Babeuf's Place in the History of Socialism

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American Economic Association

Babeuf's Place in the History of SocialismAuthor(s): Ulysses G. WeatherlyReviewed work(s):Source: Publications of the American Economic Association, 3rd Series, Vol. 8, No. 1, Papersand Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting, Providence, R. I., December 26-28, 1906(Feb., 1907), pp. 113-124Published by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2999898 .Accessed: 09/05/2012 07:19

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BABEUF'S PLACE IN THE HISTORY OFSOCIALISM.ULYSSES G. WEATHERLY.

Ins peakingof the French revolutionarymovementsofI789, I793, I830, I832, and i848, ProfessorWernerSombart declares that "we have here movementswhichare essentiallymiddle-class; in thempoliticalliberties resought,and, so far as theproletariansare concerned, hemasses fight he battles of the middle classes." So faras the first hase of the revolution, hat of I789, is con-cerned, t is beyondcontroversyhatthe proletariatplayedno part as a separate, class-consciousorder. But whenSombart asserts that the movementof I793 was "essen-tially non-proletarian," t is impossible to reconcile hisview with the explicitutterancesof the great terroristsor with the clearly marked trend of political activity.Delbrfick, n the otherhand, has expressedthebelief thatMarat and Robespierrewere true social democrats,andMenger declares that Babeuf's conspiracywas the start-ing point of the present social movement.- It had al-readybecomeapparentin I793 that the formof politicalequalityas taught by Rousseau was incapable of realiza-tionin the face of an uncontrolled nequalityof property.The note of protestagainst the abuses of property ndagainst the capitalist class grew ever stronger in themonthsprecedingthe Terror. Foreign war and domesticinsurrectioneft to theJacobinleaders littletime to workout fundamentalsocial doctrines,but it is not difficultto see thatRobespierreand Saint-Just, f left in perma-

fighto the Whole Produce of Labor, London, i899, p. 63. 8


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II4 . AmericanEconomicAssociationnent control,would have been carriedby thelogic of theirown doctrines to the principle of social control ofproperty.That this trend had been clearlymanifest s indicatedby the fact that the Thermidorean reactionariesthoughtit necessaryto push throughtheConvention, fter Robes-pierre'sdeath, a proclamationdeclaring: "Propertyoughtto be sacred. Far from us those systems dictated byimmorality nd indolencewhich would prolong the hor-rors of thievery nd erect it into a settled principle. Letthe authority f the law guarantee the rightof propertyas it guaranteesall the otherright of citizens."2 Malletdu Pan, in his Memoires,asserts that the Jacobins"weretendingtoward an agrarian law, toward the communityof goods and powers,and toward the establishment f anagrarian, militaryand conquering democracy; theyhaddeclaredwar on commerce,on the arts and on industry,and wished to change France into a republicof soldier-laborers."3 Thermidor checked the tendency oward aneconomic revolution ust at the moment when its signifi-cance was becomingapparent.Loss of power by the Jacobins at Thermidorhad theusual effect fputting he more radical element n controlof thatparty. Then, as so often in later years, the crywas raised thatthe revolutionhad after all only resultedin putting the bourgeoisie into the saddle. From theextremeelementof the Mountain, fromthe irrepressibledemocrats who had learned their political philosophyfrom Rousseau, came themen who followed "Gracchus"Babeuf in his conspiracy gainst theConstitution f I795.When theseconspiratorswere arrestedthecharge againstthemwas merelythatof attempting heoverthrow f the

