Facsimilie of one of Robert Owen's Labour Notes. Robert Owen,1771 ??" 1858. Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropic social reformer, and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. In 1832 Owen opened the National Equitable Labour Exchange system, a time-based currency in which the exchange of goods was effected by means of labour notes. From The Martyrs of Tolpuddle, published 1934.