“A new reign is coming in Europe”
The work of the Saint-Simonian movement was driven by a consistent belief: that a new reign was emerging in Europe (Gouhier 1941, 274). Saint-Simon called it “industrialism” - a word of his invention.[CCXIII] As was then usual, the concept of “industry” was not limited to a particular sector of economic life; it covered the totality of human productive activities, of material production as well as scientific, spiritual and artistic activity.
Saint-Simon frequently used the plural when talking of workers and professionals, as in “industrials”, referring to a specific set of actors: entrepreneurs, technicians, engineers and workers. But “industrialism”, in the sense of the reign of material and spiritual creation and innovation, refers to a social reality more comprehensive than this restricted meaning. According to Saint-Simon and the Saint-Simonians, modern European society was the theatre in which a process of transition, of mutation, was occurring: a transition from a separated, divided, dispersed society towards an ever more linked, unified and interdependent society.Within this process the status of politics changed, becoming a positive science of observation in the sense that human beings, becoming ever more autonomous, no longer needed an external authority to control and lead them. Political power was progressively limiting its action to the administration of things, and administration was replacing the government of individuals.[214] In this context, Saint-Simon and the Saint-Simonians believed that their essential mission was to accelerate this crucial transition in European society,[215] promoting in this way the advent of a new society.
Saint-Simon
Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon enlisted in the army at the age of 17 and left for North America, where he served under George Washington and Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette.
After the War of Independence he traveled in North America and also visited Mexico, where he suggested to the king that a canal be dug linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. He continued traveling in Europe and, while in Madrid, likewise suggested to the king of Spain that the city be linked to the sea by a canal. This interest in urban and national planning, and the role of canals, was consistently developed by Saint-Simon and his followers. Back in France, he devoted himself to financial speculation in property, through which he acquired significant wealth, of which he then decided to make good use for the cause of science. He became acquainted with contemporary scholars such as Monge and Lagrange, and started studying physics at the Ecole Polytechnique, where he financially supported the most promising students. His purpose was to review the knowledge of his time, aiming at a philosophical synthesis of all the sciences. After one very grueling phase of moral and financial distress - he practically lost all of his fortune - he decided to limit his studies to political matters. Thanks to the support of a few benevolent sponsors he appointed talented secretaries such as Augustin Thierry (1795-1856) and Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who in their own contributions substantially augmented their master’s work.Saint-Simon’s work is rich in original ideas and imagination, inspiring a following dedicated to the continuation of a process of creation and innovation. He published his first syntheses in 1803, Lettres d’un habitant de Geneve a l’humanite and Lettres d'un habitant de Geneve a ses contemporains (Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva to Humanity and Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva to his Contemporaries). These were followed by several books, sometimes co-written with his secretaries Augustin Thierry and Auguste Comte. Most important among them are Introduction aux travaux scientifiques du XIXeme siecle (An Introduction to the Scientific Work of the 19th Century) (1808), Reorganisation de la societe euro- peenne (The Reorganisation of European Society) (1814), L’industrie (Industry) (1816-18), L’Organisateur (The Organiser) (1819), Du systeme industriel (On the Industrial System) (1821-22), Catechisme des industriels (The Industrialists’ Catechism) (1822-24) and Nouveau Christianisme.
Dialogues entre un conservateur et un novateur (New Christianism. Dialogues between a conservative and an innovator) (1825). Astonishingly prolix and replete with redundancies, these works are typically liberal in tone: a tribute to the victory of the Enlightenment, of the rational organisation of society, of social relationships ruled not ruled by status, but by contract, promoting a spirit of progress and the domination of nature over medieval obscurantism and warmongering. It is a spirit which is finally at peace for having found in political economy the positive science of the social fact: the science for which Saint-Simon had longed for, and which he called “social physiology”.The Saint-Simonians
Soon after Saint-Simon’s death the group of disciples that gathered around him founded a newspaper, Leproducteur Journalphilosophique de l’industrie, des sciences et des beaux-arts. Beside Augustin Thierry and Auguste Comte, we should mention the brothers Olinde (1795-1851) and Eugene Rodrigues (1807-1830), Saint-Amand Bazard (1791-1832), a former “carbonaro”, Emile Barrault (17991869), and in particular Prosper Enfantin (1796-1864), a former student at the Ecole Polytechnique. A man of strong and charismatic character, Enfantin played an essential part in transforming the movement into a full-scale Church with a rigorous hierarchy: a college of “fathers” at the top, then “sons” at successive levels. All these followers were convinced that Saint-Simon’s work, his “industrialised” social doctrine, provided the elements of a modern faith which could efficiently replace an older Catholic morality or liberal utilitarian ideals. In 1830 the Saint- Simonians, led by Pierre Leroux (1797-1871), took over the liberal newspaper Le Globe, replacing Le Producteur. The centrepiece of Saint-Simonian theoretical work was a series of lectures organised between 1828 and 1830 to develop and diffuse their master’s doctrine (Doctrine de Saint-Simon, Exposition). Bazard lectured to the elite, including Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), Armand Carrel (18001836), Hippolyte Carnot (1801-1888), the Pereire brothers - Jacob Rodrigue Emile Pereire (1800-1875), Isaac Pereire (1806-1880) - and Michel Chevalier (18061879). The mystical and religious aspect of the movement became entrenched, but in 1832 the sect fractured, due to a theoretical and moral conflict between the two “fathers” of the Church, Bazard and Enfantin. Bazard left the group with some others; Enfantin remained, and appropriated the title “Supreme Father”.[216]
2.