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Amazing AwaitsArticle Evaluation:

The Shoemaker's Holiday

Theme: artisanship & capitalism/commerce

Capitalism/commerce:

Note: still need to reorganize headings and such

Commerce
The various transactions and business interactions give way to other themes such as capitalism, social capital, and the economy for love.

Capitalism
In Act 3 Scene 1, Eyre's purchase of the heavily discounted cargo from the Dutch skipper reveal the theme of gaining at the expense of others. (link this). Eyre is able to purchase the cargo at a bargain because of "the love he (the shipowner) bears to Hans" (act 3 scene 1). However, acknowledging the historical context reveals other motivations. Towards the end of the 16th century London suffered sharp increases in food and rent prices which drastically increased the city-wide proportion of poverty. Meanwhile, immigrant populations rose which created significant tension. (cite comedy and commerce). Specifically, the Dutch were seen as a threat to the "whole commercial and maritime sector of the English economy." (social meaning of money). This situation leads to Eyre exploiting the skipper. This exploitation reveals the theme of gaining at the expense of others, and is a "triumph of capitalist enterprise" (comedy and commerce) "wealth is a fixed pie; an increase in one’s position depends upon the diminution of another’s’’ (Mortenson, Peter. ‘‘The Economics of Joy in The Shoemakers 247) and Eyre increased his position at the expense of the ship's owner.

Social Capital (link this)
Act 3 Scene 1 also reveals the inherent link between capital and class. The profit from this venture increases his wealth substantially which "enables Eyre to expand his social network" or in other words, "buys him the social capital that will allow him to be appointed alderman and later Lord Mayor of London" (Ludgate 21).

The Economy of Love
There are two attempts to exchange money for love that each speak on the commercial culture and the general power of money. The first is in Act 1 Line 76, as Lord Mayor Roger Otley gifts Rowland Lacy 20 pounds to break the love and to separate him from Rose. This gesture stems from the noble culture in England which was: "gift-giving and hospitality in order to craft connections to noblemen and gentlemen who were then obliged to reciprocate with tangible benefits such as economic aid and protection." Previous gifts included hosting feasts and financing wars, and this gift to Lacy was thought of as one in the same. This demonstrates that the Lord Mayor believes that "emotions can be purchased or compensated in a commercial exchange"(social meaning of money 343), which naturally, as the gift was unsuccessful in its purpose, turned out to be untrue.

The second attempt to exchange money for love was in Act 5 Scene 2 and highlights a class distinction. Hammon attempts to purchase Jane from her Husband, Ralph for 20 pounds. Hammon, like Otley, is of the upper class and operates under the same assumption that money can buy anything, even love, and approaches Jane not as a person but as a commodity (laboring body and community 269). This can be contrasted with Ralph's position. "Dost thou think a shoemaker is so base to be a bawd to his own wife for commodity? (Act 5 Scene 2 Line X).

Common sightings throughout different papers (Core observations/arguments (Bulleted draft)
Social capital:

"It is the commercial profits gained from the foreign merchant that enables Eyre to expand his social network far beyond the class he was born into" (341 social meaning of money).

&

"resells these foreign commodities at a considerable profit, a transaction that not only makes him extraordinarily wealthy but also buys him the social capital that will allow him to be appointed alderman and later Lord Mayor of London (21 Ludgate)

Nationalism:

"There is nothing morally opprobrious about money-making so long as it helps protect the interests of if the shoemakers and the English people in general against foreign dealers" (341 social meaning of money).

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Another issue is how at around the time the play was written (1595), there was growing animosity between English craftsmen and immigrant workers (325). rent and food prices rose and half the urban laborer population was living "in the direst poverty and squalor, on the edge of destitution and starvation." (326)

Hans was warmly received such as when Hodge puts himself on the line on the foreigner's behalf: "if such a man as he cannot find work, Hodge is not for you" (325) which would have been very strange given the circumstances of tension (comedy and commerce).

At this time there was an especially significant threat on English Commerce from the Dutch so it is further unlikely this would be the case (346 social meaning of money).

Exchanging money for love/people

Oatley gives Lacy twenty pounds to separate lacy from his daughter. "emotions can be purchased or compensated in a commercial exchange". (343 social meaning of money)

&

The economy of love and commerce

They are very separate: Hodge notes that the skipper offers the deal because of the love he bears to Hans: (the power of the personal network?)

