powers of man upon organic and inorganic dead matter.

Human skill in the treatment of living matter, and science--in its branch dealing with living organisms--step in with the intention of doing for the art of food-growing what mechanical and chemical skill have done in the art of fashioning…

But on the irrigated fields of the Vosges, the Vaucluse, etc., in France, six tons of dry hay become the rule, even upon ungrateful soil; and this means considerably more than the annual food of one milch cow (which can be taken at a…

Moreover, the very heavy crops of roots which are now obtained (seventy-five to 110 tons of beetroot to the acre are not infrequent) give another powerful means for increasing the number of cattle without taking the land from what is now…

I mean the almost horticultural treatment of our corn crops, which is widely practised in the far East, and begins to claim our attention in Western Europe as well.

The crop was thus more than doubled by the choice of seeds and by planting them separately eight inches apart.

In fact, the eight and a half bushels required for one man’s annual food were actually grown at the Tomblaine station on a surface of 2,250 square feet, or forty-seven feet square--that is, on very nearly one-twentieth part of an acre.

Again, we may thus say, that where we require now three acres, one acre would be sufficient for growing the same amount of food, if planting wide apart were resorted to.

But the little that has been said is sufficient to show that we have no right to complain of over-population, and no need to fear it in the future.

Our means of obtaining from the soil whatever we want, under any climate and upon any soil, have lately been improved at such a rate that we cannot foresee yet what is the limit of productivity of a few acres of land.

The limit vanishes in proportion to our better study of the subject, and every year makes it vanish further and further from our sight.

The wheat crop has thus increased in seventy-five years by 74 per cent., while the population increased only by 20 per cent.

But so long as this culture remains the work of isolated growers, its results must necessarily be inferior to those which the Jersey peasants obtain through their collective experience.

Considerable progress has been made lately in Cornwall, especially in the neighbourhood of Penzance, in the development of potato-growing and intensive market-gardening, and one may hope that the successes of these growers will incite…

It is evident that in France, as everywhere, the petty trades represent a very important factor of the industrial life.

And the division and subdivision--the permanent subdivision--of functions has been pushed so far as to divide humanity into castes which are almost as firmly established as those of old India.