Triumph of the West European Bourgeoisie

1
Triumph of the West European Bourgeoisie

• Section 11.57

2
Introduction

• Mid 1800s was the Golden Age of the Bourgeoisie
• Older French meaning of the word was
• Not nobility
• Wealth generated from business or profession, or
  ownership of property
• After 1830 it took on new meaning
• Viewed by upper crust as uncultivated, only
  interested in making money
• Viewed by social theorists as the employer
• Difference between nobility and bourgeois is
  blurring
• Difference between bourgeois and labor is
  becoming accentuated

3
Stake in society theory

• Those who govern should have something to lose
• France -1 in 30 voted
• England -1 in 8
• England had tradition of Tory leadership
• Tory leadership fought against industrialists
  (traditionally for landed interests)
• Labor class benefited
• France the aristocratic interests were less
  public spirited
• less was done to relieve the condition of labor
• lost most of its influence by 1830

4
Influence of the Bourgeois Age

• Western Europe continued to accumulate capital
• Little of the profit went to labor leaving more
  in savings of Bourgeois
• New financial entities emerge (corporations)
• Factory system spread from Britain to the
  Continent
• Output of iron is increasing (a good index for
  economic growth) especially in England
• Railroad building
• Exportation of capital
• British own 200,000,000 of stock in American
  companies

5
The Frustration and Challenge of Labor

• Bourgeois Age leads to the estrangement of labor
• GB and France what Marx called a committee of
  the bourgeois class
• Underclass is restless
• Radicals and Republicans felt cheated by Rev of
  1830
• Forced through reforms in government and did not
  get the vote
• Started to seek extragovernmental means of
  achieving ends
• The labor market (according to the Manchester
  School)
• Governed by natural laws
• laboring class sells labor
• bourgeois class buys labor (wage)
• if labor is in demand wages rise
• if labor is not in demand wages fall and workers
  live on relief
• Entrepreneurship is only way out of labor class

6
The Frustration and Challenge of Labor

• Poor Law of 1834
• Unfavorable to the working poor
• Idea was to make relief more unpleasant than any
  job
• Sexes segregated, called Bastilles by workers
• Did nothing to protect employees from cyclical
  market forces
• Left workers with 2 options
• Form labor unions or turn to socialism
• Labor unions were illegal in France, barely legal
  in GB (strikes illegal)
• Socialism alternative economic model
• goods are produced for use not sale
• people are compensated according to need not
  according to the requirements of an employer

7
Socialism and Chartism

• In France socialism blended with revolutionary
  republicanism
• Robesspierre egalitarianism popular again
• In England socialism blended with parliamentary
  reform (Chartism)
• Charter of 1838 (of the Chartist)
• Anti-capitalistic
• annual elections in HOC(to win over the working
  class)
• universal suffrage all adult males
• secret ballots
• equal electoral districts
• abolition of property qualifications for
  membership in the House of Commons
• payment of salaries to elected members of
  Parliament
• Contradicts stake in society and property
  qualifications
• Charter is submitted with 3 million signatures
  and rejected by Parliament (50 of male
  population)
• Chartist movement has limited success
• Mines Act of 1842 and Ten Hours Act of 1847
  probably would not have passed
• Lack of response from the government causes the
  Chartist movement to turn toward labor movements
  and unions

8
By 1848

• no stabilization had been achieved
• No international system was created
• Europe was fallen into two political camps
• Western
• liberal, national, capitalistic
• Eastern
• autocratic, opposed to nationality, agrarian
• West still has unresolved social problems and
  will soon be faced with revolution