1460 Apr 05

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Consumerism * Effect of tobacco * Much of England’s money supply was going to the Americas due to the trade of tobacco * England was worried about losing money supply; led to shift to capitalism; out of Feudalism, shift to mercantilism * Taxes got some of money from colonies back to England * Try to get bulk of money back to England * Raw materials were shifted to England; England would use raw materials to make products to sell back to colonies * King and Aristocracy did not want class mobility * The shift to this new economic strategy focused on trade needed to reward the working class * This idea of individual rights * Encouraging the ego, feeding the ego, individuality, you want this > buy it * Buying what you want gives new idea of sense of self, what I want is important, the more they want the more they get that * King is weary of individualism * Mercantilism * King can have control of economy; can declare the halting of tobacco products (to stop trade and money leaving England) * People would respond w/ smuggling; John Hancock was a famous smuggler whose ship was confiscated by the King * Spain * Huge amounts of gold and silver * Sir Walter Raleigh and Roanoke colony * Roanoke colony was abandoned after Raleigh did not return for two years * Fate of colony never discovered * Joint Stock Company * New financial structure to try to limit risk of colonization * Selling of stock in company
* Joint stock companies are created by * Parliament granted this to you, passing of law OR * King establishes through royal charter * Jamestown * Virginia stock company * Plymouth was a joint stock company * Consumer Revolution - The effect of Mercantilism on Consumerism * The demand for consumer goods would increase, consumerism embraced * Replaces old system of what people bought * Needs (Past) vs Want (Present) * Mercantilism > Consumerism> Industrialism * Consumer Revolution powerful in America bc of no well defined social rank * Need for Fashionable and Portable goods * FASHIONABLE * Cycle of goods that are in and out of trends * Being fashionable shows of your wealth; shows your class; CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION * Rising standard of living led to flaunting of wealth * Wealthy wanted stuff that went out of fashion quickly; they can keep up w/ current fashions and feel superior amongst others who aren’t as current * Creates NAME BRAND RECOGNITION * Must know how to use products; creation of schools for manners * Ex. > what forks and glasses to use * PORTABLE * Good to take with you, mobile * Industrialism - industrial revolution * Starts in England bc americans demand of consumer goods * Enlightenment and roots of American revolution found in consumerism; * John Locke > Life, Liberty and PROPERTY * New social roles from Consumerism
* Everyone trying to reach the next level of the social class * Uniquely American products * Tobacco * Luxury good; relatively inexpensive therefore different classes can participate * Smoking pipes can be used to signal social class * Poor > corn cob pipes * England trying to maintain distinct lines of classes; however class mingling was happening due to tobacco use * Coffee * England's National drink Tea vs Americas Coffee * Tea in England * England - Tea was served in different ways to different social classes * Tea drinking settings were different for different classes * Coffee in America * Anyone can drink coffee in America regardless of classes * Coffee settings were for all classes * Drinking of coffee instead of tea was symbolic support of American colonies; ie. Boston Tea Party; source of pride; rejection of class based systems * Drinking coffee = revolutionary act * Consumerism giving women more power / more influence * Agents of purchasing; implant ideas of what to spend money on * This increases her status in society because women can decide where money is going; cash flow = power * Men still make final decisions w/ money * Two major impacts of consumerism * CLASS INTERMINGLING * Gives colonial character distinct differences from Europe; lays foundations for revolution; more individual identity * CONSUMER CULTURE * Wants over needs * Advertising evolves * Feeding of individual wants in advertising

Rough Transcription¶

Exam when is it Monday good do you show up no how long do you have to take it and take it anytime during the day as long as you get it done within that 24-hour period window you should be fine it opens at 12:00 a.m. Closes at 11:59 p.m. So get done sometime during that period of time when okay so we have finished with the religion section and today we are starting consumers so we're starting the material for exam number three all right colonization in America starts when the Western world is beginning to transition from one economic system to another the system that they were in for years and years and it's not just the Western world really this old start the transition of most of the the rest of the world as well but the system that they were in was feudalism now does anybody know what feudalism is heard the term I'm sure but actually knowing what it is and why it's you know what what the economic system is based on is something that you may not have covered so let's talk about it utilism was where the land production is the source of wealth for a country in other words how much crops it grows and the taxation of the people comes in the form of X percentage of their props that's how they get taxed so the peasantry is growing crops and they have to pay so much to their local Lord and then there's a regional Lord who's above them and then there's the king above them and everybody gets a cut of the taxes that