Economics Class Notes, 10/06/2009

Class Notes, Economics 10/06/2009

1. Margaret Thatcher, privatization, deregulation, Anti-Communism, Miner’s strike
2. high unemployment under Thatcher
3. Thatcher broke up miner’s strikes
4. hated by the general public
5. 

Rome
1. imported wheat, metals, luxury goods, labor supply
2. export: Roman law & government
3. better off to manufacture domestically?

Rome’s elite
1. agriculture
2. war
3. politics

Classes
1. elite: large villas in lovely climates, stressed?
2. traders, did well in 1st two centuries AD. Later: couldn’t trade without security
3. peasants, step above slaves, living conditions worsened, became little more than slaves
4. soldiers: veterans got land, well off? 
5. slaves, had some opportunities during prosperous times
6. craftsman, faced a lot of competition from imports

Freedom
1. time on the cross
2. one kind of freedom

Infrastructure
1. roads/transportation: was empire beneficial?

European Union
1. national sovereignty can be undercut

Read: Hobson, preface, Ch. I & II

History Of Mercantilism
1. Economics in perspective
2. mercantilism: end of “merchants,”
3. merchant cities 
4. voyages of discovery
5. inflation is a good thing for business
6. rise of the nation state, symbiotic relationship between state & merchants
7. focus on foreign trade, monopoly & an accumulation of gold
8. nations wanted a positive balance of trade to build up their gold supplies
9. Adam Smith criticized mercantilism 
10. prices are lower without monopolies, 
11. protectionist policies (tariffs, customs duties) Adam: pro-protectionism, create employment for you 
12. free trade assumes full employment

USA: Colony for mercantilist Britain
1. economic self-sufficiency for Great Britain: don’t have to import for others. Ex. iron, naval supplies
2. generate export earnings from outsiders-tobacco
3. market for colonizer products, no iron foundries
4. acts of trade & navigation