WEBVTT

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Hi, I’m John Green;

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this is Crash Course World History

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and today we’re going to talk about

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capitalism.
[off we go then!]

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Yeah, Mr. Green,

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capitalism just turns men into wolves.

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Your purportedly free markets
only make slaves of us all.

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Oh, God, Stan,

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it’s Me from College.

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Me from the Past

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has become Me from College.

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This is a disaster.

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The reason he’s so unbearable,

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Stan,

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is that he refuses to
recognize the legitimacy

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of other people’s narratives

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and that means that he will

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never, ever

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be able to have a productive conversation
with another human in his entire life.

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[harsh much, Mr. Green?]

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So, listen, Me from the Past,

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I’m going to disappoint you
by being too capitalist.

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And I’m going to disappoint
a lot of other people

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by not being capitalist enough.
[100% guaranteed]

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And,

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I’m going to disappoint the historians

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by not using enough jargon.
[and Stan. Stan loves jargon]

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But, what can I do?

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We only have 12 minutes. [ish]

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Fortunately

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capitalism is all about efficiency
so let’s do this,

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Me from College.

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Randy Riggs becomes a bestselling author;
[I love pictures & the word peculiar]

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Josh Radnor stars in a great sitcom;
[Ted Mosby is super Rad(nor), Josh]

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it is NOT GOING TO WORK OUT with Emily,

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and DO NOT go to Alaska with
a girl you’ve known for 10 days.

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[Shenanigans?]

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OKAY, LET’S TALK CAPITALISM.

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[Intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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[intro music]

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So, capitalism is an economic system,

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but it’s also a cultural system.

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It’s characterized by innovation
and investment to increase wealth.

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But today we’re going
to focus on production and

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how industrial capitalism changed it.

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Stan,

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I can’t wear these emblems
of the bourgeoisie

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while Karl Marx himself is looking at me.

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It’s ridiculous.

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I’m changing.

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Very hard to take off a shirt dramatically.

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[or unsuggestively]

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So let’s say it’s 1,200 CE
and you’re a rug merchant.

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Just like merchants today,

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you sometimes need to borrow money
in order to buy the rugs

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you want to resell at a profit,

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and then you pay that money back,

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often with interest,

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once you’ve resold the rugs.

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This is called mercantile capitalism,

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and it was a global phenomenon,

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from the Chinese to

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the Indian Ocean trade network

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to Muslim merchants who would sponsor trade
caravans across the Sahara.

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But by the 17th century,

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merchants in the Netherlands
and in Britain

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had expanded upon this idea
to create joint stock companies.

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Those companies could finance
bigger trade missions and

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also spread the risk of
international trade.

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But the thing about international trade

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is sometimes boats sink

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or they get taken by pirates,
[Aaarrr!]

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and while that’s bad
if you’re a sailor because,

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you know,

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you lose your life,

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it’s really bad if you’re a
mercantile capitalist

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because you lost all your money.

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But if you own one tenth of ten boats,
your risk is much better managed.

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[but is mischief managed?]

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That kind of investment
definitely increased wealth,

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but it only affected
a sliver of the population,

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and it didn’t create
a culture of capitalism.

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Industrial Capitalism was
something altogether different,

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both in scale and in practice.

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Let’s use Joyce Appleby’s
definition of industrial capitalism:

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"An economic system that relies on
investment of capital in machines and

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technology that are used to increase
production of marketable goods.”

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So,

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imagine that someone made a Stan Machine.
[lots of Stantastic possibilities there]

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By the way, Stan,

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this is a remarkable likeness.

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And that Stan Machine could produce
and direct ten times more episodes

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of Crash Course than a human Stan.
[not super sure Stan's not a robot, btw]

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Well, of course,

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even if there are
significant upfront costs,

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I’m going to invest in a Stan Machine,

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so I can start cranking out
ten times the knowledge.

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Stan,

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are you focusing on the robot
instead of me?

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I am the star of the show!
[sounds like unemployment, Stanimal]

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Stan Bot,

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you’re going behind the globe.

