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Mercantilism Vs Utilitarianism

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Mercantilists believed money was equal to power, and that wealth was strongly correlated to political or state power. But over all, their entire goal was to advance the country’s interest through regulation. They defined wealth through the country’s supply of precious metals (e.g. gold and silver). All goods needed to be produced in the country itself to be able to decrease imports and increase exports, so that there would be a surplus on the balance of trade. A positive balance of trade was a key player as it insinuates advancements in wealth. B) The Physiocrats concept of wealth was that of commodities. They were the first to state the idea of an economy as a natural integrated system of production, distribution and consumption. As land, …show more content…

Natural prices are prices corresponding to long-term costs, whereas market prices are short-term prices and can deviate from long-term prices. There are two circumstances when market prices do not correspond with its natural prices, in an upward and downward direction. When demand is less than supply, the market price drops below the natural price, this is because of an increased in competition within the group of sellers, which cause the market price to be lower than the natural price. The second circumstance is when demand is more than supply, the market price is obviously higher than the natural price, this is due to the increase in competition with the buyers, since the demand is higher, and the market price increases as …show more content…

Adam Smith identified three different classes in society. The first class is of landlords or landed gentry, the second class is of merchants and manufacturers and the lastly, the class of wage labourers. The class of landlords is very simple to understand, they control and deal with land. The class of merchants and manufacturers also known as capitalist class, they acquire their income through the profit of stocks. According to Smith, “The working class, or the class of wage labourers, makes up the vast majority of the members of a commercial society.” (Paul Alexander Rækstad, 2011, pg 47) They are the people who work for the landlords or merchants/ manufacturers. Whereas, in Quesnay’s eyes, there are also three different classes, which are: the productive class, the class of proprietors and the sterile (or unproductive) class. The people working in the productive class are involved in agriculture. The people working in the proprietor class are those who are an owner of a business or a holder of a property. And lastly, those in the sterile class do not work within the agriculture field. (Iwanami Shoten,

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Before the industrial revolution two there were two major classes: the nobles and the peasant. Nobles gained most of their wealth through inheritance while peasant worked the land given to them by the nobles. The peasants were forced to give up most of their harvest to the nobles in order to pay for their land. During the industrial revolution two new classes emerged the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie was the middle class and the proletariat was the working class.

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1. Who wrote this document? (Don’t just list a name here – provide some background information on the person.) When and where did they write this document? Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who gained his enormous fortune through the steel industry, writes “Wealth”.

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Wealth is driven by commerce. Wealth in any form is the root of all needed things in the sense that currency is the simplification of ones own definition of wealth by being the common denominator that translates through the world. Translating wealth is most commonly left to the rich and philosophically inclined such as Adam Smith, Andrew Carnegie, and Andrew K. Gailbraith. Adam Smiths realism rhetoric stood that in order for a prosperous town to exist there first had to be an equally if not better country-side because Adam Smith believed that wealth was a measure of how much land one had and how much of it could be cultivated for the use of planting crops and manufacturing raw goods and how close it was to any town.

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Mercantilism is the theory or policy that started in the 1600’s. It is a system in which trade generates money and profitable balances. Mercantilism was introduced to the colonies by England. They passed many laws such as the Navigation Laws, which gave them control to our trade. This affected the colonies because any trade done with Europe had to first pass through England.

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Was Andrew Carnegie a hero? Did he’s new ideas, business and donations made him a hero? At that time most of the biggest and most profitable business were controlled by 3 important gentlemen, one of them was Andrew Carnegie who controlled the steel production in all America, being the steel production his monopoly, but also, he was one if not the biggest philanthropist in that time. So, does these matter for be a hero? Was him a hero?

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In this piece of evidence, Adam Smith talks about how if someone depends on living off an upper-classman, then they are a beggar. At this time in the world, mercantilism was the main economic system for countries to be economically stable. Adam Smith talks about how capitalism is the best form for economics in a country. So, in this piece of evidence, Adam Smith says how only beggars depend on other people's resources. He shows how mercantilism is a needy form of economics and how the people who depend on the government receive meager amounts of money.

