Part 186

"The co-operative idea as applied to industry existed in the latter part of the last century. Ambelakia was almost a co-operative town, as may be read in David Urquhart's 'Turkey and its Resources.' So vast a municipal partnership of industry has never existed since. The fishers on the Cornish coast carried out co-operation on the sea, and the miners of Cumberland dug ore on the principle of sharing the profits. The plan has been productive of contentment and advantage. Gruyère is a co-operative cheese, being formerly made in the Jura mountains, where the profits were equitably divided among the makers. In 1777, as Dr. Langford relates in his 'Century of Birmingham Life,' the tailors of that enterprising town set up a co-operative workshop, which is the earliest in English record. In France an attempt was made by Babœuf in 1796, to establish a despotism of justice and equality by violence, after the manner of Richelieu, whose policy taught the French revolutionists that force might be a remedy. … Contemporaneous with the French revolutionists we had Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, who surpassed all other bishops in human sympathy and social sagacity. He established at Mongewell, in Oxfordshire, the first known co-operative store; and he, Count Rumford, and Sir Thomas Bernard published in 1795, and for many years after, plans of co·operative and social life, far exceeding in variety and thoroughness any in the minds of persons now living. 'The only apostle of the social state in England at the beginning of this century,' Harriet Martineau testifies, 'was Robert Owen,' and to him we owe the co-operation of to-day. With him it took the shape of a despotism of philanthropy. … The amazing arrangements Mr. Owen made at his New Lanark Mills for educating his workpeople, and the large amount of profit which he expended upon their personal comforts, have had no imitators except Godin of Guise, whose palaces of industry are to-day the wonder of all visitors. Owen, like Godin, knew how to make manufacturing generosity pay. … It was here that Mr. Owen set up a co-operative store on the primitive plan of buying goods and provisions wholesale and selling them to the workmen's families at cost price, he giving storerooms and paying for the management, to the greater advantage of the industrial purchasers. The benefit which the Lanark weavers enjoyed in being able to buy retail at wholesale prices was soon noised abroad, and clever workmen elsewhere began to form stores to supply their families in the same way. The earliest instance of this is the Economical Society of Sheerness, commenced in 1816, and which is still doing business in the same premises and also in adjacent ones lately erected. … These practical co-operative societies with economical objects gradually extended themselves over the land, Mr. Owen with splendid generosity, giving costly publicity to his successes, that others might profit likewise according to their means. His remarkable manufacturing gains set workmen thinking that they might do something in the same way. … The co-operative stores now changed their plan. They sold retail at shop charges, and saved the difference between retail and cost price as a fund with which to commence co-operative workshops. In 1830 from 300 to 400 co-operative stores had been set up in England. There are records of 250 existing, cited in the 'History of Co-operation in Eng]and.' … The Rochdale Society of 1844 was the first which adopted the principle of giving the shareholders 5 per cent. only, and dividing the remaining profit among the customers. There is a recorded instance of this being done in Huddersfield in 1827, but no practical effect arose, and no propagandism of the plan was attempted until the Rochdale co-operators devised the scheme of their own accord, and applied it. They began under the idea of saving money for community purposes and establishing co-operative workshops. For this purpose they advised their members to leave their savings in the store at 5 per cent. interest; and with a view to get secular education, of which there was little to be had in those days, and under the impression that stupidity was against them, they set apart 2½ per cent. of their profits for the purpose of instruction, education, and propagandism. By selling at retail prices they not only acquired funds, but they avoided the imputation of underselling their neighbours, which they had the good sense and good feeling to dislike. They intended to live, but their principle was 'to let live.' By encouraging members to save their dividends in order to accumulate capital, they taught them habits of thrift. By refusing to sell on credit they made no losses; they incurred no expenses in keeping books, and they taught the working classes around them, for the first time, to live without falling into debt. This scheme of equity, thrift, and education constitutes what is called the 'Rochdale plan.' … The subsequent development of co-operation has been greatly due to the interest which Professor Maurice, Canon Kingsley, Mr. Vansittart Neale, Mr. Thomas Hughes, and Mr. J. M. Ludlow took in it. They promoted successive improvements in the law which gave the stores legal protection, and enabled them to become bankers, to hold land, and allow their members to increase their savings to £200. … The members of co-operative societies of the Rochdale type now exceed 900,000, and receive more than 2½ millions of profit annually. There are 1,200 stores in operation, which do a business of nearly 30 millions a year, and own share capital of 8 millions. The transactions of their Co-operative Bank at Manchester amount to 16 millions annually. The societies devote to education £22,000 a year out of their profits, and many societies expend important sums for the same purpose, which is not formally recorded in their returns. In the twenty-five years from 1861 to 1886 the co-operators have done business of upwards of 361 millions, and have made for working people a profit of 30 millions. … Co-operation in other countries bears no comparison with its rise and progress in England. The French excel in co-operative workshops, the Germans in co-operative banks, England in the organisation of stores. No country has succeeded yet with all three. Italy excels even Germany in co-operative banks. It has, too, some remarkable distributive societies, selling commodities at cost prices, and is now beginning stores on the Rochdale plan. France has many distributive stores, and is likely to introduce the Rochdale type. … America … is likely to excel in industrial partnerships, and is introducing the English system of co-operation."

