This paper traces the transition from the biological old regime—a pre-industrial economy constrained by land capacity and agricultural output—to industrial capitalism between 1400 and 1900. It examines how population density, trade networks, and colonial expansion created conditions for the Industrial Revolution, and how industrialization enabled European dominance despite earlier Asian economic superiority. The paper argues that geography, timing, and military force allowed Western nations to accumulate wealth at the expense of colonized regions, resulting in global inequality and preventable famines in the third world.
The biological old regime describes the way people made their livelihoods and achieved their status through their interactions with the land. In the 1400s, the global population was about 350 million people, 80 percent of whom were peasants. This figure represents about 6 percent of the current global population of approximately 6 billion people. Between 1400 and 1800, the population doubled, reaching about 720 to 750 million people.
With so many people dependent on farming to make a living, producing crops for subsistence and selling the agricultural surplus to non-agricultural populations, growth was constrained. The amount of arable land available determined the productivity of the land, with both factors working in tandem to influence population size. People living on the land adapted to their environment, with population growth serving as an indicator of adaptive success.
The degree of intensification that could be accomplished was a function of the carrying capacity of the land. A critical difficulty emerges as population grows: while population increase may indicate successful adaptation to dependence on the land, populations can grow so rapidly that the land and the systems enabling people to benefit from it become overwhelmed. Eventually, the demands of the population cross over the capacity of the land to meet their collective needs. One way that population demands impact the land's capacity is through climate change. As the pre-modern population increased globally, new and more efficient methods of transportation enabled global trade networks to be established. New food crops and trade in agricultural commodities made different types of demands on the land, such as irrigation systems and concentrations of single crop types, which increased vulnerability to plant diseases.
Population patterns of density and dispersal are integral to concepts related to adaptability. In the 1400s, the most densely populated areas corresponded to civilizations considered highly developed—about 15 specific civilizations or areas are recognized in this group. Because of favorable attributes of particular regions, the population in the 1400s clustered on about 7 percent of the land, or 4.25 million square miles out of a total 60 million. Intriguingly, 70 percent of the 2003 global population still inhabits the same 7 percent of land. The most densely populated population centers were and are China, at 25 to 40 percent of the global population; Europe, at 25 percent; and India, at 20 percent.
The congregation of populations in disparate regions conditioned the opportunity for the development of a trading system. The systems that characterized the period after 1500 arose out of the old system; specialization, such as that which developed from new agricultural crops and methods, was associated with increased productivity and population growth. Marked inequality was shaped by factors such as access to and control of water, geography and negotiated access, and tribal affiliations and territorialism. Three dominant trade systems developed that established linkage and overlap driven fundamentally by population clusters and the influence of natural trade routes. North and West Africa linked with the Middle East and European systems; East Africa linked with the East Asia system. The Middle East, known as the Mongolian subsystem, includes central Asia, India, and the links between the eastern Mediterranean and Eurasia. The European subsystem consisted of the core areas of the Italian city-states. The East Asia subsystem included China, equatorial Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Malaysia—known as the Spice Islands.
Three primary trade routes developed to facilitate exchanges between the markets of these subsystems. The northern trade route was known as the Silk Road. The central trade route went from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. The southern trade route went from Cairo to the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
The new intense trade relations that developed from these early trade routes were part of three substantive developments that ushered in the new world of 1500 to 1775. Access to goods through trade and to raw materials through conquest supported the continued growth and vitality of empires. Sovereign states grew during this period and interstate war occurred in Europe. Competition through mercantilism heated up, and national economic development was favored in Europe. These factors played strongly in the emergence of the future global political order.
Compared to Asia, during the period from 1500 to 1800, Europe experienced a substantial competitive disadvantage. European regions suffered from less productive agriculture and from political fragmentation. Interstate warfare resulted in the consolidation of 500 states to just 30 states, and in substantial reduction of populations. Europe also experienced lower economic and manufacturing output. The production of porcelain, spices, stimulants, and textiles was roughly two-thirds of all global manufacturing output occurring in Asia at the time. Europeans focused on several appealing exports, such as fish, linen, meat, timber, and woolens.
