World Economic System - Mercantilism and Laises Faire & Malthus Population Theory — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:02Good morning everybody.
- 0:05I welcome you to another fascinating
- 0:08class of our HSS
- 0:11104
- 0:12introduction to economic history.
- 0:16So in this class we'll be discussing
- 0:20we having two combining two topics today
- 0:24as we've always done because we have
- 0:27quite a lot to cover and the time is not
- 0:30really on our side. So today we want to
- 0:33try to explore world economic system
- 0:36one. Do you remember that we mentioned
- 0:39that we'll be taking world economic
- 0:42system in two phases. World economic
- 0:44system one which will cover mechanalism
- 0:48and laser sphere. Then maybe next week
- 0:52or part week we'll look at world
- 0:53economic system two where we look at
- 0:56capitalism, socialism, mixed economy and
- 0:59so on. So so but today what we want to
- 1:01do today is to explore world economic
- 1:04system one. All right. Then we also
- 1:07consider another interesting topic which
- 1:10is uh
- 1:12mus population theory. So this would
- 1:16enable us to understand to have a
- 1:18understanding of what how population
- 1:22growth all right economic systems are
- 1:26actually interconnected. And so the
- 1:28purpose of this uh course topic is per
- 1:32perhaps for us to be able to understand
- 1:34and describe what economic system is all
- 1:37about and perhaps show through the
- 1:39attribute of economic system and its
- 1:43uh capacity in transforming or shaping
- 1:45productive activities in different
- 1:47society. So it will enable us to be able
- 1:51to classify the main features of each
- 1:53economic system for us to understand
- 1:55what kind of economic system is country
- 1:58A is practicing and what kind of
- 2:01economic system is country B or C
- 2:04adopting. So the overarching objective
- 2:08of course is to make uh to to make
- 2:10everyone familiar with the concept of
- 2:12economic system and its various types
- 2:16its ramifications and applications in
- 2:19different context. So the specific
- 2:21objective is to enable you to understand
- 2:24the
- 2:26uh the significant points like what is
- 2:28economic system and its imperative. All
- 2:31right to understand types of economic
- 2:34system to understand the argument the
- 2:38advantage all right and disadvantage
- 2:40that is the merit or specific economic
- 2:43systems and the merit of each economic
- 2:46systems then to look at its application
- 2:49there are various applications in
- 2:51various context right so we'll start by
- 2:55defining before we go into the substance
- 2:58main substance such as considering
- 3:01mechan
- 3:01and laserosphere we will try to first
- 3:04define economic system. What is economic
- 3:07system? All right. So it is important
- 3:09for us to first be able to conceptualize
- 3:13a particular idea or know uh concept
- 3:17that we want to interrogate for us to
- 3:19have a robust understanding or
- 3:21engagement with it. So economic system
- 3:24can be defined or described as the way
- 3:27uh the ways in which different societies
- 3:29obtain their daily needs such as food,
- 3:33such as uh productive activities, goods
- 3:36and services. All right. So it is a
- 3:39system also in which uh through which
- 3:42societies arrange organize all right for
- 3:46producting for for providing their
- 3:49material needs. So it is the way in
- 3:50which every society cater for the social
- 3:54no necessities of life. All right. Such
- 3:57as employment,
- 3:59such as economic no activities,
- 4:02productivity,
- 4:03no distribution of goods and services,
- 4:06the kind of ways in which even
- 4:09consumption.
- 4:11So economic system
- 4:14is a method adopted mostly by
- 4:18a state or an economic unit or a block.
- 4:22All right? A kind of like okay maybe you
- 4:25say western Europe. All right. They have
- 4:27a particular economic system that they
- 4:29adopt or in the past we used to say
- 4:31Soviet Union. The Soviet Union which has
- 4:34its own economic ideology it operated
- 4:37which was basically socialism. No. No.
- 4:40and the blend of communism. All right.
- 4:43So in western Europe those are
- 4:46practicing neoliberal no policies. All
- 4:48right. Capitalism those are issues we
- 4:50are going to interrogate. So economic
- 4:53system is a method adopted by state or
- 4:56an economic unit or a block an
- 4:59assemblage of no countries
- 5:02right in the production and distribution
- 5:04of their goods and services. All right.
- 5:06So this is also can be explained. No, it
- 5:09will also include how
- 5:12people in their social and political
- 5:15affairs, no achieve a fair and a just
- 5:19society. It also speaks about how
- 5:22society distribute or redistribute the
- 5:26available resources in each society such
- 5:30as land, such as capital, right? The
- 5:35wealth of a nation. I believe most of
- 5:38you must have done econ basic economics
- 5:40in secondary school and you have you
- 5:43must have know read or been told about
- 5:46the classic work by Adam Smith. All
- 5:49right. An inquiry into the nature and
- 5:51wealth of nations. All right. Which know
- 5:54speaks about the ways or manner in which
- 5:58national resources are utilized. All
- 6:02right. for to achieve efficiency to
- 6:04achieve economic growth and development.
- 6:07So economic system
- 6:10know is about how uh it describes a set
- 6:14of rules or arrangement by which
- 6:17societies determine what shall be
- 6:19produced, how they shall be produced uh
- 6:23for whom they are produced. Okay. So it
- 6:27helps in a way to help to organize the
- 6:31society in a way to achieve some kind of
- 6:34equity perhaps not equality equity so
- 6:38that there's fairness some groups are
- 6:40not largely contented or well fulfilled
- 6:44while some groups are marginalized or
- 6:47neglected. So that is to say that it
- 6:50helps to shape the productive system of
- 6:54each country. So you can also say the
- 6:56economic system is a method of
- 6:58coordinating economic activities such as
- 7:01production, distribution in a particular
- 7:04domain. So it is uh the system adopted
- 7:07by government mostly in planning in
- 7:10organization and distribution. So
- 7:13countries don't just produce, countries
- 7:16don't just exist, countries don't just
- 7:18develop. The historical trajectory of
- 7:22each country in the world today is
- 7:25determined or shaped all right by the
- 7:28economic systems that characterize that
- 7:31society. What kind of economic systems
- 7:34know characterizes the uh the western
- 7:37society, the western Europe for
- 7:39instance, America, the US economy? What
- 7:42economic model characterize that of
- 7:45China? All right. Why is China so
- 7:48prosperous economically? So what kind of
- 7:51economic model is China adopting all
- 7:54right in its everyday
- 7:57economic productive
- 7:59activities? So what differentiates China
- 8:02from Russia? What economic model is
- 8:05Russia adopting? Then when you place
- 8:07them side by side with the west like the
- 8:09US or uh the UK, all right, the EU, what
- 8:13kind of economic model are they
- 8:15adopting? So it helps economic systems
- 8:19helps you to understand okay why is one
- 8:21country develop and the other not
- 8:24develop and know it will tell you also
- 8:27uh if you have read the book of the book
- 8:29by the famous uh e political economist
- 8:34all right the book which won the Nobel
- 8:37prize for the three scholars Darren
- 8:39Aimogu and James Robinson all right we
- 8:42also explain how economic systems
- 8:45operated by different countries
- 8:47determine the level of growth,
- 8:49development or all right or advancement
- 8:51they achieve. All right and I will come
- 8:53to that probably when we looking at
- 8:56capitalism right all right and socialism
- 9:00right so I've said that it's an
- 9:02arrangement under which the available
- 9:04resources of the state can be announced
- 9:07and utilized in order to achieve the
- 9:10satisfaction of the uh welfare needs of
- 9:14the members of the society that is the
- 9:16overarching no trust of know an economic
- 9:20a good economic system. All right?
- 9:23Because it should provide the necessary
- 9:25guidelines on how the means of
- 9:27livelihoods could be obtained. All
- 9:29right? When we are looking at various
- 9:32system, you get to understand this. So
- 9:34economic is economic system regulates
- 9:38what individuals or firms, corporations
- 9:41know uh do with regards to the services
- 9:46or goods they render no to the society.
- 9:50So people don't just produce because
- 9:51just think that I want to start a
- 9:53pewater factory today and I just start.
- 9:56So this no there there are guidelines
- 9:58there are procedures there are protocols
- 10:01all right there are standards all right
- 10:03that are stipulated for each firm
- 10:05individuals to follow in the productive
- 10:09activities they intend to engage. So
- 10:12generally an economic system uh takes
- 10:15into account all aspect of society's
- 10:18life including social including
- 10:22political and economic. So a country
- 10:24would not just want to adopt a
- 10:26particular policy because it is such
- 10:28suitable. So there has to be
- 10:31consideration had to be given to the
- 10:35overhacking effect of such economic
- 10:38policy on social realities in the
- 10:40society on crime on unemployment on
- 10:43inflation. All right. On uh food
- 10:47security, scarcity. All right. On wealth
- 10:50distribution, equality or inequality.
