Humanist Issues In Commercial Practice

In the 17th century as businesses and trade grew, brokering of joint venture company stocks began. Officially licensed Stock Brokers were recognized in limitation, but this limitation gave rise to Stock Jobbers who offered shares in non-existent ventures, or promoted sales by rumours to dazzle investors.

Tulipmania is a great example of a market where Stock Jobbers made large profits buying low and selling high.

In the early 18th century during the war, national debt rose sharply and the government authorized a share issue of South Sea shares equal to the national debt. The South Sea Trade Company valued it shares at par with the national debt, plus accrued interest. The company was able to offer the shares by whatever marketing methods it chose, effectively Stock Jobbing, by propping up investor confidence by writing about the trade demand for products obtained from the slave trade.

The Mississippi Company was very similar. John Law was able to obtain a monopoly on French colonial trade and attempted to develop the America's by backing the Company's land development (Lockean Theme) through his own bank as a Financier, which would assume the entire national debt. The shares issued were payable in government debt certificates.

In the 19th century the 1844 Bank Act opened more opportunities to the general-banking community. It legislated the banks function into issuing a max number of banknotes backed by securities, with any additional issues above this maximum to be backed by bullion - suggested at first by David Ricardo. By doing so banks could encourage stock exchange bubbles and help keep them afloat.

By the 20th century, a parallel Canadian to the South Sea Company was Bre-X. Bre-X share proceeds had no plans in their initial offering, but later Bre-X promoted it's exploration permit and developments of mining gold, touting future stock price increases and building investor confidence. Eventually drilling test results for gold indicated there were no traces at all, and the bubble burst as investor confidence faded.

All three companies propped up investor confidence by keeping them in the dark about the mythical project generating returns, explaining it would later be revealed and beneficial to share holders.

Abraham wanted to formally arrange and pay for something under the witness of everyone to claim proper title. Because the purchase was emotional, money was of no object, and paying the high price was also symbolic to emphasis in historic memory.

Joseph was able to foresee a shortage and famine. By hoarding and controlling the grain supply, he was able to exploit the economic crisis that followed for profits. At the same time, those he gave grain to, thanked him for his generosity even after he took everything from them. In hindsight, people see exploits how they want to see them, not necessarily how they are.

In oligarchies, the aim of life is to become as reach as possible to rule with power, by lending money on properties to buy them up and gain control of the State.

The ideal state would be one without usury, where it is an offense, punishable by a fine. If borrowers are charged interest at all, they should be able to withhold both interest and capital from the lender.

The results of making money becomes an infatuation with money as people grow a fondness for all they have made. Making money then becomes more important that being yourself.

Aristotle was able to concede that some form of wealth is required for husbandry or purpose, and that happiness seems to required a moderate amount of external prosperity. Furthermore, noble enterprises require money to invest in which requires some form of wealth to begin with.

In retail trade, there is no limit to wealth-getting compared to household management which has a limit. The reasoning's for wealth-getting are different as retail trade exchanges unlimited coin for consumption, whereas household manage consumes resources which have a natural consumption limit. Because peoples desires are unlimited, and enjoying these desires requires property and wealth, people start to confuse wealth-getting as an purpose of household management.

Money has no life except in exchange-use. The coinage and paper come to represent (intrinsic value) rather than embody their printed value. The exchange-use for supporting the body or otherwise is short-lived, giving meaning that the nature of monies satisfaction is also short-lived.

The acquisition and ownership of wealth is required to lead a life of active virtue, so long as any surplus wealth is distributed rather than stored in times of shortage. When spent in the right way on good causes, wealth can bring happiness which cannot be bought.

But wealth as our highest good cannot be superior over other goods, when we use it chiefly to benefit ourselves in buying something else. Therefore riches are desired only for the sake of something else. Their purpose is not to be held, but to be spent in benevolent use.

His arguments led the Church to create laws that parishioners contribute to the relief of the poor 9/10's of their income to feed the hungry. This involvement created a ripple effect in private enterprises to act as corporate donors by leaving endowments for the poor.

(a) charging for lending money and

(b) seeking others compensation for lending money.

1) he believes money earned by charging for money lent is a principle wrong that must be paid in restitution.

2) human law allows usury because to not allow it would impose undue restrictions on many people.

Later Aquinas accepted usury on foreigners in order to safeguard against a general local outbreak of usury practice by businesses.

(a) selling for more than something's worth

(b) selling on account of flaws or disguise

(c) not declaring defects in things sold

(d) making profit for one's sake above one's work

1) Sold commodities creating losses for sellers, buyers must pay an estimation for the loss.

2) Selling something as something else or in a condition in which it is not.

