The Classical school regarded the miseries created by large-scale production with that sang-froid which was to characterise the followers of Marx amid the throes of the “inevitable Revolution.” Among many similarities which may be pointed out between the writings of Marx and the doctrines of the Classical school, this is one of the most characteristic. The grandeur of the new _régime_ is worthy of some sacrifice. But Sismondi was an historian. His interest lay primarily in those periods of transition which formed the exit from one _régime_ and the entrance into another, and which involved so much suffering for the innocent. He was anxious to mitigate the hardships in order that the process of transition might be eased. Nothing can be more legitimate than a claim of this kind. J. B. Say recognised its validity to a certain extent, and this is precisely the _rôle_ of social economics. Sismondi makes another remark which is no less just. What disgusted him was not merely that workmen should be driven out by machinery, but that the workers who were retained only had a limited share of the benefits which they procured.[392] For the Classical school it was enough that workers and consumers should have a share in the general cheapening of production. But Sismondi demanded more. So long as toil is as laborious as it is to-day, is it not just that the workman should benefit by the introduction of machinery in the way of increased leisure? In the social system as at present existing, owing to the competition among workers as the result of excessive population, machinery does not increase leisure, but it rather strengthens competition, diminishes wages, provokes a more intense effort on the part of the workman, and forces him to extend his working day. Here again Sismondi appears correct. We cannot see why the consumer alone should reap all the profit of improved machinery, which never benefits the workman unless it affects articles which enter into his consumption. There would be nothing very striking if the benefits of progress, at least during a short time, were to be shared between consumer and worker just as to-day they are shared between inventor, _entrepreneur_, and society. This idea is the inspiring motive of certain trade unions to-day, which only accept a new machine in exchange for less work and more pay. Sismondi’s method when applied to production and machinery leads to conclusions very different from those of the Classics. This is also true of his treatment of competition. Adam Smith had written: “In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition it will always be the more so.”[393] Sismondi considered this doctrine false, and invoked two reasons of unequal value in support of his view.