THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAPITALISTIC SOCIAL ORDER

is very small, when in reality it is quite an extensive affair, because much capital has been put into it, and because it employs a considerable number of workers; this applies, for instance, to market gardens in the neighbourhood of large towns. Sometimes, on the other hand, those who seem to be independent smallholders are really for the most part wage workers; sometimes they are employed on neighbouring farms, sometimes they engage in seasonal occupations elsewhere, and sometimes they work in the towns. What is happening to the independent artisans and to the home workers, is in like manner happening to the peasants of all lands. A few of them become “kulaks” (liquor sellers, usurers, rich peasants who by degrees round off their possessions). Some of them manage to struggle on as they are. The remainder are ultimately ruined, they sell their cow and their nag, becoming “horseless men”; finally, the plot of land goes the way of the rest, the man will either settle in the town or make his living as an agricultural labourer. The “horseless man” becomes a wage worker, whereas the kulak, the rich peasant who hires workers, becomes a landlord or a capitalist.