Note 498 — Chapter II · : SAINT-SIMON, THE SAINT-SIMONIANS, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF COLLECTIVISM

“The object of credit,” says Enfantin (Économie politique et Politique, p. 53), “in a society where one set of people possess the instruments of production but lack capacity or desire to employ them, and where another have the desire to work but are without the means, is to help the passage of these instruments from the former’s possession into the hands of the latter.” No better definition was ever given.