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So,

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when most of us think of capitalism,

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especially when we think
about its downsides

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(long hours, low wages,
miserable working conditions,

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child labor, unemployed Stans)
[doing yo-yo tricks on the Indy streets]

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that’s what we’re thinking about.

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Now admittedly

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this is just one definition of
industrial capitalism among many,

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but it’s the definition we’re going with.

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Alright,

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let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

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Industrial capitalism developed first
in Britain in the 19th century.

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Britain had a bunch of advantages:

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It was the dominant power on the seas

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and it was making good money off of
trade with its colonies,

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including the slave trade.

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Also,

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the growth of capitalism was helped
by the half-century of

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civil unrest that resulted from the
17th century English Civil War.

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Now,

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I’m not advocating for civil wars or
anything, but in this particular case

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it was useful,

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because before the war

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the British crown had put a lot
of regulations on the economy—

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complicated licenses,
royal monopolies, etc.

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—but during the turmoil,
it couldn’t enforce them,

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which made for freer markets.

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Another factor was a remarkable increase
in agricultural productivity

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in the 16th century.

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As food prices started to rise,

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it became profitable for farmers,

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both large and small,

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to invest in agricultural technologies
that would improve crop yields.

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Those higher prices for grain probably
resulted from population growth,

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which in turn was encouraged by
increased production of food crops.

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A number of these agricultural
improvements came from the Dutch,

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who had chronic problems feeding
themselves and discovered

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that planting different kinds of crops,

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like clover that added nitrogen
to the soil and could be used

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to feed livestock at the same time,

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meant that more fields could
be used at once.

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This increased productivity
eventually brought down prices,

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and this encouraged further innovation

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in order to increase yield to
make up for the drop in prices.

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Lower food prices had an added benefit –

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since food cost less and
wages in England remained high,

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workers would have more
disposable income,

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which meant that if there
were consumer goods available,

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they would be consumed,

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which incentivized people to make
consumer goods more efficiently,

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and therefore more cheaply.

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You can see how

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this positive feedback loop
leads to more food and more stuff,

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culminating in a world where people
have so much stuff

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that we must rent space to store it,

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and so much food

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that obesity has become a bigger
killer than starvation.

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Thanks, Thought Bubble.

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So this increased productivity also meant
that fewer people needed to

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work in agriculture in order
to feed the population.

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To put this in perspective,

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in 1520, 80% of the English
population worked the land.

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By 1800, only 36% of adult male
laborers were working in agriculture,

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and by 1850,
that percentage had dropped to 25.

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This meant that when
the factories started humming,

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there were plenty of workers
to hum along with them.

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[humming < obnoxious than whistling]

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Especially child laborers.

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So far all this sounds pretty good,

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right?

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I mean, except for the child labor.

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Who wouldn’t want more, cheaper food?

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Yeah, well, not so fast.

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One of the ways the British achieved
all this agricultural productivity

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was through the process of enclosure.

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Whereby landlords would re-claim
and privatize fields

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that for centuries had been held
in common by multiple tenants.

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[they busted up hippie communes?]

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This increased agricultural productivity,

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but it also impoverished
many tenant farmers,

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many of whom lost their livelihoods.

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Okay, for our purposes,

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capitalism is also a cultural system,

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rooted in the need of
private investors to turn a profit.

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So the real change needed here
was a change of mind.

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People had to develop
the capitalist values of

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taking risks and appreciating innovation.

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And they had to come to believe that
making an upfront investment in something

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like a Stan Machine
[silent mode not optional]

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could pay for itself and then some.

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One of the reasons that these
values developed in Britain was

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that the people who initially held them
were really good at publicizing them.

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Writers like Thomas Mun,

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who worked for the
English East India Company,

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exposed people to the idea that the
economy was controlled by markets.

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And,

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other writers popularized the idea
that it was human nature

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for individuals to participate
in markets as rational actors.

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Even our language changed:

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the word “individuals”

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did not apply to persons until
the 17th century.

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And in the 18th century,

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a “career” still referred only
to horses’ racing lives.

