SOCAGE 



SOCIALISM 



541 



obstinate battle between the British under Sir 

 Hugh Gough and the Sikhs (q.v.), which put an 

 end to the first Sikh war. Pop. 4000. 

 Socage. See TENURE. 



Social Contract. See GOVERNMENT, ROUS- 

 SEAU, SOPHISTS. 



Socialism. As opinion is still so much divided 

 regarding the significance and tendency of social- 

 ism, it would not be advisable to attempt a pre- 

 liminary definition of the word. According to Mr 

 Holyoake (in his History of Co-operation), the 

 word originated in 1835 in connection with the 

 Association of all Classes of all Nations, founded in 

 that year by the socialist Robert Owen. The name 

 laid special emphasis on the necessity for social 

 reconstruction and renovation, as contrasted with 

 the political reforms which were then so much 

 agitated, and was therefore soon adopted as suit- 

 able and distinctive. It was borrowed by Reybaud, 

 An eminent French writer, in his Reformateurs 

 Modernes ( 1839), and gained a wide currency on the 

 European continent ; and it is now the recognised 

 name for a movement which has affected almost 

 every country of the civilised world. 



In this article our chief aim obviously is to 

 expound socialism as a historical phenomenon or 

 set of phenomena. But even in this sphere the 

 task is not without its difficulties, as there is little 

 agreement even with regard to the historical appli- 

 cation of the word. The application of words is 

 determined by nse and wont, and it cannot be said 

 that we yet have anything like a settled use and 

 wont to guide us in this matter. And the difficulty 

 is greatly aggravated by the fact that socialism 

 is a historical movement which is not complete. 

 Indeed, it is probably only in its earliest stage, and 

 what now strikes many observers as its most im- 

 portant features may prove to be merely passing 

 phases of a great world -historic development. 



The first difficulty that meets us lies in the 

 question whether socialism is an ancient or purely 

 modern phenomenon. If socialism be essentially 

 a form of communism, as is sometimes maintained 

 both by friends and opponents of the movement, 

 then it is simply a revival of one of the oldest 

 phenomena in history, the only novelties in it 

 being the modern facts by which it is alleged to 

 be justified or to which revolutionists seek to 

 adapt it. If so, the problem would be greatly 

 simplified, for the arguments against the practica- 

 bility of communism, grounded in human nature 

 and repeatedly brought out in history, are so 

 strong that tne identification of the socialistic 

 movement with it would be sufficient almost to 

 remove it from the region of serious discussion. 

 Again, if we regard socialism as a social and 

 economic system by which the individual is un- 

 duly subordinated to society, we must still pro- 

 nounce it to l>e an old phenomenon, because in many 

 primitive societies and in many ancient states, 

 lioth of Greece and Italy, the subordination of the 

 individual to the community in which he lived 

 was excessive. Or again, if we define socialism as 

 a systematic discontent and revolt against prevail- 

 ing economic conditions, the wide range of the 

 phenomenon at the present day may give it a 

 unique place in history ; but it cannot reasonably 

 be considered a new thing, as social discontent was 

 often strong even in old societies, and in a more 

 or less conscious form may be said to have existed 

 in every community from the beginning. The 

 great historic instances of such discontent are 

 found, at the declining period of the Greek and 

 Koman republics and during the economic changes 

 v/hich attended the fall of feudalism and of the 

 Catholic Church in so many countries of Europe. 

 The MUU periods were marked by far-reaching 



schemes of reform, and by books like the Republic 

 of Plato and the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, 

 which embodied the ideals of eminent thinkers. 

 Thus we see that dissatisfaction with the present 

 state of things and the longing for the ideal are 

 very old phenomena in the history of the world. 

 The same features are observable in the Hebrew 

 prophets who wrote during the declining period 

 of Jewish history. Lastly, should we grant that 

 socialism is simply a modern phase of the revolu- 

 tionary spirit, we should still require to know the 

 grounds and motives of it, as a revolution is only 

 the form assumed by the activity of a new force 

 which is powerful enough so to express itself. The 

 violent change called a revolution is one of the 

 oldest things in history ; and it really throws little 

 light on a movement when we describe it as 

 revolutionary. 



The claim of socialism to be distinctly a new 

 movement may be regarded as resting on two great 

 facts the industrial revolution and the develop- 

 ment of the modern democracy. As England led 

 the way in the industrial revolution, the course of 

 it can be best followed by reference to the history 

 of that country. On the downfall of feudalism 

 towards the close of the 15th century the retainers 

 of the barons were dispersed. Whereas it had 

 been the interest of the feudal noble to support 

 the largest possible number of fighting men, the 

 prestige of the new court aristocracy depended 

 mainly on the rents they could raise. Thus the com- 

 mercial spirit became a prominent feature of land- 

 owning ; the small holdings were transformed into 

 large sheep-runs, because the latter paid better ; 

 and the old tenants were 'forced from the land, 

 either to sink into hopeless vagrancy or to drift 

 into the towns. All those tendencies were greatly 

 aggravated through the confiscation of the church- 

 lands on the downfall of the Roman Church and 

 the suppression of monasteries. In this way began 

 the divorce of the worker from the land, which is 

 at once the material of labour and the source of 

 subsistence and of culture. At the same time 

 great changes of enormous magnitude were pro- 

 ceeding abroad. The discovery of America and of 

 the sea-route to India opened up vast countries to 

 European enterprise and colonisation, resulting in 

 the establishment of a world-market, which again 

 gave fresh impetus to the economic change at 

 home. The demand for goods created by the 

 world-market particularly stimulated invention, 

 till during the course of the 18th century a series 

 of new mechanical appliances brought the in- 

 dustrial revolution into full activity. This revolu- 

 tion is still going forward. It is spreading over all 

 countries of the world ; and the new motive-power 

 electricity is already beginning to supersede steam. 

 The results of the industrial revolution in so far as 

 they have a bearing on the present subject may be 

 thus summed up. Production is no longer carried 

 on by individual or family labour for local or 

 family use. The labourer has no control of the 

 instruments of labour. Instead of working on his 

 own account with his own small capital, he toils 

 in large factories and other undertakings under 

 employers who own and control the capital em- 

 barked in them. Industry is carried on by the 

 united efforts of thousands of men, and is therefore 

 no longer an individual function, but a social and 

 collective one. On these grounds socialists main- 

 tain that the energetic individualism which 

 originated and established the industrial revolution 

 has been superseded by the results of that revolu- 

 tion. Individual industry is no longer the normal 

 or prevalent form of industry. 



It has been shown (see DEMOCRACY) that the 

 modern democracy is the solid, enduring, and 

 inevitable result of far-reaching causes. The most 



