Claude-Henri de Rouvrois, Rely of Saint-Simon (1760-1825), a pioneer of liberalism and commercial idea, marked the historical past of concepts in France via laying the rules of the positivist doctrine and founding the varsity of Saint-Simonism. He took up hands within the American Conflict of Independence (1775-1783) as a part of the Franco-American alliance and contributed to the victory towards the British within the Fight of Yorktown. This article examines his expeditions to The us and their affect at the design of his political challenge upon his go back to France in 1783.
In 2026, america will mark the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence. A number of tales that endure witness to the turning issues of this historical past is already underway.
The French Society of the Cincinnati, based in 1784, preserves to nowadays the reminiscence of the instances which resulted in the independence of america, and of the brotherhood in hands which united American and French officials all the way through the battles which they waged in combination. We will guess that she is going to be capable to take part on this commemoration as a result of this yr 2025 marks the 2 hundredth anniversary of the demise of Henri Saint-Simon.
Certainly, the utopian socialist Henri Saint-Simon participated at sea, beneath the command of Admiral de Grasse, within the decisive good fortune of the 1,000-man corps despatched to Washington via Comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807) to beef up L. a. Fayette and the American troops despatched to Virginia. Arriving in Chesapeake Bay on August 31, 1781, the French established a blockade of the York and James Rivers, landed, after which set sail to have interaction in struggle on September 5 and power the English out.
In the middle of the tariff battle with america of Donald Trump, whilst doubts persist in regards to the energy of the transatlantic alliance, and in the middle of the price range disaster in France that doubts the virtues of democracy, it sort of feels enlightening to recall in what viewpoint the younger Henri Saint-Simon made his contribution to the American political economic system.
Louis-Charles-Auguste Couder, “The Battle of Yorktown” (1836), Versailles, Museum of French Historical past. Symbol representing a part of the Franco-American team of workers – right here Washington, L. a. Fayette and Rochambeau – who received a decisive victory at Yorktown towards the English, in coordination with Admiral de Grasse’s fleet. Saint-Simon shouted “Rochambeau, I’m coming!” »
Born in 1760, Henri Saint-Simon used to be a tender guy when the American Revolution broke out in 1775, an armed war that lasted 8 lengthy years.
It additionally represented a civil battle between British and American topics, in addition to a rise up towards colonial rule and an rebellion towards the King of England (George III) and the monarchical regime. It used to be the primary “national liberation” battle in fashionable historical past. For Saint-Simon, the arena is transferring in opposition to a perfect of equality and freedom, carried via essentially the most beneficiant of goals: a rule of explanation why that governs the arena consistent with justice.
If he has a style for remark and a keenness for wisdom, Henri Saint-Simon loves appearing much more. Saint-Simon started his skilled existence as an officer within the military. In 1777, his father supplied him with a 2nd lieutenant within the Turenne regiment; Two years later, he was a captain within the cavalry corps of this regiment. 3 years after the declaration of independence of the 13 insurrection colonies (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia), he went to The us 17 to serve beneath M Boe. governor of the Île du Ven, and beneath that of Washington: “I left France for America at the age of eighteen; I fought for five years for the freedom of the Americans, and returned to my country as soon as England recognized their independence,” he wrote.
John Trumber, “The Speech of Lord Cornwallis” (1820). Capitol Roundabout. Washington DC Wikimedia
The Fight of Yorktown, which came about from September 28 to October 19, 1781, marked a turning level and marked the defeat of Nice Britain. It pitted the American rebels and their French allies commanded via the Comte de Rochambeau towards the British commanded via Lord Cornwallis. Saint-Simon wrote an in depth remark describing “the English troops captured at York, Virginia, October 19, 1781,” totaling, he mentioned, 4,550 prisoners.
After this struggle, the Saint-Simon regiment would go back to Citadel Royal in Martinique (now Citadel-de-France) sooner than proceeding its voyage to Saint-Christophe, then to Bas-Terre in Guadeloupe and to Les Saintes. Saint-Simon returned to France in 1783 after the September 3 Treaty of Versailles, which established the independence of america. It’ll nonetheless take them 4 years to increase a Charter and create a real federation. France thus honors England, which took away Canada from her 20 years previous.
