Chapter 11 Appendix II ① The Historical Significance of "Utopia"

V.P. Walkin Thomas More, the humanist and darling of London's merchants, Lord Chancellor of the Kingdom of England and author of the wonderful collection of dialogues promoting a social system based on the principle of communal property, is the most notable of the complicated sixteenth century. One of the representative figures. In his thoughts, it seems to reflect all the contradictions of that era concentratedly, and constitute a unique and unified ideological system. This era is the era when capitalism is being born, and capitalism at this time is breaking through. The siege of feudal relations has grown by leaps and bounds, with the germs of new social antagonisms that are characteristic of capitalism. More's "On the Most Perfect State System", which is known for short as ② The pamphlet, whose far-reaching influence is rarely found in political and social literature. It is no wonder that this title has become a certain

① Translated from EFGHIJ from the Russian translation (ToMacMop,) published by the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1953. ——Translator ② The word Utopia is composed of the Greek words "no" and "place", meaning "the land of nothingness". Later, the word became a general term. Moore's title was originally Nusqama (from the Latin nusquam - "nowhere"). The title "Utopia" first appeared in a letter to Erasmus, November 12, 1516. —Translator Literary form is synonymous with utopian novels. No wonder it is associated with the whole ideological trend of so-called utopian socialism and became the starting point of this ideological trend. It is very likely that when Moore summed up his own life experience, he believed that the meaning of Not as much as his Chancellorship, or his struggle against the Reformation. When we reread it four hundred years after More's victimization (he was executed in 1535), we feel more We are more interested in other aspects of his activity, first of all because he is the author of this wonderful collection of dialogues. It is the first book to formulate certain principles characteristic of utopian socialism. This It is the reason for its enduring appeal. If there were elements of socialism in the ancient world, we mean: consumer communism, the idea of ​​communal property in the early stages of human society, and vague ideas about organizing public production, etc. However, all these are just vague words, only sporadic ideas, not yet coherent into a unified system. When we study related literature, we should pay attention to these ideological factors. The humanist More was very familiar with Plato and other Greek These ideas are reflected in the works of these people. Moore mentioned the mythical "communism" of the early Christian communes.Undoubtedly, More took advantage of such themes and created a new and well-thought-out system, the

①The early Christian communes that believed in Jesus the Savior were obviously formed in Asia Minor and Alexandria (Egypt). There is no scientific basis for Christianity’s claim that these early communes were produced in Palestine. The Christian communes established in the Roman Empire These communes were religious groups. The organization of the early Christian communes was very simple. The members held a general meeting and set up a public meal. In ancient Christian literature, only the sentiment of rebellion is reflected: hatred of Rome, anticipation of the rapid collapse of the world empire, Waiting for "the end of the world"

, held the "last judgment" and established the kingdom of God by Jesus. Later, the faction that called for laborers to be gentle and docile gradually gained the upper hand in Christianity in the middle of the second century. ——Translator What cannot be produced by slavery culture. As a complete ideological system, utopian socialism can only be produced in the new era on the basis laid by the development of capitalist relations. The credit for the earliest elaboration of this system should be Literary Forms Attributed to More (Tale of a Travel to a Strange Country) It is very similar to the novels of the travel genre in the late ancient Greece. This form maintained its vitality until the nineteenth century (such as Cabet's "Icaria Travels").But in no other period of history is this form necessarily more palatable to society than in More's time, since it was written under conditions in which geographical discovery had begun but was far from being completed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Some books published not long before, such as "Introduction to Cosmography" in 1507 or "New World" in 1511, Moore has read, which no one doubts. The book not only inspired More to adopt this literary form, but also provided him with the material to develop the theme: stories about the lives of native Americans and West Indians who "know what is between yours and mine." the difference"

, they shared land as common property, and despised gold and jewels... The fact that More makes one of Amerigo Vespucci's traveling companions the center of his dialogue seems to further illustrate the Connections of Works. Form is perfectly suited to the level that More's social and political thought could achieve under the conditions of the early sixteenth century. The Communist Manifesto speaks of the great Utopian of the early nineteenth century "This imaginary project of future society arose when the proletariat was still very underdeveloped... and out of the first foreboding impulse of the proletariat for a general transformation of society"