- 10:54All right. So this same thing also
- 10:56applies to the de the political domain.
- 11:04Also applies to the political domain. An
- 11:08economic model adopted in a particular
- 11:10location would also have an intricate
- 11:14connection all right to the political uh
- 11:17landscape of that polity right for
- 11:21instance China you could see China in
- 11:24the past China used to be a socialist
- 11:27country all right adopting commun blend
- 11:30of communism and all right socialism
- 11:32historically but of course from the
- 11:341970s when there was need for uh China
- 11:40from 40s to 70s for for China to
- 11:42rediversify its economy especially to
- 11:44achieve economic growth. It's no started
- 11:47blending this command uh political and
- 11:51economic model with the western no what
- 11:55adopted from the west the capitalist
- 11:57neoliberal policy. So politically China
- 12:00all right operates a kind of uh
- 12:04socialist model but economically China
- 12:07adopts the neoliberal economic principle
- 12:10and that is how that is why China is
- 12:12able to leaprog and know compared to
- 12:16other countries. All right. China in the
- 12:19about 100 years be before was a poor
- 12:22country. All right. A century less than
- 12:24a century ago it was a very very poor
- 12:27country. All right. With large
- 12:29population unable to feed itself, right,
- 12:32but practicing some kind of no command
- 12:36no authoritarian socialist uh political
- 12:41system. All right. But it came to time
- 12:43with especially with time of Maong when
- 12:46it realized that we have to develop, we
- 12:48have to open up. All right. So
- 12:50politically it maintained its uh
- 12:53orientation but economically China
- 12:56continued to adopt for instance the
- 12:58neoliberal capitalist model. All right.
- 13:01That of the United States and Western
- 13:03Europe. So this actually uh speaks about
- 13:06free trade. All right. Uh movement of
- 13:09capital and here that we're going to
- 13:11discuss that. And since then we have
- 13:14seen the place in which China has been
- 13:17moving economically. All right. Is the
- 13:20second largest economy in the world or
- 13:22after the United States. So uh economic
- 13:26system therefore uh
- 13:29has key fundamental objectives as you
- 13:31can see on your screen basically is to
- 13:34achieve rational fair and judicious
- 13:37utilization of national resources. All
- 13:40right. Uh at a of a unit or or a country
- 13:44is to also ensure proper coordination
- 13:47and regulation of units properly in
- 13:50order to achieve efficiency. Okay. So
- 13:54for instance I mentioned that the
- 13:56essence is to coordinate regulate such
- 13:58that people an unscrupulous group of
- 14:01persons should not just come up to say
- 14:03that I want to start producing Coca-Cola
- 14:06without having the technical know the
- 14:09skill set all right the expertise all
- 14:11right theition or skills to really
- 14:15produce that all right and just know
- 14:18poisoning people all right or another
- 14:20person said that I want to go into real
- 14:22estate sector I to start building houses
- 14:24and renting down without without having
- 14:27the requisite no credentials or
- 14:30potential to really do that. All right.
- 14:32To prevent people events whereby houses
- 14:35will be collapsing and people so
- 14:37economic system try to regulate the
- 14:40allocation and appropriation the
- 14:42utilization of land resources and
- 14:44capital. All right. So it also ensure
- 14:47rapid economic development and growth
- 14:50and also know to satisfy the basic
- 14:53necessity of life of the people such as
- 14:57food, shelter, clothes and others. As
- 15:00man said the essence of dialectical
- 15:03materialism is that uh human being must
- 15:06first eat, drink and have good shelter
- 15:08before thinking of anything else
- 15:10including know politics, economy,
- 15:12social, marriage, any other thing. So
- 15:16based on this disc forgoing
- 15:18conceptualization so we can say that
- 15:21economic system uh deals with economic
- 15:24system uh deals with how
- 15:28how to produce I've mentioned that what
- 15:30to produce and know uh to whom uh and
- 15:35the quality or quantity that should be
- 15:37know produced what kind of strain will
- 15:40be upon this cast resources all right
- 15:42what will be the decision making process
- 15:44in the productive process and all of
- 15:46this. So I've mentioned that there are
- 15:49different systems. All right, the
- 15:52traditional economic system which I
- 15:55believe you have considered. I sent the
- 15:57slide of the traditional economic system
- 15:59to you uh last week especially in
- 16:02Africa. All right. So we have various
- 16:06different economic system. The
- 16:07traditional economic system
- 16:10then we have mechantilism in the past.
- 16:13All right. It's it's no longer
- 16:16popular but the most uh popular ones are
- 16:20now capitalism or market economy. You
- 16:23have socialism or planned economy and
- 16:26mixed economy. All right. So in this
- 16:30course today we'll be looking at
- 16:32mechantilism and laser sphere. The two
- 16:35which coexisted together at the same
- 16:37time all right before the 20th century.
- 16:40Okay. So we want to see the ways in
- 16:43which these economic systems differ from
- 16:45each other and how they shape economic
- 16:49and political system developments in
- 16:52their various uh context. So this
- 16:56economic system as you have mentioned
- 16:58they differ in terms of ownership of
- 17:00resources in terms of allocation of
- 17:02resources in terms of the production
- 17:06incentives than decision making. So in
- 17:09this class we'll focus in the we focus
- 17:13on mechantilism and laser sphere. So
- 17:17next week when we want to continue with
- 17:19what system two we would then go uh into
- 17:23capitalism and socialism
- 17:26right so have I made the introduction
- 17:29very clear now
- 17:31so we'll go into the you know two want
- 17:35to consider today which is mechantilism
- 17:38and laser sphere right so how did
- 17:41mechanilism how did laser sphere how did
- 17:44they evolve what Were the circumstance
- 17:47in the face of what condition or
- 17:50circumstance or situation did were they
- 17:53know uh
- 17:55uh developed in Europe and America right
- 17:59and how did they contribute to domestic
- 18:02and global economy during the period. So
- 18:06it is important to note that Europeans
- 18:09uh society experience
- 18:11uh rapid soioeconomic changes beginning
- 18:14from the 16th century. All right. And
- 18:16this was know the period following the
- 18:18middle ages also referred to in European
- 18:22history as the medieval period. So
- 18:25medieval period is a period. All right.
- 18:28where Europe know cascaded into a kind
- 18:32of no underdevelopment. It was
- 18:35underdeveloped was crude society was
- 18:38filled out in nature. The kings and know
- 18:41the church no uh perhaps no govern the
- 18:45affairs of the state. So unlike the
- 18:47preceding years which was characterized
- 18:49by feudalism all right uh where a system
- 18:53of production in which uh property
- 18:56rights were vested in the ends of the
- 18:58kings as I've mentioned so this new
- 19:01period from the 16th century witnessed
- 19:04the emergence of powerful nation states
- 19:06all right in which power was situated
- 19:11equally no in equally strong central
- 19:14government no some
- 19:16uh emergent new states were no England,
- 19:21France, no uh Netherland and so so I
- 19:26think in level when you are doing a
- 19:29course titled
- 19:31uh introduction to economic to
- 19:32international relations or so so you
- 19:35will be taught about the treaty of
- 19:37Westfailia. All right. And out that
- 19:39actually 16 uh 48 or so which marked the
- 19:44beginning of the evolution of the modern
- 19:46state system. So uh it was during this
- 19:50period that societies began to realize
- 19:52that rather than vesting power all right
- 19:55in the hands of the kings just as we
- 19:58have in Africa where you have the ob the
- 20:00rather than the allahim being the like
- 20:03absolute monarch all right controlling
- 20:05the land resources collecting tools all
- 20:07the stuff that it was necessary to have
- 20:10a modern state structure all right where
- 20:14no resources all right to be equally or
- 20:17evenly appropriated and allocated and it
- 20:21was under this circumstance that know
- 20:23various these two major economic system
- 20:26evolved
- 20:28mechantilism and laser sphere. So we
- 20:29look at mechantilism.
- 20:31So the key objective for us is to be
- 20:36able to discuss mechanism to be able to
- 20:40identify the argument for and against
- 20:43mechanism that is what are the
- 20:44advantages and disadvantages of
- 20:46mechanism to discuss also laser sphere
- 20:49in the same way know looking at the
- 20:51factors that work for it and the factors
- 20:54that worked against it. Okay. So we'll
- 20:56go into mechanalism right away.
- 21:01So what is meantism?
- 21:04So as you've seen on the screen, it is
- 21:06the economic theory and system that uh
- 21:10characterized Europe between the 16th
- 21:13and the 18th centuries. So it's a kind
- 21:16of economic model which developed and
- 21:19promoted government regulations of a
- 21:22nation's economy especially for the
- 21:25purpose of augumenting state power at
- 21:28the expense of rival no national power.
