Robinson Crusoe: Capitalism Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe: Capitalism Robinson Crusoe was written in 1719 by Daniel Defoe and its intriguing protagonist has often been used as a symbol of individualism that led to the rise of capitalism. It is believed to be one of the early texts that dealt with the issue of capitalism and can rightly be termed as the cradle of capitalism. Robinson Crusoe leaves his family in his pursuit to do something different-something that was far moved from bourgeois suggestions of his father.

However ironically, he ends up doing just what his father wanted him to do i.e. make profit though in a much different manner. Capitalism refers to form of business where one continues to make profits if he uses resources carefully and treats them as sellable commodities. Even human beings, who are one of the resources applied on the business to make it grow, must be seen as nothing but commodity which should be used in a manner that enables the owner to extract maximum benefits.

Robinson Crusoe is no doubt an interesting, effective and complete example of budding capitalism because we notice Crusoe his relationships with humans rather nonchalantly and with the intent to use them for maximum profits. He is in many ways a person with imperialistic tendencies as he first buys a plantation and becomes immensely successful and even after 28 years away from business, he continues to make money-Thus proving the capitalism's core argument that money makes money if resources are used wisely.

The fact that Crusoe gets rid of his social ties early in life is indicative of his capitalistic nature. He believed that he did not need emotional ties to bind him to one geographical location or one specific profession. He thus breaks free of his family for purely classic reason of homo economicus i.e. To improve his economic condition. -- that it is necessary to better his economic condition.

"Something fatal in that propension of nature" forces him into a life of adventure and takes him away from boring life of "settling to business." Crusoe first starts as a plantation owner and there his relationship with a slave Xury is worth mentioning in connection with capitalism. Despite his claims of abhorring capitalistic bourgeois, Crusoe treats every resource in exactly the manner a capitalist would. Xury is a brave and loyal slave, yet Crusoe sells him to another trader as soon as an opportunity arises.

He doesn't dwell on relationships which indicate that Xury was simply seen as a commodity and not real human being. While we agree that Crusoe was reluctant to sell Xury and that latter had agreed to the terms determined by the Portuguese trader, yet the fact remains that Crusoe did not crave human company at all. Aristotle had once said that a man who doesn't require company and is self-sufficient for himself is either a beast or a god.

In this novel, we notice that Crusoe was behaving more like a capitalist beast when he shuns all company and still considers himself happy. During his 28 long years on the island where he is cast away after a shipwrecking misadventure, Crusoe continues to make profits by exploiting the resources available on the island. He doesn't really need the company of other people and this shows that he was essentially a materialistic person- someone who was happier with money alone and didn't care much about people.

"It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days"(Defoe 113). Out of fear essentially, Crusoe starts working on the island by using whatever resources were available and by producing them for his use. He works hard to produce some corn and barley on the island that he sees as a "prodigy of Nature" (Defoe 80).

These grains provide the sole livelihood for Crusoe and serve as the only real source of food. It is at this time that he realizes that all he needs to do is depend on himself for survival and views his misfortune as a blessing in disguise. He tells himself: "I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived" (Defoe 207) and that "I lived there.. perfectly and completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be formed in a sublunary state" (Defoe 217).

Crusoe's individualism, his excessively reliance on himself and his inability to value relationships are some of the key characteristics of a capitalist. Apart from this, excessive dependence on division of labor is also highlighted in the novel. While division of labor makes us more productive, it somehow takes away a sense of completeness from us as T.H. Green had observed: "In the progressive division of labor, while we become more useful as citizens, we seem to lose our completeness as.