one of these contrasts might be contemplated by an old man, if he had a true portrait for which he sat in the bloom of life, and should hold it beside a mirror in which he looks at his present countenance, the other would be powerfully felt if he had such a genuine and detailed memoir as I have supposed. Might it not be worth while for a self-observant person in early life, to preserve for the inspection of the old man, if he should live so long, such a mental likeness of the young one? If it be not drawn near the time, it can never be drawn with sufficient accuracy.

From Letter VII., «On a Man's Writing

Memories of Himself."

FRANÇOIS MARIE CHARLES FOURIER

(1772-1837)

OURIER was one of the most remarkable and influential men of the nineteenth century. In spite of extravagances which completely discredited him among orthodox economists, he made himself the leader of a world-wide movement for radical changes in existing economic and social conditions. The Civil War in America was largely due to the insistence of his disciples that reform must be immediate, regardless of all considerations of convenience and inconvenience. To the mysticism of Swedenborg and the extravagances of the most radical political reformers, Fourier joined faculties which, when he employs them, often give his logic the severity of Mill. It is said that he was prompted to begin his career as a political writer by seeing a ship's cargo of rice thrown overboard and destroyed as a means of raising the price. He was born April 7th, 1772, at Besançon, France, where his father was a draper. He began life as a chasseur in the French army, but after two years he was discharged on account of ill health. His life for many years subsequently was passed "in subordinate capacities in commercial houses." In 1808 his «< Theory of the Four Movements and of General Destinies » appeared as the beginning of his attempt to reorganize society. It was followed by "The New Industrial and Social World" and "False Industry,» constituting together a complete exposition of Fourier's ideas and methods. Instead of competition in trade and production, he proposed "phalansteries" organized for profit-sharing. While this produced a notable effect in disturbing conditions then existing, it is much less important practically than the ideas of essays in which Fourier treats single phases of what he finds most objectionable in the world as it is. When he thus restricts himself, his mysticism frequently disappears altogether, and he is severely practical. It is perhaps true that like a much greater thinker-Auguste Comte - he was at times wholly incapable of controlling the operations of his own mind, but when he is at his best his writings display phenomenal force and considerable attractiveness of style. He died October 8th, 1837.

I

SPOLIATION OF THE SOCIAL BODY

IN AN age which has carried economy even into the minutest details, substituting chickory for coffee, and making other savings which serve only to favor the impositions of tradesmen and to annoy consumers, who can hardly obtain pure and good articles at any price,-in an age so mean and parsimonious, how is it that no one has remarked that the chief economy should be economy of hands, economy of intermediate agents, who might be dispensed with, but who are so abundant in unproductive departments like that of commerce?

I have already observed that it is frequently our custom to employ a hundred persons in functions which, in Association, would require but two or three, and that after the seventh social Period, twenty men will suffice the markets of a city to which we now send a thousand. In respect to industrial organization, we are as unenlightened as nations ignorant of the use of the mill, and which employ fifty laborers to crush the grain which is ground among us by a single machine. Everywhere the superfluity of agents is frightful; in all commercial operations the number is at least four times larger than is requisite. the reign of free competition, we see tradesmen swarming even in our villages. Peasants renounce agriculture to become peddlers; if they have only a calf to sell, they go and spend days in town, idling about markets and public houses.

Since

In cities like Paris, there are as many as three thousand grocers, where three hundred would amply suffice. The profusion of agents is the same in the smallest towns; those which are visited now in course of the year by a hundred commercial travelers and a hundred peddlers were not visited, perhaps, in 1788 by more than ten; yet at that period there was no lack of either provisions or clothing, and at very moderate prices, though tradesmen were less numerous by a third than at the present day.