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Perhaps the most important idea
that was popularized in England

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[other than safety pin accessories later)

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was that men and women were consumers
as well as producers

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and that this was actually a good thing

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because the desire to
consume manufactured goods

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could spur economic growth.

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“The main spur to trade,
or rather to industry and ingenuity,

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is the exorbitant appetite of men,
which they will take pain to gratify,”

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So wrote John Cary,

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one of capitalism’s cheerleaders,
in 1695.

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And in talking about our appetite,

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he wasn’t just talking about food.

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That doesn’t seem radical now,
but it sure did back then.

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So here in the 21st century,

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it’s clear that industrial capitalism—

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at least for now—

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has won.

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Sorry, buddy.

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But, you know, you gave it a good run.

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You didn’t know about Stalin.
[or the bright future of manscaping]

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But capitalism isn’t
without its problems,

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or its critics,
["haters" in the parlance of our times]

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and there were certainly
lots of shortcomings to

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industrial capitalism
in the 19th century.

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Working conditions were awful.

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Days were long, arduous, and monotonous.

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Workers lived in conditions
that people living

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in the developed world today
would associate with abject poverty.

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One way that workers responded
to these conditions

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was by organizing into labor unions.

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Another response was in many cases
purely theoretical:

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socialism,
[gasp, clutch the pearls]

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most famously Marxian socialism.

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I should probably point out here

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that socialism is an
imperfect opposite to capitalism,

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even though the two are often juxtaposed.
[consider that before commenting maybe?]

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Capitalism’s defenders like to
point out that it’s “natural,”

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meaning that if left to our own devices,

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humans would construct economic
relationships that resemble capitalism.

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Socialism,
at least in its modern incarnations,

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makes fewer pretenses towards being
an expression of human nature;

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it’s the result of human choice
and human planning.

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So, socialism,
as an intellectual construct,

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began in France.
[he spins the whole world in his hand]

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How’d I do, Stan?

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Mm, in the border between

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Egypt and Libya.

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There were two branches
of socialism in France,

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utopian and revolutionary.

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Utopian socialism is often associated

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with Comte de Saint Simon
and Charles Fourier,

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both of whom rejected
revolutionary action

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after having seen the disaster
of the French Revolution.

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Both were critical of capitalism

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and while Fourier is usually a
punchline in history classes

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because he believed that,
in his ideal socialist world,

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the seas would turn to lemonade,
[wut]

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he was right that
human beings have desires

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that go beyond basic self interest,

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and that we aren’t always
economically rational actors.

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[truth]

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The other French socialists
were the revolutionaries,

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and they saw the French Revolution,
even its violence,

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in a much more positive light.
[Vive Goddard!]

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The most important of these revolutionaries
was Auguste Blanqui,

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and we associate a lot of his ideas with
communism, which is a term that he used.

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Like the utopians,
he criticized capitalism,

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but he believed that
it could only be overthrown

00:08:51.007 --> 00:08:54.039
through violent revolution
by the working classes.

00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:54.085
However,

00:08:54.085 --> 00:08:58.028
while Blanqui thought that the workers
would come to dominate a communist world,

00:08:58.028 --> 00:08:59.041
he was an elitist.
[by which you mean an arugula eater?]

00:08:59.041 --> 00:09:01.066
And he believed that workers on their own
could never, on their own,

00:09:01.066 --> 00:09:04.048
overcome their superstitions and
their prejudices in order to

00:09:04.048 --> 00:09:06.002
throw off bourgeois oppression.
[interesting]

00:09:06.002 --> 00:09:07.008
And that brings us to Karl Marx,

00:09:07.008 --> 00:09:11.052
whose ideas and beard cast a shadow
over most of the 20th century.

00:09:11.052 --> 00:09:13.017
Oh, it’s time for the Open Letter?

00:09:13.017 --> 00:09:15.092
[roll all you want, i'm not looking]

00:09:15.092 --> 00:09:18.006
[aloha miss hand]
An Open Letter to Karl Marx’s Beard.

00:09:18.006 --> 00:09:19.013
But, first,

00:09:19.013 --> 00:09:21.082
let’s see what’s in
the secret compartment today.

