Work and the Economy - The Agricultural Revolution (SOCI 1306)

Work and the Economy SOCI 1306 The Agricultural Revolution The first real economies emerged with the introduction of agriculture and animal domestication. Research suggests that agriculture started independently and at different dates in numerous locations around the world, however archaeologists are still somewhat divided over the precise chronology. About 11,000–10,000 years ago, in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, agriculture first appeared. The valleys of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Indus rivers in China and India came next, dating from 10,000 to 9,000 years ago. In contrast to Sub-Saharan Africa, where farming began between 5,000 and 4,000 years ago, the highland inhabitants of New Guinea established agriculture between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago. Between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago, agriculture began to emerge in what would eventually become the eastern United States, central Mexico, and northern South America. Agriculture emerged later in the western hemisphere (Diamond 2003). A pointed stick was used in the early days of agriculture to break up the soil, but it really took off when people harnessed animals to draw a plough, an even more effective instrument for the same purpose. One family might cultivate enough food with this new technology to feed both themselves and others. The knowledge that crops needed to be cared for would yield an abundance of food annually encouraged people to give up their nomadic lifestyle as hunter-gatherers and settle down to farm. Not everyone needed to spend their entire day labouring in the fields because food production was now more efficiently done. Along with the growth of agriculture came new technology and occupations. It was necessary to handle, transport, preserve, and store excess harvests. Irrigation systems and farming equipment required to be constructed and maintained. Herds needed to be managed and wild animals needed to be domesticated. People had things and services to trade, therefore economies started to grow. Farmers eventually began to work for the ruling elite at the same time. Villages developed into towns, and then became cities, as more people focused on non-farming occupations. Public workers and administrators were needed in urban areas. The necessity for laws, courts, judges, clerks, attorneys, and police to administer and execute the laws originated from disputes over ownership, payments, debts, damages, and other matters. Originally, the majority of commodities and services were exchanged between small social groups as presents or through bartering (Mauss 1922). Bartering is the exchange of one kind of item or service for another. This arrangement only functions when two people coincidentally possess something that the other needs. People came up with the concept of money as a constant medium of trade in order to address this issue. An item that a community decides to give a value so that it may be traded for payment is referred to as money. Early societies sometimes used items like rice, barley, cowry shells, or even rum as currency. Because precious metals are portable and long-lasting, they rapidly became the favoured medium of trade in many societies. Around 650–600 BCE, Lydia, in what is now Turkey, produced the first coins (Goldsborough 2010). The value of money and the exchange rates for different commodities were defined by early law codes. In addition, they created the laws governing inheritance, the imposition of fines as criminal punishments, and the distribution and taxation of property (Horne, 1915). Money and bartering are two examples of symbolic trade systems, according to a symbolic interactionist. The symbolic value that monetary items acquired has persisted into our contemporary usage of cash, cheques, and debit cards. Their economy increased when citystates developed into nations and nations into empires. Large empires' economy disintegrated along with them. The goal of the governments of recently established countries was to expand and safeguard their markets. They provided funding for exploration expeditions to locate untapped resources and markets throughout the globe, which sped up the process of economic growth. These markets were guarded by colonies, and land was taken over by funded wars. A portion of the money needed for these endeavours came from investors who received payment for the commodities they purchased. Large trading businesses were also established by governments and private individuals, who used the proceeds from the sale of stocks and bonds to support their global endeavours. Governments created the mercantilist system in an effort to maintain their market dominance. Mercantilism is an economic theory that centres on acquiring gold and silver via the use of taxes and other levies to control foreign and colonial markets. Excessive demands and restrictive policies followed, such as monopolies, high tariffs, prohibitions on certain commodities, and exclusivity restrictions. In addition to encouraging manufacturing, mercantilist governments were able to finance scientific advancements, which enabled them to contribute to the development of the machinery that sparked the Industrial Revolution.