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To this end, he would establish rules for the living
and working together that made the site of San Leucio
famous all around the world as one of the first attempts
of Enlightenment-like rural socialism which was also
a utopia, although the king’s intentions were
supported by a sound royal paternalism. In fact, the
King wrote: «(…) the rules and laws to
be obeyed by San Leucio’s inhabitants, who from
now on must think of themselves as belonging to a
single family, are those that I now propose and write,
more as instructions given by a Father to his children
than as laws written by a legislator for his subjects»
 .
The provisions were many and ruled also aspects
of private life:
- equality: «no one must think of himself/herself
as superior to others, if not for his/her model
behaviour and excellent work»;
- marriages: men were to be over 20 and women
over 16, and, most of all, «parents had
not to influence their choice, but the young
people had to choose by their own free will»;
the dowry was abolished, and the sovereign himself
provided a dowry to the couple; |
San Leucio: Houses
|
- «The aim of this society
is that all remain to live in this place»: the
laws for those who wanted to marry elsewhere were
very strict: that person had to leave the colony forever;
for those men who married external women who desired
to live in San Leucio, these women had to learn their
job first and then could come and live there;
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-
education: compulsory for everybody, «so
that each one could become a good citizen and
an honest person»;
- remuneration: according to the expertise of
each worker, up to a maximum «granted
to the best national and foreign artists»;
- inheritance: testaments were abolished and
the only succession was from father to children
with equal shares for each one of them and the
usufruct to the widow; if the person died heirless,
his properties went to the Orphans’ Institution;
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- governance: democratic election
of five persons chosen among the wisest, most impartial
and most judicious ones by the heads of the families;
- social provisions: a house for the invalid; a charity
fund, financed through a revenue tax paid by each
worker and through free donations, to support the
unfortunate persons up to their funerals and religious
suffrage; fight against tax evaders, pointed out to
the public scorn first and, if recidivists, deprived
from all assistance;
- justice: there was an internal management that included
expulsion for serious cases and the delivery to state
justice in case of common penal crimes;
- work: the working day was of 11 hours; here we point
out that in those same years in England workers (who
did not live in the natural pleasantness of San Leucio)
had no guarantees whatsoever and their working days
could be of even 16 hours, and this was worth for
children, too; moreover, there was no absolute equal
remuneration for men and women alike.
We
must mention here the exaggerates praises given
to King Ferdinand IV by those who later on,
in 1799, betrayed him with no scruples of gratitude
and consistency: first of all the well-known
Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, a “friend”
of the Queen, who, after writing that he surpassed
even Alexander the Great in his mercifulness
and after calling him “New Numen”,
wrote in “Il Monitore” that he was
an fool republican, a odious despot and a stupid
tyrant… |
Harvesting at San Leucio |
Of course, after 1860, the site was
abandoned and then, as usual, its memory was cancelled:
«The 780 silver and golden lilies produced
in that site and sumptuously decorating the Throne
Hall in the Royal Palace of Naples were taken by the
officers of the Savoy family and melted on 14 September
1861. The 20 pounds of silver obtained were then sold
for just a few ducats» . |
