I'm reading "A Spectacle of Corruption" by David Liss which is a historical mystery series acclaimed for it's accuracy. One of the characters makes a comment about a situation being akin to communism, and seems to be using the term as we understand it today. I'll go find it in a minute to add to my question, but was communism as we know it even a concept in 1722?
The word communism was not in use, no; it is thought to have been coined in 1840 by Owenite John Goodwyn Barmby, at least as I understand it. There were various groups as far back as the 1600s (such as the Levellers in the Cromwellian era in England) who practiced similar concepts such as wealth redistribution, but these would not have been referred to as communism in 1722.