Constantin Pecqueur
Encyclopedia
Constantin Pecqueur was a French economist, socialist theoretician and politician. He participated in the Revolution of 1848 and influenced Karl Marx
.
and joined a phalanstery or Fourierist community. He wrote a biography of Fourier in 1835 and contributed to various Fourierist journals. In 1836 he left the Fourierists, publishing a critique of their system, and developed his own theories. He remained close, however, to some of his friends from the Saint-Simonian and Fourierist schools, such as Pierre Leroux
and Victor Considerant.
In contrast to these theorists, Pecqueur was one of the earliest French socialists to advocate collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. He is sometimes called the 'father of French collectivist socialism.' In the 1830s Pecqueur made his name as a highly respected socialist economist. His writings included Intérêt du commerce et de l'industrie (1836), Améliorations matérielles (1839), La réforme électorale (1840), Théories nouvelles d'économie sociale et politique (1842), De la paix, de son principe et de sa réalisation (1842), Des armées dans leurs rapports avec l'industrie (1842) and La République de Dieu (1844).
Among other works, particular notice accrued to his two-volume opus Economie sociale des interets du commerce, de l'industrie, de l'agriculture et de la civilisation en général, sous l'influence de l'application de la vapeur (1839). In this work, Pecqueur tried to show that changes in material conditions, such as the introduction of steam power, produce changes in intellectual development. The French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences awarded him a prize. Karl Marx also praised Pecqueur's materialist method. Marx later frequently cited Pecaueur as an authority in Capital and other economic writings. In contrast to many of his utopian socialist contemporaries, and again anticipating Marx' view, Pecquer did not see the development of industrial production as predominantly negative. He welcomed the greater productive capacity of industry but thought that capitalist relations of ownership prevented the full productive potential of industrial technology from being realised. Industry should therefore be nationalised and organised for the common benefit. (However, Pecqueur's materialism was confinded to economics, sociology and historical analysis. Metaphysically he was not a materialist but shared the deistic religiosity of many French republicans.)
In 1839, Pecqueur was commissioned by the French government to make a study of the Belgian railway system, which was more advanced than that of France. He recommended government investment in railway construction.
In 1844, Pecqueur became a regular contributor to the leading democratic newspaper, La Réforme, edited by the left-wing republican Alexandre Ledru-Rollin. This gave him a wider platform for his ideas and put him in contact with other major republican socialist figures of the period, including the economist Louis Blanc
. In 1848, Pecqueur supported the February Revolution
. When Blanc became Minister of Labour in the new Provisional Government of the Second Republic
, he set up the Luxembourg Commission
on the question of 'the organisation of labour' and appointed Pecqueur to its panel. Among his colleagues at the Luxembourg Commission were the orthodox liberal economist Pierre Le Play and the Fourierist socialist Victor Considerant. Pecqueur and Considerant collaborated quite closely and tried unsuccessfully to introduce several reforms, such as collective bargaining and government funding for agricultural colonies, social housing and co-operative workshops. Pecqueur was also nominated to the position of assistant director of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Under the nom de plume 'Greppo', he published a popular book called Catéchisme socialiste (1849) to popularise his ideas. He also maintained contact with republican communists like Jean-Jacques Pillot
.
In 1848-49, Pecqueur edited the journal Le Salut du People he had founded, devoted to social science and socialist politics. In its pages he carried on a polemic against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
, the famous anarchist social theorist and economist. Proudhon had sharply criticised the work of the Luxembourg Commission and Louis Blanc's role in the bourgeois Provisional Government. In turn, Pecqueur accused Proudhon of plagiarising Fourier's ideas; in particular, he charged that Proudhon's project of a 'People's Bank' of mutual exchange was an idea taken from Fourier.