{2939}

_G. J. Holyoake, The Growth of Co-operation in England (Fortnightly Review, August 1, 1887)._

The "Christian Socialism" which arose in England about 1850, under the influence of Frederick D. Maurice, Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hughes, identified itself practically with the co-operative movement.

_R. T. Ely, French and German Socialism, pages 249-251._

ALSO IN: _G. J. Holyoake, History of Co-operation in England._

_G. J. Holyoake, History of the Rochdale Pioneers._

_B. Jones, Co-operative Production._

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1817-1825. Saint Simon and Saint Simonism.

"Comte Henri de Saint-Simon, the founder of French socialism, was born at Paris in 1760. He belonged to a younger branch of the family of the celebrated duke of that name. His education, he tells us, was directed by D'Alembert. At the age of nineteen he went as volunteer to assist the American colonies in their revolt against Britain. … It was not till 1817 that he began, in a treatise entitled 'L'Industrie,' to propound his socialistic views, which he further developed in 'L'Organisateur' (1819), 'Du Système industriel' (1821), 'Catechisme des Industriels' (1823). The last and most important expression of his views is the 'Nouveau Christianisme' (1825). For many years before his death in 1825 Saint-Simon had been reduced to the greatest straits. He was obliged to accept a laborious post for a salary of £40 a year, to live on the generosity of a former valet, and finally to solicit a small pension from his family. In 1823 he attempted suicide in despair. It was not till very late in his career that he attached to himself a few ardent disciples. As a thinker Saint-Simon was entirely deficient in system, clearness, and consecutive strength. His writings are largely made up of a few ideas continually repeated. But his speculations are always ingenious and original; and he has unquestionably exercised great influence on modern thought, both as the historic founder of French socialism and as suggesting much of what was afterwards elaborated into Comtism. … His opinions were conditioned by the French Revolution and by the feudal and military system still prevalent in France. In opposition to the destructive liberalism of the Revolution he insisted on the necessity of a new and positive re-organisation of society. So far was he from advocating social revolt that he appealed to Louis XVIII. to inaugurate the new order of things. In opposition, however, to the feudal and military system, the former aspect of which had been strengthened by the Restoration, he advocated an arrangement by which the industrial chiefs should control society. In place of the Mediæval Church, the spiritual direction of society should fall to the men of science. What Saint-Simon desired, therefore, was an industrialist State directed by modern science. The men who are best fitted to organise society for productive labour are entitled to bear rule in it. The social aim is to produce things useful to life; the final end of social activity is 'the exploitation of the globe by association.' The contrast between labour and capital, so much emphasised by later socialism, is not present to Saint-Simon, but it is assumed that the industrial chiefs, to whom the control of production is to be committed, shall rule in the interest of society. Later on, the cause of the poor receives greater attention, till in his greatest work, 'The New Christianity,' it becomes the central point of his teaching, and takes the form of a religion. It was this religious development of his teaching that occasioned his final quarrel with Comte. Previous to the publication of the 'Nouveau Christianisme' Saint-Simon had not concerned himself with theology. Here he starts from a belief in God, and his object in the treatise is to reduce Christianity to its simple and essential elements. … During his lifetime the views of Saint-Simon had little influence, and he left only a very few devoted disciples, who continued to advocate the doctrines of their master, whom they revered as a prophet. … The school of Saint-Simon insists strongly on the claims of merit; they advocate a social hierarchy in which each man shall be placed according to his capacity and rewarded according to his works. This is, indeed, a most special and pronounced feature of the Saint-Simon Socialism, whose theory of government is a kind of spiritual or scientific autocracy. … With regard to the family and the relation of the sexes the school of Saint-Simon advocated the complete emancipation of woman and her entire equality with man."

