Robinson Crusoe: Economics, Trade, and Historical Context

Daniel Defoe: Biography and the Restoration Context

• Birth and the Restoration: Daniel Defoe was born in the year $1660$, which coincides with the Restoration of the monarchy in England. This period followed the English Civil War and the subsequent parliamentary rule of Oliver Cromwell, which the speaker describes as an almost dictatorial rule. The Restoration specifically refers to the return of Charles $II$ to the throne.
• Family and Name Change: He was the son of James Foe, who was a butcher at Stoke Newington. Defoe eventually altered his surname from "Foe" to the more fashionable "DeFoe" in $1703$, the same year he began depending on writing for his livelihood.
• Parallel to Robinson Crusoe: This name change mirrors his character Robinson Crusoe, whose original family name was "Kreutznaer." Crusoe also altered his name to the more English-sounding "Crusoe."
• Professional Background: Defoe was a "creature of the print culture world," realizing the value of a fashionable name for publication. Before becoming a merchant and novelist, he went into trade and traveled extensively. He notably started a tile factory at one point.
• Motivations for Writing: Defoe's biography as a merchant and trader deeply informs the character of Crusoe. The novel is heavily invested in the economics, trade, and merchant ethics of the early eighteenth century.

Robinson Crusoe as the "Economic Man"

• Transactional Nature: Crusoe is defined as a very transactional character. He views the world through the lens of trade, deals, and the use of resources to generate profit.
• Industry and Labor: Even when stranded on the island where he cannot trade in a traditional sense, Crusoe applies the principles of labor and industry. He uses his resourcefulness and manual labor to make things out of raw materials to ensure his survival.
• Utilitarian Style: Defoe's writing style is described as utilitarian and practical rather than aesthetic. He charts individual experiences with clarity and a focus on how people use their resourcefulness to produce something profitable.
• Economic Being: Crusoe functions as a "new economic man." Everything he does involves exchange and resourcefulness.
• Example of the Brazilian Plantation: While in Brazil, Crusoe realizes he can get high value for his English manufactured goods, such as cloth, stuffs, and bays.
      * He states: "My goods being all English manufacturers… I found means to sell them to a very great advantage. So that I might say I had more than four times the value of my first cargo."
      * Advantage in this context means profit and return on investment ($ROI$).
      * With the profit from these goods, he immediately "advances" his plantation by purchasing "a Negro slave" and a "European servant."

The Historical Framework of Global Trade

• The Shift Westward: The lecture explores how Europe turned from looking eastward for trade (toward Asia) to looking across the Atlantic toward the New World.
• Chronological Context: Robinson Crusoe is portrayed as landing on his island in $1719$. This is approximately $227$ years after Christopher Columbus's original encounter with the Americas in $1492$.
• The Triangular Trade: This system developed over the centuries following Columbus's contact. It involved a three-way exchange:
      1. Manufactured Goods: Exported from the land of industry in Europe (England, etc.) to Africa.
      2. Slave Trade: Goods in Africa were exchanged for slaves, who were then transported to the New World (North America, South America, and the Caribbean).
      3. Raw Materials: In the New World, enslaved labor was used to produce raw materials like sugar and sugarcane (which Crusoe produced on his Brazilian plantation). These raw materials were then exported back to Europe for great profit.

Slavery, Ethics, and the Middle Passage

• Normalizing Slavery: The speaker notes that in the world of the novel and the early $1700s$, slavery was naturalized and normalized as a solution to economic problems (the need for labor). Crusoe is not presented as a "villain" like Antonio in The Tempest, but rather as a man with economic "needs" for workers.
• The Relationship with Xury: Crusoe's transactional mindset is evident in his treatment of Xury, the boy he escaped Morocco with when both were slaves. Despite their shared escape, Crusoe treats Xury as an economic unit. When rescued by a Portuguese captain, Crusoe sells Xury for $60$ pieces of eight, demonstrating a lack of personal bond in favor of economic leverage.
• The Middle Passage: This refers to the horrific leg of the triangular trade where slaves were shipped from West Africa to the New World. Humans were treated as "cargo" and "economic units."
• Shipping Logistics: Slave ships were specifically restructured to fit as much "cargo" as possible. Floor layouts of these ships show a highly regulated but inhumane system of packing bodies.
• Growth of the Slave Trade: In $1719$, when Defoe was writing, the slave trade was rapidly expanding. Between $1701$ and $1725$, over $1000000$ people were imported from Africa. By the mid-eighteenth century, this number would rise higher ($1.4$ to $1.5$ million).
• The Final Voyage: Crusoe’s shipwreck occurs during a voyage intended to obtain cheap labor for himself and other planters in Brazil privately, circumventing regular trade regulations to avoid taxes and customs.

