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Chapter 7. COMMERCIAL/INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
I. Introduction
A. Background
We are presently in the midst of one of the major technical revolutions in human history. The rise of “modern” societies during the last few centuries is the capital fact of recent history. The last five hundred years have witnessed technical changes of unprecedented scope and rapidity emanating from a small and heretofore unremarkable part of the world,
Western Europe. In this Chapter we will try to put our finger on just how these societies differ from non-modern ones. In Chapter 28, we will return to some of the evolutionary issues involved.
By one useful definition, commercial and industrial societies are those with less than half of their population engaged directly in agricultural production. As usual, this definition has an arbitrary element, but it marks out those societies with a mostly urban character for special attention. Perhaps the most important point is that these societies, in contrast to the agrarian or horticultural type, are not dominated quantitatively or qualitatively by people with a direct interest in food acquisition. In these societies merchants and manufacturers are typically the dominant class, as opposed to land-owning lineages, chieftains, or aristocrats with a direct interest in agriculture as is the case in horticultural, agrarian, and pastoral societies. Should we separate or join commercial & industrial subtypes? Occasional societies in the classical period, such as some of the Greek city-states, subsisted mostly on maritimetrade rather than agricultural production. (Only a maritime location could permit this specialization because only ships could reach far enough economically for grain under classical technology to support a society with few farmers). As we briefly glimpsed in
Chapter 6, these rare societies are interesting because of their very modern looking character in some domains of social and political organization, and in other aspects of culture.
I. Introduction
A. Background
We are presently in the midst of one of the major technical revolutions in human history. The rise of “modern” societies during the last few centuries is the capital fact of recent history. The last five hundred years have witnessed technical changes of unprecedented scope and rapidity emanating from a small and heretofore unremarkable part of the world,
Western Europe. In this Chapter we will try to put our finger on just how these societies differ from non-modern ones. In Chapter 28, we will return to some of the evolutionary issues involved.
By one useful definition, commercial and industrial societies are those with less than half of their population engaged directly in agricultural production. As usual, this definition has an arbitrary element, but it marks out those societies with a mostly urban character for special attention. Perhaps the most important point is that these societies, in contrast to the agrarian or horticultural type, are not dominated quantitatively or qualitatively by people with a direct interest in food acquisition. In these societies merchants and manufacturers are typically the dominant class, as opposed to land-owning lineages, chieftains, or aristocrats with a direct interest in agriculture as is the case in horticultural, agrarian, and pastoral societies. Should we separate or join commercial & industrial subtypes? Occasional societies in the classical period, such as some of the Greek city-states, subsisted mostly on maritimetrade rather than agricultural production. (Only a maritime location could permit this specialization because only ships could reach far enough economically for grain under classical technology to support a society with few farmers). As we briefly glimpsed in
Chapter 6, these rare societies are interesting because of their very modern looking character in some domains of social and political organization, and in other aspects of culture.
References: Crosby, Alfred W. 1986. Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 Dahrendorf, R. 1968. Essays in the Theory of Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press. McNeill, W.H. 1974. Venice, The Hinge of Europe 1081-1797. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Morrison, S. E. 1971, 1974. The European Discovery of America, New York: Oxford University Press. Mussen, A.E. and E. Robinson. 1969. Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution. Tuma, E. 1971. European Economic History. New York: Harper and Row.