पृष्ठ 5 / 88

We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the

product of a long course of development, of a series of

revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.

Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied

by a corresponding political advance of that class. An oppressed

class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed and

self-governing association in the mediaeval commune; here

independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany), there

taxable "third estate" of the monarchy (as in France),

afterwards, in the period of manufacture proper, serving either

the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise

against the nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone of the great

monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the

establishment of Modern Industry and of the world-market,

conquered for itself, in the modern representative State,

exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern State is

but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole

bourgeoisie.