00:09:21.082 --> 00:09:24.000
Oh, robots.

00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:24.091
Stan Bots!

00:09:24.091 --> 00:09:26.024
Two Stan Bots,

00:09:26.024 --> 00:09:27.077
one of them female!
[a featured female, on Crash Course? ha]

00:09:27.077 --> 00:09:30.002
now I own all the means of production.
[no evil laugh and/or mustache twisting?]

00:09:30.002 --> 00:09:31.041
You’re officially useless to me, Stan.

00:09:31.041 --> 00:09:33.001
Now, turn the camera off.

00:09:33.001 --> 00:09:33.039
Turn the ca--

00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:37.002
I’m going to have to get up
and turn the camera off?

00:09:37.002 --> 00:09:37.052
Stan Bot,

00:09:37.052 --> 00:09:38.083
go turn the camera off.

00:09:38.083 --> 00:09:40.063
Hey there, Karl Marx’s beard.

00:09:40.063 --> 00:09:42.094
Wow, you are intense.
[and probably pretty grody]

00:09:42.094 --> 00:09:43.003
Karl Marx,

00:09:43.003 --> 00:09:44.089
these days there are a lot of young men

00:09:44.089 --> 00:09:46.009
who think beards are cool.

00:09:46.009 --> 00:09:47.013
Beard lovers, if you will.
[beardos]

00:09:47.013 --> 00:09:47.006
Those aren’t beards,

00:09:47.006 --> 00:09:49.001
those are glorified milk mustaches.

00:09:49.001 --> 00:09:49.039
I mean,

00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:50.089
I haven’t shaved for a couple weeks,
Karl Marx,

00:09:50.089 --> 00:09:52.004
but I’m not claiming a beard.
[nothing a solid scrubbing couldn't fix?]

00:09:52.004 --> 00:09:53.007
You don’t get a beard by being lazy,

00:09:53.007 --> 00:09:55.099
you get a beard
by being a committed revolutionary.

00:09:55.099 --> 00:09:59.068
That’s why hardcore Marxists are literally
known as

00:09:59.068 --> 00:10:01.097
“Bearded Marxists.” [not to be confused
w/ "Mulleted Marxists" from the 80's]

00:10:01.097 --> 00:10:02.044
These days, that’s an insult.

00:10:02.044 --> 00:10:03.022
But you know what, Karl Marx,

00:10:03.022 --> 00:10:06.077
when I look back at history,
I prefer the bearded communists.

00:10:06.077 --> 00:10:09.026
Let’s talk about some communists
who didn’t have beards:

00:10:09.026 --> 00:10:10.021
Mao Zedong,

00:10:10.021 --> 00:10:11.016
Pol Pot,

00:10:11.016 --> 00:10:12.011
Kim Jong-il,

00:10:12.011 --> 00:10:14.092
Joseph freakin’ Stalin
with his face caterpillar.

00:10:14.092 --> 00:10:15.097
So, yeah, Karl Marx’s beard,

00:10:15.097 --> 00:10:17.043
it’s my great regret to inform you

00:10:17.043 --> 00:10:22.024
that there are some paltry beards trying
to take up the class struggle these days.

00:10:22.024 --> 00:10:23.058
Best Wishes,
John Green

00:10:23.058 --> 00:10:25.068
Although he’s often considered
the father of communism,

00:10:25.068 --> 00:10:27.009
because he co-wrote
The Communist Manifesto,

00:10:27.009 --> 00:10:30.005
Marx was above all a philosopher
and a historian.

00:10:30.005 --> 00:10:33.013
It’s just that,
unlike many philosophers and historians,

00:10:33.013 --> 00:10:34.009
he advocated for revolution.

00:10:34.009 --> 00:10:36.035
His greatest work, Das Kapital,

00:10:36.035 --> 00:10:38.007
sets out to explain the world
of the 19th century

00:10:38.007 --> 00:10:40.095
in historical and philosophical terms.

00:10:40.095 --> 00:10:42.058
Marx’s thinking is deep and dense

00:10:42.058 --> 00:10:45.019
and we’re low on time,
but I want to introduce one of his ideas,

00:10:45.019 --> 00:10:45.097
that of class struggle.

