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HBC is primarily a history site. Marxists would say that economics fundamentally drives history. HBC believes that this is a gross over simplification, but of course economics is a powerful force that affects history. As a result, we will create some pages to address major economic trends such a feudalism, slavery, the industrial revolution, child labor, the depression, globelization, and other developments. Economics is especially important to HBC as theproduction of textile has been a major economic activity since the dawn of civilization.
We note five major economic eras. As we approach the modern eras the duration of the eras shink from millenia to centuries. Some observers believe that we are now entering a new economic era--the information age.
The basic economic system for most of human history was hunting and gathering. In early stages of economic development, this was not unlike other animals and other primates. Humans proved particularly adaptable and unlike most other animals and apes proved able to deal with any envirment they encountered. Humand by about 12,000 years ago (some disagreement exists over the Ameeicas) had reached every habitable regions of the globe, including very difficult regions such as deserts and the Arctic. Armed with an inventive mind and developing cultures, loosely organized small bands of hunter-gatherers sucessfully adapted to all the climate zones and environmental condutions which they encountered. Hunting and gathering involved the exploit of available resources. Humans over time developed increasingly sophisticated tools to utlize the available resources.
Small, mobile human populations subsisted on whatever resources they encountered. They hunted the available game, fished, and gathered plant resources. They adapting their life style to the resources and environments they encountered. It is was not unusual for hunter gather bands, especially those in tropical areas, to identify and exploit several hundred plant species. In the Arctic the bands were more limited to a small number of animal or fish resources. Hunter gatherers commonly move seasonally to avoid over utilizing availablke resources and to take advantage of seasonally availble resources. Commonly hunting anf gathering is described as having relatively little impact on the environment. Some authors believe, however, have come to suspect that some hunter gsathers such as Native Americans in the Amazon and North America had a major impact on he environment
Historical assessment of the ancient world often neglect the economic basis of these societies. Important topics here are agriculture, textiles, and slavery. The production of textiles tended to be a much more important part of ancient economies than is the case today. The development of weaving technologies was an important step in the development of civilization. The fabeled Silk Road spanned both the ancient and Medieval era. Slavery is another important topic and was of great importance to many ancient economies.
Feudalism was the principal economic system of Medieval Europe. It was, however, more than just an ecomonic system, but a social and political system as well. Within Feudalism the enslaved peasantry gradually evolved from slavery to sefs. The difference was at first limited, but there were important legal differences. Other ecnomic topics considered here are the Silk Road, Crusades, plague, and the Medieval wool trade,
Mercantilism was the governing economic policy persued by European countries during the 17th and 18th cenuries. There was no great spokesman for mercantilism like Adam Smith fir capitalism (The Wealth of Nations) and Karl Marx for Comunism (Das Kapital). Mercantilism was esentially the attempt of pre-industrial European leaders to gain control over the increasingly complex ecomomies that emerged from the late-Medieval era. Other topics include the voyages of discovery, American gols and slver, the highland clearances, the potato, and slavery.
No development in modern history has affected individuals more than the Industrial Revolution and the manufacture of textiles played a key role. A range of topics are covered here, including the industrial revolution, European imperialism, the Opium War, the Irish Potato Famine, market capitalism, child labor, Communism, the Depression, the Soviet Economy, Globelization, free markets.
Some authors have suggested that with the advent of the computer that a new economic age has begun--the Information Age.
We want to look at the economies of individual countries. The ecomonies of these countries are closely intertwined with their history. Thus some basic ecomomics information is needed for our historical assessment. This is a major undertaking that will take some time to undertake. We will comcentrate on the larger countries, including America, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia. The success of each of these ecomomies was strongly correlated with the adoption of free market capitalist systems. Despite the unrefutable evidence of this, it is interesting to note the number of countries that fail to implenent free market econommies or place limits on free markets. Developing countries (China and India) are now energing as major economies after pursuing disaterous socialist policies. Several smaller ecomonies (Argentina, Cuba, Poland, and Venezuela) are also interesting.
