Summer History 10 2024

Core Concepts:

1) Economic Paradigm

2) Command Economy

3) Market Economy

4) Supply and Demand

5) Urbanization

 

 

  

Important Terms/Concepts

Investment: The action or process of investing money for profit or material result. Historically, societies were able to accumulate wealth by investing in businesses 

Business Organization: the early development of business organizations was created for the accumulation of capital and spreading of risks in an effort to encourage investment. It was less risky for businesses to accumulate wealth compared to one individual. 

Taxation: Mandatory contribution of money or goods to the state. 

Money: the basic function of money is to allow trade to take place without the difficulty of barter (finding someone with something you want who wants what you have) by placing a specific value on goods.

Command Economy: In a command economy, governments own the factors of production and set prices and production schedules.  

Market Economy:  In a market economy, prices are set by supply and demand.

Supply and Demand: Supply is the amount of a specific good or service that's available in the market. Demand is the amount of the good or service that customers want to buy. Supply and demand are both influenced by the price of goods and services

Paradigms: 

• people choose and/or accept patterns of ideas, beliefs and values known as paradigms 
  
• paradigms provide a set of rules and regulations which can be used as criteria for deciding what is real, acceptable, and/or significant. 
  
• paradigms help humans perceive and understand certain aspects of reality more clearly and limit the perception and understanding of other aspects of reality. (ex. Scientific vs. religious worldview)
  

*Note: as you read through the following information, numbered summaries for each economic paradigm are indicated with underlined headings. 

 

 

Critical Questions: 

1) Briefly summarize the Indigenous worldview discussed in Unit I  

2) Briefly summarize indigenous governing systems described in unit I

 

 

 

  

Economic Approach 1 - Traditional Iroquoian Society

Indigenous peoples over the course of thousands of years created economic systems compatible with their worldview. Their economy was integrated into the other aspects of the lifestyle, including the religious and the political (ex: using all parts of an animal killed is based on religious principals of not wasting resources given to them). For most traditional societies the economic systems created were heavily dependent upon the physical environment and the natural resources obtainable from it.

 

Because of this Iroquoian economic life:

• attached a cultural value of sacredness to the physical environment and everything within it; (ex: circle of life)
  
• Did not see exponential economic growth
  
• had, an almost complete identification with the physical environment and created economic systems which were grounded in spirituality; (ex: tobacco offerings)
  
• governed economic activity by placing a high priority on the management and conservation of natural resources.

Iroquois women grinding corn or dried berries; note infant on cradleboard in background (1664 engraving)

 

Role of Women

• Most traditional societies were guided by community-based economic development systems in which men were the natural resource gatherers and women the natural resource processors 
  
• Women refined most raw foodstuffs and determined through the rate of their labor the quantity and quality of available goods
  

 

Iroquoian Economic Paradigm

1. Collaboration: the cultural values of collaboration and sharing guided the formation and maintenance of most traditional Aboriginal economic systems. (ex. All members of society would contribute for the success of the group)
   
2. Integration: traditionally Aboriginal societies had an integrated approach in the development of their economic systems (ex: clothing production) with the other institutions within their societies (ex: clothing often held had spiritual symbolism on it)
   
3. Sharing: Equitable redistribution of resources and wealth within the local community was an important belief.
   
4. Conservation: economic life of traditional societies was governed by resource management and conservation of natural resources.
   
5. Matriarchy: Women tended to play a key role within the economic life of most Aboriginal societies.
   

 

Critical Questions:

1)Would Iroquoians agree with the list of 10 fundamentals you created in section 2.1?

2) Which items from your list would the Iroquois see as being fundamental and which would they reject as being frivolous?

3) How do you think the Iroquoians would measure economic progress?

 

 

 

 

  

Economic Approach 2 - Mercantilism

Mercantilism: Was an economic strategy used from the 16-18th centuries where a country tried to make itself richer and stronger by using certain trade rules. The main aim was to get more gold and silver into the country by selling more things to other countries and buying fewer things from them. They also wanted to create jobs in their own country by using local sailors (Merchant Marines) to help with trade.

