Week 8 Year 2 - Monday, December 10th 2012
The origins of capitalism?
"The curse brought on by freedom, he thought. And damn the one who woke up one morning in Florence and invented capitalism…” - quoted from a novel I'm currently reading.
Capitalism was born in Florence? I stopped reading for a while, surprised by what I had just read. I don’t get it, we’ve been flooded with theories from Marx, Weber and the like only to find out, when we have journeyed half of our life's way, and by reading a novel, that capitalism was born in Florence? Is that so? The more time goes by the more I think that our schooling fails in what should be its primary function. Teach us to think, encourage research and not just impose a mindset, through a pre-selection of contents and a predetermined reading of these, which only succeeds in anchoring our thoughts to false convictions. You’ll understand what I mean if you ever attempted to submit an unedited interpretation based on a set of theories which are not included in the program, but still a logical construct and inherent to the theme. Chances are your work will be turned down. I will never understand it. Anyway I was saying that...
Intrigued as I was, I embarked on a little research, with no pretention really, just to satisfy a curiosity. After all it’s only a novel. I found out that the first bourgeois appeared in Florence in the fourteenth century (Sombart) and not as generally believed, in Europe and America after the revolution. These early bourgeois, represented by the merchants of that time, can be compared, within that specific historical period, to the order of the sans-culottes (no trousers), supporters and partisans of the French Revolution (1789), which grouped workers, artisans, clerks and traders. They demanded that the value of their activities be given credit and obtained the recognition by subverting the order of things with a revolution. Just to avoid unpleasant misunderstandings, the sans-culottes have earned that title, not because they used to run around in their underwear, but for the design of their trousers which intentionally differed from that worn by the nobility and upper classes, kind of a below the knee cut made out of quality fabric of course.
Further into the research, and as paradoxical as it may seem, I found countless traces with reference to the first definitions of the term “capitalism”, intended as theory of a free market system, dating as far back as the Middle Ages (the last few centuries), and which fatherhood, of both term and concept, is conferred to the Franciscans. The Franciscans? We’re talking about those monks vowed to poverty, and that even in winter time will walk around bare footed wearing only sandals? The last thing I wish for here is to be misunderstood. Without getting into personal religious inclinations, I have always admired them very much, for their fascinating history, philosophy and the many spiritual paths they still care to preserve and share with us all. And "sharing" is the key word. For it is precisely from the original concept of "common good" on which the Franciscans' vision and understanding of a capitalist society is based, that our modern system distances itself from. That is the creation of wealth in order to allow everyone to lead a dignified existence. For those who would like to further investigate this issue, the founders are the Franciscans Pietro di Giovanni Olivi and Alessandro di Alessandria (XIII th century).
We should go back in time a little. As for me, I'm going back to my novel.
by lalitwist
Note 1 - about SUB ref. Monday, December the 5th 2011 "About a Druid and his mushrooms"