Abbé Delamarre, see Delamarre, Elzéar.
Abbé Grosier, see Grosier, Jean-Baptiste.
Acosta, José de (1539–1600), Spanish Jesuit and traveler; arrived in Peru in 1571 and founded a number of colleges and universities in South America. He wrote an important study of the Native Americans of South America and Mexico, Historia natural y moral de las Indias, which is one of the most accurate depictions of the New World produced at the time.
Aiken, John (1747–1822), English historian and physician; founded Monthly Magazine in 1796, and shortly afterward left the medical profession to become a writer of historical works; author of Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles round Manchester, which Marx cites in Volume 1 of Capital.
Alexander II (1818–1881), Tsar of Russia from 1855 to 1881; in response to Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War, initiated a series of reforms, the most important being the abolition of serfdom, in 1861; also reorganized the military, state bureaucracy, and penal code. Brutally suppressed the Polish uprising of 1863 and banned the use of Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian languages. He was assassinated by a revolutionary in 1881.
Anton, G. K. (dates of birth and death unknown), German political scientist; visited Java (in modern-day Indonesia) as part of inspection tour of Dutch colonial practices; wrote books on German colonial policy as well as French colonialism in Algeria and Tunisia; supported German-Dutch national unity.
Backhouse, Edmund Trelawny (1873–1944), British historian and linguist; made several major studies of the last years of the Qing Dynasty of China; from 1899 lived in Beijing, where he engaged in business and published, in 1910, China Under the Empress Dowager. He donated thousands of manuscripts on Chinese history and culture to Bodleian Library, which remains an important research source. In his Memoirs he recounted many of his experiences as a gay man living in Imperial China.
Baldwin, W. Spencer (1860–1929), English-Australian anthropologist; originally from England, moved to Australia in 1887; along with Francis James Gillen embarked on important studies of the Aborigines; coauthored with Gillen The Native Tribes of Australia, a largely sympathetic treatment of aboriginal culture and society; also author of Northern Tribes of Australia and numerous other books, monographs, and articles.
Baring, Evelyn, Earl of Cromer (1841–1917), British politician and colonial official; served as Controller-General of Egypt in 1879 and was instrumental in seizing control of Egypt’s finances on behalf of British imperialism; when Egyptian ruler Isma′il Pasha refused to yield to British demands for debt payments, Baring had him removed from power; imposed upon Egypt the so-called Granville Doctrine, which enabled him to dismiss any Egyptian official who refused to follow British directives; he held that “subject races” like that of the Egyptians were incapable of self-rule. At the end of his life he was a leading opponent of women’s suffrage in England.
Baron von Hirsch, see Hirsch, Maurice von.
Barrow, Sir John (1764–1848), English traveler, writer, and politician; lived in China from 1792–94, where he served in the first British embassy; later moved to South Africa, where he attempted to mediate the conflicts between the Boers and native Africans. He later promoted a number of British voyages to the Arctic region; the Barrow Straight in Canada and the city of Barrow, Alaska are named after him.
Bastiat, Frédéric (1801–1850), French economist; strong advocate of free trade and unregulated markets; author of The Law, Economic Sophisms, and other works; engaged in famous debate with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, in which he defended interest. Argued that state taxation and interference in the market to be “organized plunder”; he is considered by many to be the forerunner of modern right-wing libertarian economics. Marx subjected his thought to detailed criticism in the Grundrisse.
Bauer, Otto (pseudonyms: Karl Mann, Friedrich Schulze, Heinrich Weber) (1881–1938), one of the leaders of Austrian Social Democracy and the Second International; founded the theoretical magazine Der Kampf in Vienna in 1907; theoretical spokesperson for Austro-Marxism; wrote important works on the National Question. Authored one of the most famous critiques of Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital, which she responded to in her Anti-Critique. Adopted a disapproving attitude toward the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917; was Foreign Minister of Austria in 1918/19.
Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832), English philosopher and economist; one of the leading figures in the development of modern utilitarianism; defended free trade, usury, and unrestricted free markets and formulated the first quantitative formulation of the classical theory of the wage fund; a liberal social reformer, he founded (along with James Mill) the Westminister Review, a leading journal of the “philosophical radicals.”
Bischoffsheim, Jonathan-Raphaël (1808–1883), Belgian banker; in 1827 founded Bischoffsheim and Goldschmidt Bank, which played a critical role in Belgium’s economy; it soon became one of the leading banks in Europe.
Bismarck, Otto von (1815–1898), Prussian-German statesman and first Chancellor of Germany from 1871 to 1890. A member of the Junker landowning class and extreme nationalist and authoritarian, he was instrumental in Prussia’s (and later Germany’s) military expansion. He imposed the Anti-Socialist Laws against the workers’ movement while trying to buy off sections of it by providing some social welfare protections.
Blanc, Louis (1811–1882), French journalist, historian, and politician; reformist socialist who advocated national workshops, under government control, to ameliorate poverty and unemployment; in 1848, member of the Provisional Government; 1848–70, lived in England as an émigré; in 1871, elected to the French National Assembly; supported the reactionary regime of Thiers and took a position against the Paris Commune of 1871; in 1876, became a member of the Radical Party.
Bland, John Otway (1863–1945), British journalist who authored a number of books on Chinese history and politics, some of them with Edmund Trelawny Backhouse. He lived in China from 1883 to 1910, where he worked in minor positions with the British authorities before becoming a freelance journalist. He supported British plans to annex parts of China. After returning to Britain shortly before the Revolution of 1911, wrote several journalistic accounts as well as works of fiction on Chinese society.
Blanqui, Louis-Auguste (1805–1881), French revolutionary, joined the conspiratorial society, the Carbonari in 1824 and later other groups, including the League of the Just; devoted himself to various schemes for insurrection with the aim of liberating society from oppression by bringing to power a cadre of professional revolutionaries who would rule on behalf of the masses; spent the bulk of his life in prison; he was an uncompromising revolutionary who spent little time or effort on theory or in developing a conception of the future social relations that could replace capitalism.
Boudin, Louis B. (1874–1952), Marxist theoretician and lawyer; born in Russia and emigrated to the U.S. in 1891, where he worked in the garment industry; obtained a law degree and became leading member of the U.S. Socialist Labor Party; joined the Socialist Party in 1901, emerging as one of its major theoreticians; attended the 1907 Stuttgart Congress and 1910 Copenhagen Congresses of the Second International. Best known for his 1907 book, The Theoretical System of Karl Marx in Light of Recent Criticism. Opposed World War I and was close to the U.S. Communist Party in 1920s, though not an active member; he later denounced Stalinism. Author of an important two-volume book, Government by Judiciary, criticizing the usurpation of democratic rights by the courts.
Bray, John Francis (1809–1897), English economist and utopian socialist, a follower of Robert Owen who developed the theory of “labor money”—the idea of replacing money with notes or chits denoting hours of labor that could be exchanged for commodities.
Bright, John (1811–1889), British politician and social reformer; strongly opposed protectionism, becoming one of the best-known opponents of the Corn Laws; a strong advocate of free trade, he opposed capital punishment, restrictions on religious and political liberty, and British colonial policy in Ireland, Egypt, and India. He became known as one of Britain’s greatest orators.
Brissot, Jacques Pierre (1754–1793), French revolutionary, abolitionist, and political theorist; leading member of the Girondists during the French Revolution. He founded in 1790 the “Society of the Friends of the Blacks,” an anti-slavery organization. During the Revolution he was elected member of the Legislative Assembly and National Convention; arguing for a constitutional monarchy and moderation of the Revolution’s demands, he was arrested and executed during the Terror of 1793. Proudhon’s famous phrase “property is theft” was first used by Brissot in his Philosophical Inquiries on the Right of Property.
