The worst error of all is to suppose that capitalism is

Faber • The Rise of Global Capitalism • 1

HISTORY X-283 THE RISE OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM

SPRING 2015

Mon-Wed-Fri, 9:30 am, Monroe Hall 501

Professor Lo Faber • [email protected]

The worst error of all is to suppose that capitalism is

simply an ‘economic system’ – Fernand Braudel Capitalism is the characteristic economic and social order of the world we live in – the modern world. This course treats capitalism not as an ideology or abstract set of principles but as a historical formation, changing through time and space, and inextricably intertwined with other areas of human endeavor. We survey the growth and spread of capitalism from the earliest global trading companies, through the transformations of multiple industrial revolutions, to the rise of American multinational corporations and the recent Chinese move towards a market economy. We look at the history of economic thought from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman, and take a critical look at the “dismal science” from a historical perspective. We study capitalism’s many critics along with its champions, surveying proposed alternatives to capitalist development – and finally ask whether the end of the global Cold War means that capitalism has “won.”

SHENZHEN SKYLINE, GUANGDONG PROVINCE, CHINA, 2012

INSTRUCTOR: Lo Faber, Ph. D. EMAIL: [email protected] OFFICE: 449 Bobet Hall OFFICE HOURS: M-W-F, 10:30 am to noon, or by appointment CELL PHONE: Posted on my office door. Please use only to locate me during office hours.


1. INTRODUCTION

This is an advanced course in the global history of capitalism, with a strong parallel emphasis on the history of economic thought. It is a demanding course in terms of both reading – with about 50 to 100 pages per week, including primary sources and scholarly texts – and writing, with three short writing assignments plus a longer research paper. It is suited to ambitious students interested in serious global questions about poverty and prosperity, who are willing to put their personal politics aside and develop a truly historical understanding of the world economy as it has developed over the last five centuries. This course fulfills the Advanced Common Curriculum History requirement for the Modern period. The prerequisite is HIST T-122, Global History I. 2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

o To gain a basic historical understanding of the development of capitalist ideas and practices – in commerce, industry, and finance – as they have emerged and functioned differently in different parts of the world and different time periods.

o To grasp the major developments in the history of economic thought from the Enlightenment to the present day, and identify the contributions made by thinkers including Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Keynes, Friedman, and many others.

o To understand, articulate, and distinguish between the major concepts and thought-systems of political economy – not only capitalism, but also liberalism, socialism, communism, libertarianism, etc, as well as such major concepts as markets, industry, labor, the corporation, the state, protectionism and free trade, consumerism, etc. All these must be understood not simply as static, abstract concepts but as contested terms whose meaning has changed dynamically over time.

o To gain vital historical context and background for understanding present-day debates on economic issues, state policy, and geopolitics.

o To investigate the effects of capitalism and global trade on nations and societies other than our own.

o To make connections between capitalism and other spheres of human activity, including politics, culture, art, and religion.

o To develop critical reading skills, and in particular to become informed readers of historical primary documents and of scholarly prose in the social sciences.

o To develop as both writers and speakers; to express the ideas and concepts in this course effectively, through both written and oral communication, with an emphasis on brevity, clarity, and precision.


3. READINGS

The following TWO books MUST be purchased for this class:

Joyce Appleby, The Relentless Revolution (W. W. Norton, 2011) Robert L. Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers (7th edition, Touchstone, 1999)

There will also be required supplemental readings each week, including both primary and secondary sources, and optional readings for each week. Both the required and optional readings will be available through the course Blackboard page for printing or downloading. See the attached READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS CALENDAR for a complete schedule of readings.

4. GRADES AND HOW THEY WILL BE CALCULATED

• Attendance and Participation: 15% • Quizzes: 25% (5% each) • Short Writing Assignments: 10% (5% each) • Research paper, 1st draft: 10% • Research paper, revision: 15% • Final Exam: 25%

Attendance means showing up, on time, being attentive and following the rules. I give every student three unexcused absences. After that each absence counts 1% against your grade. The ONLY valid excuses are SERIOUS ILLNESS with a doctor’s note or a death or other emergency in your family. Important: Students who have more than twelve unexcused absences will AUTOMATICALLY FAIL THE COURSE. Also: if you are chronically late, if you are asleep, or if you are rude or disruptive in class I will also take it out on your attendance grade. Though the course is taught mostly through lectures, questions are welcome – and I like to ask you questions, too. Students who ask especially helpful questions and/or answer my questions especially competently will receive a bonus of up to 3% on their attendance/participation grade.


