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VictorianSocialism.AnIntroduction

VictorianSocialism.AnIntroduction
DrAndrzejDiniejko,D.Litt.ContributingEditor,Poland

[VictorianWebHome>PoliticalHistory>SocialHistory>Socialisnandrelatedreformmovements]

Weareallsocialistsnow.SirWilliamHarcourt

Introduction
ictorian socialism or Victorian socialisms because it took so many different gradations ,
emergedinBritainalongwithothermovements,suchasnewconservatism,newliberalism,newtrade
unionism, anarchism, social Darwinism, secularism, spiritualism and theosophy. It developed from
diversetraditions,ideologiesandbackgrounds,butintensedislikeofthesocialeffectsoftheIndustrial
Revolution underlie the various strands of Victorian socialism, which was essentially a middleclass,
homemadeprojectwithlittleforeigninfluence.
VictoriansocialistsdrewheavilynotontheworksofKarlMarx,butonthelegacyofauthorswhoheldromantic,
radical and even conservative views, like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William
Cobbett,ThomasCarlyle,BenjaminDisraeli,andJohnRuskin.However,therootsofBritishsocialismcanalsobesought
inmoreremotetimes.SomeofthedistantforerunnersofVictoriansocialismincludeWilliamLangland,JohnWycliffe,
JohnBall,ThomasMore,FrancisBacon,GerrardWinstanley,andJamesHarrington.

OriginsofBritishsocialism
BritishsocialismemergedinthetimewhenVictoriansocietybegantoovercometheprinciplesofclassicaleconomics,the
laissezfaire system, and was immersed in faith crisis. Traditional British liberalism and radicalism played a far more
important role in shaping socialism in Victorian Britain than the works of Karl Marx. Although Marxism had some
impactinBritain,itwasfarlesssignificantthaninmanyotherEuropeancountries,withthinkerssuchasDavid Ricardo,
JohnStuartMillandJohnRuskinhavingmuchgreaterinfluence.NonMarxisthistoriansspeculatethatthiswasbecause
BritainwasamongstthemostdemocraticcountriesofEuropeoftheperiod,wheretheballotboxprovidedaninstrument
for change, so parliamentary reforms seemed a more promising route than revolutionary socialism advocated by Marx.
AsSirIvorJegginsputit,BritishsocialismhasalwaysbeenasmuchBritishassocialist.(429)
Socialistideasbecamethenaturaloutcomeofmodernindustrialconditions,andtheiroriginscanbesoughtinthe
beginnings of modern industry. In England socialist ideas were shaped as the byproduct of the Industrial Revolution.
The word 'socialism' was first used in the English language in 1827 in the workingclass publication, the Cooperative
Magazine,anditmeantcooperationasopposedtocompetition.(Garneretal.115)Inthe1830s,thewordsocialismwas
used interchangeably with the word Owenism, and Robert Owen (17711858) became the central figure of British
socialisminthefirsthalfofthe19thcentury.

Theriseofworkingclassradicalism
ThefirstpoliticalmovementoftheworkingclasswaslaunchedbytheLondonCorrespondingSociety,foundedin1792,
byThomasHardy(17521832),ashoemakerandmetropolitanRadical.TheSociety,consistingmostlyofworkingclass
members,agitatedamongthemassesparliamentaryreform,universalmanhoodsuffrageandworkingclassrepresentation
inParliament.TheSocietymetopenlyforsixyearsdespiteharassmentbypolicemagistratesandarrestsofitsmembers,
but was finally outlawed in 1799 by an act of Parliament as a result of fear that it made a dangerous challenge to the
establishedgovernment.

RobertOwenandcooperativesocialism

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RobertOwen(17711858),whowasatextilemillowner,philanthropist,socialandlabourreformer,isconsideredasthe
father of British cooperative socialism. He and his followers founded several cooperative communities in Britain and
the United States which offered workers decent living conditions and access to education. Although all Owenite
communities eventually failed, the communitarian tradition persisted in Victorian England and elsewhere. Owenism
exerted a significant influence on various strands of British socialism, including Christian socialism, ethical socialism,
guildsocialism,Fabianism, and socialist labour movement. Cooperative socialism was perceived by these organisations
asareplacementfortheunjustcompetitivecapitalistsystem.