Bryce, James (1838–1922), British politician and historian; elected to Parliament in 1880 as a Liberal; remained an MP until 1907. Closely associated with the government of Richard Gladstone, in which he served as Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and member of the Privy Council. Traveled to South Africa in 1897 and published Impressions, a work that denounced Britain’s repression of the civilian populace during the Boer War and documented the use of concentration camps by the British and called for their dismantling. In 1907 made British Ambassador to the U.S.; authored The American Commonwealth, a historical study of the U.S. In 1915 he condemned Turkey’s genocide against the Armenians, becoming one of the first British figures to speak out against it.
Bruce, Thomas (Lord Elgin) (1766–1841), British politician and soldier; served as British Ambassador to Istanbul from 1799 to 1803; removed the ancient marble edifice from the Pantheon in Athens in 1803, sending one of the greatest artistic treasures of antiquity (often referred to today as the Elgin Marbles) to London; parts were also used to decorate his mansion in Scotland.
Bücher, Karl (1847–1930), member of the “Young German” historical school of economics that emphasized statistical and sociological analysis as against classical economists’ emphasis on deductive reasoning. Criticized unregulated free markets and defended Germany’s authoritarian welfare state.
Bulgakov, Sergei (1871–1944), Russian economist and philosopher; joined the Legal Marxists in the 1890s; in 1897 published On Markets in Capitalist Conditions of Production, which argued that Russia could achieve capitalist industrialization without having recourse to foreign markets; became foremost proponent of view that Russia had no choice but to endure a prolonged stage of capitalism before being ready for socialism. Studied in Germany in the late 1890s and made contact with such leading Marxists as Karl Kautsky and August Bebel. In 1900 experienced a spiritual crisis, leading him to break from Marxism and embrace Orthodox Christianity; elected to the Second Duma in 1907 as a Christian Socialist; ordained in the Orthodox priesthood in 1918; expelled from Russia in 1922, spent the rest of his life in Paris, writing numerous books on Christianity.
Bürger, Gottfried August (1747–1794), German poet and writer of love songs; influential on later German writers, such as Friedrich Schiller.
Cabet, Étienne (1788–1856), French lawyer; utopian communist; member of the Carbonari; took part in the July revolution of 1830 and until 1831 was attorney general on the island of Corsica; 1834–39, lived in exile in London; later founded utopian communities in the U.S.
Cameron, Verney Lovett (1844–1894), English explorer, traveler, and opponent of slavery who sought to suppress the East African slave trade; embarked on an expedition to East Africa in 1873 to assist the explorations of David Livingstone; traversed the Congo-Zambezi watershed, becoming the first European to cross equatorial Africa from coast to coast; his reports on his travels, first published in 1877, helped open up the African interior to European colonization.
Carey, Henry Charles (1793–1879), American economist; strong critic of laissez-faire and free market economics; he supported tariffs barriers and protectionism. He also served as chief economic advisor to President Abraham Lincoln.
Cave, Stephen (1820–1880), British politician; elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1859; remained an MP until 1880. In 1875 sent to Egypt as part of a special commission to report on the country’s financial condition; he argued that its bankruptcy was inevitable, which was used by Britain to extract important political and economic concessions from the Egyptians.
Cavour, Camillo Benso (1810–1861), Italian statesman; founded the newspaper Il Risorgimento; pursued a moderate liberal policy; helped achieve the unification of Italy in 1861. Served as first prime minister of Italy.
Chassebœuf, Constantin-Francois de, comte de Volney (1757–1820), French philosopher and orientalist who lived several years in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; author of several books on the Middle East and the role of religion in society; he argued for the separation of church and state on the grounds that no religion is able to prove its veracity over any other. He was a friend of Thomas Jefferson, who translated parts of his book The Ruins, or Meditation on the Revolutions of the Empires into English.
Chernyshevsky, Nikolai (1828–1889), Russian revolutionary activist and writer; leader of the Russian democratic movement and socialist movement in the 1850s and 1860s and a founding figure of Populism. Inspired by the materialist philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach, wrote numerous essays on philosophy and politics; arrested and imprisoned in the notorious Peter and Paul Fortress in 1862, where he wrote his famous novel What Is to Be Done? Dostoyevsky subjected the book to withering criticism in his Notes from Underground.
Chesney, Francis Rawdon (1789–1872), British militarist and explorer; as part of the British Army, made a tour of Egypt and Syria in 1829, during which he proposed the building of the Suez Canal; also commanded British forces in India and China. He made several trips to Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) with the aim of eventually bringing the area under British control; authored the book Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition.
Chevalier, Michel (1806–1879), French economist and politician; initially a follower of Saint-Simon. Traveled to the U.S. and Mexico in the 1830s, where he argued that the peoples of Mexico and South America were members of a “Latin race”; his claim became the basis of the later creation of the term “Latin America” by French intellectuals. Appointed a French Senator in 1860; in same year he signed (along with Richard Cobden and John Bright) a free trade agreement between France and England, known as the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty.
Cixi Taihou, see Tzu Hsi, Empress Dowager.
Cobden, Richard (1804–1865), British liberal politician who worked closely with John Bright in leading the Anti-Corn Law League. A firm supporter of free trade, he opposed both the conservative landlords and the radical Chartist movement. He was a sharp critic of British foreign policy, arguing against excessive military spending and colonial domination; he especially opposed Britain’s role in the First Opium War against China.
Comte de Volney, see Chassebœuf, Constantin-Francois de, comte de Volney.
Conrad, Johannes (1839–1915), German political economist, cofounded Verein für Sozialpolitik with Gustav von Schmoller. Coedited the influential Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften (Concise Dictionary of Political Sciences).
Cousin-Montauban, Charles, Comte de Palikao (1796–1878), French politician and militarist; commanded French forces in Algeria in the mid-1850s, which was responsible for numerous human rights abuses against the native populace; in 1859 led French and British troops in their attack on China, during which his troops desecrated the Summer Palace in Beijing. He was an unwavering supporter of the imperial policies of Napoleon III.
Danielson, Nikolai (1844–1918), Russian economist and Populist; carried on a lengthy correspondence with Marx and Engels; in 1873 published the first Russian translation of Volume 1 of Marx’s Capital; translated volumes 2 and 3 of Capital in 1885 and 1896, respectively—the first translations of the volumes in a foreign language. Although Danielson held that capitalist industrialization had already begun in Russia, he argued, contrary to the leading Russian orthodox Marxists of the time, that the capitalist stage could be considerably shortened by making use of Western technology as well as Russia’s indigenous communal formations of working the land.
David, Eduard (1863–1930), teacher and Social Democrat; in 1896, became a leading advocate of revisionism; 1896–97 edited Plainzer Volkszeitung; 1898–1908 member of the lower house of Hesse; member of the staff and regular contributor to the revisionist organ Sozialistische Monatshefte; member of the Reichstag in 1903–18; he was a fervent supporter of German expansionism and strongly supported World War I.
Delamarre, Elzéar (1854–1925), Catholic priest from Canada; in 1904, founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anthony of Padua.
Diehl, Karl (1864–1943), German economist; member and leading figure in the Society for Social Policy. Authored numerous books and articles on political economy, such as Theoretical Political Economy and Socialism, Communism, and Anarchism, as well as studies of Ricardo, Proudhon, and Rodbertus. He wrote extensively on the business cycle; considered a founder of the “social law” movement in modern economics.
Dietzel, Carl August (1829–1884), German economist; wrote several works on taxation and government bonds; best known for his book The Economy and Its Relationship to Society and the State.
