Transcript Historical Context of Capitalism

Historical Context of
Capitalism
Feudalism
Feudal Age
1
Learning Objective
 To
explore what Feudalism was and how it
worked.
 To understand that Feudalism in the
Western heritage (and to a lesser degree
elsewhere like Japan) was the forerunner
to capitalism.


How our economy and culture is structured
owes much to Feudalism
How the Global Economy is structured also
relates back
Feudal Age
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Timeline
8,000BC – Agricultural Revolution, beginning of
“civilization”
Western World
2000BC– 400AD – Early Civilizations
Rome as greatest in the Western World
Slave Based
400AD – 1400AD – Middle Ages
Follows collapse of “slave empires”
Based on Feudalism and Land
Feudal Age
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Explore Characteristics of
Feudalism
 Stability
 Transportation
 Order/Organization
Trade
 Demographics
 Social Relations
 Impact on
Environment
 Method
of Control
 Economy
 Sources of Energy
Feudal Age
and
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Stability
 Tradition

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was basis for knowledge
What your parents did so would you
Church was the other way to pass knowledge
 Fixed
social order
 Geo-Centric Universe
 The Second Coming of Jesus was just
around the corner
“As if the actors changed but the scenery on the
stage and the scene acted never chantged”
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Order/Organization
 Hierarchy

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Church – All things beyond this world
Aristocracy – Maintain order here
Serfs – Should gladly serve those
above them
 Implies
harmony and rigid divisions, not
always the case
http://media.allrefer.com/s4/l/p0013046-feudalism.gif
Feudal Age
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Method of Control
 Land

was the most basic resource
Whoever controlled the land
controlled the lives of others
 Land-lords
established the rules
 Denial of Land meant denial of
livelihood
 Wealth and Power was based on
Land
http://capweb.capital.k12.de.us/pub/dhs/dbeck/feudalpyramid.gif
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Economy

Dominantly Agricultural
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Food (land) based, Subsistence
Difficult to move long distances (poor trans)
Highly localized economic units (geographic
isolation)

Crafts generally related to furthering
Agricultural production
 Castle Towns created islands with
special activities and special needs

http://www.historiasiglo20.org/ME
C-BC/images/feudalism1.jpg
Provide security, order
Feudal Age
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The Story of Hikone Castle Town

Feudal Age
Hikone castle is one of only twelve in
Japan with its original keep still intact. It
is perhaps better known, however, as the
home of the Ii - one of the most famous
samurai families in Japan. Ii Naomasa,
the founder of the line, was a native of
present-day Shizuoka prefecture and a
close ally of Tokugawa Ieyasu since
1578. In recognition of his loyalty and
aggressive fighting spirit, Tokugawa
granted the Ii warriors the privilege of
dressing in blood-red armor. Thereafter,
the Ii 'Red Devils' invariably occupied a
prominent front line position in
Tokugawa's military campaigns. These
campaigns increased in scale and
intensity as the power and influence of
Tokugawa grew, culminating in the
decisive battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
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The Red Devils
 Castle
Towns
provided for
special
needs of the
aristocracy,
especially
fancy
armaments
Feudal Age
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Energy
 Animate

Sources -- Agricultural
Draft animals and Peasants
 Inanimate

– Consumption & Industry
Wood and Field Wastes
• Cooking
• Smelting, Cloth Dyeing…
• First Energy Crisis occurs as forests cleared
http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_
approve/1620789/2/istockphoto_1620789_jap
anese_temple.jpg
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Example: Glass Production &
Energy Demand
Source Dr. H. L. Martinez
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What is glass?
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Not a crystalline solid, not a liquid. It is a “frozen” liquid.
(super cooled liquid)
Tiny Glass industry before the 16th century.
1580 glass production increased -- New Efficient
furnaces invented and lots of wood available

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http://buga.csudh.edu/index.php
Two main types of glass: broad glass (for larger frames,
poured in cylinder and rolled open); crown glass
(smaller pieces, used blowpipe)
PROBLEM: contributed to wood depletion in
England during 16th century.
SOLUTION: Coal fueled Glass furnaces.
Feudal Age
Illustration of a possible early wood-fired furnace from
The Volcano Dream, GAS journal 1995 by Dudley
Giberson
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Transportation & Trade
 Transport:

Difficult and limited to local area
Greatly limits commodity trade
 Most
trade in high value, light weight
luxury goods

Passed along trade routes
http://www.thebritishmuseum.net/thesilkroad/imageFiles/SilkRoadMap.gif
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Demographics
 Near
ZPG (zero population growth)
 High Child/Infant mortality rates
 Life expectancy short
 Need for large families for survival of
society
 Cities are “black holes”

Require continual
in-migration to maintain
population base
Feudal Age
End of Feudal Age
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Demographics
Population and Urban Population – Only
slight growth until the industrial age
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Social Relations

