The servile state / by Hilaire Belloc

About “The servile state / by Hilaire Belloc ”

In The Servile State, Hilaire Belloc argues that capitalism inevitably leads to the reestablishment of slavery in the form of a servile state, characterized by a vast proletariat of wage-earners and a small class of wealthy owners. He traces the historical shift from the distributive model of the Middle Ages to the rise of capitalism in England during the reign of Henry VIII, which he sees as the beginning of a trend toward the restoration of status in place of contract.