Pecqueur was also notable for his efforts on behalf of international understanding. At a time when French socialism and republicanism were commonly associated with nationalism, Pecqueur was a professed internationalism who believed that the workers of different countries had common interests, and that conflicts between nations should be solved not by war but by means of international organs of mediation. He proposed an international federation of all nations, anticipating the idea of a United Nations
. He also championed the idea of a European Parliament
. He was involved in various pacifist associations in the 1870s and '80s. Other notable proposals of his included the idea of public transit.
Pecqueur remained a member of the National Assembly until 1852, but after the coup d'état of Louis Bonaparte he largely withdrew from political activity. In the 1860s he provided advice to Benoît Malon
and the nascent French trade union movement. He died in Taverny in 1887. His extant papers, letters and manuscripts are kept at the International Institute of Social History
in Amsterdam. A small place and a metro station in Paris are named after him.
-- George Lichtheim.
Zouaoui, A., Socialisme et Internationalisme: Constantin Pecqueur. Geneva, 1964.
http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ip/pecqueur.htm
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/p/10766089.php
http://home.nordnet.fr/~slenfant/ail/ail5_1.htm
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
.
Life and Thought
Charles Constantin Pecqueur was born into a wealthy upper-middle class family in the Department du Nord; his town of birth is variously given as Arleux or Douai. He studied engineering and mathematics. He worked for a time as a geometer. In the 1820s he entered the Military Teaching Hospital in Lille, where he completed a treatise on education and became interested in utopian socialist theories. In 1830 he moved to Paris. At first he joined the followers of Saint-Simon. He contributed to Le Globe and other Saint-Simonian papers, but left the Saint-Simonian school in 1832, dissatisfied with the religious direction in which Prosper Enfantin was taking it. Until 1836 he belonged to the school of FourierCharles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
and joined a phalanstery or Fourierist community. He wrote a biography of Fourier in 1835 and contributed to various Fourierist journals. In 1836 he left the Fourierists, publishing a critique of their system, and developed his own theories. He remained close, however, to some of his friends from the Saint-Simonian and Fourierist schools, such as Pierre Leroux
Pierre Leroux
Pierre Henri Leroux , French philosopher and political economist, was born at Bercy, now a part of Paris, the son of an artisan.- Life :...
and Victor Considerant.
In contrast to these theorists, Pecqueur was one of the earliest French socialists to advocate collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. He is sometimes called the 'father of French collectivist socialism.' In the 1830s Pecqueur made his name as a highly respected socialist economist. His writings included Intérêt du commerce et de l'industrie (1836), Améliorations matérielles (1839), La réforme électorale (1840), Théories nouvelles d'économie sociale et politique (1842), De la paix, de son principe et de sa réalisation (1842), Des armées dans leurs rapports avec l'industrie (1842) and La République de Dieu (1844).
Among other works, particular notice accrued to his two-volume opus Economie sociale des interets du commerce, de l'industrie, de l'agriculture et de la civilisation en général, sous l'influence de l'application de la vapeur (1839). In this work, Pecqueur tried to show that changes in material conditions, such as the introduction of steam power, produce changes in intellectual development. The French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences awarded him a prize. Karl Marx also praised Pecqueur's materialist method. Marx later frequently cited Pecaueur as an authority in Capital and other economic writings. In contrast to many of his utopian socialist contemporaries, and again anticipating Marx' view, Pecquer did not see the development of industrial production as predominantly negative. He welcomed the greater productive capacity of industry but thought that capitalist relations of ownership prevented the full productive potential of industrial technology from being realised. Industry should therefore be nationalised and organised for the common benefit. (However, Pecqueur's materialism was confinded to economics, sociology and historical analysis. Metaphysically he was not a materialist but shared the deistic religiosity of many French republicans.)
In 1839, Pecqueur was commissioned by the French government to make a study of the Belgian railway system, which was more advanced than that of France. He recommended government investment in railway construction.
