Robert Owen’s Social Experiment
Robert Owen, also sometimes called “father of British Socialism,” was an entrepreneur who attempted an ambitious social and capitalist project. He developed a textile factory in Scotland and decided to use that as the basis for a social experiment to improve the lives of workers.
Owen was enthusiastic about textiles, recognizing the industry as vital, and he got into it earnestly in 1799. He convinced his partners to purchase a mill in New Lanark and set to work managing the plant. He’d already been successful running a cotton mill, and hoped for a report at new Lanark.
He defined success as both commercial and social, so the company would be able to create enough capital to put money back into the community. He felt it was his duty to supply workers with better child care, and an improved education system. He believed that a man was shaped by his surroundings, and that people ought to have the opportunity to improve their lot. He considered his workers like an extended family.
Of course business and philanthropy have a hard time mixing. Owen’s partners soon became anxious that all his social outreach was eating into potential profits. So Owen borrowed money from a Quaker named Archibald Campell and bought out those other investors. He took their shares and sold them to others that would support his cause.
He became something of a model for European factories, and his work became a subject of study for European politicians and policy makers. His work led to the Factory Act of 1819, which made it illegal to employ children below the age of nine. Owen called the law “inadequate.”
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