In all cases of fraud the seller must make restitution.

While Aristotle believe some form of prosperity was required, Thomas More believe erasing the use of money altogether would remove greed and bring about utopia.

As common farm lands become privatized, tenants are evicted and those lands are fenced off. The impact was the food generated from those lands becoming more scarce, causing prices to rise steeply coupled with unemployment and shortages of wages.

Calvin distinguished usury in Christianity from the constraints of Jewish Deuteronomy laws. He argued applying the Law of Equity, a fair dealing and active conscience, would self-govern usury and that it was therefore permissible to take usury from one's brother.

The practice of selling goods as dear as you can gives rise to profit maximization, which is nothing but the robbing and stealing of others property. To combat this, state price controls should be imposed so that prices can remain fair.

He believed the practice of usury is un-Christain and should be abolished altogether, including the disguised usury loan contract (Zinskauf) under the sale of land.

Europeans greatly hasted the decline and ruin of other civilizations in the name of gold seeking. Violent methods ensued to get gold because it's intrinsic value puts it above the value of life in humanity itself.

Other civilizations correctly viewed gold as an ornament, not a necessity of life.

Bacon stated that usury makes fewer merchants because money does not circulate to the wealth of the state, but rather the lazy usurer.

To mitigate this problem, the state should not impose interest taxes, but put a ceiling on interest rates and require licensing for lenders for a small state fee. Licensed lenders are allowed to lend higher than the current market rate ceiling, but should be restrained to certain cities and towns.

Humans have conflicting interests which require a common power to keep them all in awe. By having a common power agreed upon by all citizens, it creates a commonwealth which all obey by.

Without this ruling authority, mankind pursues power perpetually until their death - creating a state of permanent war which the fruit from commerce remains uncertain.

Human labour provides the greatest value to land by yielding economic value for all mankind, not just your own, which therefore grants land entitlement (property). Gaining property by labour limits mankind's ability to extend their property by it's means and hinders temptations to provide more labour than they can make use of, helping avoid waste. A individual is therefore the creator of wealth through their own work (labour).

However, money overrides this ideology by providing a means for enlarging property with any labour efforts or limitations.

Revaluing coinage is a monetary devaluation by decree that cause hoarders to obtain as much coin as possible to compensate. However, they are only as well off as they were before because the inflated nominal value of their money would just keep them at the same level as they were before as inflated cost of goods and services also rise.

By:

1) the improvement of land

2) the payment of debts

3) the earning of returns on trade and,

4) healthy international trade

People give, take and contract for money regarding it's quality of quantity, as qualitative value is worth more than quantitative value. Money's value therefore depends on the faith and belief in it's value by the people.

The prohibition of tariff-free borders causes losses of commercial benefits and reductions in merchant profits, undermining the reason of democracy that enables citizens of all wealth levels to partake in wealth-getting.

He suggested to bring down the demand for silver by bringing down the price of gold to match silver's price. By introducing a gold 'guinea' coin for means of exchange, he created a fair-value ceiling to protect the shilling rates from going higher. Later he reduced the value of the guinea coin to make it no longer attractive to purchase gold instead of silver shillings, creating a parity.

As the silver bullion inside the coins was worth more than their stamped value, it caused coin melting and shortages. To combat this, Lowndes proposed crying up coins stamped value to be closer the value of silver bullion.

However, citizens were no better off they they were before. For example, instead of a job paying 10 silver coins, people were paid 8 (20% off) while the commodity costs stayed the same or rose higher.

Money is necessary to order and economy by being an acceptable medium for trading versus other methods such as bartering. The whole monetary structure is built upon the variety of our self-interests, or vices, which reciprocate goods and services for our needs and wants.

Unlike Thomas Hobbes who believed a common power, Manderville attaches power to the state by a 'skill politician' who should treat self-interests of society as perpetual renewable resources by organizing them into public utilities.

Parting with wealth in a true unselfish manner is to do so without any expectations. Thus, charitable giving for the self-satisfaction of doing so or the expectation of public recognition is not altruistic, but donative for recognition purposes.

Money does not need to have an intrinsic value, it is only a set of tokens and needs to facilitate the purpose of trade.

Therefore, a nations wealth is not based on monies value alone, but by the backing of the productive potentials of it's land and people. By creating paper money backed by land on credit, the credit itself acts as money, and employs people which in turn increases productivity and consumption, and a nations overall wealth.

Backed paper money is also less liable to change in value compared to silver as it does not rely on supply and demand and further relieves any risk of losing the security of it's value.

The market opportunity of trade is too quick sighted to be over reached by laws. The market will adjust any disproportion the law has made between commodities. Human economic opportunism is too irresponsible to be governed by law thoroughly.

