Robert Owen- English entrepreneur and economist, philosopher, teacher, reformer, supporter of utopian socialism.
Years of life: 1771 — 1858
Activities of Robert Owen in England
Owen was born in 1771 in a small town in southern England to an artisan family. Childhood was short. From the age of ten he had to work as a clerk in the shops of Stamford, London, Manchester. Owen works and studies. At the age of twenty he is already a manager at a Manchester textile factory, and after three or four years he is one of the most famous, recognized experts in the spinning business. In 1800, he became the manager and co-owner of a large factory in the Scottish city of New Lanark. A brilliant career was opening up ahead: "a man from the people" had every chance to join the ranks of the "elite" - not by title, but by the amount of the current account. But Owen had other plans. He dreamed - neither more nor less! - about the reorganization of society on a reasonable basis. And the first example of this should be New Lanark. Owen improves working conditions, reduces the working day by three and a half hours, destroys the system of fines and punishments. And creates schools. For him, this was the most important thing. In the system of views that developed in the thirty-year-old factory owner, the thesis was decisive: people are not guilty of being ignorant, or cruel, or stingy; they are a product of society, a product of education. Change the conditions - and everything will be different.
Change education - at least within New Lanark - Owen could. In a few years, the pupils of the "New Institute" in their mental development and physical perfection could compete with the pupils of any aristocratic school. But to change society ... When Owen called on his "colleagues" - manufacturers to follow his example, they almost ridiculed him. He tried to appeal to parliament - they did not even want to listen to him. When he switched to direct propaganda of social reorganization, the wary admiration that the experiments in New Lanark aroused in official England was immediately replaced by ridicule and curses,
"While it activity was simple philanthropy, - wrote F. Engels, - it brought him wealth, universal approval, honor and glory. He was the most popular man in Europe... But as soon as he came out with his communist theories, the situation changed. Three great obstacles blocked, in his opinion, the way to social reforms: private property, religion and the existing form of marriage. Starting to struggle with these obstacles, he knew that he would become an outcast in the environment of official society and lose his social position. But these considerations did not dampen the energy of his merciless attack in the slightest.
What he foresaw happened: he was expelled from official society; ignored by the press, impoverished ... he turned directly to the working class and worked in their midst for another thirty years.
Over the years (Owen died on November 17, 1858 at the age of eighty-seven), many things changed in his life, in his views. But interest in education remained unchanged. And the words of Engels, which characterize all the activities of the three great utopian socialists, are quite applicable to Owen's pedagogical works: they "... brilliantly anticipated an innumerable set of propositions, the correctness of which we now prove scientifically."
Pedagogical ideas of Robert Owen
From "Lectures on the Rational System of the Organization of Society":
... Thanks to education in the distant future, imperfect humanity will turn into a new race of people - such is the power of education.
The term "education" is used very often, but it is understood very differently. By education, the author understands the cultivation and exercise of all the abilities of our nature through all circumstances, including the persons that surround the individual, from his birth in the womb to his death, for all these circumstances exert their influence on the formation of the character of every human being.
From this point of view, every human child is educated, and the most insignificant poor person, as well as the most powerful ruler, is educated by accidental external circumstances, which thus affected both. And the main difference between the ruler and the beggar arises under the influence of these many different circumstances. For man has always been, is, and always will be, to a large extent, the creation of circumstances, of those aforementioned circumstances, which affect both the fetus and the individual after his birth.
What seems to be beyond the action of this world law of nature is the core of man, or that wonderful mixture of qualities, which in a small core contains the seed of all human properties.
... It can be thought, according to the experience that we have from observations of the life and development of animals, that by surrounding the ancestors of future generations with more elevated circumstances that contribute to the development and dissemination of the best human qualities (qualities of mind, behavior, character and appearance), humanity will gradually achieve boundless improvement in the child after his birth, and perhaps in the very core of human nature; and that, as a result of this, the next generations of people will, in some distant future, be so superior to the present - physically, mentally, morally, and practically - that they can hardly be recognized as belonging to the same species ...
