The Age of Napoleon Podcast Bonus Episode
13 snips
Aug 2, 2017 The podcast explores alternative economic systems throughout history, challenges the notion of capitalism as the norm, and discusses the origins and development of capitalism from the medieval period to the Renaissance. It also explores the history of black people and the concept of race alongside capitalism, the connection between the booming sugar industry and the transatlantic slave trade, the relationships and struggles of mixed-race offspring in French colonies, and the opposition to slavery and abolitionist movements.
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Roots Of Modern Capitalism
- Capitalism emerged slowly from medieval and Renaissance innovations like double-entry accounting and family banking.
- By the 1700s these financial practices and joint-stock companies set the groundwork for modern capitalism.
Enlightenment Framed Capitalist Thought
- Enlightenment thinkers systematized economic ideas and created the intellectual framework for capitalism.
- Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) gave the first full expression recognizable as modern capitalist ideology.
Physiocrats Paved The Way
- The physiocrats in France coined 'economist' and argued for free trade and markets despite oddities in their thought.
- Their work influenced Adam Smith even if physiocracy itself didn't endure.