In 1844, Pecqueur became a regular contributor to the leading democratic newspaper, La Réforme, edited by the left-wing republican Alexandre Ledru-Rollin. This gave him a wider platform for his ideas and put him in contact with other major republican socialist figures of the period, including the economist Louis Blanc
Louis Blanc
Louis Jean Joseph Charles Blanc was a French politician and historian. A socialist who favored reforms, he called for the creation of cooperatives in order to guarantee employment for the urban poor....
. In 1848, Pecqueur supported the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
. When Blanc became Minister of Labour in the new Provisional Government of the Second Republic
Second Republic
-Europe:* French Second Republic * Second Polish Republic * Second Hellenic Republic * Second Spanish Republic * Portuguese Second Republic, known as Estado Novo * Czechoslovak Second Republic...
, he set up the Luxembourg Commission
Luxembourg Commission
The Luxembourg Commission was a labor commission in the 19th century. It was introduced by the Provisional Government of France which formed on the 25th February 1848, following the abdication of Louis-Philippe...
on the question of 'the organisation of labour' and appointed Pecqueur to its panel. Among his colleagues at the Luxembourg Commission were the orthodox liberal economist Pierre Le Play and the Fourierist socialist Victor Considerant. Pecqueur and Considerant collaborated quite closely and tried unsuccessfully to introduce several reforms, such as collective bargaining and government funding for agricultural colonies, social housing and co-operative workshops. Pecqueur was also nominated to the position of assistant director of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Under the nom de plume 'Greppo', he published a popular book called Catéchisme socialiste (1849) to popularise his ideas. He also maintained contact with republican communists like Jean-Jacques Pillot
Jean-Jacques Pillot
Jean-Jacques Pillot was a French revolutionary and republican communist. He participated in the Revolution of 1848 and in the Paris Commune of 1871.-Early Life:...
.
In 1848-49, Pecqueur edited the journal Le Salut du People he had founded, devoted to social science and socialist politics. In its pages he carried on a polemic against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...
, the famous anarchist social theorist and economist. Proudhon had sharply criticised the work of the Luxembourg Commission and Louis Blanc's role in the bourgeois Provisional Government. In turn, Pecqueur accused Proudhon of plagiarising Fourier's ideas; in particular, he charged that Proudhon's project of a 'People's Bank' of mutual exchange was an idea taken from Fourier.
Pecqueur was also notable for his efforts on behalf of international understanding. At a time when French socialism and republicanism were commonly associated with nationalism, Pecqueur was a professed internationalism who believed that the workers of different countries had common interests, and that conflicts between nations should be solved not by war but by means of international organs of mediation. He proposed an international federation of all nations, anticipating the idea of a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. He also championed the idea of a European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
. He was involved in various pacifist associations in the 1870s and '80s. Other notable proposals of his included the idea of public transit.
Pecqueur remained a member of the National Assembly until 1852, but after the coup d'état of Louis Bonaparte he largely withdrew from political activity. In the 1860s he provided advice to Benoît Malon
Benoît Malon
Benoît Malon , was a French Socialist, writer, communard, and political leader....
and the nascent French trade union movement. He died in Taverny in 1887. His extant papers, letters and manuscripts are kept at the International Institute of Social History
International Institute of Social History
The International Institute of Social History is a historical research institute in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1935 by Nicolaas Posthumus. The IISG is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences....
in Amsterdam. A small place and a metro station in Paris are named after him.
Quote on Pecqueur
"Pecqueur's originality as a theorist rests on his understanding of the consequences inherent in the industrial revolution. In his writings he developed a rudimentary sociology of class and a general theory of historical development which formed a link between Saint-Simonism and Marxism."-- George Lichtheim.
Sources and Links
Lichtheim, G., The Origins of Socialism. London, 1969.Zouaoui, A., Socialisme et Internationalisme: Constantin Pecqueur. Geneva, 1964.
http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ip/pecqueur.htm
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/p/10766089.php
http://home.nordnet.fr/~slenfant/ail/ail5_1.htm