Lecture Notes on Cheap Natures and Industrial Capitalism

AGENDA

  • Introduction
  • Cheap Labour
  • Cheap Energy
  • Cheap Resources
  • Cheap Food
  • Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

  • Focus on social, economic, and environmental dimensions of industrial capitalism.
  • Emphasizes the ecological element of historical change for understanding economic and social processes shaping the modern world.
  • Capitalism involves accumulating wealth through industrialized techniques, reconfiguring societies through:
    • Machines
    • New energy sources
    • Raw resource inputs
    • Food production systems
  • Pursuits of cheap natures:
    • Cheap labour
    • Cheap energy
    • Cheap resources
    • Cheap food

CHEAP LABOUR

  • Early-modern period saw exploitation through commercial slave trade; slavery persisted into the industrial period until 1864 in the US.
  • Other forms of unfree labor included indentured servitude in North America, binding workers under contractual agreements for several years.
  • Indentured workers had deductions for room-and-board and transportation from wages.
  • Serfdom in Russia remained until 1861, with peasants insufficiently compensated and bound to land owned by landlords.
  • Industrial wage labor provided more contractual freedom but was still characterized by low wages and rights favoring employers over workers.
  • Concept of surplus labor: the value left over after production costs, which capitalists pocket as profit.
  • Working-class families depended on unpaid labor for survival since wages were often inadequate for covering costs of living.
  • Human labor viewed as part of a metabolic relationship with nature, significantly altered by industrialization and the shift to urban living.

CHEAP ENERGY

  • Industrial Revolution required substantial energy inputs, with coal becoming primary due to its abundance and efficiency in powering industry.
  • Steam power allowed for industrial expansion beyond river locations, facilitating trade and transport globally.
  • Coal replaced previous energy sources (like water-powered machines) in terms of reliability and flexibility.
  • Urbanization increased energy demands for daily needs, moving away from traditional energy sources (wood, charcoal) to coal derivatives.
  • Using coal altered human interaction with nature, leading to a "metabolic rift" where nature could not keep pace with industrial waste.
  • Search for new energy sources continues as current resources are finite and exhaustible.

CHEAP RESOURCES

  • Industrialization demanded abundant raw materials like cotton and wool, essential for textile manufacturing.
  • Enclosure movement in Britain led to the legal appropriation of common lands for private agriculture, displacing tenant farmers into urban labor markets.
  • The demand for cheap resources resulted in ecological degradation, such as the destruction of tropical tree forests for gutta latex.
  • Economic pursuits restructured landscapes from small mixed-use farming to monoculture production for industrial needs, driving global demand for raw resources.

CHEAP FOOD

  • Growing industrial role necessitated cheap food sources paired with low wages for workers.
  • Political efforts in the UK during the Corn Laws signaled a shift toward free trade that benefitted industrial capitalists and workers alike.
  • Industrialization transformed food production from agricultural independence to large commercial processes, exemplified by the rise of canned goods.
  • Innovations in preservation (like canning) shifted dietary habits and made food more widely accessible, impacting nutritional practices in society.

CONCLUSION

  • Current environmental challenges stem from historical demands for cheap resources and labor, posing a threat to ecosystems.
  • The relentless pursuit of cheaper natures reflects a deep interconnection between capitalism and ecological systems, shaping ongoing environmental issues today.