“Hardly a peaceful prospect, any of this. Nobody wanted this commercialization of life. How bitterly it was resisted can be appreciated only if we take one last journey back to watch the economic revolution taking place.
We are back in France; the year, 1666.
The capitals of the day face a disturbing challenge that the widening market mechanism has inevitably brought in its wake: change.” (Heilbroner, 1972, p. 26)
“The new philosophy brought with it a new social problem: how to keep the poor poor. It was generally admitted that unless the poor were poor, they could not be counted upon to do an honest day’s toil without asking for exorbitant wages. “To make the Society Happy…, It is requisite that the great number should be Ignorant as well as Poor,” wrote Bernard Mandeville, The shrewdest and wickedest social commentator of the early 18th century.” (Ibid., p. 37)
“The outstanding discovery of recent historical and anthropological research is that man’s economy, as a rule, is submerged and his social relationships. He does not act so as to safeguard his individual interest in the possession of material goods; he acts so as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, his social assets. He values materials goods only in so far as they serve this end. Neither the process of production nor that of distribution is linked to specific economic interests attached to the possession of goods; but every single step in that process is geared to a number of social interest which eventually ensure that the required steps be taken.” (Polanyi, 1957, p. 46)
Photo of UBC 2014 stage production of Twefth Night
“But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and shew them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them.” (Smith, 1776, p. 14)
Untitled poem, Anon., (n.d.)