In the past several decades, capitalism has played an important role in our society. In the article, “What is capitalism” author James Fulcher in this article, he explained how capitalism affects different countries. The author believes that almost all economic activities in capitalist society are “investment” and “profit”. Capitalism is about investing for profit. He examined the different forms of capitalism in the United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden, and the United States, and discussed whether capital has broken away from the boundaries of the state and is moving toward optimization. He also cited the tulip frenzy in the Netherlands in the 17th century, the recent financial crisis in Southeast Asia, Enron corporation in the United States, and World Communications as examples, and thus discussed the future of capitalism.
The reading adds to my knowledge of the subject of what I previously thought about this aspect of American or global history was that I found out how capitalism plays a significant way in American. For example, in the article, Fulcher states, “Capital is money that is invested in order to make more money.” And “Capitalists existed before capitalism proper. Since the earliest times merchants have made money by investing in goods that they sold at a profit.” (Fulcher pg. 14) this part shows me how capitalism was during the past, the merchants made money by the profit of the item they sell to others. In addition, what I knowns about that Capitalism production depends on the exploitation of wage labor, and works have become what Marx called “wage slaves”.
The historic transformation, or change over time, that the author is describing in the reading was capitalism has gone through three stages: early commercial capitalism, modern industrial capitalism, and now financial capitalism. According to the historian, this change of capitalism happens and takes place gradually because in the earlier time period the British East India company conducts long-distance trade through the investment of the rich, for example in the exchange for spice gold, pepper, cloves, and nutmegs. If the ship successfully returns to England, the merchant can make far more profit than the investment. If it sinks on a rock or encounters a pirate, then the merchant will lose all their money. This was the early commercial capitalism that Fulcher mention in the article. Within the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, large machines need to be manipulated by workers, so the use of workers appeared. Industrial capitalism required regular and continuous work, “Expensive machinery had to be kept constantly in use. Idleness and drunkenness, even wandering around and conversation, could not be allowed.” (Fulcher pg.7) Then the following comes with the financial capitalism which basely talks about how high-value goods works, for example in the article Fulcher states, “If the price of the corn is high but the harvest is some way off, a farmer can lock into the existing price by making a deal with a merchant to sell the corn at this price in three months’ time.” (Fulcher pg.10) This shows the way of how farmer wants to keep the high price before the price decrease, so they will decide to make deals with the merchant to keep the high price.
Fulcher’s article gives a lot of ideas of how capitalism work and how it changes throughout time.
Good grasp of change over time here; you convincingly explain the several phases that Fulcher sees as representing different aspects of the historic development of capitalism. I’m a little less clear on what you’re trying to say in the second paragraph. If capitalists existed “before capitalism proper,” and industrial capitalism had something to do with production and the use of wage labor, does that suggest that the definition you keep coming back to (the investment of capital to make profit) is an insufficient one to describe how capitalism has changed over time?
Interesting that you start by referring to “the past several decades.” Although I would argue (and Fulcher certainly would) that capitalism has shaped our world for much longer than that, you may be right to suggest that another transformation has taken place beginning, perhaps, in the 1990s. It’s getting ahead of ourselves, but it may be worth thinking about what has changed since that relatively recent time.