... Truthfulness is most natural for children; and if they had never been taught untruth, they would never have thought of expressing it in thought, word, or deed. But with the training they now receive, deceit is implanted in them before they have reached two months; for no one seems to realize what early influence mistreatment has on a child's mind. The knowledge that they will be given should be the knowledge that is of the greatest value to them and that they can clearly and accurately understand. They will never be told about the mysterious or about anything that their mind cannot understand. They will not be told even about ordinary things until they have gone through their experience; for empty sounds or names can never evoke right ideas in the mind of a child.
They will be taught by artless conversation and study of objects, so that they may understand their qualities and their uses; or, if the objects themselves cannot be obtained, the best models, drawings, or paintings that can be found will be used. The visual study of nature should be our system.
Children will be allowed and encouraged to ask questions and will never be denied an answer that can be understood by their young minds; or, if they cannot understand the necessary explanation, they will be told that their minds are still too tender and inexperienced to understand the matter; but never in any way should any kind of deceit be applied to them.
Fear will never be used in education. Fear diminishes rather than stimulates the faculties of the mind, and destroys many of the highest and subtlest gifts; and only when the mind is completely freed from every kind of fear can its faculties be in the best possible condition for gaining knowledge and perfecting...
Children trained in the way I have explained have always amazed me by the breadth of their knowledge and the rapidity with which they have progressed in acquiring it.
From The Book of the New Moral World:
... Man has always been, is and will be to a large extent the creation of external circumstances surrounding him. Place him constantly in a vile, vicious environment - and he, with some slight variations, will himself become vile and vicious. Place him in the midst of sublime and truly benign circumstances - and in the same way, with some slight variations resulting from natural individual qualities, he will become sublime and good. It is useless to discuss the details of the educational system until a general outline of external reasonable circumstances has been created. In order to educate intelligently, men and women themselves must first be educated in exemplary institutions in order to acquire the appearance, speech, manners and conduct, and especially the spirit, necessary for the formation and training of children so that they become intelligent in their mature years. These educators, before teaching others, must themselves learn to understand the cause of deceit, peeping in the views, words and manners of each individual, and the ways in which this cause can be eliminated forever from human society ... These teachers of the rising generations ... must themselves first be trained in this how to fill the soul of each student with genuine mercy and sincere kindness towards the human race... These teachers must master the hitherto unknown language of truth without veils and be able to make it the habitual language of their students... These educators must understand the reason for each evil deed... and teach their pupils with early years also understand these reasons and overcome them in their daily communication with each other. The same must be said about the causes of pride, vanity and deceit, which ... are the inevitable consequences of a misunderstanding of human nature, the destructive influence of praise and blame, rewards and punishments, and all unreasonable feelings and concepts arising from these measures.
But it is permissible to ask where these intelligent habits can be acquired by children? Not within the four walls of an empty building where formalism reigns and from which nature is expelled; but in the nursery, on the playground, on the field, in the garden, in workshops, in factories, in museums and in classrooms, where these feelings will be cultivated by educators and transmitted to students, where facts collected from all these sources will be collected, interpreted , discussed, become clear to everyone and shown in connection with their direct application to practice in all types of labor activity of people; so that every boy and girl, before the age of 12, has a clear idea of the foundations of human knowledge to its limits, as well as the divisions of the manufacturing industry and the distribution of wealth; and not only about the general principles and ways of producing and distributing wealth in the best possible way, but also about the necessity of both and about the reasons why they are so and not otherwise produced and distributed in a reasonably organized society by all its members in a certain period of their life and in for the purpose of distributing wealth among all members of society for their benefit.
It is also necessary that they be familiar with the science of the formation of human character, with how their own was formed on the basis of certain principles and practices, and with how, in the course of their later life, they should take part in the formation of the physical, mental, the moral and practical character of their younger friends and comrades ... so that, moreover, they have a clear idea of the principles and practices of sound government and understand the reasons for the need and methods for applying such government.
In short, children will have to be brought up and taught in such a way that they are well acquainted in general and in many details with all aspects of social life, they would know the history of mankind, the foundations of natural science and how they themselves should act in human society in order to be themselves happy, to win happiness for their fellows and for all life on earth.
And this, at first glance, too complicated, education will completely imperceptibly affect the consciousness and behavior of everyone, without any violence on the physical or mental sides of a person, but with great joy for teachers and students, since all education will be in accordance with nature, while in the past and now everything is done contrary to nature ...