How the system worked
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Serfs produce small surplus from Manor’s Lands
Lord captures surplus
Shares of surplus go to State and Church
Markets

Small & Temporary
• Periodic Farmers Markets locally
• Seasonal Markets Regionally

State Controls and Distributes captured surplus
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Feudal Heritage
Factors that affect certain modern
relationships
1. Land belongs to the Crown
2. Stability is favored, Uncertainty avoided
3. Progress is unknown or even feared
4. Religion and afterlife exert great
influence
5. Social Roles are unequal but accepted
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THE WESTERN TRADITION
http://www.learner.org/resources/series58.html?pop=yes&vodid=120661&pid=848#
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END OF
FEUDALISM
Feudal Age
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Feudalism’s End
Factors
 Little Ice Age
 Black Death (Plague)
 Progress and Efficiency
 Rise of Urban Centers and Merchant
Class
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BLACK PLAGUE & LITTLE
ICE AGE
A Distant Mirror - The 14th Century
Source: Steve Dutch
Natural and Applied Sciences,
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
This Home Page: http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs
Period was a time of turmoil,
diminished expectation, feeling
of helplessness at forces beyond
human control.
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Two Great Natural Disasters
 Little
Ice Age
 Bubonic Plague
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/index.html
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Little Ice Age
 Late
1200's to early 1800’s with break
1500-1600
 Baltic Sea froze over 1303, 1306-7.
 Alpine glaciers advanced.
 Norse settlements in Greenland cut off.
 Grain cultivation ceased in Iceland.
 Crops failed after heavy rains, 1315;
famine, reports of cannibalism,
epidemics.
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/index.html
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Bubonic Plague
 First
wave 1347-1350.
 Killed 1/3 of population of Eurasia
 Six more waves 1350-1400.
 Population of Europe cut by 50% by 1400.
 Probably closest approach to the effects of
a thermonuclear war in history.
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/index.html
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Social Upheavals
 Closure
of route to China, 1368.
 Hundred Years War 1337-1450
 Chaos in the Church

Great Western Schism 1378.
• John Wycliff, first of the reformers
• Bogomil in the Balkans
 Advance
of Turks in Balkans.
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Effects of Disorder
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Apathy.
Self-Indulgence.
Rise of graphic, often gruesome, realism in
art.
Hysteria, religious fanaticism.
Search for scapegoat.
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Jews (linked to resentment over money-lending,
desire to erase debts)
Witches (linked to suppression of Knights Templar
via sensational witchcraft and sorcery trials which
fanned popular hysteria)
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Impacts of Black Death
& Little Ice Age
 System
goes from labor rich and land
short to opposite

Labor is freer to find best deal
 Europe’s
labor declines by up to 1/2
 Least productive land abandoned
 State seeing smaller surplus, cuts back on
adventures
 Increased Rags meant cheaper paper

Knowledge spreads rapidly with printing press
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Progress and Efficiency
 New
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forms of Agriculture and Industry
Heavy Plow
Wind and Water Powered Mills
Three field crop rotation
Other new technologies spread
• Compass – travel over seas more possible
• Paper & Printing – education spreads
• New Materials – steel instead of iron

needles
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Progress and Efficiency
Impacts
 Surplus Rises in Agriculture
 Urban Centers sprout across the
landscape
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Castle towns gradually replaced by
commercial centers
Growth of New Towns
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Urban Centers & Merchant Class
 Rise
of independent Merchant Class
Brings New non-Land based means of
Wealth development
 Power base shifts away from Land Lords
 Cities are centers for new knowledge and
change
 Superior Knowledge/Technology from
abroad now has a market in the West
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Environmental
Crisis and
Progress Ends
Feudalism
Feudal Age
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Prof. Douglas North
Nobel Laureate in Economics 1993, Former Chair UW Econ. Dept.
and formerly my teacher
 Periodically
Humans face crises
of major impact that
threaten their very
existence

“Malthusian Crisis”
 The
only successful
response is
CHANGE
Feudal Age
New Book
by D. North
Jan. 2005
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An On-line video explaining the
Feudal Order
Feudal Age
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Some suggestions
http://www.learner.org/resources/series58.html?pop=yes&vodid=120661&pid=838#
Scroll down to the following:
19. The Middle Ages
Amid invasion and civil disorder, a military aristocracy dominated the
kingdoms of Europe.
20. The Feudal Order
Bishop, knight, and peasant exemplified some of the social divisions of the
year 1000 A.D.
21. Common Life in the Middle Ages
Famine, disease, and short life expectancies were the conditions that
shaped medieval beliefs.
22. Cities and Cathedrals of the Middle Ages
The great churches embodied the material and spiritual ambitions of the
age.
23. The Late Middle Ages
Two hundred years of war and plague debilitated Europe.
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