Dope. I think yall need to get a better microphone 🎤 . It sounds a bit choppy and spitting. Other than that, finally a channel that isn't doing "what is socialism" for the trillionith time. We're getting into the deeper stuff. Could we have a video about how slave societies became feudalism in the first place?
Slaves became expensive commodities cuz 1) Peasants, who were earlier made into slaves if they were indebted, rebelled multiple times against it. 2) Germanic tribes became powerful confederations like Visigoths and Ostrogoths which cannot be raided or bullied into paying tribute (for slaves and other things) 3) An aggressive and powerful empire established in Iran (Sassanians) and in Africa (Ethiopian empire). This led to replacement of slavery with coloni system. This coloni system is the precursor of serfdom. Vassalage can be understood both as a continuation and expansion of Tetrarchy in Roman Empire and more so, military hierarchies within the Germanic confederations.
@@themarxistproject I think its rather an issue of mixing. The music feels a bit too loud for the volume of the voice. Also yall could propably just start some crowdfunding for new equipment, since your content is a blessing for so many :)
this specific period has always been super interesting, and seeing a marxist analysis of it is awesome! understanding the slow death of feudalism is also super interesting, love your stuff man!
The Soviet Union managed to develop centuries of raw capitalist accumulation in a few decades all while fighting two world wars, a brutal multiple front civil war, and the intervention of numerous great powers, all while starting from a mostly feudal economic base. Not only managing that, but also equaling and even surpassing the most powerful nation in human history in almost no time.
Absolutely, that is what tou have to say when you primarily hear one side of the propaganda...The history of the Soviet Union circulated around the state itself, the unity of the states. It was never for the people
Not that I don’t agree they achieved great development and were better than the US in that aspect, even in amount of human toll, why the hell do we have to keep virtue signaling in TH-cam comments about it? It’s not even related to the video and people are saying it. Like why is this here?
The soviets also had the American and British capitalist economies supplying them while fighting WW2. They were losing until the received the help, similar to the Ukraine and Russia situation today. The Soviets also had famine and genocide as the norm in their history, including after WW2.
Great content as always. I'm new to the channel from the Philippines and I hope a content on Imperialism and neo-colonialism can be produced sooner or later, I want people to know how US Imperialism preserve old ruling orders of feudal landowning families not only here but mostly in the global South.
i have to be honest, i found this one particularly difficult to follow. a lot of terms im not very familiar with thrown out without explanation throughout the video. i'll come back to it later when im home and able to take notes and such, i think the economic systems that existed prior to capitalism is a very interesting topic and i'd love to learn about it from a marxist perspective, just seems im not there yet.
i thought so too, it's maybe good for people who know about the transition out of feudalism. all those details/terms like commercial-, industrial-, etc. capital. i was wondering what is the meaningful difference. it's surely not an introduction
Sweet video, thanks for the digestability of this info. I think one of the big reasons many people dont study history or economics as adults is because the info is dense. You explain it well! 🖤💜💙💚💙💜🖤 Much love, just found your chanmel and im working through your catalog! Drink water, Comrades!!
I'm still not sure I understand the origins of mercantilism. A video not really for beginners, with the narration preceding a bit too quickly and too academic jargon-y in tone (I could probably do better here if I could READ this, rather than hear it at its quick and dense pace). I'll keep trying though--it has sparked my interest. Thanks for posting!
Since you're garnering comments, I'll offer one. This is my "cup of tea," but I'm a prof. The narrative is so high flown that you're preaching to the choir, an elite one at that. I presume the aim, here, is to attract newcomers. My sense, from more than 25 years of university teaching, is that you lost 95% of the uninitiated from the start, with this: "To understand mercantilist thinking is to understand the historical circumstances of a transition between modes of production." The stragglers' eyes rolled up at this: "the ascriptive legitimation of feudal class hierarchies could only be an anachronism in the emerging capitalist mode of production." Might I suggest, respectfully, that you rethink who your audience is, what you want them to know, and why? Please note the comment by "Liyura," below. You have an apparent eager learner, but the video isn't accessible enough. Nevertheless, many thanks for your efforts.
