Samuel George Hobson, often known as S. G. Hobson (4 February 1870 – 4 January 1940), was an Anglo-Irish writer and socialist, perhaps best known as a theorist of

guild socialism Guild socialism is an ideology and a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at ...

Biography

Born in

Bessbrook Bessbrook ( Irish: ''An Sruthán'') is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about three miles (5 km) northwest of Newry and near the Newry bypass on the main A1 Belfast-Dublin road and Belfast-Dublin railway line. Today t ...

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

, Hobson was given a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

education in

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. Th ...

and then

Sidcot Winscombe is a large village in the North Somerset unitary district of Somerset, South West England, close to the settlements of Axbridge and Cheddar, Somerset, Cheddar, on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, southeast of Weston-super-Mare ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. Moving to

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, he became an active

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, joining first the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

and then becoming a founder member of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...

(ILP). He began writing for the ILP newspaper, ''

Labour Leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of th ...

'', and in 1900 was elected to the Fabian Society's executive. Hobson stood for the ILP in the 1895 general election at

Bristol East Bristol East is a constituency recreated in 1983 covering the eastern part of the City of Bristol, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Kerry McCarthy of the Labour Party. Constituency profile Bristol East cove ...

, becoming a member of the

Bristol Socialist Society The Bristol Socialist Society was a political organisation in South West England. The group originated in 1885 as a local affiliate of the Social Democratic Federation. However, in 1886, it instead affiliated to the Socialist Union. When tha ...

for some years. In the

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

, he stood as an "independent Labour" candidate in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

. By this point, he was keen to go beyond the Labour Party's Parliamentary activity and create an actual socialist society. From 1906, Hobson developed a theory of a socialism based on

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

s, a form of

workers' self-management Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-managed economy, ...

inspired by Mediaeval forms of organisation. He left the Fabians in 1910 and soon began writing for

Alfred Richard Orage Alfred Richard Orage (22 January 1873 – 6 November 1934) was a British influential figure in socialist politics and modernist culture, now best known for editing the magazine '' The New Age'' before the First World War. While he was working ...

's magazine, ''

The New Age ''The New Age'' was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938),credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited by Alfred Richard Orage. It published work by many of the chief politi ...

''. He coined the term "guild socialism," and in 1914, his writing for the publication was compiled as ''National Guilds: an Inquiry into the Wage System and a Way Out''. He helped found the

National Guilds League Guild socialism is an ideology and a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at ...

, but following disagreements with

G. D. H. Cole George Douglas Howard Cole (25 September 1889 – 14 January 1959) was an English political theorist, economist, historian, and novelist. As a believer in common ownership of the means of production, he theorised guild socialism (production ...

over strategy, and ''The New Ages move to supporting

social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...

, he ceased theoretical work. Throughout this period, Hobson had been involved in various profitable activities, managing a banana

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

and editing an investment journal. Eventually, he attempted to organise a builders' guild, but this was not a success. Hobson wrote a memoir entitled "Pilgrim to the Left - Memoirs of a Modern Revolutionist" which was published by Longmans, Green & Co. in 1938.

References

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobson, Samuel George 1870 births 1940 deaths People from Bessbrook Quakers from Northern Ireland British socialists Independent Labour Party parliamentary candidates Members of the Fabian Society