Students who ask pointless questions or seem unprepared when called on, may receive a penalty of up to 3%. In general I reserve the right to weigh each student’s grade individually, to consider intangible factors like interest and effort, and not to be bound by mathematical formulas. Quizzes. Starting on Friday, January 30, there will be an in-class quiz approximately every other Friday. The quizzes are designed to make sure you stay current and retain the concepts from the readings and lectures. Each quiz should take about half a class session. It will consist of short answer questions that should be simple, assuming you are up to date with your reading and notes. For the exact dates of quizzes see the attached Readings Chart. Short Writing Assignments. There are two short writing assignments, each worth 5% of your grade, one for the first half of the course and one for the second. For each short assignment you must read one of the optional readings listed on the Readings Chart and write a response and analysis of about 3 pages or 750 words. THE FIRST SHORT ASSIGNMENT IS DUE FRIDAY, FEB. 27; THE SECOND IS DUE WEDNESDAY APRIL 29 (THE LAST DAY OF CLASS). Research Paper – first draft. You will choose a commodity (e.g. sugar, silver, salt), a person, a company, a nation, or a historical event, and write a paper of about 8 pages tracing your topic’s connection to the larger story of the rise of global capitalism. A more detailed explanation and guideline, and grading rubric, will be handed out in class and posted on Blackboard. DUE MONDAY MARCH 16. Research Paper Final Draft. After I read and grade your first draft, we will have individual meetings in which we come up with a revision plan for a second, improved version of your paper. For some of you this will mean improving an already strong paper; for others it will mean bringing a weak paper up to par. For all of you it will mean lengthening your original draft to end up with a final revised research paper of 10 to 12 pages. DUE MONDAY APRIL 20.

The Final Exam consists of two parts: a take-home part and an in-class part. The take home part will consist of two essays, one of which will be a review of our main text in the course, Joyce Appleby’s The Relentless Revolution, explaining the degree to which you do or do not agree with its interpretation of the coming of capitalism. The second essay for the take home portion will be announced in the last week of class. The in-class portion will be open notes (so take good notes) and will consist of three parts: 1) a section of short-answer identifications of major concepts, people, and historical periods and events of the course; 2) a selection of blind quotes from the primary sources we read in the course, which you will be expected to analyze and, if possible, identify; 3) a section of short-answer questions based on visual evidence we have looked at in lectures. PLEASE NOTE THIS IS ALL TENTATIVE AND THE ACTUAL FORMAT OF THE FINAL EXAM IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.


5. HOW TO ACE THIS COURSE

There’s only one way to do your best in this or any history course: GET INTERESTED IN THE MATERIAL. This should be fairly easy because history is fascinating – although, admittedly, sometimes people with PhD degrees make it less so. I assume many of you are here because you are interested in economic history and the great questions surrounding it. For the rest of you, work hard to find some things to get curious about. If you have no curiosity about any of this you are not doing your job. I claim TEN HOURS OF YOUR TIME each and every week. Don’t have that much time to devote to it? Fine – you might pass, but you won’t excel, unless you are a rare talent indeed. I only give A’s to those who excel. What do you do with those 10 hours?

1) Come to class. Obviously. 3 hours.

2) Do the readings! Obviously. 4 hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Read carefully and take good notes. It takes just as long to do the reading late as to do it on time, so read each book when the syllabus says you’re supposed to.

3) Do the assignments. 3 hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Don’t get behind, don’t do things at the last minute.

6. ON POLITICS, IDEOLOGY, & MORALITY

Capitalism is and has always been a controversial topic. Many have praised it, many have condemned it. You yourself may be coming into this course with a predisposition to either support or criticize the capitalist system – and you may be expecting this course to reaffirm your pre-existing opinions. Rest assured: it won’t. No matter where on the political spectrum you start out, the goal here is to understand what capitalism is and how it has functioned, and to understand the many arguments both in its favor and against – not to convince you of its goodness or badness. Moreover, any successful college course should get you to question the basis of your own received ideas. Of course, political and moral opinions are inextricable from history, and I certainly am not going to dissuade you from having them. What I do suggest, to get the most out of this course, is to do what I do: put your personal politics off to one side in the interest of understanding. Keep your contributions to discussions courteous and respectful, and remember that honestly listening to viewpoints you initially disagree with often produces a much deeper level of understanding, regardless of your ideological orientation. 7. MY OFFICE HOURS

You are invited to stop in if you want help with an assignment, to go over the reading or a quiz, or just to talk about any aspect of the course. My office hours are MONDAY-WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY MORNINGS, 10:30 to noon. YOU DON’T NEED TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT, just walk in. If you can’t make that time, email me and we’ll set up an appointment for a different time. My office is 449 Bobet, in the History Department.


8. RULES AND REGULATIONS

• Attendance

I take attendance. It helps me get to know your names, in addition to telling me who comes to class. As the semester goes on, I may take attendance silently, instead of calling your names. Attendance at every class session is mandatory and absence will affect your participation grade as explained above. Coming in late is rude, distracts the class, takes up extra time of mine passing out handouts and so on, and often will cause you to miss important announcements at the start of class that I will not be repeating. Don’t come in late. For students who are chronically late, I will start marking your latenesses as absences.

