| 21.16 |
Work history.1400 - 1800 CE |
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The 1400’s heralded a new age for the west and a new kind of definition of work.
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It heralded the official structuring of a global industry licensed by the Vatican for the export and import of slaves like property.
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However, unlike serfs (domestic slaves to nobles), this new kind of slave did not have to treated with even the slightest of dignity under the licensing arrangements of the Popes and the Vatican.
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Instead, slave traders initially being Portugal and Spain then later England under license could get a discount on royalties paid to the Vatican for “damaged cargo”, that is slaves who died during transport and did not reach their destination.
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The boom years for Europe
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Many historians like to portray the period of 1400 to 1800 as a period of great enlightenment across Europe in which humanity rediscovered and invented new levels of art and architecture, did indulge itself into improving the appearance of its cities and in education.
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| Industry Profile 1400 CE |
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| Industry |
% |
| Agriculture/Hunting |
80.0% |
| Manufacturing/Wholesale |
5.0% |
| Mining/Construction |
4.0% |
| Retail Trade |
1.0% |
| Transport/Storage |
2.0% |
| Services |
1.0% |
| Govt/Military |
7.0% |
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100% |
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All of these things are true. Large numbers of people across Europe were suddenly free to enjoy themselves, to enter into guilds and education, to be involved in building projects and improving wealth of society. However, this was not like the Roman days of a large professional class and expert engineers. This growth was sloppy inefficient and wasteful. For this growth, the boom of Europe was powered by the sweat and tears of tens of millions of slaves.
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The export and import of slaves to work on massive plantations and fuel large scale mining brought about huge wealth for Europe starting with Portugal and Spain. The slave trade became the biggest industry in town and created a new class of workers, the corporate executives.
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This is because all the major slave traders were the first corporations under charter, with shareholders, with directors and with executives in charge of managing the company affairs.
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The corporate executives of these great companies that traded the souls of millions also became extremely wealthy towards the 17th century with the emergence of another extremely lucrative market, the drug trade.
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The Jesuit controlled Dutch East India Company for a time was the single largest pharmaceutical company and trader of opium the world has ever seen, never surpassed by the East India Company, even with the Opium Wars and huge created market of drug addicts in 19th Century China.
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The new worker- the one that can be worked to death
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Until the advent of the global slave trade designed by the Popes and the Catholic Church, there were few examples in history of organized, sustained cruelty where human beings could be flogged and worked to death for profit.
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In ancient times, slaves might have been treated cruelly and even executed, but never as a pure business venture. However, under the brilliant guidance of the Jesuits, slaves from Africa and the Caribbean became the first machines of the industrial age- forced to work day and night and discarded like trash when they inevitably died young from overwork and malnourishment.
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| Industry Profile 1700 |
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| Industry |
% |
| Agriculture/Hunting |
74.0% |
| Manufacturing/Wholesale |
9.0% |
| Mining/Construction |
6.0% |
| Retail Trade |
2.0% |
| Transport/Storage |
2.0% |
| Services |
2.0% |
| Govt/Military |
5.0% |
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100% |
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In massive Church controlled plantations in the Americas, the slaves worked day and night to fuel the “enlightened age” of Europe.
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Thus the African and Caribbean slave became the prototypes of the next great work role model of the Christian world- the industrial age working class.
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