29 October,794, Buchez et Roux,XXXVI, 128.' Memoires, II, 117.


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Babeuf'sPlace inHistoryofSocialism I I5Directory. At theirtrialbeforethe High Court at Ven-dome itwas thepoliticalaspectof theconspiracy hatwasemphasized, for the evidencewith reference o Babeuf'sdoctrineof community f property oes not seemto havebeen thenfullyknown to the prosecution. Perhaps it isforthis reason that it has become the habit of historiansto regard the Babouvists as merely another group ofrevolutionaryconspirators, the successors of politicalJacobinism. They were this,but theywere more. Ba-beuf demanded first f all the restorationof the Consti-tution of I793 and in thishe regarded himselfmerelyasthe successor of Robespierre. Several timesarrested,hecontinued to agitate against the Thermidorean govern-mentas beingthedestroyer f therepublic.4This was the political phase of his programme. Butwhile in prison at Arras in the middle of I795 he wentover definitely o the communisticdoctrine,and shiftedthe stressof agitation frompolitical to economic issues.From this time his paper,the Tributedu Peuple, began toattackprivateproperty s an obstacleto politicalequality."The Revolution is not ended," says a Babouvist docu-ment of a little aterperiod, "because the rich absorb allvaluable productsand have exclusive command,while thepoor toil like slaves and count fornothing n the stat"-5

The chief sources on Babouvism are:Advielle, Histoire de Gracchus Babeuf et du Babovisme, 2vols., Paris, i884.Buonarrotti, Histoire de la Conspiration pour l'Pgalite ditede Babeuf, 2 vols., Bruxelles, i828; later editions, Paris,i830, i842 and i850. An English translation by "Bron-terre," appeared at London in i836.The principal Babouvist documents were republishedin Rey-baud's Reformateursou Socialistes Modernes, 2 ed., Paris,i848. Tome II, pp. 358, if.Both Advielle and Buonarrotti (first edition) give the docu-ments in full.Analyse de la Doctrine de Babeuf.


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II16 AmericanEconomicAssociationAt this period also theredawned upon Babeuf a sense ofthe iniquityof the existing: xploitationof labor as clear,if not as lucidly expressed,as that of Marx himself. "Ibehold," he says in a letterto Germain in July, 795, "Ibehold without shirts, without clothes, without shoesnearlyall those who prepare for use flax and hemp andwool or silk,nearlyall thosewho weave, who make clothand clothing,who prepare leather, who make shoes."6"If," he continues,"I then consider the littleminoritywho lack for nothing, the landholders, I behold thisminority omposed of all those who do no work, of allthosewho are content o calculate,to combine,to juggle,to revive and rejuvenate under ever new formsthe oldconspiracyof a part against the whole, that is, the con-spiracyby which a multitudeof hands are set at workwithoutthe owners of those hands getting the naturalfruitof their labor, but those fruitsare heaped up ingreat masses in the hands of criminalspeculators. Thelatter,havingexertedthemselves easelessly to reducethewages of labor, combine with their fellow thieves, themerchants, o fix thepriceof everythingo that thispriceis only within the reach of the members of their owngroup. . . . Thereafterthosenumeroushands (of thelaborers) can grasp nothing,touchnothing,and the realproducersare devotedto destruction, r at least the littlethat is left to them is only the mere frothor meagerscrapingsof theproductsofnature."7But it is not aloneagainstthecapitalisticmanufacturersthat Babeuf bringsthis indictment. The whole businessorganizationof existing ociety s partof the same vicioussystem. "Commerce,"he declares,"oughtto vivify very-thingand carryan equal supportto all its agents," andhe classes as agents of commerce all who in any way

' Advielle1, 145-146.TIbid.


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Babeuf'sPlace inHistory of Socialism I7co-operatein the processes of production. But why,heinquires,do the original agents of production, hosewhodo the creative labor, the essential labor, receive incom-parably smaller returns han the merchantswho do onlythe most subordinate part of the labor-that of ex-change? It is because the latter class "despoil," whilethe laborers allow themselvesto be "despoiled." It isbecause the capitalistsand merchants eague togethertohold in their grasp the "real producer, in order to bealways in a positionto say to him, Work much and eatlittle,else you shall have no more work, and especiallyyou shallnot have anything t all to eat.' "8Released from prison in October, I795, Babeuf re-turnedto Paris withthesettledpurposeto work no longermerelyfor the restorationof the Constitutionof I793,but primarilyfor the establishment f that communisticsystemwhich he now believednecessary n orderto makethe republica reality. Denouncing private propertyasthechief source of all the calamitiesthat afflictedociety,he proceededto combine the more radical of the surviv-ing partyof the Mountain with his own immediatefol-lowers intoa groupknownat first s the Societe Politiquepour le Triomphe de l']igalite, later called the Societe duPantheon,which continued ts existenceuntil interdictedby the Directory, 7 February, 796, whentheBabouvistswere arrested.Consisting as it thus did of one section whose chiefinterest was political revolution and of another con--cerned primarily for radical economic reorganization,theSociete du Pantheon was nevera homogeneousgroup,and even Babeuf's immediatefollowerswere not whollyagreed on the details of theeconomicprogramme. Aftermuchdebateall partiesunitedin a statement f principles