are being put on The Peasants and The Peasants get whatever is left over when times are okay the peasants at least have enough to eat when taxes get too high it puts the peasantry in a position where they're facing possible starvation and as a result of that a beautiful system is always right on the verge of instability because it is incredibly expensive to run the country and if they push the peasantry too far by taxing too much it causes peasant revolts so let's say you have a piece of land there's your country and you have X amount of governing expenses okay if you have a war what happens to your expenses so that's typically when the peasantry says were the peasantry ends up having to pay more taxes so let's say the peasantry is already paying what maybe 60%. That's usually about where they tax The Peasants at it's about 60%, but they just had a war so now they're texting him at 80% so the peasants have only this much to stay alive instead of the whole amount and that can be really problematic now if you are a king and you need more tax income you can only push the peasantry just so far before they break so how do you get more taxes if you are the king if you tax land what do you have to do you have to get more land okay how do you get more land if you are a country you have to conquer so you go to your neighbor and you try to slice off that much of their land and as a result throughout the feudal period you have a constant state of one country going to war with another in order to try to get a piece of their land if you take a look at the Roman Empire the Roman Empires are really good example of this they would expand but then they'd have to pay for their Wars with more taxes well they ran out of people to tax the people are already pushed to their limit so the only thing that they can do is expand they take over more land the problem is by the time they have conquered this land that would have meant their old expenses but now you have another War to pay for so suddenly you have even higher expenses which means you have to go to war with somebody else and take that much land but then again by the time you get this you only have enough to pay for the expenses there so you have to stay in a constant state of expansion as soon as you stop expanding your Empire will fall apart that was the problem with Rome that's the big weakness with land-based Empires now it was bad enough when people fought Wars with swords and armor if you have a sword do you have to replace it every time you have another War yes no what do you think will this sword kill somebody 200 years from now will that work assuming you keep the rust off sure the sword all you have to do is make sure it's sharp it'll kill okay but what happens when they start getting into gunpowder base weapons the technology is constantly changing and every time the the stuff changes before when you have swords you had Spears you had stuff like that you didn't have to replace your weapons every time you had a war you can just use the same old ones you have but now Warfare has changed and every time they go to war they're going to war with increased technology and if something changes to throw the balance off between you and your and you and your opponents then all of a sudden you have to replace not just the broken weapons the few weapons along the way you have to replace all of the weapons and that becomes incredibly expensive so basically Warfare is becoming too expensive for this for this system to survive so when they go colonizing they're looking for financial resources Spain finds them now what is Spain actually looking for when they go exploring the world what is it the Portugal got do you guys remember they're not Portugal doesn't find gold Portugal goes after China they're trying to get the Chinese tree and China is kind of The Big Brass Ring in the sky they've got silk they've got all kinds of great products if you can monopolize the trade with China you're doing great so Portugal goes after that Spain sees the Portugal cut off the Eastern route and they try to find an alternate route they say well all we have to do is go west and we'll hit China did they well if they went far enough they would have but instead they run into the Americas they didn't know that they were there so that's Columbus when they get there however they say well we found something new maybe we should look around a bit and lo and behold that's when they realize the Aztecs have all these plates made of gold interesting possibility and they start looking around and lo and behold there's gold and silver all over the places that they go into Mexico lots of gold and silver Peru largest Silver Mine ever located in the entire world was in Peru and the Spanish got a hold of it okay so the Spanish are finding gold and silver they end up being a cash Rich Empire they have lots of money and that money can help fuel future colonization England however is not a cash rich country they need money they don't have a lot they've been drained down over the years so they don't have a lot of money to pay for expeditions and when colonization starts there they initially want to go looking for golden silver they want what's Spain hats they want that gold and silver so they come make a landing where do they land Virginia is there golden Virginia nope silver no Cole they got cold in Virginia that doesn't do them any good though they need money so they start looking around say well shoot what can we use here and it was there that John Roth we talked about him establishing the tobacco economy okay so they start growing hash props it's not gold or silver but it is trade activity and there England figures out well maybe this is a solution to the problem