in Germany. Of the
three iron foundries which are alone in the position to turn out the
heaviest artillery, two of them, Woolwich and Elswick, are in England,
the third Krupp's is in Germany. Here it may be seen that the pure
political power which Herr Duehring maintains to be the original
reason for economic conditions is on the contrary inseparable from
economic conditions and that not only the existence but the very
management of the tool of force on the sea, the warship, is in itself
a branch of modern industry. And that this is so gives nobody more
trouble than just that force, the state, which has now to pay more for
one ship than it had formerly for a small fleet and sees that these
expensive ships are obsolete as soon as they are launched. And the
state is just as much upset as Herr Duehring would be over the fact
that the controller of the economic force of the ship, the engineer,
is a much more important person than the man of pure force, the
captain. On the other hand we have no further grounds for annoyance
when we see that how as a result of this contest between armour plate
and projectile the battle ship has arrived at the point when it is as
expensive as it is unfit for fighting and that this contest shows the
dialectic law of progress at work in naval warfare according to which
militarism like every other historical phenomenon must come to an end
as a result of its own development.

We can thus see as plain as noonday that it is not true that "the
original reason must be sought in pure political force and not in
indirect economic force." Quite the contrary. Economic force is the
control of the power of the great industry. Political force in naval
matters which is dependent upon modern ships of war is by no means
"pure force" but is involved in economic force, in the advanced
development of metallurgy, in the mastery of historical technique and
the possession of rich coal-fields.

_IV. Force Theory (Conclusion)._

(Herr Duehring makes an argument which is briefly summarised by Engels
as follows and which may be said to involve the notion that the
monopolization of land is the cause of human slavery and is the
product of force. Engels proceeds):

Thesis--The domination of nature by man is the reason of the
domination of man by man.

Proof--The existence of landlordism on a large scale cannot be carried
on anywhere except by means of slavery.

Proof of proof--Landlordism on a large scale cannot ex