Diodorus Siculus (c. 90–30 BC), ancient Greek historian, author of Biblioteca historica, a massive study of the ancient world, largely compiled from the work of numerous Greek writers and historians that preceded him; he provided the earliest known account of the working conditions in the gold mining region of Nubia.
du Pont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel (1739–1817), French economist and writer who wrote one of the earliest analyses of Quesnay’s Tableau économique. An initial supporter of the French Revolution, he opposed its more radical elements and was arrested by Robespierre; after being freed from prison, emigrated to the U.S., where he became a successful businessman. A friend of Thomas Jefferson, he first proposed the idea of purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France.
Duke of Manchester, see Montagu, William.
Eckstein, Gustav (1875–1916), Austrian historian and economist; Social Democrat; 1910/11, instructor in the history of socialism at the SPD Central Party School in Berlin; beginning in 1910, editor of Die Neue Zeit. He authored an important review of Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital, which she responded to in her Anti-Critique.
Eulenberg, Botho Graf zu (1831–1912), Conservative Prussian politician; served as Minister of the Interior under Bismarck in the late 1870s and early 1880s and enthusiastically administered the repressive Anti-Socialist Laws, for which he is most infamous. In 1892 he became prime minister of Prussia, but was dismissed by King Wilhelm II in 1894.
Eyth, Max (1836–1906), German engineer and artist; in 1861 to traveled to England, where he worked with John Fowler in developing steam-driven ploughs. From 1863 he traveled around the world selling Fowler’s products, visiting Egypt, the U.S., Russia, and South America. Returned to Germany in 1882, where he founded the German Agricultural Society. He also published several travelogues and novels.
Fould, M. (1800–1867), French conservative politician; elected to the French Chamber of Deputies in the 1840s, specializing in matters of finance and economy; an ally of Napoleon III, served as his Finance Minister on four separate occasions in the 1850s and 1860s; favored protectionism and defended the interests of French capitalists.
Fowler, John (1826–1864), English engineer who pioneered the use of stream engines for plowing; he initially used his plow to dig drainage canals, though he later adopted it for use for in plowing of crops. His inventions greatly reduced the cost of agricultural production.
Franke, O. (1863–1946), German sinologist and philologist; author of five-volume work History of the Chinese Empire and other books on Chinese civilization and society in which he rejected the view, widespread in Europe at the time, that China was a static and unchanging social entity; served in German embassy in Beijing from 1888 to 1901. Considered by many to have been the leading figure in early twentieth-century German sinology.
Gillen, Francis James (1855–1912), Australian anthropologist and ethnologist, explored central Australia and lived among the aborigines; wrote several books on aboriginal society and culture.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832), German poet, prose writer, dramatist, and naturalist; foremost representative of German classical literature, and one of Rosa Luxemburg’s favorite writers; author of Faust.
Gray, John (1799–1883), British economist; a supporter of Ricardo’s theory of the quantitative determination of value by labor time, he argued that the unequal distribution between the proceeds of labor and workers’ wages should be redressed by eliminating the competitive free market and replacing it with cooperative communities run by the workers.
Gros, Jean-Baptiste Louis (1793–1870), French politician and traveler; on behalf of the French government, went to Athens, Colombia, China, and Japan in the late 1850s, where he became one of the first to use photography to document archaeological treasures; he also led French forces during the English and French invasion of China, from 1856 to 1860 and helped arrange the first commercial treaty between France and Japan in 1858, which opened diplomatic relations between the countries.
Grosier, Jean-Baptiste (1743–1823), French Abbé and sinologist who published numerous articles and books on China, most famously his General Description of China: Containing the Topography of the Fifteen Provinces Which Compose this Vast Empire (1788), a compilation of much of what was known about China by Europeans at the end of the eighteenth century.
Gwinner, Arthur von (1856–1931), German banker and politician; became a leading figure in the Deutsche Bank, one of the largest in Europe. He was directly involved in financing the construction of the Baghdad Railway, with the aim of connecting the Middle East and Central Europe.
Heine, Wolfgang (1861–1944), German Social Democrat from 1887 and member of the Reichstag from 1898 to 1918. A leader of the revisionist right-wing of the party, he often clashed with Luxemburg and other leftists; he supported Germany’s entry into World War I and strongly opposed the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils that emerged in the aftermath of the November 1918 German Revolution. He served as Prussian Minister of Justice from late 1918 to March 1919, during which time he helped suppress the Spartakusbund Uprising. Fled to Switzerland when the Nazis came to power.
Herod (also known as Herod the Great and Herod I) (73 BC–4 AD), King of Judea from 37 BC to 4 AD; ruled as a client of the Roman Empire; a brutal and tyrannical ruler, he is also known for initiating massive building construction, which included building the Masada and expanding the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Herodotus (484–425 BC), Greek historian; he was the first to systematically undertake the study of history. Author of The Histories, one of the greatest works of the ancient world; while parts are considered fanciful, it is nevertheless a vitally important source for knowledge of the ancient Greek and Persian world.
Herzen, Alexander (1812–1870), Russian writer, novelist, and political theorist; leading figure of early Russian socialism; his writings helped inspire the Populist movement. After briefly serving in minor positions in the Russian bureaucracy during the 1840s, left for Western Europe, where he participated in the 1848 revolutions; lived in England for many years. Published the journals The Polar Star and The Bell, which had a powerful impact on the Russian intelligentsia; member of the International Workingmen’s Association in the 1860s. He viewed the peasantry and its communal forms of association as the key to Russia’s regeneration and the creation of a socialist society; opposed radical revolution in favor of popular education and liberal reforms.
Hilferding, Rudolf (1877–1941), Austrian children’s doctor in Vienna; Social Democrat; 1904–23, coeditor of a journal published in Vienna, entitled Marx-Studien: Blätter zur Theorie und Politik des wissenschaftlichen Sozialismus; author of Finance Capital; 1907–15, editor of Vorwärts in Berlin; 1907, lecturer on political economy and economic history at the SPD’s Central Party School in Berlin; supported World War I; from the end of 1915 until November 1918 an army doctor in the Austro-Hungarian military service; in 1917, became a member of the USPD and, in 1918, chief editor of its central organ, Freiheit; in 1918, became member of the Socialization Commission. Rejoined SPD and served in several SPD governments in 1920s; murdered by the Nazis.
Hindenburg, Paul von (1847–1934), German General and militarist; led German forces in the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and became Germany’s Chief of Staff in 1916; from 1925 to his death served as President of Germany. Appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which enabled Hitler to consolidate dictatorial power.
Hirsch, Maurice Baron von (1831–1896), German-Jewish banker and financier; in 1855 became part of the Belgium banking house Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt; later became a major investor in railroad construction in Turkey and the Balkans. Founded the Jewish Colonization Association in the 1880s, which sought to relocate Russian and East European Jews to Argentina, Canada, and Palestine.
Hobson, J. A. (1858–1940), English economist and political scientist; a reformist socialist who was close to the Fabians, he developed an influential theory of underconsumption that held that capitalist crises could be avoided by paying workers higher wages. He is best known for his pioneering work of 1902, Imperialism, which argued that imperial expansion was driven by capitalism’s need for new markets.
Humbert, Gustave Amédee (1822–1894), French politician and jurist; served in the French National Assembly in the 1870s and made several speeches on France’s efforts to destroy communal property relations among the peoples of Algeria.
Kablukov, N. A. (1849–1919), Russian economist and a proponent of the Populist movement; from 1874 to 1879 he worked as a statistician for the zemstvo board, rural bodies of self-governance; he argued that Russia’s communal agrarian relations could serve as a foundation for a socialist society. In 1879 traveled to London, where he met with Marx and Engels. Contributed to such journals as Iuridicheskii vestnik (Juridical Herald) and Russkaia mysl’ (Russian Thought); from 1894 to 1919 taught statistics at Moscow University. In 1918 elected chairman of the Executive Commission of the All-Russian Congresses of Statisticians.
