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THE TRANSITION FROM THE UTOPISTS TO MODERN SOCIALISM
OF the Socialist thinkers who serve as 218 a kind of link between the Utopists and the school of the Socialism of historical evolution, or scientific Socialists, by far the most noteworthy figure is Proudhon, who was born at Besançon in 1809. By birth he belonged to the working class, his father being a brewer's cooper, and he himself as a youth followed the occupation of cowherding.
In 1838, however, he published an essay on general grammar, and in 1839 he gained a scholarship to be held for three years, a gift of one Madame Suard to his native town. The result of this 219 advantage was his most important though far from his most voluminous work, published the same year as the essay which. Madame Suard’s scholars were bound to write: it bore the title of What is Property? (Quest-ce que la propriété?) his answer being, Property is Robbery (La propriété est le vol).
As may be imagined, this remarkable essay caused much stir and indignation, and Proudhon was censured by the Besançon Academy for its production, narrowly escaping a prosecution. In 1841 he was tried at Besançon for a letter he wrote to Victor Considérant, the Fourierist, but was acquitted. In 1846 he wrote his Philosophie de la Misère (Philosophy of Poverty), which received an elaborate reply and refutation from Karl Marx.