Image depicting Merchant Marines in the Netherlands in the 18th century 

Mercantilists Economic Paradigm: 

1. that effective economic decisions about what to produce, how, and for whom were best made by strong centralized governments;
2. that the economic survival of the state was the highest priority;
3. in the necessity of getting ahead or even destroying rivals (ie. Countries);
4. that gaining wealth from rivals was more important than maximizing profit on investments; and,
5. that service to the state was more important than individual self-interest.

 

 

VIDEO -  MERCANTILISM

Critical Question: 

1) Why did Mercantilism lead to the expansion of Empires?

2) What were the negative effects of Mercantilism?

 

 

 

 

Economic Approach 3 - 18^th Century Europe 

Standard of living

• As the early 1700s, 80% of the people in Northwestern Europe earned their livelihoods from agriculture.
  
• Life was hard. Even in rich farming areas the yield would only be 5-6 bushels for each bushel sown. (Today farmers can expect 40-50 bushels/bushel sown.)
  
• Farming was also uncertain with complete crop failures every 8 to 9 years.
  
• Diet: Peasants ate about 1kg of dark bread per day with a few vegetables and a very little meat on special occasions.
  
• Starvation forced people to use "famine foods" such as chestnuts, bark, dandelions, and grass, and left. people weak and susceptible to disease and epidemics.
  
• Life Expectancy: In 1700, life expectancy at birth was 25-years and by 1800 it had risen to 35- years. The infant mortality rate remained high.

18th Century English Peasants

 

Family Life:

• It was believed that marriage should only occur between adults who were experienced enough to be self-supporting.  The extended family was a rarity because most young couples normally established their own households 
  
• In late 17th and early 18th century Britain, the average marrying age for males was 27
  
• it was believed that marriage was delayed until the couple were able to be self-supporting which meant that the peasant son had to wait until he inherited the land before he could marry. 

Role of Children:

• The belief was that children should work hard and be strictly disciplined with the rod.
  
• Teaching the norms and traditions of society was a highly valued.
  
• In town a young person would be apprenticed for 7 to 14 years during which time he could not marry.
  
• Girls (even from middle class families) would serve families as domestic servants.
  

 

Role of Women:

• Family based economy in which women played a key role.
  
• Tasks were not clearly divided according to gender.
  
• Everyone pitched in and contributed to the success of the family enterprise.
  
• Women also played a large role in the guild system often working in or owning family shops.

 

 Population Growth

• The 17^th Century did not show an increase in population throughout Europe due to famine, epidemic, disease, and war.
• The 18^th Century saw a massive increase in population because of:
• Transportation improvements;
  
• Less destructive wars; and,
  
• New foods such as the potato 
  
• As populations grew, it led to a serious imbalance between the number of people and the number of opportunities for jobs.
• The high population led to unemployment in rural areas.
• This forced people to look for new ways of making a living. This would lead to major changes in society that pushed forward the spread of industry

 

 

18^th Century European Economic Paradigm 

1. Social beliefs: the state enforced church attendance and the church officials preached obedience to the state and attempted to regulate everyone's behavior.
2. the idea of working for personal gain was only beginning to be accepted as an acceptable goal of life;
3. most people wanted to live as their fathers and grandfathers had lived.
4. workers tended to work only for the present need, took time off if wages rose, and the idea of working to better themselves was not something they considered much;
5. capital as wealth existed, but the notion of investing it as an entrepreneur to create a new product or service conflicted with traditional methods of production and was therefore viewed with suspicion.
6. for many life was still seen as being a period of testing to prepare one for hereafter (religious beliefs)

 

 

VIDEO – Slavery, Commercial, and Agricultural Revolutions 

Critical Question:

1) What social and economic concepts do you think will have to be invented in order to make 21st century society possible compared to traditional European society (above)?