[Namsan Ddalggakbari] The History of Capitalism's Global Value 'Underpricing'... 'A World History of Affordable Things'

600 Years of Capitalism That Undermined the Value of Environment, Labor, and Culture
The Price of Simultaneous Undermining... Production-Consumption-Reproduction Cycle Impossible to Repeat

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The origin of capitalism is the Industrial Revolution in England. The trinity of coal, steam engines, and railroads built a vast capital market alongside enormous surplus productivity, and astonishing technological advancements continuously pioneered new markets, driving the massive wheels of history.

The textbook narrative of capitalism's global conquest is grandiose in this way. However, paradoxically, this perspective does not deviate at all from the social evolution theory advocated by Karl Marx (1818?1883).

"A World History of Cheap Things" is a book that steps away from grand social evolution theories to tell the inner story of capitalism more honestly and plainly. The roots of capitalist history explained in the book go back about 400 years earlier than what textbooks describe. It goes back to the 14th century, a dark and ignorant era when witch hunts and crusades still raged in Europe, before coal, steam engines, and railroads existed.

Why the 14th century? At the end of the 14th century, a global climatic disaster called the Little Ice Age suddenly struck. The whole world began to freeze, and agricultural production sharply declined. To make matters worse, the unheard-of pandemic, the Black Death, which had no cure or vaccine, claimed the lives of half of Europe's population. This completely dismantled the leisurely and pastoral order of the Middle Ages. In a desperate struggle to escape the living hell that Europe had become, Europeans began sailing out to distant seas.

When Europeans went out to sea, they were fortunate to discover the Americas and the islands of the Caribbean in the 15th century. These lands were perfect soil for cultivating sugarcane, which was traded at gold prices in Europe and the Middle East. Capitalism was born on the American sugarcane plantations. Until then, there were no countries, laws, or religions known to Europeans as barriers there. Only greed to make a quick fortune and return home existed. European conquerors began by drastically cutting the unit price of everything before them for a quick profit.

To cultivate sugarcane fields, they burned down jungles. They brought Black slaves from Africa and spread them massively across the Americas. They even engaged in slave breeding, creating a new human race by crossing docile Native American slaves, physically strong white slaves, and heat-resistant, enduring Black slaves. This gave rise to the mixed-race population that now occupies most of Latin America.

The American sugarcane business gradually prospered. Until then, sugar was so precious that even kings of various countries needed years of time, effort, and money to obtain just 1 kg. Once people got accustomed to sweetness, they wanted more sugar. Demand kept expanding. Profits were substantial. European merchants jointly invested and continuously dispatched expeditions. The triangular trade combining European capital, American soil, and African labor was thus born.

The early colonial system of the Age of Exploration solidified into a new system called capitalism and was re-imported into Europe. Capitalism began to break even the feudal system that had supported kings, nobles, and clergy for a thousand years during the Middle Ages. It produced raw materials through environmental destruction and pulled laborers tied to the lord’s manor into low-wage workers. The goods produced this way were sold over wide areas. The repetitive cycle of production-consumption-reproduction revealed capitalism’s true face.

Europeans themselves underwent many changes due to the waves of capitalism. Previously, European society, like the Islamic civilization in the Middle East, had a strong belief in monotheism. However, after waging crusades for over 200 years, the weight of faith in European society became infinitely light. War degenerated into an industry conducted only when profitable.

The family, the foundation of labor, also began to be reorganized according to the logic of capital. Amid waves of urbanization and nuclear family formation, the traditional European extended family system based on agrarian society was thoroughly dismantled. The patriarch with unlimited authority emerged at this time. Women, who had been mobilized for all labor equally with men until the Middle Ages, were confined within the home. Women’s lives were distorted into producing and managing superior human labor resources to serve the capitalist system.

"A World History of Cheap Things" focuses on exposing the ugly true nature of capitalism. It warns that the environmental and human rights issues that have been exploited by cutting costs have reached their limits. It signals that the debts to be paid all at once have arrived. The infinite repetition of production-consumption-reproduction, the foundation of the capitalist system, has now become impossible as nature is destroyed and the population has exceeded sustainable limits.

The author insists that beyond simple calls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and install solar panels, the global ecosystem must be restored. All issues that capitalism has grown by exploiting?indigenous peoples, local cultures, nature, women, labor?must be viewed organically, and fair distribution of resources is essential to eliminate discrimination.

Tracing back 600 years from the late Middle Ages, the conclusion is nothing more than a general moral discourse. However, it is meaningful in that it guides readers to awareness of problems by meticulously pointing out capitalism’s true face and its issues.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.