He believes that money is the oil which renders the motion of the wheels of trade more smooth and easy. It is the instrument which is agreed upon to facilitate exchange, but has no life unless it circulates, as commodities have no economic effect lying in warehouses. Therefore, money helps the production and standard of living by enabling nations to flourish in it's circulation.

Superior industry and skill leads to greater supplies for merchants to sell at smaller profits. However, areas not in high commerce have lower prices of labour, presenting an opportunity to reduce costs and increase those profits. Manufacturers gradually shift to take advantage of cheaper costs, making it difficult for another nation to follow suit as cheaper areas have already been saturated.

The price of everything depends on the proportion between commodities and money because as the supply of commodities increases, they become cheaper, whereas when the supply and denomination of coinage increases, commodities rise in their value.

However, prices do not wholly depend on this model, so much as whether commodities will come to the market and whether money is actually available for spending.

Hume's theory of social refinement tries to re-calibrate industry and arts with human happiness. People derive happiness from occupations when industry and arts both flourish, giving people a sense of vigor and self-satisfaction. Without arts in society, people are derived of action and pleasure which leaves only laziness.

Industry and arts combined with happiness affects the minds of people, pushing them to carry on improvements into every art and science, become more sociable and increase their humanity towards one another. By being more social, knowledge is better shared and industry flourishes.

The net value of this re-calibration is a positive impact in consumption as industry, knowledge and humanity increase and act as a storehouse of labour. Furthermore, tempers are softened by knowledge which outs extremism on issues.

As a result, Hume suggests that industry, knowledge and humanity are all linked together in a indissoluble chain.

People have needs that the state does not serve, and merchants of commerce help serve as agents of these needs. Commerce then increases industry by facilitating trade between merchants and people's needs and gives occupations to people by employing them in the arts of gain for consumption. Thus, commerce/usury acts as the industry that promotes people's happiness to share knowledge for the betterment of fulfilling human needs.

The economic function of the legislature of a nation should be limited to maintaining order and good government. Commerce prospers to the advantage of all - so long as it is left alone.

Each person becomes an expert of their own particular branch and more work is done upon the whole by the sum of the parts. The economies of scale through division of labour benefit the wealth of a nation because labour is the wealth of a nation: it provides all the necessaries and conveniences of life which annual labour consumes.

He accredits division of labours increase in yield to 3 circumstances of it's performance:

1) increasing of dexterity from repetitive simple tasks.

2) Saving of time by reducing the scope of tasks.

3) Using machines to facilitate labour more efficiently.

To trade is a natural human reflex as learned talents for different types of work make people dependent on each others skills. This dependency makes a market. The division of labour is a consequence of this market to exchange with one another as it provides assurance of being able to trade by manufacturing surplus's. As a result, society is a market as a whole.

Productive labour adds value to a subject, is a commodity in the market place in itself, and produces a return on capital. In contrast, unproductive labour does not add value which can be carried forward in time. Productive labour then is the means that supports all of society and how it funds itself for national needs by it's own national revenues, where unproductive or non-labour does not contribute to fund of national revenues.

The value of productive labour is further enhanced by it's ability to bridge the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots, by causing some share of wealth to trickle down to the needy.

Smith's opportunistic invisible hand is the market forces that transmute human negative tendencies of self-interest and competitiveness into a positive good by promoting the interests of society more effectually than he intends too. The result is the harmonization of disparate interests to universally beneficial outcomes fostering opulence.

Production of the supply of goods benefits others by resulting in lower prices. As no society benefits from an abundance of poor, and the poor cannot readily provide for themselves or families limiting reproduction support systems, labour provides compensation which enables the poor to do so.

If the demand for labour increases, so will the labour pools and wages, enabling more persons to marry and increase birth rates. However, as this labour pool increases further and further, it eventually causes wages to lower again from oversupply, eventually decreasing birth rates too.

Because the division of labour makes tasks more simple and repeatable, basic education can lead to more work labour. As the general intellectual level of society increases, more people can obtain work, thereby increasing productive labour capacities and a nations overall wealth.

This is why the state has a duty to provide a primary education, and moreso for the poorer members of society at a young age.

Bentham describes utility as the production of happiness gauged by how much utility (or pleasure) it creates.

The interests of people are best protected if the central power is strong enough to protect those interests from factions, or groups actuated by rages for paper money, abolition of debts and equal division of properties.

The unequal division of property was natural and inevitable because the rights of property originate from the diversity of mankind's faculties (talents), which should be upheld by the central power but safeguarded against conflicts of interests.

