The historical and philosophical context of the time that influences Adam Smith’s ideas
Introduction
With this essay, as declared the title, the time of the Industrial Revolution (1780), the French Revolution (1789), Illuminism (S. XVIII) and as these 3 important events influenced the ideas of economist Adam Smith. The objectives of studying these relationships are two: knowing the main features that allowed them to achieve their great magnitude, in their time, to these events, as well as analyze the way they were interesting for the work of the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith. To start the study, we will have to ask the following question: Do the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and Illuminism keep some relationship with the works of Adam Smith?
Developing
The first approach will be to the French Revolution: this was a political, social, economic and military movement that emerged in France in 1789; culminating in the collapse of the absolutist monarchy that ruled France, while originating the establishment of a democratic republican government and together with this, a new era known as contemporary times. The French Revolution spread the ideals of freedom, fraternity and popular sovereignty throughout the globe; focusing on the knowledge of the fundamental rights of man and citizen. The causes that originated this revolution were:
- Monarchical absolutism, with an unlimited power of the sovereign.
- Political and economic social inequality.
- The lack of freedoms and rights.
At that time, France was under an absolute monarchy with a king with unlimited power to govern, because he did not realize his actions to anyone (neither his expenses, nor their appointments of officials, nor their declarations of war or peace, nor their proclamation of laws or taxes); This caused no individual freedom or freedom to express himself, since the sovereign could order the arrest of any citizen without just cause; Likewise, the laws did not apply equally or with the same rigor (for the same crime the penalty was not the same for a nobleman as a plebeian).
Louis XIV, "The Sun King", was the regent that the revolution brought down; But he was convinced that he reigned over the French by virtue of divine law, so he accepted – reluctantly – the call in 1788 of a state assembly to discuss the financial crisis of the monarchy, because he did not believe that the initiative would have to have impact. Thus, when the assault on the Bastille (trigger for the revolution) occurred, he did not consider that the episode had enough importance to treat it. A few weeks later, the Versailles Palace was invaded by the revolutionary mass, and Louis XIV with his wife María Antonieta fled to Paris, where they were forced to act as constitutional kings. Years later, Louis XVI himself was one of the first victims of the revolution, being guillotined in 1793; With this execution and the proclamation of the Republic, the revolutionaries believed to have ended what they saw as a long time of oppression of the people by the kings and the aristocracy, inaugurating an era of freedom, of equality and fraternity, as dictated by the main inspiring maximum of the revolution: "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité".
Once the inspiring French revolution is known, it is necessary to know another great revolution, although much less violent, the industrial revolution: this was an era where the economy stopped based on agriculture and crafts to depend on the industry; This happened first in Britain and then extend to the rest of Europe. The existing economy until then was based on the agrarian and artisanal world (three quarters of the population subsist with agricultural work), mainly based on self-consumption and not on the commercialization of the products obtained (due to low productivity), this caused this that the cities were small and poorly developed. This change with the invention of machinery, the use of the heat energy of the mineral coal and its transformation into mechanical energy to operate the machines (resulting, an increase in productivity). The changes were:
- Technological: They went from the use of new materials such as steel to energy sources such as coal and motor machines such as the steam machine; The appearance of spinning and knitting machines, which manage to rapid rapid production with little personal; The specialization of labor and the evolution of trains and ships transportation.
- Cultural: there was a great increase in knowledge in all branches (scientific, technical, health, etc.); the growth of cities and the consequent exodus in rural areas; a high birth rate and the decrease in catastrophic mortality (causing a strong demographic increase).
While a bourgeois class owns capitalist processes, rural population migration to cities leads to a new working class that is grouped into suburbs near the factories, from the barracks in which the workers live : with precarious living conditions, both in factories (little ventilation, no job security or days that exceed twelve hours a day, all week) and in suburbs (overpopulated and dirty); The amount of workers and their families affected by these conditions were organized for the defense of their interests with the workers’ movements that managed to create centers for mutual aid and professional training, the right of operation, and in general, better, better working and life conditions.