Thank you for your thoughts. I struggle with this constantly and frankly I don't yet have an answer to the questions about who my audience is. I want this channel to be more accessible than academia, but I also don't want to rehash the same tired "Theory 101" information that other people have already done (probably better than I could anyway). Striking that balance has been an ongoing learning process. I think some of the channel's videos have done better than others in this regard. I do really appreciate these criticisms. After reading your comment I've already caught myself reframing certain things for the sake of accessibility.
I disagree. While the choice of words is very jargon heavy and could easily be simplified a few notches, the subject matter is perfectly understandable for someone like me with no formal education in any of this. All you need is an understanding of how material conditions push and inspire ideology, and what feudalism and capitalism is.
Lovely video as always. I really appreciate the level on which some of your videos operate, even if I can’t completely grasp the concepts or immediately understand, it gives me much to chew on and come back to over time. Kind of like a tough video game boss that you have to revisit later when you’ve gained more experience and gear.
Excellent cursary explanation of the transition. For anyone that's interested in going father into the nuances of the transitions, I suggest the book I've very useful 'The Origin of Capitalism' A longer view- by Ellen Meiksins Wood.
Mercantilism laid the foundation for the subsequent small business class and their petty bourgeois mentality or outlook that still haunts much of the working class under capitalism in the US today. Interesting video.
Yes! This! When I was in school during the George W Bush administration, Mercantilism was glorified as making prices & nationality seem sensible. Like, it was fascist propaganda to say the least, sigh.
One of the interesting academic points of contention I think is the role of the catholic church. I have become quite convinced of the argument that the catholics are largely responsible for the rise of individualism not the protestants. Hear me out. One of the biggest differences between the initial protestant rebels and the catholics? The catholics would not oversee a patently forced marriage. They had stressed for centuries marriage as an act of love and while arranged marriages still happened this catholic pressure worked on society over time. This is important as what came before is... well tribalism. Loyalty to the tribe, the clan, the family. Arranged marriages are not about happiness. They are about maintaining familial power by establishing alliances and ensuring it has children. The act of love being a truly selfish was a defiance of this. Something the catholics do not get enough credit for promoting. This is also why they were so hostile towards divorce. Marriage was not a contract between clans where the children are bought and sold. Its a solem vow between two individuals irrespective of their families and responsibilities.
I liked the video but, you might want to explain the jargon a bit more if you'd like to make these videos more accessible to interested passersby like me. Some examples of the jargon might go a long way. Otherwise it feels like an introductory video for the expert.
Overall, this was well done. The graphics are simple but easily understood and your diction is clear. It was a bit dull and hard to focus on with my ADHD. Wish there was more focus on mercantilism and it's impact on culture (both the colonies and colonizers) beyond philosophy and academia. I think your script writing could use some polishing. It is far too formal and uses unnecessarily long words. If your goal is to educate the people, you have to use language they would be familiar with. Don't get me wrong, using the appropriate vocabulary allows nuances that otherwise would be lost if you oversimplify your words. But your priority is to be _understood_ .
Question: where/how do enclosures come into play during this period? I've been reading Less Is More by Jason Hickel (on degrowth) and in his chapter on the origins of capitalism, he claims that feudalism had collapsed by the mid 14th century (due to, as you mentioned, "unforseen demographic changes" aka the black death which increased labour costs) and a revolution took place where peasants had increased agency, etc. So was this series of revolutions/ failed rebellions across europe by former feudal peasant classes part of the mercantilist era, or was mercantilism the response by the former feudal rulers to regain their power? Or something else? I have a stem background and am trying to grasp history/political economy so pls bear w me if I'm spewing nonsense at times, thanks :)
Mercantilism as a set of policies and ideas was promoted by the merchant class, which certainly didn't belong to the landed elite. I think merchants could certainly come from peasant backgrounds but by and large they were a distinct class that had its own interests regarding economic and political affairs. The peasant rebellions fit in this story insofar as heightened bargaining power of the peasants necessarily implied the weakening influence of the feudal lords. The thesis in this video is that the convergence of all of these distinct dynamics catalyzed the advent of capitalism. A relatively weak feudal class became increasingly powerless in the face of affluent and influential merchant guilds, and so on. Enclosures, if I'm not mistaken, came at a relatively late stage of mercantilism. Right around the time mentioned in the video where the sphere of power shifted to production and not exchange. The emergent capitalist class needed to wrest control of the means of production from the free peasantry and landlords alike. I think this is the advantage of thinking in structural/overdetermined frameworks. It avoids dichotomizing class conflicts and helps us identify multifaceted forces of change whereby previously auxiliary class processes (merchant capital, in our case) dislodge the prevailing structure (e.g. lord-serf relations).