Her remedy for subjection of complacency that women were not given a favored place in the Great Chain, is education. They should not be confined to domestic concerns and have the right for co-education to promote thinking for themselves. Education helps assist women in becoming independent by enabling them to earn their own subsistence and financial and social independence.

Wages should be left to the fair and free competition of the market and never be controlled by legislature. The welfare supported poor need to look to their own exertions for support, not the systematic or casual labour.

In social welfare support, all the net revenue of a country will be absorbed in taxes levied to support the poor, and legislation needs to know the limits it can meet these increasing needs. Because if it has no more funds to employ itself and population no longer regulates itself, the country will be reduced to poverty in an ever increasing bubble of needs.

The landowner loses due to being subject to the market fluctuation on the price of labour and increased taxes imposed by increasing rents, marginalizing any rent increase profitability. Meanwhile, the landholder wins due to an increase in production by machinery which also increases profits, offsetting the increases higher wage and rent costs.

Population depends on employment, employment depends on production and production depends on available capital. Poor houses create knock-off or substitute products that threaten to increase supply and reduce prices, while being provided for by public taxes. Because manufacturers compete it products of capitalized goods with private funding and not with public funding, it threatens the overall conventional process and bears further risks to investors and tax payers:

1) their revenues could be swallowed up by taxes spent on the poor

2) labour wages paid to the working poor and market competition from the workhoused poor put market prospects at risk

3) everybody but the landholders would go down

Under a system of a perfectly free commerce, each country devotes its capital and labour to such employments that are most beneficial to itself. Free commerce distributes labour most effectively and economically, while by increasing the general mass of productions, it spreads the general benefit.

Ricardo describes nature as the peculiar powers bestowed by nature to be used as an asset in the service of commerce.

As population growth always outruns food supply, birth quotas need to limit human production. If the food supply does not raise with increases labour, the increases in wages for that labour are diminished as the nominal price of food rises. Population should be controlled with a strong and constant operating check, chiefly on the poor, as each person has a 'moral restraint' not to marry until they can support future children.

Poor laws should be abolished as they increase population without increasing food and the quantity consumed at poor houses takes away from more worth members

.

The fairest chance of promoting population control is to establish a system of education like Adam Smith's proposal but focused around the real state of the lower classes impacted by population.

Wealth from rents will fund artistic and recreational pursuits for the masses, while always acting as capital with which to restart a flagging economy.

He advocated that the cash nexus created by a laissez-faire economy cannot connect society or hold it together alone because it degenerates into pure materialism. Governing society by laissez-faire is therefore no longer possible, and should go back to Adam's Smith's principle of a reasonable level of laissez-faire, not carry non-interference all the way to near complete abandonment of people in need.

The path to obtaining riches should be open to all without favor or partiality. The best state of human nature is when no one is poor or desires to be richer, or is without reason to worry about being thrust back by the efforts of others. Thus, when an economy is not growing or declining (plateau'd), it has settled at a level where an opportunity for a review of humane values can be undertaken.

Distributive justice can be delivered through improving the mental culture, moral and social progress in the standard of living. Improvements in the art of living are bought about by increasing production, fixing attention of improved distribution of wealth and large remunerations of labour.

The poor cannot be governed like children, and the well-being of a people must exist by means of justice and self-government

and treat the poor as equals with acceptance.

Governments should also not interfere in the labour market by enacting laws that keep wages low.

As machinery overtook male's production capabilities, the reduction or loss in male wages caused women and children to suffer unless they too worked in factories alongside men for equally lower wages tending machinery.

Because of their new involvement in commerce, there should be fair wages for men and women, as the exclusion of women wastes intellectual resources and reduces talent pools. As these talent pools reduce, a certain number of males are not being pushed to their optimum levels of excellence by healthy competition.

Whatever people agree to ascribe value to becomes value. The survival of commodities is transcended everywhere by the resilience and determination of street people who find economic niches in which to survive. The poor are willing to foster a connection between labour and reward, even if the reward is small.

Marx divides the division of classes into those who are oppressed and exploited (proletariat's) and their capitalist oppressors (bourgeoisie).

The bourgeoisie left no other nexus between man and man, other than the self-interest for cash payment, by overworking proletariat's to create surplus value.

As the wealth was concentrated into fewer bourgeoisie hands with increasing competition between the remaining few, owners seek to bring down labour costs and leverage better machinery. But the increase in machinery leads to higher supply gluts and owner debt, causing businesses to fail which in turn forces more bourgeoisie to join the ranks of the proletariat.

The evolving middle class do not give up their bourgeois status without a struggle, and class collisions ensued, such as violence or protests.

As bourgeoisie numbers dwindle more and more, eventually controlling the proletariat class is no longer possible. The eventuality is the self-implodement of capitalism which gives way to a revolution towards socialism to part ways with the cash nexus system. Under the new system the classes are united by raising the working class to the ruling class.