Kankrin, Yegor Frantsevich (1774–1845), Russia’s finance minister from 1823 to 1844. He stood for protectionism in tariff policy, in part to cover the chronic budget deficit experienced by Russia but also because he wished to counteract the development of capitalist industry in the country.
Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804), major European philosopher, wrote extensively on epistemology, ethics, logic, anthropology, and politics; leading representative of German transcendental idealism.
Kareyev, Nikolai (1850–1931), Russian historian; an empiricist who denied the existence of a specific pattern to history, he strongly opposed the Hegelian view of historical development. Author of Fundamental Problems of the Philosophy of History and The Role of the Individual in History.
Karski, S., see Julian Marchlewski.
Kautsky, Karl (1854–1938), German Marxist theoretician and the leading figure from the 1890s to World War I of German Social Democracy and the Second International. In 1882 cofounded the journal Die Neue Zeit and was its chief editor until 1917. An ally of Rosa Luxemburg in the revisionist debate of 1898, she broke with him in 1910 as he moved closer to reformism with his “strategy of attrition”; in 1917 cofounded the USPD; became a fierce critic of the Bolshevik Revolution after 1917; returned to the SPD in 1920 when much of the USPD’s membership joined the German Communist Party.
Huei Liang (1785–1862), Chinese official and diplomat during the Manchu Dynasty; served as Financial Commissioner in Szechwan, Kwangtung, and Kiangsi in the 1830s; later became Governor-General of Fukien and Chekiang; in 1852 led the defense of the city of Paoting against revolutionaries during the Taiping Rebellion; several years later British and French troops forced him to allow them access to parts of China. He sought without success to block British access to the Yangtze River in a series of lengthy negotiations with the Western powers; made a Grand Councilor near the end of his life.
Kirchmann, Julius von (1802–1884), German philosopher and politician; in 1848 elected to the Prussian National Assembly, from 1871 to 1876 a member of the German Reichstag as a member of the left-of-center Progressive Party. Close to the thought of Rodbertus, who devoted much of his Social Letters to a discussion of his ideas. He authored several books on jurisprudence and political philosophy, and translated works by Aristotle, Hume, Leibniz, and Spinoza into German.
Kolb, Wilhelm (1870–1918), German Social Democratic, leading member of the revisionist or right-wing section of the party; originally a shoemaker, he became a Social Democratic journalist in the 1890s; close to Eduard Bernstein, he strongly opposed Marxist theory and revolutionary agitation. He supported Germany’s role in World War I, dying shortly before the Revolution of November 1918.
Kovalevsky, Maksim Maksimovich (1851–1916), Russian historian, sociologist, and anthropologist, author of Communal Ownership of Land: The Causes, Process and Consequences of its Dissolution, a study of precapitalist communal formations in India, the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America. Marx made detailed notes on this work shortly after its appearance, in 1879. Marx held numerous in-person discussions with Kovalevsky, beginning in the summer of 1875; subsequently, Kovalevsky became a regular visitor to Marx’s household. Luxemburg closely studied and commented on Kovalevsky’s work, especially in her Introduction to Political Economy and The Accumulation of Capital.
Kozak, Theophil (1835–1917), German economist; publisher and author of the introduction to Rodbertus’s Social Letters to von Kirchmann.
Lafargue, Paul (1842–1911), French physician; Socialist; member of the First International; together with Jules Guesde, leader of the French Workers’ Party; leading propagandist of Marxism in the French and international workers’ movements; son-in-law of Karl Marx, married to Marx’s daughter Laura.
Lange, Friedrich Albert (1828–1875), German philosopher, social theorist, and political journalist; liberal democrat; author of History of Materialism.
Lavrov, Pyotr L. (1823–1900), Russian sociologist and political journalist; theoretician of Narodnik (Populist) movement and reformist socialism; belonged to the organizations Zemlya i Volya (Land and Freedom) and Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will; also called, People’s Freedom); member of the First International.
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (real last name, Ulyanov) (1870–1924), Russian revolutionary; from 1903 on, leader of the Bolsheviks; worked closely with Luxemburg, especially immediately after 1905 Revolution, though differing with her on many issues; after Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, leader of the revolutionary government of Soviet Russia.
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1729–1781), German poet, philosopher, and dramatist; one of the foremost representatives of the European Enlightenment. Firm advocate of freedom of thought and conscience and defender of the idea of freedom as the most important of human values; critic of established Christianity and other forms of religious dogmatism. Best known for his poem Nathan the Wise, as well as The Education of the Human Race, and Laocoön.
Lexis, Wilhelm Hector Richard Albrecht (1837–1914), German academic economist, wrote one of the first reviews (in 1885) of Volume 2 of Marx’s Capital. He rejected the labor theory of value and the distinction between value and price. Engels responded to Lexis’s critique of Marx in his preface to Volume 3 of Capital.
Leyden, Viktor von (1832–1910), German physician; professor of medicine at Königsberg, Strassburg, and Berlin; his specialization was in neurological diseases. He was also the physician to the Czar Alexander III of Russia.
List, Friedrich (1789–1846), German economist, forerunner of the historical school of economics that dominated German academic circles for much of the nineteenth century; moved to the U.S. in the 1820s, where under the influence of Alexander Hamilton’s writings became a firm advocate of protectionism; served as U.S. consul to several European countries, including France and Germany; author of The National System of Political Economy, which argued for promoting capitalist development through national protection of domestic industries; an advocate of a strong national state, he denied that the pursuit of private interest necessarily promotes public good.
Livingstone, David (1813–1873), Scottish physician, missionary, and explorer; moved to South Africa as a missionary in 1840; traveled extensively in Africa from the 1850s onward; first European to see Victoria Falls; navigated the Zambezi River and engaged in an ultimately unsuccessful search for the origin of the Nile River. His letters and writings denouncing the slave trade had an important impact on pubic opinion in Britain and elsewhere, though he often relied on slave traders for supplies in his travels; his explorations and missionary work had the result of opening up much of the interior of Africa to the ravages of European colonization and domination.
Lobengula Khumalo (1845–1894), last king (beginning in 1868) of the Nedebele (or Matabele) people of southern Africa. Although initially tolerant of white hunters entering Matabeleland, he was attacked by the British under Cecil Rhodes, who sought to colonize his homeland; fought First Matabele War against British in 1893, in which the British prevailed through use of the Maxim machine gun. He died of a European-introduced disease; three years later, Matabeleland was incorporated into the British Empire as Rhodesia.
Lord Elgin, see Bruce, Thomas.
Lord Roberts of Kandahar, see Roberts, Frederick Sleigh.
Lotz, Walther (1865–1941), German economist; member of the Society for Social Policy who specialized in studies of the banking industry. A colleague of Wilhelm Roscher and Lujo Brentano, he was associated with the Younger Historical School of Economics; his most important work was Public Finance (1917), a largely empirical study.
Louis-Philippe (1773–1850), King of France from 1830 to 1848. Proclaimed king after the 1830 Revolution, he was forced from power by the Revolution of 1848 and spent the rest of his life in England. He was the last king of France.
McCulloch, John Ramsay (1789–1864), Scottish economist, leading figure of the Ricardian school of classical political economy; sought to “defend” the labor theory of value by arguing that nature and machinery are also sources of value. His work was strongly criticized by Marx, who considered his contribution a pale reflection of the accomplishments of Smith and Ricardo.
Maine, Henry James Sumner (1822–1888), English historian and jurist, author of a number of works on ancient society; his work highlighted the difference between the contractual nature of social relations of modernity versus status-based social relations of antiquity. An advisor to the British government in India, he wrote an influential work on communal village communities in precapitalist societies that was read and studied by Marx and Luxemburg.
Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834), English demographer and economist, popularized the theory that population growth increases faster than the rate of economic growth and availability of resources, thereby precluding the possibility of the progressive improvement of society; supported legislation that would prevent the poor and indignant from having children and large families.
