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Saint-Simon as a Realist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

W. Stark
W. Stark
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CambridgeEngland
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Extract

In Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, three great movements have taken their origin. The first is characterized by the names Enfantin and Bazard, the second by those of Comte and Taine, the third by Lesseps and Péreire. Enfantin and Bazard were men of imagination, Comte and Taine men of science, Lesseps and Péreire men of action. No other father has engendered such different children. Enfantin and Bazard made Saint-Simon the bearer of a new gospel of salvation; in his name they founded a church and strove to win for it all nations. Comte and Taine made Saint-Simon the founder of a new philosophy; from his ideas they developed a system of knowledge and gained for it the nineteenth century. Lesseps and Péreire made Saint-Simon the pioneer of a new world; from his inspiration they created waterways and railways, banks and factories.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , May 1943 , pp. 42 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1943

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References

1 It is not my intention to discuss the existing Saint-Simon literature. Its quintessence is aptly reflected in Alexander Gray's popular book, The Development of Economic Doctrine (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1931), 293Google Scholar: “Viewed from the Marxian angle, the socialism which preceded Marx … was that of the so-called Utopian Socialists …. It is among these that we must look for the father of socialism …. Firstly, there is Saint-Simon … an eccentric nobleman who foresaw the coming of a new age ….” The thesis is plain: Saint-Simon was not a realist. Cf. also the abortive book of Dumas, G., Saint-Simon et A. Comte, psychologie de deux messies positivistes (1905), esp. p. 8.Google Scholar

2 Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d'Enfantin … publiées par les membres du Conseil institué par Enfantin pour l'exécution de ses dernières volontés (Paris, 1865–1878) (47vols.), I, 26.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., VIII, 63.

4 Ibid., I, 28.

5 Ibid., I, 41.

6 Ibid., I, 28.

7 Ibid., I, 30.

8 Ibid., I, 34.

9 Ibid., I, 28.

10 The expression “liberalism” is best avoided in this connection for Saint-Simon rejected it. But he declined only the word, and by no means the concept. He said “industrialism” and meant the same thing. “The word liberalism describes a bundle of sentiments; it does not indicate a set of interests; hence it comes about that this denomination is vague, and consequently that it is faulty …. The denomination industrialism fixes the attention on the interests, and consequently it is much preferable to that of liberalism.” Oeuvres de Saint-Simon, ed. Rodrigues, (Paris, 1832), II, 207, 225 ff. Saint-Simon simply wished to avoid a word which, in the age of reaction and romanticism, evoked unsympathetic associations.Google Scholar

11 Oeuvres, I, 44.

12 Ibid, III, 155ff.

13 Ibid., III, 82 ff.

14 Ibid., III, 98.

15 Ibid., III, 89.

16 Ibid., III, 84 ff, 88. A law of this description, harmless though it might appear, would by one stroke put the political power into the hands of the bourgeoisie. “In the commercial and manufacturing industries it is the travailleurs who pay the taxes imposed upon that part of national production. The measure which we propose would consist in assimilating the agricultural industriels to the commercial industriels; consequently in arranging that the enterprises which they direct should be led under their names, and furthermore also that all the direct taxes levied from agriculture would be paid by them instead of the proprietors …. The result of that measure then would be that the industry would pay by far the largest part of the direct taxes, for what is not land tax or tax on the commercial and manufacturing industries forms only a very small part of direct taxation. Now, the industry thus finding itself in the majority in the elections [the right to vote then depended upon the payment of a direct tax] would not hesitate to give itself the majority in the House of Commons, and as this House possesses the decisive political power … the industry would soon be in a position to give to the nation the social organization it wanted. This organization would be necessarily the most favourable possible to industry, in other words, to the industrial régime.” Ibid., III, 95 ff.

