The Birth of Technocracy: How Saint-Simonians Pioneered the Idea

The Birth of Technocracy: Science, Society, and Saint-Simonians
Author(s): Robert B. Carlisle

Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1974), pp. 445-464
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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THE BIRTH OF TECHNOCRACY:
SCIENCE, SOCIETY, AND SAINT-SIMONIANS
BY ROBERTB. CARLISLE
They were pacifists;they were feminists;they were anti-racisteco-

nomic expansionists;they believedin the exploitationof the globe, but
not of the men on it. They were plannersand engineers;scientisticand
romantic,nationalistandcosmopolitanat the same time. Theywouldre-
place gerontocracyby technocracy,libertyby order, one kind of indi-
vidualismby another.They have been accusedof fatheringfascismand
communismbut wouldhaverepudiatedboth. Theirimpactlay in the fact
that they were not totally reasonablemen; had they been no one would
have paid them any attention.The romanticismof the Saint-Simonians
was the essentialconditionof their success,but the foundationsof their
thought were systematic, rational, pragmatic,inclusive, and mortised
inextricablytogether.
Saint-Simonianisminventedandexemplifiedthe technocrat,in whom
the abstractidea and the particularact, the ideology and the ideologue
marchedalwayshandin hand.This fact alonegivesthe Saint-Simonians
historicalimportance.But the school also offersa microscopicslide on
which one can examinede pres an age whichwas obsessedby the rela-
tionshipsof scienceandsociety.
The school like an organismstudiedmoves, changesshape, reveals
new forms, is elusive.The essentialonenessof Saint-Simonianismis not
always recognized.1Saint-Simon himself predicted that it was the
scholarswho would pose most problemsfor the movement.2Economic
historianstend to denigratethe intellectualbases of Saint-Simonianma-
terialachievements.Whenthe Saint-Simoniansbecomebusinessmen,in-
tellectualhistorianstend to lose interestin them. One is puzzledby the
devotion of so much energy to the proving of the unimportanceof a
philosophicschool. Althoughthe effortof scholarsseems to be to render
it less, the sum of Saint-Simonianismis greaterthanthe sum of its parts.
The piranhafish of specializedand particularinteresthave attackedthe
corpus of Saint-Simonianismand left its bones bare. But the bones
remainandthe skeletalstructurepersistsall the morevisibly.
The categoricalimperativeof Saint-Simonianthoughtwas the call to
apply the scientificknowledgeof competentexpertsto the problemsof
society. All the rest stems from this central motive. The followers of
'See Robert B. Carlisle, "Saint-Simonian Radicalism: A Definition and a Direction,"
French Historical Studies, 5 (Fall 1968), 430-45, for a discussion of interpretive prob-
lems.
2BibliothequeThiers, "Fonds d'Eichthal," Mss. Carton IV/N.
445
446 ROBERT B. CARLISLE
HenriSt. Simondid not alwayssee the logicalandpossibleconsequences

of their thought and action. When they did, they did not always care
about them. Georg Iggershas suggestedthat the Saint-Simonianobject
was power.3But the objectwas powerwith a purpose.The purposewas
neversecondarynor was it, as Iggerssupposes,irrational.Saint-Simon's
conceptionof power,politicallyneutral,moralratherthanpolitical,may
havebeenthe majorcontributionof the schoolto moderntechnocracy.
Who was Saint-Simon?Nature frequentlyimitatesart, and had not
Saint-Simon existed, Balzac would have invented him. Carolingian
ancestry,philosophictraining,AmericanRevolutionaryservice,a career
as businessmanand speculator,the proposal of marriageto Mme de
Stael, poverty, misery, attempted suicide marked his life. That life
movedtowardsits end on the ruede Richelieuwheresupportedby young
friends,a faithfulmaid, and an elegantpoodle, Saint-Simonseemedto
typify the comedie humaineand the Restorationresidueof the ancien
regime.4Bizarrein the eyes of his contemporarieshe might be,5out of
luck, faintly ridiculous;but never insignificant,or negligible. Saint-
Simon had always, apparently,talked better than he wrote, and ulti-
mately owed much to secretarieslike Augustin Thierry and Auguste
Comte, to discipleslike Olinde Rodrigues,to patronslike the banker
Laffitte,andto the high opinionof men like le grandCarnot.6He was to
owe as much to the school which took his name, and which, while not
denyingthe differencesbetweenold and new Testaments,regardedthese
differencesas continuations,ramifications,explorationsof (and never
breakswith)the ideasof theirfounder.
Whatweretheseideas?Saint-Simon's"physico-political" careerwas
the outgrowthof his relationswiththe scientistswho, underthe Directory
and the Consulate,held sway at the Ecole Polytechnique,and with the
physiologistsat the Ecole de M6decine.He had imposedon himself,he
tells us, the task of seeking new experience,of employinghis age in
reflectingon the results of this experience,and in establishinggeneral
socialprinciplesfromhis reflections.7
Whatstruckhim most in the post-Revolutionary periodwas that "the
nineteenthcenturyis still dominatedby the 'critical'characterof the
eighteenth;it has not yet been investedwith the 'organizing'character
which oughtto be its own."8 This sentence,printedin 1821,epitomizes
the themeswhichidentifySaint-Simonianism.It was a law of naturethat
3GeorgIggers, The Cult of Authority (The Hague, 1958), 157.