@@themarxistproject Just on enclosures. Starts around 1450 with rises in wool prices, proceeds in three distinct phases (depending on the type of land and changing class relations) and is only completed in the 19th century. Excellent book on this by Allen 'the enclosure of the yeoman'.
I think that part of being educated is being exposed to things you don’t understand . The effort of educating a people in complex topics doesn’t necessitate breaking down said topics into the simplest words that everyone can understand . Being exposed to complex words provides a part of the education. You cant expect to understand everything just by hearing the words . not even the smartest person in the world expects that. You must hear these words many times, and be exposed to these topics a lot. I don’t think that people shouldn’t be educated , but I seriously don’t think this channel is doing anything wrong by discussing complex language and historical concepts.
I'm really interested in this, but I just can't make it through the long sentences and big words. I feel like you're teaching to a graduate level audience and that's just not me. MS Word has a reading level estimater that you could use on your script. If you brought it down to a 9th grade level, it would really help. You completely lost me at "epistemologically." Professor Wolff is really good at this. He has videos here on TH-cam.
Plenty of the script could have been written for a wider audience while also being more concise. It’s good to expand your vocabulary and use big words to be precise about what you mean. Unfortunately what so often happens in academia is that writers overuse complex words and jargon resulting in long vague explanations with a high barrier of entry, sometimes just because it makes the author sound good. It also conveniently makes pointing out flawed logic more difficult and time consuming, because it requires more steps to break down the convoluted language into logical basics.
Mercantilism is just traditional Victorian liberal capitalism but without steam power and ownership by artisans, merchants and guilds. While not optimal, it’s a hell of a lot better than capitalism in terms of ownership but worse in raw exploitation (slavery). At least that’s my simplified view of things!
I can totally understand that Socialism is just the transtional phase between capitalism and communism. But isn't the transitional phase between Mercantilism and Capitlaism Imperialism? Imperialism uses military force via Colonialism to implement Mercantilism on poor countries.
@@swempley Because we know how to read about socialism instead of just listening to what the state department and corporate media says about it. Socialism works. Read some studies such as Capitalism, Socialism and the Physical Quality of Life by Shirley Cereseto. I also recommend Blackshirts & Reds by Parenti.
Dope. I think yall need to get a better microphone 🎤 . It sounds a bit choppy and spitting. Other than that, finally a channel that isn't doing "what is socialism" for the trillionith time. We're getting into the deeper stuff. Could we have a video about how slave societies became feudalism in the first place?
A better audio setup would be nice, but equipment is quite expensive :/
Slaves became expensive commodities cuz
1) Peasants, who were earlier made into slaves if they were indebted, rebelled multiple times against it.
2) Germanic tribes became powerful confederations like Visigoths and Ostrogoths which cannot be raided or bullied into paying tribute (for slaves and other things)
3) An aggressive and powerful empire established in Iran (Sassanians) and in Africa (Ethiopian empire).
This led to replacement of slavery with coloni system. This coloni system is the precursor of serfdom.
Vassalage can be understood both as a continuation and expansion of Tetrarchy in Roman Empire and more so, military hierarchies within the Germanic confederations.
@@themarxistproject I think its rather an issue of mixing. The music feels a bit too loud for the volume of the voice. Also yall could propably just start some crowdfunding for new equipment, since your content is a blessing for so many :)
@@themarxistproject pop filters are pretty cheap. Can't comment on mics though.
reminds me of old historia civilis videos
this specific period has always been super interesting, and seeing a marxist analysis of it is awesome! understanding the slow death of feudalism is also super interesting, love your stuff man!
