POLI 227 Lecture Notes - Subsistence Economy
19 Jul 2012
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Document Summary
Subsistence economy people grow to eat, and trade their surplus for goods they cannot produce (ex. European traders come and buy surplus and sell their own european goods. The european imported goods marginalize those selling similar products in the developing areas. European traders bring new products and introduce them (ex. Cotton seeds, which would enable peasants to grow and sell a new product). Missionaries open schools and provide medical care, irrigation and mechanization cost money but increase yield, railways are built to export products, local elite is appointed as a local magistrate, taxation emerges, and land must be registered. When engaging with globally traded commodities, world prices going up and down with global supply and demand will affect you. When peasants engaged in subsistence farming, they can eat their own goods (wheat) and not be affected by world price fluctuations. Improvement in life expectancy can create push migration because there is less land per person.
