[462] This is the full text: “The object of socialism is to set up a new system of society based upon the workshop as a model. The rights of the society will be the customary rights of the factory. Not only will socialism stand to benefit by the existence of the industrial system which has been built up by capital and science upon the basis of technical development, but it will gain even more from that spirit of co-operation which has long been a feature of factory life, drawing out the best energy and the best skill of the workman.” Earlier in the same volume he writes: “Everything will proceed in an orderly, economical fashion, just like a factory.” (G. Sorel, Le Syndicalisme révolutionnaire, in Le Mouvement socialiste, November 1 and 15, 1905.)
[463] Saint-Simon often quotes Say and Smith with distinct approval. But he charges Say with the separation of politics from economics instead of merging the former in the latter, and with inability to realise to the full extent what he “dimly saw, as it were, in spite of himself, namely, that political economy is the one true foundation of politics.” (Lettres à un Américain, Œuvres, vol. ii, p. 185.)
[464] Saint-Simon is classed among the socialists for two reasons: (1) the interest he takes in the condition of the poor; (2) his opinions concerning the necessity for reforming the institution of private property. But none of the texts that are generally quoted seem to have the significance that is occasionally given them. With regard to the first point, a celebrated passage from the Nouveau Christianisme is the one usually quoted: “Society should be organised in such a fashion as to secure the greatest advantage for the greatest number. The object of all its labours and activities should be the promptest, completest amelioration possible of the moral and physical condition of the most numerous class.” (Œuvres, vol. vii, pp. 108-109.) Already in his Système industriel Saint-Simon had said that the direct object which he had in view was to better the lot of that class that had no other means of existence than the labour of its own right arm. (Ibid., vol. vi, p. 81.) But is this not just the old Benthamite formula—the greatest good of the greatest number? Besides, how does Saint-Simon propose to secure all this? By giving the workers more power? Not at all. “The problem of social organisation must be solved for the people. The people themselves are passive and listless and must be discounted in any consideration of the question. The best way is to entrust public administration to the care of the industrial chiefs, who will always directly attempt to give the widest possible scope to their undertakings, with the result that their efforts in this direction will lead to the maximum expansion of the amount of work executed by the mass of the people.” (Ibid., vol. vi, pp. 82-83.) A Liberal economist would hardly have expressed it otherwise.
As to the question of private property, Saint-Simon certainly regarded its transformation as at least possible. This is seen in a number of passages. “Property should be reconstituted and established upon a foundation that might prove more favourable for production,” says he in L’Organisateur. (Ibid., vol. iv, p. 59.) Elsewhere, in a letter written to the editor of the Journal général de la France, he mentions the fact that he is occupied with the development of the following ideas: (1) That the law establishing the right of private property is the most important of all, seeing that it is the basis of our social edifice; (2) the institution of private property ought to be constituted in such a fashion that the possessors may be stimulated to make the best possible use of it. (Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 43-44.) In his Lettres à un Américain he gives the following résumé of the principles which underlie the work of J. B. Say (an incidental proof of his attachment to the Liberal economists): “The production of useful objects is the only positive, reasonable aim which political societies can propose for themselves, and consequently the principle of respect for production and producers is a much more fruitful one than the other principle of respect for property and proprietors.” (Œuvres, vol. ii, pp. 186-187.) But all that this seems to us to imply is that the utility of property constitutes its legality and that it should be organised with a view to social utility. Admitting that he did conceive of the necessity of a reform of property, it does not appear that he intended this to mean anything beyond a reform of landed property. We have already seen how he regarded capital as a kind of social outlay which demanded remuneration. The following passage bears eloquent testimony to his respect for movable property: “Wealth, generally speaking, affords a proof of the manufacturers’ ability even where that wealth is derived from inherited fortune, whereas in the other classes of society it is apparently true to say that the richer are inferior in capacity to those who have received less education but have a smaller fortune. This is a truth that must play an important part in positive politics.” (Syst. indust., Œuvres, vol. v, p. 49, note.)
[465] The exact title is Doctrine de Saint-Simon, Exposition, Première Année, 1829. Our quotations are taken from the second edition (Paris, 1830). One ought to mention, in addition to these, the articles contributed by Enfantin to Le Globe and republished under the title of Économie politique et Politique, in one volume (2nd ed., 1832). But none of these articles is as interesting as the Doctrine, and they only reproduce the ideas already discussed by Enfantin in his articles in Le Producteur.
[466] Despite the fact that the oral exposition of the doctrine was the work of Bazard and was prepared for the press by his disciples—Hippolyte Carnot among others—most of the economic ideas contained in it must be attributed to Enfantin. Enfantin also was responsible for the majority of the economic articles that appeared in Le Producteur. But the doctrine set forth in Le Producteur differs considerably from that expounded in the Exposition. Interest and rent are subjected to severe criticism as tributes paid to idleness by industry. Inheritance, on the other hand, though treated with scant sympathy, is not condemned. A lowering of the rate of interest would, Enfantin thinks, help to enfranchise the workers, and a sound credit system would solve the greatest of modern problems—that is, it would reconcile workers and idlers, “whose interests will never again be confused with the general interest, inasmuch as the possession of the fruits of past labour will no longer constitute a claim to the enjoyment of the benefits of labour in the present or future.” (Le Producteur, vol. ii, p. 124.) These ideas are more fully developed in the Exposition.
[467] Doctrine de Saint-Simon, p. 182.
[468] Ibid., p. 190.
[469] Ibid., p. 93.
[470] Sismondi’s term was rather “spoliation.” See supra, [p. 185].