after all why their taxes before were based on what land production agriculture but now they're saying maybe there's something else we can tax what if we encourage people to buy and sell stuff we can tax transactions we can tax trade and so they start taxing trade that's going on that's where they'll end up getting their money from so they're not getting it from golden silver they're trying to get it from trade but here's the rough okay here's England over here and then the colonies over here the colonies initially are growing tobacco okay so let's use tobacco as the good really it's any of the trade goods that are producing the cash crops don't think of the cash crops necessarily is agriculture instead think of them as growing economic products there a product to sell they're not eating what they're producing they are using it in a different way okay so the tobacco they're selling over here now here's the problem remember when I said England is cash for when they start selling tobacco what happens where's the money going the money doesn't go to England if the tobacco goes to England which way does the money go it goes this way it has to pay for the tobacco right so all the people buying tobacco are paying money that direction in England suddenly is worried that all of their money supply is going to leave the country and they're going to have a trouble getting it back so they adopt a new economic system that will emerge out of this and transition England out of feudalism they're going to move into a different type of system now what is an economy that is based on trade a trade based economy what do we call that a market economy okay what is a market economy what type of economic system this word capitalism there it is capitalism we are shifting toward capitalism but capitalism is not the first step the first step is sort of in between capitalism is free trade the government is not supposed to touch the economic system in a free trade economy let the market adjust itself that's the whole idea behind a free trade economy that's what capitalism is and if they did not come up with the mercantilis system it would have what is the Mercantile system that mercantilism they see this relationship Happening Here the colonies are sending raw materials and they're getting paid for them so the money is leaving the country they want to get the money back taxes will get some of it but they're not really interested in some of it they want the bulk of it coming back to England how do you get the bulk of the money coming back to England what's that okay you can get them to move but more people are going to the colonies than coming out so the colonies are starting to grow if the money is starting to concentrate here how do you get money out of that you sell you self you say okay let's get these people to buy stuff we have to encourage them to purchase stuff if we can sell products to them then the money products going that way finish Goods then the money will come back to England so they say okay that works we can get economic stimulation by saying okay the raw materials we get from the colonies but then we sell them finish good so the colonies essentially become a Marketplace to buy all of the products that England starts making kind of the problem with this is the mentality behind it what do I mean by that in order to start selling products they have to change the dialogue England has to reinvent itself essentially out here they have a class system the aristocracy is up here everybody else is belong they're commoners now the commoners are broken up into different classes as well you have the middle class the merchant class you have the peasantry down below and you even have surfs although by this point serfdom has been outlawed it's gotten rid of it so basically you have the aristocracy and everyone else and the lines are very firm you don't just change class in England what you are born into is what you say very little classmobility is possible but the colonies are a different story you can come over and indentured servant and one day get your own property and even become wealthy is upward Mobility possible there absolutely so here is an opportunity for anyone to try to change their life to make it better class Mobility the aristocracy doesn't want to hear class Mobility they like things staying as they are especially the king that's how the king ensures stability and so what happens here is when they create this economy where they need people to buy stuff you have to start feeding people's egos you know why I say that why their egos have to get how did people determine whether they needed to buy something or not do I need food I'll buy it do I need housing I'll buy it do I have a genuine need a survival basic that I have to purchase I'll buy it once didn't matter what you want you don't buy what you want you buy what you need all of that changes they have to start saying hey you know you want to buy this this will make your life a little better stuck in this class you're feeding the mentality of the individual you're using the language of the Enlightenment the language of the Enlightenment says you have individual rights the king doesn't want you to have individual rights the king wants him to have rights and everybody else to do what they're told the people the commoners are cogs in the machine the only people in a feudal system that matter are the earthy but now they're encouraging a system where people are giving into their desires they're feeding their ego they're feeding that sense of individuality they're saying you want this by it this is going to cause a change all of a sudden people are not just going to buy what they need they're going to start buying what