That education which is here described will prepare for the dawn of the long-promised golden age, with this difference, that the happiness which it will give to all will continue and increase with the growth of knowledge, as long as the world exists.
From the collection "The New Existence of Man on Earth":
…Education, in the sense that I understand it, is the most essential part of the system I am presenting. However, the general public has the least understanding of the science of education, which, it seems to me, is really at the very beginning of its development.
… But first we need to overcome some prejudices and mistakes that block the path to these transformations. Parents should not seek to create any advantages for their children in comparison with other people's children. Absolutely the same conditions should exist for everyone, not a single child should feel an atom of predilection, there should not be a hint of individual rewards. On the other hand, the child, by your look, word or treatment of him, should not feel the slightest hint of a desire to offend him or an hostile attitude towards him, on the contrary, he must be sure that those in whose care he is given feel a sincere desire do him only good, which he will enjoy with his comrades.
The transformations proposed to you are maximally adapted to the implementation of these views. Parents, having received appropriate training, will themselves give the initial education to their little ones; but for the good of parents and children, it is necessary that from a certain age all the children of the village be placed in the same conditions of life and upbringing, so that they can really become children, as it were, of one family, loving each other, like brothers and sisters. It is useless to inspire children with such aspirations, unless they are placed in conditions that would enable them to realize them. Children therefore from an early age will be united in all their pastimes and activities.
... A healthy child, i.e., having an intact constitution, not spoiled by poor education, will always strive for the knowledge and development that we are able to give him, because childhood is a period of heightened curiosity, a period when every phenomenon of the world around has the interest of novelty , as a result of which the child is ready to consider with special zeal any object that presents itself to his senses. Only this way of studying things corresponds to nature. The child will avoid the prescription of the artificial system, and if it is forcibly imposed on him, the result will be damage to his intellect and sphere of his senses.
Therefore, if we fail to draw his attention to the subjects in which we seek to interest him, then we can safely conclude that the reason for this lies in the subject itself or in the way we teach, and instead of censuring or punishing the child for what he does not perceive the subject taught to him, we must change or correct our plans of study.
Experience has fully convinced me that if we act according to these principles, giving children a knowledge of facts, starting with the simplest and most pleasant for them to learn, moving gradually, as their mind develops to others, more complex, they can at an early age be introduced to with all those general facts from which all modern science springs. Having been educated and brought up under conditions so favorable to their moral and mental development and to their health and happiness, they will avoid the danger of falling into a deplorable error about the essence of human nature - an error that is the cause of all unmerciful thoughts and all hostility, clashes and evil on practice.
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(English) Robert Owen; May 14, 1771 - November 17, 1858) was an English philosopher, educator and socialist, one of the first social reformers of the 19th century.
Robert Owen was born in 1771 in the small town of Newtown (Wales) in the family of a small shopkeeper. At the age of seven, the local school teacher already used him as an assistant, but two years later, Owen's school education ended forever, and he went to seek his fortune in big cities. Owen served as an apprentice and clerk in the textile shops of Stamford, London and Manchester, but he did not receive a systematic education.
Scientific achievements
The immediate impetus for turning Owen into a preacher was the discussions of 1815-1817 related to the deteriorating economic situation in England, rising unemployment and poverty. Owen presented to the government committee his plan to alleviate these difficulties by creating cooperative villages for the poor, where they would work together, without capitalist employers. His ideas met with misunderstanding and irritation. Owen then spoke directly to the general public. In several speeches delivered in London in August 1817, to a considerable gathering of people, he first laid out his plan. The further, the more the modest project associated with a specific problem developed into a comprehensive system for the reorganization of society on a communist basis. Owen thought of this reorganization in terms of labor cooperative communities, somewhat reminiscent of Fourier's phalanxes. In the years 1817-1824, Owen traveled all over Britain, traveled abroad, made many speeches, wrote a lot of articles and leaflets, tirelessly preaching his ideas.
