Changing Views on Thomas Spence (1750-1814) : From Radicalism to Millennialism

Abstract

Thomas Spence has been considered as one of the most distinguished radicals or as a pioneer of socialist land-nationalization. However, these commonplace interpretations need re-examination from the viewpoints of both methodology and historical evidences, which have recently made remarkable developments. For the whole material as to Spence proves that he was not only concerned with the abolition of private property in land, but also with innovation of social relations at large, including constitution, economic system and culture. Spence argued that the innovation of society as realization of "a perfect whole" was to be brought about by millennialism. In this essay the author attempts to explain the relationship between millennialism and social reform movements in order to figure out more clearly the characteristics of Spence's thought and behaviour in his historical context. The five points of arguments are as follows : (1)Contemporaries were amazed to find a kind of utopia in Spence's plan (small republics based on parish corporations), but the same time they realized that his millennialism was fairly accepted to the people in the last decades of the 18th century. (2)Socialists in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries found out a pioneer of land-nationalization in Spence. (3)There happened a transition in interpretation of Spence from radicalism to millennialism in the present century. Until the middle of the century, Spence had been investigated by students of the English radicalism which remained within the framework of constitutionalism. It was one of the reasons why Spence as a whole was not examined. However, he began to be investigated from another viewpoint since the 1960s. For instance T.Knox in his recent article gave weight to "rational biblicism" or "local settings" of Spence. And also E.P.Thompson dug into the relationship between the social movements and the religious enthusiasm of Dissenters in their wider sense. (4)Studies of millennialism itself in recent years are full of suggestions. They have taken notice of two types of millennialists, pre-millennialists who believed Christ's Second Coming would precede the millennium and post-millennialists who thought the Second Advent would follow the millennium. Both of them seemed to overlap with radicalism. Post-millennialism as could be seen in Spence was more important as it took rational forms. (5)Historical documents of Spence, including his publications, manuscripts, tokens, etc., prove that Spence sought after more rational form of millennialism, by which he not only involved himself in radicalism, but also was able to be critical of it.