①. The estimation made by Marx and Engels on the conditions for the generation of imaginary future social projects is not only applicable to the era of Saint-Simon and Fourier, but also applicable to the era of More. Although More was a genius, although he saw social contradictions, and these contradictions provoked his severe reproaches, but he did not perceive in the society around him the germs of the only force capable of abolishing these contradictions. The necessary premise of class, the time to produce scientific socialism has not yet come. "Fantasy program" Under the conditions of Moore at that time, it was the only possible means to express his bold social thoughts. The basic content of the first part was a conversation about the basic political and social systems of European countries in Moore's time. In the conversation, The traveler Hisrad—he represents the author's point of view—sharply criticized the absolute monarchy system that had reached its peak in Britain at that time. His country was ravaged, and his own people were made miserable. He pointed out that the monarch ruthlessly exploited his subjects for self-interest, regardless of the correct principle of governance that the ruler must care about the happiness and protection of the subjects. Hissrad asserted that, The people elect their rulers for their own sake, and not for their own sake. The honor and safety of a prince lie in the happiness of his people. But these sound principles are ignored in the king's court. The king's counselors are flattering , can always find one or another justification for those resolutions intended to exploit the people, who tell the king various ways of increasing exploitation ... They concocted a "theory" for the sake of convenience

, said the king never ① "The Complete Works of Marx and Engels", People's Publishing House, 1958 edition, Volume 4, p. 501. Will not do unjust things, because everything in the country, including the people, belongs to the king; the common people can have property only because of "the king's favor" , did not get their share of their property back. They also made a lot of fallacies on the theory that poverty would instill habits of patience in the people and ensure the tranquility of society. On the contrary, poverty is always the source of disturbance. : Those who are most inclined to revolution are those who are dissatisfied with the current system. A king should admit that he is incapable of governing if his rule makes it difficult for the people to live. However, the kings are most concerned about how to use legal and illegitimate means to annex new kingdoms, rather than how to properly govern the already acquired kingdoms. For the sake of war, every country has a large number of idlers, these people can not do any peaceful labor, and despise the working people. Hisslad Said to the Englishman with whom he spoke: "Anyway, it seems to me that it is not conducive to the welfare of society to keep a large number of such disturbers in order to meet emergency wars. If you don't want wars, there will never be wars. And what you should pay more attention to is peace, not war."

More also, through the mouth of Hisrad, exposed with equal firmness and frankness the most frightening virus in domestic social relations. ".The nobles are like drones, doing nothing all day long, forcing the tenant farmers on their farms to work for them. In order to increase their income, the nobles hunt down the simple people. The people work hard to feed both the nobles and their servants. More like this After pointing out the basic contradictions of the British feudal system that had not been eradicated in the early sixteenth century, he then pointed out with particular emphasis the new ugly features of the feudal relationship at that time, which were produced by the process of primitive accumulation of capital that had emerged The first part of the .. describes how English farmers were dispossessed of their land under the influence of the development of sheep-breeding - a major event in the development of capitalist relations, which is described in almost all works on sixteenth-century England. This matter. Marx quoted the words twice when he talked about the process of primitive accumulation in Chapter 24 of Volume 1 of "Das Kapital". Hisrad said: "Your sheep have always been so tame and so easy to feed. It is said that Now become so rapacious and so ferocious that it cannibalizes and ravages your fields, your homes and your cities to ruins."

