History Repeats ItselfHistory repeats itself. This concept applies not only within the realmof a singular nation’s history but throughout and between nations. That is tosay, that what one nation endures, throughout its economic and political history,may be compared to and be strikingly similar to that of many other nations. Aswe analyze social change thought the world we have noticed a cyclical pattern ofhistories, both economic and political, in the countries of Spain, Holland,Britain, and the United States.
I.Historical Periodization:Throughout history and during alternating time periods, countries havegrown from feeble entities, defeated by or ruled by the governing structures offoreign nations, to powerful nations. Between the fifteenth and the sixteenthcentury, SPAIN ruled as a great power among other nations. Its empire beganwhen, in 1492, Spain financed Columbus’s expeditions and explorations to conquerterritory in the New World. Once it held its new established territory, Spainrelied on the influx of gold and silver from the New World. Spain was the firstcountry to start an empire and consequently started a trend. Once HOLLANDgained their independence from Spanish rule, at the beginning of the seventeenthcentury, it moved on to become a great power. Holland had relied on seafaringand the economic success of Amsterdam until around 1620. “By mid-century,however, they had used their technical sophistication and control of vital rawcommodities to build successful industries . . . and supported by Holland’sbourgeois virtues, trading preeminence and credit, Dutch manufactures soondominated a number of European markets” (BP 198). Holland remained in poweruntil its decline began in the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1750, theDutch started losing European markets but continued as the number one marketcountry in Europe. The British moved in where the Dutch had been. GREATBRITAIN reached great heights in the middle of the eighteenth century. Startingout as the home of the Industrial Revolution, Britain was considered theworkshop of the world. However, by the 1890’s Britain was losing ground in theglobal market of manufacturing, specifically to the United States and Germany.
The UNITED STATES, is the youngest of the nations studied in this essay, whichbecame a major power at the end of World War I, and since then has experiencedboth increases and declines in power. Since the 1920’s until present day TheUnited States has moved from an agricultural society to an industrial society asmany moved from the rural areas into the urban areas and the cities.
II.Geographic Scope:When it was an empire, SPAIN had control over many countries, includingSouth America, Mexico, Latin America, and the Philippines. Not only did Spainconquer new land during its zenith, but it combined much of Europe under onerule as the Hapsburg Empire when it united the crowns of Castile, Leon, andAragon. “Besides opening much of America, sixteenth-century Spain was alsoruling a Hapsburg empire that extended beyond the Iberian Peninsula to Flanders,Germany, Austria and Italy,” during its rapid internationalization (BP 216).
After the union of the Spanish crowns and the rise of the Hapsburg Empire,Madrid experienced a major increase in its population, as what often occurs whena new world political capital comes into existence. “The new imperial capitalmushroomed from a population of 4,000 in 1530 to 35,000 in 1594 and at least100,000 in the mid-1600’s before fading again when the great days were over” (AC31). While the Dutch was in war with Spain it accepted various kinds ofpeople,such as the Jews and the Huguenots, and eventually acquired a vast empire.
Although HOLLANDS realm was comparably smaller to that of Spains, its domainincluded the United Provinces, New York, New Amsterdam, and the East Indies.
“The purest governmental culture was in the Hague, which, after quadrupling itspopulation, was the only major Dutch city to continue growing during thenation’s decline in the mid- and late-eighteenth century” (AC 64). The empireof GREAT BRITAIN is unparalleled by any other in that it encompassed one fourthof the world. Its numerous English-speaking colonies, which come from aroundthe world, include Canada, British Australia, India, and New Zealand. The Realmof the UNITED STATES is vast and was acquired when the land on the continent wastaken from the Native Americans and redistributed.
III.Impact of The Political Order on The Economic Order:IV.
A political order is composed of those institutions within which peoplegain, wield and influence distributions of power and an economic order iscomposed of those institutions within which people organize land, labor, andcapital for the production and distribution of goods and services (Flint). “Innations, the political and economic aging processes are not the same and do notgo at the same pace. Great economic powers have often grown in waves–earlyemphasis on agriculture, shipbuilding, fishing, or mining, then a move tomanufacturing, then a shift from manufacturing to financial services” (AC 21-22).
“A significant part of what overtook each of these nations was the emergence offinance, debt and an investor or rentier class within their respectivesocieties,as the boureois emphasis on manufacturing and trade diminished” (BP203). Manufacturing potential was undercut when an influx of Gold and Silverfrom the New World bombarded SPAIN in the sixteenth century. As its wealthsteadily increased, Spain relied on other countries to produce the goods itneeded and caused it to lose sight of hard work. Spain went from beingsupportive to parasitic as “reformers in early seventeenth–century Madrid putthe ratio of parasites to actual productive workers as high as 30:1” (AC 39).
