Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin

Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin (8 February 1796 – 1 September 1864) was a French social reformer, one of the founders of Saint-Simonianism. He was also a proponent of a Suez canal.

Enfantin was born in Paris, the son of a banker of Dauphiné. After receiving his early education at a lyceum, he was sent in 1813 to the École polytechnique. In March 1814 he was one of the band of students who, on the heights of Montmartre and Saint-Chaumont, attempted resistance to the armies of the Sixth Coalition which had engaged in the invasion of Paris. In consequence of this outbreak of patriotic enthusiasm, the school was soon after closed by Louis XVIII, and the young student was compelled to seek another career.

Initially, he began working for a country wine merchant, travelling to Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1821 he entered a banking-house newly established at Saint Petersburg, but returned two years later to Paris, where he was appointed cashier to the Caisse Hypothécaire. At the same time, he became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari.

In 1825 a new turn was given to his thoughts and his life by the friendship which he formed with Olinde Rodriguez, who introduced him to the Comte de Saint-Simon. He affiliated to Saint-Simon's version of utopian socialism, and, by 1829, he had become one of the acknowledged heads of the sect.

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