This joking accusation was only the beginning, and he then proceeded to an extremely deep and nuanced, angry analysis of the causes and consequences of farmers losing their land. The increase in the quantity of wool and the increase in the price of wool. In this way, the big landowners were able to convert their land from farming to sheep farming, so as to increase their income. After finding this way of increasing income, they began to convert all their lands into pastures, drove out the tenant farmers, and turned all the villages into barren land. They used deception or violence to force all landed farmers to have to Sell ​​your property at a low price and leave your long-standing place, because sheep farming is not like farming, and it doesn't need so many people. The money gained was spent; their labor was not wanted by anyone, and they were forced to live as beggars or as thieves. The peasants grew poorer and poorer, while those The poor who made the garments were getting poorer. All business with wool fell into the hands of a wealthy few, who manipulated the market at their will, looking out for their own interests, without regard for the lives of others. Therefore, as a result of the few People's insatiable greed, what would have been beneficial to the country has become harmful to the country. Hisrad said that the government should stop the rich from running amok and force them to restore their farmland and villages so that the poor can come back and continue to work in agriculture and wool processing. However, instead of taking any measures to eliminate the source of the scourge, the government uses all kinds of harsh legal measures to deal with the poor who have lost the opportunity to work honestly and have to wander and steal. Although Heathrad pointed out that way the government should go, but he did not believe that any sensible advice would lead the government to follow it. In another place he said that the state was "nothing but a consort of rich men who have misappropriated the name of the state for their own benefit." ".

Wise counsel cannot change the opinion of these people about the king's policy, for it suits their taste and desire. The king and his counselors are stuck in the old ways, and are always resistant to everything new. They have been full of Prejudice, it is impossible to correctly understand the reasoning of the philosophers. The man who spoke to Hislad suggested that he serve a king, and he replied: "If I make a beneficial statement to a certain king, and completely wipe out his soul Don't you think I'm going to be thrown out or ridiculed at once, because of the poison on my body?"

