What is Capitalism
Capitalism is a particular set of consequences affecting European societies and nations because it is one of the systems associated with an economic and social system based on freedom of ownership, whether it be of the means of production or of initiative and competition.
Manifestations of European capitalist prosperity
In the nineteenth century, European capitalism experienced a period of great prosperity, which was characterized by a number of factors that led to this boom, one of the most significant manifestations of which was the centralized form of capitalism.
This boom led to a great variety of outcomes that actively participated in and played a prominent role in shaping Europe over a long period of time. There are a number of aspects that have contributed significantly to the prosperity of European capitalism, including.
Technological: The countries of Western Europe experienced the technological and industrial revolutions, both the first and the second, and the resulting advances helped improve production processes and were reflected in many inventions, including those related to communications such as the steam engine, the locomotive and the telegraph, especially in each of the following countries. England, France, and Germany
Quantitative manifestations: There were changes in production processes and marked increases in prices as a result of repeated and urgent requests for raw materials from industrial contractors.
There was also development and renewal of industrial institutions, as the industry was first limited to products made in family workshops until the advent of the nineteenth century, after which industry began to appear in family enterprises before outside sources of financing, which was the beginning of some companies with anonymous personalities and names.
Banks also underwent a process of development, as in the past they were limited to deposits, savings, and consumption in family banks, but with the emergence in the early ninth century of banking institutions that took on the task of investing and creating processes for their customers, they also offered loans to industrialists so that they could complete their projects.
Focus on capital.
This was one of the most important manifestations of the prosperity of European capitalism, and it means that capital concentration refers to finding, concentrating, and limiting economic activity under the control and in the hands of a certain and limited number of large companies.
Horizontal concentration: means the inclusion and association of different institutions which produce and represent the same product, so that they are all under the direction of the same sector.
Vertical concentration: is the process of merging a group of institutions, each contributing to the production of a single product, to become an integrated chain of institutions producing a single product.
The phenomenon of capitalist concentration has led to the emergence of several large and gigantic institutions, the most important of which are.
Cartel: This is an agreement between a group of institutions producing a certain substance, in order to prevent or limit the process of competition between them and, moreover, to preserve the legal and financial personality of each institution.
Trust: is an institution that is the result of the merger of an uncountable number of institutions, subject to single management, so that each company loses its independence apart from its legal and financial personality.
Holding, in the sense of a holding company. It is a group of large and gigantic companies that take it upon themselves to buy shares in other companies, whether they are similar to them in the nature of their economic activity or not.
The Impact of Prosperity on the Lives of Europeans
The prosperity of European capitalism led to the results and transformations seen in the population of Europe as :
- At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the population of Europe changed and grew very rapidly, thanks to the growth of agriculture and agricultural productivity, which in turn eliminated hunger and helped to improve nutrition and provide food crops, in addition to the development of preventive and curative methods.
- There was a very large urban population growth at the expense of the rural population, this was due to the fact that cities could accommodate many immigrants who sought better opportunities to live in conditions suitable for them, there were many factories in cities and therefore many jobs compared to those that existed in the countryside, they could easily access any of them, this led to millions of cities in Europe, including Berlin, London, and Paris.
- European society knew that there was a clear social distinction between the rich, dominant and ambitious bourgeoisie, including a group of industrialists with projects and money, and the other proletarian class. That is, the working class, including the other people exploited by the bourgeoisie in hard and difficult working conditions and hard and difficult living conditions, as if this class was enslaved, without regard to their human rights and human rights services, such as hours and periods of work, where they work hard, suffer and labor in exchange for low wages that are worth nothing compared to the effort they put in.
- As this class is dominated by severe misery and drought, there is a clear and paramount reason to push and motivate the proletarian class to organize to form unions that will protect them and defend their rights. After a series of strikes and protests, the European state was forced to intervene to improve the conditions of this class. Their rights were infringed by the issuance and enactment of a series of social laws which enshrined the right to strike, compulsory education, and the definition of working hours.
But the development of European capitalism in the nineteenth century gave rise to a number of problems in addition to the social problems that existed, for example, there other problems, mainly related to what to do with surplus production, surplus capital, which could lead Europe to think of expanding beyond its lands and seizing what adjoins them through an expansionist movement that would be called European imperialism.
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