Month: August 2018

equitable commerce

Josiah Warren, “Social Experiment” (1831)

August 11, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. I have never inserted a Communication in this paper, which I believe will be perused with more interest by many of its readers, than the following. As the facts came under our friend’s observation, not mine, I shall add no opinion or deductions of my own, for each reader can make these for himself. I content myself with saying; that our friends may implicitly depend on the accuracy of Josiah Warren’s information; for he is a strictly attentive observer and an honest man. I need not tell him, that his letters will always […]
Pierre Leroux

Pierre Leroux in “The Present” and “The Spirit of the Age”

August 10, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] From Humanity Pierre Leroux, “The Nature and Destiny of Man,” The Present 1 no. 2 (October 15, 1843): 65-68. Pierre Leroux, “The Education of the Human Race,” The Present 1 no. 3 (November 15, 1843): 105-110. Pierre Leroux, “Charity, As the Remedy of Evil,” The Present 1 no. 5-6 (December 15, 1843): 203-205. From Equality Pierre Leroux, “Equality,” The Spirit of the Age 1 no. 10 (September 8, 1849): 156. Pierre Leroux, “Humanity,” The Spirit of the Age 1 no. 17 (October 27, 1849): 261-262. Pierre Leroux, “Necessity of Evil,” The Spirit of the Age […]
equitable commerce

Josiah Warren’s 1821 lamp patent

August 10, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
  Josiah Warren, of Cincinnati, is the patentee of a lamp on a new plan, which is said, to a single family, will produce an annual saving of 20 dollars. Its light is clear and pleasant, and the volume of flame equal to that of two common candles. ⁂ “Weekly Summary,” The Plough Boy, and Journal of the Board of Agriculture 2 no. 52 (May 26, 1821): 415. Warren, Josiah on February 20, 1821 #X003303 improvement in lamps for burning fat Cincinnati, OH (These patents were apparently destroyed in a fire at the U.S. Patent office in 1836, so images […]
equitable commerce

William Bailie, “Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist” (1906)

August 9, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] JOSIAH WARREN The First American Anarchist A Sociological Study by WILLIAM BAILIE Boston Small, Maynard & Company 1906 ***** PREFACE The reader may, in confidence, be told that no biography of Josiah Warren has hitherto been written. When the present writer set himself the task, a quarter of a century had elapsed since Warren’s death. Most of the people who had known him personally had also paid the final debt of Nature. Of those remaining, most had known him only in his latter years. It became necessary, therefore, to conduct an independent investigation in order […]
equitable commerce

Equitable Commerce in 1830

August 7, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0″] COMMUNICATIONS. PRINTING IN PRIVATE FAMILIES. (I have received the following from my friend, Mr. Warren, for insertion in the Free Enquirer. The sheet from which it is copied, and which affords a specimen of the results obtained, is very tolerably printed, and seems go confirm the anticipation of the writer.) REDUCTION IN THE COST OF PRINTING APPARATUS. It is well known, by those who have considered the subject, that printing is a power that governs the destinies of mankind: and therefore, those who can control the Printing Press can control their fellow creatures. While men […]
equitable commerce

Sidney H. Morse, “Liberty and Wealth” (1882)

August 2, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
“Well,” he said, the smile still lingering in the corners of his mouth, “we are in one sense, my friend, a poverty-stricken people. We haven’t any institutions to speak of. All we can boast are certain outgrowths of our needs, which, for the most part, have taken care of themselves. We have, perhaps, an unwritten law, or general understanding, though no one to my knowledge has tried to state it. We all seem to know it when we meet it, and, as yet, have had no dispute about it. It may be said in a general way, however, as a matter of observation, that we are believers in liberty, in justice, in equality, in fraternity, in peace, progress, and in a state of happiness here on earth for one and all. What we mean by all this defines itself as we go along. It is a practical, working belief, we have. When we find an idea won’t work, we don’t decide against it; we let it rest; perhaps, later on, it will work all right. I don’t know as there is much more to say.”

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equitable commerce

Equitable Commerce in 1828

August 2, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] TO THE PUBLIC. Cincinnati, April 20, 1828. Dear S— The perusal of your letter which I received about three weeks since, gave me great satisfaction. It affords me pleasure to find that you still feel such interest in the subject to which I am devoted. You inquire what progress has been made since you left here; to this I could reply more than the limits of a letter will permit, but I will endeavour to enable you to form some idea. I think you left before the cold weather commenced, and therefore have not witnessed […]
equitable commerce

A Documentary History of the Movement for Equitable Commerce

August 1, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Equitable Commerce was the name given to Josiah Warren’s social system, which combined the principles of individual autonomy and “cost the limit of price.” Warren’s approach attracted a fairly substantial following at various times and was influential among anarchists. The works collected here are either writings by Warren and his associates, elaborating the system, or outside accounts of the movement.

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