Thus, Hisrad denies the possibility of reform from above, but he does not point to a revolutionary reform program to the contrary. However, it must be noted that there is a place in his argument that seems to refer in passing to "the oppressed "The spirit of rebellion" is a "noble" spirit. More not only analyzed the individual shortcomings of the social system, but also discussed partial measures to eliminate these shortcomings. Through the analysis of some evils, he thought he had found the root of all social evils This source is the rule of private property. The last few pages of the first part, dealing with private property, are not only literary but also logically the central point of the whole book. These pages summarize the above-mentioned criticism of the British social system and become the following description. The rationale for an ideal social system. Hithlade asserts that under a private system there can be neither justice nor social peace. Under a private system, each individual takes as much as he can. Regardless of social wealth How many, it always falls into the hands of a few; the fate of the rest is nothing but poverty. They are not people who work for their own self-interest. To establish a just order, private ownership must be completely abolished. More believes that all limited reforms are only palliative measures and cannot cure social diseases. The Utopian system is the opposite of that of European countries , it is a system without private ownership. Such a comparison, in itself, is not new in socio-political writings; The given task is to explain in detail: how to organize social production according to the principle of equality without private ownership. Both the formulation of this task and the way Moore solves this task require great originality. In this regard, he has nothing to learn from his predecessors. Utopian society is an economically unified body. The highest organ of the country—the Senate—collects statistics on all products produced in various regions, and reorganizes products when necessary. Distribution. All land in Utopia is common property. The state can transfer labor from A to B. Foreign trade is also managed by the state. However, the direct organizer of production is not the whole country, but the city. What More said The country is like an alliance of cities. The basic economic unit of Utopia is the family. Each family is engaged in certain handicraft production. The production work of the family is supervised by the state officials; all the products produced by the family are handed over to the state. In essence, it is a public workshop. One point should be added: this kind of family is not necessarily a natural family based on blood relationship. It can even be considered that the basic symbol of this kind of family is not blood relationship, but economic union. A Children who do not wish to take up handicraft work of the kind employed by the family may be transferred to other families according to the occupation of their choice. In this way, members of the same family may live in different families, since each family has only Ability to work in a craft. The size of a family exceeds the economicThe state can transfer its citizens from one family to another when it is economically necessary. It is not difficult to understand how this organization of cottage industry production arose in Utopia. The true model of this organization of production is undoubtedly medieval handicrafts. In commerce Under the influence of capital, this handicraft industry has undergone great changes in More's time. We may say that More has restored this handicraft system in a certain sense, but lost its last additions. But here, the destructive effect of capital is not simply eliminated, but replaced by the beneficial leadership of the country. It goes without saying that the restored handicraft system is not exactly the same as the real situation in history, but according to the author The general intention of the society is idealized. But through its idealized shape, after all, its original appearance can still be seen. The whole utopian society is almost without exception included in the cottage industry system. A citizen, as long as he is the same as the family If there is a connection, he has a relationship with the handicraft industry. Every citizen learns a craft, and handicraft labor is almost the basic occupation of his life. In Utopia, agriculture is not a profession. This is a unique insight of More, and it is also a utopian system. One of the most noticeable features in Utopia. In Utopia, agriculture is highly valued, but agricultural work is organized on the principle of compulsory labor. Everyone must do agricultural work for two years. Only those who are particularly fond of rural life , and sometimes you can apply for an extension of the two-year period. It can be seen that there is no real countryside in Utopia. There are only farms in the countryside. People come here from the city to work for a period of time, and then return to the city from here after the expiration of the period. , continue to engage in their own basic work. The basic residential area of ​​all citizens and the organizational center of all kinds of work is the city, and the city has fixed areas that can be used for agricultural work. In this way, in the first modern socialist work The problem of the abolition of the antagonism between town and country was already raised in the 1990s, although the method was very primitive. Everything produced by handicrafts and agriculture is the property of the whole society. Citizens receive what they need from public warehouses or public markets. In various utopias later, we see various forms of distributing products to citizens: some adopt the principle of arithmetic mean, some adopt the principle of payment according to work, and some adopt the principle of distribution according to needs. Moore The last form is practiced in Utopia, which is also the most thorough one. Each parent receives as much product from society as he needs, and he will never fail to get what he needs. More has understood The premise of this "on-demand" distribution is the abundance of products. With abundant products, "you don't have to worry about someone asking for more than you need."He is sure that there will be such a rich product in Utopia. Our understanding of society's transition to the advanced stage of communism is related to the development of productive forces. Only "when everyone is fully developed" , and the productive forces have grown accordingly, when all sources of collective wealth have fully sprung up—only then can the narrow vision of bourgeois rights be completely overcome, and society can write on its