Anselme Bellegarrigue Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Mutualité immobilière et territoriale / Bellegarrigue et Compagnie

May 2, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

During August and September of 1856, Anselme Bellegarrigue published Le Commanditaire, a paper apparently dedicated to the project of turning a recent law on business associations to libertarian ends. On October 10, Bellegarrigue was in court, facing charges related to the publication, for which it appears he was sentenced to one year in prison (Journal des débats, 11 October 1856.) But by March of the following year, he was promoting a new enterprise, the “Mutualité immobilière et territoriale.” Details are, so far, elusive. Advertisements continued in major newspapers into the spring of 1858, although there seems to have been very […]

Bellegarrigue to the voters of the Department of Gers

October 7, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

This circular, reprinted in Le Courrier français on March 21, 1848, is simply signed “Bellegarrigue,” but there is a good deal about the content, style and biographical details included that suggest it is the work of the anarchist Anselme Bellegarrigue. The translation is a bit rushed, but captures the content and some of the style, I think. Nous recommandons aux électeurs du département du Gers la circulaire qu’un de nos rédacteurs, M. Bellegarrigue, vient de leur adresser : « Concitoyens ! » Le droit a étendu sa main sur la force et la force s’est prosternée. » Le Peuple français a […]

Anselme Bellegarrigue

May 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Joseph Noulens, “A Gascon, Minister plenipotentiary of the Republic of San-Salvador at Paris” (1862) Bellegarrigue’s “To the Point! To Action!!” and “Le Commanditaire” Notes on “Le Commanditaire” (1856) Notes on the Mutualité immobilière et territoriale (1857-1858) Tag feed WORKING TRANSLATIONS: Corvus Editions collection: includes, “To the Point! To Action!!,” “The Revolution “(Anarchy, No. 2) and “The Electoral Law” FRENCH TEXTS: L’Anarchie. Journal de l’ordre, Baulé, Paris, n° 1, « Manifeste », avril 1850 ; n° 2, « La Révolution », mai 1850 [texte] Au fait, au fait !! Interprétation de l’idée démocratique, Garnier frères – Delboy, Paris-Toulouse, 1848, 84 p. [BNF, IIHS] [Gallica] Les Femmes d’Amérique, Blanchard libraire-éditeur, Paris, 1853, 96 p. […]

Notes on “Le Commanditaire” (Anselme Bellegarrigue)

May 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] “The world is only a vast market, where the individual appears at once as merchant and as merchandise.” Le Commanditaire is apparently among the least well known of Anselme Bellegarrigue’s projects. I stumbled on it while keyword-searching through the Gallica collection. The paper lasted for three issues before being shut down by the government. The focus seems to have been on the practical means of associating within the existing legal framework, but the charge of “outrage a la morale publique” makes it clear that Bellegarrigue did not withold his more radical opinions. The following articles […]

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “Anarchy is Order” (1850)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[from Anarchy, A Journal of Order, No. 1] I.—Anarchy is Order. Were I to pay heed to the meaning generally attached to certain words, a common error having made anarchy a synonym of civil war, I should hold in horror the title that I have placed at the head of this publication, for I have a horror of civil war. I both honor and flatter myself in never having belonged to a group of conspirators or to a revolutionary battalion, because it shows, on the one hand, that I have been too honest to dupe the people, and, on the […]

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Electoral Law”

March 26, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] Along with the essay “The Revolution,” the second issue of Bellegarrigue’s Anarchy: A Journal of Order also contained this essay: THE ELECTORAL LAW In the first issue of this journal, we have clearly, even audaciously expressed our opinion regarding the present character of electoral rights. The attitude of the people in the face of the partial suppression of this right proposed by Parliament has proven to us that our doctrine was in conformity with the general sentiment. The electorate is not a principle. The popular instinct is more sure than the reasoning of the sophists, for that instinct bears […]

Bellegarrigue’s “To the Point! To Action!!” and “Le Commanditaire”

March 3, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve posted a revised translation of Anselme Bellegarrigue’s “To the Point! To Action!!” (“Au Fait! Au Fait!!”) It is considerably more finished than the first version, though I reserve the right to come back and tinker with it some more one of these days. I find Bellegarrigue’s prose challenging, but I’ve grown rather fond of his style. He has a lot of the youthful brashness of Déjacque and Coeurderoy, but also a no-nonsense, bottom-line focus which means he often delivers his largely mutualist message in the voice of a jaded trader, and the result is often as entertaining as it […]

Anselme Bellegarrigue’s Revolution

February 9, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Anselme Bellegarrigue published two issues of Anarchy: A Journal of Order. The first issue, the “Manifesto,” is relatively well-known, thanks to a partial translation in Benjamin R. Tucker’s Liberty and a more recent full translation by Paul Sharkey, which was published by the Kate Sharpley Library. Those familiar with that work will not be surprised by the relentless anti-governmentalism in the second issue, “The Revolution,” but they may be somewhat taken aback by his identification of “The Revolution” with the flux of interests, and his claim that “the Revolution is purely and simply a matter of business.” I started working […]

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “Anarchy is Order” (from Liberty)

February 9, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Anarchy, a Journal of Order Issue One I.—Anarchy is Order. Were I to pay heed to the meaning generally attached to certain words, a common error having made anarchy a synonym of civil war, I should hold in horror the title that I have placed at the head of this publication, for I have a horror of civil war. I both honor and flatter myself in never having belonged to a group of conspirators or to a revolutionary battalion, because it shows, on the one hand, that I have been too honest to dupe the people, and, on the other, […]

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Revolution” (4 of 4)

February 9, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Anarchy: A Journal of Order Anselme Bellegarrigue Issue Two [continued from Part 3] XII Now when, instead of a single store of money, the country possesses, for the sale of that merchandise, as many shops as there are capitalists, that metallic commodity cannot fail to be cheap. Woolen cloth is not expensive in France thanks to the expansion which free commerce has given to its sale! If it came to be monopolized, as money is at present, the frock coat would become a rare distinction. Capital being freed, it is labor which is stimulated. Capital and labor are one and […]