- 21:33All right so you understand that the 15
- 21:3616th and 17th century 18th century was a
- 21:39significant epoch in European history.
- 21:42It was a period where I talked about
- 21:45that know Europe had was just coming out
- 21:47of the medieval era. Right? So there is
- 21:50of course 15th century there had been
- 21:52the the maritime revolution. All right.
- 21:56Which enabled European powers to be able
- 21:59to discover other places in the world.
- 22:01All right. So before the 15th century
- 22:04Europe existed perhaps the only
- 22:06interactions it enjoyed with other parts
- 22:08of the world was with Asia. All right.
- 22:11All right. through the eastern Europe.
- 22:13So, but due to several events in the
- 22:1615th century, there was need for the uh
- 22:18European countries to also explore that
- 22:20part of the world and by the 15th
- 22:22century the maritime revolution occurred
- 22:25which enabled Europeans to be able to
- 22:28travel to build sophisticated
- 22:31navigational equipment to travel across
- 22:34the Atlantic. All right. Of course. So
- 22:37it was under this circumstance that
- 22:40meantalism as a as a political and
- 22:42economic theory or system develop. All
- 22:45right. Of course, one of the key event
- 22:48that characterized the period was
- 22:50competitions among the various European
- 22:53powers on who is to travel to dominate a
- 22:57particular areas discovered in Africa,
- 23:00in Asia, in America. So in other words,
- 23:03governmental control was to be exercised
- 23:06over industry and trade. All right,
- 23:09international trade in accordance with
- 23:11the theory that national strength is
- 23:15increased by no prepundonderance of
- 23:17export and import. So this mechanism has
- 23:20to do with international trade. All
- 23:22right. So unlike in the uh medieval era
- 23:27where the concentration of the states
- 23:30all right was basically
- 23:34uh characterized by the feud system
- 23:39where just the kings just monopolize all
- 23:41the resources people work people
- 23:44individuals don't have the power to own
- 23:46the land every power and rights over
- 23:48land and resources were in the hands of
- 23:51the kings and members of the royal and
- 23:54the noble class. All right. So the
- 23:56society didn't progress. All right. So
- 23:58in this era from the 16th to 18th
- 24:01century when it was realized that there
- 24:04was need to now place emphasis on the on
- 24:07national strength. All right.
- 24:08institutions should emerge, structures,
- 24:11state systems and structures should
- 24:12emerge to be able to develop society
- 24:15beyond domestic cultivation, agriculture
- 24:19and all the stuff that there's need for
- 24:20international trade especially export
- 24:22and imports. Right? So all of these uh
- 24:26develop. So the primary aim of
- 24:28mechantilist was to basically uh build
- 24:33strong wealthy and independent nation
- 24:35state by promoting economic
- 24:39self-sufficiency. So it was realized
- 24:41that feudalism was not going to engender
- 24:44no sustainability or efficiency or
- 24:46economic growth. The best you could do
- 24:49is to know produce at a subsistent
- 24:52level. All right. And for which much of
- 24:55what was produced would be no uh taken
- 25:00would be consumed by the the members of
- 25:03the royal and the upper class in the
- 25:04society. So the word mechantilism was
- 25:08actually popularized by uh the no famous
- 25:13all right uh Adam Smith political
- 25:16economist
- 25:18Adam Smith who used it to describe the
- 25:20dominant economic ideas of the 16th and
- 25:2318th centuries.
- 25:25Right? Are we together?
- 25:30Are we still together?
- 25:35Yes sir.
- 25:36>> Yes sir.
- 25:37>> Okay. So we now let's go rapidly to look
- 25:40at what are the arguments of meantilist.
- 25:43What are the know the main trust of
- 25:46mercantalists.
- 25:47So the those who advocate for
- 25:50mechantilist system of doctrine believe
- 25:53that
- 25:55precious resources, precious metal such
- 25:57as gold and silver, no were
- 26:01indispensable
- 26:02to a nation's wealth.
- 26:05All right? And once a nation did not
- 26:07possess some of these minds from which
- 26:09it could accumulate this matter, it was
- 26:12free to seek them through trade. And no
- 26:15they realized that
- 26:18especially from the 15th century when
- 26:20they started exploring so before then
- 26:22they had seen how they have heard about
- 26:24how Africa for instance was so rich in
- 26:27gold
- 26:29of course from the 12th century they had
- 26:31witnessed no the the the
- 26:37traveling of Africa's most richest king
- 26:41Masam Musa who had traveled to Mecca and
- 26:45from there to Europe and crush crash the
- 26:48European economy on account of the no
- 26:51enormous gold that it packs to Europe.
- 26:55So societies in Europe realized that no
- 26:59feudalism was not a sign a symbol of
- 27:02wealth that precious metals and
- 27:04resources all right embedded in in in
- 27:07other places outside Europe was a
- 27:10significant factor in know defining the
- 27:13wealth of a nation right and so they
- 27:16started seeking know international trade
- 27:19and network contacts all right with
- 27:21people in outside Europe. So the
- 27:24protagonists uh easily point to the fact
- 27:27that Spain's most powerful uh years of
- 27:31uh know development and occurred when it
- 27:34first ripped a booion from its overseas
- 27:37expansion. Don't forget that Spain and
- 27:40Portugal were the
- 27:42were the first European countries that
- 27:45started the voyage of exploration.
- 27:48No traveling out of Europe from the 15th
- 27:49century, right? the likes of Christopher
- 27:53Columbus, the uh uh Vasco Dagama. All
- 27:57right. Balom Ruiz, America
- 28:04out of Europe from the 15th century and
- 28:06came back with bounty, gold and natural
- 28:09mineral resources. So it became a clown
- 28:13call for the various European powers to
- 28:16also develop on account of this
- 28:19mechantilist doctrine.
- 28:22So mechantilists argue that colonial
- 28:26possessions were significant to serve as
- 28:30suppliers of raw materials and markets
- 28:33for export. All right. So that when
- 28:36countries in Europe know acquire areas
- 28:39like from the 15th century, all right,
- 28:41most of the areas know the Europeans
- 28:44encountered were acquired like America
- 28:47was acquired by the Europeans by all
- 28:49right the Spanish then the English
- 28:51people many part of South America no
- 28:55Brazil know by the Portuguese and all of
- 28:58these. So they believe that colonial
- 29:00possessions was the basis all right or
- 29:04the basic source of know obtaining raw
- 29:06materials. So like in America you know
- 29:10America for instance having after the
- 29:12discovery was converted into no
- 29:14plantation sites all right producing
- 29:17cotton producing sugar all right which
- 29:20were exported back to Europe and and all
- 29:23of that for manufacturing for
- 29:25consumption and all of this. So they
- 29:27believe that the mother country was
- 29:29expected to draw raw materials from its
- 29:31possessions. The English people drew
- 29:34large amount of raw materials from
- 29:36America, from Africa. All right. The
- 29:38Spanish, the French, the Dutch. All
- 29:40right. The SP all of them. All right.
- 29:43No, the Belgians and selling uh selling
- 29:47the Finnish goods. No. Uh back to the
- 29:51colonial areas. No. with the balance of
- 29:53trade favoring uh the European the
- 29:56mother countries. So this trade they
- 29:59argue must be monopolistic with all
- 30:03foreign intruders bad. So they believe
- 30:06that a strong nation must have a large
- 30:09population. All right. Uh given its
- 30:13uh uh a large population given that this
- 30:16is a veritable source of labor market
- 30:18and soldiers. So that is to say that the
- 30:22the acquisition of colonies was central
- 30:24to the functioning of mechantalism
- 30:27because it is based on idea of
- 30:29international uh uh expansion and
- 30:33extraction of resources from these uh
- 30:37colonial areas right outside their
- 30:39domain in Africa.
- 30:41Am I making sense? So uh let's look at
- 30:45the arguments generally that revolves
- 30:47around meantilism. What are the critical
- 30:52no argument or
- 30:54basic
- 30:56proposition of this mechanism? All
- 30:58right. So the general overall trust of
- 31:01mechantisalism is that it was premised
- 31:03on the idea that the wealth of a nation
- 31:05depends primarily on the possession of
- 31:08gold and silver such as precious metals.
- 31:11All right. or bullion.