Ricardiansocialists
AnothergroupofthinkerswhoexertedadirectinfluenceonVictoriansocialismweresocalledRicardiansocialists.They
basedtheirtheoriesupontheworkoftheeconomistDavid Ricardo (17721823), who claimed that the economy moves
towards social conflict because the interests of ownership classes were directly opposed to those of the poor classes. In
thisaspectRicardoandRicardiansocialistsanticipatedtheconceptionofKarlMarxaboutadversarialclassrelations.
The principal members of this group were Charles Hall (17401820), William Thompson (17851833), Thomas
Hodgskin (17831869) and John Gray (17991883). Paradoxically, Ricardian socialists, rejected some of Ricardo's
assumptionsandarguedthatprivateownershipofthemeansofproductionshouldbesupplantedbycentralownershipof
meansofproduction,organisedasaworkercontrolledjointstockcompany.(Toler46)

Marxiansocialism
MarxiansocialismhadlittleimpactonvariousstrandsofBritain'ssocialism.KarlMarx(181883),wholivedandwrote
hisworksinLondonfrom1849,wasnotwidelyknowninEnglanduntilhisdeath.HemetfewEnglishmenandwasnot
very keen on making acquaintances with English radicals. The only Englishmen who expressed serious interest in the
ideas of Marx during his lifetime were Ernest Jones, a revolutionary Chartist, who made a vain attempt to revive that
dying Chartist movement, and Henry Mayers Hyndman, the founder of the Social Democratic Federation, the first
MarxistsocialistpartyinBritain.However,MarxismhardlyappealedtoVictoriansocialistsinitsorthodoxform.

LateVictoriansocialism
Socialists by William Strang R.A. (18591921). 1891. Etching and
drypointonpaper.[Clickontheimagetoenlargeit.]

The British socialist movement reemerged in the 1880s. A

strong critique of capitalism, which was voiced by various
groups of social critics, literary figures and workingclass
militants, led to the formation of three distinct strands of late
Victoriansocialism:(1)theSocialDemocraticFederation(SDF)
and the Socialist League, (2) the Fabian Society and its
predecessor,theFellowshipoftheNewLife,and(3)theethical
socialists,togetherwiththeIndependentLabourParty.
TheSocialDemocraticFederation,whichbecamethefirst
Marxist political party in Britain in 1884, advocated imminent
revolution and nationalisation. Its tiny offshot, the Socialist
League, formed by William Morris in 1884 after his secession
from the Social Democratic Federation, attracted a few social
democrats,butin1990itbecamedominatedbyanarchists,whichpromptedMorristowithdrawfromit.
TheFabianSociety,alsofoundedin1884,wasnotradical,buttriedtopermeatepeacefullytheexistinginstitutions
andParliamentinordertoimplementitssocialistreforms.TheFabianssupportedthesocalled'gasandwatersocialism',
i.e. government ownership of municipal utilities, as well as municipalisation and nationalisation of land and many
industries, canals, railways, water and gas companies, tramways, docks, hospitals, markets, libraries and even lodging
houses.(Haggard94)
Ethical socialism was not associated with any particular party and overlapped with other strands of Victorian
socialism. It included a disparate group of social activists and literary figures who championed the ideas of ethical
socialism,emphasisingmoraldevelopmentofindividualsaboveeconomicandsocialreforms.Ethicalsocialismemerged
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in the 1880s, flourished in the 1890s, and inspired the formation of the Independent Labour Party and also the Labour
Party.(Bevir1999:218)
The most characteristic representatives of ethical socialism were Thomas Hill Green, Edward Carpenter, John
Ruskin,andWilliamMorris.Otherimportantfiguresincludedthepioneerlabourleader,KeirHardie,RobertBlatchford,
theeditoroftheweeklynewspaper,TheClarion,andtheauthorofthebestsellingsocialisttract,MerrieEngland (1893),
JohnBruceGlasier,oneoftheleadersoftheIndependentLabourParty.AsMarkBevirputit,ethicalsocialistsbelieved
in the ideal of moral fellowship and thought of a cooperative and decentralised civil society where individuals could
exercisefullcontroloftheirowndailyactivities.(McDonald5859)

