Topic 11 Discussion 57: Triumph of the West European Bourgeoisie

1. Introduction

a. Mid 1800s was the Golden Age of the bourgeoisie

i. Not nobility

ii. Wealth generated from business or profession

iii. Viewed by upper crust as uncultivated

iv. Viewed by social theorists as “the employer”

v. Difference between nobility and bourgeois is blurring

vi. Difference between bourgeois and labor is becoming accentuated

vii. Stake in society theory

1. Those who govern should have something to lose

2. France 1 in 30 voted

3. England 1 in 8

a. England had tradition of Tory leadership

i. Tory leadership fought against industrialists

ii. Labor class benefited

b. France the aristocratic interests were less public spirited

i. less was done to relieve the condition of labor

ii. lost most of its influence by 1830

4. Influence of the Bourgeois Age

a. Western Europe continued to accumulate capital

b. Little of the profit went to labor leaving more in savings of Bourgeois

c. New financial entities emerge (corporations)

d. Factory system spread from Britain to the Continent

e. Output of iron is increasing

f. Railroad building

g. Exportation of capital

i. British own $200,000,000 of stock in American companies

2. The Frustration and Challenge of Labor

a. Bourgeois Age leads to the estrangement of labor

b. Underclass is restless

i. Forced through reforms in government and did not get the vote

c. The labor market

i. laboring class sells labor

ii. bourgeois class buys labor

iii. if labor is in demand wages rise

iv. if labor is not in demand wages fall and workers live on relief

d. Poor Law of 1834

i. Unfavorable to the working poor

1. Poorhouse work was less pleasant than market work

ii. Did nothing to protect employees from cyclical market forces

iii. Dissatisfaction with the state of affairs caused labor to organize

1. Labor unions

2. Collective bargaining

3. Alternative economic model

a. goods are produced for use not sale

b. people are compensated according to need not according to the requirements of an employer

c. socialism

3. Socialism and Chartism

a. In France socialism blended with revolutionary republicanism

b. In England socialism blended with parliamentary reform

i. Chartists

c. Chartism

i. Anti-capitalistic

ii. Charter of 1838

1. annual elections

2. universal suffrage

3. secret ballots

4. equal electoral districts

5. abolition of property qualifications for membership in the House of Commons

6. payment of salaries to elected members of Parliament

iii. Charter is submitted with 3 million signatures and rejected by Parliament

iv. Chartist movement has limited success

v. Lack of response from the government causes the Chartist movement to turn toward labor movements and unions

4. By the 1848

a. no stabilization had been achieved

b. No international system was created

c. Europe was fallen into two political camps

i. Western, liberal, national, capitalistic

ii. Eastern, autocratic, opposed to nationality, agrarian

d. West still has unresolved social problems and will soon be faced with revolution