Manteuffel, Otto Theodor von (1805–1882), Prussian conservative politician; became Prussian Minister of the Interior following the defeat of the 1848 revolutions and served as prime minister from 1850 to 1858; he initiated a series of economic reforms, mainly aimed at limiting state intervention in the economy.
Manuilov, Aleksander (1861–1929), Russian economist and politician; began his career as a Populist; later became a founding member of the Constitutional Democratic Party (the Kadets); in 1905 drafted the Kadets’ agrarian program. In 1896 translated Marx’s Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy into Russian. Served as Minister of Education in Kerensky’s provisional government of 1917. From 1924 to his death he served as administrator of Gosbank, the Soviet state bank.
Marchlewski, Julian (nicknames: Julek, Juleczek) (pseudonyms: J. Karski, Johannes Kämpfer) (1866–1925), Polish Social Democrat; 1889, cofounder of the Union of Polish Workers (ZRP); emigrated to Switzerland in 1893; helped produce the Social Democratic newspaper Sprawa Robotnicza together with Rosa Luxemburg, Leo Jogiches, and Adolf Warski; 1893, a cofounder of the SDKP (which in 1900 became the SDKPiL); in 1896, moved to Germany; in 1898, became a contributor to Sächsische Arbeiter-Zeitung in Dresden and to Neue Zeit; undertook the editorship of Przegląd Robotnyczy in 1900; in 1902, together with Alexander Helphand founded, in Munich, a publishing house for progressive international literature; also in 1902, member of the staff of the Leipziger Volkszeitung, where until 1913 he was at times the editor; belonged to the German Left; in 1913/14, together with Luxemburg and Franz Mehring, edited Sozialdemokratische Korrespondenz; in 1915, editor of Wirtschaftliche Rundschau; co-founder of the Spartacus group; 1916–1918, interned in Havelberg; succeeded in reaching Moscow by way of Petrograd; returned to Berlin in January 1919.
Mehring, Franz (1846–1919), German historian, literary scholar, and political journalist, and leading German socialist; 1891–1913, contributor to Neue Zeit; from 1892 until 1895 was head of the association Freie Volksbühne; 1902–07, chief editor of Leipziger Volkszeitung; 1906–11, instructor in history at the SPD’s Central Party School in Berlin; a leading representative of the German Left; in 1913/14, together with Luxemburg and Julian Marchlewski, edited Sozialdemokratische Korrespondenz, and in April 1915, together with Luxemburg, the first issue of the journal Die Internationale; belonged to the International Group (Spartacus Group); 1917, member of the Prussian House of Deputies; co-founder of the Spartacus League and the German Communist Party.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer; one of the leading figures of the Italian Renaissance who sculpted the Pietà and David and served as an architect of St. Peter’s Basilica, among many other works.
Mignet, François-Auguste-Marie (1796–1884), French historian and politician. Author of influential History of the French Revolution as well as many other historical works on the Middle Ages and early modern European history. A political liberal, he served for many years as a minor official in the government of Louis-Phillipe. He edited a selection of Sismondi’s writings, entitled Political Economy and the Philosophy of Government.
Mikhailovsky, Nikolai (1842–1904), Russian sociologist and Populist; editor of the publication Otechestvennye Zapiski (Jottings from Our Native Land), in which he argued that Marx’s Capital stipulates that countries such as Russia needed to endure an extended period of capitalist development before being ready for socialism—a claim that Marx rejected in a famous letter to the publication. Mikhailovsky rejected the application of Darwinian principles of evolution to society and argued that the social organization of the Russian peasantry was in advance of those of Western Europe.
Mill, James (1773–1836), Scottish historian, economist, and political theorist; a major figure of classical political economy. Marx subjected his economic writings to careful scrutiny in the 1840s. His historical works include The History of British India, which has been widely criticized for helping to originate the theory of “oriental despotism.” Mill also wrote extensively on issues of ethics and psychology from a utilitarian perspective.
Mirabeau, Victor de Riqueti, Marquis de (1715–1789), French economist and leading Physiocrat. He edited the main organ of the Physiocrats, Journal de l’agriculture, du commerce, et des finances and wrote one of the earliest commentaries on Quesnay’s Tableau économique.
Molière, Jean-Baptiste (1622–1673), French playwright and actor, considered one of the greatest composers of comedies in the Western tradition; Luxemburg refers to his famous play Tartuffe, or, the Hypocrite in her Accumulation of Capital.
Monroe, James (1758–1831), U.S. politician and writer; studied law under Thomas Jefferson in the 1780s and became a member of the Continental Congress; opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution on the grounds that it conferred too much power to the executive branch of government. Served as Congressman, Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and U.S. President from 1817 to 1825; formulated the “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823, which opposed any European intervention in the Americas.
Montagu, William (1823–1890), British Conservative politician; served as Member of Parliament from 1848 to 1855; Duke of Manchester from 1855 until his death. In the 1880s he traveled to Canada, where he served as director of the Canada North-West Land Company, which engaged in real estate speculation and land purchases, often to the detriment of the Native American inhabitants and earlier European settlers.
Moravitz, Charles (1846–1914), German economist; wrote a study on the finances of the Ottoman Empire.
Morrill, Justin Smith (1810–1898), American politician; One of the founders of the U.S. Republican Party; served as U.S. Senator from Vermont from 1867 until his death. Sponsored the Morrill Act of 1862, which established federal funding for education throughout the U.S., and the Morrill Tariff Act (of 1861), which imposed a protective tariff and restricted free trade. The Act was amended several times during the Civil War in order to increase the amount of revenue flowing to the North.
Moshesh (also spelled Moshoeshoe and Mshweshwe) (1786–1870), founder and leader of the Sotho nation (called Basutoland by the whites) of South Africa. Under his leadership Sotho became a large and powerful state that fended off encroachments from both Boers and British imperialists. He successfully fought the Boers for control of the Caledon Valley and defeated two British armies in 1851 and 1852. He was ultimately defeated by the Boers in 1867; shortly thereafter, his territory was taken over by the British and annointed as the territory of Basutoland.
Müllner, Amandus Gottfried Adolf (1774–1829), German dramatic poet and playwright, author of the tragic drama Die Schuld, in which a man kills a man who is in love with his wife, only to find out he is his brother. Hegel cites the play in his Philosophy of Right, as does Marx in his correspondence.
Napoleon I (1769–1821), Emperor of France from 1804 to 1815. Rising through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution, he seized control of France and initiated a series of wars against reactionary European powers, known as the Napoleonic Wars. Initiated a series of legal reforms that laid the foundation of modern-day France, the Napoleonic Code. Died in exile in St. Helena.
Napoleon III (1808–1873), first President of France from 1848 to 1851 and Emperor of France from 1851 to 1870; presided over the extension of French control of Algeria, the building of the Suez Canal, and France’s seizure of Senegal and parts of Indo-China; decisively defeated in Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he was captured and later retired in England.
Oncken, Auguste (1844–1911), German economist, editor of the Complete Works of François Quesnay, published in 1888. His most famous book is a study of the impact of Adam Smith’s thought on the work of Immanuel Kant.
Oppenheim, Max Freiherr von (1860–1946), German historian and archaeologist; joined the German Foreign Office as an official in Cairo in the 1896 and authored numerous reports and essays on the politics and culture of the Arab world; a strong supporter of German imperialist policies, he sought close alliances with the Ottoman Empire while encouraging Arab revolts against British rule in India and other parts of the Middle East. He spent his last years as an archaeologist, at which time he was close to the Nazi regime.
