[478] The Saint-Simonians never make use of the term, but they describe the doctrine admirably.
[479] “We may provisionally speak of this system as a general system of banking, ignoring for the time being the somewhat narrow interpretation usually placed upon that word. In the first place, the system would comprise a central bank, which would directly represent the Government. This bank would be the depository for every kind of wealth, of all funds for productive purposes and all instruments of labour—in a word, it would include everything that is to-day comprised within the term ‘private property.’ Depending upon this central bank would be other banks of a secondary character, which would be, as it were, a prolongation of the former and would supply it with the means of coming into touch with the principal localities, informing the central institution as to their particular needs and their productive ability. Within the area circumscribed for these banks would be other banks of a more specialised character still, covering a less extensive field and including within their ambit the tenderer branches of the industrial tree. All wants would be finally focused in the central bank and all effort would radiate from it.” (Doctrine, pp. 206-207.) The idea is probably Enfantin’s, for there is an exposition of the same idea in Le Producteur, vol. iii, p. 385.
[480] Doctrine, p. 210, note. Elsewhere (p. 330): “We are weary of every political principle that does not aim directly at putting the destiny of the people in the hands of the most able and devoted among them.”
[481] “We come back with real joy to this great virtue, so frequently misconceived, not to say misrepresented, at the present time—that virtue which is so easy and so delightful in persons who have a common aim which they want to attain, but which is so painful and revolting when combined with egoism. This virtue of obedience is one to which our thoughts return ever with love,” (Ibid., p. 330.)
[482] The formula in the third edition of the Doctrine is a little different. “Each one,” it runs there, “ought to be endowed according to his merits and rewarded according to his work.” We know that the first part of the formula refers to the distribution of capital, i.e. to the instruments of labour, while the second refers to individual incomes. The word “classed” was substituted for “endowed” in the second edition.
[483] Published as an appendix to the second edition of the Doctrine de Saint-Simon, Exposition, Première Année, 1829.
[484] In his small volume Le Collectivisme (Paris, 1900).
[485] Littré has disputed Comte’s indebtedness to Saint-Simon in his Auguste Comte et le Positivisme. Saint-Simon, however, in his preface to Système industriel remarks that in political matters the jurists form a connecting link between feudal government on the one hand and industrial government on the other, just as the metaphysicians are intermediate between the theological and the scientific régimes. In a note which he adds he states his position still more clearly (Œuvres, vol. v, p. 9). It is true that the Système industriel dates from 1821, and is consequently subsequent to the beginning of the friendly relations between Comte and Saint-Simon. But textual evidence, however precise, cannot decide the question of the reciprocal influence which these two Messiahs exercised upon one another. A similar idea had already found expression in Turgot’s work.
[486] P. 179.
[487] “Another mistake that is also very general is to speak of property as if it were an institution with a fixed, unchangeable form, while as a matter of fact it has assumed various aspects and is still capable of further modification as yet undreamt of.” (Laveleye, De la Propriété et de ses Formes primitives, 1st ed., 1874, p. 381.) Stuart Mill, in a letter addressed to Laveleye on November 17, 1872, congratulated him on the demonstration he had given of this. (Ibid., preface, p. xiii.)