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[4]
|
See Open Letter, passim.
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|
[5]
|
See Bastiat-Schulze, p. 189.
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|
[6]
|
Bastiat-Schulze, p. 188.
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|
[7]
|
Bastiat-Schulze, p. 18.
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|
[8]
|
Bastiat-Schulze, p. 186.
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CHAPTER VI
RODBERTUS
To those who identify socialism with the extreme revolutionary spirit, Rodbertus is naturally an enigma. Everything characteristic of Rodbertus is an express contradiction of their notion of a socialist. He was a Prussian lawyer and landowner, a quiet and cultured student, who disliked revolution and even agitation. It was a marked feature of his teaching also, that he meant the socialist development to proceed on national lines and under national control. Yet it is impossible to give any reasonable account of socialism that will exclude Rodbertus. Clearly the only right way out of the dilemma for those who are caught in it is to widen their conception of the subject; and Rodbertus will become perfectly clear and intelligible.
Karl Johann Rodbertus, by some considered to be the founder of scientific socialism, was born at Greifswald on 12th August 1805, his father being a professor at the university there. He studied law at Göttingen and Berlin, thereafter engaging in various legal occupations; and, after travelling for some time, he bought the estate of Jagetzow, in Pomerania, whence his name of Rodbertus-Jagetzow. In 1836 he settled on this estate, and henceforward devoted his life chiefly to economic and other learned studies, taking also some interest in local and provincial affairs.