Owen, Robert (1771–1858), Welsh social reformer, leading figure in utopian socialism; manager of a textile mill, he became a sharp critic of the inhumanity of capitalist industrialization and a leading figure in the cooperative movement. Although initially a follower of English liberals like Jeremy Bentham, he embraced socialism and became a firm critic of the free market; argued for the creation of freely-associated townships based on common ownership, which he applied in creating New Harmony, Indiana; also established an equitable labor exchange, in which distribution of the products of labor was effected by use of labor notes instead of money.
Pannekoek, Anton (1873–1960), Dutch astronomer and leading Social Democrat from the 1890s; one of the first to attack Bernstein for revisionism, in 1898; in 1907, one of the founders of the newspaper De Tribune, organ of the left wing of the Dutch Social Democratic Workers Party; leading figure in Second International; a sharp critic of imperialism and Kautsky’s reluctance to forcefully oppose it, in 1910; beginning in 1910, active with the German Left. Wrote one of the first reviews of Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital. During World War I, which he strongly opposed, took part in editing Vorbote (Herald), publication of the Zimmerwald Left; from 1920s onward, important left-wing critic of Bolsheviks, advocated “council communism” based on direct rule by workers’ councils.
Park, Mungo (1771–1806), Scottish explorer of west and central Africa, the first Westerner to navigate the course of the Niger River; his Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, one of the first detailed accounts of the interior of West Africa, was a highly influential work; died while leading a second expedition to the Niger River.
Pasha, Isma’il (1830–1895), Viceroy of Egypt from 1863, he helped introduce large-scale cotton cultivation to Egypt in response to the U.S. Civil War; in 1866 became Khedive, making Egypt largely independent of Ottoman rule. He initiated a series of social and political reforms aimed at modernizing Egypt but was widely criticized for granting major economic concessions to a number of European powers.
Peel, Robert (1788–1850), British Conservative politician; served as prime minister in the mid-1830s and mid-1840s; sponsored the Factory Act of 1844, which placed modest restrictions on the working day for women and children; served as prime minister during the Great Irish Famine, which he did little to prevent. In 1846 he worked to repeal the Corn Laws, breaking with the protectionist stance that had long defined the Tories.
Peffer, William A. (1831–1912), U.S. Populist politician; initially a Republican, he edited the Kansas Farmer in the early 1880s. Served in the U.S. Senate as a Populist from 1891 to 1897; after leaving political office, he wrote a number of works detailing the plight of farmers.
Petty, William (1623–1687), English economist; a forerunner of classical political economy, he was one of the first thinkers to formulate, as part of the field of study termed by him “political arithmetic,” a labor theory of value; he was also a forerunner of the theory of free market economics. Served as a secretary of Thomas Hobbes and worked as an official in Oliver Cromwell’s administration of Ireland.
Plekhanov, Georgi (1856–1918), Russian revolutionary and Marxist theoretician; originally a Populist, he became an avowed Marxist in the early 1880s and established, in 1883, the Emancipation of Labor Group; author of many books on politics, economics, and philosophy, he coined the term “dialectical materialism”; leader of the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP from 1903; one of the only party leaders not to return to Russia during the 1905 Revolution, he sharply opposed the Bolsheviks on the basis of an economic determinist and unilinear evolutionist understanding of historical development; a strong supporter of World War I, he sharply opposed the Bolshevik seizure of power as well as left-wing Mensheviks such as Martov; left Russia following the October Revolution.
Pressel, Wilhelm von (1821–1902), German engineer and politician; helped secure funding for the construction of the Baghdad Railway, with the aim of linking Central Europe with the Middle East; in 1871 he became director of the Asian Ottoman Railway Company. Although the Baghdad Railway was not completed in his lifetime, he was instrumental in providing Turkey with its first internal railway.
Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1809–1865), French political theorist and economist, the first person to term himself as anarchist. His early work, such as What Is Property?, influenced a wide number of radical nineteenth century thinkers, including Marx; his effort to utilize neo-Ricardian principles to organize exchange on the basis of commodity production led Marx to sharply criticize his ideas in the Poverty of Philosophy. Advocated workers’ cooperatives and private property as well as the formation of a national bank to help redistribute wealth from capital to labor; his ideas had enormous impact on the workers’ movements in nineteenth-century France.
Qin Shi Huang (260–210 BC), first emperor of China; leader of Qin from 246 BC during the Warring States period, became the leader of a unified Chinese empire in 221 BC after a series of protracted military conquests; he standardized units of measurement, Chinese writing, and currency while also developing an extensive series of roads and fortifications, including the northern fortifications known as the Great Wall as well as the Lingqu Canal; harshly repressed Confucianism and other independent schools of thought in favor of Legalism; his mausoleum in Xian, with its terracotta warriors, is one of the largest tombs ever constructed.
Quesnay, François (1694–1774), French economist and leading figure of the Physiocratic school; best known for his Tableau Économique, the first effort to work out a systematic model of social reproduction; he coined the term laissez-faire.
Ramsay, George (1800–1871), English political economist; a critic of Adam Smith, authored An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth (1836), in which he distinguished between variable and constant capital; he is considered one of the last of the classical political economists.
Reimarus, Johann Albert Heinrich (1729–1814), German economist and natural historian; introduced smallpox vaccination to Germany and wrote several works on the nature of lightning.
Renner, Karl (1870–1950), Austrian Social Democrat; member of the “Austro-Marxist” school; joined Austrian Social Democratic Workers’ Party in 1896 and represented the party in parliament from 1907 to 1918; wrote extensively on law as well as the national question, arguing for the autonomy of ethnic minorities within an Austro-Hungarian federation. Served as Chancellor of Austria from 1918 to 1920 and later President of Parliament; initially supported the Anschluss with Hitler’s Germany in 1938 on the grounds that Hitler’s rule would prove temporary; in 1945 served as the first chancellor of post-war Austria.
Rhodes, Cecil (1853–1902), British businessman and imperialist; moved to South Africa in 1870; became chairman of De Beers Mining Company in the 1880s, from which he amassed a huge fortune. He entered politics in 1880 and became Prime Minister of Cape Colony, in 1890; a fervent support of British colonialism, he founded the territory of Rhodesia after waging a series of bloody wars against the Ndebele and Shona peoples. An uncompromising racist, he insisted on the “superiority” of the Anglo-Saxon “race.”
Ricardo, David (1772–1823), English political economist; a central figure in classical political economy, he extended its discoveries with his writings on the labor theory of value, the theory of comparative advantage, and the theory of rent. His ideas proved highly influential among free market economists as well as radical critics of capitalism who sought to address the unequal distribution of the proceeds of labor in capitalism.
Rinaldo, Geovanni (1720–1795), Italian economist and politician; wrote several influential works on the nature of money and the balance of trade; served as head of the Council of Political Economy in Tuscany during the 1760s.
Roberts, Frederick Sleigh (Lord Roberts of Kandahar) (1832–1914), British soldier and imperialist; helped suppress the Sepoy Rebellion in India in 1857–58; later led British forces in the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1879–80, where he defeated Afghan leader Ayub Khan at the Battle of Kandahar; served as Governor of Natal in South Africa and later returned to South Africa (after serving in Ireland) to command forces in the Second Boer War; in 1885 became Commander in Chief of British forces in India. An unrelenting militarist, he argued for an armed response to German military growth in the years preceding World War I.
Rodbertus, Johann Karl (1805–1875), German economist who advocated a conservative version of socialism based on state ownership of the economy; on the basis of the labor theory of value, he argued that workers’ share in social wealth becomes progressively reduced with the development of capitalism, leading to the overproduction of commodities; favored state intervention in the economy to impose an equilibrium of production and consumption.
Rossi, Pellegrino (1787–1848), Italian economist and conservative politician; lived in France from 1833 to 1848, where he became a professor of political economy; returned to Italy after the 1848 Revolution and served as an ambassador for the Papal States.
