.
Denied upon one page of a Utopian work, it takes its revenge on
another, where it often appears in all its nakedness. Thus Proudhon
"denies" the State. "The State--no, no--I will none of it, even as
servant; I reject all government, even direct government," he cries _ad
nauseam_. But, oh! irony of reality! Do you know how he "invents" the
constitution of value? It is very funny.

The constitution of value is the selling at a fair price, at the cost
price.[28] If a merchant refuses to supply his merchandise at cost price
it is because he is not certain of selling a sufficient quantity to
secure a due return, and further he has no guarantee that he will get
_quid pro quo_ for his purchases. So he must have guarantees. And there
may be "various kinds" of these guarantees. Here is one.

"Let us suppose that the Provisional Government or the Constituent
Assembly ... had seriously wished to help along business, encourage
commerce, industry, agriculture, stop the depreciation of property,
assure work to the workers--it could have been done by guaranteeing,
_e.g._, to the first 10,000 contractors, factory owners, manufacturers,
merchants, etc., in the whole Republic, an interest of 5 per cent. on
the capital, say, on the average, 100,000 francs, that each of them had
embarked in his competitive business. For it is evident that the State"
... Enough! It is evident that the State has forced itself upon
Proudhon, at least "as servant." And it has done this with such
irresistible force that our author ends by surrendering, and solemnly
proclaiming:

"Yes, I say it aloud: the workers' associations of Paris and the
departments hold in their hands the salvation of the people, the future
of the revolution. They can do everything, if they set about it
cleverly. Renewed energy on their part must carry the light into the
dullest minds, and at the election of 1852 [he wrote this in the summer
of 1851] must place on the order of the day, and at the head of it, the
constitution of value."[29]

Thus "No more parties! No politics!" when it is a question of the class
struggle--and "Hurrah for politics! Hurrah for electoral agitation!
Hurrah for State interference!" when it is a question of realising the
vapid and meagre Utopia of Proudhon!

"_Destruam et aedificabo_," says Proudhon, with the pompous vanity
peculiar to him. But on the other hand--to use the phrase of Figaro--it
is the truest truth of all he has ever uttered in his life.