8Advielle I, I47.


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II8 American EconomicAssociationcalled the Manifestoof the Equals, settingforth he evilsof the existing order and outlining a social system inharmonywiththe extremest deas of equality. But, likethe terrorists, he Babouvists were compelled to devotemost of their energyto preparinga war for the estab-lishmentof theirpolitical system,and were not able toelaboratetheirsocial theoriesas theymighthave done ina period of internalpeace. On account of the troubloustimes n which they worked theywere of necessityratherthe soldiersthan the apostles of themovementfor whichthey stood.A secretDirectory of Public Safety had charge of therevolutionarypropaganda. This body in addition topreparing for insurrection found time to formulate atentative conomic decree to be submitted o the nationalassembly when the revolution should have succeeded.The chiefpoints set forthwere:

(i) That the unequal distributionof goods is theinexhaustiblesource of slavery and all public calamities.(2) That labor by all is the essential condition ofthe social contract.(3) That the ownershipof all the wealth of France

resides essentially n the people of France who alone candetermine nd change the distribution f it.9The first rude and verbose statements feconomicdoc-trine n Babeuf's letters nd in the Tribun du Peuple weresupplantedbya documententitledAnalyse de la Doctrinede Babeuf, prepared by Sylvain Marechal and indorsedby Babeuf. This, togetherwith the Manifesto of theEquals alreadymentioned nd Babeuf's Lettre a M. V-furnishes he principal source of first-handnformationas to the actual theories of the group. As a systemofsocietyBabouvism was undoubtedly purelycommunistic9Buonarrotti, II, 157.


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Babeuf'sPlace inHistoryofSocialism I I9plan. Never before had the doctrine of absolute level-ling been so explicitlyproclaimed. "Let there no longerbe any other differencesmong men than those of ageand sex," exclaims the Manifesto. Since all have thesame wants and the same faculties, let all accordinglyhave the same education, the same housing, the samenourishment. "They are contentwith a common sunand the same air for all; why should not the like portionand thesame quality of food suffice oreach according tohis wants ?" "The aim of society s happiness,and hap-piness is equality." So long as private propertyexistssuch equality is impossible, for propertygives unequalpowers. Proudhon's dictum, "Property is theft,"wasclearlyforeshadowed n an utteranceby Babeuf even be-fore he became an avowed communist,"All that thosepossess who have more than their due individual shareof thegoods of society s theft nd usurpation;it is there-fore just to take it away fromthem."10 The land is tobe made common property, ultivationbeing controlledby a centraladministration o that thereshall be in eachcommune a well regulated body of cultivatorsworkingin harmonywiththegeneral interest. Private commercein agriculturalproducts is to be abolished, and all com-modities collected into public magazines, whence theyare to be distributed y the administration o citizensac-cordingto theirneeds. For it is needs and not produc-tive power that are to determinedistribution. Labor isrequiredfromall, and to distribute o each according tohis work would mean inequality,since all cannot workalike. "The unequal production of equal labor," saysBuonarrotti, ought to be rewarded by an impartialdis-tribution.""1

t Tribun du Peuple, No. 33, cited by Menger: Right to the WholeProduce of Labor.2 Buonarrotti, I, 257, note.