Suggestions to raise the working class to the ruling are:

1) abolish the private ownership of land

2) apply all rents to public purposes

3) impose a heavy and progressive income tax

4) abolish the right of inheritance

5) centralize all credit in the hands of the state governed by national banks.

Nature is the labourers home, it furnishes the labourer's home and a field of employment. Because of thenature-imposed condition of human existence it is a necessary condition for the exchange of matter between man and nature.

Adam Smith believes the wealth of the nation are it's people and chiefly the productive labour which provides the means by which it annually consumes, and that a reasonable level of laissez-faire is best.

John Ruskin advocates the wealth of an economy is through art, and it's continual ability to produce wealth for all parties: investments for private and public owners and sources of income for artists. The state should support artistic and other activities that produce this type of wealth, and that laissez-faire is not the best model, as state support is often necessary.

He supports this argument by realigning the goal of a political economy is to increase the populations health and happiness by regulating population through maintenance, and refuting the assumption the goal is to accumulate money or exchangeable property.

The largest quantity of work will not be done by humans for pay, but when the motive force is brought through social justice or affection. Social justice, requires that all work should receive it's proper reward. Human feelings such as mutual responsibility, shared commitment and affection are stronger motivators than money and therefore in the long-run more productive.

No affection can take place if workers can be thrown out on a whim, thus a minimum wage for a fixed time frame should be stated so workers continue their affections.

The resultant commercial impact is the smoothing out of business cycles with more predictability and security.

Value is the life-giving power of anything, such as land, housing, food, medicine, clothing, books and art. Intrinsic value is the absolute power of anything to support life, such as air, water or flowers.

Universal and natural values therefore are the only intrinsic values. Wealth and value therefore depend on the value of the possessor and their moral use of riches. Wealth is only capital when it produces something other than itself.

Freedom of will is the right of all mankind so long as it doesn't impede on someone else's freedom. Equal freedom then, is defined as no one or group of mankind can use the Earth in a way that prevents others from using it in the same way. All humans therefore are equally entitled to use the Earth.

Land belongs to all of society and is not privatized by the discovery and labour improvement upon it. It should be in the possession of the country nation rather than individuals, which can act as a great corporate body, leasing the land to all men as tenants. They would be free to compete or bid without violating the principles of free equity.

The Earth can therefore be enclosed and occupied in entire subordination to the law of equal freedom, so long as everyone has an equal share of the money supply.

Speculative values in land and rent reduces earnings, capital and production profits and is the main cause of periodical industrial depressions. Speculators become rich without adding wealth to the community and cut-off workers from means of production by reserving the land for themselves, reducing production.

Where ever you find land low in price, you'll find wages low, and where it's high you'll find wages high. As land increases in value, poverty deepens and the poor appear. Where land is cheap you'll find no beggars or little inequalities.

To abolish all taxes save on - rent tax. The nation can become a universal landlord without calling itself one, no owner needs to be dispossessed or restricted. Rent by taxes means land would really be held in common property for all the community to have stewardship.

He theorizes that visible success becomes an end sought for it's own utility as a basis of esteem and prowess. The community evolves into a predatory phase of life, seeking trophies to feature the paraphernalia of life off to the world around them. This stems from where ever the institution of property is found which creates a struggle between men for the possession of goods as property and induces property as a requirement of self-respect.

Conspicuous idleness refers to our habituated gentle manner that creates a sense of shamefulness towards manual labour, which can in extreme form supersede our basic survival instincts. The leisure gain from standing out without being productive comes in the non-productive consumption of time.

Meanwhile, conspicuous consumption refers to buying things because they confer honour in their possession compared to those who cannot afford to purchase them. Humans drive to master all living forces of the environment.

As the capitalist spirit was much less influenced by religious principles, it has the ability to free itself from the common traditions. By doing so, practice virtues are undertaken not for commend-ability, but because they lead to financial success.

Consequently, man is dominated by the making of money as the acquisition being his ultimate purpose in life, which is a reversal of the natural relationship, and work therefore becomes a man's identity.

Capitalism forced the entrepreneur into a bog of senseless business as they lost their religious feelings, requiring no sense of duty and creating life-values influenced not by will-power but joy of action. A capitalist then has no pre-text to regard wealth-getting as a duty or to link duty with success.

The end result being the intensity of economic life being stretched to its utmost limits.

Post war peace demands ignore human conditions by imposing massive country debt that causes inflation to rise rapidly. As the inflation gets worse, paper currency becomes meaningless as human conditions become so poor consequently that anything that yields sustenance becomes more important. Wealth-getting dissolves into profiteering, which does not start or restart the circle of exchange in the economy.

