Charles FOURIER (1772-1837) philosopher and economist. Autog - Lot 86

Charles FOURIER (1772-1837) philosopher and economist. Autograph manuscript signed, Le remède aux divers esclavages, [1836]; 8pages in-4 and 2pages in-8 on the letterhead of La Réforme Industrielle ou Le Phalanstère, Journal des Intérêts généraux de l'Industrie et de la Propriété. Very rare and important text on the abolition of slavery, and on the economic and social organization of the world. "At a time when England is making a mad expenditure of five hundred million to free its colonial slaves, which it could free at no cost, and with no risk of a decline in industry in the West Indies; At a time when France, in a fit of Anglomania, wants to make a chorus of deception, and plans a new tax or loan of 300 million, to free its colonial negroes that it can free at no cost; Is it not time to examine the method that would free all the slaves on the globe, emancipating them by the will and offer of their masters, with guaranteed persistence at work, and progress in emulation?" Fourier urges us to be wary of "expensive philanthropy", and proposes to abolish slavery and indigence at no cost, "nothing but the will"... "Those who have disserted on slavery and indigence and on the means of remedy, have not considered that these two scourges are linked, stem from the same cause; and that the cure of both must be operated by a single antidote, which is combined and attractive industry, giving quadruple product". We should use "the art of associating masses of families unequal in fortune"; thus, reunite the 3 to 400 families of an agricultural village. "To achieve this, there are 3 problems to solve 1 Attractive distribution of work; 2 Useful use of discord and inequality; 3 Distribution that satisfies everyone [...]. we therefore need a method that satisfies everyone according to their 3 industrial faculties, which are 1° shareholder capital, 2° labor, 3° talent; and that distributes the quadruple product to the various classes, in the following proportion: Rich,Well-to-do,Middle,Poor. Double,Triple,Quadre,Quinte,Sextuple Then the 22 million French people who earn 6 ½ sous a day in wages or labor will have about 40 sous. Those with a hundred thousand francs in income will have two hundred thousand. The middle class, earning 2 or 3,000f, will have 8 to 12,000f, and everyone will be happy"... Fourier mocks the "gacheurs en Association", like Owen and Saint-Simon: "They wanted to take from the rich to give to the poor; they dreamed only of community, moderation, penance, frugality, patience, and other unnatural dispositions"... Fourier also poses the problem of "population equilibrium", praising Malthus, whose retraction he deplores. The organization of society can only be envisaged according to a scientific Theory, based on the "laws of harmony" made by God, on "the duality of mechanism" that can be deduced from a "calculation of analysis & synthesis on attractions and repugnances". Newton's "calculus of material attraction" is to be exploited in "passionate, instinctive, organic, aromatic attractions &c." We must therefore attempt "a model farm of attractive & combined industry", whose fiscal, political, economic, social, cultural advantages Fourier outlines... Fourier concludes by calling on Louis-Philippe to try such an experiment. Enclosed is a small engraved portrait of Fourier, and a bookshop invoice from the Société pour la propagation et la réalisation de la théorie de Charles Fourier (1851).