Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Define "industrial capitalism." How was industrial capitalism a global phenomemon in the late nineteenth century?

Industrial capitalism is a form of economic sustainability during the 19th Century. Prior to the expansion of industry, such as transportation and trade, the primary economic unit was a family-based economy, where the family was primarily responsible for the production and distribution of local society's goods and services. With the expansion of huge manufacturing plants, major modes of transportation, and mass production of goods, families as a source of production was replaced by the need for males to work in the newly established factories, and created a gender-based division of labor between work and household.


Industrial capitalism is the economic system that the US has; trade and the economy is controlled and operated for a profit, and is usually controlled by private individuals rather than the government.
In the 19th century, the rise of industrialism introduced machinery and standardization to the global economy. This made goods easier to come by and cheaper, which increased mass consumerism, which in turn fueled more industry. As a result, there was a shift from mercantile economies to capitalist ones. Industrial capitalism also occurred as a part of and in conjunction with the Enlightenment in Europe, when new ideas about laissez-faire, free market, capitalist economies spread throughout the Western world.
One key proponent of industrial capitalism was enlightened philosophe and economist Adam Smith, who argued that in a mercantile system, the state will only profit at the expense of another state. With industrial capitalism, the people could profit and benefit the global economy by engaging in business and industry.
Worldwide, we see the decline of handicraft, non-industrial economies such as weaving. Instead, machine based industry takes over, and countries are either major producers or major suppliers. This in turn changed social classes, introducing a large working class to the Western world.
This is also the period of time where Western nations begin imperial projects in the global South, most notably in Africa and in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Right as Latin American colonies gained their independence, and Europe could no longer rely on sugar plantations for mercantile profit, African and Asian nations were turned into imperial colonies and used as sources of natural resources or raw materials as well as markets for European goods. The turn towards industrial capital also impacted the social and political relationship of many of the world's nations, in addition to the obvious economic relationships.

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