Furthermore, all relations between debtors and creditors is disordered, sending wealth-getting further into a gamble and lottery.

The economic consequences of peace then are the human considerations of everyday life.

Laissez-faire tends to make business a lottery which great inequalities of wealth come about causing unemployment, poor business expectations and impair production efficiency.

To remedy laissez-faire, a central institution should be given deliberate control over currency and credit, and collect large amounts of business data for business situations to be disclosed to all by law if necessary.

Governments should also borrow money to create employment and pay wages, putting money into the hands of consumers who demand goods that encourage production and lead to more jobs.

Income earners should agree to pay a voluntary deferment of pay, fairly proportioned by income level to promote solidarity in the common war cause. As wartime brings economic suffering, working classes who find it difficult to save are exempted below 35-45 shillings and/or supplemented with a family allowance to ensure a reasonable standard of living.

The effects create a wage ceiling that helps control inflation and succeed in making the war an opportunity for a positive social improvement.

As the large comfortable class (mass) focus on their specializations, they neglect their civic duties of vigilance over human rights and freedoms, leaving the thinking and social control to the state. Soon, citizens are living for the state rather then the state for the citizens - and as this machine grows with expanding authoritative power, it grows in bureaucracy. The large comfortable mass having vested interests the new bureaucracy do not notice of choose not to notice the whittling away of liberal democracy and the less examining of reason behind ideas.

In the end, the state takes over all social spontaneity and crushes any creative minority that disturbs it.

Adrent terms house keeping as the provision of material necessities, expanded to the public sphere, making social life itself strive for comfort and goods thereby evading civic responsibilities.

These provisions blur the borderlines between private and political economies and their significance to the individual private person, who in order to maintain their privacy and business hand over decision making to the most social form of bureaucratic government.

As a result, modern equality is based on the conformism inherent in a consumerism society as behavior replaces action as the foremost mode of human relationship.

A product of labour to Adrent is bread, while the a product of work is a table. Products of labour guarantee the ongoing of the worlds survival which without would not possible. Products of work are things that are not consumed but used, and as we use them we become accustomed to using them.

As the vast majority of factory personnel never see a finished product, they are a function of labour and not work (there is no use-object component).

Hannah abhorred the mechanization of labour and believed that assembly line work and it's mass-produced goods instilled a mindset of expectation of endlessly renewable supply. This mindset then assumes that natural processes and nature itself have been overcome by science and technology and nothing in nature would be seen as irreplaceable.

The connections of everything to everything else are being ignored. Invested or specialized within our small areas, citizens forget or have a vested interest to forget that we are all part of 'nature's household.' The indiscriminate usage of products or by-products that hurt or destroy the interdependence and interrelationships of nature is ignored by the right to make a dollar.

The only beneficial system of law is that which offers justice, compassion and generosity to all human beings no matter their class. However, as individuals get caught up in the whole bureaucracy of things which they do not understand, they regulate all their activity by it, which it's function they do not even understand. This rationalized evolution therefore is a system not of liberty, but of oppression in the form of passive mechanism that strips away all initiative, intelligence, knowledge and method.

This evolution of present-day society develops various forms of bureaucratic oppression and gives back an autonomy in regard to capitalism. The new bureaucratic capitalism will exist up to the extreme limit of possibility.

As distributive welfare systems require record-keeping and registries, governments acquire a growing technological possibility of control coupled with the presumed moral superiority. This totalitarian end appears then under a moral disguise, or the Trojan Horse through which totalitarianism enters.

Social or distributive justice is therefore the anti-social justice. As the protection of expectations for all cannot be granted excepted for in a stationary economy.

Social and economic inequalities are just only if they result in compensating benefits for everyone, in particular the least advantaged of society. We are not to gain from the cooperative labours of others without doing our fair share.

A person is justly required to do his part as defined by the rules of an institution when two conditions are met:

1) the institution is just (or fair) and

2) one has voluntarily accepted the benefits of the arrangement or taken advantage of the opportunities it offers to further one's interests.

However in human affairs the ideal of pure distributive justice is not attainable, as a society where all the wants fit together without conflict is a society beyond justice.

Where injustice occurs, a society needs to be characterized by a social contract, where social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so they are both:

1) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just-saving principle.

2) attached to offices and positions open to all conditions of fair equality of opportunity.

3) subject to the priority rule, the priority of justice over efficiency and social well-being.

