Robert Owen

Robert Owen ( born May 14, 1771 in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales, † November 17, 1858 ) was a British businessman and early socialist. He is considered the founder of the cooperative system.

Life and work

Owen was born the son of a saddler in the commercial city of Newtown. Although his family was relatively well off, Owen was able to attend school only until age 10. He worked as an apprentice in a textile shop and later settled in Manchester.

Owen worked his way up to plant manager in the cotton industry up. Early on, he worked on the social conditions of industrial work and resulted in 1799 in his cotton mill in New Lanark (Scotland ) an experiment for humane working conditions. He tried to prove that the wage slavery and oppression of the workers is not a prerequisite for an effective production. Therefore, he shortened the working hours to 10.5 hours compared to the then customary 13 to 14 hours in the other factories. He taught medical and pension annuities one, he built tolerable dwellings and admitted Lease incentives. The daily consumer goods were traded at low, but profitable prices. The trade of alcohol has been restricted at the factory site. Especially much did Owen for the children and banned child labor under ten years.

The measure also showed him great success: The productivity in the factory increased dramatically, the number of thefts decreased, punishments within the factory were no longer necessary. The success was also due to the technical skill Owens in New Lanark new production techniques were introduced which could not yet implement the competition.

The factory became a model operation, even princes and politicians visited. For example, included the Tsar Nicholas I and the Austrian Prince John and Maximilian to visitors. Alone 1815-1825 contributed to 20,000 persons in the guestbook. Even the royal house of Saxony was informed by his English legation about Owens concepts. Jeremy Bentham was a shareholder in the company. Many ideas that had Owen in New Lanark and implemented, are now taken for granted in the developed world. These include: elimination of child labor, children's education, working time restrictions, efficient organization of the activities, motivation of employees, clean jobs, trade union education, cooperative system, etc.

1825 Owen sold the factory and went to the United States in order to establish his utopian colony of New Harmony designed cooperative. The settlement had been sold to him by Johann Georg Rapp. The experiment failed quickly. Owen returned to England in 1829. The increasing strength of the unions now took up his ideas of the cooperative.

In England continued Owen continues his work to alleviate poverty of the population. He saw the solution in a trading system that is based on the labor factor of production - and thus should provide adequate remuneration of the workers. He founded with followers in 1832 a commodity exchange, the eintauschte goods against a specially work out given money. But the system could not exist with the conventional monetary system. The London Stock Exchange was closed again as early as 1833, a second exchange in Birmingham could survive only a few months.

Works

German editions:

• The social system. Edited by Liane Jauch and Marie -Luise Romans. Translated by Michael Hensel man. Reclam, Leipzig 1988. ISBN 3-379-00265-8
• A new concept of society: Selected texts. Edited and introduced by Lola tooth. Translated by Regine Thiele and Lola tooth. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1989.