All Owen's efforts were in vain, although there were influential people who sympathized in one way or another with his plans. In 1819 a committee was even set up to raise funds for his experiment; the committee, along with the Duke of Kent, included, in particular, David Ricardo. However, they managed to raise only a small fraction of the necessary money, and the idea failed.
Convinced that preaching by example and word does not cause imitation, Owen began active agitation in favor of factory legislation, trying to rely on the monarchical power and the agricultural aristocracy and fighting the theory of non-intervention of the state. But his hopes in this direction were not justified. Owen then decided to appeal directly to the industrial class and encourage them to form productive associations, the task of which, according to Owen, "was to organize universal happiness through a system of unity and cooperation, based on universal love for one's neighbor and a true knowledge of human nature."
The theoretical foundations that necessitate the formation of such associations, he outlined in two essays: An Explanation of the Cause of Distress which pervades the civilized parts of the world" (1823) and " The Book of the New Moral World". In practice, he developed a plan for organizing associations in " Report to the County of Lanark". At first, Owen thought of setting up associations or colonies only for the unemployed, but then he came to the idea of the need for a complete transformation of the industrial system. He was its first socialist critic.
The industrial system of that time, according to Owen, was built on three false foundations: on a detailed division of labor that worsens the race, on rivalry that creates a general conflict of interests, and, finally, on making a profit, possible only when demand is equal to or exceeds the offer; the real interest of society requires that the supply of goods should always be greater than demand. Before the invention of machines, it was still possible to maintain such an abnormal situation, but since then the industrial system has been and will continue to be in a critical situation, leading to the ruin of the factory owners and the hunger strike of the workers.
The elimination of all calamities will take place only when the individual groups of producers, using the productive forces that are almost limitless on the basis of new improvements, unite in cooperation, for production with the help of their own labor and capital and for the satisfaction of their own needs.
In 1832, he starts a new business in England, which also ends in failure, but is of great socio-political significance: he makes an attempt to organize the Labor Exchange. Desiring to destroy all commercial profits and the intermediation of money, Owen sets up an exchange in London, where any manufacturer can deliver goods, receiving labor tickets for them, at the rate of six pence for each hour of labor invested in the product. Initially, the success of the exchange was very great; in the first week more than £10,000 worth of merchandise was brought here, and labor cards were accepted as money in many shops; soon, however, difficulties began.
Merchants sent their stale goods to the exchange and hastily dismantled everything of the most valuable from the exchange; the exchange was soon overwhelmed with goods that had no hope of being sold. The valuation of commodities by hours of labor and by the sixpence rate was a constant source of misunderstanding and controversy. With the piling up of useless goods on the exchange, labor cards lost all value and the exchange ended in bankruptcy.
Scientific works
Biography
early years
Pedagogical ideas
Socio-philosophical foundations of education.
Upbringing. The purpose of education is the formation of an independently and rationally thinking person. Universal harmony can be established only by proper education of people. To create perfect people, it is necessary to educate everyone from birth with the same care, without showing any predilections and so that no one strives for better conditions. The content of education. Moral education is the main focus. Mental education - knowledge should not contradict common sense. Labor education is a necessary condition for the comprehensive development of a person. A child at school, along with general education, must receive work skills. Physical education - military exercises.
Education. periods of education. There are periods - five years in a person's life, up to the age of 30 - creating the basis for a good division into occupations, with each group busy with its own business. This contributes to the better development of a person.
The system of 4 educational levels (the basis of everything is collectivism). 1. School - for kids 1-5 years old: reading, dancing, fresh air. 2. Day school - for children 5-10 years old: native language, arithmetic, geography, natural science, history. It is divided into general education (training sessions) and industrial (practical work in workshops, gardens and fields. 3. Evening school - for teenagers working in factories. 4. Evening lectures - for adults.
Social experiment at New Lanark. Based on his own experience, he developed a system of "patronage". Creates an institution for the formation of characters. In the first decade of the 19th century, the New Lanark factory attracted crowds of visitors who were equally surprised by its commercial success and the well-being of its workers. The New Lanark factory banned the work of children under 10 years of age and reduced the working day to 10 hours 45 minutes, which was an unheard of innovation at a time when a significant part of the workers in English industry were children from 5 to 10 years old, who worked on a par with adults 14-16 hours a day.
