From the instant that lack of money and credit forced the King of 
Prussia to issue the Letters Patent of February 3,° no reasonable 
person could doubt any longer that the absolute monarchy in 
Germany and the “Christian-Germanic” management as it has 
hitherto existed, also known under the name of “paternal govern- 
ment”, had, in spite of all bristling resistance and sabre-rattling 
speeches from the throne, abdicated for ever. The day had now 
dawned from which the bourgeoisie in Germany can date its rule. 
The Letters Patent themselves are nothing but an acknowledgement, 
though still wrapped in a great deal of Potsdam mist and fog, of the 
power of the bourgeoisie. A good deal of this mist and fog has 
already been blown away by a little weak puffing from the United 
Diet, and very soon the whole Christian-Germanic misty phantom 
will be dissolved into its nothingness. 

But as soon as the rule of the middle classes began, the first 
demand to be made was bound to be that the whole trade policy of 
Germany, or of the Customs Union, should be wrested from the 
incompetent hands of German princes, their ministers, and arro- 
gant, but in commercial and industrial matters utterly unimaginative 
and ignorant bureaucrats, and be made dependent upon and 
decided by those who possess both the necessary insight and the most 
immediate interest in the matter. In other words: the question of 
protective and differential tariffs or free trade must fall within the 
sole decision of the bourgeoisie. 

The United Diet in Berlin has shown the Government that the 
bourgeoisie knows what it needs; in the recent tariff negotiations 
it was made clear to the Spandau System of Government,’ in pretty 
plain and bitter words, that it is incapable of grasping, protecting and 

Protective Tariffs or Free Trade System 93 

promoting the material interests concerned. The Cracow affair 
alone would have been sufficient to brand the foreheads of 
Holy-Alliance William? and his ministers with the stamp of the 
crudest ignorance of, or the most culpable treachery against, the 
welfare of the nation. To the horror of his all-highest Majesty and 
his Excellencies a host of other things came up for discussion, 
in the course of which royal and ministerial capabilities and 
discernment—living as well as defunct—could feel anything but 
flattered. 

In the bourgeoisie itself, indeed, two different views dominate 
with regard to industry and trade. Nonetheless there is no doubt that 
the party in favour of protective, or, rather, differential tariffs is by 
far the most powerful, numerous and predominant. The bourgeoisie 
cannot, in fact, even maintain itself, cannot consolidate its position, 
cannot attain unbounded power unless it shelters and fosters its 
industry and trade by artificial means. Without protection against 
foreign industry it would be crushed and trampled down within a 
decade. It is quite easily possible that not even protection will help it 
much or for long. It has waited too long, it has lain too peacefully in 
the swaddling clothes in which it has been trussed so many years by 
its precious princes. It has been outflanked and overtaken on every 
side, it has had its best positions taken from it, while at home it 
peacefully let its knuckles be rapped and did not even have enough 
energy to rid itself of its partly imbecile, partly extremely cunning 
paternal schoolmasters and disciplinarians. 

Now a new page has been turned. The German princes can 
henceforth only be the servants of the bourgeoisie, only be the dot 
over the “i” of the bourgeoisie. In so far as there is still time and 
opportunity for the latter’s rule, protection.for German industry and 
German trade ts the only foundation on which it may rest. And what 
the bourgeoisie wants and must want of the German princes, it will 
also be able to achieve. 

There exists, however, alongside the bourgeoisie, a quite consider- 
able number of people called proletarians—the working and 
propertyless class. 

The question therefore arises: What does this class gain from the 
introduction of the protective system? Will it thereby receive more 
wages, be able to feed and clothe itself better, house itself more 
healthily, afford somewhat more time for recreation and education, 
and some means for the more sensible and careful upbringing of its 
children? 

4 Frederick William 1V.— Ed. 

The gentlemen of the bourgeoisie who advocate the protective 
system never fail to push the well-being of the working class into the 
foreground. To judge by their words, a truly paradisial life will 
commence for the workers with the protection of industry, Germany 
will then become a Canaan “flowing with milk and honey”? for the 
proletarians. But listen on the other hand to the free trade men 
speaking, and only under their system would the propertyless be able 
to live “like God in France”, that is, in the greatest jollity and 
merriment. 

Among both parties there are still plenty of limited minds who 
more or less believe in the truth of their own words. The intelligent 
among them know very well that this is all vain delusion, merely 
calculated, furthermore, to deceive and win the masses. 

The intelligent bourgeois does not need to be told that whether the 
system in force is that of protective tariffs or free trade or a 
mixture of both, the worker will receive no bigger wage for his 
labour than will just suffice for his scantiest maintenance. From the 
one side as from the other, the worker gets precisely what he needs 
to keep going as a labour-machine. 

It might thus appear to be a matter of indifference to the 
proletarian, to the propertyless, whether the protectionists or the 
free traders have the last word. 

Since, however, as has been said above, the bourgeoisie in 
Germany requires protection against foreign countries in order to 
clear away the medieval remnants of a feudal aristocracy and the 
modern vermin by the Grace of God, and to develop purely and 
simply its own proper, innermost essence (!)—then the working class 
also has an interest in what helps the bourgeoisie to unimpeded rule. 

Not until only one class—the bourgeoisie—is seen to exploit and 
oppress, until penury and misery can no longer be blamed now on 
this estate, now on that, or simply on the absolute monarchy and its 
bureaucrats—only then will the last decisive battle break out, the 
battle between the propertied and the propertyless, between the 
bourgeoisie and the proletariat. 

Only then will the field of battle have been swept clean of all 
unnecessary barriers, of all that is misleading and accessory; the 
position of the two hostile armies will be clear and visible at a glance. 

With the rule of the bourgeoisie, the workers, compelled by 
circumstances, will also make the infinitely important advance that 
they will no longer come forward as individuals, as at the most a 
couple of hundreds or thousands, in rebellion against the established 

* Exodus 3:8.— Ed. 

Protective Tariffs or Free Trade System 95 

order, but all together, as one class, with its specific interests and 
principles, with a common plan and united strength, they will launch 
their attack on the last and the worst of their mortal enemies, the 
bourgeoisie. 

There can be no doubt as to the outcome of this battle. The 
bourgeoisie will and must fall to the ground before the proletariat, 
just as the aristocracy and the absolute monarchy have received their 
coup de grace from the middle class. 

With the bourgeoisie, private property will at the same time be 
overthrown, and the victory of the working class will put an end to all 
class or caste rule for ever.