ABSTRACT
The tremors of social change which ruptured the static ties between lord and peasant had been felt long before the onset of industrialization. At the beginning of industrialization there were at least three possible models for organizing industrial production: the state-owned and centrally planned manufacturing establishments typical of the mercantilist economy of pre-revolutionary France, worker cooperatives whose prototypes emerged early in industrial area of Europe and privately owned capitalist firms. Equality was gradually reduced to equality of judicial procedure, liberty to the right to property and to the right to vote, and fraternity to the organic solidarity of an industrial division of labor. A more equitable distribution of land and industrial property could increase the number of independent producers while greater income equality increased overall consumption. Hobbes' recognition of the conflict between individual freedom and inequality and his focus on individual motivations and trust were important achievements. Distributive inequality was thus negotiable and could be corrected by political intervention.