The biological old regime resulted in limits to growth by the 1700s. The empires had become unstable, there was a shortage of land, and the militarization of European trade resulted in limits being placed on the ability of participants to engage in market specialization. The new world economy was associated with an altered balance of economic power between Asians and Europeans, essentially setting the stage for the Industrial Revolution—what is known as the time of coal and colonies.
The colonies produced riches in terms of agricultural commodities—cotton, sugar, and tobacco—which were the fruit of slave labor and the plantation system. The actions of colonists and traders resulted in substantial biological exchange known as the Columbian Exchange, which spread Old World and New World organisms, plants, and diseases. The purposes of these exchanges were biological (for scientific study), economic, nationalistic, and religious—expansion of empires, conversion of populations, and profit.
Mineral wealth, particularly gold and silver bullion amassed during interstate wars, enabled Europeans to participate in East Asian trade. In this way, Europeans were able to increase their wealth and power, even though they were cash-strapped from interstate wars and dependence on Asian imports that impacted the balance of trade. Mercantilism continued as the dominant capitalist ideology until the 1800s. Increasingly, states gained control of trade and saw the emergence of monopolistic charters for joint stock companies, such as the East India Company. Tariffs were levied on imported goods, which fostered local manufacturing and substituted for imports, and extraction of raw materials for self-sufficiency, which was important for colonialism. Industrialism ran parallel to interest in resources; military force was used to effectively compete for those resources, and imperial rivalry occurred.
The Industrial Revolution occurred roughly from 1750 to 1850 and marked the rise of the merchant, industrialist, and capital controller. Competition for the same limited resources eventually led to more labor-intensive agriculture and efforts to reduce importing. The industrialization of England and other countries was based largely on mechanisms and inventions that ultimately preserved land rather than reducing expended labor. Modern innovations are primarily labor-saving devices, but during the Industrial Revolution, technology was needed to increase output from the land in order to offset the dynamic in which population grows in response to innovation but eventually overwhelms available resources. In this way, the constraints of the biological old regime were overcome.
Coal served to reduce and finally discontinue reliance on forests (wood and charcoal) for the production of iron and steel. Coal became the primary energy source for industry. As colonies tended to serve, the New World colonies became sources of raw materials for manufacturing and sustenance. Cotton was the initial draw, followed by other minerals and inexpensive food for workers. Complex carbohydrates were replaced by sugar, and sugar became an agricultural focus in the colonies (Mintz 1985). The Great Dying of Native Americans changed the human landscape in a way that sociologists and anthropologists refer to as a peculiar periphery. Diminishing numbers of Native Americans and increasing numbers of Africans created a substantive transformation. From an economic standpoint, slavery in Africa produced commodities and agricultural exports, but food and clothing had to be imported to supply enslaved people.
Industrialization in Britain was influenced by global developments that included Chinese interest in raw materials such as silver and disparities between Asian and European capacities. Britain began to shake off the constraints of the biological old regime. Railroad expansion was the defining technology of the time, as it brought a lift to industry: railroads were used to haul iron, steel, and coal. Steam engines were used for mining and textile manufacturing; coal deposits to fuel them were readily accessible. In the New World, captive markets for manufacturing resulted from the Navigation and Stamp Acts.
The Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 saw English dominance in the European interstate arena. In India, the Mughal Empire declined and Britain dominated textile exports. Trade imbalance increased and India was essentially being de-industrialized by roughly 1820. Protective tariffs were removed on British textiles imported to India; free trade was enabled by colonial rule. Industrialization enabled British textiles to be produced less expensively, resulting in increased profits and more competitive products. As a result, Indian textile manufacturing failed, leaving millions of Indian weavers unemployed.
Many former Indian weavers became farmers, but colonial land taxes in Bengal created economic conditions that made the cultivation of cash crops necessary if farmers were to pay their taxes. Draconian "free trade" regulations were enforced by the British military, resulting in India experiencing arrested economic development—stuck in a cycle of trading valuable domestic raw materials for imported manufactured goods. Western countries benefited from geography and events that were as much coincidental as contingent. Some states and people were simply at the right time and place, existing at a nexus that enabled the accumulation of wealth and power and domination of other nations and economies.
"Manufactured famines and structural poverty in colonized regions"
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