they want and the more you buy what you want suddenly people get this sense of self that they didn't have before this sense that hey what I want matters what I want is important and suddenly they want more the more they get the more they want the more they want the more they will try to get that do you see the seeds of Revolution being planted here that's what's happening and the King knows it this is dangerous dangerous ground for the king to go to and so he's nervous about putting in a free trade economy where he has no control over it so what mercantilism actually is is not free trade it's controlled at any given time the king can say no we have purchased enough tobacco we're not going to sell we're not going to buy anymore tobacco this year reason being he's seeing too much money leaving England so he can say stop exporting the money we need the money here now so quit selling product from the colonies quit buying product from the colonies stop that trade the king can stop it well here's the problem with consumer goods we all like our stuff don't we you guys know it's stuff is I look around the room and see stuff I'll look at my own pockets and see stuff stop stop all kinds of stuff we've all got it and here's the rub once you start feeding that buying consumer goods is addicting you become reliant on them and the more you have the more you want it's something that escalates so these people are starting to encourage them to buy stuff well now they are buying stuff but in order to buy stuff they have to be able to sell stuff now they're thinking hey my wife wants that new table that she's been bugging me for for the last 2 years with this Harvest of tobacco I can get it for for Christmas I just have to sell my tobacco and so the guys been working hard he fills his Warehouse full of tobacco getting it ready to export Here Comes October he's about ready to fill the ship and the King says no more tobacco this year I've got a warehouse full of this stuff and I want to buy my wife that new table my kid wants the GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip I got to get them what they want and in order to get them what they want I need to sell my stuff I need to be able to sell the tobacco the king can stop that well if you are addicted to stuff what are you going to do yeah you're going to sell it illegally you're going to run around the patrols and sell that stuff there's a word for that smuggling America is a country that was founded on smuggling you guys heard of John Hancock he's famous for his gigantic signature right you know what he signed so incredibly big that he's famous for that what was that signature on that made him famous to the president Declaration of Independence yeah you know why he wanted to sign it big enough he said that he wanted the king to be able to read his name from the other side of the ocean that's why he signed it so big reason being They confiscated his s because he was smuggling John Hancock Patriot Smuggler extraordinaire smuggling was basically the closet industry of America if you owned a ship I guarantee you have dabbled in smuggling you just did at some point or another somebody's going to want trade goods illegally when the king says stop the trade you're not going to stop you're going to keep going so you're looking for other ways to make that money mercantilism was a problematic system from the start however it does open the door for the transition toward capitalism now early on there was a problem you see Spain because they were getting all this golden silver the king have lots of money that they're digging out is money they just coin it no problem so the king of Spain has lots of money to sponsor other colonization that makes sense right get all that gold and silver you can pay for more sure problem is England that is already cashed for is dealing with a king or at this particular point of queen Queen Elizabeth that doesn't have a lot of money she can't pay for all of these Colonial expeditions the first real attempt by Britain to colonize was done by Sir Walter Raleigh he tries to set up the Colony of Roanoke well he does set up the Colony of Roanoke the problem is he left to get supplies and well there's a lot of intrigue in there and really this gives you a good look into some of these behind the scenes things that happened but basically Sir Walter Raleigh got delayed for a couple years before he can go back and bring the supplies that they needed it was 2 years before he got back there and by the time he got back there was nobody left in the settlement all he found was the word croatoa carved into a tree the croatoans were a native American group so they didn't know if that meant that croatoan's attacked them and wiped them out or if they became so desperate that they went and joined the croatoans and started Living with them all they know is they never found out what happened to Roanoke it went poop and when it disappeared Sir Walter Raleigh who sunk his entire family fortune into that expedition lost everything lost it all he was broke now and so colonization became a high risk Venture yeah there was a possibility for a lot of profit if it paid out but for him it ruined him financially and others are saying you know I don't really want to take that chance to try to limit the risk so one person doesn't have to put up the entire Fortune themselves instead they can sell bits and pieces of the company to different people what do we call that what's that marketing kind of stop okay yeah this is this is selling stock so this is an early version of a corporation they called it a joint stock company but to say that it is a corporation is not quite accurate it's close if functions similarly but this is