• Submitting assignments

Please submit all written work in Microsoft Word format. I cannot read or convert files in Pages, Open Office, or other nonstandard formats. Please submit all written work through Blackboard. Do not email your assignments! Always retain copies of all your work.

• Late assignments

I cannot accept late assignments. If you have not finished by the due date, HAND IN WHAT YOU HAVE. It is better to get partial credit than none.

• Electronic Devices

I do not allow electronic devices— including iPhones, iPads, other phones ‘Smart’ or otherwise, Kindles, tablets, or laptops—in the classroom. True, our lives revolve around these devices and it can be hard to put them aside—but it does wonders for your concentration and focus. Trying to focus on History when you have the Internet at your fingertips is bound to be a losing battle. So put away the computers, tablets, and phones. Use a pen and notebook to take notes. Keep course handouts and other class materials in the same notebook or binder. If you may be tempted to check email (etc) during class then LEAVE THE DEVICES IN YOUR ROOM. The only exception is for students with a disability requiring them to use a laptop for note-taking; such a student would be on his or her honor to use the computer for that and nothing else. Consequences? Students using electronic devices in class will be marked as absent. Repeat offenders will begin to have extra points deducted from their attendance grade. Not to mention you’ll do worse in the course in other ways – as a result of being distracted.

• Plagiarism

Official policy of the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences: “Plagiarism—the use of another person's ideas or wording without giving proper credit—results from the failure to document fully and accurately. Ideas and expressions of them are considered to belong to the individual who first puts them forward. Therefore, when you incorporate ideas or phrasing from any other author in your paper, whether you quote them directly or indirectly, you need to be honest and complete about indicating the source to avoid plagiarism. Whether intentional or unintentional, plagiarism can bring serious consequences, both academic, in the form of failure or expulsion, and legal, in the form of lawsuits. Plagiarism is a violation of the ethics of the academic community.”


Here’s what I have to add to this: any work that is proven to be plagiarized will receive a zero. For a second incident, you will automatically fail the course and a full report will be made to the Dean. Your writing assignments in this course will be submitted through Blackboard’s Safe Submit feature to minimize the chance of purposeful or accidental plagiarism.

On a final note, cheating does permanent damage to your soul.

• Hurricane Evacuation Policy

This is Louisiana; we are in a semi-tropical climate. If our schedule should be interrupted by a major storm, the course will continue. Here is Loyola’s official statement:

• In the event that there is an interruption to our course due to the cancellation of classes by the university as a result of an emergency, we will continue our course on Blackboard within 48 hours after cancellation.

• All students are required to sign on to Blackboard and to keep up with course assignments within 48 hours of evacuation and routinely check for announcements and course materials associated with each class. Class handouts will be posted under “course materials”.

• Students should be familiar with their responsibilities during emergencies, including pre-evacuation and post-evacuation for hurricanes. This information is available on the Academic Affairs web site: http://academicaffairs.loyno.edu/students-emergency-responsibilities

• Additional emergency-planning information is also available at http://academicaffairs.loyno.edu/emergency-planning

• Disabilities

Students with disabilities should contact Disability Services at 865-2990 as soon as possible so that warranted accommodations can be implemented in a timely fashion. If you have a disability and wish to receive accommodations, please contact Sarah Mead Smith, Director of Disability Services at 504-855-2990. If you wish to receive test accommodations (e.g., extended test time), you will need to give me an official Accommodation Form from Disability Services. The Office of Disability Services is located in the Academic Enrichment Center, Monroe Hall 405.

• A Standard Disclaimer

All material in this syllabus is subject to change and adjustment as the semester progresses. Changes will be indicated either in class or via email, not necessarily both. You are responsible for understanding the material in this syllabus and any changes that I make during the semester.


COURSE OUTLINE EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

PART ONE: THE CHILDHOOD OF CAPITALISM AND THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN WORLD ORDER, 1450-1789

Week One: Orientation and Big Concepts

Overview of the Course: What the Historical Perspective Means. The Goldfish in the Bowl. Big ideas: What is Capitalism? The Difference Between Capitalism and ‘Free Markets.’ More big ideas: Capitalism as a social, political, and economic system. Capitalism as a culture. What are liberalism and socialism? What are commerce, finance, industry, and labor? What is consumerism?

Week Two: Multiplying Connections in the Era of Columbus

Print, Protestantism, and Proto-capitalism in early modern Europe. The ‘Industrious’ Revolution: changing concepts of time, work, and production. Early modern China and European efforts at contact.

