THE MAN OF AFFAIRS
piness more complete. ‘I had promised myself,’ he told Bergmann,
‘that my situation would change before my father’s death, in such
a way that the poor old man would carry with him in dying the
satisfaction o f his son reaching a respectable position. Heaven
disposed otherwise, and I felt greatly mortified.’ But to Acker
mann (himself marked to die of consumption before the year was
out) he confessed the sense of liberation which this event also
brought him. He had abandoned now any idea of returning to live
in the Franche-Comte, and ‘for the consideration o f a small living
allowance I make to that dear woman (bis mother), I am as free as
if I were absolutely alone in the world and without family con
nections, like grandfather Melchisedek.’7
From the latter part of 1843 until the autumn of 1846, Proudhon
was working continuously on Contradictions Economiques, and
directly or indirectly almost all his activities seemed to have a
bearing on his literary work. His experiences as a transport clerk,
his meetings with the orthodox economists, his philosophical dis
cussions with the German socialists, his collaboration with the
Mutualist workers of Lyons, and his critical observation o f the
French socialist theoreticians, all went to influence the contents
and mould the form of this book, which he imagined would
become his definitive masterpiece.
By March, 1846, his work was far enough advanced for a draft
to be handed to Guillaumin. The latter seems to have been dis
concerted by Proudhon’s attacks on the orthodox political econo
mists, for on the 4th April the author penitently promised to
change any passages that might offend. ‘I will profit by your
warning,’ he added, ‘for, as I have said many times, nobody is
more convinced than I o f the probity, honour and virtues of the
economists I have had the occasion to meet.’ But when Guil-
laumin’s objections continued, Proudhon reacted in stubborn
protest. ‘You insist on seeing in my book nothing but a kind of
satire on political economy; you will be completely surprised
when, in the end, except for a few explanations which our century
must be given, you will see there, fundamentally, only its
apotheosis.’
Despite his doubts, Guillaumin found the manuscript suffi-