Year: 2018

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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equitable commerce

Equitable Commerce in 1849

July 29, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] January 17, 1849 Lecture by Josiah Warren. People’s Sunday Meeting.—The usual discussion next Sunday will be suspended in order to allow Mr. Josiah Warren, lately of New Harmony, (Ind.,) an opportunity to deliver a lecture on the subject of “Equitable Commerce.” This new mode of Social Reformation is one that Mr. Warren has paid much attention to for several years, and from the very favorable manner in which we have seen him noticed in Western papers, we have no doubt of his being a gentleman of considerable ability and well-qualified to give an interesting and […]
Featured articles

Eliphalet Kimball, “Thoughts on Natural Principles” (1867)

July 28, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
It is only by anarchy and violence that a great accumulation of social wrongs can be removed. Anarchy is a good word. It means, “without a head.” Violence is the healing power of Nature applied to society. The violence which would follow from the abolishment of law, would be proportion to the number and magnitude of the wrongs that needed removal. There ought always to be anarchy, but there would be no violence where there were no wrongs.

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Bakunin Library

Mikhail Bakunin in “The Working Man” (1862)

July 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] MICHAEL BAKUNIN HE Committee of the “Working Man,” on Tuesday, the 7th of January, having been informed that Michael Bakunin had arrived in London, a deputation was appointed to go and present to this martyr of human progress an address of welcome. On Friday, the 10th, accordingly the deputation waited upon Alexander Herzen, the celebrated Russian exile and “publiciste,” who introduced them to Bakunin, surrounded by a goodly staff of Russians, Poles, &c, all friends of progress, united by the brotherly love for one common mother—Liberty. The following address was then read:— The Committee of […]
Catechisms and Dialogues

Vicente Carreras, “Acraciápolis” (1902)

July 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] This translation from Spanish has been sitting, complete except for a last few lines, for quite some time now, probably because I had forgotten quite how much of it I had finished (undoubtedly late one night, while I should have been digging up more Max Nettlau articles from La Revista Blanca.) It was an obvious, appealing choice for translation—so obvious, in fact, that I find Jesse Cohn has also included a translation in his essay, “Escape From Cretinolândia: Strategies of Displacement in Anarchist Fiction.” Anyway, here is my translation of a short interesting, anarchist utopian […]
equitable commerce

Josiah Warren, “Social Reform in America” (1862)

July 25, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
When, in 1827, I first conceived the principles of equity, and designed to illustrate them by the working of a family store, I talked incessantly for six weeks to my most sympathising friends in order to get them to appreciate the subject, and to assist me in working it out; but the whole of that labour was entirely thrown away; but as soon as I commenced the store single-handed—individually—it explained itself, and more than itself. The working of it—the facts of it—explained the principle of Equity as no words could; and I saw that it was the incompetency of language that had neutralised all my efforts at theorising.

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