SOC 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Profit Maximization, Labour Power, Feudalism

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 104
• Professor: Dr. Amrita Ahluwalia

Document Summary

Soc104- week 4: was an agricultural system. Economic coercion (first time) played a role in production of surplus. Both feudal lords & tenant farmers wanted improvements" for increased profits. Urban centers grew increase in number of merchants and crafts people. Capitalist enterprise thrives on competition- more expansion for maximization of profits not just profits. Workers (proletariat) made of displaced or dispossessed peasants, artisans, crafts people who could survive only by selling labor power for wages: accumulation of capital. Capital used by feudal lords to maintain entourage of servants, lived in opulence, catholic church viewed usury as sin. Source of capital: expansion of trade, some nobles turned their wealth into capital and colonial expansion. European expansion for resources, new markets and cheap labour. In continental europe, new wealth retained by powerful monarchy and england became the centre for industrial production. Capitalists, saw potential in human beings as commodities leading to modern slave trade.