Robert Owen
Robert Owen was born on the 14th of May 1771 in Newtown, a small market town in Montgomeryshire, Wales. His father worked as a saddler and ironmonger while his mother came from a farming family nearby. Young Robert received little formal education yet he became an avid reader during his childhood years. He left school at age ten to apprentice as a draper in Stamford, Lincolnshire for four years. Later he worked in London drapery shops throughout his teenage years before moving to Manchester at eighteen. That city would become the stage for his first major business ventures and social experiments.
Owen purchased the New Lanark mill in Scotland with partners in July 1799 and took full management control by January 1800. The facility employed about two thousand people including five hundred children brought from poorhouses in Edinburgh and Glasgow. He raised the standard of goods workers produced by installing colored cubes above each machine that displayed quality levels. This silent monitor system replaced corporal punishment with visual feedback for every employee. Owen also reduced working hours to eight hours labor plus eight hours recreation and eight hours rest by 1817. The community earned international attention when Tsar Nicholas I visited to study its methods alongside other statesmen and royalty.
Owen opened the National Equitable Labour Exchange system in 1832 where goods exchanged used time-based currency called labour notes. This London exchange operated until 1833 while a Birmingham branch ran just a few months ending in July 1833. He briefly led the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union before its collapse occurred in 1834. The Association of All Classes of All Nations formed in 1835 with Owen serving as initial leader. By 1846 the Co-operative movement remained the only lasting result from decades of agitation through public meetings pamphlets periodicals and occasional treatises. His principles became the creed of many working class people according to Westminster Review commentary in
1839.
Owen publicly claimed all religions were false in 1817 yet converted to spiritualism at age eighty-three in 1854 after sittings with Maria B. Hayden. The American medium credited with introducing spiritualism to England facilitated this transformation into a new faith. He made public profession of this belief through publications like The Rational Quarterly Review and pamphlet titled The Future of the Human Race. Owen claimed medium contact with spirits including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to change present disunited state of human existence. He died on the 17th of November 1858 in Newtown where he was buried four days later on the 21st of November.
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Common questions
When and where was Robert Owen born?
Robert Owen was born on the 14th of May 1771 in Newtown, a small market town in Montgomeryshire, Wales.
What management system did Robert Owen implement at New Lanark mill?
Robert Owen installed colored cubes above each machine to display quality levels as a silent monitor system that replaced corporal punishment with visual feedback for every employee. He also reduced working hours to eight hours labor plus eight hours recreation and eight hours rest by 1817.
How long did the National Equitable Labour Exchange operated by Robert Owen last?
The London exchange opened by Robert Owen in 1832 operated until 1833 while a Birmingham branch ran just a few months ending in July 1833.
Why did Robert Owen convert to spiritualism in 1854?
Robert Owen converted to spiritualism after sittings with Maria B. Hayden who was an American medium credited with introducing spiritualism to England. He made public profession of this belief through publications like The Rational Quarterly Review and pamphlet titled The Future of the Human Race.
When and where did Robert Owen die?
Robert Owen died on the 17th of November 1858 in Newtown where he was buried four days later on the 21st of November.