SOCB42H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Mercantilism, Herding, Feudalism
Document Summary
Historical causes of wealth: natural progress of opulence. Government and its duties: defense, justice, education, religion. Theoretical logic: natural tendency for a commercial society to occur because of the propensities that we have: how would historical societies develop if things were going the way they should naturally develop. Natural progress of opulence (wealth: agriculture (farmers) manufacturing (manufacturers) foreign commerce (merchants) Country cities international: page 482: subsistence comes first, page 483: moral claim (farming) You are in charge of your own life because you don"t rely on customers. Everyone would rather be a farmer for this reason. This implies that if everyone wants to be a farmer, you have to wait until agricultural space is taken up for manufacturing to develop: country-city reciprocity. Without the country side, those in the city would not be able to survive. Once there is an agricultural surplus, farmers have the ability to sell to those in the city.
