European Merchant Class - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it. Note: nostalgia *is* allowed.
Forum rules: No one line posts please.
#15023376
SolarCross wrote:A. 1. The desire to earn a living, the same as any other people.

A. 2. Buy low, sell high. That is literally all there is to it. It is not rocket science.


But weren't people tied to the land and forbidden to migrate to towns?

I mean, before people were merchants, where did they come from, what class did they belong to?

And how do we account for why some societies like Scotland and low countries had so many merchants while others didn't?
#15023377
Political Interest wrote:But weren't people tied to the land and forbidden to migrate to towns?

I mean, before people were merchants, where did they come from, what class did they belong to?

And how do we account for why some societies like Scotland and low countries had so many merchants while others didn't?

There have been merchants since neolithic times. If you are thinking of modern fantasies about serfdom, you should know serfdom in western europe only lasted two centuries. It replaced slavery and only a tiny minority of the population were slaves. Don't you wonder what everyone else was doing who wasn't a slave or a soldier?
#15023388
SolarCross wrote:There have been merchants since neolithic times. If you are thinking of modern fantasies about serfdom, you should know serfdom in western europe only lasted two centuries. It replaced slavery and only a tiny minority of the population were slaves. Don't you wonder what everyone else was doing who wasn't a slave or a soldier?


Oh I see. Thank you for explaining this.

Did the merchant class evolve into the bourgeoisie?

And the peasants and soldiers became the proletariat?

Because I seem to notice a pattern that the most capitalist or liberal countries were also the ones with the biggest mercantile traditions.
#15023425
Political Interest wrote:Oh I see. Thank you for explaining this.

I like the subject matter so thanks for asking the question.

Political Interest wrote:Did the merchant class evolve into the bourgeoisie?

I suppose they are virtual synonyms. Bourgeoisie is frenchy word for town dweller, like Burgher is in German. Towns grow up around market places and markets are staffed and visited by merchants. Consequently a town-dweller is stereo-typically a merchant.

Political Interest wrote:And the peasants and soldiers became the proletariat?

By soldiers I was thinking professional military types which would be knights and lords rather than the incidental levies which they might raise from civilians such as peasants and "proletariat".

A peasant is a rural person, stereo-typically a farmer or farm worker but also game-keepers etc. I guess if a rural person moves to the city and gets a job in a smithy or something like that you could class him as a proletariat if you enjoy that sort of thing.

Political Interest wrote:Because I seem to notice a pattern that the most capitalist or liberal countries were also the ones with the biggest mercantile traditions.


Everything builds off of food surpluses. Without food surpluses there is no free labour to do other things and to support urban life. When you have food surpluses you can have towns and when you have towns you have an environment split between rural spheres which produce food and consume goods and urban areas which consume food and produce goods. To facilitate the trade between town and country there will be a niche for merchants who buy from one to sell to the other.

Moving on to the next misuse of language that sho[…]

@JohnRawls What if your assumption is wrong??? […]

Israel-Palestinian War 2023

Only Zionists believe that bollocks and you lot ar[…]

There is no reason to have a state at all unless w[…]