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Show Power, Cash Union Aids Monarchical System By HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON Noted historian and Author of tha Bast Salting "Story of Mankind" x and "Story of tha Arh" Story of Demcoracy Chapter Twenty-One What had been begun by the feudal system was continued and brought to perfection by a rapidly increasing number of monarchies.- Law and order (and therefore security) was once more reestablished all over Europe." It meant a tremendous increase in the wealth and prestige of that new class of citizens which had gradually Interposed . Itself between be-tween the lordly gentry who ruled the land and the peasants and serfs who worked It. As all history his-tory shows us, no class of society will ever willfully commit suicide for the sake of another. The aristocracy, which Is merely another name for "old money," strongly opposed, therefore, the ambitions of those merchants who, to them, represented the obnoxious obnox-ious Idea of "new money." Under those circumstances, the men of the counting house eagerly looked for someone who would protect pro-tect them against the menace that came to them from the castle of the feudal chieftain. In order to do this they needed ... . - SUlUieiB BIIU ln ii 1 1 v o I iiiiviinir ii. Alliance Formed At last there was a class of citizens citi-zens who were possessed of ready cash. A tacit alliance waa formed between the rising young capitalistic capital-istic forces, struggling for greater Influence upon the government, and the equally young and new monarchies desperately trying to destroy the feudal ' aquirarchy which still stood between these newfangled majesties and their final grab for the supreme power. During the fifteenth and sixteenth six-teenth centuries a few political dynasties closely resembling our own big commercial dynasties In their mode of operations and their complete lack of scruples forged ahead and gradually destroyed all competition. Having started their careers as members of the feudal system, and therefore being rich In land but poor In cash, the monarchs were obliged to go to the middle class for that direct financial support without which they could never hope to overcome the opposition of their former fellow feudalists. These ambitious founders of a monarchial form of government were completely successful. Disastrous Conflicts After the end of the sixteenth century the map of Europe was no. longer a crazyquilt of three-by-four little duchies, counties, baronetcies and Independent' cities and villages; even the sovereign village existed In those happy days. It began to show those big blue and yellow and green patches that represented the kingdoms of such famous families as the Bourbons, the Tudors, the Hapsburgs and a dozen other familiar names. As so often happens when mutually mu-tually hostile interests are forced to make common cause for some common purpose, the moment the victory had been gained the partners part-ners fell out among themselves. Their majesties were liable to forget for-get to whom they owed their success suc-cess and those who had contributed contrib-uted to this success were apt to remind them of their services at very inappropriate moments. There followed a period of disastrous dis-astrous conflicts between these former allies. These quarrels were bound to manifest themselves with the greatest sharpness in those countries where the middle classes had accumulated more abundant riches than elsewhere. Step Forward I have already told you of the rebellion in the low countries when. In the year 1581, the merchants, mer-chants, having duly abjured their lawful master, the king of Spain, established an Independent republic repub-lic of their own. The next outbreak out-break occurred in England in 1642 and again in 1680. They led' to a tremendous Increase in the governing power of those who derived their Income not from the land, but from commercial com-mercial transactions. It was, from our point of view, a decided step forward. Let us stress this point: In neither country had the introduction intro-duction of a more elaborate system sys-tem of parliamentary government anything to do with our modern ideal of democracy. Those whom, a few centuries later, Alexander Hamilton was to describe as "the rich and well born" remained in complete control con-trol of the situation. There was only one element in the nation they distrusted more profoundly and hated more cordially than either the nobility or the monarchy mon-archy and that element was "the common people." Next From unexpected places come the new ideas that begin to shape man's destiny. Oevmsat. 1S40, for Tha Talagraja, af MKA Sanrlca. la. |