An agreement or treaty between God and a chosen people, with reciprocal obligations

Rule by privileged class or clique

Comprehensive rules of worship, civil and criminal law and property (Mosiac law)

The law of retaliation or revenge requiring acts of revenge but with limits

Compensation for damage of loss

Replacing metal by weight (bullion) with coinage

Levies imposed on the subject kingdoms under control

The biblical term for tax collector or customers officer

The expected Second Coming of Jesus

Means both careful of the duties owed by created beings to God and faithful duties naturally owed to parents, relatives, friends, superiors etc.

A system of rules and principles for human conduct which might be discovered by human intelligence

The process of trying to rectify the disparities between the Haves and Have-Nots in society

Reasoning used to solve problems by extracting or extending rules from a particular instance and applying them to new instances

Aruging a theory on both sides for the purposes of debate

From the Latin word “to exchange,” the exchanging of something

The principles that regulate the relationships and obligations between individuals

The practice of buying and selling benefices (Church appointments such as priesthoods with guaranteed income and pleasant living conditions)

Licensed by Rome or by dioceses to travel from parish church to church selling certificates or tokens of forgiveness

“mounts of money” or pawnshops created to make low-interest loans to the poor

The seller of interest as a sale rather than a loan to exempt the seller from the ban on usury

Fair dealing and active conscience of usury

The manipulation of currency’s face value up or down

The privatization of former common lands to private property

Contracting or outsourcing work to be done at home at piecework rates without employment guarantee

Investing in shipping and cargoes to gain returns from trading

A contract of the nature of a mortgage, whereby the owner of a ship, or the [captain] as his agent, borrows money to enable him to carry on or complete a voyage, and pledges the ship as security for repayment of the money. If the ship is lost, the lender loses his money; but if it arrives safe, he receives the principal together with the interest or premium stipulated, “however it may exceed the usual or legal rate of interest.”

Special taxes levied against English Jews on interest received on loans

Making money out of romance by marrying someone with wealth to gain property

Totally unselfish

The giver feels or expects to feel a sense of well-being, or qualifies for a public service award, or simply receives an income tax receipt

Living in a time of intellectual and political change in Europe

The simultaneous buying and selling of securities, currency or commodities in different markets to take advantage of different prices

A person who has regular business relations with another, especially in a distance place

Assets that depend on the confidence of depositors and the general public

The practice of representing the amount of debt or a payment by notching a wooden rod or stick

Promise to pay the bearer a certain sum, certified as being on deposit with the bank. The sum either was exactly owed or be a portion of the deposit ‘on fund’ at the bank, like a modern day debit card.

The holder had funds on deposit, and could in turn write ‘drawn notes or draft’ against those deposited funds, like a modern day cheque.

Bad money drives out good money – short-weight bullion or clipped coins circulating along with coins of legal content, leading to the legal coins likely being exported and leaving the inferior money in circulation.

A nations economic policy, whereby a government encourages and can regulate the achievement of a positive balance of exports over imports.

Strict monarchical or absolutist rule.

A party supporting trade and mercantilism with parliamentary rule.

Offeror of shares in non-existent ventures, who promote sales by circulating rumors or dazzling investors with technical jargon

An inflated praise uttered or written to influence public estimation

A tip-sheet, supposedly objective but actually promoting sales of the stock

Advocates of metal coinage (monometalism – single metal coinage; bimetallism – multi metal coinage)

When a nation fixes the price of gold at a level called “mint parity” and pledges to redeem its banknotes in gold.

Trading upon conjecture, buying large quantities of any commodity when cheap in hopes it may soon rise in price.

Knowledge is derived from experience and practical observation

The connectedness of all things in the universe which descends from God through humankind to the lowest forms of life.

The best of all possible worlds in an adaptation of the Great Chain

The complex of social and industrial changes brought about by the mechanization of industry

One who engages with the world and society strictly in accordance with one’s economic self-interest

Individual freedom of economic action without governmental regulation or interference

Queen Elizabeth I’s 1601 government statute and the 1795 amended law providing anyone who is unable to maintain themselves be set to work for their keep in workhouses at hard tasks, or out-of-door relief paid in cash for bread. Only the aged and disabled were excused.

A new law granting welfare for anyone who entered gender segregated workhouses where work and discipline were oppressive

Annually paid by a farmer to his landlord, and in Ricardo’s view, that portion of the produce of the Earth which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.

A theory which held that as soon as workers receive more than a subsistence wage, they tend to breed more children, who eat up the excess and reduce the working class to poverty.

Working people who destroyed industrial machinery in the belief that its use diminished that employment opportunities.

A layoff or downsizing and sometimes a strike.

Enacted to protect home agriculture with graduated tariffs on cheaper foreign grain allowing domestic farmers to charge high prices on grain.

A political and social reform group founded in 1838 with a six-point program, or People’s Charter, for change aimed at male suffrage, secret ballots, salaries and property matters.

