改编自1844年英国工人阶级的状况弗里德里希·恩格斯著(1892年编,译)Wischnewetzky)
我们对无产阶级不同阶层的研究顺序,自然是按照前面所讲的无产阶级兴起的历史来进行的。最初的无产者是与制造业有关的,是由制造业产生的,因此,那些受雇于制造业,从事原材料生产的人将首先引起我们的注意。只有在工业变革的结果下,用于制造的原材料和燃料的生产才变得重要起来,并产生了新的无产阶级,即煤炭和金属矿工。接着,第三,制造业影响了农业,第四,影响了爱尔兰的状况;而属于每一部分的无产阶级的各个部分,也将相应地找到自己的位置。我们还会发现,工人们对他们自己的利益是最清楚的,矿工们就不那么清楚了,而农业工人则根本不清楚。我们将在产业工人中再次发现同样的秩序,我们将看到工业革命中最年长的工人如何从一开始直到今天成为劳工运动的核心,而当他们的手工业受到机器进步的入侵时,其他工人如何同样地加入了这一运动。因此,我们将从英国提供的例子中学习,从工人运动与工业发展运动保持同等的步伐中学习,制造业的历史意义。
然而,由于目前几乎整个工业无产阶级都参加了这场运动,而各个部门的情况又有许多共同之处,因为它们都是工业部门,所以我们必须首先考察整个工业无产阶级的情况,以便以后更具体地注意每一个部门的特点。
已经有人提出,制造业要把财产集中在少数人的手中。它需要大量的资本来建立摧毁小型贸易资产阶级的庞大机构,并迫使其为自然力量服务,从而把独立工人的手工劳动赶出市场。劳动分工、水(尤其是蒸汽)的应用和机械的应用,是自上世纪中叶以来制造业一直忙于使世界脱节的三大杠杆。小规模的制造业造就了中产阶级;在很大程度上,它创造了工人阶级,并将中产阶级的选民推上了王位,但当时机到来时,却只会更确定地推翻他们。与此同时,一个不可否认且易于解释的事实是,“旧时好时代”中为数众多的小中产阶级已经被制造业消灭了,他们变成了一边是富裕的资本家,一边是贫穷的工人。
然而,制造业的集中化趋势并没有就此停止。人口变得像资本一样集中;而且,很自然地,因为人,工人,在制造业中被简单地看作是一笔资本,制造商用它支付工资名义下的利息。在一个大型工厂里,许多工人被雇佣在同一栋建筑里,他们住得很近,形成一个村庄。他们有满足他人需要的需求;手工艺人、鞋匠、裁缝、面包师、木匠、石匠,都在手边安顿下来。村里的居民,尤其是年轻一代,习惯了工厂的工作,变得熟练起来,当第一家工厂不再雇佣他们所有人时,工资就会下降,新制造商的移民就是结果。于是,村庄变成了一个小镇,小镇又变成了一个大小镇。一个城市越大,它的优势就越大。它提供道路、铁路和运河; the choice of skilled labour increases constantly, new establishments can be built more cheaply because of the competition among builders and machinists who are at hand, than in remote country districts, whither timber, machinery, builders, and operatives must be brought; it offers a market to which buyers crowd, and direct communication with the markets supplying raw material or demanding finished goods. Hence the marvelously rapid growth of the great manufacturing towns. The country, on the other hand, has the advantage that wages are usually lower than in town, and so town and country are in constant competition; and, if the advantage is on the side of the town to-day, wages sink so low in the country to-morrow, that new investments are most profitably made there. But the centralizing tendency of manufacture continues in full force, and every new factory built in the country bears in it the germ of a manufacturing town. If it were possible for this mad rush of manufacture to go on at this rate for another century, every manufacturing district of England would be one great manufacturing town, and Manchester and Liverpool would meet at Warrington or Newton; for in commerce, too, this centralization of the population works in precisely the same way, and hence it is that one or two great harbors, such as Hull and Liverpool, Bristol, and London, monopolize almost the whole maritime commerce of Great Britain.
下列哪一项最完整地列出了作者认为是变化的主要倡导者的要素?