A.D. 1776 
—~1850. 
not only in 
his schools 
and co- 
operative 
store, but 
LAISSEZ FAIRE 
attracted in considerable quantities from the Highlands. 
The mills had been admirably managed by Mr David Dale, 
who had established them?!, and Owen made few changes at 
first. After he had had fourteen years’ experience, the business 
at New Lanark was reconstructed on lines which gave him 
a freer hand to develop educational institutions?; these were 
partly supported by the profits of a shop at which articles of 
good quality were sold in small quantities at moderate prices. 
About the same time he formulated his doctrines more 
definitely in his New View of Society®; he insisted on the 
752 
1 See the account by Sir T. Bernard in the Reports of the Society for Bettering 
the Condition of the Poor, mi. 251. Mr Dale took workhouse children ai an early 
age, but though they were well fed and cared for, Owen regarded the arrangement 
as injurious and discontinued it. Reports, etc. 1816, 1x. 254. 
? Owen's evidence before the Committee in 1816 is very instructive. * There is 
a preparatory school into which all the children, from the age of three to six, are 
admitted at the option of the parents; there isa gecond school, in which all the 
children of the population from six to ten are admitted; and if any of the parents 
from being more easy in their circumstances and getting a higher value upon 
instruction, wish to continue their children at school, for one, two, three or four 
years longer, they are at liberty to do so. 
“A store was opened at the establishment into which provisions of the best 
quality, and clothes of the most useful kind were introduced, to be sold at the option 
of the people, at a price sufficient to cover prime cost and charges, and to cover 
the accidents of such a business, it being understood at the time that whatever 
profits arose from this establishment these profits should be employed for the 
general benefit of the workpeople themselves; and these school establishments 
aave been supported as well as other things by the surplus profits, because in 
consequence of the pretty general moral habits of the people there have been very 
{ew losses by bad debts, and although they have been supplied considerably under 
the price of provisions in the neighbourhood, yet the surplus profits have in all 
cases been sufficient to bear the expense of these school establishments; therefore 
they have been literally supported by the people themselves. 
«1 have found other and very important advantages in a pecuniary view from 
this arrangement and these plans. In consequence of the individuals observing 
that real attention is given to their comforts and to their improvements, they are 
willing to work at much lower wages at that establishment.” He added an 
example of a man getting 18s. a week, who went to Glasgow for 21s. and was glad 
io come back for 14s. 
The schools did not succeed in Manchester because the children could go 
into the mannfactories younger. Owen only took them at 10. “I found that 
there were such strong inducements held out, from the different manufactories in 
the town and neighbourhood, to the parents, to send the children early to work, 
that it counterbalanced any inclination such people had to send them to school.” 
Reports, 1816, mt. p. 256, printed pagination 22. 
8 “Any general character from the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to 
the most enlightened, may be given to any community even to the world at large, 
by the application of proper means; which means are to a great extent at the 
sommand and under the control of those who have influence in the affairs of