Sooner than returning to France, Henri Saint-Simon went to Mexico to give the challenge of a canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific to the viceroy, the colonial administrator of New Spain, which used to be “coldly received”. This challenge foreshadowed the participation of his scholars within the introduction of networks that facilitate the drift of products, folks, capital and information, such because the Suez Canal. Saint-Simon formally left the military in March 1790.
Classes Saint-Simon discovered from his American journey
Saint-Simon returned to France with the abhorrence of the career of hands which seized him when he noticed that peace used to be drawing near. Her invitation used to be made: this can be a query of learning the motion of the human spirit, to be able to then paintings at the growth of civilization. Thus, his medical challenge will give a contribution to the introduction of the positivist sociology of Auguste Comte, who used to be his secretary.
“Fighting for the independence of America (more than forty years ago), I devised a project to make Europeans feel that they were putting the cart before the horse by having the producers manage the consumers. Since then my whole life has been devoted to this project…” he recalled within the 1820s.
In doing so, he joins his fresh and grasp, Jean-Baptiste Say, within the politics of provide, which establishes the primary that “supply creates its own demand.” We can in finding those orientations within the Eighties with Thatcherism and Reaganomics, and as of late in France within the financial coverage of the successive governments of President Emmanuel Macron: vital tax cuts for massive firms, the release of a reindustrialization program particularly in debt-financed armaments, deregulation of financial process…
For Henri Saint-Simon, the American Revolution marked the start of a brand new political technology that might reason primary adjustments within the social order of Europe. Initially, he notes that The us is a rustic of tolerance as a result of there no faith used to be dominant or safe in a distinct approach; that there’s no privileged frame, the Aristocracy, remnants of feudalism and that the folks aren’t divided into castes; that no circle of relatives has held the manager public workplaces for a number of generations, and that no citizen could have the unique proper to manipulate the state; that the dominant personality of the American country is non violent, industrious, and thrifty.
This enabled the younger American country to determine a extra liberal and democratic regime than that of Eu international locations nonetheless marked via an army spirit. For Saint-Simon, the French folks of 1789 had been a long way from being able to setting up this kind of social order:
“The best statesman in Europe, no less than the one that is regarded as essentially the most skilful, the one that is esteemed, who’s complex, who’s essentially the most exalted, is all the time the one that unearths a strategy to build up the tax earnings with out the taxed crying an excessive amount of. I felt that during The us the best statesman will be the person who discovered a strategy to lighten the weight at the public up to imaginable. The folks or governments of the Outdated Global submitted to the opinion that it used to be important, for the average excellent, that the civil servants be paid dearly, and that enormous salaries are wanted for the nationwide group. I felt that American citizens would suppose very otherwise, and that public officers would have increasingly in their admire in the event that they displayed much less luxurious, had been extra approachable, and more practical of their morals. »
From this revel in already emerge the primary options of what’s going to be the doctrine of Saint-Simon and his successors till the 2nd Empire: admire for manufacturing and manufacturers is infinitely extra fruitful than admire for belongings and homeowners; govt all the time hurts business when it interferes with its affairs and hurts even if it tries to inspire it; the manufacturers of helpful issues are the one ones who should give a contribution to its development and the one ones who in point of fact pay taxes are the one ones who’ve the proper to vote; wars, irrespective of the function, hurt all the human species or even hurt the international locations that stay victorious; the will to succeed in a monopoly is an ill-conceived want insofar as this monopoly can handiest be received and maintained via pressure; schooling should enhance within the thoughts concepts that have a tendency to extend manufacturing and admire the manufacturing of others; and that the entire human race has commonplace objectives, each and every guy should imagine himself in social family members engaged within the corporate of staff.
Due to this fact, in his American revel in, he designed his political challenge targeted on business. “Politics, to summarize in two words, is the science of production, that is, the science that aims at the order of things most favorable for all types of production… It becomes a positive science.”
This political challenge of Saint-Simon is favorable to loose business, as evidenced via the signing of the Loose Business Settlement between France and the UK in 1860. The side of liberalism that “MAGAnomics” forgot…
