Ap And The Rise Of Capitalism; The Industrial – Flashcards

Inflation resulted--too much money chasing too few goods--because while money supply had vastly increased, productivity had remained stable, giving money reduced purchasing power; inflation-stimulated production because craftsmen, merchants, and manufacturers could get good prices for their products. The middle class, bourgeoisie, acquired much of this wealth by trading and manufacturing and increasing their social and political status; peasant farmers benefited when surplus yields could be turned into cash crops; the nobility, whose income had been based on feudal fees and rents, suffered a decrease in standard of living. Rise in population and the flight of entrepreneurs and industrious people to the New World exacerbated this inflation as new opportunities for the middle class to make money emerged.

"Capital"-money used as an investment; individual invests capital in some venture in order to make a profit; the bourgeoisie used money to make money and had more money than was needed for a decent standard of living; they invested in chartered companies that were given a monopoly on trading rights by the state; in joint-stock companies, which sold shares of stock publicly in order to raise large amounts of various ventures and provided limited liability to shareholders and offered a profitable return, a kind of stock exchange. An economic system that relies on investment in machines and technology that are used to increase production of marketable goods. Also, a cultural system rooted in the need of private investors to turn a profit

A nation's wealth is measured by the amount of precious metals it has accumulated rather than by its productivity; favorable balance of trade (exports exceed imports);overseas colonies supply the mother country with essential raw materials; essential industries (making valuable products for the nation) were encouraged through subsidies and tax credits

a period of rapid development, roughly between 1780-1830, during which new forms of energy from coal and other fossil fuels powered machines rather than muscles, water, and wind. The advent of the steam engine allowed massive amounts of energy to be exerted by machinery, such as the water frame and power looms, that appeared in large factories where most workers began to work. Began in Britain in the second half of the 18th century; moved to France, Holland, Belgium, and the United States in the second decade of the 19th century; to Germany, Austria, and Italy in the middle of the 19th century.

Acts: Landlord would reclaim and privatize fields which had been held in common by multiple tenant. Every man was to 'enclose' their land with some sort of barrier. Results: large landowners become prosperous invested in technology to improve planting methods therefore increasing livestock production; surplus production enabled agriculture to support larger city populations; the population of Britain doubled in the 18th century; small farmers who were displaced by the Enclosure movement moved to the cities and made up the growing force of factory workers; allowed for the four ingredients of capitalism: LAND, LABOR, CAPITAL, and MARKETS (entrepreneurs and technology)

open fields/pasture, farmed/used by the community as a whole. They were shared by farmers to keep their animals. Enclosure stopped this

growing force of factory workers during the Industrial Revolution

in Great Britain; helped to initiate legislation to improve working conditions in factories

were enacted after the first three decades of the 19th century to limit the number of hours children could be required to work and a sexual division of labor emerged

movement of people from farms and countryside to cities; most important socioeconomic effect of Industrial Revolution

(1748-1832)philosophy of utilitarianism emphasized "the greatest good for the greatest number"; encouraged city planners and urban reformers to redesign life in European cities and initiate public health movement to improve standard of living for everyone

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill--> action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness, not just of the performer of the action, but by everyone affected; acts should be classified as morally right or wrong only if the consequences are of such significance that a person would wish to see the agent compelled, not merely persuaded and exhorted, to act in the preferred manner

(1766-1834) first classical (laissez-faire) economist to explain why mass of people did not benefit from the operation of the "natural laws" of economics; poverty existed, he said, because the population increased at a geometric rate while the food supply increased arithmetically; believed poverty was a divine punishment for humankind's lust

(1772-1823) introduced the IRON LAW OF WAGES: the natural wage is that which maintains a worker's subsistence. When labor is in demand, though, the wage will increase, the worker will prosper, the size of families will increase and the general population will grow resulting with more workers competing for fewer jobs and inevitable starvation. Government interference will lead to greater suffering

(1771-1858) Utopian Socialist; early founder of socialism; He helped define the movement by advocating public ownership of factories and a professional managerial corps to run them, the technocrats. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" idealistic but vague proposal for a planned economy

(1818-1883) Wrote Communist Manifestor with Friedrich Engels during the Revolution of 1848, Das Kapital was the first volume which was published in 1867 offered a complete analysis of capitalism. Theories: Hegelian dialectic: prevailing ideal(thesis) conflicts with an opposing ideal (antithesis) and results in a new ideal (synthesis) the process continues Dialectical materialism: society is a reflection of economics; history progress and the final step is communism Class Struggle: the dominant class (oppressor) is a thesis with an antithesis (oppressed) that will overthrow the old order Inevitable Revolution: result of the capitalists' increasing profits by lowering the workers' wages for labor to the point that the proletariat cannot afford to consume the products of manufacture (surplus-value theory). Economic depression occurs on the working class until they carry out a revolution; a Dictatorship of the Proletariat will establish a socialist government to wipe out capitalism Communism: the "withering away of the state" will follow, whereby private property will cease to exist and economic exploitation will stop, ending crime, vice, and injustice; democracy will prevail on the local level; Utopia will result; history (class struggle) will end

In 1763, saw the problem with the early steam engines and figured out that they needed a condensing cylinder and created an improved steam engine that became a roaring success

first modern economist; Wealth of Nations is called the "Bible of Capitalism"; foundation for laissez-faire economics, which opposed the regulations imposed by mercantilism by arguing that certain natural laws, such as supply and demand, govern an economy and should be free to operate; benefits all of society