00:10:45.097 --> 00:10:46.059
[yeah buddy, here we go]

00:10:46.059 --> 00:10:47.015
So, for Marx,

00:10:47.015 --> 00:10:49.091
the focus isn’t on the class,
it’s on the struggle.

00:10:49.091 --> 00:10:53.006
Basically Marx believed that classes
don’t only struggle to make history,

00:10:53.006 --> 00:10:56.035
but that the struggle is what
makes classes into themselves.

00:10:56.035 --> 00:10:59.071
The idea is that through conflict,
classes develop a sense of themselves,

00:10:59.071 --> 00:11:01.019
and without conflict,

00:11:01.019 --> 00:11:03.035
there is no such thing
as class consciousness.

00:11:03.035 --> 00:11:03.085
So,

00:11:03.085 --> 00:11:07.032
Marx was writing in 19th century England
and there were two classes that mattered:

00:11:07.032 --> 00:11:09.041
the workers and the capitalists.

00:11:09.041 --> 00:11:12.005
The capitalists owned most
of the factors of production

00:11:12.005 --> 00:11:15.069
(in this case, land and
the capital to invest in factories).

00:11:15.069 --> 00:11:17.085
The workers just had their labor.

00:11:17.085 --> 00:11:20.034
So, the class struggle here
is between capitalists,

00:11:20.034 --> 00:11:22.058
who want labor at
the lowest possible price,

00:11:22.058 --> 00:11:25.083
and the workers who want to be paid
as much as possible for their work.

00:11:25.083 --> 00:11:28.048
There are two key ideas that underlie
this theory of class struggle.

00:11:28.048 --> 00:11:28.099
First,

00:11:28.099 --> 00:11:31.011
Marx believed that “production,” or work,

00:11:31.011 --> 00:11:34.017
was the thing that gave
life material meaning.

00:11:34.017 --> 00:11:34.047
Second,

00:11:34.047 --> 00:11:36.078
is that we are by nature
social [St]animals.

00:11:36.078 --> 00:11:38.088
We work together, we collaborate,

00:11:38.088 --> 00:11:41.096
we are more efficient when
we share resources.

00:11:41.096 --> 00:11:43.063
Marx’s criticism of capitalism is

00:11:43.063 --> 00:11:48.072
that capitalism replaces this
egalitarian collaboration with conflict.

00:11:48.072 --> 00:11:52.002
And that means that it isn’t
a natural system after all.

00:11:52.002 --> 00:11:55.033
And by arguing that capitalism actually
isn’t consistent with human nature,

00:11:55.033 --> 00:11:56.095
Marx sought to empower the workers.

00:11:56.095 --> 00:12:00.021
That’s a lot more attractive
than Blanqui’s elitist socialism,

00:12:00.021 --> 00:12:01.098
and while purportedly Marxist states

00:12:01.098 --> 00:12:02.095
like the USSR

00:12:02.095 --> 00:12:05.076
usually abandon worker empowerment
pretty quickly,

00:12:05.076 --> 00:12:09.025
the idea of protecting our
collective interest remains powerful.

00:12:09.025 --> 00:12:10.086
That’s where we’ll have to
leave it for now,

00:12:10.086 --> 00:12:12.064
lest I start reading from
The Communist Manifesto.

00:12:12.064 --> 00:12:13.000
[noooooo!]

00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:16.035
But, ultimately socialism has not
succeeded in supplanting capitalism,

00:12:16.035 --> 00:12:17.007
as its proponents had hoped.

00:12:17.007 --> 00:12:18.084
In the United States, at least,

00:12:18.084 --> 00:12:21.008
“socialism” has become something
of a dirty word.

00:12:21.008 --> 00:12:21.051
So,

00:12:21.051 --> 00:12:23.057
industrial capitalism certainly
seems to have won out,

00:12:23.057 --> 00:12:25.028
and in terms of material well being

00:12:25.028 --> 00:12:28.063
and access to goods and services for
people around the world,

00:12:28.063 --> 00:12:29.085
that’s probably a good thing.