Week Three: The Birth of Merchant Capitalism

Da Gama’s Bungling, or, How Europeans made their way into

Asian trade networks, 1498-1557. The First Globalization: Early European chartered trading companies, their successes, and their limitations. The Canton trading system.

Week Four: England’s Distinctiveness, or Luck, or Both

Developments in England: Agricultural reform; political turmoil; freedom of speech &

the press; the Bank of England; navalism; coal, steam, and technological innovation. First signs of the factory system. The Atlantic world system; Britain’s late rise as imperial power. Sweetness and Power: The Sugar + Slave Economy in the Early Atlantic World. Was Slavery a Capitalist system?


Week Five: The Invention of Political Economy

The first Industrial Revolution: textile manufacture in Britain, and the ‘dark Satanic mills.’ Who was Adam Smith, and did he invent Capitalism? Ricardo and Malthus. Connections with Asia, and the insults suffered by Lord McCartney.

PART TWO: REVOLUTIONS, INDUSTRIAL AND OTHERWISE, 1776-1929

Week Six: Early America: Two Societies in One New Nation

The Market Revolution, Transitions to Wage Labor, and Jacksonian Utopias in the United States, 1790-1830. A digression on J. S. Mill. Liberalism: Ideological Basis of Capitalism? Slave-based cotton production in the Old South; the “transportation revolution”; American westward expansion, and the rise of the railroads.

Week Seven: Marx and the Marxists

Marx, Engels, 1848, and the invention of Communism.

Marx’s Theory of Capital, its successes and shortcomings. The Paris Commune, 1870: Marxism in practice? Meanwhile in Britain: protectionism, free trade, and the battle over the Corn Laws.

Week Eight: The US, Germany, and a 2nd Industrial Revolution

The Second Industrial Revolution: Steel, Rail, Oil, Rubber, and Chemicals. Robber barons, Trusts, and Progressives in the USA. German unification and industrialization, 1860-1914. Britain’s Nineteenth Century expansion, and transition to an “empire of free trade.”

Week Nine: Imperialism, the last stage of Capitalism?

High Imperialism, the scramble for Africa, and Hobson and Lenin’s theories of Imperialism. Capitalism, the Arms Race, and the First World War. Plus, a quick look at the Russian Revolution.


Week Ten: The World Revolution, The Sunset of Capitalism, and the Rising Sun of Japan

The Emergence of Modern Japan – and China’s ‘century of humiliation.’ Stocks, Bonds, Margin Calls, Futures, Options, Straddles, Hedges, Puts: The American Financial World Goes Crazy (But It’s Still the Same Now). The Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression: Causes.

PART THREE: THE ‘AMERICAN CENTURY’ AND CAPITALISM’S GLOBAL EMPIRE, 1919-2013

Week Eleven: Keynes and the Reconstruction of Capitalism

The Great Depression: The Global Search for Solutions. J. M. Keynes: Can Capitalism be Rebuilt? Keynes continued, and the Rise of the State – in the US, Western Europe, Latin America, and Japan. The objections of Friedrich Hayek.

Week Twelve: Unprecedented Affluence – For Some

World War II, and the Bretton Woods system. A Society of Consumers, Consumption, and Consensus: The Culture of American Affluence during the Cold War. Fordism. Galbraith. The Military-Industrial complex, the Cold War, and a debate over kitchen appliances.

Week Thirteen: The Troubled 1970s, the Global Oil Economy, and Varied Experiences in the ‘Developing World’

Decolonization, Maoist China, and the Emergence of the Three-World Order. Difficulties in the Developing World: Latin America and Africa, with special attention to a coup in Chile. Opportunities in the Developing World: The Rise of the ‘Asian Tigers.’ In the ‘First World,’ from prosperity to Stagflation to Crisis, and the voices of Keynesianism’s critics grow louder.

Week Fourteen: The Neoliberal Triumph

From Ayn Rand to Rand Paul, by way of Milton Friedman: the Intellectual Ancestry of Neoliberalism. Neoliberalism in Practice: Thatcherism and Reaganism. The Supply Siders. The Chicago Boys and the Shock Doctrine.


Week Fifteen: Global Capitalism Today

Neoliberalism with Chinese Characteristics??? Deng and the Chinese ‘Economic Miracle.’ The Collapse of 2008 and an Uneven Recovery. The Shape of the Global Economy in 2013, its Critics and its Champions, its Winners and its Losers, and, How That T-Shirt Made its Way from Texas to Shanghai and Back Here Onto Your Body.

THE FINAL EXAM DATE, TIME, AND PLACE WILL BE POSTED ON LORA. THERE WILL PROBABLY BE AN OPTIONAL REVIEW SESSION – KEEP AN EYE ON BLACKBOARD FOR THE TIME AND LOCATION. THANK YOU FOR TAKING THIS COURSE!

Documents

The worst error of all is to suppose that capitalism is