CO-OPERATIVE VENTURES 223
from des ésprits d'élite and preferably from a dictator, not from
the masses. There were significant differences between Weitling's
Tauschbank and Proudhon's People's Bank, but these need not be
developed in detail here, except to say that Proudhon's plan to
establish free credit embraced all classes, including capitalists and
owners who could borrow credit gratuit from his bank, whereas
Weitling's plan limited participation strictly to workers engaged
in useful, productive labor and service to society. Incidentally,
when Proudhon presented his proposal to the French National
Assembly, to which he had been elected after the Revolution of
1848, his plan to supersede the Bank of France with a system of
free credit through a Peoples' Bank received just two votes.^1
Weitling believed he had evolved something greatly superior
to the schemes of Proudhon, Fourier, Owen, and Cabet. Louis
Blanc's national workshops, he felt, were mere "regulators" of
the social system, whereas the national storehouses which he ad
vocated would be the real "spring," and his new paper currency
"the pivot," of a completely revolutionary economic system. He
argued also that under his plan only land, houses, machines, and
a few other kinds of property which were absolutely indispensable
to society need become common property. The Tauschbank
would permit every individual to buy and work very much as he
was moved to do; yet at the same time each individual would help
to pay all individuals, and all individuals would help to pay each
individual.
Weitling was not deterred by some of the obvious criticisms
that could be made of his plan for banks of exchange. For exam
ple, if the bank paid in terms of the full time value of labor, what
would happen to products deposited by farmers, millers, butchers,
and bakers which were perishable and might not be sold immedi
ately? What would be the rate of compensation for a printer of
books who might be unemployed a large part of the time because
creative work was not produced as rapidly as expected or did not
(^1) See also J. Salwyn Schapiro, "Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Harbinger of Fas
cism," American Historical Review, L (1945), No. 4, pp. 714-37.