Chapter V. When and Why the Capitalists Support Nationalisation

A curious and unfounded myth held by many of the Labour Party advocates of nationalisation or Government control is the belief that it is specifically a Labour Party project and that it marks hostility towards capitalism. The truth is far otherwise. Except that when Mr. Herbert Morrison used the term “socialism” he really means nationalisation or State Capitalism, he spoke only the truth when he told the boys of Malvern College “that more Socialism was done by the Conservative Party, which opposed it, than by the Labour Party, which was in favour of it.” (The Times, 12 February, 1944).

Practically all the schemes of nationalisation have been carried out by avowedly capitalist Governments, Liberal or Tory.

In order to see the matter in correct perspective it will be useful to examine some of these schemes and see why they were carried out. It will be found, broadly speaking, that they are the outcome of a cleavage of interest between particular groups of the capitalist class and the main body of that class. The State, the “committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie” as Marx called it, intervenes when the interests of the class as a whole are being injured or jeopardised commercially or from a military standpoint by some group which owns a key industry or transport system, or when for some reason (usually the great cost involved) a new technical development is being hampered by the inability of private groups to handle it on a sufficiently large scale. The Indian Government is at present planning to set up State ownership of various industries, the reason being that the industries are essential and private capital to develop them is lacking. “Nationalisation of those major industries would be undertaken only if adequate private capital was not forthcoming.” (Daily Telegraph, 23 April, 1945).

Because one of the greatest obstacles to the early expansion of capitalist trade and industry was defective transport and communications it was in this field that State intervention occurred first and on the largest scale.

Let us glance first at the nationalisation of the roads in England. Until the 18^th Century the public highways were earthen tracks or bridle paths for pack horses or riders, and for 200 years or more they had been kept more or less in order in each Parish by the compulsory labour of persons living there. At the end of the 17^th Century wheeled traffic was still uncommon :– “It was, however, increasing with the expansion of trade and the growing necessity to move large quantities of goods. These wheeled vehicles wore the earthen surface of the highways into great ruts and the roads became more and more of a scandal just at the time when it became more and more necessary to be able to move masses of raw material or manufactured goods. The whole industrial development of the 18^th Century would have been held up if the roads could not have been improved.” (Mrs. L. Knowles, Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. Routledge, 1922. 2^nd Revised Edition, p. 236).

Mrs. Knowles goes on to explain that, in accordance with the tradition of the English Government, of leaving everything to individuals, the practice developed during the 18^th Century of landowners and others obtaining power under a Private Act of Parliament to reconstruct stretches of road to make them suitable for wheeled traffic. They formed what were called “turnpike Trusts” and were allowed to make profit by charging tolls to the users of the roads. This, however, left a great network of parish roads which were still unmettalled tracks.

“Out of a total length of recognised public highways in 1820, amounting to 125,000 miles, only 20,875 miles were under the turnpike trusts ; the remainder were cared for in 1830 by the inefficient labour of the poor, or the equally unsatisfactory labour of those who had to render six days compulsory service.” (p. 238).