The Decline of Feudalism and Rise of Capitalism: Part 2

[roby]

This is precisely the kind of video we need more of on YouTube. Balanced academic views with tons of information for us to go and research further. Thanks for the time and effort you put into making this.

[MeisterRedalStan]

I really like History Lessons
Feudalism, Capitalism or Economics in general were not really part of History class in Germany.
Main stuff for us was Greek Democracy, French Revolution and Nazi Germany. I can imagine why.
Still, pretty sad, because my interests were mostly Roman Empire and the second German Reich (Bismarck & Stuff).
Non-european History is underappreachiated as hell too sadly.

[Frogge.]

Something you could've added to this video is about how population, especially around urbanised areas was able to skyrocket through capitalism, disproving the predictions that Thomas Malthus made in his population essay

[nmcfmusic]

This is great, man. Perfect for putting on while I'm cleaning house

[ElectricCruiser]

Thank you for putting these videos together! They are' simply amazing and I am learning things that I probably should have learned some time ago. Thank you again.

[sapereaude]

Your series has been wonderful. Thank-you for making such an admirable effort to educate us all.

[antonferiozzi]

Unbelievably fantastic-- coming from a connoisseur of the format.

[JonBownePolitix]

we love your videos. your channel graphic looks great!

[DanWeeks]

It's amazing to think that even then, there were people making the case that free enterprise is not something to be despised but celebrated as a net social and even ethical good.

It's also amazing to think that even today, most people oppose this view, even as they directly benefit from it.

Thank you for this. Economic education is sorely lacking, and I'm glad to see some people are trying to change that.

[willceurvels]

The point on early capitalism as meritocracy is interesting especially following on the heels of the discussion of privateers and colonialism and the massive role this played in the economy. Hard to call all that money "earned".

[funnyshish]

Surely capitalism really took off with the formation of the Dutch East India company and its offering of shares in exchange for investment

[ragael]

My good Sir, thank you very much for this pair of videos. It was exactly what i was looking for. Very informative, very well documented. Liked and subscribed

[curtherring]

I'm kind of curious on what your thoughts are on the enclosure acts and imperialism? It seems like those kinds of regulations could be seen as the beginning of the welfare state, and a sort of re-emergence of some of the special protections that aristocrats enjoyed.

[lsshvs]

AA's opinion on merchants seems to have changed.

[oobrocks]

The actor is pt 1 and pt 2 is George Sanders

[NathanWHill]

This is really excellent. (Although I do wish you had said more about enclosures and the Brenner thesis.)

[kevinryan]

Epic pair of videos. I feel like all that is missing is where does banking fit in

[bobbygold]

I think this is absolutely brilliant and I am so grateful to the author for having put this together.

I am burning to ask the author and everyone else however whether we should maybe explore what would constitute capitalism, feudalism and everything in between based on their semantic meanings.

By this I mean that the inherent tenet of feudal society is that your status is predestined by your birth - whereas in capitalism your status is deternibed solely and exclusively by your allocation of capital.

Capital-ism therefore is a society placing capital as its central tenet.

Social-ism is a society attempting to assign the greatest common good as the central tenet of their society.

And you could even look at an extreme like the Vatican (or to an extent modern Iran) where piety was the central tenet of society, and where your level of piety dictated your social standing and status.

Therefore the evolution from feudalism to capitalism was drawn out - as you explained in your videos, however true pure unadulterated capitalism first occured in the early North American colonies, where the cash cropping was the central tenet of the whole economy; which was a system that required every farmer to exchange their produce in either barter or sale, which by default led to the allocation of money (capital) being the central tenet, and ultimate common denominator of their society, unlike throughout Britain, France and as far afield as Thailand and Japan, at the same time as people in the early American colonies were basing their heirechical systems solely on the allocation of capital, the rest of the world was still in a transition from feudalism where some form of birth right, or level of piety was the determinant of your social status.

You should also note that the very early United States had a unique banking system compared to that of Europe, where folks like Benjamin Franklin pioneered a paper script currency system due to the lack of minted coinage throughout the pre-independence and post-idependence American colonies.

Their central banks at these points were entirely managed by local legislatures whom managed the creation of paper currency with the sole interest of facilitating trade, hence there was sufficient supply but managed demand to promote an economy moving away from barter to interchange via currency (capital).

United States was therefore the first country in the world that managed its availability of capital with the soil interest of generating wealth and opportunities for the emerging nation, rather than old European approach where wealth was hodled by gentry keeping out the peasantry.

And an anecdotal story for you. I believe less than 500 people who can now be described as the landed gentry own approximately fifty percent of Scotland.

Has Scotland even then emerged into a capitalist society at all - a society that puts allocation of capital as its central tenet?

[sanjaz]

Thank you, this and the previous video have been so great!

[spybot]

Great stuff! Really enjoyed the historical aspect of this subject. Cheers.