- 31:13It was also believed that overseas trade
- 31:17should be encouraged. All right. And as
- 31:19a matter of fact, it was said that a
- 31:21nation without precious metal could
- 31:24probably acquire them through trade,
- 31:26especially by maintaining favorable
- 31:29balance of exports over imports. So that
- 31:32okay, if you don't have a colonial area
- 31:34in Africa or Asia, you could also trade
- 31:36with those people. All right? and
- 31:38exchange what you have to get those uh
- 31:41gold to go to get those diamond and all
- 31:44those resources. All right. So they also
- 31:47believe that a strong central government
- 31:49was necessary not only to enforce and
- 31:52regulate uh business but also to acquire
- 31:55and maintain colonial territories. So
- 31:58for instance under the medieval era
- 32:00where the king was it was not import it
- 32:03was not possible for the king to extend
- 32:05his influence to other areas in Asia in
- 32:08Africa in America.
- 32:10Okay. So they believe that to do that a
- 32:13central government a state system state
- 32:16and machinery must know develop to be
- 32:19able to enforce and maintain this
- 32:22colonial area.
- 32:25So it is also advisable uh they also
- 32:28advocate that it was necessary to
- 32:30establish monopolies. I believe you all
- 32:33know what monopolies is. All right. All
- 32:35right. To dominate all right to
- 32:37institute protected tariffs and regulate
- 32:40trade so that a particular in a
- 32:43particular sphere colonial sphere like
- 32:45maybe say in in Congo you could see
- 32:48that's a good example. So there was the
- 32:51Belgian the Belgians. All right.
- 32:54Establish monopoly over the resources.
- 32:57All right. In Congo no Congo which is
- 33:01now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- 33:04Dr. Congo is the richest site on the
- 33:07planet earth on account of the enormous
- 33:10deposit of various mineral resources.
- 33:14You want to talk about gold, uranium.
- 33:16All right. What coban
- 33:19all kind of name all the mineral
- 33:22resources. So during this period
- 33:25states emerging states like Belgium
- 33:28established monopolies and instituted
- 33:32protected tariffs and regulatory to be
- 33:34sure that no European power interfered
- 33:37with resources. So imagine the French
- 33:39did the same in their own sphere of
- 33:41influence. The British did the same, the
- 33:43Dutch did this the same in South Africa
- 33:46and all of this. So in fact
- 33:48manufacturing and mining industries also
- 33:51was said to be encouraged and protected
- 33:54with subsidies. So at home so the they
- 33:58also believe that nations must encourage
- 34:00the development of agriculture at home
- 34:02given that it leads to national
- 34:03self-sufficiency.
- 34:05All right and helps to supply raw
- 34:07materials needed by the industry. This
- 34:09is quite different from the feudalism
- 34:12feudal system whereby the agricultural
- 34:14system was no done under the opaces of
- 34:18the kings.
- 34:21So they believe that uh it was important
- 34:24to have a strong marines that is
- 34:26shipping industry. All right. If you
- 34:28have read the work by Alfred Mckinda,
- 34:31all right, where he argued that he who
- 34:33rules the world island rules the world
- 34:35outland and evil who rules the word
- 34:38Atland rules the world. So the
- 34:40international trade the seaborn movement
- 34:43argued Afford Mckinda was the key to
- 34:47economic prosperity of any nation. So he
- 34:50believed that a country which possess
- 34:52strong navigational equipment and
- 34:54technology or dominates the seaborn
- 34:56movement will probably be the
- 35:00global edon and that was characterized
- 35:03by the British. All right and also other
- 35:06countries but British was for so long
- 35:08was a superpower in the world because of
- 35:11its possession of the strong and
- 35:14sophisticated navigational technology.
- 35:17All right. So they believe that every
- 35:19nation needs a large population which
- 35:21would serve as a source of labor market
- 35:24for them. So overall we can say that
- 35:27mercantalism enhanced the social and
- 35:30political status of the merchant class.
- 35:33All right in Europe it also provided
- 35:36favorable climate for the early
- 35:39development of capitalism as we are
- 35:41going to uh see subsequently. So what
- 35:44are the arguments against
- 35:46meantalism?
- 35:48So those of meantilism have come under
- 35:52no intense attack. All right. So
- 35:54scholars have criticized meantilist
- 35:57doctrine for various reasons. Of course
- 36:01indeed it was some of these reasons that
- 36:04uh because of this reason that the
- 36:07doctrine became unpopular. All right. No
- 36:10for instance many people fought it over
- 36:12its emphasis on supremacy of precious
- 36:15material what you don't have in your own
- 36:17place you want to go and steal it
- 36:19elsewhere through colonialism right
- 36:21through suppression and imposition of no
- 36:24torture brutality on other people as we
- 36:26saw in we have read in the in Congo all
- 36:31right in uh French west Africa
- 36:34franophone west Africa in the anglophone
- 36:36Africa west Africa in east Africa
- 36:39the atrocities, the murder, the
- 36:41brutality, the torture, the rape, the
- 36:43maming of people, the looting of
- 36:46resources by all of these. So mechantism
- 36:49came under that if you don't have
- 36:51something, why must you enact a policy a
- 36:56system, all right, to go and steal
- 36:59because it's to loot them from other
- 37:00places. So in fact uh with the growth of
- 37:03banking and expansion of the market
- 37:05economy uh this undue reliance on gold
- 37:09and silver as measure of wealth reduced
- 37:11considerably. So that is mechantalism
- 37:14was considered not quite sustainable
- 37:17right for uh the international political
- 37:21economy. In addition no development in
- 37:24science and technology also uh made it
- 37:26possible for several nations to be able
- 37:29to participate in and in fact reef no
- 37:32from global economy. All right which
- 37:35actually knows that the world know uh
- 37:39the index indicators of development or
- 37:42wealth cannot necessarily be only gold
- 37:44and diamond. All right we have seen
- 37:47that. All right. Several no the
- 37:49industrial revolution took place. All
- 37:52right. All right. Uh in the 18th century
- 37:56there about all right. And we've seen
- 37:58all kind of no transformation in human
- 38:01society. The avation industry. All
- 38:04right. The steam all right technology
- 38:07the now we're talking about the fifth
- 38:10industrial revolution ICT revolution.
- 38:13assume that so what how long will the
- 38:15world continue to rely on gold and
- 38:17diamond even though they still
- 38:19constitute a major index of wealth. All
- 38:22right. Moreover, it was also argued that
- 38:25mechantilism promoted the feeling of no
- 38:28dependence by some nations which ran
- 38:32contrary to the tenant of free
- 38:34enterprise. All right. It know it
- 38:37creates that. So European countries must
- 38:39always depend on the areas they were
- 38:42able to acquire in Africa before they
- 38:44can develop. So but by and large it was
- 38:48the emergence of laser sphere. All
- 38:50right. An alternative philosophy that
- 38:53signal the eventual collapse of
- 38:56mechantilist no uh system. Okay. So we
- 39:00go to what is laser sphere now. So at
- 39:03this juncture we will look at laser
- 39:05sphere. What is laser sphere? So the
- 39:08word laser sphere is a French word which
- 39:11conotes let things alone or but if you
- 39:15want to put it okay let things be done
- 39:17without interference.
- 39:19All right. Without interference, you
- 39:21know, we've talked about that
- 39:22meantalism, one critical tenant of
- 39:26meantilism was monopoly
- 39:30protectionism to make sure that this is
- 39:32my own area of influence in Africa.
- 39:34Maybe in the case of France or Belgium.
- 39:36All right. This is my area. I've
- 39:38acquired this area. No European
- 39:39countries must come in here. I I I want
- 39:42to be the only one to explore the gold,
- 39:43the diamond, the mineral resources in
- 39:45this place. So but lasers policies all
- 39:49right came to say that no let things be
- 39:52done no freely without any encumbrance
- 39:56without any restriction. So however it's
- 39:58also an economic principle representing
- 40:01the policy of domestic non-inference by
- 40:04government in individual or industrial
- 40:08monetary affairs. So this system while
- 40:13not too far perfect from know the the
- 40:17earlier the mechantist but this one
- 40:19favored capitalist self-interest. All
- 40:22right. As a matter of fact, it is a
- 40:24precursor to the neoliberal capitalist
- 40:27system that the world is largely
- 40:29adopting. All right. So it encourage uh
- 40:34competition natural consumer preferences
- 40:38as forcing as uh forces leading to
- 40:41optimal prosperity and freedom. So it's
- 40:44one of the no economic doctrine that was
- 40:47introduced before capitalist capitalism
- 40:50took over. So in this under this laser
- 40:52sphere the role of the state no was to
- 40:55maintain order and security and to avoid
- 40:59interference. So they believe that
- 41:02individuals and firms and organizations
- 41:05should have the imperative the the
- 41:08ability the freedom to pursue their
- 41:10desired goal. Whether any company or
- 41:13individuals who wants to acquire uh land
- 41:16for various productive activities should
- 41:19be given the freedom. those who want to
- 41:21go uh follow international principles to
- 41:25to embark on various import and exports
- 41:28and acquisition of raw materials
- 41:30elsewhere should do so without any
- 41:33restrictions. So this philosophy
- 41:36uh was in line with the survival for the
- 41:40fittest all right theory by Charles
- 41:44Darwin who propounded the evolution
- 41:46theory all right the the origin of the
- 41:49specy in 1859 and he argued that no he
- 41:53propounded the argument for the survival
- 41:55of the fittest that it is the surv the
- 41:58the strongest that should be the richest
- 42:01that it should not be there should not
- 42:02be any monopoly there should not the
- 42:04restrictions to where people go, how
- 42:06people acquire their wealth. All right?