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120 American EconomicAssociationIt follows then that charity o the dependent lasses as

such disappears. Marat and Saint-Just had denouncedpoverty and mendicancy as disgraceful to a democraticstate. To the Babouvists the rights of the dependentand defective classes are equal to those of the workersso faras regardsthegoods of society. Since theycannotwork, the rightof property s replaced by the "right ofevery individual to an existence as happy as that of allthe other membersof the social body."12It is hardly necessaryto say thatthe Babouvists, beingdisciples of Rousseau, were hostile to the existence ofcities. Their ideal system s one of communes more orless rural in character,where men are kept in directcon-tact with nature. Babeuf looks forward to the time whenthe arts workingin harmonywith the tillersof the soil,shall extinguish the great cities-those receptacles ofevery vice-and cover France withvillages adornedwithcrowds of happy residents.13 Buonarrotti is still moreemphatic. He characterizescities as a symptom f pub-lic discontentand a sure precursor of civil convulsions.The gatheringthere of great wealth and luxury breedssycophancy, dependency and moral disorder. More-over, constant change of services and of wages wherewealth and luxury abound makes certain classes neces-sarily inferior and thus destroysequality.14But while Babouvism was thus a communistic ystem,and in fact a more or less utopian one, it was based oneconomicdoctrinesequivalentto and often denticalwiththose of modern scientific ocialism. If, as Marx de-clared, therecan be no politicalmovement which is notat the same time social and economic,then the Babou-vists were the first f the moderns to perceivethe econ-

Buonarrotti, , 208.3Re'ponse a M. V: Buonarrotti,II. 225.4Buonarrotti,, 22I-224.


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Babeuf's lace inHistory fSocialism 12Iomic basis of the social problem and to state the social-istic philosophyof society. Strippedof verbiage and thesentimental ant of Rousseauism, there remains in theirteachingthe essence of nearlyeveryimportantdogma ofthe modernsocialistparty.Babeuf foresaw the centralpoint of attack on social-ism, in the charge that it would destroythe incentive oprogress by destroyingspecialized tastes and aptitudesand by withdrawingthe personal stimulus to scientificresearchand invention. He meets this with the conten-tion that science and inventiondepend "more on love ofglorythan on love of wealth." In a communistic tate,he declares,genius would be honored and rewardedbet-ter than under the presentcorruptsystemwhere geniusand virtuestarvewhile follyand crimeprosper. In anycase the resultsof industry nd the inventionsof geniusare rightly he propertyof society,for theyare the pro-ducts of previous inventions and industry, y which thenew inventorsand workers have profited n the life ofsocietyand whichhave aided themin their discoveries.15Thus early was the theory of "projected efficiency"n-ticipated.Upon thequestionofthe economiceffects fmachinerythe Babouvists also had their word, and this was in es-sentialharmonywith the aterviews ofMarx andLassalle.If invention s reallya social and not a personal achieve-ment,then,they declare,the fruitsof inventionought togo to society n lessened labor and more easily accessibleproducts. Only in a communistic ociety,says Buonar-rotti,can improved mechanical processes be a benefit,for therealone they operate to the benefit f the wholeof society. Where private property n the instrumentsof productionexists machinery s a means of exploiting" Babeuf's Defense, Advielle II, 40, where Babeuf cites from theTribun du Peuple, No. 35.


