PART I.
THE NATURAL LAWS AND MECHANISM OF CAPITALIST
PRODUCTION.
CHAPTER IV
THE EVOLUTION OF WESTERN CAPITALIST SOCIETY.
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Looking at the last few thousand years, we can easily recognise the main economic systems so far by which Man has procured or produced the necessities needed to sustain his own life within a group or a society.
In part IV we can observe the evolution of Human societies from the simple primitive communistic socio-economic organism to the primitive democratic communities, to the more complex civilisations with slave economies.
But in this brief analysis we are mainly interested in evaluating the original factors in the evolution of Western European society after the fall of the Roman Empire; from the slave economy to a Feudal economy and then to the Capitalist socio-economic organism.
The early Roman Republic became powerful partly because of the hardiness, public spirit and loyalty of its free citizens farmer soldiers. It later became rich because of the many slaves and mercenary armies; but, in the end, this increasing dependency on slave labour and expensive mercenary armies became one of the causes of its decline under the pressure of more primitive and warlike nations from the North and the East; Rome to defend its borders had to keep on expanding until exhaustion.
During its golden age Roman rule and arms had allowed the Mediterranean nations to experience a long period of internal peace. Land and sea travel had become safer, therefore facilitating the spread of the new and revolutionary philosophy of Christianity. Its ideas about Human equality found a fertile ground amongst a multitude of slaves.
We should not be surprised that the early Christians were persecuted more than any other alien religions by the Romans. Christianity was a peaceful but revolutionary movement as it was undermining the basis of the established Roman economy and society they were preaching against slavery and violence.
A freed slave very seldom could go far from his former master. A man had to work to be able to live therefore a freed slave without land often would become a servant or a sharecropper on his master's estate; although he was still dependent, his status was improved. Gradually slavery became less productive and more expensive to police. As the Empire became increasingly burdened by taxes and bureaucracy, most of its citizens lost the interest and the will to fight for its survival.
Eventually, because of incursions from migrating barbarian Nations, inland communications became disrupted and central government became impossible. Many provinces and towns became isolated and had to come to terms with the barbarians who became more powerful and eventually overcame all resistance.
In time, as Roman society disintegrated, the invaders imposed their rule over most of Europe, while at the same time they fought amongst themselves for control of the best regions. Europe became a melting pot in which different nations and cultures were struggling to settle and adjust. This situation developed over a few centuries the Dark Ages, a period of friction and adjustment.
During this time most towns and communities became isolated and were enclosed within strong walls as there was no security in the countryside for farming and trade. Force of arms became the law.
But people had to survive; therefore, by necessity, within the limits of their culture and primitive technology, they found a way of producing and living adapted to such a precarious situation. Gradually by compromise, new kinds of social and economic relations took form, compatible with the new environment and the new requisites for survival.
Feudal economy evolved from the shambles of slave economy, and was influenced by the barbarians' primitive laws and customs intertwined with the philosophy and traditions of Christian institutions.
The early feudal system had a decentralized subsistence economy. Almost every town and hamlet was a self sufficient entity. There was little trade between them, and production was primitive and slow. Because of isolation different customs and dialects developed into separate cultures and languages.
In the larger towns artisans and merchants joined into their respective Guilds and Corporations to regulate every aspect of production and trade, to protect themselves against the competition from within their own and from other towns and districts. The feudal state was decentralized and power was balanced between the king, the feudal lords, the Church, and the burghers of the larger towns. The king was the head of the State, he was supposed to rule by the right and will of God, therefore, he was crowned by the head of the Church and had to appease the religious institutions.
The king had to delegate power to the Church and the feudal lords, and he depended on their loyalty. These, in their turn, through their vassals ruled on the king's behalf over the lands entrusted to them and over the people who inhabited them. The common people could not leave the place of their birth. They farmed the land allotted to them, and, moreover, they had to work for their feudal superiors and serve in their armies when required.
In the earlier troubled stage of the Middle Ages this situation suited both the lords and the serfs: the stronger was the lord and his castle, the safer were the common people from incursions and raids; the more just and generous the lord was towards his subjects, the more he could depend on their loyalty during his frequent quarrels with the king or the other feudal neighbors.
Eventually, after much turmoil, feudal society and economy crystallized into a precariously balanced system in which the feudal lords were trying to be as much as possible independent from the king, and the burghers in the towns were striving to become independent from the lords. For the time being the king and the people of the towns became natural allies as they had a common interest to curtail the power of the feudal lords.
Gradually, the kings with the support of the towns became more powerful and asserted their supremacy over large parts of Europe. A degree of stability returned over the countryside. Agriculture and trade began to prosper again, and, with a rise in production, accumulation of wealth became possible.
Some of the new wealth was used in new ventures, but most was expended within the courts and entourages of the kings, wealthy feudal lords and merchant families.