4Thebest biography in Englishis Frank Manuel, The New Worldof Henri Saint-Simon
(Cambridge,Mass., 1956).
5BibliothequeNationale, "N.A. Fr./24609," Gustave d'Eichthal to Resseguier, Feb. 26,
1830.
"MauriceDreyfous, Les Trois Carnot (Paris, 1888), 184.
7Henrid'Allemagne, Les Saint-Simoniens, 1827-37 (Paris, 1930), 7.
8Henride Saint-Simon, Du Systeme industriel(Paris, 1821), preface.
THE BIRTH OF TECHNOCRACY 447
the parts of the human organism existed to cooperate with one another
for the comfort and perpetuation of the whole. Society, for Saint-Simon,
is the creation of the individuals who make it up. The individuals, to
make society at all, must project their physical nature, must be imbued
with a need for collaboration and cooperation as a means of self-pres-
ervation. Cooperation, then, is a social law as well as a physiological
law.9
A society not based on collaboration.leading to a defined end was, in
the mind of Saint-Simon, existing in a critical epoch. Such a society had
been that of the eighteenth century. On the other hand:
... we affecta superbscornforthe centuriescalledthe MiddleAges,we see there
only a time of stupidbarbarityand ignorance,of disgustingsuperstition,andwe
do not understandthat it is the onlytimewhenthe politicalsystemof Europewas
foundedon a truebase,on a generalorganization.'0
The "true base" was faith, the general organization was for conquest.
The two, in the eyes of Saint-Simon, suited each other; they were, as he
would put it, "homogeneous." But since the sixteenth century, the feudal
system had tended to become disorganized. The eighteenth century had
wiped it out, and with it religion-which was simply the scientific system
of a given historical period. The problem of the nineteenth century was to
replace the unifying force of the church with a system derived from
scientific principles which would unify society again.11
The solution appeared easy to the Saint-Simonians. "The industrial
capacity, or that of crafts and trades, must be substituted for the military
or feudal power.... The positive scientific capacity is that which must
replace the spiritual power." 12 To what end? The only reasonable and
positive end that political thought can propose, "the production of useful
things." Why? Because we must fulfill the task of the first Christians. The
code of Christian morality leagued all men by sentiments, but not by
interest. It was a question, now, of making all men feel a common
interest. God himself imposed a definitive Christianity, that is to say, the
political system in which all individual forces of human kind are destined
to act on Nature in a fashion to modify it as advantageously as possible.13
Saint-Simon says he has worked to demonstrate that society has a
tendency to organize in a manner favorable to science and industry; that
power has to be given to wise men and industrialists. To these last he
says, "Gentlemen, the direct end of my enterprise is to ameliorate, as
9Manuel, op. cit., 254. The source of the idea was Newton's Laws of Gravitation. The
point is not Saint-Simon's scientific accuracy, but his conviction that he saw the truth.
10Quoted in Henri Gouhier, La Jeunesse d'Auguste Comte et la formation du
positivisme (Paris, 1941), II, 185.
"Henri Saint-Simon and Prosper Enfantin, Oeuvres, 47 vols. (Paris, 1865-78),
XXXIX, 175 ff.; I, 156, 159.
12Ibid.,I, 156. 3lIbid.,XXXII, 6.
much as possible, the lot of the class which has no other means of
existencethanthe workof its arms."14 Herewas the contentof Saint-Si-
monianmorality,the objectof the Saint-Simoniansearchfor power:the
achievementof that Christianitywhichhad regardedall men as brothers
who wouldlove and aid one another;the achievementof a systemwhich
wouldrendermenhappy,not in heaven,but on earth.
These happyends wouldbe arrivedat, not from sentiment,but from
interest;as a product,not of egotism, but of association.Saint-Simon
was the first to know that he would be called Utopian.15But one must
recognizethat he pointedout, once again,a fact so obviousabouthuman
beings that it had been forgotten-their social nature and consequent
social need. Saint-Simonianismwas not egalitarian or democratic.
Liberty,in its eyes, was the resultof civilization,not its object.Equality
of men'sabilitiesdid not exist, but the validityof men'sneedsdid. It was
to satisfy these needs that Saint-Simoncalled upon the "industriel"to
aid him.
The "industriel"is a man who works, but he is also the man who
works at providingwork.'1The confusionis intentional.It underlines
Saint-Simon'sunderstanding that betweenemployerandemployeethere
exists an identityof interest.Its psychologicalaim is that of persuading
the workerthat thereis a pointto his work.The appealto the employeris
quiteother.
Throughouthis later years Saint-Simon sought to persuadebusi-
nessmenand bankersthat they constituteda class possessinga tremen-
dous power for good which they were not allowedto use. If the chaos,
which had existed in Europeand Americafor a generation,was not to
continue,a majorsocial transformationwould have to take place. The
Revolutionhad given a voice to the oppressed,but had not satisfiedtheir
needs. It was Saint-Simon'sargumentthat the futureof the industrialist
lay with those who workedfor him, not with those for whomhe worked.
If Saint-Simonhad been inspiredby the Golden Age which "a blind
traditionhad placedin the past"but which,in fact, lay in the future,and
if he urgedthe industrialistto clearthe roadto that GoldenAge, he was
equallyinspiredby a visionof continuingArmageddon.'7 This visiondra-
matized the need for a science of society based on scientific under-
standingof the individualandsocial natureof man.
Saint-Simon demandedpolitical power for the industrialist.For-
merly,politicalcapacityhadlain in knowinghow to govern,"thatis, how
to make oneself feared.Today he who shows most capacityin adminis-
tration, he who will best know how to combine the efforts of diverse
classes, he who will give most activityto production-it is he who will
14Ibid.,XXII, 60. '5Ibid.,XX, 62.

6MaximeLeroy, Le Socialisme des producteurs (Paris, 1924), 59.
7Saint-Simon, Oeuvres,XXIII, 120;XX, 62; XXII, 127.
conduct public affairs."18 Saint-Simon'sappeal was obviously an at-

tractive one for a certain class of men. Flattered as they might be,
however,the bankersandthe industrialistscouldlegitimatelyask whatit
was that they were supposedto do in a nation whose majorwealthwas
still in land. Initially, Saint-Simon had refused to see the difference
betweenlandedandindustrialwealth.Butresigninghimselfeventuallyto
the intransigencyof the feudal and aristocraticclass, he hoped that
wealthin the handsof bankersand industrialistswouldbe turnedto vast
programs of public works. He appealed to the King to call the in-
dustrialistsas a nationalbudgetcommittee;he suggestedthat an assem-
blage of 200 engineers,50 poets, and 50 artistsbe calleduponto drawup
a public-worksprogram.The creation of roads and canals was to be
consideredas the most importantitem of that program.The majortarget
was the improvementof agriculture,whichwas to be encouragedby rec-
lamationof waste like the Landes of southwesternFrance.By creating
new agriculturalwealth, Saint-Simonhoped to create a new industrial
demandsatisfiedby improvedcommunications.19 This programwould
provideworkfor those who neededit, a stimulusfor those who wishedto
produce,and knowledgeand understandingfor those who had hitherto
been separatedby geography.The programwouldset specificand pros-
perity-makinggoals for the majority of society, and it would force
"association"on those who were least inclinedto accept it voluntarily.
The cementof the wholesystemwas the "terrestrialmorality,"the "new
Christianity,"which, at the time of his death in 1825, Saint-Simonhad
come to view as the most importantpart of his work.20One needs to
repeat that, for Saint-Simon,the scientificsystem of an epoch had to
constituteits religion.
If scientistsshould be in search of a religion, Saint-Simon'swould
certainlybe fascinating.They were, and it was. Fromthe momentwhen
Saint-Simon camped opposite the Ecole Polytechnique,21 the
polytechnicienswere to play a large part in his thought,in his society,
and in the discussionanddiffusionof his ideas.The Ecolewas thenhome
for some of the most brilliantmathematicaland scientificminds of the
age. Its programswere obviouslydirectedto producingengineers,thus
they were technical, pragmatic, and in the eyes of at least one com-
mentator,Frederickvon Hayek, anti-humanistic.22 Fromthis set of facts
Hayek has argued that the whole scientistic(as opposedto scientific)ap-
proach to social and economic problems had its birth at the lcole
18lbid., XXII, 91.

'glbid., XIX, 147-48; 17ff.; XXII, 5,8; "Systdme industriel," 76; Paul Janet, Saint-
Simon et le Saint-Simonisme (Paris, 1878), 43; Emmanuel DeWitt, Saint-Simon et le
systeme industriel(Paris, 1902), 139.
20Gouhier,La Jeunesse, II, 220; Saint-Simon, Oeuvres,XIX, 183.
21Frederickvon Hayek, The Counter-Revolutionof Science (New York, 1964), 117.
22Ibid.,109.
Polytechnique. To it, consequently, Hayek argues, we owe our notions of

social engineering, planning, and all that we equate with technocracy.
Hayek has also developed a model of the engineer and has tended to
equate Saint-Simonianism with the engineers who contributed so much
to the doctrine. Hayek's analysis is instructive and suggestive even when,
applied to the case of the Saint-Simonians, it is incomplete.
The engineering mentality in The Counter-revolutionof Science is re-
lated "to the ideal of conscious control of social phenomena," 23 and
Hayek tells us that "most of the schemes for a complete remodelling of
society, from the early Utopias to modern socialism bear ... the distinct
mark ... of the engineering point of view." 24The salient feature of the
engineer, determining his outlook, is that "his characteristic tasks are
usually in themselves complete: he will be concerned with a single end,
control the efforts directed toward this end, and dispose for this purpose
over a definitely given supply of resources." 25 The application of
engineering technique to society requires that the director possess the
same complete knowledge of the whole of society that the engineer
possesses of his limited world. Central economic planning is nothing but
such an application of engineering principles to the whole of society
based on the assumption that such a complete concentration of all rele-
vant knowledge is possible.
It is from this base that Hayek attacks the "counter-revolution of
science" and from this base that he links engineers, polytechniciens, and
Saint-Simonians. Hayek quotes Saint-Simon:
... if one wanted to know whether a person had received a distinguished
education,one asked,"Doeshe knowGreekandLatinAuthorswell?"Todayone
asks:is he good at mathematics?Is he familiarwiththe achievementsof physics,
of chemistry,of naturalhistory,in short, of the positivesciencesand those of
observation?26
Obviously, Saint-Simon made this observation approving of science and

