Capitalism: The Quest for Cost Reduction and a Fair Price
Capitalism is the idea that wealth can be grown. Under a capitalistic society, wealth is grown from the private sector where land is privately owned. Production in a capitalistic society is efficient due to the rewards of being efficient. If a producer can make more goods for cheaper than he currently is then the producer can make more money. Capitalism arose out of specific conditions during the feudal era in England and was widely put to use in various countries during the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism is an evolving definition that is tweaked with each major period of its history insuring in each period that goods could be produced for the cheapest available means and sold at …show more content…
Some countries used free trade to move their products around the globe. In the article “Political components of the industrial revolution: Parliament and the English cotton textile industry, 1660-1774” The authors write about the different approaches to trade during the Industrial Revolution. The authors grouped countries together to compare their response. On one side was the French who outright banned printed cloth imports. The opposite view was Holland’s and Switzerland’s view. Holland and Switzerland allowed free trade which brought about the end of most domestic production. Each method of trade had their own pros and cons. England chose a middle ground and regulated trade at first but slowly deregulated it after the domestic production had a foothold in the country. They writes, “Parliament first allowed Asian textiles time to demonstrate potential demand for cotton cloth, then after four to five decades of open trading it reserved the home market, ostensibly for woollens and silks, but in effect for linens and for fustians. Parliament not only encouraged the dyeing and printing of textiles to mature; its legislative enactments in 1736-74 helped to transform fustian into a mechanized cotton industry.” This was the beginning of free trade in capitalism. No longer were countries using the mercantilism paradigm; countries began to see that free trade was a necessity during the Industrial Revolution and began to …show more content…
This era is dominated by outsourcing and cost reduction. The current era of capitalism has evolved from centuries of capitalism working its way across the globe. One primary difference of Post-Industrial capitalism is outsourcing the manufacture process. Products are made across the globe rather than in one place. Lecture 14 focused on this outsourcing. An example used in lecture 14 was the iPhone. The lecture notes that the iPhone’s rare earth metals are mined in China where labor is cheapest. Other forms of the phone are made across the globe in areas where it is cheaper to produce than in the United States. This is an example of outsourcing. Louis Hyman writes about the beginning of outsourcing in his book Borrow, “In the world of cheap good – manufactured in the U.S. South or even overseas, where cheap land and nonexistent unions allowed manufactures to cut costs – come merchandise could be broken, stained, torn, ripped, and manhandled by customers.” He is writing about discount stores importing product produced in other countries where it was cheaper to make goods. This is a form of Post- Industrial capitalism. Businesses are trying to make as much profit as possible. In order to do this they have to buy products from other countries or they have to buy factories to produce their goods in other countries where labor is cheap. Another example of Post-Industrial capitalism is seen in the company
Capitalism is the idea that wealth can be grown. Under a capitalistic society, wealth is grown from the private sector where land is privately owned. Production in a capitalistic society is efficient due to the rewards of being efficient. If a producer can make more goods for cheaper than he currently is then the producer can make more money. Capitalism arose out of specific conditions during the feudal era in England and was widely put to use in various countries during the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism is an evolving definition that is tweaked with each major period of its history insuring in each period that goods could be produced for the cheapest available means and sold at …show more content…
Some countries used free trade to move their products around the globe. In the article “Political components of the industrial revolution: Parliament and the English cotton textile industry, 1660-1774” The authors write about the different approaches to trade during the Industrial Revolution. The authors grouped countries together to compare their response. On one side was the French who outright banned printed cloth imports. The opposite view was Holland’s and Switzerland’s view. Holland and Switzerland allowed free trade which brought about the end of most domestic production. Each method of trade had their own pros and cons. England chose a middle ground and regulated trade at first but slowly deregulated it after the domestic production had a foothold in the country. They writes, “Parliament first allowed Asian textiles time to demonstrate potential demand for cotton cloth, then after four to five decades of open trading it reserved the home market, ostensibly for woollens and silks, but in effect for linens and for fustians. Parliament not only encouraged the dyeing and printing of textiles to mature; its legislative enactments in 1736-74 helped to transform fustian into a mechanized cotton industry.” This was the beginning of free trade in capitalism. No longer were countries using the mercantilism paradigm; countries began to see that free trade was a necessity during the Industrial Revolution and began to …show more content…
This era is dominated by outsourcing and cost reduction. The current era of capitalism has evolved from centuries of capitalism working its way across the globe. One primary difference of Post-Industrial capitalism is outsourcing the manufacture process. Products are made across the globe rather than in one place. Lecture 14 focused on this outsourcing. An example used in lecture 14 was the iPhone. The lecture notes that the iPhone’s rare earth metals are mined in China where labor is cheapest. Other forms of the phone are made across the globe in areas where it is cheaper to produce than in the United States. This is an example of outsourcing. Louis Hyman writes about the beginning of outsourcing in his book Borrow, “In the world of cheap good – manufactured in the U.S. South or even overseas, where cheap land and nonexistent unions allowed manufactures to cut costs – come merchandise could be broken, stained, torn, ripped, and manhandled by customers.” He is writing about discount stores importing product produced in other countries where it was cheaper to make goods. This is a form of Post- Industrial capitalism. Businesses are trying to make as much profit as possible. In order to do this they have to buy products from other countries or they have to buy factories to produce their goods in other countries where labor is cheap. Another example of Post-Industrial capitalism is seen in the company