EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E 
A History of the World since 1300
Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University
https://www.coursera.org/#course/wh1300
C O U R S E   L E C T U R E 
19th Century Changing Concepts of Labor
Notes taken on January 28, 2016 by Edward Tanguay
middle of 19th century
world is recovering from the great upheavals of the age of revolution
hadn't put an end to them
had changed the cultural moorings of the world's systems
new aspects are coming into being
new regimes
new identities
new discourses of science and technology
societies faced the challenge on how to stabilize this new order
finding a way to channel the rights that people felt they enjoyed in this new order in a way that made these rights manageable
create nations
the political theaters in which people would exercise their newfound liberties
1. franchise
the right to vote
the right to choose your representative
channeled these rights into new and older, archaic institutions
relocate people energies away from streets and aggregating into mobs
like those that stormed the Bastille in Paris
into political parties
voting places
new languages of republicanism
2. technological changes
the effects of the first industrial revolution
new organizations of production and circulation
this generated a new quest to locate principles that would guide the emerging new global order
the international system
once the old empires were made less relevant
applied to the role of commerce
away from the idea that companies chartered by states would enjoy privileges and monopolies
away from an older model of protectionism and mercantilism
to the idea of free trade
all individuals now enjoyed a right to trade
not just within internal markets but external markets
the rise of the assault on the idea of coerced labor
a violation of fundamental economic laws
coerced labor was an affront to the moral principles of human beings
for Darwin, slavery was a violation of natural laws
slavery and all coerced labor system were seen as emblems of an old, archaic economic model
Karl Marx
articulate exponent of the move from coerced forms of labor to free forms of labor
thought of himself as a scientific economist
transition to free labor was one of the fundamental transformations of the age
coerced labor was a system attributed to backward regimes
capitalism was destiny
was bound to spread
would pervade the entire world
societies around the world gradually transform themselves into economies of profit and accumulation
free labor an important aspect
freedom for businesses to accumulate
free from intrusions from state and church
freedom to trade across borders
freedom to hire label
the language of freedom was becoming important to the concept of the economy itself
Marx calls this exploitation
while he believes capitalism is destiny, he also thinks it is doomed
has an idea of a revolution
used in 1917 in Russia
the owners of capital had an incentive to augment the productivity of workers
invested in making the worker more productive
the capitalist would earmark a share of his surplus into the investment of new technologies
there was something new about this system
rising productivities
reinvestment in technological systems
intrinsically dynamic
a powerful system
while dynamic, it was also unstable
more and more workers get pulled into the system
pulled away from their habitats where they produced for subsistence, what they needed for households
now they sold their labor for wage
now you get a wage
but you don't make your own food, so you go to
once you dismantle this self-sufficiency, the market place becomes a zone of interdependence
these workers become more and more dependent on the market place
dependence produces vulnerabilities
Karl Marx admired Charles Darwin
sent him a copy of Das Kapital
Darwin never read it
the new principles need to be scientific
evolution
capitalism