It accepted economic science as taught by the
accredited British professors; it built up the edifice of Socialism on
the foundations of our existing political and social institutions: it
proved that Socialism was but the next step in the development of
society, rendered inevitable by the changes which followed from the
industrial revolution of the eighteenth century.
It is interesting after twenty-five years to re-read these essays and to
observe how far the ideas that inspired them are still valid, and how
far the prophecies made have been fulfilled.
Bernard Shaw contributed the first Essay on "The Economic Basis of
Socialism," and also a second, a paper read to the British Association
in September, 1888, on the "Transition to Social Democracy." His
characteristic style retains its charm, although the abstract and purely
deductive economic analysis on which he relied no longer commends itself
to the modern school of thought. Sidney Webb's "Historic Basis" is as
readable as ever, except where he quotes at length political programmes
long forgotten, and recounts the achievements of municipal socialism
with which we are all now familiar.
William Clarke in explaining the "Industrial Basis" assumed that the
industry would be rapidly dominated by trusts--then a new
phenomenon--with results, the crushing out of all other forms of
industrial organisation, which are but little more evident to-day,
though we should no longer think worthy of record that the Standard Oil
Company declared a 10 per cent cash dividend in 1887!
If the Essays had been written in 1890 instead of 1888 the authors would
have acquired from the great Trade Union upheaval of 1889 a fuller
appreciation of the importance of Trade Unionism than they possessed at
the earlier date.
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