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Tharles Fourier , the author of the Nouveau Monde Industrie ! , has been surnamed the Ariosto f Utopists . His system is based upon agriculture , Whined with the voluntary association of capital , Smt and labour , in " series" or " groups" of workers While the principle of equality is to be keot in view , individualism and the rights of private property are to be respected ; communism in theory individualism in practice . Labour is to be rendered as attractive as possible , and may be
divided into works of urgency , utility , and agreelj | eness " L ' association en passionel corn me en materiel . " According to Fourier , " La fausse industrie morcellee , repugnante , mensongere , " is to be superseded by " VIndustrie naturelle , combine" e , attrayante , veridique , dormant quadruple produit j " and his agricultural colonists are to be located in vast edifices , called " phalansteres , " of which M . L . Reybaud has given a lively description in his Etudes stir les Reformateurs modernes . *
The great" socialist" movement which took place in England , Scotland , Ireland , and America , in the early part of the present century , was in its highest state of activity some five-and-twenty years ago ; and the father of Queen Victoria and other members of the Royal Family were among its promoters . On the 1 st of January , 1826 , the first number of The Cooperative Magazine and Monthly Herald of the New System of Social Arrangements , founded on Principles of Mutual Cooperation and Equal Distribution , was published by Messrs . Knight and
Lacey , Paternoster-row ; and a regular correspondence was opened ( London being the active centre ) with Liverpool , Manchester , Exeter , Brighton , Leeds , Huddersfield , Edinburgh , Glascow , Dublin , Cork , and Belfast . The immense importance of this movement , and its ultimate influence upon society , are as yet only vaguely suspected . Before the end of this century it will have brought about a gradual , peaceful , and rational revolution in the social and political condition of the whole population of Great Britain . Robert Owen found many ardent disciples in France ; and , among others , M . Joseph Rey , of
Grenoble . But , with your permission , I shall return to the history of " Socialism , " in 1825 , and must now dive into the heart of the great manufacturing capital of England , with its vast warehouses and mills , which thrust forth their lofty chimneys topped with dense clouds of unconsumed smoke ; indicating that oeconomy , in the consumption of the " black diamond " of Lancashire is not yet the order of the day in Manchester , the giant growth of a single century . How curious and interesting would be a history of the rise and progress of the English cotton trade—a marvellous social revolution effected by the ingenuity and enterprise of a few obscure individuals ! Without this enormous
wealth , created by machinery , England could never have carried on the wars against Napoleon in defence of despotic principles . But if war were thus maintained upon cotton , the rapid growth and expansion of the manufacturing system may be attributed , indirectly , to war ; to the English loans and subsidies to German princes , which in twentytwo years , from 1 / 93 to 1814 , amounted to £ 40 , 289 , 459 , besides £ 1 , 582 , 045 in arms , &c , sent abroad in IB 14 . The interest of these , loans and
subsidies was paid by all classes ; but the manufacturers reaped the largest share of profit . At one period foreign subsidies were granted to such excess that paper ( gold being out of the question ) could not be obtained to send abroad ; so that the Jewish and Dutch money dealers were compelled to make their remittances in manufactures ; and at Junes such was the demand for cottons , that the bales were opened for the choice of patterns , only , Jit fixed hours of the day , lest any preference to buyers should be given . Children rose to a premium ; and cartload * of them were drafted into
j ^ neashire , from the parishes and AvorkhouscH of London and the south of England . English paper was then selling on the Continent at : $ 0 , 40 , 50 per cent . Josh . An English pound note could be bought j . " Holland for ten Hhillings ; therefore , adding eight and expenses , a piece of cotton purchased »» London for twenty shillings could be Hold for ten in Holland ; which ten shillings would buy an E nglish pound . The low state of the exchanges l » on London acted aa a bounty for the export of t miJn » facture 8 ; so that the English taxpayers only gave au extra price for their home conint " f ° cottonH » b'lt they were also paying crest on the loans and subsidies which gave the
manufacturers this bounty . By contracting the circulation and returning to cash payments , all this depreciated paper was converted into gold , then rising , from various causes , in its exchangeable value ; and , instead of taking off tliose taxes which pressed more immediately on the labouring part of the community , the property tax was repealed . * Yet the " old system of fictitious prosperity based
