如果没有生产工具的不断革新,资产阶级(即资本主义)将不复存在。相反,一成不变地固守于老式的生产方式,则是所有早期工业阶级生存的首要条件。资产阶级在其不到一个世纪的统治中所创造的生产力比其所有先辈所创造的生产力总和更为庞大、更为惊人。它所创造的奇迹,已远远超越了埃及金字塔、罗马水渠和哥德式教堂。 Without the continuous reform of production tools, the bourgeoisie (ie, capitalism) will cease to exist. On the contrary, the unchangeable adherence to the old mode of production is the prerequisite for the survival of all early industrial classes. The productivity created by the bourgeoisie in its reign to less than a century has been even greater and more astonishing than the productivity it has created by all its ancestors. The miracle it has created goes far beyond the pyramids of Egypt, the Roman aqueduct and the Gothic cathedral.