The Soviet Union managed to develop centuries of raw capitalist accumulation in a few decades all while fighting two world wars, a brutal multiple front civil war, and the intervention of numerous great powers, all while starting from a mostly feudal economic base. Not only managing that, but also equaling and even surpassing the most powerful nation in human history in almost no time.
You know they quit ww1 right?
@@runbychews134 lol that was Tsarist Russia not Soviet Union
Absolutely, that is what tou have to say when you primarily hear one side of the propaganda...The history of the Soviet Union circulated around the state itself, the unity of the states. It was never for the people
Not that I don’t agree they achieved great development and were better than the US in that aspect, even in amount of human toll, why the hell do we have to keep virtue signaling in TH-cam comments about it? It’s not even related to the video and people are saying it. Like why is this here?
The soviets also had the American and British capitalist economies supplying them while fighting WW2. They were losing until the received the help, similar to the Ukraine and Russia situation today. The Soviets also had famine and genocide as the norm in their history, including after WW2.
After spending a summer 18 years ago working in Stamford, Lincolnshire, I realised at the age of 31 that feudalism is alive and well in the UK
Capitallism is dead. The future is Techno-Feudalism
Thanks very much, great explanation. Love the background music
Great content as always. I'm new to the channel from the Philippines and I hope a content on Imperialism and neo-colonialism can be produced sooner or later, I want people to know how US Imperialism preserve old ruling orders of feudal landowning families not only here but mostly in the global South.
Salutes tp the CPP/NPA from India
i have to be honest, i found this one particularly difficult to follow. a lot of terms im not very familiar with thrown out without explanation throughout the video. i'll come back to it later when im home and able to take notes and such, i think the economic systems that existed prior to capitalism is a very interesting topic and i'd love to learn about it from a marxist perspective, just seems im not there yet.
i thought so too, it's maybe good for people who know about the transition out of feudalism. all those details/terms like commercial-, industrial-, etc. capital. i was wondering what is the meaningful difference. it's surely not an introduction
Sweet video, thanks for the digestability of this info. I think one of the big reasons many people dont study history or economics as adults is because the info is dense. You explain it well!
🖤💜💙💚💙💜🖤
Much love, just found your chanmel and im working through your catalog!
Drink water, Comrades!!
Fantastic analysis, you’re definitely growing to become one of the best of the educational channels out there
I'm still not sure I understand the origins of mercantilism. A video not really for beginners, with the narration preceding a bit too quickly and too academic jargon-y in tone (I could probably do better here if I could READ this, rather than hear it at its quick and dense pace).
I'll keep trying though--it has sparked my interest. Thanks for posting!
There's a link to the script in the description if you prefer reading :)
I have to use captioning and I didn’t understand anything. I’ll stick with Richard Wolff’s clear and comprehensible programs.
Since you're garnering comments, I'll offer one. This is my "cup of tea," but I'm a prof. The narrative is so high flown that you're preaching to the choir, an elite one at that. I presume the aim, here, is to attract newcomers. My sense, from more than 25 years of university teaching, is that you lost 95% of the uninitiated from the start, with this: "To understand mercantilist thinking is to understand the historical circumstances of a transition between modes of production." The stragglers' eyes rolled up at this: "the ascriptive legitimation of feudal class hierarchies could only be an anachronism in the emerging capitalist mode of production." Might I suggest, respectfully, that you rethink who your audience is, what you want them to know, and why? Please note the comment by "Liyura," below. You have an apparent eager learner, but the video isn't accessible enough. Nevertheless, many thanks for your efforts.
Thank you for your thoughts. I struggle with this constantly and frankly I don't yet have an answer to the questions about who my audience is. I want this channel to be more accessible than academia, but I also don't want to rehash the same tired "Theory 101" information that other people have already done (probably better than I could anyway).
Striking that balance has been an ongoing learning process. I think some of the channel's videos have done better than others in this regard.
I do really appreciate these criticisms. After reading your comment I've already caught myself reframing certain things for the sake of accessibility.
I disagree. While the choice of words is very jargon heavy and could easily be simplified a few notches, the subject matter is perfectly understandable for someone like me with no formal education in any of this. All you need is an understanding of how material conditions push and inspire ideology, and what feudalism and capitalism is.
