“Maurin also visited the cooperatives and small enterprises in the South of France, which were developed on the economic ideas of Prince Peter Kropotkin. Interestingly, both Dorothy and Peter had studied Kropotkins books even before they met. Their ideas on economics were influenced by him.
Dorothy Day said on several occasions in her writings (for example, in the February 1974 CW) that Peter Maurin came to her with St. Francis in one hand and Kropotkin in the other. In one of the early chapters of The Long Loneliness, Dorothy mentioned four of Kropotkin's books of which she was aware before she met Peter: ‘Fields, Factories and Workshops’, ‘Mutual Aid’, ‘The Conquest of Bread’, and ‘Memoirs of a Revolutionist’. These books had come out while Peter was still in France.
Dorothy described his economic vision: ‘Kropotkin looked back to the guilds and cities of the Middle Ages, and thought of the new society as made up of federated associations, co-operating in the same way as the railway companies of Europe or the postal departments of various countries co-operate now.’”
(From ”Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, & Distributism” by Mark and Louise Zwick)
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