Machinery, money, and the millennium : from moral economy to socialism, 1815-1860

This book represents a long-overdue reappraisal of the history of early socialist economic thinking. It makes full use of a wealth of recently discovered pamphlets and periodicals which shed new light on the development of radical economic ideas in the nineteenth century. The author traces the departures made by Robert Owen and his followers from the Christian tradition of moral economy the regulation of the economy by moral criteria. Basing his arguments upon the jurisprudence of the age, the author discusses the development of the tradition which led from Owenism and Chartism to the early ideas of Marx and Engels. This scholarly and insightful study will be of major importance to anyone interested in the history of political economy and in the history of socialism and nineteenth-century thought more generally. Socialism And The Crisis Of The Nineteenth Century -- Just Exchange, Charity And Community Of Goods : Explorations In The History Of Property Theories Before 1815 -- Robert Owen : The Machinery Problem And The Shift From Employment To Justice -- George Mudie : The Quest For Economic Socialism -- William Thompson : From 'true Competition' To Equitable Exchange -- John Gray : Planning, Money And The Commercial Utopia -- Owenism, Land Nationalization And The Labour Movement, 1830-60 -- From Owenism To Marxism : Engels And The Critique Of Political Economy, 1842-46 -- Socialism, Moral Economy And Civilization. Gregory Claeys. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [223]-239) And Index.