a controlled trade economy and a corporation is a free trade mechanism you see the problem you can't really regulate it under that system so when they are coming up with the joint stock company the king knows that in order for this thing to work they have to be allowed to do things on their own they can't really be cut off the way you can cut off trade from others that is a lot of risk to take if you are the king and so in order to form a joint stock company it's not like a corporation is today if you want a corporation can you go get one fill out paperwork pay the fees you got a corporation congratulations go make money but back then if you wanted a joint stock company you had to get it from one of two ways either Parliament had to Grant it to you by passing a law that created it an act of parliament to create a joint stock company or the king could establish it through a royal Charter those were the only two ways you could create a joint stock company because once you did that company can operate more or less on its own it didn't need to respond to the crown very much they had a lot of independent freedom and that's not something that the king really wanted to give a lot of no matter how much good they might provide when they go back to Virginia and try again with Jamestown it was a joint stock company that was funding The Venture the Virginia Company likewise when the pilgrims go to Plymouth they formed the Plymouth Company which was also a joint stock company so now this is become England's method of funding those Ventures joint stock company the whole idea is you can split up the risk but it means you also split the reward between whoever owns it to okay what ends up happening because of the Mercantile system is consumerism in America catches on the people in the colonies take to consumerism like a fish to water they live it they breathe it they love it consumerism is great they have an instant demand for consumer goods and the more people are making money the more they will demand more consumer goods huge demand for it the consumer build up at this point turns into what becomes known as the consumer Revolution the consumer Revolution simply put is replacing the old system of how people bought the old system people buy what they need the new system people buy what they want what babe want based purchasing versus need based purchasing that is the revolution that's going on here Revolution is where one system is overturned and replaced with another one the consumer Revolution is where the basis of how people buy Goods changes so think about what that means here in America skyrocketing so much that the people who are making those products back in England can't keep up with the demand people are screaming for more Goods we want more stuff sell us more stuff and so the people back in England are going oh my gosh I'm making stuff night and day and I still can't keep up with their demand how do I do it they said well we're making products right now on an order by order basis we need to change that we need to come up with a way where we can make lots of products in less time so how do they do that they industrialize the Industrial Revolution starts in England that's where the worldwide Industrial Revolution starts it starts in England but it starts because of America the reason they start building factories is because the Americans are demanding so many consumer goods they have trouble keeping up with the demand so they're trying to make the production more efficient so the consumer Revolution creates the Industrial Revolution this will change the world America is changing the world as they go America will be the first enlightenment Revolution that will occur but you see the seeds of that Revolution right now don't you the desire for consumer goods is promoting the individual people are saying me me a lot it's all about what the individual wants it's about there rights it's about natural law what do people have a right to according to John Locke life liberty and property they can't take your life they can't take your freedom and they can't take your stuff see how that feeds straight into this consumer impulse and see how the consumer impulse builds that it will build it up to a revolutionary frenzy this is the root of the American Revolution the king knows the danger and he still went ahead with it this is ultimately going to be why America is the first major revolution in this period and it will not be the last it will trigger a whole bunch of them one right after another for the same basic reasons other people decide that they want their stuff too consumerism the consumer Revolution is powerful in America because America doesn't really have a well defined social race in England you have the aristocracy you have a rigid class system you can't move between those classes social Mobility is not really a possibility in Europe not just in England but in any of the European countries moving between social classes is very very hard to do it's not an easy thing where you're born is where you die that's your class but the colonies are different the English colonies give people a very real ability to change their social class they can go in as indentured servants one step away from slaves and if they survive and work hard and be able to generate success over the years they can become wealthy they can be one step below the aristocracy their landowners do you know how many people in in England actually own land how many the aristocracy are really the only big landowners there's a few people outside the aristocracy own land but not many which means if you are a landowner in the colonies you're one step away from being an aristocrat that is some really heavy stuff for