Josiah Warren

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 […]
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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equitable commerce

Bibliography of Equitable Commerce

July 19, 2017 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. 1821 Josiah Warren’s 1821 lamp patent — “Weekly Summary,” The Plough Boy, and Journal of the Board of Agriculture, 2, 52 (May 26, 1821), 415. “Patent Lamp,” Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, New Series, 3 no. 221 (April 18, 1921): […]
equitable commerce

Stephen Pearl Andrews on Equitable Commerce, 1850

December 20, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Stephen Pearl Andrews was a bizarre, multi-faceted character, whose contributions to anarchism have sometimes been overshadowed by the peculiarity of his contributions in other fields of study. I’ve been slowly-but-surely trying to make sense of my notes on Andrews, and in the course of trying to fill some gaps in the story of his involvement with a sort of perpetual-motion machine scheme (a story in which Josiah Warren also plays at least a bit part), I discovered that the Library of Congress had made large runs of the New York Daily Tribune available online. They […]
equitable commerce

Was Josiah Warren a spiritualist?

November 2, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
We know that there were plenty of spiritualists in Josiah Warren’s circle—including his wife, Stephen Pearl Andrews and his wife Esther, Ezra and Angela Heywood, and Mary and Thomas Nichols—we have the claim of Clarence L. Swartz that “not only in his later life, but almost from the beginning of modern Spiritualism, Warren was a believer in it.” But there’s been a real lack of testimony from Warren himself on the subject, at least in the sources I’ve been able to dig up. But I may have finally found an article by Warren addressing the question of “spiritual rappings” and […]
equitable commerce

Thomas and Maria L. Varney—The Other “Equitable Commerce” of 1846

September 19, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0″] Maria L. Varney, “Equitable Commerce, or, Association without Combination,” Boston Investigator 15 no. 48 (April 8, 1846): 1. [editorial notice], Boston Investigator 15 no. 48 (April 8, 1846): 6. Maria L. Varney, “Equitable Commerce, or, Association without Combination,” [concluded] Boston Investigator 15 no. 49 (April 15, 1846): 1. G. W. Rollins, “Reply to Maria L. Varney,” Boston Investigator 15 no. 51 (April 29, 1846): 1. Thomas Varney, “Equitable Commerce, or, Association without Combination,” Boston Investigator 15 no. 52 (May 6, 1846): 1. W. Chase, “Association with Combination,” Boston Investigator 15 no. 8 (July 1, 1846): […]
equitable commerce

Digital editions of Josiah Warren, etc.

April 9, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur
I was recently asked to clarify my notes on Warren’s publications: Think of the sequence in this way: First, there were two editions of Equitable Commerce in the 1840s, composed by Warren alone. Second, there is a period in the 1850s when Warren collaborated with Stephen Pearl Andrews. Andrews substantially revised Equitable Commerce and published his Science of Society, based on Warren’s work. Warren also published a new work, Practical Details in Equitable Commerce. Third, in the 1860s, Warren published another new work, True Civilization an Immediate Necessity, and the Last Ground of Hope for Mankind (which become the second […]
equitable commerce

Josiah Warren, “The Motives for Communism” (1872-73)

November 19, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
How often have I said to myself, “Oh, for a paper of world-wide circulation, through which we could pour into the public lap the most important results of our lives’ experience! That others who come after us may avoid the thorny paths that have lacerated our feet—may profit by our errors and successes. I hope and believe that your is, or will be, such a paper: and in it I propose to furnish a series of articles, showing the practical workings of Communism and other reform experiments running through the forty-six years devoted to peaceful social revolution; and it will be seen that some facts are more strange than fiction, more philosophical than philosophy, more romantic than romance and more conservative than conservatism.

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poetry

“Josiah Warren” (poem) (1874)

June 29, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”]     JOSIAH WARREN. Who gave the world the boldest thought, That ever has by man been taught, And set the pride of wealth at naught? Josiah Warren. Who gave the parlor lectures best, From glowing love in his own breast, Which is to be by nations blest? Josiah Warren. Who made the good of man his prayer, And did to all around declare, The glory of a millionaire? Josiah Warren. Who taught the best industrial law, Which wit or wisdom ever saw, That after him shall millions draw? Josiah Warren. Who set the usury […]