upon credit or paper , continues unchanged to this day with the same effect—failure , ruin , and Panic which recurs at limited intervals of time—spreading misery and destitution among all classes of the community : Panic , by which the gamblers and swindlers who carry on their nefarious traffic at the great "Paper-hell" in London alone profit . During the commercial crisis of 1847-8 , the number of failures in Great Britain amounted to
334 ; and the bankruptcies , insolvencies , suspensions of payment , and compositions of that " black " autumn , will barely realize a dividend of 20 per cent . One firm closed its doors with liabilities exceeding a million sterling , having literally commenced with nothing but " a connection ; " another failed for £ 660 , 000 ; a third for £ 600 , 000 ; two more for £ 500 , 000 each ; one for £ 480 , 000 ; another for £ 400 , 000 ; the liabilities of six reached as far as £ 300 , 000 each j three more sunk beneath debts amounting to £ 1 , 500 , 000 ; and seven-and-twenty failed for sums reaching from £ 100 , 000 to £ 200 , 000 each . . Here , then , we find forty-two commercial houses ( chiefly in London ) , failing with gross
liabilities to the amount of eleven millions sterling ; and the total amount of the failures in Great Britain and Ireland from August , 1847 , to February , 1848 , have been estimated at not less than £ 24 , 000 , 000 f although the Whig Doctrinaire journal boasted on the 10 th of April , 1847 , that the commercial classes " were never in a sounder state , " and that " any severe losses" were rendered "impossible . " But as Mr . Thomas Wilson , the author of Partnership en Commandite , X sarcastically observes , the effusions of the Economist appear more remarkable for words than ideas . " Brevity is the soul of wit ; " but in the Economist there is little soul , less wit , and no brevity .
One of the greatest obstacles to the success of cooperative association in England , arises from the unsatisfactory state of the law of partnership . If partnership with " limited liabilities , " according to the practice of the continent of Europe and the United States of America , were sanctioned by the Legislature , a large portion of the enormous capital of the middle classes , which is now found ready for investment in foreign speculations , would
then be employed in our home and colonial trade , and in manufactures : thus greatly augmenting the circulation of wages . But the progressive development of the cooperative principle is inevitable ; for as Bastiat says , in his Harmonies Econorniques , " Aux douleurs de la concurrence l'humanite apprend , chaque jour , a opposer deux puissants remedes : la Prevoyance , fruit de l ' experience et des lumieres ; -et VAssociation , prevoyance organisee . "
Under the present 8 } 'stem of internecine competition , the employers and the employed are divided into two hostile camps ; although masters , when their interests clash and it suits tlieir immediate purpose , will support the workmen on strike , and aid them with money in their combinations against rival employers . The operatives , having gained wisdom by dearly bought experience , now carry on a kind of guerilla warfare , and cut off the enemy in detail . But permit me to cite the authority of Mr . M'Culloch , the political ^ economist , as to the nature of the social compact by which these two classes are linked together . This description applies to Manchester more particularly , and to the large manufacturing townn , rather than to the rural factories , such as Mr . ( Jieg ' s at Quarry
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M Anli . 2 v Dulary nt Con « M-aur-VeH reH . «»
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Nov . 8 , 1851 . ] fff ) * JU&fre ?* 1065
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* In 1813 , the expenditure was Jt : i 0 i > , 0 / i-l , 12 / i , or allowing for 22 , J per cent , depreciation . £ H' 1 , 8 G ;{ , (>!) 7 . In 1819 . the expenditure was only £ 48 , 'W , ;{<)(> . f- It was stated in evidence before the . Bankruptcy Commission of 1840 , that out of ' MO London bankruptcies , the average of dividends wan only 4 n . 9 jd . ; of these 10 /> pnid 2 h . (> d ., und only two paid lf > n . in the pound . William Hiiwch , I 4 ho ., in hid evidence before
the Parliamentary Committee on the L 11 W of Partnership , stated the amount of the annual inuolvcncicH , bankruptcies , and compositions , to be " not lens than £ 60 , 000 , 000 sterling per annum ; " that £ 1 , 200 , 000 are paid annually in dividends by the Court of Bankruptcy ; and that , while bankruptcies were in number uh one to ten to compositions and alignments , the dividends of the latter varied from f > * . to 7 " ., whilst those reoci-ved . under bankruptcy wore only ' . is . in the pound !
