Page 12 of 88

The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered

state of the population, of the means of production, and of

property. It has agglomerated production, and has concentrated

property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was

political centralisation. Independent, or but loosely connected

provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments and systems

of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one

government, one code of laws, one national class-interest, one

frontier and one customs-tariff. The bourgeoisie, during its rule

of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more

colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations

together.