Thomas_More
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Type “Ukraine war” on Google and one gets UK propaganda. Type it on Russian outlets and one gets Russian propaganda. Type it on Indian outlets and one gets hysterical fear-inducing sensationalism.
Isn’t it time the SPGB gave a correct update, explaining:
1) Why Europe is frantically backing Ukraine and inviting a wider war.
2) Why it is taking Russia so long to defeat Kiev.
3) What is the capitalist logic here on the NATO side?
Europe inviting war more and more.
In China capitalism was also developing during the Sung dynasty – before halted by the Mongol conquest.
Before protestantism.
(Google): ” Medieval capitalism emerged between the 12th and 14th centuries as a shift from feudal self-sufficiency to market-based trade, centered in rapidly growing cities. It was characterized by early merchant capitalism, capital accumulation, and banking. This period saw the rise of a “merchant class” specializing in trade, property speculation, and the beginnings of wage labor.
Alliance Manchester Business School
Alliance Manchester Business School
+4
Key components of the development of medieval capitalism include:
Urban Growth and Trade: Markets expanded beyond subsistence, with cities developing as hubs for manufacturing, banking, and trade, particularly in cloth, metals, and agricultural goods.
The Guild System: Artisans in towns formed guilds to regulate production, set prices, and control quality, which for a time regulated the market before capitalist expansion began to break them down.
Financial Innovation: From the 13th to 16th centuries, the rise of a monetary economy brought the establishment of banks and the widespread use of credit.
Property Rights: A formal, legal system for buying and selling property developed, which was crucial for capitalist expansion, especially in towns where “burgess” landowners operated, as mentioned in.
The Rise of Commercialism: The 13th century in particular saw high levels of commercialism, particularly in England, which included property speculation.
The Decline of Feudalism: The 14th-century crisis (famine, Black Death) disrupted the traditional manorial, or feudal, system. This facilitated a shift towards a more market-driven economy, as described in.
Merchant Capitalism: Early forms of merchant capitalism were apparent as early as the 9th century in the Islamic world and by the 12th century in Europe, leading to the development of early wage labor.
“Compassionate” Capitalism: In some places, such as 13th-century Cambridge, wealth generated by early commerce was often reinvested into the local community (e.g., in church and charity projects).
Impact of the Black Death: The crisis of the 14th century, which included the Black Death, undermined the feudal system, which then opened up opportunities for capitalist development.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
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In essence, medieval capitalism was an early form of commercialism, which was eventually superseded by a more market-oriented system following the crises of the 14th century. ”
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
+3There is a stubbornness among Marxists which leads them to ignore advances in historical knowledge that don’t accord with their strict 19th and early 20th century bourgeois progressivism.
The “obscurity of the Middle Ages” reveals this prejudice, and the prejudice ignores argument and evidence when it is presented.
This is their own wilful obscurantism. Let nothing interfere with one’s outdated narratives.
(Good job William Morris wasn’t one of those type of Marxists!)I take it you never learned of the 12th century renaissance? Nor of the many women literati who thrived then, before the 15th century “Renaissance” crushed such expressionism and invented witch-burning.
I recommend the writings of the late Terry Jones and other modern medievalist historians, as well as primary sources and the lights of Persia and Arabia too. The Silk Road of the 12th and 13th centuries took many travellers too in both directions between the Far East and Europe and into Africa; European travellers with humility and respect, not the colonial, conquering, bigoted braggarts of later “more enlightened” centuries.
Obscurity indeed!
The Puritans were also a tiny minority of the English population during and after the Civil War.
Most English folk continued to follow the rites of the banned Anglican Church in their homes. Catholics used theirs.Had any of the great French Enlightenment Encyclopédistes lived beyond 1791, they would have been guillotined, or torn to shreds by Danton’s thugs.
Definitely the breaking of the royal monopoly in England was of benefit to those capitalists of the ports and towns heavily invested in foreign trade, including spices and slaves. It is wrong to call it the English Revolution, as if it stood alone. It was a political, economic and financial victory for the urban bourgeoisie over the Henrician (still capitalist) aristocracy whose interests lay with the monarch. The English Revolution had begun with the decimation of population brought by the Black Death and then a century later by the victory of Henry VII at Bosworth, continuing through the turmoil of the 16th century enclosures and further consolidation of central state power. The civil war was part of the process of revolution. It did not stand alone and the revolution was not completed until the final settlement of 1688.