Hayek uses it damningly to prove his point that in the wake of the
founding of the Ecole Polytechnique:
... a whole generation grew up to whom that great storehouse of social wisdom
... the greatliteratureof all ages,was a closedbook. Forthe firsttimein history
thatnewtypeappeared... the technicalspecialistwhowas regardedas educated
because he had passed through difficult schools, but who had little or no
knowledgeof society, its life, growth,problems,and its valueswhichonly the
studyof history,literature,andlanguagescangive.27
The burden of Hayek's work is that we, in the twentieth century, are
as dominated by Comte, Hegel, and their associates as the nineteenth
century was dominated by Hume, Voltaire, Smith, and Kant. "But while
23Ibid.,94. 24Ibid. 25Ibid.

26Ibid.,110. 27Ibid.
these produced the liberalism of the nineteenth century . . . Hegel and

Comte, Feuerbachand Marx, have producedthe totalitarianismof the
twentieth."28 There is an implied equation in the argumentbetween
technocracyandtotalitarianism.
The Hayek argumentis worthattentionherebecauseit does establish
a startingpoint,perhapsarguable,for the birthof technocracy.It further
linkstechnocracyto the Ecole Polytechnique,the ficole Polytechniqueto
engineers,and engineersto the Saint-Simonianschool. These linkages
make good sense, but the inner content of the argumentneeds closer
examination.One can perhapsaccept the model of the ideal engineer,
and one knows that many engineerswho had passedthroughthe Icole
PolytechniquebecameSaint-Simonians.What is less clear is that these
Saint-Simonianswere the ideal engineers of Hayek's model. Quite
simply,the youngmen attractedto Saint-Simonianismwerein many,if
not in all, cases clever,engaging,and careerist.A sureway of makinga
careerwas to do so by way of the lcole Polytechnique.If, incidentally,
one became an engineer,so much the better.A numberof these young
menwerethe progenyof familieswhichhadprofitedfromthe Revolution
andsufferedfromNapoleon'sdefeat.Whetheror not the youngSaint-Si-
monianswerepoor, theycertainlyhopedto moveup in the world.If they
had wealth,they often lackedsocial positionor thosesituationsacquises
so importantin Frenchsociety.29They were not, in short, necessarily
interestedin engineeringat all. Even when they were, they did not
necessarilyconform to the Hayek model. To make the point clearer:
underthe Thirdand FourthRepublicssuchyoungmen,a MarcelProust,
for example,wouldhavebeendirectedto "SciencesPo" [Politiques],and
underthe Fifth Republic,they would almostcertainlyhave turnedup in
the Ecole Nationale d'Administration.30
Beingtalented,havingbeen trainedas engineers,thepolytechniciens
would obviouslybe drawnto a philosophicschool and an economicand
social programwhich made sense to their trainingand talents. It has
been said that all the engineersof the 1820'sand 1830'swere Saint-Si-
monian.31But if they came to Saint-Simonianism,it was preciselybe-
causethese youngmen felt a void in theirlives whichcouldonly be filled
by social actionandthe alleviationof humanneeds.32If the engineers,as
a consequenceof their training,lacked humanisticpurpose,they were
28Ibid.,206.
29E.g.,Prosper Enfantin,Adolphe Gueroult, Bazard, Carnot, the d'Eichthals.
30ThisEcole Nationale was itself Saint-Simonian inspired. Such a school was founded
under the Second Republic by Carnot, but was discontinuedby his successor, Dreyfous; Les
Trois Carnot, 184ff.
31By L.-M. Jouffroy (author of Une Etape des grandes lignes de chemins de fer en
France, 3 vols. [Paris, 1932]), in conversationin 1953 with this writer.
32IsaacPereire wrote, "The truths in which we have to believe are not yet formulated,
those which were believed for centuries are overthrown . . ."; quoted in Henri Louvancour,
De Henri Saint-Simon a Charles Fourier (Chartres, 1913), 11; also: Bibliotheque Na-
fully awareof it, andsaw Saint-Simonianismas a meansof repairingthe

lack. And if, indeed, all the engineerswere Saint-Simonian,it must
quicklybe notedthat not all the Saint-Simonianswereengineers.
Saint-Simon died on May 19, 1825, having exhortedhis disciples
"thatto do somethinggreat,you haveto be impassioned.The meaningof
the labors of my whole life is the giving to all membersof society the
greatest latitude for the developmentof their abilities."33On June 1,
1825 an act of formationof the Saint-SimonianSociety was drawnup.
The purposeof the societywas to publisha journal,Le Producteur.The
major contributorsand editors for at least the first three issues were
Olinde Rodrigues, Saint-Amand Bazard, Philippe Buchez, Michel
Rouen, CharlesLaurent,and ProsperEnfantin.They dinedregularlyat
the Palais Royal, and were usuallyseen at Lafayette'sTuesdaySalon.
With this group, Saint-Simonianismbegan its independentlife and its
propagationof the faith which for the next seven years would neverbe
completelyout of the publiceye, and which, at its height,would be the
dominantintellectualmovementof Paris,consequentlyof Europe.34Ul-
timatelyBuchez,a neo-Catholic,wouldleave the group;Rodrigues,En-
fantin,and BazardwouldbecomeSaint-Simonian"popes,"quarrel,and
separate. Laurentwould, like Saint-Simon,become a librarianof the
Arsenal;he became an editor of the Oeuvresof Saint-Simonand En-
fantin,andguardianof the Saint-Simonianarchives.
The theoreticalwork on which these men embarkedwould fall into
three phases:that of publicizingSaint-Simonianeconomicphilosophy;
that of propagandizingfor Saint-Simoniansocial philosophy;andthat of
appealingopenlyto society to transformitself by meansof the Saint-Si-
monianreligion.Whenthe religiousphaseclosed with the jailing of En-
fantinin 1832,Saint-Simonianismwas, in all essentials,completeas doc-
trine,but it was onlybeginningits programfor technocracy.
Doctrineand programwere so intertwinedwith the personalitiesof
the men who defined them, and the men were so fiercely in reaction
against their society, that both the men and the society need to be
examined.OlindeRodrigues,the livinglink with Saint-Simon,had been
introducedto him by the bankerArdouinafterSaint-Simon'ssuicideat-
tempt of 1823,had contributedto his support,andhadtalkedmuchwith
him in the last yearsof his life. Rodrigueswas the son of an officerof the
CaisseHypothecairewhosechairman'sson, CharlesDuveyrier,was to be
one of the leadinglights of the movement.Rodrigueswas also cousinto
the Pereires,had been a mathematicstutorof Enfantin,35 and as a friend
tionale, "N.A. Fr. 24609," d'Eichthal to Resseguier, Feb. 26, 1830; Emile Barrault,L'Oc-
cident et 'Orient(Paris, 1835), 247.
33Saint-Simon,Oeuvres, 117.
34Hayek, op. cit., 156.
35Saint-Simon,Oeuvres, II, 108, 143.
of Saint-Simonknew AugusteComte and Gustaved'Eichthal,member

