ABSTRACT
Born into a wealthy family from Cork, William Thompson met Robert Owen during the latter’s tour of Ireland in 1822–1823. Despite his privileged upbringing, Thompson embraced the cause of working-class, co-operative Owenism and became one of the movement’s most prominent intellectuals thanks to his anti-capitalist views. Published in 1824, his Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth blended Owenite economics with Bentham’s utilitarian calculus, arguing that human happiness could only be achieved through “complete equality in the distribution of wealth”. As a follow-up to the Inquiry, Labor Rewarded, explored how co-operatives could secure workers the entire produce of their labour. Against Thomas Hodgskin, Thompson argued that any system of competition and unregulated trade ultimately favoured the interests of capital against the labouring classes. Before a co-operative economy could be fully implemented in Owenite “Villages of Co-operation”, Thompson recommended that co-operative workshops and, most originally, trade unions be set up as halfway houses towards a communitarian and egalitarian society.
