"This book analyses the transformation in 16th- and 17th-century English economic life that overturned the traditional restraints of the medieval economy for the commercial ethos that governs the modern world, and the resulting imbalance which opened theway to the environmental breakdown of today. On the open fields and commons, the smallholders had worked closely with the land as given, with minimal intervention in natural processes. The 16th century introduced a fundamental difference of approach as the inducement of exceptional profits encouraged manipulative exploitation of the land. "Freedom of trade" from arbitrary restraints and impositions became the new economic ethos, officially established by the mid-17th-century revolution and reinforced by other changes such as the emergence of the nation-state. The "rise of science" was associated with the agriculturalist adoption of empirical method for "improvement", and a new philosophy accorded humankind the right to degrade other species for its own ends. By focusing on the causes and effects of capitalism at its first appearance, this volume traces the environmental crisis back to the switch from an essentially universalist to a basically individualist world. This book will be of interest to scholarsand students of Early Modern England, Economic Studies, and Environmental Studies"--
This book analyses the transformation in 16th- and 17th-century English economic life that overturned the traditional restraints of the medieval economy for the commercial ethos that governs the modern world, and the resulting imbalance which opened the way to the environmental breakdown of today.
This book analyses the transformation in 16th- and 17th-century English economic life that overturned the traditional restraints of the medieval economy for the commercial ethos that governs the modern world, and the resulting imbalance which opened the way to the environmental breakdown of today.
On the open fields and commons, the smallholders had worked closely with the land as given, with minimal intervention in natural processes. The 16th century introduced a fundamental difference of approach as the inducement of exceptional profits encouraged manipulative exploitation of the land. “Freedom of trade” from arbitrary restraints and impositions became the new economic ethos, officially established by the mid-17th century revolution and reinforced by other changes such as the emergence of the nation-state. The “rise of science” was associated with the agriculturalist adoption of empirical method for “improvement”, and a new philosophy accorded humankind the right to degrade other species for its own ends. By focusing on the causes and effects of capitalism at its first appearance, this volume traces the environmental crisis back to the switch from an essentially universalist to a basically individualist world.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Early Modern England, Economic Studies, and Environmental Studies.
Introduction: The Cycle of Destruction: As the Present Denies the Past,
So the Past Deconstructs the Future
1. The Balance of Natural Forces in the
Past: The Equitable Relationships Between People, and Between Human Economics
and Nature in the Universalist Context of the Medieval Period
2. The Breach
in the Universalist Continuum: The Rise of the Yeoman Farmer and the Force of
the Profit Motive, with the Decline of the Communal Smallholders
3. The
Structures That Split Up the Common Lands and Broke the Communal Spirit: The
Shape of Consolidated Individualist Farming
4. The Timing of Enclosure, the
Force of Consolidation Without Enclosure, and the General Polarisation of
Landholding
5. Those Who Had to Move On, and Those Who Stayed, with Nothing:
The Depth of Deprivation; and the Subjectivist Heart of Capitalist
Accumulation
6. The End of All Good Nurture, and the Breach of Relationship
with the Land
7. The Environment Undermined: Early Industrialisation and the
Invasion of the Commons
8. From Saints to Scientists: The Subjugation of
Nature, the Agriculturalist Drive Behind the Scientific Revolution, and the
Birth of Subjectivist Theory
9. The Rise of Freedom of Trade and Absolute
Property: The Emergence of a Capitalist Ethos
10. The Emergent Nation-State,
and the Enshrinement of the Subjectivist Mindset
11. Conclusion: The Lost
Human, Who or Where?
George Yerby is a historical researcher currently associated with the Raphael Samuel History Centre. His publications include The English Revolution and The Roots of Environmental Change (2016) and The Economic Causes of the English Civil War: Freedom of Trade and the English Revolution (2020).
Rohkem infot Taylor & Francis e-raamatute kohta