great thinkers, great ideas

216 Economic Theory; An Introduction

with this system which encouraged pride in performance, pro­
duced not only happy workers, but huge profits. The Japanese
factory system today employs a similar system to prod employ­
ees to produce more and better products.
The success of New Lanark encouraged Owen to plan for
more Utopian communities. He was certain that with the proper
guidelines and with adequate controls a series of ideal commu­
nities could be implanted throughout England. He petitioned
Parliament with his plans for Villages of Cooperation, indepen­
dent, self-sufficient planned communities to be built according
to his Utopian ideal. Reaction to this Utopian scheme was
negative. Owen the reformer was respected and admired. Owen
the Utopian, worried people with his rigid plans, unbending
rules, and hostility to religion and the family. Many considered
the cost to human freedom too great to justify the implementa­
tion of his plans.
Owen however, was determined to implement his plans for
his Utopian experiment. He sold the mills at New Lanark and set
about organizing his ideal community in America. He bought
thirty thousand acres of land in Indiana in 1825 and named the
new community New Harmony. Within three years the commu­
nity was determined to be an unequivocal failure. The commu­
nity at New Harmony attracted a group of misfits and freeloaders
who saw the experiment as an opportunity to get something for
nothing. He lost most of his money, but none of his enthusiasm
for reform. He returned to England where he continued to rail
against injustice and work for economic reform.
He put his foreign experiment behind him, and once back in
England he attempted to establish Villages of Cooperation,
producers’ cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, and exchange
cooperatives where money was not allowed. Generally all of his
attempts failed with the exception of consumer cooperatives,
which had a modest success. His dreams of Utopian communi­
ties continued to be thwarted so he moved, with equal passion,
from one reform movement to another. His final attempt on a
grand scale was with the Grand National Moral Union of the
Productive and Useful Classes.
The Grand National was a trade union, brought about in large
measure by Owen’s enthusiastic efforts, which sought to unite