Bank , Mr . Ashton ' s at Hyde , Mr . Ashworth ' s at Turton , or Mr . Bright ' s at Rochdale . But in Manchester itself there are note-worthy exceptions ; Sir Elkanah Armitage , for instance , of whom , in connection with the cooperative Whit-lane Weaving Company ' s Mill at Pendleton , and Warehouse in Manchester , more anon : — " Notwithstanding this identity (?) of interest says Mr . M'Culloch , there is , it must be admitted , but little sympathy between the great capitalists and the workpeople . This is occasioned by the great scale on which labour is now carried on in factories ; and
by the impossibility of the manufacturers becoming acquainted with the bulk of the people in their employment . They do not , in fact , so much as know their names ; they look only to their conduct in the mill , and are wholly ignorant of their mode of life when out of it , and of the condition of their families . The affections have nothing to do in an intercourse of this kind ; everything is regulated on both sides by the narrowest and most selfish views and considerations ; a man and . a mac / tine being treated with , precisely the same sympathy and regard . It is not to be denied that this is a state of things fraught
with considerable danger ; and that no society can , be in a really sound and healthy state where the bond of connection between the different ranks and orders is such as now prevails in Manchester and other great towns . Indifference , on the one hand , necessarily produces disrespect , insubordination , and plotting on the other . The whole tendency of society , in modern times , is to make interest , taking the term , in its most literal and sordid sense , the link by which all classes are held together ; and should any circumstances occur to make any considerable portion of society conclude that their interest is separate from , or opposed to , that of the others , there would , we apprehend , be but few other considerations to which to arjpeal to hinder the dissolution of such society . " *
Within a radius of twelve miles from the Manchester Exchange there is a population of above one million , of which the greater proportion is engaged , directly or indirectly , in manufactures . The wages of this population are liable to great interruptions and fluctuations , yet the improvidence of the operatives in prosperous times is proverbial ; and whole families are to be met with whose joint earnings are very considerable , yet who appear to be in a state of abject poverty ; their dwellings filthy ; their children half clothed ; the husband without a single enjoyment except the pot ; and the wife unable , if willing , to make her household
a happy home . Many of the women are engaged in factories , and know nothing whatever of their domestic duties : their children are left to the care of a hired nurse—frequently a little girl or superannuated female—and are thus neglected from their earliest infancy . The number of persons frequenting the gin-palaces , f which vie in splendour with those of the metropolis , is astonishing . Wretchedness and misery appear to create a kind of rage for the excitement of c ; in ; and on the 13 th of March , 1842 , 484 persons were seen to enter one dram-shop in one hour : the greater part were women , some decent Ig dressed , and others almost naked , carrying in their arms a squalid infant .
• ' There appears , " says an intelligent observer , describing the state of Manchester , " a necessity for institutions of a totally different character from any now existing" ( I must except the Industrial School at Swinton ) , "institutions where young people would be taught , not algebra , trigonometry , and the art of making speeches in public , but reading , writing , arithmetic , and the ; useful arts ; the boys shoemaking , tailoring , gardening , &c , and the girls sewing , knitting , washing , and cooking . "
And , above all things , temperance , providence , self-respect , self-dependence , and the principles of cooperative association . I Jut , when wives frequent gin-palaces , husbands on leaving work proceed straight to the beer-shops . Home becomes hateful ; and , wife and children once forsaken , the career of crime frequently commences . Tlio Emperor Napoleon one day said to Madame Campari , "The old systems of education seem to be worth nothing . What is there yet wanting in order to train up young people properly in France ? " " Mothkum , " replied Maduino Cam pun . " Well , " aaid the Emperor , "therein lies at once a complete system of education . It muHt be your endeavour , Madame ,, to form MoTHKiiH who will know how to educate their
children . " WlM . lAM ( JoNINd'HAM . N . 1 J . By some error the corrections contained in the revised proof of my former letter were omitted . W " * 1 "__ , ~~~ * UKO <; itAi-iu <; Ai < Dictionary . " Manchester . " f In lH . 'iH , there , wore 1702 _ bcer- » hopa and G 26 publichouses in Manchester .
j : Commandite , from commandare , to commit into the haiidn of another for some cxpreaaed purpose , with directions or orders .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 8, 1851, page 1065, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1908/page/13/
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