these people social rank is no longer defined just by titles what defines it now how do you define social rank in a capitalist Society money more money you have the higher your social rank right and so there's a new demand for certain types of consumer goods they want stuff that is fashionable and portable they want stuff that is fashionable let's deal with that word First fashion we use it all the time but let's fully understand the implications of that work what is fashion what's that okay a trend of what is in right now yeah exactly what's the in thing it's something that is current what's the implication of that today it's in what is it tomorrow it goes out now let's say you buy a new shirt and it's the latest greatest fashion you're you're buying something fashionable within a year let's say that that fashion goes out and it's no longer fashionable to wear that now in that period of time is your shirt worn out is it Rowan no you can wear that shirt for quite a while still has plenty of life in it there's nothing wrong with it but because it goes out of fashion it's seen as tacky to keep wearing a former style that's out so if you are trying to be fashionable keep up with the most current Cutting Edge fashion if you're trying to do that then even though the shirt is perfectly good you're going to buy a new shirt to keep up with the fashion yeah yes exactly being fashionable is a way to wear your wealth it's not enough to Simply have money you have to show it in a way that everybody knows that you have money in other words conspicuous consumption that's the term for that where you're not just wealthy you're planting it you guys might call it something else how about bling you know what bling is right yes but it amounts to the same thing you can call it all sorts of different terms but essentially it was something that was very common back then to Define your social rank based on the wealth that you were outwardly wearing Distributing or displaying people had to know that you had it you were flaunting that you were wearing your wealth So Not only was it fashionable it was portable you wanted types of wealth that you could take with you you want the latest greatest jewelry you want the latest greatest Fashions you want all sorts of personal products that are small that you can carry with you you want to show off that well the rising standard of living led to people wanting that wealth well if your neighbor is suddenly showing that they have something something new something that they're very proud of and they're flaunting that what might that induce you to do try to get the same thing or even one of them right keeping up with the Joneses trying to maintain your rank by competing with them you might have a car that you bought 3 years ago still is perfect s that still has the new car smell you take meticulous care of it so it always looks good and then a couple doors down from you your neighbor shows up with a brand new car the latest greatest addition of the one you bought but it's this year's model not three years ago nothing wrong with your car and yet this is what fashion drives people to do it's the competition of social rank based on wealth and what you purchase with it has the demand for the wealthy segments of society to have the latest greatest Goods they also wanted stuff that went out of fashion quickly the wealthy we're pushing for that why if stuff goes out of fashion quickly you have to buy Replacements right well the wealthy can keep up with that they can keep up with the current Fashions they can afford them but for people who are trying to compete and Holding On by their fingernails trying to keep up with you and becomes harder and harder and harder to do that with stuff goes out of fashion and you have to replace it so fashion is something that they are pushing for because it you know they well I'm wearing the latest one you're wearing last season and it's a way for them to feel Superior about their social Rank and look down on other people for their lack of social right they're looking for products that will do that one thing that comes out of this name brand recognition this is one of the outgrowths of this mentality it's not enough to have the same quality product you have to have the product from the right maker you guys know about that right you want new shoes do you go down and get the $29.99 Payless that are on sale where do you go out and get the $200 Nikes the $200 Nikes they're the status that's the name brand but you're also paying for the name aren't you you're paying for it because it is Nike or fill in the blank whatever company you want to throw up there so paying for the brand name becomes part of it also it's not whether or not you can afford to buy the goods at a certain point they will distinguish social Rank by how well you master using those goods for example let's say you buy a brand new set of really really beautiful place and you have crystal glasses and sterling silver silverware and you throw a party and invite all the wealthy people from the area to come and then when the time comes to eat your salad you pick up you pick up the shrimp before oops that immediately reveals you as opposed you're somebody who is trying to reach above their status but you can try all you want but you're just not there and instead of reinforcing your position as being up here you're demonstrating that you belong a couple notches down why it wasn't enough to own the stuff you had to know how to use it properly if you're not using the right pork for the right thing if you're not using the right glass for the right beverage then you don't know how to master the use of those products so they start having schools in manners teaching