This paper goes through the main classical authors’ positions on the virtues and the limitations of both competition and socialism. The first section retrieves the evolution of socialistic ideas in England until the first half of the nineteenth century, highlighting Owen’s thesis. After...

This paper examines the classical economists’ views on the virtues and limitations of competition contrasted with the projects of socialism existent at the time. The first section retrieves the evolution of socialistic doctrines in England and France until the first half of the nineteenth...