of a German-Jewishbanking family recently established at Paris.36
Rodrigueswas thus crucialto the movement.His interestsspannedthe
worldsof the polytechniciens,the bankers,and that of a groupof young
Jews whose Jewishnesswas to have significancefor Saint-Simonianism.
For the young Pereires,Rodrigues',and d'Eichthals,who were too ra-
tionalistic to live by their ancient faith or by the Christianitythat the
d'Eichthalfamilyhad embraced,andtoo romanticto livewithoutfaithat
all and who had little leverage in French society despite their great
ability, society itself was an obstacle in the way of fulfillmentof their
talents.37
Enfantinrepresentedyet anothertypicallink in the Saint-Simonism
chain, both similar to and differentfrom the Rodrigues'connections.
Born in 1796, out of wedlock,and subsequentlylegitimized(the moeurs
of the Directoryseem to have been a sore trial for its progeny)Enfantin
was the son of a strong-mindedmother38and a fatherwho, throughno
fault of his own, went bankrupt.The fatherwas still being pursuedby
creditorsfifteenyears afterthe event, and as a consequenceProsperEn-
fantinwas viewedas unsuitablefor an armycommissionand a wife. He
was, however, admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique,where Comte
thoughthim mediocreand where Enfantinhimselfboastedthat he was
the best ball andbilliardsplayer,anda leaderof his peers.39
Enfantinfailedto completehis studies,workedin the winebusinessin
Franceand Germany,and for a time held a partnershipin a new French
bankin St. Petersburg.40 Therehe joinedwith severalpolytechniciens,en
mission to study and write on questionsof political economy. After a
storm-tossedaffairwith a partner'swife, he returnedto Paristo continue
his economicstudies,renewhis acquaintancewith Rodriguesandbecome
a Saint-Simonian.41 Like Rodrigues,Enfantinbecame a lode-star.His
good looks, his charm, his experience,the Polytechniquebackground
gathered about him his contemporariesand his juniors at the school.42
The whole Talabot tribe: Edmond, Paulin, Leon, and Jules; the St.
PetersburgengineersLame, Flachat,Clapeyron,eventuallyMichel and
Auguste Chevalier,all these came to Saint-Simonianismthrough En-
fantin. It was the Enfantingroupwhichwould give Saint-Simonianism
36Bibliotheque Thiers, "Fonds d'Eichthal," Mss. Carton IV/N, Bibliotheque de

l'Arsenal, "Fonds Enfantin," 7861/13.
37Ibid.;cf also Alfred Pereire, Autour de Saint-Simon (Paris, 1912), for a discussion of
the Pereires' relationshipto Saint-Simonianism.
38Biblioth'eque Thiers, "Fonds d'Eichthal," Mss. Carton IV/R1.
39Gouhier,La Jeunesse, I, 76; Bibliotheque Nationale, "N.A. Fr. 24608," Enfantin to
Capella, April 30, 1832 40Saint-Simon, Oeuvres,XXIV
41HenriD'Allemagne, Prosper Enfantin et les grandes entreprises du XIXieme Siecle
(Paris, 1935), 28.
42BibliothequeNationale, "N.A. Fr. 24612," A. Colin to Michel Chevalier.
its specificallytechnocraticcharacterandwhich,in combinationwith the

Pereires,would do muchto modernizeFrenchindustry.The older Che-
valier would formulatethe MediterraneanSystem and help bringabout
the Anglo-FrenchTreatyof 1860.The youngerwouldbe secretaryfor a
time to Napoleon III. Like Rodrigues,Enfantinrepresenteda marginal
group.The stigma of his father'sbankruptcydeniedhim a careerand a
wife. The second insult, in particular,he neverforgot nor forgave.43He
nevermarried.Much of his life was devotedto preachingboth new rela-
tions between the sexes, devoid of considerationsof inherited social
statusand property,andthe importanceof capacity,talent,andfunction,
equallydevoid of considerationsof inheritedsocial status and property.
This last was a majorthemeof Saint-Simonandhis disciples.Enfantin's
insistenceon it gives somejusticeboth to the claim of continuitywiththe
master and to the claim that Saint-Simonianismwas more truly
concernedwiththe individualthanwas the liberalismit fought.
Rodrigues brought the bankers, Enfantin brought the engineers,
Saint-AmandBazardbroughta literarycoterieand a reputationalready
considerableby 1825. Like Enfantin,Bazardwas illegitimate,and his
birthoccasionedthe separationof his motherandherhusband.He is said
to have been sensitiveon this point and in consequenceto have been an
over-zealousfatheras well as an unhappyhusband.44 He had also beena
founderof the Carbonariin France, a friend of Lafayette, associated
with the Masonic Amis de la Verite.45 Bazard was the oldest of the
foundinggroup,and wouldbringwith him Laurent,Cerclet,Rouen,Ar-
mand Carrel, and, throughMme Bazard,Cecile Fourneland her hus-
band, Henri. Henri Fournel was the first Saint-Simonian to be
passionately concerned with railroads.46He was director of the Le
Creusotworksduringa crisiswhen, for months,the 3000 workerscould
not be paid. He emergedfromthe experiencewith a profoundemotional
condemnationof an economic system so badly organized,and with an
empathyfor the workingclass.47He and his wife wereto give theirvery
considerablefortuneto the movementduringits peak period,andto give
their very considerableorganizingabilitiesto bringingthe workingclass
of Paristo Saint-Simonianism.
These three figures, Rodrigues, Bazard, Enfantin, developed as
leaders of Saint-Simonianismduring the period of Le Producteur.4s
43Saint-Simon,Oeuvres,XXVI, 136.
44Arsenal, "Fonds Enfantin," 7804/2, "Notes" of Lambert.
45BibliothequeThiers, "Fonds d'Eichthal," IV/R1; Louis Blanc, Histoire de Dix Ans, 4
vols. (Paris, 1832-44), III, 97; University of London, Goldsmiths' Collection, GLA 847,
fol. "Histoire du Saint-Simonisme et de la famille Rothschild, ou biographie de Saint-
Simon et de Bazard."
46Arsenal,Mss. 15031, Michel Chevalierto Henri Fournel, Dec. 24, 1832.
47BibliothequeThiers, "Fonds d'Eichthal," Imprim6s,Carton IV/C.
48Amongsubscribersto the Producteurwere the bankers Ardouin and Laffitte, Cerclet,
Leon Halevy, Therese Nugues-cousin and confidante of Enfantin.
Theircommontraits are obvious;they were all young,they wereall out-

