The Servile State [Paperback]

Belloc, Hilaire (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2009

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: BiblioBazaar (July 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1110776942
• ISBN-13: 978-1110776948
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,922,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evolution of our economies, August 20, 2009

By 

D. V. Short "Enzo Short" (Orkney, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Servile State (Paperback)

This is economic history as it is not understood by modern economic historians. The thesis describes the "ecopolinomic" (economic+political) development for European & English societies in light of religious developments (- something which modern economic historians ignore) from ancient times to 1912. The descriptions are nonetheless pertinent to modern times because mankind is still inclined to go round in circles with its "foot" nailed to the Earth with Greed.

A list of its sectional synopses is -

(i) Definitions on words such as Wealth, Capital, Proletariat (prolific working class), Means of Production, etc.

(ii) Our civilisation was originally Servile. Pagan society and the Christian church.

(iii) How the Servile institution was for a time dissolved. Slavery, serfdom, and peasantry are described. Christendom and the erection of the Distributive state before the Middle Ages.

(iv) How the Distributive state failed. Decline from Distributive property to Capitalism by the 16th century. Confiscation of monastic land by Oligarchy (Oligarchy = government by a small group of people). England is Capitalist before the industrial revolution that began late 18th and early 19th centuries.

(v) The Capitalist state in proportion (As this state grows "perfect" it grows unstable). Capitalism is described as a transitory state.

(vi) The solutions of Distributism, Collectivism, and Servility to unstable Capitalism.

(vii) Socialism is the easiest apparent solution for the capitalist crux (crux = the vital part of a problem)

(viii) The reformers and the reformed are both making for the Servile state.

(ix) The Servile state has begun (again, by the 20th century).

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) wrote three excellent books setting forth his theory of economics, Distributism. His first, in order of publication, was "The Servile State". In this book, published in 1912, Belloc argued that the distributive state, characterized by widespread ownership of property was the natural and proper political economy for man. But he argued that capitalism would tend toward a return to the Servile state, a state based on servitude. And, in the decades following 1912, this certainly took place throughout the world. If analysed carefully, it could be seen that the private banking plutocracy (Rothschilds, et al.) have contributed to this consequence over the last three centuries; this is the missing link in understanding the current downward evolution of worldwide economies to its current "neoliberal" state.

However, Belloc realized that there was a terrible lack of comprehension of economic issues in the reading public, so he wrote "Economics for Helen" as a needed corrective. Again however, subject to criticisms of impracticality, his next book addressed a practical program in "An Essay on the Restoration of Property".

Belloc sees three different ways in which human society can be constituted economically, depending on how control is exercised over the three factors of production, namely land labour and capital. He defines the 3 ways as -

1. The Servile State (As described in this book)

2. The Capitalist State (With which we are already familiar in its current outcome)

3. The Distributist State (As envisaged and explained by Belloc in his economic writings)

It strikes me as odd that such an enlightened thinker as Belloc is not better known; I suspect it is the usual problem with mainstream academia ignoring non-academic "outside-the-box" thinkers ("Oh, how could a non-academic know any better without formal training!"). A current British economic thinker, Michael Rowbotham ("Grip of Death") is another example of an ostracized genius. Arrogance has its victims, and nations may suffer for it. Another living mastermind is the founder of the best solution for our centuries-old economic greed, to be found at the website for the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation ([...])

I would say the uninitiated readers of economics should read this book before they delve into the "-isms" of modern accounts of economic history and theories.

A 25-page biography of Belloc has been published in "Hilaire Belloc, 1870-1953" - ISBN: 0953507734.

The economist John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946) once said: "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else". What kinds of economic advisors are currently advising our governments on their economic and business policies?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Capitalism: The Unknown Conspiracy, August 21, 2011

By 

Saint Michael "OFM" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Servile State (Hardcover)

Belloc is one of a lost breed of free thinking individuals to whom power was to be challenged and truth to be laid bare,for all to see and judge in the open light. The Servile State ,written almost 100 years ago,remains the greatest critique of the capitalistic system in print. The talking points of the free marketers and communists can not hold water to actual facts,logic and historical truth,all having the bottom ripped out from underneath them leaving mere indoctrinated ditto heads repeating what they heard on cable TV.

The Servile State is a economics book that does something very interesting...something neither Marx,nor Von Mises or other Capitalist propagandists can do: Belloc proves how his ideal economic form ,Distributism, not only CAN work but DID work in history. The Servile State is the state where the masses are forced by law to work for those elite few whom own the means of production.The status of man goes from freedom to subservient slave,a man dispossessed or property himself and unable to drag him self out of the bondage he is in for literally the entire government is designed for the few to dominate over the many. Much of the book is written to prove how once upon a time,man was free to own the means of his own production,the true owner of his business,farm,home,and how the government in England started the path to capitalism by theft,double dealing, and out right conspiracy. The land was bought up or stolen from the people and made into slaves,wage workers with no say in their own life or profession and given to the few barons and lawmakers who had the power and state backing to do what ever they pleased.

The start of Capitalism is not the traditional one which colleges teach of.The necessary illusions taught by professors claim that capitalism was born of the industrial revolution,'mass production for the masses' to accommodate man and his wants etc,etc. In fact 'Servile State' shows the entire foundation of the system is one of theft and domination. Belloc explains how Henry 8th stole the Catholic Church lands during the reformation and sold it off to his favoured subjects.The position of the people from this starting point are contrasted with those of modern times whom now only know of Servile Statehood,the concept of individual property ownership,not even a dream but a long ago forgotten ideal remembered by merely a few.

Socialism,or communism,is also described by Belloc as not the freedom giving,people powered entity Marx and his advocates claimed,but in fact a process that works along side capitalism to deprive man of his rights to obtain and control property. Socialism confirms the masses in their subservience by having the means of production controlled not by the masses of citizens but by the few politicians who managed to become the State. As G.K. Chesterton pointed out,Communism is the end result of Capitalism: the means of production owned by the very few elite with everyone else their servants. The various schemes of creating a socialist state are discussed and debunked in practical and inevitably prophetic terms. The modern 'liberal' or 'progessive' doctrines are likewise shown to be not liberating,freedom,democracy giving policies but concrete confirmations of the status of rulers and ruled. Minimum wages ,'independent contracts',and various other schemes,legally acknowledges one man to be the elite and the billions of others proletariats.

The Servile State can be considered a reading of prophecy by many for the exact things he discussed might,can,and could happen, did and are occurring right now. As stated before Belloc was one of a few voices 'crying out in the wilderness',one of a few last remaining voices of sanity among the howls or the insane. As the small independent owner dries up and shuts his door,as the Multi-national corporations dominate the globe,remaking every city in their image,as millions lose their home not to fire or war ,but the writing of a pen,the evidence is clear: this is a servile WORLD. As Pope Joe Ratzinger pointed out ,every economic decision is a moral decision.The choice to feed the monsters more is a choice not of 'voting with our dollars',but voting of our status...to continue to accept servitude as a natural state or to rebel against socialism and capitalism leaving mankind to be really and truly free.