The history of money and credit is in large measure the history of civilization. This is because civilization began with settled agriculture and the creation of wealth beyond what hunter gathers could accumulate. This also involved a specilization in labor. With the specialization of labor pure bartar was akward leading to the development of money. The development of writing appears to have developed out of a need for accounting records. Early money was metal coins which had intrinsic value. Money was invented in Mesopotamia. The next step was credit. Modern banking traces its origins to the Templars. Christian pilgrims needed a way of transfering money to the far away Middle East and the Templars established a system to do this. It was the Medeci in Florence that established the foundation of modern banking (15th century). Banking was contrained in Europe because of the Church procriotion against paying interest which was consider usurious. For that reason Jews were commonly involved in lending money during the Middle Ages. From early times there has been a populist reaction to money lenders and banks. This was an elementb in European antiSemitism. Even the Medici faced a populist uprising led by Savanarola. He is best known for his religious teachings, but populist sentiment was an important factor in the rising against the Medici. Populist sentiment against banking has continued to this day. While populist has generally blamed banks for economic problems, throughout history it has been the lack of an efficent banking system that has impedxed economic growth, not the presence of banks. Along with money and credit has come economic cycles and financial bubbles.
Modern industrial ecomomies emerged in Europe beginning with Britain where the Industrial Revolution began about 1740 and gradually spread to the Continent. Economic development also occurred in the United States and some English colonies (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand). A comcomitant of industrial development has been varying degrees of political democracy. Except for Japan, other countries did not attempt or failed to succeed with the Western economic model. Russia which until World War I was rapidly developing, but the Rovolution shifted to state planning. This was also attempted by China after Wotld War II. Several Asian countries (Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwn) after the War have achieved considerable success. China after the economic catastrophies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution has endorse free markets, but without political democracy. India after independence embraced a socialist system with state planning and a stifeling beaircracy. The economy languished. Free market reforms have in recent years jump-started the economy. The countries of the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America have had great difficulty in developing productive modern ecomonomies.
HBC has addressed a number of controversial issues which involve the comparison of different countries. Here the issue of failed states has arisen. HBC has readers from all over the world. Most of our readers are Americans or Europeans, but we have readers from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. And some of our readers understandably don't like their country described as backward or a failed state. Our readers raise a fair question. How does one define a failed state and society. We need to estanlish metrics here so that we can fairly assess failed and successful states. Here the oil countries present a special problem. Several states (Brunei, Iraq, Iran, and the Gulf emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela) are endowed with vast quantities of oil. As a result of this oil these countries are able to finance a high standard of living. Our assessment of state failure relies heavily on living stndards, but they are not the only metrics involved. Paricularly important here is measurable indicators so that an assessment can be made free of idelogical and theocratic beliefs. Even this is complicated, however, because many failed states are such failures that they do not have reliable statistical systems which can provide us reliable statistics. We would suggest a range of factors, including ecomonic productivity, prosperity (percapita income), public health (infant mortality, longevity, sanitation, nutrition, etc.), education (literacy, school attendence--including girls), political democracy, civil liberties (especially free speech), religious freedom, artistic achievement, transportation network (paved roads, mass transit, ect.), communications (telephones per capita, access to the internet, ect), and number of books published, These are some of the major indicators that we would look at in assessing countries and in ranking advanced and backward countries. A country that consistently ranks low in these areas might fairly be called a failed state.
It is also true that the Royal Navy helped establish the modern world trading system. It broke up the closed international system established by Spain and Portugal and replaced it with a much more open system. Sea trade is of course the central vehicle for international trade. Even today, something like 95 percent of international commerce takes place by sea. There have essentially been three world trading systems. The first was the Silk Road. This was the medium connecting China and Europe. The Silk Road commerce was conducted over a Millenium and affected both by Byzantium, the rise of Islam. the advent of the Monguls. This trading system was suplanted by the rise of the Portuguese and Spanish empires and trading system beginning in the 15th century. It was this system that the fledgling Royal Navy began to attack, first as freedooters and then in the spectacular engagement of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel and the North Sea. The defeat of the Armada meant the beginning of the end of the world trading system dominated by Spain and Portugal and the beginning of the new trading system which would be made possible by the rise of the Royal Navy.
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