Lovely video as always. I really appreciate the level on which some of your videos operate, even if I can’t completely grasp the concepts or immediately understand, it gives me much to chew on and come back to over time. Kind of like a tough video game boss that you have to revisit later when you’ve gained more experience and gear.
Great video comrade!
I'm really interested in a materialist history of pre-capitalist modes of production.
Thanks! 🧑🌾🧺🐂⛵🪙
Perry Anderson and Ellen Meiksins Woods have some good texts on the topic
@@JonathanKelly24 thank you!!
Read Political Economy from USSR. It will be very appealing to u
The regrettable century podcast on Rome is really good.
Good video but the background music is way too loud.
Apologies! It sounded a little different to me in the editor with headphones on. Shouldn't get too in the way of the whole video though
Excellent cursary explanation of the transition. For anyone that's interested in going father into the nuances of the transitions, I suggest the book I've very useful 'The Origin of Capitalism' A longer view- by Ellen Meiksins Wood.
I really love Wood's book!
Excellent video. What work by Wolf and Resnik were you relying on here?
Passing into the dustbin of history...
Mercantilism laid the foundation for the subsequent small business class and their petty bourgeois mentality or outlook that still haunts much of the working class under capitalism in the US today. Interesting video.
Yes! This! When I was in school during the George W Bush administration, Mercantilism was glorified as making prices & nationality seem sensible. Like, it was fascist propaganda to say the least, sigh.
One of the interesting academic points of contention I think is the role of the catholic church. I have become quite convinced of the argument that the catholics are largely responsible for the rise of individualism not the protestants. Hear me out. One of the biggest differences between the initial protestant rebels and the catholics? The catholics would not oversee a patently forced marriage. They had stressed for centuries marriage as an act of love and while arranged marriages still happened this catholic pressure worked on society over time. This is important as what came before is... well tribalism. Loyalty to the tribe, the clan, the family. Arranged marriages are not about happiness. They are about maintaining familial power by establishing alliances and ensuring it has children.
The act of love being a truly selfish was a defiance of this. Something the catholics do not get enough credit for promoting. This is also why they were so hostile towards divorce. Marriage was not a contract between clans where the children are bought and sold. Its a solem vow between two individuals irrespective of their families and responsibilities.
The music is so ecstatic that i can't focus on the lecture. My body starts dancing on its own. 😂
That was complex. Maybe a longer video with more elaboration?
This channel rocks
I liked the video but, you might want to explain the jargon a bit more if you'd like to make these videos more accessible to interested passersby like me. Some examples of the jargon might go a long way. Otherwise it feels like an introductory video for the expert.
"We hate kings... So let's act like them. We want to be mini kings."
What happend to the Discord server?
Overall, this was well done. The graphics are simple but easily understood and your diction is clear. It was a bit dull and hard to focus on with my ADHD.
Wish there was more focus on mercantilism and it's impact on culture (both the colonies and colonizers) beyond philosophy and academia.
I think your script writing could use some polishing. It is far too formal and uses unnecessarily long words. If your goal is to educate the people, you have to use language they would be familiar with. Don't get me wrong, using the appropriate vocabulary allows nuances that otherwise would be lost if you oversimplify your words. But your priority is to be _understood_ .
Question: where/how do enclosures come into play during this period? I've been reading Less Is More by Jason Hickel (on degrowth) and in his chapter on the origins of capitalism, he claims that feudalism had collapsed by the mid 14th century (due to, as you mentioned, "unforseen demographic changes" aka the black death which increased labour costs) and a revolution took place where peasants had increased agency, etc.
So was this series of revolutions/ failed rebellions across europe by former feudal peasant classes part of the mercantilist era, or was mercantilism the response by the former feudal rulers to regain their power? Or something else?
I have a stem background and am trying to grasp history/political economy so pls bear w me if I'm spewing nonsense at times, thanks :)
Mercantilism as a set of policies and ideas was promoted by the merchant class, which certainly didn't belong to the landed elite. I think merchants could certainly come from peasant backgrounds but by and large they were a distinct class that had its own interests regarding economic and political affairs.