siders in French Restoration society, they were all to some degree
frustratedin makingcareerssuitableto their talents, they all had both
personaland generalcritiquesof the regime.They all soughtto impose
themselves on their time. They all had been seeking an intellectually
satisfactorybase from which to launchthemselves.That base they had
foundin the ideasof Saint-Simon.
These traits were to be found,to a greateror lesserdegree,in all the
Saint-Simonians.They were present also in that part of the French
bourgeoisiewhichhad benefittedfrom the FrenchRevolutionand which
increasinglyfelt threatenedby the Ultras or irritatedthat politicaland
social Francedid not accuratelyreflectthe economicFrancewhichhad
emergedbefore 1815. The Saint-Simonians,consequently,could count
on support from industrialistsand bankers insofar as the movement
toutedthese same industralistsand bankersand theirrole in society. On
the other hand, the political stance of the French bourgeoisie,in op-
positionto the regime,tendedto be subsumedunderthe term "liberal."
To the "liberalism"of the Restoration,the Saint-Simonianswereclearly
and unalterablyopposed. AlthoughSaint-Simonianismwooed liberals,
its objectin doingso was to convertthemto socialistratherthanto egoist
goals.49
This Saint-Simonianattack on liberalismhas been much misunder-
stood, and has servedas a sourceof manyof the most severeindictments
of the school. What the Saint-Simonianssaw in Restorationliberalism
was unchecked egoism, social conflict, duplication of effort, waste,
inefficiency,and incompetencein the administrationof both things and
people.50They had a clear notion that in a laisser-faire world of uncon-
trolled competitionsomebodywins and somebodyloses. They had an
almost Marxianintuitionthat there are more losers than winners.51But
unlike Marx, they did not believethis processto be inevitable,and they
sought to persuadetheir contemporariesthat associationcould replace
competitionamong businessmen,social classes, sovereignstates, races,
and continents,respectively.52Like the liberals,they believedthat peace
was better than war (and thus, like them, could believein free trade),53
that cosmopolitanism was better than nationalism (Anglo-French
cooperationwas a dreamof Saint-Simonlater realizedsymbolicallyby
49Saint-Simon,Oeuvres, XXIV, 71, Enfantin to Pichard, Nov. 26, 1825.
50C.Bougle and E. Halevy, editors, Doctrine de Saint-Simon, Exposition premiere an-
nee, 1829 (Paris, 1924), 121 ff.
51Ibid.,139, 235-42.
52Saint-Simon,Oeuvres, XLII, 159.
53J. B. Duroselle concluded in a communication to the Societe de l'histoire moderne
(May 5, 1956), that since Michel Chevalierwas a free-trader,and the Saint-Simonians were
not, Chevalier was not a Saint-Simonian. The whole burden of Saint-Simonian economic
theory was the encouragement of trade and commerce and nowhere does one find a protec-
tionist argument.
MichelChevalier),54 thatproductionwas good, thattalentshouldhaveits

place, that the individual shouldenjoyself-expression.55
What they did not believe was that all this could happen
mechanically,that individualinterestsaddedup magicallyto the com-
mon good, thatthe strugglefor survivalinevitablymeantthe loss of some
membersof society,or that liberalpoliticalformsautomaticallyassured
social andeconomicjusticefor everybody,or indeed,for anybody.It was
good that the liberalexercisedhis talentandmadehis fortune;it was bad
that with his fortunehe shouldcreate a new aristocracybarringtalent
and exploitingothers.56The institutionof property,like all otherinstitu-
tions, was subjectto organicgrowthand development.57 So, in time, the
Saint-Simonianswould believe, the institutionsof marriage and the
familymust obey these same laws. And at that point in time, the Saint-
Simonianswould lose a hearingby respectablesociety. Yet the society
they envisionedwas veryrespectable,verybourgeois.The chief sin of the
Saint-Simonianswas that they demandedof the liberalthat he live up to
his expressedvalues and abandonthe behaviorthat underminedthese
values.58This changecouldonly be effectedby a recognitionof the social
natureof the liberal'sact, a recognitionfor whichhis specialfunctionand
placein societyfittedhim.
Of all this, Le Producteuronly hinted.Enfantinwroteto his cousinin
August 1825: "We try to color all our articles so that the public can
interestitself at first in the form withoutcompletelyunderstandingthe
foundation."59 The prospectusin the introductionto Le Producteurwas
somewhat more specific. The editors announcedthat economists had
been concernedwith materialproduction,but hadn't felt the full im-
portanceof moralandintellectualproduction.The editors'endswerethe
greatest possible developmentof productionin its largest sense. They
hopedto unitesavants,industrialists,and artiststo drawsocietyfromits
crisis. They wished to bring about the definitivetriumphof labor over
idleness; of positive capacities over vague knowledge. A new social
system was needed, positive character must be given to the moral
sciences.The exclusivereignof imaginationwas over. Industrialists,and
particularlybankers,mustunderstandtheirownimportance:
Ourjournalhas for its end the developmentandexpansionof the principlesof a
new philosophybased on a new conceptionof humannature.The end of the
species... is to exploitandmodifyexternalnatureto its greatestadvantage.6
54A.L. Dunham, The Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce of 1860, and the Progress of
the IndustrialRevolution in France (Ann Arbor, 1930).
55Doctrine,349ff.
56Saint-Simon, Oeuvres,XLIII, 232; Le Producteur, I (1825), 437.
57Doctrine,287; Saint-Simon, Oeuvres,XLII, 162.
58Idem,Oeuvres,XXIV, 71, Enfantinto Pichard, Nov. 26, 1825.
590euvres,XXIV, 47-48, Enfantinto Therese Nugues, Aug. 18, 1825.
60LeProducteur,I, (1825), Introduction.
The means to be used were physical, intellectual,and moral. The

methods of the doctrine would be recognizedas progressivebecause
based on a scientificunderstandingof history,each generationaddedits
riches to those of the past. Knowledgebecame ever more extensive,
certain, and positive. The increasedknowledgeof natural law would
permitadditionsand rectificationsof the acts of the doctrinaire.Thenew
philosophywould become increasinglycertainof its destiny and its ca-
pacity to develop the principleof association."The battle is over; we
mustfightno more,libertyis won, we mustnowprofitfromit."61
There was little or no divergencein the Producteur,from Saint-
Simon himselfexceptthat the new Christianitywas not mentioned,and
at this junctureseems to have been somethingof an embarrassmentfor
Enfantin.62Certainkey notions of the school did become explicit. One
was the notion of "positive" knowledge, that is, scientificallybased
knowledgeas opposedto opinion.Anothernotion,closelylinkedwiththe
first, was that when knowledgeexisted, argumentabout it was futile.
"We do not talk of freedomof consciencein physicsor in chemistry,"63
wrote Bazard,andthe Saint-Simonianswereassertinga like precisionof
knowledgeand a like irrelevancyof conflict in economicsand society.
They approved wholeheartedly of J. B. Say when he wrote, ". .. under all
forms of governmenta state can prosperif it is well administered."64
Fromthese bases,it was a shortstep to assertingthat the manwho knew
how to do a thingoughtto do it; thatthe manwho knewwhatoughtto be
done ought to be obeyed.65In these notions were the sourcesof Saint-
Simonianauthoritarianism, the divisionof societyby capacities,andthe
slogan "from each accordingto his capacities,to each accordingto his
works."66
It is this line of argumentwhichhas disturbed,amongothers,Georg
Iggersand Frederickvon Hayek;67the one, becauseof its justificationof
moderntotalitarianism,the other, becauseof its unjustifiedintellectual
pretensions.The Saint-Simoniansmay have been morally wrong, al-
thoughthat is arguable;they were logicallytight and consistentin their
argument.Again, as theyhadposedan uncomfortablemoralproblemfor
the middleclass of the Restoration,so they posed an uncomfortablein-
tellectualproblemfor the entirecentury:that of the relationof individual
freedomto naturallaw. The Saint-Simoniansturnout to havebeenmore
tough-mindedthan theircritics. But they honestlybelievedthat through
puttingthe rightman in the rightplace,his individualnaturefulfillingit-
self wouldexperiencefreedom.Obedienceto the lawsof one'sownnature
was liberty.
One would be unableto obey those laws if economiclife and social
61Ibid.,9. 62Saint-Simon,Oeuvres,XXIV, 79.
63Producteur,I (1825), 412. 64Ibid.,IV (1826), 382.
65Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin," 7620, Enfantin to Th6erseNugues, Sept. 1828.
66Iggers,Cult, 76. 67Hayek,Counter-Revolution,206; Iggers, Cult, 157.
life were not reorganized.Resoures, as well as men, needed to be