banner: "All Allocate as much as you can!" ① Moore did not have the idea that productivity can grow rapidly. At the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when More lived, the meaning of technological progress was still very weak in economic life. We have no See what is particularly superior about the technological basis of Utopian society. But More is convinced that, in the case of a limited six-hour working day, all public ① See "The Complete Works of Marx and Engels", People's Publishing House, 1963 edition, Vol. 19, p. 23. People live in abundance. Moore demonstrates that this affluence, under constant technical conditions, is due to the complete eradication of parasitism in Utopia. Moore is a direct forerunner of Fourier in commenting on social parasitism and its significance In Fourier's theory, we know that the problem of parasitism occupies an important position. There is no doubt that Fourier developed his basic thesis on this issue according to the situation in the nineteenth century. Servants and beggars are regarded as parasites. He also includes all people who produce luxuries and women in this category; he believes that women's labor is either completely unreasonable or completely unused. persons engaged in other activities, and only so long as they are actually engaged in work recognized as beneficial. For example, officials of the state are not engaged in manual labor; Physical labor. If after a certain period of time, these young people fail to meet expectations, they will be transferred back to manual work. Conversely, if any citizen who is engaged in physical labor shows a talent for intellectual activities, he will be relieved of manual labor and let He engages in intellectual labor. The problem of so-called "unpleasant" labor is very difficult to solve due to the extreme lack of ideas of technical progress. This problem was a stumbling block for almost all utopians until the nineteenth century There are two ways to solve this problem. One way is to find a group of citizens who happen to have a special interest in this kind of work. For example, Fourier Yue, children are interested in doing this kind of work, so he organized Get up and take up jobs that adults hate. The second route is: through certain forms of organization of forced labor. To solve the problem, More has adopted both methods. In Utopia there is a kind of people who are motivated by religion As a special form of service to society. But this is not enough. Then, in Utopia, a special social class appears, the existence of this class seems to be consistent with More's theory of socialism. The general spirit is contrary. However, from Moore's point of view, this kind of people is not only necessary in his ideal society, but also a step forward compared with the social environment he was in at that time. This class This is what is called a slave. A "slave" in Utopia is essentially a person who has been sentenced to lifelong forced labor. Slaves come from two sources—captive or judged. People in other countries will be sentenced to death. Moreover, the Utopians never use the death penalty for free citizens in their own country. They also buy people who have been sentenced to death in neighboring countries. It is not difficult to understand why More thinks Utopian "slavery" is a good thing, because this system was proposed in response to the inhumanity of the British court judgments in More's era. Most of More's predecessors first understood the commons as the commons of consumer goods. However, we see , in Moore's viewIn his mind, the central idea is the commonality of production. Of course, Moore is not against collective consumption, on the contrary, he is clearly in favor of it. However, he has shown great tolerance and a pragmatic attitude on this issue. Obviously he understand that what is fundamental in social relations is determined by the organization of production, not by the organization of consumption. Thus we see in Utopia communal dining halls, where the vast majority of citizens eat. Food can be obtained from the public market. There is no harm in solitary association, so Moore permits it. A solitary thought in the treatment of houses and land would shake the foundations of society greatly. Ideas do grow. Therefore, More stipulates that the houses and gardens of Utopia must be redistributed every ten years. It can be seen that More's solution to these specific problems is subordinate to the highest social interest, that is, to maintain the social system of Utopia. Basic principles. The description of the political system of Utopia has great historical significance. All officials of Utopia are elected by the citizens. ) was elected by the protégé Grant. This democratic management system is in sharp contrast to the political reality of More’s era, because More’s era was the era of the development and consolidation of autocracy, and the principle at that time was Officials are all delegated from above. The educational system of Utopia is equally democratic in character, where all children, male and female, are educated in society, both in books and in practical work—in handicrafts and agriculture. Higher Education The form of organization is the social training class, where all young people who plan to engage in scientific activities must study here. At the same time, manual laborers can also participate. The book can have these democratic characteristics, taking the ideological level of the sixteenth century as an example. Rarely. As a thinker, More occupies a special place in the history of social thought, and he bequeathed to posterity the first fully thought-out project of a socialist society—although in this project we Many features of utopianism can be found, which reflect the insufficient level of economic development in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Another aspect of the book that is equally significant is that in the argument for socialist principles The method used. In the second half of the Middle Ages, we know that there were many social movements that demanded "community" of property written on their banners. All of these movements had a fairly overtly religious overtone. Commons was promoted by the promoters of these movements as "God's law" , private ownership was denounced as illegal, as a "crime".Moore was the first to strip off "Common Ownership" The person with the religious shell is the first to demonstrate "co-ownership" from a rational point of view He thinks that the Utopian system is the best system, because it is the wisest and most appropriate system for the interests of people's earthly life. God has ordained that people live according to the laws of nature. Therefore, the laws of nature must