Rothstein, Theodore (1871–1953), socialist and communist activist and writer; born in Russia but moved to Britain in 1890, where he became a journalist and joined (in 1895) the Social Democratic Federation; in 1900 became leading activist in British Socialist Party; opposed World War I and played important role in founding Community Party of Great Britain. He was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party from 1901, siding with the Bolsheviks; Lenin often stayed at his house during trips to London. In 1910 published Egypt’s Ruin, a condemnation of British policies in Egypt. Moved to Russia in 1920 and lived there until his death; from 1922 worked in the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.
Rusk, Jeremiah McLain (1830–1893), American politician and farmer; member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin from 1871–77 and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1889 to 1993.
Sa’id Pasha, Muhammad (1822–1863), Egyptian politician; Walid (or leader) of Egypt and Sudan from 1854 to 1863; although officially a surrogate of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt became effectively independent during his rule. In 1854 he granted the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps the concession to build the Suez Canal. During his reign the first railroads were constructed in Egypt.
Saint-Simon, Claude Henri de Rouroy, comte de (1760–1825), French political theorist and philosopher; advocated a form of statist socialism based on utilizing the power of modern industry; his advocacy of science as the key to progress helped pave the way for positivism. He was not a revolutionary, appealing instead to the agents of existing society to implement such ideals as full employment, social equality, and meritocracy.
Say, Jean-Baptiste (1767–1832), French political economist, defended classical liberal views of free competition, free trade, and lifting governmental restraints on the activities of businesses; formulated Say’s Law, which claims that aggregate supply creates its own aggregate demand. His work was highly influential among such figures as James Mill and John Stuart Mill, as well as later neo-liberal economists.
Schäffle, Albert (1831–1903), German sociologist and political economist, supporter of capitalism but argued (especially in the last decades of his life) for collective ownership of property and planned organization of production; also wrote on ways to replace the existing monetary system through the use of labor-based time chits or vouchers; Marx read and criticized his work, in 1881.
Scheibert, Justus (1831–1903), German soldier; served in Prussian army as an officer in the 1850s and 1860s; sent by the Prussian government to observe the U.S. Civil War. He later taught military strategy in Germany.
Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich von (1759–1805), German poet, historian, playwright, and philosopher. One of the most outstanding representatives of the German enlightenment, he made important contributions on aesthetics, ethics, and the meaning of human emancipation. His distinction between overcoming the divide between “formal drive” and “sensuous drive” through the realization of the “play drive” anticipates later utopian thinkers and had an especially important impact on the thought of such twentieth-century critical theorists as Herbert Marcuse.
Schippel, Max (1859–1928), German Social Democrat and journalist; originally a follower of Rodbertus and Albert Schäffle, he was a long-time leader of the revisionist wing of the SPD. He supported German imperialism and militarism and was a strong supporter of World War I.
Schmoller, Gustav von (1838–1917), leading Kathedersozialist, or “Socialist of the Chair.” Leading member of the inductive historical school of economics that opposed both classical political economy and marginal utility theory. Advocated social reforms along the lines of a corporativist union of labor and industry. He was an outspoken supporter of German militarism and imperialism; strong supporter of Bismarck’s policies.
Schulze-Delitzsch, Franz Hermann (1808–1883), German left-of-center economist who organized some of the world’s first credit unions and worked to create “people’s banks” to make capital more readily available to small businessmen and traders. Ferdinand Lassalle sharply critiqued him (in Herr Bastiat—Schulze von Delitzsch, der ökonomische Julian, oder Kapital und Arbeit) for promoting policies that were not conducive to the struggles and aims of the working class.
Seng Ko Lin Ch’in (birth date unknown; died 1865), soldier and general; of Mongol origin, he was appointed a chamberlain of the Imperial Guard of the Manchus in 1834; in 1853, led military forces against revolutionaries in the Taiping Rebellion; for several years commanded Manchu forces against British and French troops during their invasion of China in 1858–60; in the 1860s helped suppress a series of domestic uprisings against the Manchus.
Sering, Max (1857–1939), German economist; traveled to Argentina in the 1880s to study agricultural techniques; specialized in agricultural economics upon becoming professor of economics at the University of Berlin in the 1890s, and soon became known as one of the most important figures in the field at the time in Europe. Authored several works on agriculture in North America and workers’ committees in German industry.
Siemens, Georg (1839–1901), German financier and politician; served on the board of the Deutsche Bank, one of the largest in Europe, from 1870 to 1900. He helped finance numerous railroad projects, including the Northern Pacific and the planned Baghdad Railroad; served in the Reichstag as a Liberal from 1874 until his death.
Simons, Algie Martin (1870–1950), American socialist and journalist; founding member of the Socialist Party of America and editor of The International Socialist Review from 1900 to 1908; author of the book Social Forces in U.S. History and numerous articles, some of which were cited by Luxemburg. He moved to the right during World War I, breaking from the SP and heading a delegation in support of Kerensky’s Provisional Government; he became a conservative in his later years.
Sismondi, Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de (1773–1842), Swiss economist and historian; denied capitalism tended toward conditions of equilibrium and full employment, arguing that a lack of aggregate demand led to persistent economic crises. Although a critic of classical political economy’s emphasis on an unrestricted free market, he was not a socialist but rather called upon the existing state to regulate the distribution of social wealth. His work represents a forerunner of the theory of underconsumptionism.
Škoda, Emil von (1839–1900), Czech engineer and industrialist; built a series of armament plants that was the largest industrial enterprise in Austro-Hungarian Empire and became known as the Škoda Works. It played a pivotal role in arms manufacturing during both World War I and World War II.
Skvortsov-Stepanov, Ivan (1870–1928), Russian revolutionary; joined radical movement in 1892 and became member of Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1904; served on the editorial board of Borba; from 1907 to 1910 supported Trotsky’s Mezhraiontsky faction; close to Lenin after 1917, he served as People’s Commissar for Finance in the Bolshevik government.
Smith, Adam (1723–1790), Scottish philosopher and economist, leading figure of classical political economy. Popularized the labor theory of value in his major and path-breaking work, The Wealth of Nations (1776). Although often considered a leading proponent of laissez-faire capitalism, he supported government intervention in the economy to mitigate against monopolies and help ameliorate severe poverty and inequality.
Sombart, Werner (1863–1941), German economist and sociologist, leading figure in the “Young Historical School” of empirical-based social theory. Studied under Gustav von Schmoller and later befriended such figures as Max Weber and Carl Schmitt. An avowed Marxist in his early years, his major works are Der modern Kapitalismus (Modern Capitalism) (1902) and Why There Is No Socialism in the United States (1906), a highly influential work that promoted the myth of American exceptionalism. By the 1930s he moved to the right and supported a corporativist fusion of state power and economic development.
Stokes, John (1825–1902), English general and politician; served in South Africa, where he participated in the “War of the Axe” in the 1840s (also known as the Frontier Wars); in the 1850s he was a commander in the Crimean War. A member of Parliament in the 1870s, he was sent to Egypt to report on its financial condition for the British government; during his stay in Egypt, the British government obtained a 40 percent share in the Suez Canal. He later served as Vice President of the Suez Canal Company.
Strabo (64 BC–24 AD), Greek historian and geographer, author of Geography, the most comprehensive study of the history and terrain of the world known to Greeks and Romans of the time; lived much of his life in Rome, though he traveled to Egypt, Ethiopia, Asia Minor, and the Middle East. The rediscovery of his work during the Renaissance provided invaluable information about the ancient world.
Stevens, Thaddeus (1792–1868), U.S. politician, writer, and Abolitionist; leader of the Radical Republicans during the 1860s; elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 1840s, where he became a major advocate of public education; elected to Congress in 1848 and became leading congressional voice against slavery; argued during and after the Civil War that freed slaves should be provided with land confiscated from white slaveholders; a pivotal figure in passage of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, he led the campaign to impeach Andrew Johnson.