associated;creditshouldbe looser;businessorganizationshouldbe more
flexible to undertakegreat communicationsprojects,organizednot by
and for the individual,but by and for society.68The Saint-Simonians
werecertainlynot alonein the 1820'sin producingideasof this kind.But
the sad truthwas that Le Producteur,duringits existenceof a little overa
year, was thoughtheavy and dull.69In a Romanticdecade, the dismal
science seemedmore dismalthan usual. The artistsdid not yet find the
social end of art convincing,readerswere few; even the polytechniciens
votedagainstsubscribingto thejournalwhichwas "ennuyeux."70
Le Producteurcame to an end on December12, 1826,but the school
continued.The Saint-Simonianshad decided that the reason for their
failure was the intrinsicaridity of economic doctrine;the narrowma-
terialismof which they had been accused.71It was at this juncturethat
Enfantin,out of both personalcircumstanceand doctrinalneed, created
a "religion"withall its trappingsduringthe year 1827-28.
Late in 1827 Enfantin experienced a "crise de nerfs."72 Roughly at
the same time, when his thoughtswere turnedto the consequencesof
death and the hope of an afterlife,Buchezconvincedhim that God, if He
existed, must be androgynous.73Reading Fourier, Enfantin became
absorbedby the idea of the social couple as the end of social organiza-
tion. He was writing to a friend, ". . . in our time we must knock on all
doors, attracteach specialty,presentto the artistsa sentimentalend for
humanity,to the industrialistsanotherend,to the savantsstill another,in
such a mannerthat all these ends can be confusedin a single one."74In
February1828,Enfantinwroteto his lifelongfriendArl1s-Dufour,"We
touch a moredelicatechord,it is in morality,in theology,in poetrythat
we wish to be Doctors."75Somewhatearlier,he had begunto turnhis at-
tention to the East and its mysticism.This last elementwas to have its
effecton the economicsof Saint-Simonianismas well as on its religion.
What was in processduringthis year was the definitionof the doc-
trine'sdirection;by what means it could move from idea to action. En-
fantinhad announcedthat the Ecole Polytechniquewas to be "the canal
throughwhichour ideas will flow."76The imagerywas no accident.The
engineersin sessions amongthemselvesor at Enfantin'sapartmenthad
persuadedthemselvesof the truthof Saint-Simoniananalysisand of the
accuracyof Saint-Simonianvision. But whatshouldtheydo?How would
68Producteur,II (1825), 1lff. 69Saint-Simon, Oeuvres,XXIV, 71.

70Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin,"7744, "Journalde Lambert."
71Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin,"7663/2, Enfantinto Arles-Dufour, Feb. 1828.
72Saint-Simon,Oeuvres,XII, 51. 73Ibid.,I, 215.
74BibliothequeNationale, "N.A. Fr./24608," Enfantinto Resseguier, Aug. 18, 1827.
75Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin," 7663/2, Enfantinto Arles-Dufour, Feb. 1828.
76Quotedin Maurice Wallon, Les Saint-Simoniens et les chemins defer (Paris, 1908),
28.
they get it done?They mustmake an impacton societyat large.Whereas

in 1825,Enfantinhadconfessedto his cousinTheresethat he didn'tknow
how one touchedthe soul of the masses,he now, pickingup the religious
themesof Saint-Simon'sNew Christianity,beganto findout.
The young engineerswere to be particularlyuseful in spreadingthe
doctrineby the very natureof their profession.They werecivil servants.
They were,on completionof theirstudies,assignedall overFrance.They
were, by virtue of the Polytechnique,the possessors of a high social
status;they were, for example,desirableas husbands.And althoughthe
movementhad not acquiredthousandsof followers,by 1828 it was ac-
quiringhundredsof locallysignificantpeopleacrossFrance.77
In 1829, Laurentwas offeredthe directionof a journal, L'Organi-
sateur,which,for a year, continuedas an arm of Saint-Simonianpropa-
ganda.78It was replacedin the Fall of 1830 by the Globe whose editor,
PierreLeroux,was also enlistedto spreadthe doctrine.
In December1828, there had begunthat series of publicexpositions
of the doctrinewhichwere to be publishedas Doctrinede Saint-Simon
and to be the New Testament of Saint-Simonianism.Much of the
misunderstanding, muchof the failureto comprehendthe essentialunity
and continuityof Saint-Simonianismstems from these volumes which
are only the partsof the icebergwhichshow.
Doctrinallybetween 1829 and 1832 there were three seeminglynew
elementsintroduced:the formationof a "college,"dividedhierarchically,
with first three "fathers,"then two, and finally one; the theme of the
"liberationof the flesh";andfinally,the formationof a concreteprogram
of actionfor Saint-Simonianism.
The questionof noveltyis importantbecausethe experienceof, and
reaction to, this phase of doctrine became a touchstoneboth for the
Saint-Simoniansand for the criticsof Saint-Simonianism.79 Embarrased
by this most public, and seemingly most scandalous,aspect of Saint-
Simonianism,many a pillar of the Second Empirewould announcehis
former devotion to Saint-Simonianprinciplesand his rejectionof the
aberrationsof "M. Enfantin."And many a scholar, for reasonsnever
clearto this writer,has acceptedthis kindof declarationat face valueand
has concludedthat a Saint-Simonianwho did not follow Enfantinto the
end was not a Saint-Simonianat all.80Whatis most importantis that the
supposedaberrationsof Enfantinwerenot aberrant.
77JeanVidalenc, "Les Techniques de la propagande Saint-Simonienne a la fin de 1831,"
Archives de sociologie des religions, 10 (July-Dec. 1960), 3-21.
78BibliothequeThiers, "Fonds d'Eichthal," Mss. Carton IV/N.
79Theargument goes that the "practical" men broke with the Doctrine over the woman
question and that of the hierarchy. Some did go with Bazard or Rodrigues, but the most
"practical," the Fournels, the Talabots, the Pereires, stayed. Often it was Enfantin himself
who brought about the "break" (with Chevalier, for example) to end a dangerous de-
pendency.
80Carlisle,"Saint-Simonian Radicalism," 431-34.
In the courseof 1830the school took overapartmentsin a buildingin

the rue Monsigny.The membersof the school beganto live and to take
meals in common.Those for whom therewas not room at headquarters
filled rooms and apartmentsthroughoutthe neighborhood."' The Saint-
Simonianslived the doctrinemorning,noon, and night in the rooms in
the rue Monsigny, in walks in the nearby Tuileries, by their cor-
respondence,by their brochuresand pamphlets.82Paris, uneasy in a
Revolutionaryyear, hopeful,looking for direction,flockedto the Saint-
Simonians.The brilliantandthe ambitiousturnedup to be instructed.83
In 1831,HenriFournelandhis wife abandonedthe provincesto begin
organizinghouses of assistancefor the poor in the variousarrondisse-
mentsof Paris.They organizedmedicalservices,they contributed89,000
francs to the movement,and began to bring the proletariatto Saint-
Simonianism.84 Rooms and public halls were hired throughout the city
and thousandsbeganto hearSaint-Simonianpreachings.Similarmove-
mentstook place in the provinces,crowdsstood outsidethe houseof Dr.
Paul Curie (grandfatherof Pierre) and Mulhouse. Arles-DuFouren-
couragedthe Saint-Simoniansat Lyon.85
The tone of Saint-Simonianismto the workers was paternalistic,
preachingthe virtues of order and authority.86The bourgeoisiewas
Artistswere instructed
castigatedfor its implicationin social injustice.87
that art should meet social needs, dramatizesocial crises, raise social
consciousness.88 To all this activitywas addedthe color of costumes,the
hieraticbearingof the initiated,and a sort of hystericaltypographyin
publications.The life of the groupwas intense.The awarenessof being
involvedin a total socialtransformationwas high.89
Crucialin this latterdevelopmentwas Enfantin.Bazardhaddelivered
most of the expositionsof the first year.90Behindthe scenes, Enfantin
directeddiscussionand probed his followers by means of an extraor-
dinary (and well documented)intuition as to the springs of men's
action.91Withoutany doubt,he persuadedhimself,as well as others,of
the validityof the new Christianity,the importanceof socal priesthood,
of authority,hierarchy,and capacity.In this effort,the noveltywas one
of form, not of content.Whatwas novel was the explorationof the rela-
8"Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin," 7793/9. 82Ibid.,7804/2.