A cash connection, or other way of saying “market forces” or “invisible hand.”

Promotes self-interest in the pursuit of individual happiness, humans should approve or disapprove of every action according to whether it creates or reduces happiness.

Trade unions

A theory of policy of social organization which aims at or advocates the ownership and control of the means of production, capital, land, property etc. by the community as a whole, and their administration or distribution in the interests of all.

Capitalists who own the means of production (factories, machinery etc.) and who hire wage labour.

The labouring class who sell their labour in order to live

The labourer creates surplus value by unpaid work, and the employer receives surplus value simply by getting more tan was paid for and therefore increased profit

A society that is acting as intermediary between competing interests and capabilities to bring about a state “in which all individual characters, all aptitudes, and all accidents of birth and fortune are liberated.”

A historical process of conflicting ideas and interests

Someone whose income is from rent or investments

The seizing of wealth and goods takes the place of chivalric exploit to give superiority over others (differential gain).

The imitation and the drive to equal or surpass the exploits, success, or reputation of another.

The open enjoyment of possessions that are known to be costly and the flaunting of one’s ability to pay for such things

Space, gardens and domestic amenities

The attainment of the goods necessary to meet personal needs

Attainment beyond what is necessary to meet personal needs

A stock issue practice of increasing the par value or the size of the issue of a stock without a corresponding increase in assets.

A social and political condition wherein “society [lives] for the state, man for the governmental machine.”

Represents, in political form, the loftiest will toward life in common, [and] carries to the furthest degree the resolve to count on each individual

The biological study of relationships between organisms and their environment

An understanding between generations to carry their fair share of the burden of realizing and preserving a just society.

Came across paper money in China (didn’t come into use in Europe until the late 17th century). Merchants trading there accepted government controlled prices along with the paper money to facilitate trade. He also recalled salt was used as currency.

Attempted to turn her housekeeping skills of brewing and provisioning into a commercial enterprise. This compares nicely to Xenophon’s passages where a successful husband and wife partnership is described with the fostering of the women’s skills and admin abilities.

A system of mutual protection where the weak would obtain protection of the strong by pledging vassalage (loyalty and service), with the social glue of feudalism being social obligation.

First professional female writer working always against the social convention that public writing was a male monopoly, Behn constantly advocated gender equality - including economic equality - in her plays and other work (regarded now as a feminist and cultural hero).

Applied for a patent to issue new copper coinage in Ireland, which was issuedd without consulting the Irish parliament or revenue commissioners and when they found out they petitioned against it. This reaction was based partly on notions of Gresham’s Law (bad money drives out good) and on cultural and nationalist resistance.

Nailed down a dismal aspect or danger of economic thinking: the tendency to concentrate only on material or bottom line “facts.” A Modest Proposal (1729) is a parody of the exploitation and control of an endlessly renewable resources (babies and children) and is presented as a satirical recommendation to harvest them for economic goals.

Her sensible business outlook was combined with a male-management psychology (she never wanted to step on her husband’s toes).

She sorted out issues at the brewery and the staff respected her as an authoritative figure. She goes on to describe detailed accounting and managing company finances - an extremely rare role for women to hold at the time.

Her husbands will was the first official document that had connected her name to the business and up until that point she did the brewery work chiefly to save her husband’s self-esteem, carry on his legacy and support her family.

Franklin was an alert observer of how credit could work for both the colony of Pennsylvania and the American republic, where currently the money paper issues were not backed by anything but patriotism and revolutionary psychology. He suggested paying for the war with paper credit, and chiefly owned and operated the printing of paper money itself.

Her plots have Malthusian/Ricardo economic theme:

No able-bodied person, however young, is entitled to public welfare without working for it. The workhouse system gives no real public return for the funds expended, and therefore tends to exhaust the public’s ability to support it pushing the middle class into economic and numerical decline.

Consistent theme in his novels: how society mistreats the poor, especially poor children.

Chimes: (1) Dickens’ presentation of how domineering authoritarianism denied the poor any comforts, such as food and marital companionship, and (2) how this denial was justified by statistical calculation of poor people’s “wastefulness.”

Dickens’ point: economic statisticians, like Malthus, has implanted in the public’s consciousness an unfair division between the “deserving” and the “undeserving” poor, the state is criminalizing the poor for being poor.

Dombey & Son - (1) Dombey teaches his son that money is power over other people.

Dickens also illustrates a themes that goes back to the Bible and Aristotle: wealth is what people choose to think it is or agree it is (also money is confidence, confidence is money) and the fictional and realistic probing into the “psychology of money”: how it generates anxiety and confidence, and how its power is both limited and limitless.