SOC 104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Enclosure, Profit Maximization, New Class

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 104
• Professor: Amrita Ahluwalia

Document Summary

Capitalism is the socioeconomic formation or an economic system in which all production is subordinated to the imperatives of the market : accumulation, labour productivity, competition, and profit maximization. New class relations: rise of agrarian capitalism and growth of capitalist markets. Economic coercion (first time) played a role in production of surplus. Both feudal lords & tenant farmers wanted improvements for increased profits. Urban centers grew - increase in number of merchants and craftspeople. New class relations: merchants became class of owners (cid:6628)bourgeoisie(cid:6629) Capitalist enterprise thrives on competition - more expansion for maximization of profits not just profits. Workers (proletariat) made of displaced or dispossessed peasants, artisans, crafts people who would survive only by selling labour power for wages. Capital used by feudal lords to maintain entourage of servants, lived in opulence, catholic church viewed usury as sin. Source of capital: expansion of trade, some nobles turned their wealth into capital and colonial expansion.