On Owen's Plan of "Village of Co-operation"

Abstract

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Robert Owen marked an outstanding success as a cotton spinner while at the same time he gained fame as a humane factory reformer and a pioneer of educator. With the termination of the Napoleonic War in 1815, enormous industrial productivity that was achieved by the British Industrial Revolution immediately created over-production and excessive, unemployment. The working class was, thus, reduced to poverty and the relief of the manufacturing poor surfaced as a critical social problem. It was at this juncture that Owen arrived at the socialistic ideology of the "village of co-operation". Owen considered that the flooding unemployment due to over-production and the poverty of the working class were produced by the enormous industrial productivity which was left to work under the principle of gain that is inherent in capitalism per se. This thinking leads him to consider the total abolishment of capitalism by the establishment of and the gradual development of the so-called "village of co-operation", which has controlled production and expenditure, in order to harness the enormous industrial productivity to meet social demand. The "village of co-operation" is a self-sufficient community based on agriculture and supported by manufacture where members work together and share the expenditure. According to his plan the community is formed of a unit of 1,200 persons. At the centre of the lot there are public buildings which are divided into parallelograms, facilities and gardens that are necessary for enjoying pleasant community life. Beyond these there are mechanical factories and corn-mills and around these there are 1,200 acres of arable land. Men would cultivate land and between farming activities they would engage in manufacturing and other required tasks. Here, the cultivated land is mainly used for production of staple crops, but spade cultivation instead of cultivation by the plough is advocated. In Europe, spade had been used as a tool for cultivating hoed-crops such as garden vegetables, vis-a-vis plough for cultivating corn on arable land. The secret of Owen's "village of co-operation" may be found in the use of this tool to raise corn on arable land so to absorb maximum labour on the existing arable land and consequently look for a harmonious balance in population, food and employment.