- 42:08Who should control the land, dictate the
- 42:11pace of the economy, the dynamics of
- 42:13production and all of that. And this was
- 42:16no a philosophy which is usually
- 42:18associated with the French economist uh
- 42:22known as
- 42:24all right who flourished between 1756
- 42:27and 1778.
- 42:30So this uh no philosophy no uh no was
- 42:35later to be expounded by the central and
- 42:40indomitable no figure in economics. All
- 42:44right Adam Smith who classic work no
- 42:49inquiry into the wealth of nations 1776
- 42:53redefining the core of laser sphere. So
- 42:55Adam Smith advocated a policy of free
- 42:59trade so that the invisible hand of
- 43:03competition or what he said invisible
- 43:05hand of the market could act as an
- 43:08economic indicator or regulator. So that
- 43:11there's no need for any international or
- 43:14any governmental control or monopoly no
- 43:18in any economic domain that the
- 43:21invisible hand of the market let
- 43:22competition let the the space be open
- 43:26for compet free competition and the
- 43:30strongest perhaps will be the ones to
- 43:33maximize the no return. So in line with
- 43:36Adam Smith's uh writing several other
- 43:39scholars including David Ricardo all
- 43:42right who founded the theory of
- 43:44comparative advantage or comparative
- 43:48cost advantage theory all right
- 43:50comparative advantage and John X who
- 43:53also argued in favor of laser sphere all
- 43:56right so the argument of laser sphere
- 43:58adoption appeal to the capitalist of the
- 44:01the capitalist class of the industrial
- 44:03revolutions all right? Who wish to be
- 44:06free of movement of government
- 44:09regulation of taxation of tariffs of no
- 44:13uh quarter systems because before then
- 44:17government regulated strongly what
- 44:19people produce how they produce how they
- 44:22distribute what was produced so less
- 44:25fair advocated for the free enterprise
- 44:31for free enterprise system right for
- 44:33people to be able to realize their
- 44:35potential in the business of in the
- 44:38process of economic activities. So there
- 44:41are also argument against laser sphere.
- 44:52So what are the argument against laser
- 44:54sphere? So several scholars several
- 44:57laser sphere also has been condemned.
- 45:01No, several factors worked against the
- 45:04economic model.
- 45:06For instance, the tremendous growth of
- 45:09industrial
- 45:11of industry under laser sphere led to
- 45:14the abuse of laser sphere principle
- 45:16including the use of child labor.
- 45:19So under the guise of uh under the guise
- 45:22of let let there be no restriction,
- 45:25you've seen how companies and industries
- 45:29are are probably fostering
- 45:33fostering
- 45:35what I can call no hard labor in Kova.
- 45:41Since the era of cocoa production,
- 45:46right, one of the key debate now with
- 45:48regards to cocoa production, coco
- 45:49plantation is the manner in which
- 45:52capitalist firms in Europe, all right,
- 45:55producing chocolate, all right, have no
- 46:00contributed to child exploitation. You
- 46:04know children are kidnapped from various
- 46:07parts of Africa and Asia and transported
- 46:12know smuggled to cocoa plantation in
- 46:14place like for instance kodova or let's
- 46:16say fernand poa guinea to work as slaves
- 46:20in the agricultural plantation all of
- 46:23these are some of the no bedrock of the
- 46:27laser sphere the idea that there should
- 46:30not be interference there should not be
- 46:32restriction industries activities should
- 46:35not be checked. All right. Individuals
- 46:37no economic initiative should not be
- 46:39scrutinized. That is why you have all
- 46:42kinds of abuses that someone can wake up
- 46:45all right somewhere in your location and
- 46:47float a peer water factory. No, some few
- 46:50years ago I was living in a location in
- 46:53Lagos where no from the top of my uh
- 46:58flat I I was looking through a slum uh
- 47:01environment a cl a compound that has
- 47:04been neglected some unscrupulous people
- 47:07we just just came to the space no dug a
- 47:10well all right and they were producing
- 47:12mass producing bottle water and pure
- 47:14water I for several months weeks I stood
- 47:17and observed How people were
- 47:20manufacturing
- 47:22bottle and satchet water raw without any
- 47:25refinement without taking any
- 47:28nutritional any no sanitary measures and
- 47:32precautions. So they only ex you know uh
- 47:37supply this product at night. So in the
- 47:40day you do not notice anything within
- 47:42the environment but at night you see
- 47:44trucks loading bottle water and beer
- 47:47water into the into the vehicle and is
- 47:51distribute to Lagos. No the pipe was
- 47:53just connected directly from the well
- 47:56and just running into the the bottle
- 47:58water into the set and they were sealing
- 48:00them. So these are the kind of stuff
- 48:02that no lasers fair encourage. So it was
- 48:06on this basis that many people started
- 48:09criticizing the doctrine. All right. So
- 48:12it was also blame many blame laz for
- 48:15encouraging monopolistic
- 48:18competition. No as many businesses
- 48:20combined to control
- 48:22production and prices all right for the
- 48:26benefit of their own self. So
- 48:29competition was gradually eliminated uh
- 48:31under laser. So what we have said is
- 48:35that mechantilism and lasersphere as the
- 48:38major economic ideologies that dominated
- 48:41the European continent during the middle
- 48:44ages also referred to as the medieval
- 48:47period in history. These are the key no
- 48:51philosophy economic model that was
- 48:53practiced from the 16th century up to
- 48:56the
- 48:5718th century. So the argument for and
- 49:00against this economic thoughts we have
- 49:03examined them. All right? We have
- 49:04scrutinized them. So what you need to do
- 49:08is to perhaps expand your knowledge.
- 49:10I've told you to go and read. Of course
- 49:12there are key texts you need to read.
- 49:13I've mentioned quite a number of books
- 49:15in this class. The work by Adam Smith.
- 49:19All right. An inquiry into the wealth of
- 49:21nations. All right. You need Dicado who
- 49:25was written about the comparative
- 49:27theory. comparative advantage all right
- 49:30theory and all of that GS mu locally in
- 49:33the department there there is
- 49:34fundamental of economic history which
- 49:36I've mentioned but you can get it in a
- 49:38department so what we said is that
- 49:40meantilism and lasersphere
- 49:44have been identified as the two
- 49:45principal ideas that dominated the
- 49:49economic thought in Europe during the
- 49:50medieval period right meantalism
- 49:53promoted government regulations of a
- 49:56nation's economy for the bene for the
- 49:59sake of augumating state power at the
- 50:02expense of rival and national powers.
- 50:04Okay. So that is to say that government
- 50:07control was to be exercised over
- 50:09industry and over international trade in
- 50:11accordance with that theory. All right,
- 50:13which place emphasis on national
- 50:15strength that a central government is
- 50:17necessary all right to achieve economic
- 50:20development in a particular country and
- 50:23the main aim of mechantalism was to
- 50:25build strong wealthy and independent
- 50:28nation states by promoting
- 50:30self-sufficiency.
- 50:31Okay. So lasers fail. So on the other
- 50:34hand advocates for the policy of
- 50:37domestic non-intervention. All right.
- 50:39Non-inference. No let things alone. All
- 50:43right. As I've mentioned no let free no
- 50:46free enterprise if you like. So in
- 50:48summary mechanalism suggests public or
- 50:52government economic control while laser
- 50:55sphere supports capitalism or individual
- 50:58control of the economy. This is what we
- 51:00are saying. So if you ask in this in our
- 51:04test or in the exam to identify the
- 51:06major differences between mechanism and
- 51:09laser sphere I believe you should be
- 51:11able to reason. So you might be asked to
- 51:14compare all right more than three or
- 51:17four economic system. So because I'm
- 51:19going to teach you capitalism and
- 51:20socialism also all right so you need to
- 51:23be vast about each of them. You need to
- 51:26know what each of them is about. All
- 51:28right. And be able to interrogate them
- 51:31critically.
- 51:35Do you have any question please?
- 51:40Any question?
- 51:48Any question please?
- 51:51>> No sir.
- 51:55>> Okay. So
- 51:57uh Limat
- 51:59why do we have 86 people in this class?
- 52:02How many people are how many people
- 52:03registered this course?
- 52:09>> About 200.
- 52:11>> So why are we having this number?
