The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-02-19
REMARKABLE PROPHECY.
Made by Fourier, in 1905. Now
Being Fulfilled-Read and
Reflect.

(The following Is copied from the re-
cent work. Brook Farm" by John T.
Goldman, in the appendix, page 331. Arena
Publishing Co.. Boston, so cents.)
A prophecy from the introduction to
Forier's Theory of Social Organization" ;"
translated by Albert Brisbane
among the influences tending to re-
strict mans industrial rights / will men
ton the formation Of privileged corpora
tions, which, monOpoiZing a given branch
Of industry, arbitrarily close the doors of
labor against whomsoever they please
These corporations will become danger
ous,, and lead to new commissions, on be-
ing extended to the whole industrial and
commercial system
This event is not far distant, and it
will be brought about all the more easily
as it is not apprehended. The greatest
evils have often sprung from impercepti-
Bile germs, as. for instance. Jacobinisn
and if our civilization has enSendered
this, and so many other calamities, may it
not engender others which we do not now
forsee?
THE most imminent of these is the
birth of commercial feudalism. or the
monopoly of commerce and industry by
joint stock companies legalized together
for the purpose of usurping and controll-
ing all branches of industrial OrganiZa
tlOns. Extremes meet and the greater
the extent to which anarchical cOmpeti-
ton is carried the nearer the approach
to universal monopoly which is the oppo-
site excess.
circumstances are tending toward the
organization of the commercial and indus
trial classes into federal companies or
affiliated monOpolies, which, operating in
conjunction with the great landed inter-
est, will reduce the middle and laboring
classes to a state OF commercial VaSsal-
age; and by the influence of combined
action. become the masters of the prOduc-
operators will be reduced to the position
of mere agents. working for the mercan-
tile coalition. We shall then see the re-
appearance of feudalism in an inverse
order founded on mercantile leagues and
answering to the baronial leagues of the
middle ages.
Everything is concurring to produce
this result The spirit of commercial
speculation and financial monopoly has
extended to all classes. Public opinion
prostrates itself before the bankers and
financiers who share authority with the
government and devise every day new
means for the monopoly and control Of
industry
I'VE are marching with rapid strides
toward commercial feudalism. and to
the fourth phase of our civilization. The
economist, accustomed to reverence
everything which comes in the name and
under the sanction of commerce, will see
this new order spring up without alarm,
and will consecrate their servle pens to
the celebration of its praises. Its debut
will be one Of brilliant promise but the
result will be an industrial inquisition
subordinating the whole people to the in
tereStS of the affiliated monOpOlistS.
Albert Brisbane prefaces this wonderful
prophecy by these remarks:
''In 1866. amid the pre-occupation of
war and military politics, he NoureD
foresaw and described with accuracy the
formation OF joint stock companies, des-
tined to monopolize and control all
branches of industry, commerce and fl
nance and establish what he called AN
industrial and commercial feudalism'
feudalism that would control society by
the power of capital as did the old bar
onial or military feudalsm by the power
of the sword, and as despotically.'