There was a time when economists had grander aims than peering at the world, adding up the numbers and concluding that it is all about economies of scale. This month, 200 years ago, a Frenchman called Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was born. If he is remembered at all, it is for one phrase: “La propriété, c'est le vol!” (Property is theft.) This motto is often wrongly attributed to Karl Marx, thus making Proudhon a virtually forgotten man.
Why should we care about him? Surely he is just another long-haired Frenchman with a beard and a penchant for causing trouble?
He was born on Jan 15 1809, the son of a brewer. He grew up in Besançon, then moved to Paris. He became a journalist and pamphleteer, but in reality he was an economist. The French Revolution of 1848 – much less well known than its celebrated predecessor of 1789 but still worthy of consideration – was the moment he had been waiting for.
He wanted to take power away from capitalists. He came up with his own theories on reform, including the establishment of a people's bank, La Banque du Peuple, which would offer interest-free loans to its members, most of whom were workers.
Despite being an anarchist, he disapproved of the violence of the 1848 revolution, instead urging peaceful conciliation. He rejected capitalism, but also split with Marx. It is hard to put one's finger on what exactly he did believe in, although he tried to boil it down to three words: agricultural-industrial federation. “All my political ideas boil down to a similar formula: political federation or decentralisation,” he said.
Few people now would agree with his assertion that “property is theft”; indeed, many would argue that property ownership has enriched the lives of millions. His slogan would be updated by an advertising agency to “Property is Freedom”. This is exactly what he himself said later, in 1865, in Théorie de la propriété: “property may be considered as the triumph of freedom”.
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