- 52:15>> I don't know but I announced it on the
- 52:18class group that were having the class
- 52:20today. I don't know why they didn't turn
- 52:21up.
- 52:23>> Okay.
- 52:26So it's not my it's not going to be my
- 52:28fault if people uh fail the course. Hope
- 52:32you know.
- 52:36>> Am I am I correct?
- 52:39>> So those so when they write the exam
- 52:41they will say that ah I didn't get a
- 52:44good grade Dr. J gave me a bad score and
- 52:46all those kind of stuff. So what do you
- 52:49think should be the the situation?
- 52:55All right. Having said that, we can go
- 52:57to the next topic. Do we still have time
- 52:59or you have another class?
- 53:07>> We still have time, sir.
- 53:09>> Right. So, let's look at the
- 53:12next topic, which is
- 53:14M's theory of population.
- 53:17So, I decided to skip the other two
- 53:21topics. uh the the economic system too
- 53:26so that we can connect some of the dots.
- 53:28All right. It will make us to be able to
- 53:30connect rather than just being
- 53:31theoretical.
- 53:33So it is in this manner I want to look
- 53:35at the mat theory of population. All
- 53:39right. So our objective basically no
- 53:42will be stated clearly. So we want to
- 53:44look at uh Reverend Thomas Mats
- 53:50no theory of population. He was the one
- 53:52who propounded the no major classic work
- 53:54on population control. All right. All
- 53:57right. In relation to development, I
- 54:00want to look at the main argument of
- 54:01marts the criticism against his theory.
- 54:05Then we'll be able to draw our own
- 54:08analysis. So in in the end all right we
- 54:11should be able to discuss the matters
- 54:13theory of population.
- 54:15uh identify the main argument of mus
- 54:20Thomas mus and identify argument against
- 54:24know is theory also
- 54:27so the origin or the the precursor to
- 54:32the introduction of the mus theory of
- 54:35the population was quite knowh enormous
- 54:40all right so there were quite a lot of
- 54:41development in Europe at the time all
- 54:44right which know generated discussions
- 54:46and controversies about how the world
- 54:49economy all right or European European
- 54:53population should be controlled in a way
- 54:56to manage or coordinate the mega
- 54:58resources available. So Reverend Robert
- 55:01Thomas 1766 to 7 1834
- 55:07was a foremost was a prominent British
- 55:09scholar who was quite influential in the
- 55:12field of population political economy.
- 55:16All right. He came up with the first
- 55:18major canonical literature extensively
- 55:22interrogated no where uh no he wrote
- 55:25about demography. So between 179uh
- 55:318 and 1826,
- 55:34Reverend Thomas Moss published six
- 55:37editions of his famous treaty. All
- 55:39right. And an an essay on the principle
- 55:42of population. All right. Of course,
- 55:44which he continued to revise no sever
- 55:47severally incorporating new data, new
- 55:50materials especially to address
- 55:52criticisms and to convey changes in his
- 55:55own perspectives and subjects. All
- 55:57right. So, uh I've mentioned that the
- 56:01situations in which under which this
- 56:04theory evolved was uh as a result of the
- 56:08growing the unbridled
- 56:11population explosion in Europe. All
- 56:14right. which not even in Europe in other
- 56:17places which felt that the population if
- 56:21it continues to grow there will be
- 56:23little resources for people to
- 56:27cope or adapt to survive all right so
- 56:30for instance let me the population of
- 56:33India now is over 1.3 million all right
- 56:37China is also above all right India with
- 56:40largest population about 1.4 4 million.
- 56:43All right.
- 56:44Nigeria has been projected by 2050, all
- 56:48right, to have a population of 400
- 56:50million people and all of that. So about
- 56:53a few years ago less than five 7 8 years
- 56:56ago Nigeria had a population of 200
- 56:57million right you could see that within
- 57:00a short time the rate at which uh in
- 57:04which population is increasing all right
- 57:06is not uh the same way the economy is
- 57:11increasing or improving and resources
- 57:14means of survival subsistence to take
- 57:16care of the population so the trust of m
- 57:20argument was that
- 57:23population increases in a geometric
- 57:25ratio.
- 57:26What your you know your basic
- 57:28mathematics geometric ratio 1 2 4 8 no
- 57:3616 32 64 128 156 and so on and so on.
- 57:43All right. While the means of
- 57:45subsistence that is the resources, the
- 57:47food, the housing, the health service,
- 57:50the schools. All right. They are
- 57:53increasing in arithmetic ratio.
- 57:56All right. Slowly 1 2
- 58:014 5 6 7 8. So that means the number I as
- 58:06I've mentioned in 20 uh let's say 2015
- 58:10Nigeria had a population about 180
- 58:12million or less than 200 million.
- 58:15A decade later Nigeria population has
- 58:18skyrocketed and now it's now been
- 58:20projected that no it will reach 400
- 58:22million by 2050. There's about two
- 58:26decades from now. How many hospitals
- 58:30will be produced between these two
- 58:31decades?
- 58:33How many schools will be produced with
- 58:36just with the with even the the amount
- 58:39of universities in Nigeria? There are
- 58:42millions of students who are unable to
- 58:44be admitted into the universities
- 58:48without speaking much about the primary
- 58:50and secondary education in terms of food
- 58:54security. So people are groaning,
- 58:56grappling with inflation, food
- 58:58shortages, household, you know, uh
- 59:01insecurity and all of that. So this is
- 59:04just when we have a population of 230
- 59:07million thereabouts. So how would people
- 59:10feel if the population increases to 400
- 59:13million in about two decades or less? So
- 59:17Reverend Mats argued that population
- 59:20increases in a geometric fastly fastly
- 59:24tripling all right two 416 tripling as
- 59:29I've said 200 million 5 years ago 400
- 59:33million in about 10 years time
- 59:36a few years time all right so population
- 59:39is increasing at a very rapid pace
- 59:42whereas the means of survivor is just
- 59:44crawling so it was This thesis uh
- 59:48especially thesis that if human
- 59:50population were allowed to increase in
- 59:52an uncontrolled way then the number of
- 59:55people all right uh would increase at a
- 1:00:00faster rate than the food supply than
- 1:00:02hospital than schools all right than
- 1:00:06even employment opportunities. So a
- 1:00:09point will come according to Reverend
- 1:00:11Thomas when human population will reach
- 1:00:14the limit up to which food resources
- 1:00:17could at least support any further
- 1:00:20increase. All right and this will lead
- 1:00:22to population crash caused by all kinds
- 1:00:25of issues like natural phenomen like
- 1:00:27farming diseases and all of that. Of
- 1:00:30course when you have too much population
- 1:00:32and people are unable to feed themselves
- 1:00:34then there will be all kinds of social
- 1:00:37vices even natural disasters crime and
- 1:00:40all of that diseases and all the stuffs.
- 1:00:43So these are because there will be
- 1:00:45congestion in houses. People will not
- 1:00:47have accommodations. So people have to
- 1:00:49live in face me and face you. All right.
- 1:00:51No the multi-tenanted housing. No they
- 1:00:54will lack basic health care support
- 1:00:56systems and all this. So the main
- 1:01:00argument of mats so mats contended that
- 1:01:05population tend to increase faster than
- 1:01:07food supply uh available supply of food
- 1:01:11available for its names. So he states
- 1:01:14that uh wherever a relative gain occurs
- 1:01:17in the production over population growth
- 1:01:20that is a higher rate of population
- 1:01:22increase is stimulated. All right. So
- 1:01:25also on the other hand he noted that if
- 1:01:28population grows faster than food
- 1:01:30production then the growth no is checked
- 1:01:34by farming naturally disease and war. So
- 1:01:38his theories does is that his contradict
- 1:01:42the opt optimistic belief which
- 1:01:45characterize the 19th century all right
- 1:01:48with regards to the level of fertility
- 1:01:51all right in the society. So he's saying
- 1:01:53that he he actually proposed a quite a
- 1:01:57number of measures to reduce the
- 1:02:00population. So there's a positive and
- 1:02:02there's a negative checks which he
- 1:02:04argued. So the main argument of Mus is
- 1:02:08that
- 1:02:09uh uh nature has its own way of cutting
- 1:02:13population. All right. Population level
- 1:02:15through crime. All right. Through
- 1:02:18disease, through war and v all kind of
- 1:02:21vices and that is true. So a people who
- 1:02:24are no uncatered for all right will
- 1:02:28definitely find a way of taking care of
- 1:02:30themsel and even those who fail to cater
- 1:02:32for them. All right. So the population
- 1:02:34will grow to a level whereby the rich
- 1:02:38will not be able to sleep with all the
- 1:02:40resources and know the poor who are not
- 1:02:43able to feed will feed all right on the
- 1:02:46rich. Right? So those are the of course
- 1:02:48when there's criminality there's armed
- 1:02:50robbery if you have you a millionaire
- 1:02:53living in an environment and millions of
- 1:02:55people are unable to feed they will
- 1:02:57always visit you and in the process
- 1:02:59probably know uh commit all kinds of
- 1:03:02atrocities loot and robbery and stuff.