17 Saint-Simon even took over some of the formulas of the physiocrats, substituting however classe industrielle for class productive [classe des cultivateurs]. Thus he said, modifying a little Quesnay's famous words: “Industry … is the only source of all riches.” “The industrial class is the only useful class.” “The industrial class should occupy the first rank … because it can dispense with all the others, and none of the others can dispense with them.” Oeuvres, II, 13; III, 74; Rodrigues, II, 2.

18 Oeuvres, III, 110, 104.

19 Ibid., III, 120 ff.

20 Ibid., III, 169 ff.

21 1823–1824.

22 Rodrigues, II, 7 ff.

23 A correct philological understanding of Saint-Simon is an indispensable condition of a correct interpretation of his ideas. In his writings many words have a meaning essentially different from the one predominant today. Thus propriété without further distinction signifies “landed property” and not property; artiste comprises not only the author and painter but also technicians (see Oeuvres, IV, 217; IV, 51); savant includes the producers as savants d'application, and industriel denotes also scientists asvbgkpj triels de théorie (Oeuvres, III, 60; V, 158). Most misleading are the terms organiser, organisateur, organisation. Today, in the age of discussions on planned economy, they evoke the idea of replacing exchange economy by a centrally directed system. In the mouth of Saint-Simon they describe something totally different. Organiser means simply “to occupy oneself with the formation of the social system” (Oeuvres, IV, 228). Organisateur can therefore be translated by “reformer”, keeping in mind, however, that Saint-Simon had in view a social reform in the sense of a stabilization of conditions. The use of the expression têtes fortement organisées for “progressively minded men” (Oeuvres, IV, 223) is characteristic. Saint-Simon always thought that organization of society called for the establishment of a system of free exchange: “The two most liberal measures which have been adopted since the beginning of the revolution were proposed the one by M. Decaze, the other by M. de Serre (i.e., democratic reform of elections and separation of morals and religion in the practice of the law of the press) …. If these two men had made another small effort in the same direction, the social machine would have found itself organised ….” (Oeuvres, IV, 235). See also the explanation in Oeuvres, X, 32.

24 Rodrigues, II, 10, 42.

25 Ibid., 12.

26 Ibid., I, 24.

27 Oeuvres, V, 49.

28 Ibid., I, 201; see also VI, 17.

29 See ibid., X, 81n.

30 Rodrigues, I, 168.

31 Ibid., 144, 174.

32 Rodrigues, II, 221 ff.

33 Ed. 1850, II, 146.

34 Much has been made of the fact that Saint-Simon advocated a system of unemployment relief. “The first article of the budget of expenses will have for its object to secure the existence of the proletarians by procuring work for the able-bodied and help to the sick.” (Oeuvres, V, 107.) But even here a typical bourgeois idea is visible in the background. The “projects having for their aim to procure work to the non-proprietors” should, according to his wishes, result “in increasing in them the sentiment of respect due to property, and on the other hand, in multiplying the enjoyments of the rich.” (Ibid., 162.) And even here a typical bourgeois remedy is prescribed: “Which is the means of procuring to the people the greatest possible quantity of work? I answer this question as follows: The best means is to entrust to the chiefs of industrial enterprises the task of making the budget, and, consequently, to direct public administration; for, by the nature of things, the chiefs of industrial enterprises will always tend directly and for their own interests towards giving the greatest possible extension to their enterprises, and from their efforts in this respect will result the greatest possible increase of the mass of work which is to be executed by the men of the people.” (Oeuvres, VI, 82 ff.)

35 Annex to the Doctrine de Saint-Simon (2d ed.; Paris, 1830).Google Scholar

36 Oeuvres, V, 178.

37 Rodrigues, II, 37, 46, 107.

38 Ibid., 16 ff.

39 Ibid., 17, ff., 103.

40 Oeuvres, IV, 119.

41 Rodrigues, II, 63.

42 Oeuvres, II, 166.

43 Ibid., 190.

44 Rodrigues, II, 45, 66 ff.

45 Ibid., 26 ff., 71.