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122 AmericanEconoomic ssociationlabor in the interest of the capitalist whose profits taugments.'6That culture and industryshould be associated is afundamentalprinciple of socialistic teaching, whetherutopian or scientific. The Babouvists would have car-ried this doctrine to extreme limits. Not only in theeducation of the young but in the whole realm of in-dustry, rt and intellectwere to be inseparablyassociatedwith work. 2Esthetics if divorced from industry theybelieved to be a promoterof class distinctions. SylvainMarechal, against the judgment of some of his col-leagues, had even incorporatedinto the Manifesto thesentence, "Perish the arts if need be, provided onlyequalitybe leftto us." Babeuf and Buonarrottibelieved,on the otherhand, that the arts would have a large usein giving pleasure and instruction o a societybetterableto profitby them than the existing one. It is the dutyof the state, says Buonarrotti, o providenot onlyneces-sities but pleasurable things as well to its citizens; butonly suchenjoyments s can be sharedby all alike shouldbe allowed. All others are to be sternly epressed.17The very nature of his surroundings forced Babeufinto the ranks of revolutionary ocialists. The Manifestoassertsthat,sinceequalityis the natural order of society,to resort to revolution n order to secure it is merelyto"revert to order," an evil which,comparedwiththe con-tinuance of theexistinganarchic system, s small. Babeufwas willing that "all should returnto chaos" in orderthat out of this chaos there should come a new and re-juvenated world.18 To the inevitable objection that asocialistic systemcould not be successfully dministeredover a country o extensive as France, he admits that a

" Buonarrotti,I, 2II-2I2, note.l"Buonarrotti, I, 210." Babeuf, Reponse a M. V.


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Babeuf'sPlace inHistoryofSocialism I23strong administrationwould be necessary,but contendsthat a centralbody in controlof industry,keeping con-stantly n touch with all the communesand informedoftheirneeds and resources,could more effectivelydjustproductionand exchange to demand than the wastefulcompetitiveregime with its faminesand its overproduc-tion. -lie saw, if he did not state as clearly as Engelslater did, the dangers of overproduction nd the "viciouscycle" theoryof commercial crices. Into the details ofthe governmentalsystem,however, Babeuf did not go.For him and for the survivingJacobins,the restorationof the Constitutionof I793 was to be the foundationprincipleof all political action. He had some idea how-ever of how complicatedthe machineryof the socialisticrepublicmust be, and Alfred Espinas has characterizedhis scheme as a "debauch of administration."19If, then,Babouvism was, as it claimedto be, the logicaldevelopmentof the philosophyof Rousseau, Robespierreand Saint-Just, t seemed, like democracyitself,to havebeen completely xtinguishedat Babeuf's death in I797.Ordinarilyregarded as merelythe last gasp of expiringJacobinism, t is habitually connected in thought back-ward withthe eventsof the revolutionary eriod and notat all forwardwiththehistoryof social democracy n thenext century. But Babeuf was more than the last ofRobespierre'sdisciples. He was the connecting inkbe-tweeneighteenth entury oliticaldemocracyand modernrevolutionarysocialism. For more than thirty yearsafter I797 Babeuf and Babouvism were practicallyfor-gotten. But afterthe Revolution of 1830 Btionarrotti,one of the leading spirits in the conspiracy,returnedfromexile and took up his residencein Paris. Alreadyin I828 he had publishedat Brussells his historyof Ba-

'9 Revue Internationalede Sociologie, VI, 3i6.


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I24 AmericanEconomicAssociationbeuf's conspiracy, which was also an exposition of thedoctrines of the school and which contained the chiefdocuments in which they were set forth. This book,repeatedlyreissued, had incalculable influencen the fol-lowing years in forming he minds of theyoungergenera-tion of extreme democrats, who imbibed from it thosesocialistic ideas which they now regarded as the naturaloutcomeof democracy. Buonarrotti himselfbecame thehonoredfriend nd adviser of some of the menwho weredestined to be championsof the social democraticmove-ment. Chief among these was Louis Blanc, and the groupalso included Charles Teste and Voyer d'Argenson.20 Itis still a question whether Marx himself was not moreinfluencedby economic ideas coming to him indirectlyfrom this French source than by those of the obscureEnglish socialiststo whomMenger assigns credit fortheleading Marxian ideas. For, despite the vagueness andmysticism f much of his teaching, t is with the militantpolitical socialismof Louis Blanc and the CommunethatBabeuf's system s to be classed, and not withtheutopianidealism of Saint-Simon and Fourier.

20 See Advielle, I, 360-36i; also Louis Blanc, Historyof TenYears, Philadelphia, i848, II, 228-229.

Documents

Babeuf's Place in the History of Socialism