_T. Kirkup, A History of Socialism, chapter 2._

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1832-1847. Fourier and Fourierism.

"Almost contemporaneously with St. Simon [see SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1817-1825] another Frenchman, Charles Fourier, was elaborating a different and, in the opinion of Mill, a more workable scheme of social renovation on Socialistic lines. The work, indeed, in which Fourier's main ideas are embodied, called the 'Théorie des quatre Mouvements,' was published in 1808, long before St. Simon had given his views to the world, but it received no attention until after the discredit of the St. Simonian scheme, beginning in 1832. Association is the central word of Fourier's as of St. Simon's industrial system. Associated groups of from 1,600 to 2,000 persons are to cultivate a square league of ground called the Phalange, or phalanx; and are likewise to carry on all other kinds of industry which may be necessary. The individuals are to live together in one pile of buildings, called the Phalanstery, in order to economize in buildings, in domestic arrangements, cooking, etc., and to reduce distributors' profits; they may eat at a common table or not, as seems good to them: that is, they have life in common, and a good deal in each other's sight; they do not work in common more than is necessary under the existing system; and there is not a community of property. Neither private property, nor inheritance, is abolished. In the division of the produce of industry, after a minimum sufficient for bare subsistence has been assigned to each one, the surplus, deducting the capital necessary for future operations, is to be divided amongst the three great interests of Labour, Capital, and Talent, in the respective proportions of five-twelfths, four-twelfths, and three-twelfths. Individuals, according to their several tastes or aptitudes, may attach themselves to more than one of the numerous groups of labourers within each association. Everyone must work; useless things will not be produced; parasitic or unnecessary work, such as the work of agents, distributors, middlemen generally, will not exist in the phalanstery; from all which the Fourierist argues that no one need work excessively. Nor need the work be disagreeable. On the contrary, Fourier has discovered the secret of making labour attractive. {2940} Few kinds of labour are intrinsically disagreeable; and if any is unpleasant, it is mostly because it is monotonous or too long continued. On Fourier's plan the monotony will vanish, and none need work to excess. Even work regarded as intrinsically repugnant ceases to be so when it is not regarded as dishonourable, or when it absolutely must be done. But should it be thought otherwise, there is one way of compensating such work in the phalanstery—let those who perform it be paid higher than other workers, and let them vary it with work more agreeable, as they will have opportunity of doing in the new community."

