5.7 Flashcards
Economic and Social Changes during the Industrial Revolution
What systematic economic shift happened?
Europe shifted from mercantilism to laissez-faire economics/free markets/capitalism
- Greatly influenced by Adam Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations
Free market economics
no limit on the creation of wealth, as it’s created through supply and demand
Minimal government intervention
- new ways of organizing businesses
Joint-stock companies turned into…
corporations
Corporations
similar to joint-stock companies, but with limited liability: shareholders acquired profits but could only lose the amount of money that they originally invested into the company
Multi-national corporations examples
Hong Kong and Shanghai banking corporation (British), in China and Japan which supplied opium
Unilever corporation by the British and the Dutch, which made common household items, especially soap
Funded partially by stock markets
Increase in middle class
- more disposable income
- increase in consumer culture
- improved general standard of living
- the creation of the advertising industry -> leisure culture w/ pubs (increase in alcoholism) and spectator sports (baseball, cock-fighting, horse races)
What transportation means was invented during this time period that was used primarily by the middle class?
the bicycle
Opposition to capitalism/free market economics
Jeremy Bentham: the cure for working class’ suffering was government legislation that addressed social issues
Friedrich List: rejected principals of global free market, helped to develop the Zollverein: customs union that increased trade between German states but imposed tariffs as a defense against Britain during Germany’s early industrialization
Stock markets
where the selling of stocks (small pieces of ownership of the corporation) happened
- New York Stock Exchange
Mechanized farming techniques
continued to grow, increasing how plentiful harvests were, making food cheaper, and increasing average lifespans
