Socialism, whatever may be its more exact definition, stands for an
organisation of society, and more especially for an economic
organisation, radically opposed to, and differing from, the organisation
which prevails to-day. So much we may take for granted; but here, before
going further, it is necessary to free ourselves from a very common
confusion. When socialism, as thus defined, is spoken of as a thing that
exists--as a thing that has risen and is spreading--two ideas are apt to
suggest themselves to the minds of all parties equally, of which one
coincides with facts, while the other does not, having, indeed, thus far
at all events, no appreciable connection with them; and it is necessary
to get rid of the false idea, and concern ourselves only with the true.

The best way in which I can make my meaning clear will be by referring
to a point with regard to which the earlier socialistic thinkers may be
fairly regarded as accurate and original critics. The so-called orthodox
economists of the school of Mill and Ricardo accepted the capitalistic
system as part of the order of nature, and their object was mainly to
analyse the peculiar operations incident to it. The abler among the
socialists were foremost in pointing out, on the contrary, a fact which
now would not be denied by anybody: that capitalism in its present form
is a comparatively modern phenomenon, owing its origin historically to
the dissolution of the feudal system, and not having entered on its
adolescence, or even on its independent childhood, till a time which may
be roughly indicated as the middle of the eighteenth century. The
immediate causes of its then accelerated development were, as the
socialists insist, the rapid invention of new kinds of machinery, and
more especially that of steam as a motor power, which together
inaugurated a revolution in the methods of production generally.
Production on a small scale gave way to production on a large. The
independent weavers, for example, each with his own loom, were wholly