_W. Graham, Socialism, New and Old, pages 98-100._

Fourier died in 1837. After his death the leadership of his disciples, who were still few in number, devolved upon M. Considérant, the editor of 'La Phalange,' a journal which had been started during the previous year for the advocacy of the doctrines of the school. "The activity of the disciples continued unabated. Every anniversary of the birthday of the founder they celebrated by a public dinner. In 1838 the number of guests was only 90; in the following year they had increased to 200; and they afterwards rose to more than 1,000. Every anniversary of his death they visited his grave at the cemetery of Montmartre, and decorated it with wreaths of immortelles. Upon these solemn occasions representatives assembled from all parts of the world, and testified by their presence to the faith they had embraced. In January, 1839, the Librairie Sociale, in the Rue de I' Ecole de Medicine, was established, and the works of Fourier and his disciples, with those of other socialist writers, obtained a large circulation. … In 1840 'La Phalange,' began to appear, as a regular newspaper, three times a week. … Some of its principles began to exercise a powerful influence. Several newspapers in Paris, and throughout the country, demanded social revolution rather than political agitation. The cries of 'Organisation du Travail,' 'Droit au Travail,' that were now beginning to be heard so frequently in after-dinner toasts, and in the mouths of the populace, were traced back to Fourier. Cabet had already published his 'Voyage en Icarie'; Louis Blanc was writing in 'La Revue du Progrès,' and many other shades of socialism and communism were springing into existence, and eagerly competing for public favour. … M. Schneider communicated the theory to his countrymen in Germany, in 1837. The knowledge was farther extended in a series of newspaper articles by M. Gatzkow, in 1842; and separate works treating of the subject were subsequently published by M. Stein and M. Loose. In Spain, it found au active disciple in Don Joachin Abreu; and a plan for realisation was laid before the Regent by Don Manuel de Beloy. In England, Mr. Hugh Doherty was already advocating it in the 'Morning Star.' In 1841, his paper appeared with the new name of 'London Phalanx'; and it was announced that thousands of pounds, and thousands of acres, were at the disposal of the disciples. The Communists of the school of Owen received the new opinions favourably, and wished them every success in their undertaking. In America, Fourier soon obtained followers; the doctrine seems to have been introduced by M. Jean Manesca, who was the secretary of a phalansterian society, established in New York so early as 1838. In 1840, no less than 50 German families started from New York, under the leadership of MM. Gaertner and Hempel, both Fourierists, to establish a colony in Texas. They seem to have prospered for a time at least, for their numbers subsequently rose to 200,000. In October of the same year, the first number of the 'Phalanx' appeared at Buffalo, in New York State. Mr. Albert Brisbane, who had recently returned from Paris, had just published a work on the 'Social Destiny of Man,' which is, to a great extent, an abridgment of M. Considérant's 'Destinée Sociale.' He became the editor of the 'Future,' which replaced the 'Phalanx,' and was published at New York. This paper obtained but a small circulation, and Mr. Brisbane thought it advisable to discontinue it, and, in its stead, to purchase a column in the 'New York Tribune.' … When Mr. Brisbane began his propaganda, there was a 'Society of Friends of Progress' in existence in Boston. It included among its members some of the most eminent men in the intellectual capital of the New World. … A paper called the 'Dial' was started, to which Emerson, Parker, and Margaret Fuller contributed. Their object was to advocate a community upon the principles of Fourier, but so modified as to suit their own peculiar views. The result was the acquisition of Brook Farm. … But the influence of Mr. Brisbane was not limited to indirectly inspiring these eccentric experiments. It was said that in New York alone, in 1843, there were three newspapers reflecting the opinions of Fourier, and no less than forty throughout the rest of the States. Besides this, many reviews were occupied in discussing them. The first association in America to call itself a phalanx was Sylvania. It was begun in October, 1843, and lasted for about a year and a half. There were 150 members, and Mr. Horace Greeley's name appears among the list of its officers; it consisted of 2,300 acres in Pennsylvania. … There were thirty-four undertaken during the Fourier excitement, but of these we have complete statistics of only fourteen. … The years 1846-7 proved fatal to most of them. Indeed, Mr. Brisbane acknowledged in July, 1847, that only three then survived."

_A. J. Booth, Fourier, (Fortnightly Review, December, 1872)._

"Horace Greeley, under date of July 1847, wrote to the 'People's Journal' the following. 'As to the Associationists (by their adversaries termed "Fourierites"), with whom I am proud to be numbered, their beginnings are yet too recent to justify me in asking for their history any considerable space in your columns. Briefly, however, the first that was heard in this country of Fourier and his views (beyond a little circle of perhaps a hundred persons in two or three of our large cities, who had picked up some notion of them in France or from French writings), was in 1840, when Albert Brisbane published his first synopsis of Fourier's theory of industrial and household Association. Since then the subject has been considerably discussed, and several attempts of some sort have been made to actualize Fourier's ideas, generally by men destitute alike of capacity, public confidence, energy and means. In only one instance that I have heard of was the land paid for on which the enterprise commenced; not one of these vaunted "Fourier Associations" ever had the means of erecting a proper dwelling for so many as three hundred people, even if the land had been given them. Of course the time for paying the first installment on the mortgage covering their land has generally witnessed the dissipation of their sanguine dreams. {2941} Yet there are at least three of these embryo Associations still in existence; and, as each of these is in its third or fourth year, they may be supposed to give some promise of vitality. They are the North American Phalanx, near Leedsville, New Jersey; the Trumbull Phalanx, near Braceville, Ohio; and the Wisconsin Phalanx, Ceresco, Wisconsin. Each of these has a considerable domain nearly or wholly paid for, is improving the soil, increasing its annual products, and establishing some branches of manufactures. Each, though far enough from being a perfect Association, is animated with the hope of becoming one, as rapidly as experience, time and means will allow.' Of the three Phalanxes thus mentioned as the rear-guard of Fourierism, one—the Trumbull—disappeared about four months afterward (very nearly at the time of the dispersion of Brook Farm), and another—the Wisconsin—lasted only a year longer, leaving the North American alone for the last four years of its existence."

_J. H. Noyes, History of American Socialisms, chapter 40._

ALSO IN: _R. Brisbane: Albert Brisbane; a Mental Biography._

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1839-1894. Proudhon and his doctrines of Anarchism. The Individualistic and Communistic Anarchists of the present generation.