Owen opened in 1816 "The New Institute for the Formation of Character". It included: a preschool for children from 1 to 5 years old, an elementary school for children under 10 years old, evening classes for teenagers who worked at the factory, an evening cultural center where illiterate workers were trained, a lecture hall functioned, parents received advice on raising children, musical evenings, dances, games, etc. As of January 1, 1816, the "New Institute" covered 759 people aged from 1 to 25 with its educational impact.
Contribution to the development of world pedagogy He developed the idea of combining education with production work. He created an original system of education (and tried to prove it experimentally). Carried out a unique socio-pedagogical experience in the colonies and communes.
The Significance of Owen's Creative Legacy
Despite all his failures, Owen will forever be remembered in the history of the intellectual development of Europe. He gave the first impetus to factory legislation, pointed out the need for state intervention, and clearly set the task of combating unemployment; he can also be considered the father of that theory of crises in industry, which explains them by the discrepancy between production and the consumption budgets of the masses, or, which is also the insignificance of the consumption share of wealth that goes to the masses under a system of rivalry. He was the spiritual creator of the cooperative movement, which aims to make the consumer a producer and eliminate commercial profits.
Owen's work inspired the economic thought of the second half of the 19th century and served as a source of the ideas of communism. Owen's ideas were rethought by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin. The experience of the communes served as an example for the construction of kibbutzim and the first communist experiments in Soviet Russia after a year.
His main mistake was that he wanted, through the private efforts of individual outstanding personalities and single attempts to transform the existing way and nature of people's relations, which, when composing, can change only in a regular sequence.
Major works
- Remarks on the Influence of the Industrial System (1815)
- Further development of the plan contained in the report ... (1817)
- Description of a series of delusions and misfortunes arising from the past and present state of society
- Report to the County of Lanark on a Plan for the Relief of Public Disasters… (1820)
- Appeal of the Congress of Co-operative Societies…(1833)
- Robert Owen's speech at the Charlotte Street Institution (1833)
- The Book of the New Moral World (1842-44)
- Revolution in the consciousness and activity of the human race ... (1850s)
Editions
- Owen, Robert Selected works in two volumes. - Moscow, Leningrad: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1950. - 768 p. - (Predecessors of scientific socialism). - 8000 copies.
Literature
- Sargant, R. Owen and his social philosophy (1860, best biography);
- L. Jones, "The life of R. O." (L., 1890),
- "Robert Aries" (Pavlenkov Biographical Library).
- "On the formation of human character" (3rd ed., St. Petersburg, 1893).
- Ark. A-n(Anekshtein, Arkady Izrailevich). Robert Owen: His Life, Teachings and Works. - M., 1937
- Anikin V. The youth of science
- Zhid Sh., Rist Sh. History of economic doctrines - M.: Economics, 1995.
- Anderson K.M. Robert Owen's Mexican Project // History of Socialist Teachings, 1987. M., 1987. S.47-68.
- Utopian socialism: Reader. / Common ed. A. I. Volodina. - M.: Politizdat, 1982.
- Herzen A.I. Robert Owen // Works in nine volumes. T. 6: Past and thoughts. Ch. 6: England. Chapter IX. Robert Owen. - M.: State publishing house of fiction, 1957. - S. 202-251.
- boldness/ D. Gross, M. Gross, G. Lapshina. - M.: Mol. guard, 1989. - 314 p., ill. pp.128-142.
Links
- The Economists' Gallery section dedicated to Robert Owen
- Sayings of R. Owen (English)
- Website of the R. Owen Museum in Newtown (eng.)
- Biography of R. Owen on the website: New Lanark World Heritage Site (eng.)
- Biography of R. Owen on the website: Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism(English)
Robert Owen (May 14, 1771 - November 17, 1858) was an English philosopher, teacher and utopian socialist, perhaps the most prominent representative of the socialist period in England, one of the first social reformers of the 19th century.
Born in the Welsh town of Newtown, in a family of representatives of the petty bourgeoisie. He always strove for knowledge and at an early age helped his teacher. However, after a couple of years he left his education, as he wanted to earn his living on his own.
By the age of 20, Owen was already the director of a textile factory in New Lanark (Scotland), where he began to implement the first attempts at the socialist transformation of society.
