Applying the Theory of the Labour Aristocracy to Analyse British Society

When examining class relations in Britain from the mid-to-late 19th century to the early 20th century, classical Marxist writers and some left-wing scholars all noted the existence of a “labour aristocracy.” Their exploration of this issue endowed the concept of the labour aristocracy with significance, making it one of the core concepts for understanding class relations, the labour movement, and imperialism in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

马克思主义经典作家和一些左翼学者在考察19世纪中后期至20世纪初英国阶级关系时，都注意到了“工人贵族”的存在。他们对这个问题的探讨，赋予工人贵族概念以重要性，使得它成为理解维多利亚时代与爱德华时代英国阶级关系、工人运动以及帝国主义的核心概念之一。

The Origins of the Concept of the Labour Aristocracy

工人贵族概念的起源

In the 1830s, some British observers began using the term “aristocracy” as a metaphor for the highest stratum among British manual workers. Subsequently, Engels and Lenin successively provided concise and classic expositions of the theory of the labour aristocracy. In the mid-to-late 20th century, British Marxist scholars such as Eric Hobsbawm further developed it. Generally speaking, the labour aristocracy refers to a group of privileged people within the working class; they belong to the upper working class and, compared with the mass of workers, enjoy higher incomes, better treatment, a more respectable life, and superior social status, while also being more moderate in their political stance.

19世纪30年代，英国一些观察家就开始使用“贵族”一词比喻英国手工工人中的最高阶层。此后，恩格斯和列宁先后对工人贵族理论做了简洁而经典的阐释。20世纪中后期，霍布斯鲍姆等英国马克思主义学者又有进一步阐发。一般而言，工人贵族是指工人阶级中一群拥有特权的人，他们属于上层工人阶级，与工人群众相比，他们收入更高、待遇更好、生活更体面、社会地位更优越，同时在政治立场上更温和。

Like many other concepts, the concept of the labour aristocracy lacks a unified definition, and many scholars have pointed out its vagueness and uncertainty. Some also argue that the labour aristocracy is not a rigorously elaborated concept and that it still provokes debate. Nevertheless, in the view of numerous Marxist theorists and left-wing scholars, the concept of the labour aristocracy can explain changes in class relations, the characteristics of the labour movement, and social and political developments in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, and even in later periods (such as the First World War).

与其他许多概念一样，工人贵族概念也不具有一个统一的定义，许多学者指出了它的模糊性和不确定性。还有人认为，工人贵族并不是一个得到严格阐释的概念，它现在仍然会引发辩论。不过，在众多马克思主义理论家和左翼学者看来，工人贵族概念可以解释英国维多利亚时代、爱德华时代甚至更晚时期（一战）阶级关系的变化、工人运动的特征以及社会和政治的发展。

The Classical Writers’ Theory of the Labour Aristocracy

经典作家的工人贵族理论

The use of the concept of the labour aristocracy by classical Marxist writers, especially the relevant discussions by Engels and Lenin, made it one of the important concepts in Marxist thought. Marx himself did not explicitly use the term “labour aristocracy,” but some of his remarks are related to it. In Volume I of *Capital*, Marx discusses the impact of crises on the “best paid” section of the working class; in a letter to Engels dated 9 April 1863, Marx pointed out that British workers were subject to “the obvious corruption of the bourgeoisie.” Thus, Marx’s analysis implies the concept of the “labour aristocracy.”

马克思主义经典作家对工人贵族概念的使用，尤其是恩格斯和列宁的相关讨论，让它成为马克思主义思想中的重要概念之一。马克思本人并没有明确使用“工人贵族”一词，不过，他的一些论述与之相关。在《资本论》第一卷中，马克思讨论了危机对工人阶级中“报酬最优厚”部分的影响；在1863年4月9日致恩格斯的一封信中，马克思指出英国工人受到“资产阶级对他们的明显的腐蚀”。由此可见，马克思的分析隐含了“工人贵族”概念。

Compared with Marx, Engels provided a more precise exposition of the labour aristocracy question. Engels first used the term “labour aristocracy” on 10 May 1871, when he wrote to Jung to discuss the strategy of the First International. Engels considered it necessary to broaden the influence of the International Workingmen’s Association among the London masses, so that they could free themselves from the labour aristocracy and its leaders, and noted that this was a question he and Marx had discussed many times. In March 1885, Engels published “England in 1845 and in 1885” in the journal *The Commonweal* of the Socialist League. In this short article, he gave a clear exposition of the theory of the labour aristocracy. Engels explicitly pointed out that the conditions of two categories of “protected” workers had undergone long-term improvement: first, factory workers, and second, the large trade unions. The trade unions were organisations mainly composed of adult males who possessed some skill, including mechanics, carpenters and joiners, bricklayers, and other trades. Engels believed that they formed an aristocracy within the working class.

