This document summarizes the views of several important economic philosophers and social reformers from the 18th and 19th centuries. It describes the ideas of Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Henri de Saint-Simon, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels regarding economics, population growth, labor, socialism, and capitalism. It also outlines the efforts of William Wilberforce to abolish slavery in the British Empire and the work of Jane Adams establishing settlement houses to provide social services to the poor.

1. 9.4 Reforming the Industrial World

2. The Economic Philosophers
 Adam Smith believed
that economic liberty
guaranteed economic
progress;
government need not
interfere in the
economy. The
Wealth of Nations
and other writings
described an invisible
hand guided by 3
natural laws which

3.  Thomas Malthus
believed that population
tended to increase more
rapidly than food supply;
without wars and
epidemics to kill off extra
population, most people
would always be poor.
 “The superior power of
population can not be
checked with out
producing misery or

4.  David Ricardo believed that
the permanent underclass
would always be poor
because wages would be
forced down as population
increased and more workers
became available.
 Theory of comparative
advantage, suggests that a
nation should concentrate its
resources solely in industries
where it
is most internationally
competitive and trade with

5. Social Reformers
 John Stuart Mill wanted
government to do away
with great differences in
wealth; he favored a more
equal division of profits, a
cooperative system of
agriculture, and women’s
rights such as the right to
vote.
 Works include On Liberty
and The Subjection of
Women.

6.  Jeremy Bentham-He the
founder of utilitarianism
which believed the proper
course of action is the one
that maximizes utility,
usually defined as
maximizing total benefit
and reducing suffering or
the negatives for the
greatest number.
 Introduction to Principles of
Morals and Legislation –
focuses on the principle of
utility as it is applied to
legislative acts. Bentham’s skeleton and head were preserved to
create his auto-icon which is on display today at
University College London.

7.  Robert Owen improved
working and living
conditions for employees in
his mills by renting them
low-rent housing that he
built, prohibiting children
under ten from working in
his mills, and providing free
schooling. He also founded
a cooperative utopian
community.
 A cooperative is an
autonomous association of
people who voluntarily
cooperate for their mutual

8. New Harmony, IN

9.  Charles Fourier and Henri de Saint-Simon
advocated socialism, under which the
factors of production would be owned by
the public and operated for the benefit of
all, as a replacement for free-market
capitalism.

10. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels predicted the
destruction of the capitalist system and the creation of
a classless communist state in which the means of
production would be owned by the people. This brand
of socialism becomes known as Marxism.

11.  It presents an analytical
approach to the class
struggle (historical and
present) and the problems of
capitalism and the capitalist
mode of production, rather
than a prediction of
communism's potential future
forms.
 The Communist
Manifesto contains Marx and
Engels' theories about the
nature of society and politics.
It also briefly features their
ideas for how the capitalist
society of the time would
eventually be replaced

12.  William Wilberforce
led the fight in
Parliament for the
end of the slave trade
and slavery in the
British Empire.
 “You may choose to look
the other way, but you can
never say again that you
did not know.”
 William Wilberforce

13.  In 1791, Anti-Slavery protests
such as sugar boycotts were
advocated by Wilberforce.
 Sugar's problem was much
more serious and “ghastly.” In
the words of the Baron
d'Holbach, a famous
materialist philosopher, not a
cask of it came into Europe “to
which blood is not sticking”.
 In 1807, the slave
trade was finally
abolished, but this
did not free those
who were already
slaves. It was not
until 1833 that an
act was passed
giving freedom to
all slaves in the
British empire.

14.  Jane Adams ran a settlement house to provide
social services to residents of a poor
neighborhood. In 1889, along with Ellen Gates
Star, co-founded Hull House in Chicago.
• Horace Mann called for free public
schooling for all children to promote