This multiplicity of rival tradesmen drives them constantly to the adoption of measures the most foolish, and the most ruinous to the community; for superfluous agents, like monks, being consumers and not producers, are spoliators of the social body. It is now admitted that the monks of Spain, the number of whom is estimated at five hundred thousand, might produce enough, if

they were employed in agriculture, for the subsistence of two million persons. It is the same with the superfluous tradesmen, the number of whom is incalculable; and when we come to explain the commercial method of the sixth Period, Collective Competition, we shall be convinced that Commerce might be carried on with a fourth as many agents as it now employs, and that there are, in France alone, a million of inhabitants withdrawn from agriculture and manufactures by the superabundance of agents created by free competition. France alone, then, in consequence of the error of the Economists, suffers an annual loss of products sufficient for the subsistence of four million inhabitants.

Besides the waste of human labor, the present Order causes also a waste of capital and of products. I shall cite as an illustration of this, one of the most common abuses of the present day, namely, the breaking down of commercial rivals.

Since the Revolution we hear of nothing in the commercial world but the breaking down of rival tradesmen. Become too numerous, they compete furiously with each other for sales, which, owing to the excess of competition, are more and more difficult every day. A city which consumed a thousand tons of sugar when it had but ten tradesmen, still consumes but a thousand tons when the number is increased to forty; this is seen all over the world. Now we hear these swarms of merchants complaining of the dullness of trade, when they ought rather to complain of the superabundance of tradesmen. They exhaust themselves in making useless displays to attract customers, and run into the most foolish extravagance for the purpose of crushing their rivals.

It is an error to suppose that the merchant is a slave to interest alone; he is equally a slave to jealousy and pride. Some of them ruin themselves for the sterile honor of "doing a big business," others from a desire to break down a rival whose success enrages them. Commercial ambition, however low it may be, is still violent, and if the achievements of Miltiades disturbed the sleep of Themistocles, it may also be said that the sales of one tradesman disturb the sleep of another. Hence comes this insane competition by which so many merchants ruin each other, and exhaust themselves in expenses the burden of which falls ultimately upon the consumer; for, in the last analysis, all loss is supported by the community at large. Now if the new commercial order (Collective Competition) would reduce by three-fourths

the number of commercial agents and the amount of commercial expenses, the price of products would be diminished in a like proportion; then we should see production increase in proportion to the demand occasioned by the reduction in price, and to the amount of labor and capital restored to agriculture by the diminution in the number of commercial agents.

One abuse leads to another; this is as true in Commerce as in Government. For example, multiplicity of commercial agents leads to speculation and bankruptcy. We see a striking proof of this in the rivalry of stage-coach companies, which for the sake of ruining each other would often be willing to carry travelers gratis. In seeing them lower their prices, in order to break each. other down, people say: "Soon they will pay us a premium to go in their conveyances."

It is important to dwell on these details, in order to prove that the Economists, in assuming gain to be the only motive of tradesmen, have grossly deceived themselves. What sensible man would have conceived the idea of carrying passengers from Paris to Rennes for eighteen francs? Yet such are the follies produced by the mania for breaking down rivals. The result of these industrial conflicts, so agreeable to travelers, is the bankruptcy of the various parties engaged in them, who, at some months apart, are ruined by each other. The loss occasioned by their bankruptcy is borne, in the end, by the public who always take an interest in the most foolish enterprises which, notwithstanding their nonsuccess, yield a profit to the bankrupts by the spoliation of their co-associates whose funds are never reimbursed. Hence it is that the merchants, certain to save themselves, in case of reverses, by a bankruptcy, hazard everything in order to ruin a rival and rejoice over the downfall of a neighbor, like those Japanese who put out one eye at the door of an enemy that they may cause him, according to their law, to lose both. The old established commercial houses, disconcerted by these destructive rivalries, renounce a profession become so hazardous and corrupt through the intrigues of the newcomers, who, in order to obtain the vogue, commence by selling at a loss. The old houses not caring to lose in this way, find themselves deserted, deprived of custom, and unable to meet their engagements. Soon the two parties fall into difficulties and are obliged to recur to the money lender, whose usurious aid increases their embarrassment and hastens the fall of both