This was the stage of the Renaissance: art and science started to flourish again. In this situation, the power of the feudal nobility and the system of feudal economy began to lose ground as the environment that was the reason for their existence was gradually changing. The beginning of a new system of production and exchange, and the need for new social relations, began to appear.
This was the beginning of Capitalism.
From the fourteen to the sixteen centuries Capitalism began to develop in the merchant city-states of Italy situated at the crossroads of East West trade. But from the fifteenth century, after the discovery of the sea routes to the East Indies and the discovery of America, the centre of mercantile power shifted from the Mediterranean region to the Atlantic coast of Europe.
During this time the new system grew within the existing feudal society. But the limitations of this society were an impediment to capitalist expansion.
Permanence was the basis of feudal economy and society: the conservation of old laws and customs; the restrictions on scientific thought by an ossified centralized religious institution; the serfs bonded to the land; the rules and conventions of the Guilds and Corporations which stifled competition; the absolute rule of blood nobility; land tenure held in trust for the King.
The new capitalist system of production, on the contrary, was based on continuous competition and change. It depended on continuous innovation, new ideas and new technology. It needed a mobile workforce that could leave its place of birth and move freely to the new factory towns. It required a political power structure, or law making process in tune with mercantile requirements and open to whoever had wealth and ambition: moreover, capitalist personal property had to become absolute and inalienable.
The nobility generally despised the new rich merchants and manufacturers, their former servants, but they appreciated their wealth and their usefulness, and they could not ignore their power for long. The Reformation gave justification and strength to the rising mercantile class, and freed the bankers and money lenders from the religious restrictions on usury and profit. In England and other parts of Europe the process of change began early. The nobility gave way, not without a struggle, to the new economic forces. The capitalists obtained their share of political power, and the nobility survived becoming capitalists themselves.
In France, on the other hand, the establishment remained intransigent. The King, the nobility and the Church held fast to their privileges and refused to allow any changes to the feudal political structure, denying to the merchants and to the rest any meaningful participation in the process of decision making. For trying to hold back the times, they lost their heads in the French revolution a capitalist revolution.
To sum up, this was the historical environment from which Capitalism evolved: undeveloped Western Europe just emerging from the barbarism of the Middle Ages; the growth of the towns, improvement of communications and farming implements; the Reformation, the relaxation of the laws against usury, the development of merchant bankers; the Renaissance, art and new scientific thought; the Mercantile Republics and City States; the ability to produce a surplus of commodities that could be safely transported and exchanged, this allowed the growth of the division of labour which in turn raised production even further; the changes in agriculture, commercial farming replacing subsistence farming; the enclosure of land and the expulsion of small tenant farmers, forcing an exodus from the country to the towns where they became available labour power for the development of industry; the discovery of new sea routes and new continents; the formation of large kingdoms and the polarisation of national identities; men of arms became less important in relation of men of industry and trade.
This was not just a point in history, but it was a process that took shape unevenly over the centuries. Within this process the embryo of a new system of production and exchange began to evolve, and with it new political forces and a new culture began to emerge. What made this process possible were an empty expanding environment and an expanding population, plus a situation of almost total scarcity that required to be overcame and satisfied. For the merchants there was a growing potential to gain from local and new far away markets, and the potential of innumerable new commodities that could be produced to satisfy these markets. It was this fertile expanding environment that was essential for the birth of Capitalism.
It is evident that an increasing availability of markets has always been the main requisite for capitalist production and expansion. If personal self interest and the acquisition of wealth were the main motivation and objective for the capitalists, the satisfaction of market demand was the original means by which they proposed to promote them.
From the beginning, we can observe a special feature of Capitalism which is the basis on which the system rests: it is the trust of the manufacturer, the merchant, the State in the banker, the manager and manipulator of their money. Most important of all, we can observe how in the hand of the banker, because of this trust, money becomes a commodity in itself: a special commodity that can be created like an illusion. An illusion that spurs people to produce more, and it is by this extra production that the illusion becomes a reality. Therefore, the banker can create more money, a letter of credit, a promissory note, a greater illusion, a greater gamble that in turn is translated into more commodities, and so on.
In this chapter I have tried to observe in a short but wide profile the accelerating development of Human history in just one region of our planet; I have tried to observe the main changes in Western Society and economy; From the imperceptible and slow evolution during the primitive stages, to the fast changes of the Industrial Revolution.
It is evident that the world has never stood still. What becomes obsolete and an impediment to Human survival and progress must give way, and let the process of evolution continue.
It should also be evident that Capitalism has evolved from a situation of scarcity, slow production and great opportunity for population and market expansion. As the system has evolved it has developed its own laws and a mechanism that were especially suited to this early situation. It has now almost completely changed the environment of its birth, the environment in which it could develop.
That early situation no longer exists, and capitalism has become obsolete, it can no longer rationally function, it has become wasteful and destructive: an impediment to further meaningful Human progress.
In the following chapters I will endeavour to show the evidence for these assertions.