Robinson Crusoe and Economics

1. Carnochan, W.B. Confinement and Flight: An essay on English Literature in the Eighteenth Century: Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 1977

Rather than economics or spirituality, Robinson Crusoe is read as bourgeois psychology. The footprint turns Crusoe away from materiality inward toward himself and may symbolize the ' authorial presence' which plays an important role in the development of the novel. (Stoler)

2. Hill, William N. ' Defoe: Political Economist .' Tom Watsons Magacine New York 3 (2) (December 1905), 187-92

Hill claims Defoe was a pioneer political economist whose concerns were wellfare of the masses and republican political interests. Defoe´s influence on Benjamin Franklin is seen as a link between English and American Revolutions. (Peterson)

3. Hubener, Gustav. ' Der Kaufmann Robinson Crusoe. ' Englische Studien, 54(3) (1920) 367-98

       Comparing various schools of interpretation, the author posits a reading of Defoe and Crusoe as models of the early
niddle class. Crusoe exhibits capitalist behaviour (calculation, mercantilism,  entrepreneurialism) which is influenced by protestant ideals (reason, moderation, industry.)

4.Hymer, Stephen, ' Robinson Crusoe and Primitive Accumulation.' Monthly Review, 23 (September 1971), 11-36.

A socialist reading of Robinson Crusoe describes Crusoe as capitalist exploiter of Friday and his island, whose wealth is paid for by isolation and gained by greed, distrust and ruthlessness. (Stoler)

4. Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. Edited by Frederick Engels.
Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1926, 1: 88-91

Marx describes Crusoe as ' independent modern man ' in contrast to dependency of middle ages, who represents various models of labor and illustates value as commodities relationship to labor and use. (Peterson)

5. Passy, Frederick. ' Robinson et Vendredi ou la naissance du capital '
Reveu economique de Bordeaux (March 1893) 1-16

In a presnentation at a conference, Passy uses Crusoe and Friday to argue that labor and capital are mutually reeforcing rather than in conflict.
Crusoe posseses moral and intellectual capital, which labor (his and Friday´s) transforms into material capital. (Peterson)

6. Rousseau, Jean Jacques, Emile: ou de l´education. 2 vols. Frankfurt: {n. p. } 1762, 2:41-48

       In addition to the strong influence Rosseau had on the many retellings of thr Robinson Crusoe story, he uses Crusoe as a model of development for Emile´s education as a preparatory step for joining society and working in it-- a description of the ' division and distribution of labor ' (Peterson)

7. Schmidt, Arnold Anthony: Lost at Sea: Sailors, Slaves, and Literary Polemics. Ph.D. Dissertation: Vanderbilt U, 1994. (Dissertation Abstracts International, Vol. 56-01).

      The commercial sailor was an agent of imperialism and a literary trope whose depiction illustrates the ways literature naturalized imperialism by aestheticizing it. Robinson Crusoe is classed with the ' mercantile mariners ' and described as a personification of empire, trade and economic advancement.

8. Ward, William Randall. The Reconciliation of God and Mammon: Ethics and Economic change from Baxter to Pope (Baxter Richard, Locke John, Defoe Daniel, Mandeville Bernard, Pope Alexander).
      Ph.D. Dissertation: U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995.
     (Dissertation Abstracts International, Vol. 56-07)

       The apparent conflicts between commerce and ethics were the subjects of literature. Defoe expressed both an ethical conversatism (in his Compleat English tradesman) and very liberal attitudes when he argued that the need to survive justified ' special ethical license, ' including deceptive trade practices.

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