IR/Economic Systems Flashcards
Putting-out system / Cottage Industry
Rural workers used hand tools in their homes w/ no strict regulations; merchants loaned raw materials to rural workers, who returned finished products to the merchants
Spinning Jenny
James Hargreaves: hand-powered, for spinning
Water Frame
Richard Arkwright: water-powered, for spinning, factories, improved upon Spinning Jenny
Spinning Mule
Samuel Crompton: for spinning, factories, improved upon Water Frame
Steam Engine
James Watt: solved energy problem/shortage of wood from ag. rev. (runs on coal), faster inland transport
Puddling Furnace
Henry Cort: puddlers cook molten iron in the furnace and create inexpensive iron products, caused iron industry boom, supported steam/rail industries
Locomotive (Rocket)
George Stephenson: Railroads promoted iron industry (rails), improved upon Steam Engine, cheaper shipping, new obsession w/ power and speed
Crystal Palace
(London) interior exhibits, celebrated Britain’s industrial dominance
Thomas Malthus
Essay on the Principle of Population: population is growing faster than resources can support, society must use “preventative” checks (less birth) and “positive” checks (more death). The poor are at fault for their overpopulation.
David Ricardo
Iron Law of Wages: wages would always sink to subsistence level b/c of population growth
Friedrich List
National System of Political Economy: anti-free trade, pro-protective tariff
Economic Nationalism
Policies aimed at protecting and developing a county’s economy
Protective Tariff
Tax on imported goods, aids domestic economy
Limited Liability
An investor cannot lose more than he invests
Crédit Mobilier
French bank, funded RR’s
Power Loom
Edmund Cartwright: weaving - textile industry
Capital
Money
Labor
Work
Class-conciousness
An individual’s sense of class differentiation
Luddites
Group of handicraft workers in N. England who attacked whole factories, smashing new machines that they claimed were putting them out of work
Robert Owen
Self-made Scottish cotton manufacturer and social reformer, criticized young child labor, cared about his workers but still disciplined them, organized the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (large, but eventually collapsed)
Separate Spheres
A gender division of labor with the wife at home as mother and homemaker and the husband as wage earner
Factory Act of 1833
England: limited the factory workday for children, kids under 9 had to attend factory-run schools
Mines Act of 1842
England: prohibited underground work for all women/girls as well as for boys under 10
Combination Acts of 1799
England: outlawed unions and strikes, favoring capitalist business people over skilled artisans. Resented and largely disregarded, eventually repealed in 1824
Grand National Consolidated Trades Union
Organized by Robert Owen, one of the largest and most visionary of the early national unions, eventually collapsed
Amalgamated Society of Engineers
“New model union” in Britain, represented skilled machinists
Chartists
Movement which sought political democracy and voting rights for all men, many workers joined
Second Industrial Revolution
(1860-1914)
Steel, electricity, planes, cars, telephone, telegraph, movies, radio, etc.
Capitalism
Adam Smith: laissez-faire (as opposed to mercantilism), individual ownership.
Problems: unequal dist. of wealth, huge gap b/t rich and poor
Laissez-faire
gov’t should not intervene in economy (free market, market economy)
Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations: Pursuit of domestic industry is beneficial for both the individual and the society (invisible hand). Smith is the father of Capitalism/modern economics.
Socialism
Some gov’t ownership, some individual ownership (mixed economy). Gov’t can interfere in economy, no social classes.
French Utopian Socialists
Blanc, Fourier, Proudhon, Saint-Simon
Louis Blanc
Organization of Work: social workshops (prices over a minimum level, no more monopoly). Urged proletariat to take control of the state peacefully.
Charles Fourier
Theory of Social Organization: phalanxes (self-sufficient communities of 1620 people). Encouraged emancipation of women/abolition of marriage. He was hella crazy.
Pierre Joseph Proudhon
Argued that property is profit that is stolen from the worker.
Count Henri de Saint-Simon
Encouraged improved conditions for the poor. Early utopian socialist.
Communism
(Marxian Socialism, command economy). ~revolutionary socialism, realized that utopian socialism is not practical based on history of class struggles. Revolution- proletariat should overthrow bourgeoisie. No private property, no social classes. Gov’t would wither away - society of workers.
Karl Marx
Founder of communism
Friedrich Engels
Criticized the state of the working class in England. Co-author of the Communist Manifesto (w/ Marx).
The Communist Manifesto
Marx/Engels. Synthesized Communist ideas.
Agents of Continental Industrialization
1) skilled workers
2) entrepreneurs
3) governments
4) banks
Why did Continental industrialization lag?
GB goods already dominant, factory labor shortage.
Why was Britain the first to Industrialize?
large market, waterways, natural resources, agricultural rev., strong central bank, stable gov., no domestic tariffs