Robert Owen - philanthropist manufacturer
Owen's main desire was to bring socialist ideas to life. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, when he was the manager of one of the Scottish factories, he decided to reduce the working day from 13 to 10 hours. For the first time, it was he who organized a nursery and a kindergarten for the children of workers at his factory.
Robert Owen made repeated attempts to create socialist organizations. So in 1824 in the USA (Indiana) he tried to organize the communist colony New Harmony. However, this was not successful, as was the idea of the "Exchange of Goods Market" in London in 1932, where manufacturers could exchange their goods on fair and just terms.
Owen's views and worldview
The weak intellectual development of society was, according to Owen, the main cause of social problems. He believed that with the help of propaganda it is necessary to educate people, to acquaint them with social foundations that correspond to the laws of nature. This, according to the socialist philosopher, would help the public to eliminate their "stupid" existing order at the moment.
Along with this, Owen criticizes and opposes private property and economic inequality. He called private property the cause of a huge number of crimes and all sorts of disasters that a person experiences.
According to Owen, in a just social society, any property, except for items of exclusively personal use, will turn into public property, which will always be in abundance for everyone.
But at the same time, he advocated exclusively a peaceful change in the social system. Revolution, in his opinion, a place only in the mind of man.
Owen believed that a revolution can only take the form of peaceful and gradual transformations, it must avoid turning into a rough, violent coup.
In his opinion, a revolution carried out by the dark, uncultured masses would certainly lead to acts of violence and general social chaos, which in turn would throw back human development.
A revolution organized by completely ideologically unprepared people will lead to such a result, especially if they are obsessed with the idea of class revenge.
Owen paid considerable attention to legal mechanisms and believed that with the help of state laws, in addition to making life easier for workers, a wider range of reforms could be carried out in their interests.
He was one of the first who voiced the idea of "humane factory legislation", which contained such norms as: limiting the working day, improving the working and living conditions of workers, etc.
Scientific works of Owen
The theorist formulated his views in numerous works. The most famous is considered to be the work of 1814 "A new look at society or the science of the formation of character."
He also authored books:
- 1815 - "Remarks on the influence of the industrial system";
- 1817 - "Further development of the plan contained in the report"
- 1842 -1844 - "The Book of the New Moral World";
- 1850s - "Revolution in the mind and activity of the human race."
Owen's works were rethought by Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, Lenin and served as a source of the ideas of communism.
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English industrialist and one of the first social reformers of the 19th century, theorist of socialism, creator of labor communes; son of a small shopkeeper, at twenty he became manager of a cotton mill, then co-owner and manager of the Chorlton Cotton Spinning Company in Manchester, later co-owner of a spinning mill in New Lenark near Glasgow; he expounded his views on the ways of the harmonious organization of society in the essays “A New Look at Society, or Experiments on the Formation of Human Character” and “The Book of a New Moral World”, trying to put them into practice in the communist colonies in the USA and Great Britain.
early years
Robert Owen was born in 1771 in the small town of Newtown (Wales) in the family of a small shopkeeper. At the age of seven, the local school teacher already used him as an assistant, but two years later, Owen's school education ended forever, and he went to seek his fortune in big cities. Owen served as an apprentice and clerk in the textile shops of Stamford, London and Manchester, but he did not receive a systematic education.
Years in Manchester
Manchester was at that time the center of the industrial revolution, where cotton production developed especially rapidly. In Manchester, Owen made friends with many members of the local philosophical and literary society, especially Dr. Parzival, who first expressed the idea of the need for labor and health legislation. Owen himself read several papers on labor legislation in this society.
First, having borrowed money from his brother, he opened with one partner a small workshop that manufactured spinning machines, which at that time were rapidly introduced into industry. Then he started his own tiny spinning enterprise, where he worked himself with two or three workers.
He was passionately fond of chemistry and having found new ways to process coarse American cotton, Owen became the manager and then co-owner of a cotton manufactory at the age of 20.
Social experiment at New Lanark
Owen meets Carolina Dale, the daughter of David Dale, a wealthy owner of a textile factory in the village of New Lanark near Glasgow, and marries her.