与马克思相比，恩格斯对工人贵族问题有更确切的阐释。恩格斯第一次使用“工人贵族”这个词，是在1871年5月10日，当时，他致信荣格（Jung）讨论第一国际的策略问题。恩格斯认为有必要在伦敦群众中广泛扩大国际工人协会的影响，以便让他们摆脱工人贵族及其领袖而获得独立，并且指出这是他与马克思多次讨论过的问题。1885年3月，恩格斯在社会主义者同盟的杂志《公益》上发表《1845年和1885年的英国》。在这篇短文中，他对工人贵族理论做出了清晰阐述。恩格斯明确指出了两种“受到保护的”工人的状况得到长期的改善，其一是工厂工人，其二是庞大的工联。工联主要是由掌握某种技艺的成年男性构成的组织，包括机械工、粗细木工、泥瓦工等工种。恩格斯认为，他们形成了工人阶级中的贵族。

In Engels’s view, the material basis for the existence of the British labour aristocracy was precisely Britain’s privileged or monopoly position in the world economy. The British working class benefited from the imperialist expansionist enterprise, which led to the collapse of the socialist cause in Britain after the demise of Owenism. However, Engels soon pointed out that if Britain’s industrial monopoly position were weakened, then the working class, especially the labour aristocracy, would lose its privileged position and thus return to the socialist cause.

在恩格斯看来，英国工人贵族存在的物质基础，正是英国在世界经济中的特权或垄断地位。英国工人阶级从帝国主义扩张事业中受益，从而导致在欧文主义灭绝之后英国的社会主义事业一蹶不振。不过，恩格斯很快又指出，如果英国工业垄断地位被削弱，那么，工人阶级尤其是工人贵族就会丧失他们的特权地位，从而回归到社会主义事业。

Lenin’s classic exposition of the labour aristocracy appeared in three important articles published during the First World War: “Opportunism and the Collapse of the Second International,” “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” and “The Split in the Socialist Movement and Imperialism.” In these works, Lenin attempted to explain the submissiveness of the labour movements in various European countries during the First World War. Notably, Lenin’s study of the labour aristocracy question was linked to his many reflections on imperialism. Lenin’s core argument was that imperialism created privileged workers who became alienated from the proletarian masses, formed an alliance with the bourgeoisie, and bore responsibility for the failure of the working class to achieve international solidarity.

列宁对工人贵族的经典阐释，出现在第一次世界大战期间发表的三篇重要文章中，即《机会主义与第二国际的破产》《帝国主义是资本主义的最高阶段》以及《帝国主义和社会主义运动中的分裂》。在这些作品中，列宁尝试解释一战期间欧洲各国劳工运动的顺从性。值得注意的是，列宁对工人贵族问题的研究，与他对帝国主义的诸多思考联系在一起。列宁的核心观点就是，帝国主义创造了特权工人，他们疏远了无产阶级大众，与资产阶级结成同盟，他们要为工人阶级未能形成国际团结负责。

Lenin insisted that the decisive mechanism for the existence of the labour aristocracy was the deliberate bribery by the bourgeoisie of part of the working class in the imperialist centres. He pointed out that the bourgeoisie of the imperialist powers could obtain super-profits from the colonies, part of which could be used to buy off workers in their own countries. Thus, imperialism is an important background for the existence of the labour aristocracy, while the direct cause is the super-profits of the monopoly bourgeoisie. Lenin’s theory of the labour aristocracy inspired many scholars, including Hobsbawm.

列宁坚持认为，工人贵族之所以存在，其决定性的机制是资产阶级故意贿赂帝国主义中心地带的部分工人阶级。他指出，帝国主义大国的资产阶级能够从殖民地获得超额利润，其中一部分可以用来收买自己国家的工人。由此可见，帝国主义是工人贵族存在的一个重要背景，而直接的原因是垄断资产阶级的超额利润。列宁的工人贵族理论，启发了包括霍布斯鲍姆在内的诸多学者。

The Widespread Dissemination of the Theory of the Labour Aristocracy

工人贵族理论广为传播

In the early 1930s, the concept of the labour aristocracy spread widely among communist historians. In the mid-to-late 20th century, the labour aristocracy question once again received widespread attention and discussion, with the British historian Eric Hobsbawm playing a crucial role, even being called the “most famous advocate” of the concept. Hobsbawm explored many dimensions of the labour aristocracy, and his article “The Labour Aristocracy in Nineteenth-Century Britain” (1954) is regarded as the starting point for many discussions of the labour aristocracy.

