7/12/2023 0 Comments Economix tv![]() Working conditions were harsh in the English textile mills at the time, but efficient enough to threaten the livelihoods of skilled artisans. The majority of individuals were primarily concerned with meeting their own daily needs. The lower classes of the 18th century were not openly disloyal to the king or government, generally speaking, and violent action was rare because punishments were harsh. He developed a system of punched cards that controlled the pattern on the loom naturally called "Jacquard cards". The invention that sparked that revolt was the Jacquard loom which was created by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1801. When the "Luddites" emerged in the 1810s, his identity was appropriated to become the folkloric character of Captain Ludd, also known as King Ludd or General Ludd, the Luddites' alleged leader and founder. In 1779, Ned Ludd, a weaver from Anstey, near Leicester, England, is supposed to have broken two stocking frames in a fit of rage. In the Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia, usually called Brut y Brenhinedd, he is called Lludd fab Beli, establishing the connection to the early mythological Lludd Llaw Eraint. 'Lud' or 'Ludd' ( Welsh: Lludd map Beli Mawr), according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's legendary History of the Kings of Britain and other medieval Welsh texts, was a Celtic King of 'The Islands of Britain' in pre- Roman times, who supposedly founded London and was buried at Ludgate. The name developed into the imaginary General Ludd or King Ludd, who was reputed to live in Sherwood Forest like Robin Hood. Ned Ludd, however, was probably completely fictional and used as a way to shock and provoke the government. The movement was said to be named after Ned Ludd, an apprentice who allegedly smashed two stocking frames in 1779 and whose name had become emblematic of machine destroyers. The name Luddite ( / ˈ l ʌ d aɪ t/) is of uncertain origin. Over time, the term has come to mean one opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation, or new technologies in general. Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed with legal and military force, which included execution and penal transportation of accused and convicted Luddites. The Luddite movement began in Nottingham in England and culminated in a region-wide rebellion that lasted from 1811 to 1816. This left many people unemployed and angry. But when workshop owners set out to find a job at a factory, it was very hard to find one because producing things in factories required fewer workers than producing those same things in a workshop. Many Luddites were owners of workshops that had closed because factories could sell similar products for less. Luddites feared that the time spent learning the skills of their craft would go to waste, as machines would replace their role in the industry. They protested against manufacturers who used machines in what they called "a fraudulent and deceitful manner" to get around standard labour practices. The group is believed to have taken its name from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver supposedly from Anstey, near Leicester. The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery. If the book has a prime message, it's that the economy is quite understandable and when things go wrong, the effort and thinking of a whole society must be applied to bring everything back into line. Goodwin brilliantly contextualize economic theories with historical narrative, while Burr's simple but elegant illustration employs classical techniques like caricaturing politicians and symbolizing big businesses (as a gleeful factory) to help the reader visualize difficult concepts. ![]() ![]() ![]() That devotion to thoroughness makes this a dense yet quite accessible read. They tell the story of the economy starting with its first documented examination by Adam Smith and working their way up to 2011. But Goodwin and illustrator Burr argue that the economy is easy enough to understand if you break it down into bite-sized chunks, roughly the dimensions of a comic panel. Even if one doesn't consider the bleak state of the current world economy, just attempting to create a mental picture of the complex systems of market forces, government agencies, and human psychologies that drive the economy can be like trying to visualize a map of the universe.
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