In 1799, Owen moved to New Lanark, where he became co-owner (along with several Manchester capitalists) and manager of his father-in-law's former factory. He had long conceived his industrial and social experiment and arrived in New Lanark with a firm plan for the reform of industrial relations.
Using the example of his factory, he wanted to show that the obligation to take care of hired workers coincides with the interests of the employer. On the basis of his own experience, he developed a system of "patronage", which he later theoretically developed in the essay: "Essay on the Formation of Character" (1812), proving that a person is a product of the external conditions surrounding him and education; the higher the latter, the more human nature is ennobled and improved.
In the first decade of the 19th century, the New Lanark factory attracted crowds of visitors who were equally surprised by its commercial success and the well-being of its workers. Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, the future Emperor Nicholas I, also visited this factory. Surprised by Owen's success, hearing from all sides about the disasters of the working population, which then everyone explained by its excessive reproduction, he suggested that Owen take with him two million excess British population and move to Russia , but Owen categorically refused and remained to live in England.
An attempt to expand the experiment
The immediate impetus for turning Owen into a preacher was the discussions of 1815-1817 related to the deteriorating economic situation in England, rising unemployment and poverty. Owen presented to the government committee his plan to alleviate these difficulties by creating cooperative villages for the poor, where they would work together, without capitalist employers. His ideas met with misunderstanding and irritation. Owen then spoke directly to the general public. In several speeches delivered in London in August 1817, to a considerable gathering of people, he first laid out his plan. The further, the more the modest project associated with a specific problem developed into a comprehensive system for the reorganization of society on a communist basis. Owen thought of this reorganization in terms of labor cooperative communities, somewhat reminiscent of Fourier's phalanxes. In the years 1817-1824, Owen traveled all over Britain, traveled abroad, made many speeches, wrote a lot of articles and leaflets, tirelessly preaching his ideas.
All Owen's efforts were in vain, although there were influential people who sympathized in one way or another with his plans. In 1819 a committee was even set up to raise funds for his experiment; the committee, along with the Duke of Kent, included, among others, David Ricardo. However, they managed to raise only a small fraction of the necessary money, and the idea failed.
Convinced that preaching by example and word does not cause imitation, Owen began active agitation in favor of factory legislation, trying to rely on the monarchical power and the agricultural aristocracy and fighting the theory of non-intervention of the state. But his hopes in this direction were not justified. Owen then decided to appeal directly to the industrial class and encourage them to form productive associations, the task of which, according to Owen, "was to organize universal happiness through a system of unity and cooperation, based on universal love for one's neighbor and a true knowledge of human nature."
Creation of the theory
The theoretical foundations that necessitate the formation of such associations, he outlined in two works: "Explanation of the causes of distress in which pervades the civilized World" (1823) and "The New Moral World". In fact, he developed a plan for organizing associations in the Report to the County of Lanark. At first, Owen thought of setting up associations or colonies only for the unemployed, but then he came to the idea of the need for a complete transformation of the industrial system. He was its first socialist critic.
The industrial system of that time, according to Owen, was built on three false foundations: on a detailed division of labor that worsens the race, on rivalry that creates a general conflict of interests, and, finally, on making a profit, possible only when demand is equal to or exceeds the offer; the real interest of society requires that the supply of goods should always be greater than demand. Before the invention of machines, it was still possible to maintain such an abnormal situation, but since then the industrial system has been and will continue to be in a critical situation, leading to the ruin of the factory owners and the hunger strike of the workers.
The elimination of all calamities will take place only when the individual groups of producers, using the productive forces that are almost limitless on the basis of new improvements, unite in cooperation, for production with the help of their own labor and capital and for the satisfaction of their own needs.
Commune in America
As a result, Owen came to be seen as a dangerous dreamer, especially from the moment he began fighting all religions in 1817. Disillusioned with the English "educated society", having lost even his influence in New Lanark, Owen and his sons left for America. In 1825, Owen bought 30,000 acres of land in America and organized here, in the state of Indiana, on the Wabah River, the communist productive community "New Harmony", the charter of which was based on the principles of egalitarian communism. In this matter, he is assisted by philanthropists Maclure and Peter Naaf, who are engaged in education; Owen himself, with a special elective committee, conducts all the affairs of the colony; but an attempt to immediately recreate the nature of people by transforming external conditions ends in failure.