83BibliothequeNationale, "N.A. Fr. 24609," Chevalier to Duveyrier, May 9, 1831; H.
J. Hunt, Le Socialisme et le romantisme en France, etude de la presse socialiste de 1830 a
1848 (Oxford, 1935), 272.
84Saint-Simon,Oeuvres, III, 62-63; IV, 76.
85BibliothequeNationale, "N.A. Fr. 24610;" Leroux to "Mes Peres," May 18, 1831.
8?Doctrine,121. 87Saint-Simon,Oeuvres, XLIV, 344. 88Doctrine,143ff.
89Saint-Simon,Oeuvres, III, 53. 90Doctrine,"Avant-Propos."
90Onesees this best in the "Journal"of Lambert, kept while Enfantin and Lambertwere
in Egypt, which reports many reminiscent conversations on the religious experience, and
also in Lambert's "Notes" on various Saint-Simonians. Arsenal, "Fonds Enfantin," 7804/
2, 7744, 7828.
tions of men and women. Precipitatedby MadameBazard'sdistrustof

the proposed marriage of one of her Saint-Simonian"sons" to an
actress, the discussion shook the Saint-Simonianschool, resulted in
schism, and broughtabout an extensionof the doctrinewhich shocked
many,but whichwas not the least of Saint-Simonianintellectualaccom-
plishments.
What needs to be recognizedis that the Saint-Simonianswere con-
vincedof the necessityof modifyingthe institutionof property.That in-
stitution led to injustice,conflict, and the repressionof both the indi-
vidual and society. Out of the discussionof the relations of men and
women came the recognitionthat in bourgeoissociety marriageswere
made for the sake of property,andthat the familyexistedas the end and
objectof propertyaccumulation.If the institutionof propertywas to be
modified,so must marriageand the familybe modified.Further,in mar-
riage and in law, the woman was regardedas a kind of property.The
main objectof the Saint-Simonianshad beento amelioratethe condition
of the poorestand most numerousclass, andcertainlythat class included
women.
The Saint-Simoniansalso had been interested in moral and in-
tellectual,as well as physical,amelioration.The daughtersof the poor
swelledthe ranksof prostitutes.The prostituteexistedas an escapefrom
the loveless, inhumane,and indissolublemarriage.He who used the
prostitutebecame an exploiter;she who participatedin the propertied
bourgeoismarriagebecamea kindof prostitute.92
The role of womenbecamea sourceof guilt for Saint-Simonianmen.
One must understandthe importanceof Saint-Simonianyouthfulness.
The questionof women, of sexuality,was not for them an abstraction.
They were young, virile,"lovingwomen."They foundthemselvesfaced
with agonizingand daily personaldilemmas.Underneaththe apparent
agony, one finds hints of yet another-the omnipresenceof venereal
disease, the material manifestationof social and spiritualevil.93The
questionof women touchedall society and every Saint-Simonian.This
question touched Enfantin most of all. There was not only a social
theory,but a psychologicaltheorybesides.Marriage,family, sexuallife
wereall immoral.Truemoralitymustbe basedon the truenatureof man
and of woman.Enfantinarrivedat a theoryof humannaturebasedon his
capacity to elicit the secret and almost subconsciousconcerns of his
followers.He was irked,in all the discussionsof women,by Bazard'sand
Rodrigues'assumptionof omnisciencederivedfrom their happy mar-
riages. Enfantinrevealedto them that their marriageswere less happy
920n the question of women the best (and most honest) discussion is to be found in En-
fantin's letter to his mother in Oeuvres, XXVII, "Aug. 1831"; and in the letter to Th&rese
Nugues of Dec. 1828 in Arsenal, "Fonds Enfantin,"7620.
?3Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin," 7804/2. The imposed celibacy of Menilmontant elicited
from d'Eichthal the confession, "Hier soir'ai cof'temon lit.
than they supposed.Madame Bazard, in particular,had confessedto

Enfantinan affairwith anotherof the Saint-Simonians.94 Many of the
schoolsupposedthat she also becameEnfantin'smistress.95
Out of the facts of Saint-Simonianlife, Enfantinproposeda theoryof
male-femalerelations.He arguedthat humanswere of two dispositions,
the mobile and the stable. Each dispositionwas a valid expressionof
humannature,and must be accommodatedin any "positive"morality.
Among the consequencesof this position was that divorce should be
possible;that, in effect,the serialpolygamywhichmarksour own society
was moral.But therewas also the idea that transitoryrelationshipswere
not only admissible, but socially desirable. Such relationshipsmust,
however,contributeto personalgrowth and "progress";they must be,
one is temptedto say anachronistically,consciousness-expanding.96 To
the inevitablequestion, "What about children?",Enfantin'sview was
that paternityshould be of concernonly to the mother.Since inherited
propertywas to be modified,since talent was to be the only passportto
success and to property-holding,the identity of childrenwas relatively
unimportant.97 How to avoid social chaos?Chaos would be avoidedby
meansof the priestlyfunction.The priestwas envisagedby Enfantinas a
kind of psychologicalengineer. Knowing inwardlythe nature of his
faithful, promotingunions to promote faith, the Pere, joined with the
"Mere" of Saint-Simonianismwho had not yet appeared,would plan
and build sexual life as the banker would direct public works, as the
engineerwouldrealizethem,as the workerwouldprofitfromthem.98
On the questionsof paternityand the functionof the priest, Bazard
and Rodriguesbrokewith Enfantinto the accompanimentof hysterical
confessions, confrontations,faintings, schisms, and sub-schisms. To
most commentatorsthis phaseof Saint-Simonianismhas appearedludi-
crous,andsufficientlydiscreditingof the wholemovement.It was, rather,
a consistent,if extreme,outgrowthof genuinesocialconcern.Some of its
propositions,still havingthe powerto shock, are not verydifferentfrom
points of view expressedas originalin the Americaof the 1970's.Saint-
Simon mentioned women only once in his writings. He mentioned
railroadsnot at all.99Most Saint-Simonianscholarshavebeenableto ac-
cept railroadsas a reasonableextensionof Saint-Simon'swork.Thereis
as much reasonto acceptthe liberationof womenand the rehabilitation
of the flesh in the same sense. When accusedof immorality,Enfantin's
followersrejectedthe accusation.But there is no doubtthat they prac-
ticed what they preached:dutifully,humorlessly,with agony, only occa-
94Arsenal,"Fonds d'Eichthal," 14,387/27 (there are Eichthal papers in both Thiers and
Arsenal).
95Ibid.,14,387/138.
96Saint-Simon,Oeuvres,XIV, 154ff. 97Ibid.,V, 241.
98Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin," 7620, Enfantinto Capella, April 30, 1832.
"In welcoming their subscriptionto a memorial to Newton.
sionallywithjoy.100The programwas harderfor womenthan for men.'01

