“ The economic work of Rodbertus is an attempt made in a temperate and scientific spirit to elucidate the evil tendencies inherent in the competitive system, especially as exemplified in the operation of the iron law of wages. The remedy he proposes is a state management of production and distribution, which shall extend more and more, till we arrive at a complete and universal socialism,—and all based on the principle that as labour is the source of value so to the labourer should all wealth belong. ”

“ Rodbertus was neither disposed nor qualified to be an agitator, being a man of a quiet and critical temperament, who believed that society could not be improved by violent changes, but by a long and gradual course of development. ”

“ A fundamental part of the teaching of Rodbertus is his theory of social development. He recognized three stages in the economic progress of mankind: (1) the ancient heathen period in which property in human beings was the rule; (2) the period of private property in land and capital; (3) the period, still remote, of property as dependent on service or desert. The goal of the human race is to be one society organized on a communistic basis; only in that way can the principle that every man be rewarded according to his work be realized. ”