Thelandnationalisationmovement
The roots of the British land nationalisation movement, which strongly influenced the mainstream tradition of late
Victorian socialism, can be sought in the activity of Thomas Spence (17501814), a selftaught militant, who devoted
mostofhisadultlifetovariousformsofpoliticalagitation.Inthe1770s,hearguedthatalllandmustbeownednotby
individuals but by parochial corporations. (Parssinnen 135) In the early 1800s Spence became the leader of a group of
radicalswhoadvocatedsocialrevolutioninBritain.AfterhisdeaththeradicalfollowersofSpenceformedtheSocietyof
Spencean Philanthropists (1815). Its members gathered secretly in small groups in alehouses and discussed Spence's
socialist agrarian plan and the best way of achieving an equal society. They also distributed tracts, pamphlets,
broadsheets,postersandpoemsandmetaltokensadvertisingSpence'sideas(Benchimol153).
LandreformwasoneofthehottestissuesamongBritishradicalsandsocialreformersfromthe1860suntilWorld
War One. In midVictorian England, James Bronterre O'Brien (180564), a Chartist leader and workingclass reformer,
proposed a scheme for government purchase of land and then its redistribution by rental. (Bronstein 107) O'Brien's
followers,groupedintheNationalReformLeague,continuedtopropagatetheideaoflandnationalisationafterhisdeath
in 1864. The Land and Labour League, that grew out of the National Reform League in 1869, advanced a programme
thatcalledforlandnationalisation,butitmadelittlepublicimpact.
In late Victorian England, Alfred Russel Wallace, the codiscoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of natural
selection,revivedthelandnationalisationmovement.Wallacebelievedthatlandshouldbeownedbythestateandleased
topeople.In1881,hewaselectedasthefirstpresidentofLandNationalisationSociety,whichdevisedaplanofState
ownedandleasedlands.Wallace'sviewoflandreformwasclosetothespiritofHenryGeorge'streatise,Progress and
Poverty(1879),whichpromotedasingleprogressivetaxonlandvaluesinordertoreduceeconomicinequality.
TheLandNationalisationSocietyandtheSocialDemocraticFederationgaveafullsupporttolandnationalisation
programmes.TheLandRestorationLeagueandtheLandReformUnion(LRU),alsoadvocatedstatelandappropriation.
AlltheseschemesstrengthenedthelandnationalisationmovementinlateVictorianBritainandarousedanawarenessfor
theneedoflandreform.Wallace'saswellasGeorge'sideasoflandreformwereapprovedbylabourunionsandinspired
boththeLiberalandLabourPartiestoformapolicyoflandredistributionattheturnofthe19thcentury.

TheLabourChurch
ThelasttwodecadesoftheVictorianeraalsosawtheemergenceoftheLabourChurch,whichwasstartedinManchester
in1891byaUnitarianminister,JohnTrevor(18551930),andhadadistinctsocialistmessage.TheLabourChurchsoon
becameanationwidemovementandclaimed100churcheswithcongregationsbetween200and500.(Worley154)The
conferenceheldatBradfordin1893toformtheIndependentLabourPartywasaccompaniedbyaLabourChurchservice
which was attended by 5,000 people. However, the Labour Church movement began to fade after 1900. At the annual
conference of 1909, held in AshtonunderLyne, the name Labour Church was changed to Socialist Church, but by the
beginningofWorldWarItherecentlyrenamedLabourChurchhaddisappeared.

Conclusion
The term socialism was generally synonymous in Victorian Britain with social reform, collectivism, communitarianism
andimprovementoflivingconditionsoftheworkingclassanditdidnotbearstrongMarxistconnotations.Infact,few
people were interested in socialist revolution in Victorian Britain, but quite a great number were fascinated by the
mystical features of socialism. Unlike Marxism, which criticised liberal democracy and advocated revolutionary class
struggle, the main strands of Victorian socialism can be characterised by ethical, nonMarxian, anticapitalist outlook
whichcombinedtraditionalEnglishradicalismwithtraditionalEnglishrespectfordemocracy.
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Bevir,Mark.TheMakingofBritishSocialism.Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,2011.
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Britain,Ian.FabianismandCulture:AStudyofBritishSocialismandtheArts18841918.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity
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