Struve, Peter Berngardovich (1870–1944), Russian political economist and writer; became a leading figure among the Legal Marxists in the 1890s; argued that Russia could and should endure an extended period of capitalist industrialization before being ready for socialism; as he later admitted, “socialism never roused the slightest emotion in me”; by 1900 he moved to the right and made a transition to liberalism; in 1905 became founder of the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party; supported Russia’s entry into World War I and moved further to the right, becoming a severe critic of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and supporter of the White counterrevolutionary armies.
T’an Ting-hsiang (birth and death dates unknown), Chinese administrator; served as Viceroy of Chihli Province during the Qing (or Manchu) Dynasty in the 1850s; led Chinese forces against British and French troops during their invasion of China.
Taussig, Frank William (1859–1940), American economist who made important empirical and theoretical studies on tariffs and customs duties; favored free trade and opposed government intervention in the economy; although close to neoclassical economists, he opposed the subjectivist turn in economic theory of the Austrian School in favor of greater emphasis on the social and historical context of economic behavior. Author of The Tariff History of the United States (1888) and Principles of Economics (1911) and other works. Served as President of American Economic Association from 1904 to 1905 and headed the U.S. Tariff Commission from 1917 to 1919. He taught for many years at Harvard University.
Thompson, William (1775–1833), Irish economist and social reformer; used Smith and Ricardo’s labor theory of value to critique capitalist exploitation by attacking the discrepancy between the value of the product and the value of workers’ wages. He advocated a cooperative form of communism based on the independent resources of the working class.
Timur (1336–1405), Mongol-Turkic conqueror and founder of the Timurid dynasty; also known as Tamerlane; originally from modern Uzbekistan, he conquered an enormous area, including the Middle East, southern Russia, Persia, and northern India; died while en route to conquer China. Though known as one of the most brutal conquerors in history, he was also a patron of the arts and sciences and helped make his capital Samarkand one of the most splendid cities of the medieval world.
Tooke, Thomas (1774–1858), English economist; his work centered on the theory of money and economic statistics. A supporter of free trade, he helped found, along with David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and James Mill, the Political Economy Club in 1821. He was author of the six-volume History of Prices, an exhaustive study of financial and commercial history from the 1790s to the 1840s.
Tucker, Josiah (1713–1799), Welsh economist and writer; his writings on free trade were influential upon the Physiocrats as well as Adam Smith; a firm critic of monopolies and protectionist measures, he also opposed social contract theory. He argued as early as 1749 that the American colonies would seek independence from Britain, a cause he later supported.
Tugan-Baranovsky, Mikhail (1865–1919), Ukrainian economist and politician, a representative of “Legal Marxism”; helped develop the theory of long waves of capitalist development, later taken up by thinkers such as N. Kondratiev; critical of both the labor theory of value and neoclassical marginal utility theory, he moved away from Marxism after the turn of the century toward neo-Kantianism; criticized extensively in Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital. He became a leading opponent of the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was active in the Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Federalists.
Turgot, Anne-Robert-Jacques, Baron de Laune (1727–1781), French economist and politician, a leading figure of the Physiocrats; supported free trade and economic liberalism. Served in several posts in the French government in the 1770s, including Controller-General; sought to reduce France’s budget deficit while resisting efforts to increase taxes on land. He supported “enlightened” monarchical rule.
Thyssen, August (1842–1926), German industrialist; in 1867 founded the Thyssen-Foussol iron works in Duisburg, which over time became the basis of one the largest industrial conglomerates in Europe, Vereinigte Strahlwerke AG.
Tzu Hsi, Empress Dowager (also known as Cixi) (1835–1908), the leader of the Manchu Dynasty from 1861 to 1908. An imperial concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in the 1850s, she became Empress Dowager upon his death in 1861; consolidated power in her own hands and emerged as the effective ruler of China; strongly opposed westernization and needed political reforms, although she strengthened the military forces of the Manchus.
Vaihinger, Hans (1852–1933), German philosopher; a scholar of Immanuel Kant and author of The Philosophy of the “As If”; basing himself on Kant’s notion of the unknowability of things-in-themselves, it argued that humans act as if their constructs of thought correspond to reality; he is viewed by many as a precursor of the theory of paradigms.
Vaucanson, Jacques de (1709–1782), French inventor and artist; created one of the first automatic looms; served for a time as Inspector of Manufacture under King Louis XV. He also invented a number of machine tools, such as the slide rest lathe.
Viceroy Yeh, see Ye Mingchen.
Victoria, Queen (1819–1901), Queen of Great Britain from 1837 to her death; presided over the British Empire at the zenith of its power.
Vorländer, Karl (1860–1928), German neo-Kantian philosopher who explored the ramifications of Kant’s philosophy for socialist thought; wrote a widely acclaimed biography of Kant as well as a history of philosophy; author of Kant, Hegel, and Socialism (1920).
Vorontsov, Vasily Pavlovich (1847–1918), Russian sociologist and Populist; favored measures to protect the indigenous communal formations of the Russian peasantry as a basis for a socialist transformation of society; argued that the lack of markets meant that Russia did not possess the economic and social conditions required for capitalistic industrialization; one of the first Russians to study Marx’s writings, whose work he held in high regard; sharply opposed the economic determinism of the orthodox Marxists who held that a capitalist stage was inevitable and necessary in Russia.
Wagner, Adolph (1835–1917), German economist and statist socialist. A political conservative, he opposed the aims of the workers’ movement in favor of supporting Bismarck and German imperial expansion; in 1878 he joined the anti–Semitic Christian Social Party. Author of one of the first critical discussions of Marx’s Capital in Germany, which Marx responded to at length.
Wilson, Charles Rivers (1831–1916), British financier and imperialist politician; in 1876 went to Egypt and became a director of the Suez Canal Company; shortly thereafter, was appointed the Financial Minister of Egypt; in 1880 became President of the Commission for the Liquidation of the Egyptian Debt, which imposed harsh austerity upon Egypt as part of an effort to compel its government to pay its foreign debt. During this period he effectively controlled Egypt’s finances to the benefit of the British authorities.
Wilson, Horace Hayman (1786–1860), English orientalist who lived and worked for many years in India; he promoted the study of Sanskrit, published the first English-Sanskrit dictionary, and translated numerous works of Indian drama and literature into English. He fiercely opposed the British colonial effort to make English the sole language of instruction in Indian schools. Initially trained in medicine, he took a keen interest in Indian medical and surgical practices.
Wilson, James (1805–1860), English political economist and politician; became a spokesman for the Anti-Corn Law League in the 1840s; in 1847 became a member of Parliament; in 1859, moved to India and became Finance Member of the Viceroy of India Council, where he was largely responsible for the state of India’s finances. Along with several others, wrote Historical and Descriptive Account of British India in the 1840s.
Wirth, Max (1822–1900), German economist and journalist, primarily known for his studies of the labor market. Most important work was Geschichte der Handelskrisen, a study of the history of economic crises.
Wirth, Moritz (1849–1917), German economist; edited and published the works of Rodbertus after his death. Engels, who took issue with Moritz’s claim that Marx had copied some of his ideas from Rodbertus, critically discusses his work in a letter to Conrad Schmidt of 1890.
Witte, Johannes Heinrich H. (1846–1908), German philosopher and philologist; Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bonn in 1880s and 1890s; authored numerous books and articles on Kant’s epistemology and ethics as well as studies of Lessing, Herder, and Salomon Maimon.
Ye Mingchen (birth date unknown; died 1858); Chinese official of Manchu Dynasty; became Governor of Guangdong Province in 1848 and resisted efforts by Britain to gain control of Guangzhou during the Opium Wars; later appointed Viceroy of Liangguang and Imperial Commissioner; captured by the British during the Second Opium War, he died in captivity.