- 1:03:06Then there is also when they don't have
- 1:03:08a house to stay they come and know sleep
- 1:03:11on the road all right in public spaces.
- 1:03:15All right. They contact diseases. All
- 1:03:18right. And this actually also help to
- 1:03:21shape reduce population. No, they can no
- 1:03:25they can look at what is happening with
- 1:03:27bandit tree and insurgency in the north.
- 1:03:30All right. The poor no unced no uh uh
- 1:03:36abandoned children who have who were
- 1:03:38recruited as a merger later some years
- 1:03:41ago. All right. They are now become war
- 1:03:43veterans. All right. Carrying guns, no
- 1:03:46impacting, no being recruited into all
- 1:03:50kinds of sex. All right. Boaram,
- 1:03:52lakurawas and all the stuffs,
- 1:03:54insurgents,
- 1:03:55kidnappers and all the stuff. So in fact
- 1:03:58uh uh mus insisted that population will
- 1:04:02always expand to the limit of
- 1:04:03subsistence and will be ed there by
- 1:04:07farming by war and earth. So hence uh he
- 1:04:12tried to introduce quite a number of no
- 1:04:15uh ways in which population can be no
- 1:04:19control. All right. He introduce the
- 1:04:22positive and the negative checks.
- 1:04:23According to him all of these vice
- 1:04:26should include contraception.
- 1:04:28All right. Misery. All right.
- 1:04:31Self-restrain. All right. which is felt
- 1:04:35they not sufficient enough to control
- 1:04:38excessive growth. So his major argument
- 1:04:42is that he advocated for moral restraint
- 1:04:46in the form of strict premarital
- 1:04:48chastity.
- 1:04:50He advocated for delayed marriage as a
- 1:04:53way to c population growth that people
- 1:04:55should not be in a hurry to go to go and
- 1:04:58marry. All right. An average girl in
- 1:05:01this class now if you ask do a survey
- 1:05:04everybody after next two years or three
- 1:05:08years once you are done with NYC is to
- 1:05:11get married and get a man and start a
- 1:05:13life start giving birth to children yeah
- 1:05:15which is good that's one of the things
- 1:05:17we created for so m felt that no strict
- 1:05:22premarital chastity should be encouraged
- 1:05:26people should keep to themselves all
- 1:05:27right before they get married Then also
- 1:05:30people should not be in a hurry to get
- 1:05:32married all right and start giving birth
- 1:05:34to children in a way to control the
- 1:05:36population so that the mega resources
- 1:05:38available in society can be enough to
- 1:05:41take care of the people. All right. So
- 1:05:43for Reverend Matthews also uh two types
- 1:05:46of checks could be deployed to hold the
- 1:05:48population within uh resource limit. So
- 1:05:51I told you about positive checks which
- 1:05:53according to him uh usually raise the
- 1:05:57death rate. All right. preventive ones
- 1:06:00which all right uh lower the birth rate.
- 1:06:04So the positive checks includes hunger,
- 1:06:09disease
- 1:06:11and war. So when you see some of the
- 1:06:14natural know the development in our
- 1:06:16society especally in Africa all right
- 1:06:20over time you could see that there are
- 1:06:23some forces working behind. All right.
- 1:06:26From theory, from theory to practice. So
- 1:06:30war don't just happen. Epidemics don't
- 1:06:33just break up. Break up like today. Now
- 1:06:36the major issues that is now threatening
- 1:06:39the global community is now Ebola.
- 1:06:43Democratic Republic of Congo or has
- 1:06:46recorded the resurgence of Ebola virus
- 1:06:48disease. All right. We just came out of
- 1:06:50COVID 19. No. In Nigeria several times
- 1:06:53we've been battling with Lassa fever.
- 1:06:56Lassa. Yeah. All right. No, before then
- 1:07:00from the 80s to
- 1:07:03' 90s there was the HIV AIDS. All right.
- 1:07:07There is small P epidemics. There was
- 1:07:09yellow fever from the 1940s50s.
- 1:07:12Yellow fever
- 1:07:14between 1920s and 1930s. There was the
- 1:07:18bubonic plague which threatened know the
- 1:07:22human existence across the world. Then
- 1:07:24between in 19 between 1918 and 1920
- 1:07:27there was the Spanish influencer which
- 1:07:30killed millions of people across the
- 1:07:32world. So these are some of the checks
- 1:07:34put in place by evil people know the you
- 1:07:38know evil philosophers and know adopted
- 1:07:41by nation state and world government
- 1:07:44perhaps to control population. That's my
- 1:07:47own interpretation anyway. So war the
- 1:07:51first world war the second world war all
- 1:07:53kinds of war insurgency banditry all
- 1:07:55right in my own estimations are all part
- 1:07:57of the mechanisms all right to control
- 1:08:00population in various parts of the
- 1:08:02world. So uh
- 1:08:06of course hunger also the inflationary
- 1:08:09know issues around food all right food
- 1:08:13all right food insecurity and all of
- 1:08:15these macroeconomic changes which affect
- 1:08:18livelihoods of people are part of the
- 1:08:21instrumentalization
- 1:08:23all right of population control all
- 1:08:26right so he also introduced the
- 1:08:28preventive checks all right these are
- 1:08:31all kinds of very evil postulation in my
- 1:08:34own estimation. All right, that's my
- 1:08:36word. All right, so my interpretation is
- 1:08:38that Reverend M's no theorization or no
- 1:08:43propositions are quite very very
- 1:08:44enimical to the morality. It's anti
- 1:08:48antithetical to human dignity. All right
- 1:08:51know and human survivor preventive
- 1:08:53checks he mentioned should include
- 1:08:56abortion that people should engage in
- 1:08:58abortion instead of giving birth to
- 1:09:00children. All right, bet control. All
- 1:09:03right, they should do bet control
- 1:09:05probably family planning if you like.
- 1:09:07All right, bet control so that you don't
- 1:09:10know conceive. All right, prostitution.
- 1:09:13All right, was part of also means
- 1:09:15through which uh Reverend Mats believe
- 1:09:18that people can control their urge.
- 1:09:20Yeah, that as human as as a man you can
- 1:09:23have sexual urge. All right. But instead
- 1:09:26of marrying a girl or marry putting a
- 1:09:28wife at home, go and consult a
- 1:09:30prostitute and know achieve your sexual
- 1:09:33know satisfaction. All right. Without
- 1:09:36necessarily having a commitment. A
- 1:09:38prostitute will not want to give give
- 1:09:40you a I'll give you children. So he
- 1:09:42fails that no people should engage in
- 1:09:44prostitution especally the men. Then
- 1:09:47there should be postponement of marriage
- 1:09:49and celibacy. So these are some of the
- 1:09:53only a few of them for me I feel I feel
- 1:09:56is quly maybe celibacy for your married
- 1:10:01perhaps all right but how long can you
- 1:10:03be celibate all right so the idea of
- 1:10:06using hunger using disease and war for
- 1:10:08me I think it's so it is not only
- 1:10:12picious it is evil all right no to kill
- 1:10:15people because you think that population
- 1:10:17should reduce you want people uh to
- 1:10:20commit abortion rights or engage in
- 1:10:23prostitution all kind of no uh this for
- 1:10:27me I think it's not suited so what are
- 1:10:31the criticisms of reverend ms theory so
- 1:10:35mus has also been criticized
- 1:10:37no just like other no philosopher he's
- 1:10:40been criticized for not seeing the
- 1:10:43scientific advances that affect both
- 1:10:47know the two parts of his proposition
- 1:10:49both the positive checks and the
- 1:10:50preventive uh preventive checks. All
- 1:10:52right. For instance, he fails to
- 1:10:55understand that the world population had
- 1:10:57grown slowly until the industrial
- 1:10:59revolution when advances in sanitation,
- 1:11:02in technology and in food distribution
- 1:11:05brought declining debt rates. So that is
- 1:11:08that even
- 1:11:10part of the issues that aid population
- 1:11:13explosion is no technology. All right.