The enterprise, having absorbed 40 thousand pounds sterling - almost the entire state of Owen, ended in failure. In 1829 he returned to his homeland. Having allocated some funds to his children (there were seven of them), Owen subsequently led a very modest lifestyle.
labor exchange
In 1832, he starts a new business in England, which also ends in failure, but is of great socio-political significance: he makes an attempt to organize the Labor Exchange. Desiring to destroy all commercial profits and the intermediation of money, Owen sets up an exchange in London, where any manufacturer can deliver goods, receiving labor tickets for them, at the rate of six pence for each hour of labor invested in the product. Initially, the success of the exchange was very great; in the first week more than £10,000 worth of merchandise was brought here, and labor tickets began to be accepted as money in many shops; soon, however, difficulties began.
Merchants sent their stale goods to the exchange and hastily dismantled everything of the most valuable from the exchange; the exchange was soon overwhelmed with goods that had no hope of being sold. The valuation of commodities by hours of labor and by the sixpence rate was a constant source of misunderstanding and controversy. With the piling up of useless goods on the exchange, labor cards lost all value and the exchange ended in bankruptcy.
Trade unions and the labor movement
Owen stands at the origins of another movement of the working class, which was destined for a great future - the trade union. In 1833-1834, he led an attempt to create the first general national trade union, which united up to half a million members. Organizational weakness, lack of funds, the resistance of the owners, who had the support of the government - all this led the union to disintegration.
The differences between Owen and other leaders of the labor movement ran along two lines. On the one hand, for many of them, cautious and business-minded, the approach to cooperation and trade unions as a method of transforming society was unacceptable. On the other hand, Owen denied political action, which no longer satisfied those people who soon formed the backbone of Chartism, a movement with which Owen could never find a common language.
last years of life
After 1834, Owen did not play a big role in public life, although he continued to write a lot, published magazines, participated in the organization of another congregation, and tirelessly preached his views. His followers formed a narrow sect, often speaking from rather reactionary positions.
The charm of humanistic enthusiasm, combined with efficiency, which so distinguished Owen in his youth and in his mature years and attracted people to him, partly gave way to an obsessive monotony of speech and thought. Having retained great clarity of mind to death, he did not escape senile oddities. In the last years of his life, Owen became interested in spiritualism, became prone to mysticism. But he retained the charm of kindness, which Herzen noted. All his life he loved children very much. Owen's views on education remain relevant today.
In the autumn of 1858, at the age of 87, Owen went to Liverpool and felt unwell on the podium of the meeting. After recuperating for several days, he suddenly decided to go to his hometown of Newtown, where he had not been since childhood. There he died in November 1858.
The Significance of Owen's Creative Legacy
Despite all his failures, Owen will forever be remembered in the history of the intellectual development of Europe. He gave the first impetus to factory legislation, pointed out the need for state intervention, and clearly set the task of combating unemployment; he can also be considered the father of that theory of crises in industry, which explains them by the discrepancy between production and the consumption budgets of the masses, or, which is also the insignificance of the consumption share of wealth that goes to the masses under a system of rivalry. He was the spiritual creator of the cooperative movement, which aims to make the consumer a producer and eliminate commercial profits.
Owen's work inspired economic thought in the second half of the 19th century and served as a source for the idea of communism. Owen's ideas were rethought by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin. The experience of communes served as an example for the construction of kibbutzim and the first communist experiments in Soviet Russia after 1917.
His main mistake was that he wanted, through the private efforts of individual outstanding personalities and single attempts to transform the existing way and nature of people's relations, which, when composing, can change only in a regular sequence.
Major works
Remarks on the Influence of the Industrial System (1815)
Further development of the plan contained in the report ... (1817)
Description of a series of delusions and misfortunes arising from the past and present state of society
Report to the County of Lanark on a Plan for the Relief of Public Disasters… (1820)
Appeal of the Congress of Co-operative Societies…(1833)
Robert Owen's speech at the Charlotte Street Institution (1833)
The Book of the New Moral World (1842-44)
