Note 400 — Chapter I · : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL

“The poor man, by his labour and his respect for the property of others, acquires a right to his home, to warm, proper clothing, to ample nourishment sufficiently varied to maintain health and strength.… Only when all these things have been secured to the poor as the fruit of their labour does the claim of the rich come in. What is superfluous, after supplying the needs of everyone, that should constitute the revenue of opulence.” (Études sur l’Économie politique, vol. i, p. 273.) Here we see quite clearly the sense in which Sismondi uses the term “spoliation.”