- 1:11:16and all of that and all of the so that
- 1:11:19aid know that helps the population
- 1:11:21control is technology. All right, which
- 1:11:23has reduced the death rate and all of
- 1:11:25that. So of course technology has been a
- 1:11:28critical factor but it has not been well
- 1:11:31appropriated in many developing
- 1:11:33countries. So the flaw in m theory my
- 1:11:37belief is that it is not a crime for
- 1:11:40population to increase. What is
- 1:11:42important is the efficiency in the
- 1:11:44utilization of the mega resources. All
- 1:11:46right, or means of production, land,
- 1:11:48capital, all right, labor. For instance,
- 1:11:52in Nigeria, we say even if you have 400
- 1:11:55million people in Nigeria, the the whole
- 1:11:58of Nasarawa,
- 1:12:00Niger state, for instance, is capable of
- 1:12:03feeding the whole of Africa if right
- 1:12:06technology, if right agricultural
- 1:12:09policies, social or enabling environment
- 1:12:12are put in place. So without banditry
- 1:12:16all right and with with injection of no
- 1:12:19more than technology all right in some
- 1:12:21of the vast aruable land in Niger state
- 1:12:24just to mention one state out of 36
- 1:12:26states Nigeria would not only be able to
- 1:12:30feed
- 1:12:322 million people but it will be able to
- 1:12:35export the surplus food produced from
- 1:12:38just Niger state to feed Africa and that
- 1:12:42is a very so this is a major of law. It
- 1:12:44tells you about the flaw of so we don't
- 1:12:47need to commit to abortion to war to
- 1:12:51crime to celibacy prostitution before we
- 1:12:55can control population. What is
- 1:12:57important is the efficient utilization
- 1:13:00of technology and natural resources that
- 1:13:03has been we have been endowed with
- 1:13:06before we can develop. So uh more
- 1:13:10criticism is that people said that birth
- 1:13:13control has contributed to the to a
- 1:13:16decrease in the rate of growth of the
- 1:13:18world population. So there are countries
- 1:13:20in the past who especially I think in
- 1:13:22Japan all right and I think China also
- 1:13:25enacted it sometime I don't know whether
- 1:13:27it's still in place where one person one
- 1:13:29child policy this has also reduced
- 1:13:32decreased the rate of population no all
- 1:13:35right so you are trying to solve a
- 1:13:36problem and you are creating more in
- 1:13:39Europe especially in Europe western
- 1:13:41Europe they are actually going through
- 1:13:43all these kind of issues now because of
- 1:13:45these kind of policies of so they are
- 1:13:47now people who don't even want to have a
- 1:13:50child. Just last week, I was talking to
- 1:13:52one of my uh British friend, a girl, all
- 1:13:56right, who know told me that she just
- 1:14:00lost her marriage about two weeks ago
- 1:14:02and she was really no grieving uh
- 1:14:04because she doesn't want to have a
- 1:14:06child. But the husband, all right, who
- 1:14:09is also a white person wants to have a
- 1:14:12child. So, she says she is she doesn't
- 1:14:15want to have a child. And the guy felt
- 1:14:16no, I must have a child. and the
- 1:14:18marriage ended. All right? So these are
- 1:14:21all of the stuff. So trying to control
- 1:14:24population creates even more problems.
- 1:14:27All right? So one philosopher had
- 1:14:30advocated that Africa is perhaps the
- 1:14:33future that the next 100 years or so or
- 1:14:36less that Africa is going to take over
- 1:14:39of the remains of the western society
- 1:14:43because the population of western
- 1:14:45society would have probably reduced
- 1:14:48drastically that Africa with the birth
- 1:14:52rate with the know the massive
- 1:14:54production of no population growth
- 1:14:57will probably overtake most of these
- 1:15:00European countries. So I don't know how
- 1:15:02that is true. All right. So agricultural
- 1:15:04revolution as I've mentioned like no
- 1:15:07food massive food production can help to
- 1:15:09mitigate the impact of excessive
- 1:15:12population growth. All right. And make
- 1:15:14prosperity possible for a longer number
- 1:15:17of people larger number of people. So
- 1:15:20mechanized farming are now getting more
- 1:15:23no uh no they are increasing food
- 1:15:26sufficiency in serious countries
- 1:15:28although not in Africa all right so
- 1:15:30matters didn't consider the role which
- 1:15:33mechanization can play all right in no
- 1:15:37mitigating the deficit all right so that
- 1:15:40the means of subsistence and the
- 1:15:42population growth can meet and converge
- 1:15:45seamlessly so uh matters was equally
- 1:15:48criticized for his belief that human
- 1:15:51society could never be made perfect. No,
- 1:15:54that's not true. So people have proposed
- 1:15:57all uh some of his know uh his
- 1:16:01postulations
- 1:16:03with critical evidence to show that
- 1:16:05population growth is not the problem. It
- 1:16:08is efficient utilization of resources.
- 1:16:10All right, the equitable redistribution
- 1:16:13of the resources. All right, as we're
- 1:16:15going to see in our next class when
- 1:16:17we're looking at the world economic
- 1:16:19system too, capitalism and socialism
- 1:16:23uh one economic system concentrate the
- 1:16:27uh the means of production land capital
- 1:16:31entrepreneurship in the hands of a
- 1:16:33microscopic elite. All right. a small
- 1:16:37insignificant number of people who owns
- 1:16:39all the land who owns all the means of
- 1:16:42production while a large number of
- 1:16:44people only struggle to eat. about few
- 1:16:49weeks ago here I was interacting with a
- 1:16:52a friend all right who's into an a real
- 1:16:55estate a real a big real estate manager
- 1:16:57in the UK and told me about one of his
- 1:17:01clients all right a big politician in
- 1:17:04Nigeria who know came again no to say
- 1:17:08that he wants to acquire new properties
- 1:17:09in the UK this person according to this
- 1:17:11informat has over 80 properties in
- 1:17:14different parts all right of the world
- 1:17:17including many in Nigeria, right? And
- 1:17:19knowing the place of this conversation,
- 1:17:22he saw a property that said, "I I'm
- 1:17:24interested in this property. I want to
- 1:17:25buy it." And the client just told him,
- 1:17:29"Ah, but this property already belongs
- 1:17:31to you. You bought it 10 years ago." So
- 1:17:33you could see the average the no
- 1:17:36insiable, the no continuous yearning for
- 1:17:40no accumulation, the conspicuous
- 1:17:42consumption of a typical African elite.
- 1:17:45So if the resources all right are well
- 1:17:49distributed and evenly utilized
- 1:17:51population can grow all right to any
- 1:17:54limit all right foreseeable
- 1:17:58all right and it will the means of
- 1:18:01subsistence will go around because
- 1:18:03imagine that Nigeria implements the
- 1:18:07reverse the policy of accumulation
- 1:18:10there are people who have over 200
- 1:18:11properties in in Nigeria alone so where
- 1:18:14some people do not even have a room over
- 1:18:16their head. So if we have a policy
- 1:18:18whereby people do not have right to
- 1:18:21accumulate more than one land or
- 1:18:24government monopolize the land and
- 1:18:25appropriate people build for people to
- 1:18:28own over a 100 years the resources will
- 1:18:31go around and it won't it will be
- 1:18:34surplus. So in this course we have said
- 1:18:37that Robert
- 1:18:39Thomas M's theory of population uh
- 1:18:42indicates ways in which excessive
- 1:18:45population growth could be checked in
- 1:18:47human society. However some of his
- 1:18:50postulations have been countered all
- 1:18:52right and rejected no uh with
- 1:18:55alternative solutions. uh so M's theory
- 1:18:58of population initiated above argues
- 1:19:00that if population were allowed to
- 1:19:03increase in an unbridled manner then the
- 1:19:07number of people would increase at a
- 1:19:09faster rate than food supply than social
- 1:19:12amenities transport system education
- 1:19:15railway hospitals and all of that. So if
- 1:19:17not check he believes that human
- 1:19:19population will reach a limit to which
- 1:19:22food resources could support it and any
- 1:19:24of any further increase will lead to
- 1:19:27population crash. All right? Either in
- 1:19:29terms of natural disaster, farming, war,
- 1:19:31disease and all this stuff. Right? So
- 1:19:34introduce positive checks which
- 1:19:36according to him include hunger, include
- 1:19:40disease, include war. All right. Why
- 1:19:43preventive checks include abortion,
- 1:19:46birth control, prostitution,
- 1:19:48postponement of marriage and celibacy.
- 1:19:51All right. But all of these postulations
- 1:19:54for me has been rejected. All right. I
- 1:19:57don't know. So if you ask in the exam no
- 1:20:01to discuss matters theory, I expect you
- 1:20:03to be able to interrogate and put a
- 1:20:06position forward. So what is your own
- 1:20:08position? Do you believe that the
- 1:20:10preventive or the positive checks all
- 1:20:13right of matters should be implemented
- 1:20:15or adopted or no? If you answer it
- 1:20:17without crit critically analyzing each
- 1:20:20position, you not get a passing grade.
- 1:20:25Any question please?
- 1:20:31Do we have any question?
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