Title: 'I was a stranger, and ye took me in' : Charity, moral economy, and the Children of Peace
Abstract: The dramatic emergence of rural capitalist markets in the newly settled areas of the ‘old Northwest’ in the early nineteenth century was matched by the equally dramatic appearance of numerous oppositional, communal ‘backwoods Utopias’ or ‘moral economies.’ There is little evidence to suggest that the more successful communal economies emerged as clearly articulated economic experiments; rather, like the example of the Children of Peace, a Quaker sect that settled north of Toronto, their economic organization emerged haphazardly, using the idiom of charity to meet the needs of those impoverished by the capitalist transition then occurring. The moral economy of this group is not a perpetuation of some earlier, economically irrational ground from which the market was slowly emerging, as the concept is generally used, as in the work of E.P. Thompson. Rather, this moral economy grew under the same impetus as that which drove the developing market economy. The Children of Peace did not reject the market, only the principles on which exchange was based. Ironically, their moral economy, predicated on charity, managed to outperform capitalist farmers, making their village one of the most prosperous in the province by 1851. Abstract: Au debut du XIXe siecle, ľemergence phenomenale des marches capitalistes ruraux dans les regions recemment peuplees du «vieux Nord-Ouest» s’accompagna ďune apparition tout aussi phenomenale de nombreuses «Utopies des coins perdus» ou « Economies morales » collectives opposees au capitalisme. Bien peu de preuves laissent croire que les economies collectives les plus prosperes naquirent en tant qu’experiences economiques deliberees; ľexemple des « Children of Peace » (Enfants de la paix), une secte quaker qui s’etablit au nord de Toronto, montre plutot que leur organisation economique surgit au petit bonheur, utilisant ľargument de la charite pour repondre aux besoins des individus qu’appauvrissait la transition au capitalisme. On soutient que « ľeconomie morale » de ce groupe n’est pas la perpetuation de la conjoncture anterieure, irrationnelle du point de vue economique, ďou emergeait lentement le marche (comme on voit generalement ce concept utilise, par exemple dans les travaux de E.P. Thompson). Cette «economie morale» se serait plutot developpee dans le meme elan que celui qui lancait ľeconomie de marche; les « Children of Peace » ne rejetaient pas le marche, mais les principes sur lesquels se fondait ľechange. Fait ironique, leur «economie morale », basee sur ľargument de la charite, reussit mieux que les fermiers capitalistes, rendant leur village ľun des plus prosperes de la province des 1851.
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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