In the end, “narrow monetary wealth, irresponsible finance and an indolentrentier class were important in the decline that was taking hold in Spain onehundred to one hundred fifty years after Columbus’s voyages” (BP 205). Due toits thrify methods HOLLAND quickly emerged as a center of world commerce.
Engineering, manufacturing, and fishing industries gave way to ever increasingexport markets and financial institutions that dominated the European market.
However, this disrupted the economic and social polarization. Foreigninvestments, such as the East India Company, took capitol away from Holland anddid little to ameliorate its unemployment problems. Hollands financialization,like that of Great Britain, caused it to go from supportive to parasitic, aswell. As a result of its Industrial Revolution, GREAT BRITAIN dominated thesteel and textile industries and its merchant marines was the largest in theworld. As it accomplished its world wide trade and manufacturing climax itwitnessed the appearance of a considerable rentier class. Britain, too followedits predecessors and as its yearly foreign investments increased it turned tostocks and shares as opposed to an earned income. Most of its capitol wasinvested overseas in countries that competed with Britain. Britainsfinancialization did not cause London to lose its place as the center of worldcommerce and in fact, “it was not transformed into a governmental parasitecomplex” (AC 64). After World War II, “the annual figures nominally returned toprewar levels, but adjusted to inflation they were much lower- and Britain alsostaggered under the weight of $13 billion of new external liabilities” (BP 208).
Between 1790 and 1990 The UNITED STATES transformed from an agricultural to anindustrial to a financial society. Most recently, the United States hasdisregarded its manufacturing industries, eliminating many jobs, and reliedupon financialization, which unfortunately, only benefits a small elite.
Moreover, overseas investments cost the United States citizens their jobs andincreases economic polarization.
V.Optional:VI.Households and Social Stratification:All of the aforementioned countries had fell “from their middle-classzeniths when manufacturing, trade, nationalism and bourgeois spirit gave way to”financialization”– the cumulating influence of finance, government debt,unearned income, rentiers, overseas investments, domestic economic polarizationand social stratification” (BP 193-194). By the early 1600’s SPAINS economy hadpolarized when the gold from Mexico and Peru ran out. The middle class thatexisted in Spain was very small as the polarization resulted in basically asolely elitist and peasant society. With concern about the defeat of theSpanish Armada, a plague, and failed harvests, Spains economic reformersattempted to “rebuild manufacturing and the middle class while cuttinggovernment jobs and dispersing the parasites of the court” (AC 84). HOLLAND’Sfinancialization brought about both economic and social polarization. “As forthe Dutch, their mid–eighteenth century ruling cliques were confronted by amovement called the Patriots, which attacked nepotism, corruption, and moraldecay and called for a full return to old liberties and values” (AC 92). Themiddle class ordinary folk of both Spain and Holland were left with nothing fromtheir country’s zenith. As financialization occurred in GREAT BRITAIN the gapbetween the middle class and the rich increased. The middle class in Britaindeteriorated as the manufacturing declined and the wages decreased. During the1890’s the average family’s purchasing power was entering a two-decade period ofstagnation or decline while the financial sector boomed and the rich grew everricher” (AC 82). During World War I, manufacturing boomed again but oncepostwar reality set in British manufacturing began to decline again. In GreatBritain polarization was reversed by redistribution of income, socialism, andwelfarism. This benefited the middle and lower–middle class citizens but hurtthe elite. In the UNITED STATES at the end of the “Roaring Twenties”, when thestock market crashed, the major financial institutions were left to fail and dieout. When the bubble of the 1980’s burst, however, the United States governmentbailed out the companies and caused the country to go into economic decline,deficit, and ruin the budget. The “Roaring Twenties”, and the “Anxious 1980’s”are examples of rises and later declines of economic and political prosperityand power. Decline in the United States is occurring on both an economic andsocial level. America has witnessed a rapid centralization at the seat offederal power and a capital more influenced by interest groups than by voters.
“Imperial capitals don’t become notorious until they display wealth and developserious, parasitic elites, not true of Washington until it came of age in thelate 1960’s and 1970’s” (AC 29). “There is no point in mincing words. Aginggreat-power capitals often become parasitic cultures”(AC xix).
