In her book Fichte's Sozialismus und sein Verhältnis zur Marx'schen Doktrin, published in 1900, Marianne Weber not only speaks of Fichte's socialism but also claims that the latter has its only real precursor in the ideas of the French revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf. Weber goes so far as to claim that the analogies between Fichte's and Babeuf's ideas suggest that Fichte may have known of Babeuf's communist theories and the failed revolutionary conspiracy known as the Conspiracy of the Equals, which took place in Paris in 1796 in an attempt to overthrow the government of the Directory and implement radical economic and social measures, and of which Babeuf was a leading member. In 1914, Xavier Léon likewise stated that the analogies between some of Fichte's ideas and those of Babeuf provide strong grounds for thinking that Fichte was familiar with Babeuf's main ideas and the events of the Conspiracy of the Equals when he came to write The Closed Commercial State, which was published in 1800.

Fichte could have become aware of Babeuf's views through the reports on the Conspiracy of the Equals given in the journal Minerva. Journal historischen und politischen Inhalts in 1796–97 and in the newspapers, consisting mainly of letters written by Germans living in Paris, entitled La France en 1796 and La France en 1797, while in 1795, Fichte may have been able to acquire copies of Babeuf's own journal, the Tribun du Peuple, through Swiss friends.