people which work to use what to do in certain circumstances and if you go to a social Gathering and you are not up on the latest etiquette that shows that you are not quite up as high as others also you ever been to somebody's house and they have a piano and you say wow I didn't know you played I don't yeah why buy a piano if you don't play well back then having a piano would have been an incredible display well but if you can't play it what good is it you have to be able to afford the lessons to play it and more than that you have to be able to take the time to take the lessons and if you are busy earning money and you don't just have it you don't have the Leisure to actually learn how to play it properly so being able to master this is also a statement saying I have the time I have the money I have the ability to train properly and if you don't you're not as good so it's a way to promote their social Rank and look down on others for theirs new social roles come out of this type of consumerism the poor will constantly try to prove that they are higher than they are the people in the middle will reach up and try to be higher than they are everybody is reaching for another run some will be able to grab that and pull themselves up that is a possibility social climbing is possible but you got to be able to do it yeah absolutely yeah they want to protect they want to protect their family and maybe even move up socially by arranging a marriage between a daughter and a more prominent son from a more prominent family by marrying in they are able to boost their social rank through that marriage absolutely okay so let's take a look at a couple products and how they become uniquely American and at their heart revolutionary products let's start with the first one from these colonies that will become America tobacco tobacco is a really good product to look at tobacco is a popular product what do you need it no which means it's a luxury good it's something that you do for leisure you don't need it you only do it when you have down time so it's something you do for enjoyment or relaxation or whatever and it is also a product that is relatively inexpensive which means people from different classes can all partake in it equally they just they display their social rank in other ways for example if you are consuming tobacco can you think of a way that they might display their social rank nice pipes absolutely have you ever seen that movie American treasure a lot of people are going no some people are naughty one of the key things in that movie was this really elaborately carved height called amirsham pipe that became a key for a certain lock in the thing but the key here was that pipe that type of really luxurious elaborate beautiful pipe it's clearly the pipe of somebody incredibly wealthy it is a piece of art that you are smoking tobacco out of you holler up a fragment of the corn cob put us a twig on it that has a hole in the middle of it and you have a pipe not too big not too big of a deal you can make those yourself but everybody can partake in that tobacco can't they it's not really something that limits you based on how much money you have there are ways to display your social rank but tobacco with something that can be enjoyed by people across class lines and therein lies the product that is dangerous to England England is trying to maintain this status class divisions that are very rigid but the American colonies are fluid social Mobility is possible in England it's not class intermingling is happening when people partake in tobacco you can display by the types of products you have with it what your wealth is if people are chewing tobacco you might have really beautiful elaborate spoons for people to spit into if you are smoking you might have really elaborate pipes but ultimately you're both partaking in the same product another good product to look at is something that even to this day still is very uniquely in a very real way American culture when people get up in the morning and have their morning drink there are people who will have tea but by and large most people in this country have coffee that wasn't always the case what do they drink in England tea tea is the national drink there and coffee is the national drink here well all of that went back to the revolution coffee as opposed to tea tea and the way it was served was served according to your social rank there was a way you serve tea to low rank people in a way you serve tea to very high ranked people afternoon tea very pinky up and if you were in a different class you could not participate in that kind of consumption but in America anybody can drink coffee more than that in England when people gather socially to drink tea they do so in an establishment that is geared for them the wealthy go to a wealthy place the aristocrats go to a place that only the aristocracy go to commoners go to a place that only commoners go to you do not mix social class defines what sphere you are in you don't try to reach above that bad things can happen to you if you try whereas in America the coffee houses the wealthy go to them the middle class go to them the poor go to them and they can sit right next to each other in adjoining tables all in the same group so all of a sudden this class Crossing class intermingling becomes part of the consumption of this coffee but more than that the decision to drink coffee was a conscious one when England started taxing tea as a way to increase Revenue and colonists will protest that you guys have all heard about the Boston Tea Party well the fact is there were tea parties in places other than Boston they were protesting teeth and one way that you showed your support for America the