The Age of Discovery and Trade Disruption

• Timeline: The Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration spans from the $1400s$ to the $1600s$.
• Medieval Precursors: The European fascination with the "other" predates Columbus. A famous medieval text, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight ($1356$-$1357$), was a compilation of other travels (including Marco Polo) that described non-Europeans as strange or monstrous.
• Marco Polo: A pivotal figure who traveled through Asia in the $13th$ century. Europeans became interested in eastern commodities like cinnamon and ginger, which were used for food and medicine.
• The Catalyst of $1453$: A key moment on the review sheet is the Conquest and Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in $1453$. This, combined with the breakup of the Mongol Empire, closed overland trade routes (the Silk Road) to Asia.
• Sea Routes: Because overland routes were no longer friendly or effective, European powers looked to the sea to gain access to the spices and precious metals of the East.
• Portuguese Success: Prince Henry the Navigator funded expeditions around the Cape of Good Hope. His investments returned profits of "several thousand percent" ( ext{several thousand } imes 100 ext{ %}).

Christopher Columbus and the New World

• Inspiration: Columbus studied Marco Polo and the cinnamon trade. He wanted to reach India and China by sailing west rather than around Africa.
• Calculation Error: Columbus believed the world was much smaller than it actually was. Despite being turned down by Portugal, he was funded by Queen Isabella of Spain.
• Journeys: He made $4$ journeys between $1492$ and the end of his life, landing in the Caribbean and Central America. The speaker notes Columbus may have died believing he had actually found the Indies of Asia.
• The Columbian Exchange: Named after Columbus, this was the exchange of goods (like sugar, which was brought from Europe to the New World) and diseases (such as the plague, to which Europeans had developed some genetic resistance) between the Old and New Worlds.

Cultural Perceptions and the Concept of the "Savage"

• Defining "Otherness": Europeans viewed non-Europeans as "uncivilized" or "monstrous." A primary marker of this perceived lack of civility was cannibalism.
• Cannibalism: The word originates from the $1550s$ from the term "Canibales," a variant of the name for the Caribs of the Caribbean islands.
• European Justification: The practice of cannibalism was seen as an "obscenity" and a barrier to civility. This served as a justification for Europeans to "civilize" and convert native populations to Christianity.
• Iconography: Woodcuts from the $1500s$ often depicted natives as naked and engaged in cannibalism (e.g., human limbs being barbecued) to contrast them with "civilized" Europeans who possessed ships and advanced technology.
• Friday's Subjection: When Friday is rescued by Crusoe, the text depicts a "naturalized hierarchy." Friday places Crusoe's foot on his head, a sign of subjection, servitude, and submission.

The Rise of the British Empire

• The Act of Union ($1707$): This act united England and Scotland into a single kingdom (the United Kingdom), which included Northern Ireland. This coalescence of power allowed the English empire to extend across the seas.
• Crusoe as the Prototype: Robinson Crusoe is the "prototypical colonist." He represents the individual who can go into the New World, use industry and logic to acquire labor, and create a productive, profitable settlement for the sake of empire.

Questions & Discussion

• Question regarding Defoe's name change: The speaker explains that Defoe changed his name from "Foe" to "DeFoe" because "DeFoe" sounded more fashionable and aristocratic, which helped in the world of professional print and publication.
• Question regarding the legality of the slave trade in Brazil: The speaker clarifies that the trade Crusoe was engaged in wasn't necessarily illegal because slavery was illegal, but because he and the other planters were trying to "privately" import slaves to avoid regulation, taxes, and customs.
• Observation on Crusoe's manual labor: A student notes that Crusoe is a guy who "works with his hands" and builds things from the ground up. The speaker agrees, noting that Defoe endorses this industriousness, but points out how this logic eventually leads to the normalization of using others (slaves) as help for that labor.