Economic theory and political action: “labour is the source of all wealth” in chartist thought

This paper explores the intellectual sources and uses of the idea that “labour is the source of all wealth” during the Chartist movement. Having established the centrality of the idea (and its various manifestations) within the language of Chartism, the paper finds that reformers often turned to Locke, Smith, J.R. McCulloch and, to a lesser extent, Ricardo for intellectual validation – using their ideas in ways not originally intended by the theorists they cited. Interestingly, reformers used the idea both as a coherent statement of working-class consciousness to unite labourers against their employers; and as a continuation of the radical position that separated the “industrious” (both labourers and their employers) from the “idlers” (landowners and political elites). “Labour is the source of all wealth” provided a versatile rhetorical framework that accommodated diverse interests within a movement characterised by complexity, internal tensions, and ideological heterogeneity.