20世纪30年代初，工人贵族概念在共产主义历史学家中广泛传播。20世纪中后期，工人贵族问题再次受到广泛关注和讨论，英国史学家霍布斯鲍姆在其中扮演了至关重要的角色，甚至被称为工人贵族概念“最著名的倡导者”。霍布斯鲍姆探讨了工人贵族的众多层面，他的《19世纪英国工人贵族》（1954）一文被视为诸多关于工人贵族讨论的出发点。

Like the classical Marxist theorists, Hobsbawm linked the “privileged stratum” of the working class, i.e., the labour aristocracy, to the benefits derived from Britain’s dominant position in the world economy in the 19th century. In the aforementioned article, Hobsbawm proposed six criteria for measuring the labour aristocracy: level and stability of income, prospects for social security, working environment, relations with social strata above and below, general living conditions, and future development prospects. Hobsbawm particularly emphasised the first criterion, regarding it as the primary one. According to Hobsbawm, the old labour aristocracy began to disintegrate from 1914 onwards. This was brought about by several factors. First, the 19th-century “basic industry” regions that had been strongholds of the labour aristocracy became depressed areas during the two world wars. Second, from 1914 to the 1950s, changes in the wage payment system led to a steady narrowing of the gap between “skilled workers” and “unskilled workers.” Third, the rise of a stratum of semi-skilled machine operators and the mechanisation of some industries weakened the position of the labour aristocracy. Fourth, the continuous development of white-collar, managerial, and technical strata further lowered the social status of the labour aristocracy.

与经典马克思主义理论家一样，霍布斯鲍姆也把工人阶级中的“特权阶层”即工人贵族与19世纪英国拥有的世界经济优势带来的好处联系在一起。在上述文章中，霍布斯鲍姆提出六条标准来衡量工人贵族，即收入水平及其稳定性、社会保障的前景、工作环境、与高于和低于自己的社会阶层的关系、一般的生活条件、未来发展前景。霍布斯鲍姆尤其强调第一条，把它视为主要标准。按照霍布斯鲍姆的看法，从1914年开始，旧的工人贵族开始瓦解。这是由诸多因素促成的。第一，作为工人贵族之据点的19世纪“基础工业”地区在两次世界大战期间沦为萧条区。第二，从1914年到20世纪50年代，工资支付体系的变化，导致“熟练工人”和“非熟练工人”之间差距稳步缩小。第三，半熟练的机器操作员阶层的兴起以及一些行业的机械化，都削弱了工人贵族的地位。第四，白领、管理和技术阶层的不断发展，进一步降低了工人贵族的社会地位。

Hobsbawm’s exposition of the theory of the labour aristocracy, especially his economistic interpretation of it, was questioned and challenged by some researchers, which stimulated many scholars’ long-term attention to and discussion of this issue.

霍布斯鲍姆对工人贵族理论的阐述，尤其是对工人贵族做出的经济主义解释，受到了一些研究者的质疑和挑战，激发了众多学者对这个问题的长期关注和讨论。

Helpful for Analysing British Class Relations

有助于分析英国阶级关系

As Hobsbawm stated, the concept of the labour aristocracy played an important role in analyses of the development of the British labour movement in the 19th century. Although some people were sceptical of it, regarding it as an “artificial” theory, he always believed that, for 19th-century Britain, the theory of the labour aristocracy was “based on solid political and economic realities.” He also pointed out that scholars “may have legitimate differences of opinion on the size, composition, characteristics, social and political significance, and other questions of the labour aristocracy,” but “attempts to deny the existence of the labour aristocracy are unconvincing.” This is because an obvious fact refutes such a stance: some observers in Victorian Britain undoubtedly believed in the existence of a superior stratum of manual workers and used terms such as “labour aristocracy” and “aristocracy of the working class” to describe them.

正如霍布斯鲍姆所说，在对19世纪英国工人运动发展做出的分析中，工人贵族概念扮演了重要角色。尽管一些人对它持怀疑态度，把它看成“人为的”理论，不过，他始终相信，就19世纪英国而言，工人贵族理论“建立在坚实的政治和经济现实基础之上”。他还指出，学者们“对工人贵族的规模、组成、特征、社会和政治意义以及其他问题可能存在合理的分歧”，但是，“那些否认工人贵族存在的企图，都是无法令人信服的”。因为有一个显而易见的事实反驳了这种立场，那就是英国维多利亚时代的一些观察家无疑相信一个优越的手工工人阶级的存在，并且也使用“工人贵族”“工人阶级的贵族”来描述他们。

Hobsbawm regarded the aristocracy of labour as a real phenomenon, and social reality requires investigation. Clearly, the theory of the aristocracy of labour is valuable; it at least elucidates the formation, structure, and stratification of the British working class, and it at least explains the specific differences between the British working class and the working classes of other industrialised countries. The debates surrounding the aristocracy of labour have also prompted scholars to conduct extensive and in-depth research on the working class as well as on British politics and society. Today, Marxist historians or left-wing figures, when discussing the working class and its movements on a global scale, still pay attention to or employ the concept of the aristocracy of labour.

霍布斯鲍姆把工人贵族视为一种现实的存在，而社会现实需要予以考察。显然，工人贵族理论是有价值的，它至少阐明了英国工人阶级的形成、结构以及分层，至少也说明了英国工人阶级与其他工业化国家工人阶级之间具体的差异。而围绕工人贵族展开的争论，也促使学者们对工人阶级以及英国政治和社会做出了广泛而深入的研究。现在，马克思主义历史学家或左翼人士在讨论世界范围工人阶级及其运动时，依然会关注或使用工人贵族概念。

(The author is a professor at the School of History and Society, Chongqing Normal University)

（作者系重庆师范大学历史与社会学院教授）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