The last stage that should be treated in this essay is Illuminism: it was a movement with the aim of raising awareness for one’s own reason because this would lead to trust, freedom, dignity, autonomy, emancipation and happiness of man. The main thinkers of illuminism established that human reason could build a better society without inequalities, guarantee the individual rights of each individual and develop the education, political and administration of a country.
Illuminism was an observed movement I disdated the works of René Descartes, which indicated in them the basis of rationalism as the only source of knowledge ("Cogito, Ergo Sum"), but was created as a reaction to European absolutism, which had as characteristic the feudal structures, influence of the Catholic Church and the censorship of dangerous ideas. In France it was where the movement had its greatest boom, by virtue of the clash between feudalism and emerging capitalism, as well as social struggles that caused the spread of the ideas of the illuminists (the French Revolution). These ideas were based on the study of "knowledge of nature" to explain political and social phenomena, giving rise to a critique of the institutional system in force at that time (which described as "irrational and contrary to nature"); They also took and applied the ideas of Isaac Newton in other fields, such as using the scientific method to explain cultural reality, this accommodated as important reflections as the creation of liberal state (where rights and obligations should be established for all, and It would be the people who would decide who would exercise the mandate of the State, with powers limited in the number and in time), or the very natural rights (intrinsic rights to the individual and that the State does not grant, but must recognize and guarantee). So great and enlightened stage reached its summit with the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen", emanating from the National Assembly in 1789 in full swing of the French Revolution.
Finally, we have to know who is Adam Smith, and what he did?: Adam Smith was one of the most famous economists in history and is considered the father of modern economy; This is because in his economic theories combined history, philosophy, economic development, psychology and ethics. Born in Scotland in 1723, he owned a prodigious memory and vocation for the study, faculties that facilitated admission to the University of Glasgow. After an extensive period in which he highlighted as a professor at the University of Glasgow, in 1758 he was appointed dean of the faculty surrounded by great prestige, so much, that Voltaire (one of the main idealists of illuminism) sent them to his best students As a sign of its recognition and admiration.
Smith was based on the ideas of Quesnay and Turgot, two of the maximum exponents of physiocracy. It took ten years to finish his most important work: "Research on the nature and causes of the wealth of nations", published in 1776, became the basic pillar of the doctrine of economic liberalism; In this work he defended the work and activity of man as the sources of all wealth, with both concepts increased by the division of labor, also, the mechanism of regulation of the economy attributed it to the personal interest and the free functioning of the offer and the demand. Therefore, it is clear because he defended capitalism in its most liberal form, raising the basic principles of taxes. However, the optimism that Smith defended on social welfare does not appear in regards to the distribution of wealth, since income and benefit reduced wages and upper classes oppressed the lower. This caused that after a few years, alternative currents appear to the classical capitalist economy of liberal doctrine, such as socialism or communism. He died on July 17, 1790 in Edimburg, being considered one of the best economists of his time and enjoying the support and academic respect of all.
conclusion
After the study of all the four issues relevant to the essay is when we can answer the introductory question: Does the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and Illuminism keep some relationship with the works of Adam Smith? The clear and concise answer is: yes. Why is more complicated: Adam Smith’s works refer to a free market and with the minimum regulation, which results in tune with some ideas of the French Revolution and the illuminism that dictate the freedom of the individual to exercise their rights as maximum, as well as the reason as a guide to, through liberal capitalism, develop the administration, productivity and administration of a country.
In addition to this, we must denote how important the industrial revolution for capitalism that pursued Adam Smith, since competitive markets and division of labor increase and impulse through the specialization of workers in different parts of production; Finally, it is necessary to point out how capitalism, plus the industrial revolution allowed more to promote the agenda of illuminism, which always sought a better way of understanding the sciences that govern the world and society.
In conclusion, Adam Smith supports the purest form of capitalism that was seen in the industrial revolution and allowed a great expansion of techniques and knowledge; More on the counterpart, it was highly harmful to the fundamental rights of each individual declared in the French Illuminism or Revolution. Despite all this, it is easy to argue that Smith is a universal reference in terms of economic theories, and the main exponent of liberal capitalism, which governed the world for several years of technological and industrial growth, at the cost of arrears in social matters and of rights.
Bibliography
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