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Unit 1 Chapter 7 The Road to Revolution The Americans had troubles complying with the new British control after the Seven Years War; they wouldn’t pay necessary funds and also had a growing sense of national identity The Deep Roots of Revolution The Americans had a world that they could make their own, thus upraising nationalistic ideas Republicanism: citizens surrendered their selfish demands for the greater good Opposed aristocracy and monarchy ”Radical Whigs”: warned people to be aware of government corruption and to resist that corruption Americans had grown into a country accustomed to running it’s own affairs, so when the British came in 1763 to get a better hold over their colonies, Americans resisted

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The War of 1812 (1812-1814) is arguably one of the most controversial declarations of war that the United States has ever seen. Coming down to one of the closest votes in history, the majority of Congress still decided to partake in battle. Yet what many people do not know are the actual causes of this fight taking place between the U.S. and Great Britain, and how it can all be traced back to one man’s economic plan for the future of the nation. Because of Alexander Hamilton’s outline for industrialization and international trade for the United States, Britain would take advantage of our trading routes, which undoubtedly led to the war of 1812. In fact, one could say that Alexander Hamilton’s ideas were the main cause of the cause of the war, because it was because of our ideas to trade that let Britain

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Greek mythology originates from Ancient Greece (2000 B.C) created as a way for their scientifically undeveloped civilization to explain their surroundings and fathom mysteries such as the creation of the world, while incorporating their morals and beliefs to teach lessons on human behaviour. These myths involve titans, nymphs, monsters and gods contrasting different vices and virtues, becoming the pillars of our religious speculations and of our moral standards in our western culture. The primitive versions of these stories, traveled by word of mouth during the time era; nevertheless, as society evolves, these tales were transcribed by Epic Poets such as Homer, creator of the first recorded version of the myths titled “Iliad and Odyssey”.

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The economic views of Adam Smith and Karl Marx Microeconomics Eduardo De Oliveira Superti   Table of Contents: Abstract 3 Introduction 4 The economic views of Adam Smith 5 The economic views of Karl Marx 6 Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx 7 Examples in the world of today 9 Conclusion 10 Recommendations 11 Bibliography 12 Introduction Adam Smith and Karl Marx were completely contrasting economists throughout their time and had an enormous effect on the world and the way we view economics. They represent the ideas of capitalism and socialism.

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Adam Smith, an advocate of capitalism, in his book, The Wealth of Nations wrote that all individuals are selfish and by performing to the best of their capabilities towards their own selfish interests they contribute towards the nation’s collective growth. Karl Marx, on the other hand criticized capitalism and believed that socialism and communism are society’s best chance of maximizing individual happiness, about which he wrote in his book Das Kapital. In this paper, we will compare and contrast the economics theories of Adam Smith and Karl Marx on the lines of labor theory of value, division of labor, alienation of workers from labor and human happiness and surplus profit and its social implications. This paper will also discuss how… Adam Smith believes that there are two types of ‘values’ of a commodity – ‘utility value’ and ‘exchange value’. The utility value of a commodity is based on how useful a commodity is and the exchange value of a commodity refers to how much we can get in exchange for a commodity if we were to sell it.

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Ayse Meryem Gürpınar Akbulut October 11, 2016 SPL 501 / On Adam Smith and Karl Polanyi Adam Smith and Karl Polanyi are philosophers of two different eras, 18th and 20th centuries respectively. While the former witnessed early periods of the capitalist system with the emergence of the industrial revolution, the latter had opportunity to analyze the consequences of a mature capitalist system. Since both of them believe in social being of humans, they differ in methodological terms while analyzing the human beings. Smith, as employing the methodological individualism, focused on the human nature and human behavior. According to his perspective, a socio-economic system emerges through individual tendencies, intentions, and behaviors without

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Marx believed that the current capitalist society is separated into two classes, the Proletariat society, and Bourgeois society. The Proletarians, as perceived by Marx, are part of the working class that only possess one significant material value, that is the ability to work, or labour power. The Bourgeoise, on the other hand, is the societal class that owns the means of production and hence rule over the Proletarians. As I quote from Marx’s book, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1988, p. 473)

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As per the reading suggested by the instructor about the philosophical idea of Consequentialism (Utilitarianism) given by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill and the other concept which is given by Immanuel Kant in the critics of Utilitarianism theory which is called Deontological Ethics. The reading given made understand about all these two concept and their possible application in the policy or law making like the universal law. Utilitarianism:- this is the concept used by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and the John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). The core idea of this theory is the results comes from the action taken by the group of people or the individual. According to theory the outcomes will be judged weather the action was morally right or wrong.

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Smith says, “as it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that we obtain from one another the greater part of those mutual good offices which we stand in need of, so it is this same tuckering disposition which originally gives occasion to the division of labour,” (Smith 2000:16). Smith shows that people have more wonts and needs that have to be obtained in different ways. The production needs and skill are far to great for one single person to make for themselves. Smith claims that capitalism naturally came out o the need for goods. This need for goods resulted in the increase in specialization and productivity which Smith calls the division of labour.

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