Diversity of Products/Services and Invitation to the Table
While Anonymous was often quite optimistic, this social observer was well aware of ways that the natural laws of interdependence can fall short. Cautionary notes were offered by Anonymous. The role played by protection speaks to this need for caution. Furthermore, the challenge of harmony is extended by Anonymous well beyond United States boundaries. Anonymous notes “the ruin of the people of Ireland” (Anonymous, 1849, vol. II, p. 18) which is related to the potato famine that devastated Ireland through the mid-19th Century and led to the immigration of many Irish to North America—and to work in the New England mills that Anonymous extolls.
The Irish leaders were not invited to the table of 19th Century international commerce and did not benefit from the diversity of production that Anonymous identifies as critical to a harmony of interest. The Irish people were relying on one product (potatoes) based in agriculture—with no thriving industry as an effective exchange mechanism. Instead, we find the exchange many miles away (in New England mills) and far from being equitable and of mutual interest for those Irish immigrants working in the mills (Sun and Bergquist, 2021).
As Anonymous noted, the leaders of a country should “put not too many eggs in one basket.” (Anonymous, 1849, vol II, p. 58)—and a diversified basket requires collaboration among entities within a country and between countries. To bring about this diversification, Anonymous focuses on societal structures that are themselves quite diverse. They range from transportation systems and public policies that influence migration patterns to quality of land for raising crops and quality of machinery for producing goods, Anonymous’ harmony of interest requires diversification of enterprise—and this diversification ultimately requires diversity at the table.
There was neither harmony of interest between the Irish people and those sitting at the international market exchange, nor harmony of interest among those running the looms in New England mills and those (like the Cabots and Lowells who owned the mills). We might (with Anonymous) similarly identify the absence of citizens of other countries (such as India and most of Africa), who were subject to colonization by powerful European leaders of commerce and politics. Anonymous writes of the “ruin” of manufacturing in India, (Anonymous, 1849, vol II, p. 19) as well as in the West Indies and even Canada (all under British control). (Anonymous, 1849, vol II, p. 20). Even mid-19th Century Russia and Germany do not escape Anonymous’ assessment of dysfunction and lack of harmony (Anonymous, 1849, vol II, p. 89). England is constantly to be found in Anonymous’ critical analysis (especially in comparisons drawn with apparently harmony of interest in the United States).
Anonymous notes that “colonization is urged on all hands, and All unit in the effort to force emigration in the direction need to raise up “colonies of customers.” This strategy was not only shown by Anonymous to be unrealistic, but also to be a source of the disharmony that existed between the colonists and those subject to colonial rule. While Anonymous was not acquainted with the Behavioral Economist 21st Century concern regarding who is invited to the table (thus sustaining the critique offered by Marx and most other liberal social observers), this keen observer was fully aware of the destructive impact of an unfair distribution of economic power and control between 19th Century nations.