The peasant rebellions fit in this story insofar as heightened bargaining power of the peasants necessarily implied the weakening influence of the feudal lords. The thesis in this video is that the convergence of all of these distinct dynamics catalyzed the advent of capitalism. A relatively weak feudal class became increasingly powerless in the face of affluent and influential merchant guilds, and so on.
Enclosures, if I'm not mistaken, came at a relatively late stage of mercantilism. Right around the time mentioned in the video where the sphere of power shifted to production and not exchange. The emergent capitalist class needed to wrest control of the means of production from the free peasantry and landlords alike.
I think this is the advantage of thinking in structural/overdetermined frameworks. It avoids dichotomizing class conflicts and helps us identify multifaceted forces of change whereby previously auxiliary class processes (merchant capital, in our case) dislodge the prevailing structure (e.g. lord-serf relations).
@@themarxistproject thank you! Succinctly put.
@@themarxistproject Just on enclosures. Starts around 1450 with rises in wool prices, proceeds in three distinct phases (depending on the type of land and changing class relations) and is only completed in the 19th century. Excellent book on this by Allen 'the enclosure of the yeoman'.
Music is a bit too loud.
Please use smaller words
I think that part of being educated is being exposed to things you don’t understand . The effort of educating a people in complex topics doesn’t necessitate breaking down said topics into the simplest words that everyone can understand . Being exposed to complex words provides a part of the education. You cant expect to understand everything just by hearing the words . not even the smartest person in the world expects that. You must hear these words many times, and be exposed to these topics a lot. I don’t think that people shouldn’t be educated , but I seriously don’t think this channel is doing anything wrong by discussing complex language and historical concepts.
Music is a little loud compared to your voice, but great stuff! Very interesting!
This video leaves me without providing knowledge that I understand.
It feels like the language is over technical
I'm really interested in this, but I just can't make it through the long sentences and big words. I feel like you're teaching to a graduate level audience and that's just not me. MS Word has a reading level estimater that you could use on your script. If you brought it down to a 9th grade level, it would really help. You completely lost me at "epistemologically."
Professor Wolff is really good at this. He has videos here on TH-cam.
Plenty of the script could have been written for a wider audience while also being more concise. It’s good to expand your vocabulary and use big words to be precise about what you mean. Unfortunately what so often happens in academia is that writers overuse complex words and jargon resulting in long vague explanations with a high barrier of entry, sometimes just because it makes the author sound good. It also conveniently makes pointing out flawed logic more difficult and time consuming, because it requires more steps to break down the convoluted language into logical basics.
Mercantilism is just traditional Victorian liberal capitalism but without steam power and ownership by artisans, merchants and guilds. While not optimal, it’s a hell of a lot better than capitalism in terms of ownership but worse in raw exploitation (slavery). At least that’s my simplified view of things!
Mercantilism and colonialsim are the foundstions of imperialism.
Capitalism was created to fix the problems of mercantilism.
Hmm
I can totally understand that Socialism is just the transtional phase between capitalism and communism.
But isn't the transitional phase between Mercantilism and Capitlaism Imperialism?
Imperialism uses military force via Colonialism to implement Mercantilism on poor countries.
Music is way too loud, it's hard to hear your voice.
It's really only at the beginning of the video, it gets better later on.
I Am Neutral I Don’t Have A Side But I Also Need More Subs
♥️☭
You have a Patreon? LMAO fu*king ironic as fu*k.
There's nothing ironic about it. Patreon is a genuinely voluntary agreement, which does not even involve private MOP ownership or anything like that.
Why do Right-wingers think socialism is when no monetary transactions?
@@arthurmorgan1550 Why do left wingers think socialism actually works? Because they're just whiney college kids who've never had a real job.
@@swempley Because we know how to read about socialism instead of just listening to what the state department and corporate media says about it. Socialism works. Read some studies such as Capitalism, Socialism and the Physical Quality of Life by Shirley Cereseto. I also recommend Blackshirts & Reds by Parenti.
@@arthurmorgan1550 Give me a single example of a country where socialism actually works.