The sufferingenduredis surely an index of religiousconviction.These
Saint-Simonianswere sure of a new world for whose foundationthey
werewillingto sacrificecareers,fortunes,families,wholelives.
While the dramasassociatedwith the liberationof the flesh(charges
of offences against public morality,violation of laws of assembly,the
formationof a monastic apostolate at Menilmontant'02), were taking
place there continuedto be a group withinthe movementwho insisted
that Saint-Simonianismnow had the possibilityof takinga firstpractical
step on the way to economic and social transformationby pacific
means.103 The approachto that problemwas formulatedin the winterof
1831-32 by Michel Chevalier,new editor of the Globe. Its inspiration
was said to havebeen Enfantin,but nippingat Enfantin'sheelshadbeen
Paulin Talabot and Henri Fournel. These men with the Pereireshad
Whatemergedfromthis im-
begunto see the possibilitiesof railroads.104
pulsion was the Systeme de la Mediterranee, a grandioseplan of action
for the creationof a communicationsand creditrevolutionwhichreem-
phasized, for Saint-Simonianism,economic and engineering trans-
formation as the key to social transformation.The plan Chevalier
proposes'05is the unificationof the Mediterraneanbasinby a communi-
cations system whose initial link would run from Havre to Marseille,
whose terminuswould be Suez, and whose beneficiarywould be hu-
manity. Public works would result in private good; engineers, busi-
nessmen,bankers,and workerswouldfind opportunityin the plan, and
naturewouldbe submittedto the needsof men.
The detailsof the newplanhavebeenexploredelsewhere,'06 but what
was striking about the Mediterraneansystem was its grasp of the
meaningand scope of industralismand the communicationsrevolution.
The system was sufficientlygrounded in reality to give the Saint-
Simonianssome hold on the directionof theirindividualefforts,afterthe
official dispersion of the school in 1832, to make meaningfullives.
Between the heroic landscape painted by Chevalier and the image
d'Epinal of the Paris-St. Germainrailroadto be built by the Pereires
therewas a differencein scale. But the latterprojectwas conceivedat the
funeral of Edmond Talabot by Emile Pereire and a group of Saint-
'??Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin," 7828, "Fonds d'Eichthal," 14,387/163, Buchez to Claire
Bazard, July 11, 1829.
"10Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin,"7620, Fournel to Enfantin, May 22, 1832.
'02Saint-Simon,Oeuvres,VI, 16. '03Louvancour,op. cit., 216.
'04BibliothequeNationale, "N.A. Fr./24610," Fournelto Enfantin,Jan. 26, 1833.
'05MichelChevalier, Politique industriel et Systeme de la Mediterranee (Paris, 1833),
11.
106RobertB. Carlisle, The Saint-Simonians and the Foundation of the Paris-Lyon Rail-
road, 1832-1852 (University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich. 1957, Mic. 57-2467), and
"Les Chemins de fer, les Rothschild, et les Saint-Simoniens," Economies et Societes, 5
(July 1971), 1185-1214.
Simonianengineers.107 Scores of those engineerswere to be involvedin

the making of Europeanrailways,in the creationof a new kind of Eu-
ropeanbankingsystem,in pavingthe way for Suez, in reclaimingFrench
wastelandsand rebuildingFrenchcities, and in a bewilderingvarietyof
social reformmovements:bettermentof the workingclass, emancipation
for women, internationalpeace, Africanexploration,Algerianadminis-
trationanddevelopment.108
Saint-Simon had adjuredhis followers to greet the stars of the
nineteenthcentury at their rising. Those followers,between 1825 and
1832, obeyedSaint-Simon'scall. To relatethis developmentlogicallyto
technocracy,it wouldbe convenientto definetechnocracyandthento in-
dicate in what ways the Saint-Simoniansfit the definition.But, afterall,
it is historicallymore pertinentto follow the Saint-Simoniansin the
formationof an outlookfor whichtherewas not yet a term.
The Saint-Simoniansfound a world in which there were rich and
poor; they envisioneda world in which,if its resourceswere adequately
organized,therewouldbe a sufficiencyfor everyone.They founda world
dividedby interestand sentiment;they envisioneda world unifiedin its
search for, and its creationof, that sufficiency.They found a world in
whichpowerwas manipulatedthrougha class of ascribedstatus, for its
own perpetuation;they envisioneda world in which power would be
manipulatedby talent for universallyacceptableends. They found a
world in which incompetencebred waste; they envisioneda world in
whichcompetencewouldbreedplenty.They founda worldin whichma-
terial plentywas everybody'sobject,and nobody'ssure possession;they
envisioneda world in which the assuranceof plenty would modify the
qualityof life for individuals,classes,sexes,nations,andraces.
The Saint-Simoniansgraspedwhat the technicalcompetenceof the
banker,the engineer,the scholar,the "priest"mightdo in bringingabout
a new world.They graspedthat that new worldwouldinevitablybe con-
ditionedby technicalrevolution.They grasped,equally,the threatto hu-
manity that such a revolutionwould pose. It was not, in the end, the
Saint-Simonianswho were ludicrous,but those who failedto link Saint-
Simoniantechnocracywith the universaland uniformqualityof Saint-
Simonianhumanity.
St. LawrenceUniversity,Canton,N.Y.
'07Saint-Simon,Oeuvres,VII, 176.
'08Themost nearly complete bibliography,giving some indication of the range of Saint-
Simonian achievement, is Jean Walch, Bibliographie du Saint-Simonisme (Paris, 1967);it
should be supplemented by the second edition of Iggers' Cult of Authority. Four recent
issues of Economies et Societes (April, June, Oct. 1970; July 1971), have been devoted to
Saint-Simonian questions.

The Birth of Technocracy: How Saint-Simonians Pioneered the Idea

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The Birth of Technocracy: Science, Society, and Saint-Simonians

Author(s): Robert B. Carlisle

They were pacifists;they were feminists;they were anti-racisteco-

HenriSt. Simondid not alwayssee the logicalandpossibleconsequences

3GeorgIggers, The Cult of Authority (The Hague, 1958), 157.

14Ibid.,XXII, 60. '5Ibid.,XX, 62.

conduct public affairs."18 Saint-Simon'sappeal was obviously an at-

18lbid., XXII, 91.

Polytechnique. To it, consequently, Hayek argues, we owe our notions of

Obviously, Saint-Simon made this observation approving of science and

23Ibid.,94. 24Ibid. 25Ibid.

these produced the liberalism of the nineteenth century . . . Hegel and

fully awareof it, andsaw Saint-Simonianismas a meansof repairingthe

of Saint-Simonknew AugusteComte and Gustaved'Eichthal,member

36Bibliotheque Thiers, "Fonds d'Eichthal," Mss. Carton IV/N, Bibliotheque de

its specificallytechnocraticcharacterandwhich,in combinationwith the

Theircommontraits are obvious;they were all young,they wereall out-

MichelChevalier),54 thatproductionwas good, thattalentshouldhaveits

The means to be used were physical, intellectual,and moral. The

life were not reorganized.Resoures, as well as men, needed to be

68Producteur,II (1825), 1lff. 69Saint-Simon, Oeuvres,XXIV, 71.

they get it done?They mustmake an impacton societyat large.Whereas

In the courseof 1830the school took overapartmentsin a buildingin

8"Arsenal,"Fonds Enfantin," 7793/9. 82Ibid.,7804/2.

tions of men and women. Precipitatedby MadameBazard'sdistrustof

than they supposed.Madame Bazard, in particular,had confessedto

sionallywithjoy.100The programwas harderfor womenthan for men.'01

Simonianengineers.107 Scores of those engineerswere to be involvedin

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