orms of
servitude, characteristic of the three great epochs of civilization.
Their invariable mark is either open or, in modern times, disguised
slavery.

The stage of commodity production introducing civilization is marked
economically by the introduction of (1) metal coins and, thus, of money
as capital, of interest, and of usury; (2) merchants as middlemen
between producers; (3) private property and mortgage; (4) slave labor as
the prevailing form of production. The form of the family corresponding
to civilization and becoming its pronounced custom is monogamy, the
supremacy of man over woman, and the monogamous family as the economic
unit of society. The aggregation of civilized society is the state,
which throughout all typical periods is the state of the ruling class,
and in all cases mainly a machine for controlling the oppressed and
exploited class. Civilization is furthermore characterized on one side
by the permanent introduction of the contrast between city and country
as the basis of the entire division of social labor; on the other side
by the introduction of the testament by which the property holder is
enabled to dispose of his property beyond the hour of his death. This
institution is a direct blow at the gentile constitution, and was
unknown in Athens until the time of Solon. In Rome it was introduced
very early, but we do not know when.[45] In Germany it was originated by
the priests in order that the honest German might bequeath his property
to the church without any interference.

With this fundamental constitution, civilization had accomplished things
for which the old gentile society was no match whatever. But these
exploits were accomplished by playing on the most sordid passions and
instincts of man, and by developing them at the expense of all his other
gifts. Barefaced covetousness was the moving spirit of civilization from
its first dawn to the present day; wealth, and again wealth, and for the
third time wealth; wealth, not of society, but of the puny individual,
was its only and final aim. If nevertheless the advanced development of
science, and at repeated times the highest flower of art, fell into its
lap, this was only due to the fact that without them the highest
emoluments of modern wealth would have been missing. Exploitation of one
class by another being the basis of civilization, its whole development
involves a continual contradiction. Every progress of production is at
the same t