00:12:29.085 --> 00:12:30.018
Ugh,

00:12:30.018 --> 00:12:31.042
you keep falling over.

00:12:31.042 --> 00:12:32.052
You’re a great bit,

00:12:32.052 --> 00:12:33.071
but a very flimsy one.

00:12:33.071 --> 00:12:34.048
Actually, come to think of it,

00:12:34.048 --> 00:12:35.041
you’re more of an 8-bit.
[haha… um, crickets]

00:12:35.041 --> 00:12:36.047
But how and to what extent

00:12:36.047 --> 00:12:41.028
we use socialist principles to regulate
free markets remains an open question,

00:12:41.028 --> 00:12:43.063
and one that is answered
very differently in, say,

00:12:43.063 --> 00:12:45.037
Sweden than in the United States.
[lingonberries & Skarsgards pwn]

00:12:45.037 --> 00:12:46.019
And this, I would argue,

00:12:46.019 --> 00:12:48.045
is where Marx still matters.

00:12:48.045 --> 00:12:50.068
Is capitalist competition
natural and good,

00:12:50.068 --> 00:12:52.012
or should there be systems in place

00:12:52.012 --> 00:12:54.088
to check it for the sake of
our collective well-being?

00:12:54.088 --> 00:12:57.002
Should we band together to
provide health care for the sick,

00:12:57.002 --> 00:12:57.038
[and that's Jenga]

00:12:57.038 --> 00:12:58.079
or pensions for the old?

00:12:58.079 --> 00:13:00.019
Should government run businesses,

00:13:00.019 --> 00:13:01.042
and if so, which ones?

00:13:01.042 --> 00:13:02.073
The mail delivery business?
[stamps are awesome.<3 you USPS]

00:13:02.073 --> 00:13:04.043
The airport security business?

00:13:04.043 --> 00:13:05.088
The education business?

00:13:05.088 --> 00:13:06.063
Those are the places where

00:13:06.063 --> 00:13:09.009
industrial capitalism and socialism
are still competing.

00:13:09.009 --> 00:13:12.048
And in that sense, at least,
the struggle continues.

00:13:12.048 --> 00:13:12.093
Thanks for watching,

00:13:12.093 --> 00:13:14.013
I’ll see you next week.

00:13:14.013 --> 00:13:14.086
Crash Course is

00:13:14.086 --> 00:13:16.001
produced and directed by
Stan Muller.

00:13:16.001 --> 00:13:17.088
Our script supervisor is
Danica Johnson.

00:13:17.088 --> 00:13:20.019
The show is written by
my high school history teacher,

00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:21.041
Raoul Meyer and myself.

00:13:21.041 --> 00:13:23.048
We’re ably interned by
Meredith Danko.

00:13:23.048 --> 00:13:25.044
And our graphics team is
Thought Bubble.

00:13:25.044 --> 00:13:26.087
Last week’s phrase of the week was

00:13:26.087 --> 00:13:27.011
“the TARDIS,”

00:13:27.011 --> 00:13:29.005
so you can stop suggesting that now!

00:13:29.005 --> 00:13:30.081
If you want to suggest
future phrases of the week

00:13:30.081 --> 00:13:31.073
or guess at this week’s,

00:13:31.073 --> 00:13:32.085
you can do so in comments,

00:13:32.085 --> 00:13:34.072
where you can also ask questions
about today’s video

00:13:34.072 --> 00:13:36.055
that will be answered by
our team of historians.

00:13:36.055 --> 00:13:37.065
Thanks for watching Crash Course,

00:13:37.065 --> 00:13:38.078
and as we say in my hometown,

00:13:38.078 --> 00:13:40.064
don’t forget You are my density.

00:13:40.064 --> 00:13:41.026
Alright, Stan,

00:13:41.026 --> 00:13:42.072
bring the movie magic...

00:13:42.072 --> 00:13:42.082
Yes!

00:13:42.082 --> 00:13:42.093
[outro]

00:13:42.093 --> 99:59:59.999
[outro]