colonial cause was to say you know what I'm not even going to drink tea I'm going to drink coffee instead and drinking coffee was a way of saying I support the colonial cause you're drinking tea oh I see you support the oppression of the crown coffee became a source of pride in the colonial identity but it also was rejecting this class-based system the classes were Reinventing themselves in America it really was different here in the colony than it was back in England a new social Norm had emerged here and they didn't even really fully realize it until sometimes they went back and visited England realizing wow things really are a lot different there than they are here I didn't expect that and suddenly they wake up to that whole idea we really are different coffee was a good example of that and not only did it display this class information Rebellion drinking coffee was a was a revolutionary Act you were revolting against England back in England drinking coffee and smoking tobacco we're seen as something that should only be done by the elite it should not be something that the poorer classes can partake in they try to restrict it unsuccessful the more they try the more the lower classes insist on doing it they thought it was eroding the moral fabric the moral fiber of society that it was encouraging laziness and idleness among the working class maybe it was maybe it was but things had definitely changed for the colonies versus England another thing that happens in the midst of all this is that the status of women is going to go up consumerism gives women more power more influence how does that work women become the Agents of purchasing the men are still deciding when to buy something they are the ones who control the money the woman wants a new table and the husband says no it's not time for that I don't have the money for it we're going to wait and eventually he will say okay times come we can go get that table we can go get that so go out and pick the table that you want whatever you want here's the money this is how much you can spend you go get the table so the man still deciding when to spend the money he's choosing to do it but the woman ends up being the one who actually spends it now how does that improve her status how does that give her more power in society okay they get to choose what they want and that's certainly part of it okay think of a woman going into a store and she wants to go talk to the furniture maker who's going to make her table for and she says okay I'm going to go try this one here she goes into the store the furniture makers talking to a man who's already in there and while she's waiting another man comes in and so now there's two people waiting well the shop shop owner finishes with the man and instead of dealing with the woman he starts talking to the man instead okay and how does she respond to that while I see how much my business really matters I'm going to go to that furniture maker down the street and see what they have to say and so she'll leave the shop and go to the other furniture store and this one rather than shunning her since hello welcome what are you in the market for and she tells him oh that's a nice idea hey have you thought about maybe doing this style and this stuff I like this guy I'm going to buy from him and suddenly because she is being treated better by somebody else she is voting with her pocketbook the money that she is spending becomes a way of exerting power she has a limited amount of influence but that influences real it's tangible she can choose where she spends that money and that makes a difference people start realizing hey if they want a woman's business and the women often times choose where to spend the money they need to treat those women with more respect and so the status of women the power of women is gradually going up so basically there's two major impacts that come out of the consumer Revolution that happens here in the colonies class intermingling becomes possible where back in Europe that wasn't common the class intermingling is going to give Colonial character a very distinct difference from what you see back in Europe and that is excuse me going to lay the foundations for revolution because they're going to develop more of an individual identity it's going to focus on what the individual wants eating those individualist desires the second big one is the creation of a consumer culture that is based on what you want rather than what you need people will change their buying patterns because of this you are going to see advertising evolved because of this as well when people bought what they what they needed versus what they want it they were more interested in what a product could do so that they could see if it fit their needs well I need something that does this oh well this one does this this this and this so that's what you look for but when they're selling products to People based on what they want they're going to have to figure out that advertising those products is a little bit different you don't just give them a recitation of all of the different features of that product you have to tell why they want you have to feed that ego you have to stroke it you have to kind of play into that mentality you know you want this because it does this for you you know you want that because it makes you more powerful more attractive more whatever you're feeding a concept and this is going to cause advertising to change okay that is a good getting your feet wet introduction to Consumers okay we're going to build on this as we go and show how America becomes very distinctive okay have a good week I will see you next Wednesday don't come on Monday I won't be here take your exam instead