Readings - week 2

Question 1

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

What element of capitalism did merchant capitalism lack?

Answer 1

Free market

Question 2

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

What good had an increase in its production in the early 1800s?

Answer 2

Cotton

Question 3

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

How was the modern concept of leisure created?

Answer 3

Industrial capitalism; division between work time and leisure time to increase productivity and creation of a market in leisure itself

Question 4

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

What are derivatives?

Answer 4

Financial instruments that derive their value from something else

Question 5

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

What are futures?

Answer 5

Contracts to buy something in the future for their current price

Question 6

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

What are options?

Answer 6

No commitment to buying something, but can decide later

Question 7

James Fulcher, Capitalism:
“A characteristic feature of the development of capitalist societies is the emergence of ________ that enable the conversion of _______ into ________

Answer 7

1. industries
2. assets (like a house)
3. capital ($)

Question 8

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

How are labor and capital elements that create dynamism in capitalism?

Answer 8

Both are abstract and can move around, meaning that a worker can work wherever they’ll be paid a wage and everything can be transformed into capital

Question 9

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

Why did capitalist production grow so fast?

Answer 9

Double role of wage earner

Question 10

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

What are the two roles of the wage earner?

Answer 10

Producer and consumer in relation to markets

Question 11

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

What is the tension between competitiveness and concentration?

Answer 11

Markets increase the competition between markets (efficiency in technology and among laborers) but companies also form trade associations to reduce this competition and prices; can also be reduced with mergers that concentrate the power in fewer hands

Question 12

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

How does competitiveness in markets increase dynamism in capitalism?

Answer 12

Competition forces companies into constant change to adapt and keep up with each other

Question 13

James Fulcher, Capitalism:

How is speculation an inevitable growth of capitalism?

Answer 13

Free markets have responsive prices, meaning that money value changes and therefore creates an opportunity for people to speculate on this money movement to make money, creating a new market in this (i.e.: stock market)

Question 14

Beckert, History of American Capitalism:

What was the cause of the difference between the development of European countries and China in the 1800s?

Answer 14

Coal and new world resources, such as sugar + access to African markets and labor

Question 15

Beckert, History of American Capitalism:

What was North America’s importance during the first industrial revolution?

Answer 15

Main supplier of cotton

Question 16

Beckert, History of American Capitalism:

What was the Great Divergence of the 19th century?

Answer 16

European countries overcame their growth constraints and became the most powerful forces of the 19th century