be followed. Requirements, use reason to judge: what should be pursued and what should be avoided, so as not to hinder the greatest happiness because of the smallest happiness. People are born to enjoy happiness. It is stupid to practice hard and give up the joy of life. Nature is to live happily, that is to say, regard enjoyment as the ultimate goal of all our actions; virtue is to live according to the requirements of nature. However, in order to better arrange a happy life, reason and nature tell people: Help each other. Therefore, people should pursue their own interests without harming the interests of others. Utopian public morals and public laws on wealth distribution are based on this reasonable principle. No wonder More believes that Nowhere is there such a noble people, such a happy country. More also attaches great importance to the religion of Utopia. Everything that humanist reason considers superfluous. It is very interesting that More even introduced the system of electing priests in Utopia, which was seriously contrary to tradition when the religious reformation was just beginning. Generally speaking, the religions that dominate in Utopia enshrine what must be sanctified from the ethical and political viewpoints of rationalist humanism. Everything outside this scope is the responsibility of individual citizens. As long as it does not harm the society, it can be tolerated. If it harms the society, it is not treated as a heresy, but as a violation of the correct social moral principles. Similarly, anyone who does not believe in the destiny and the immortality of the soul will be punished Public condemnation is distrusted because, according to Utopians, they have lost an important incentive for allegiance to public order. More's rationalistic formulation represents a long-gone period in the history of socialist thought. stage. However, with the development of history, the progressive meaning of utopian socialism is gradually disappearing. In the utopian system of the nineteenth century, the rationalistic elements were already reactionary things, while anarchists put these elements It remained until the twentieth century. At the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, rationalism meant that social thought got rid of the blindness of religion, and thus played a progressive role. The idea that people follow the requirements of rational nature, and even his utilitarianism, had great revolutionary significance at the time. Although More made concessions to the old things, although he, like most humanists, tried to reconcile Religion and reason, but he was still an honorable soldier in the struggle for a new secular worldview. How could the early sixteenth century have produced such a marvelous work?Under what kind of social influence was this work formed?Even as a humanist, More is a person with an extremely broad field of thinking. He not only received a good classical education, but also has a wealth of practical experience and an extremely keen insight into the surrounding social phenomena. He was in the first In one part, he wrote in an extremely powerful literary style the strongest impression he got from observing social phenomena. This is about the transformation of the land system and the impression of the peasants losing their land. Among the peasant masses of this era, we can conclude that, There is only a vague sense of dissatisfaction without any clear social ideals. Of course, this may also be that we do not have enough material, because the way the lower classes express their social desires is not necessarily what historians believe. Understandable. It was a hundred and fifty years later, during the period of the English Revolution, that we saw a small movement in the English countryside under the slogan "Common", the so-called Diggers' movement. Mo It is the great merit of Err that, under the influence of the discontent of the poor countryside, he was able to use his humanistic learning to formulate a social program incomparably higher than the level of social consciousness of the proletarianized peasants themselves. If it is said that the basic driving force is the suffering of the masses caused by the process of primitive accumulation in the countryside, then there is no doubt that in formulating the various institutions of Utopia, it is mainly based on the situation of urban handicrafts. Therefore, the grassroots economy of Utopia The unit has the character of a cottage industry; Utopia is thus urbanized in structure, agricultural production is organized in a particular way, it is a temporary obligation of the inhabitants (essentially city dwellers), etc. These aspects of Utopia The emergence of characteristics is quite natural. There are many facts in history that prove the connection between the humanists and the advanced elements of the artisanal class. More himself came from an old urban family. It is incomparably higher than the backwardness of the countryside. The humanist intellectuals represented by More are historically related to the newly emerging bourgeois social relations. Due to the special combination of objective situation and subjective conditions, At the dawn of bourgeois society, when he saw signs that this society was going to rule, he could not only treat the principles of this society with a critical attitude, but also put forward social equality for these principles. ① One of the most radical factions in the era of the British bourgeois revolution in the seventeenth century, representing the interests of farmers and farm laborers with little land. The Diggers put forward the original "equality communism" idea, requiring laborers to share all land equally. ——Translator and shared principles. Of course, the "best" social project formulated by this talented single-handed thinker is impossible to realize. More did not set himself such a task. Although not like some bourgeois It is an empty pastime literature of More, as scholars say, but it is not a program of action either. Only when the idea of ​​socialism is combined with the class struggle of the proletariat in Marx's doctrine of genius, only when this idea It was only when the broad working masses were united around it that socialism passed from fantasy to a real force in life. Among the first prophets of the principle of communal property, however, More occupied an extremely important place. Until the eighteenth century Until the time of the French bourgeois revolution, there was no comparable work in the history of socialist thought. More is fully qualified to be called the originator of utopian socialism and one of the greatest representatives of utopian socialism. Translated by the Compilation Office of Renmin University of China