As for France and the Wars of Religion, you seem to think that all the bourgeoisie were Huguenots. This would fit with your over-simplistic view of Catholic = feudal and Protestant = bourgeoisie. There is no doubt that Calvinism’s appeal was to the bourgeoisie, but nobles also supported Henri IV, a eulogy to whom became the state anthem of the Kingdom of France for the next 200 years.
No doubt the Wars of Religion did, by their disruptive nature, delay things in France, supposing, as your anglocentrism would have it, that England is the yardstick of social development which all must have necessarily followed; but France followed Henri’s victory with a century of state and church centralisation, cowering its regional feudals into compliance, and further establishing itself as a world power.As to the 18th century Enlightenment, I could quote the French Revolution’s most famous spokesman, Robespierre, with regard to a scientist he sent to the guillotine, “The Revolution has no need of scientists!” Likewise of poets (Chenier), philosophers (Sade), fellow revolutionaries (Tom Paine), &c., all condemned to die.
https://share.google/2JGZbEx7xecRAEI42 Dark Ages An Age of Light.
Life wasn’t in limbo for a millenium, waiting for protestantism and capitalism to give people reasons to live.
Google: ” The “Brilliant” or “Bright” Middle Ages (approx. 11th–14th centuries) refer to a vibrant, transformative era often overshadowed by the “Dark Ages” myth. It was characterized by intellectual rebirth, including the birth of universities, Gothic architecture, flourishing art, and significant technological innovations like eyeglasses, mechanical clocks, and printing.
English Heritage
English Heritage
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Key Aspects of the “Brilliant” Middle Ages:
The 12th-Century Renaissance: Far from being intellectually stagnant, this period saw a massive influx of classical learning. Works by Aristotle and other Greek thinkers were re-introduced to Europe through translation, often via Arab scholars, sparking philosophical debates.
The Rise of Universities: Knowledge moved from purely monastic settings to city schools, leading to the establishment of the first universities, including Bologna, Oxford, and Paris, which created a new class of intellectuals.
Invention and Innovation: Medieval ingenuity produced lasting technology, including mechanical clocks, spectacles, improved agricultural techniques, advancements in shipbuilding, and the introduction of paper, culminating in the printing press in the 1430s.
Artistic and Architectural Splendor: Gothic cathedrals arose across Europe, featuring innovative architecture (flying buttresses, stained glass) that combined religious devotion with engineering prowess.
Cultural Flourishing: Literature flourished in vernacular languages, moving beyond Latin to produce epic poetry like The Song of Roland, courtly romances, and later, masterworks like Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Urban Expansion: The High Middle Ages experienced economic growth, trade expansion, and the resurgence of cities, fostering a growing bourgeoisie or middle class, particularly in Italy and France.
catholic-link.org
catholic-link.org
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Key Periods of High Medieval Brilliance:
The High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1300): A period of stability, population growth, and the peak of the medieval “renaissance”.
The Norman Influence: The 11th century brought expansion and cultural exchange, from the Norman Conquest of England to connections with Sicily and the Mediterranean.
YouTube
YouTube
+4
Far from being dark, this era was a dynamic bridge that laid the foundations for the modern world through intellectual curiosity, artistic experimentation, and social change.
BBC
BBC
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Did You Know That the Middle Ages Were in Fact “Brilliant”? 8 …I don’t admire the “work ethic” and I don’t admire the bourgeoisie. Centuries since the Renaissance have pushed the narrative of the Renaissance and capitalism saving mankind from useless “medieval” (“a period of intermission”) centuries, but historians have learned much since that exposes this bourgeois progressivist narrative as false.
Protestant work ethic getting people doing things? Hadn’t people always been doing things? Doesn’t he mean robbing them to make them propertyless so that they have no option but to sell you their labour power?
The old clichéd view that it took capitalism to shock people alive and active and to wake from centuries of “medieval stagnation” is bourgeois crap.
Capitalism had been present a long time in the Catholic Mediterranean in a nascent form. Its birthplace was there.
Capitalism continued to grow in Catholic countries as well as Protestant, and the Catholic Church organised its own Reformation equipping it for a changing society.