This can be contrasted with Hammon trying to purchase Jane for 20 pounds. "many... make it even a very trade to woo" (329) "dost thou think a shoemaker is so base to be a bawd to his own wife for commodity?' (Comedy and commerce 329).

&

"Hammon’s unrequited affection for Jane highlights an economic system that thrives on desire, a system in which consumption does not satisfy want but only heightens it, playing on the lack at the heart of desire. That Jane will not sell her affection or her body does not prevent Hammon from trying to acquire her, and he wastes no time before offering to ‘‘pay you for the time which shall be lost’’ if she were to come with him (12.32)."269).

" Hammon cannot approach Jane as a fellow human being but only as a good to be purchased, as a commodity displayed within a shop window." (269). (Laboring body and community

The play is idealistic

In Paul S. Seaver’s words, the play offers a demoralized London populace ‘‘a piece of commercial escapism’’, (the laboring body and community 259).

the apparently fantastical nature of the play—its unrelenting emphasis on a frictionless process of social mobility (260).

&

"the play cannot be understood as a realistic portrait of Elizabethan middle-class life. It is a realistic portrait only of Elizabethan middle-class dreams- a fantasy of class fulfillment that would erase the tensions and contradictions created by the nascent capitalism of the late sixteenth century." 325.

Gain at the expense of others:

‘‘Dekker’s conceptual notions reﬂect those of the merchants: wealth is a ﬁxed pie; an increase in one’s position depends upon the diminution of another’s’’. (laboring body and community 260).

&

Capitalism ideally should be practiced without exploiting others (1607 Lionel Cranfield) but Eyre raises his fortune at the expense of the seller (Comedy & commerce).

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Comedy & Commerce
This play is idealistic in regards to capitalism

"the play cannot be understood as a realistic portrait of Elizabethan middle-class life. It is a realistic portrait only of Elizabethan middle-class dreams- a fantasy of class fulfillment that would erase the tensions and contradictions created by the nascent capitalism of the late sixteenth century." 325.

So, it will be important to keep in mind that how commerce related to the middle class during the time may be portrayed idealistically an unrealistically.

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Another issue is how at around the time the play was written (1595), there was growing animosity between English craftsmen and immigrant workers (325). rent and food prices rose and half the urban laborer population was living "in the direst poverty and squalor, on the edge of destitution and starvation." (326)

Hans was warmly received such as when Hodge puts himself on the line on the foreigner's behalf: "if such a man as he cannot find work, Hodge is not for you" (325) which would have been very strange given the circumstances of tension.

But this showing was all for Dekker's push for atomization and social cohesion and respect (326).

He argues that while the guild structures were put into place for enhancing social cohesion and fraternity, it became hierarchical and entrepreneurial and people were selfish and trying to get ahead. 326

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Concentrating on Eyre's cargo purchase

Capitalism ideally should be practiced without exploiting others (1607 Lionel Cranfield) but Eyre raises his fortune at the expense of the seller.

The contents were luxury items and economists argued that the money spent on them should have been reinvested in the English economy. Buy buying luxury items, individual merchants became wealthy whereas the kingdom became poor. 328

Dekker portrays the act of speculation of having great gain and negligible risk in the purchase and contrasts with actual economic situations of the times.

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The economy of love and commerce

They are very separate: Hodge notes that the skipper offers the deal because of the love he bears to Hans: (the power of the personal network?)

This can be contrasted with Hammon trying to purchase Jane for 20 pounds. "many... make it even a very trade to woo" (329) "dost thou think a shoemaker is so base to be a bawd to his own wife for commodity?'

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As Proud as a Dog in a Doublet (The relationship of clothing to commerce)
Clothing is the means in which most of the main (and many other) characters make their livings. Beyond the men in Simon's company, Eyre's wife is tasked with readying the thread for the men. Also, Jane is told she must spin and card to earn her living when Ralph foes off to war, and eventually comes to working in a sempster's shop. Those who work in the leather market are in the category as well.

It is the clothing that allows Eyre to purchase the cargo

Clothing as a form of bribery:

Eyre attempts to buy Ralph out of military service by offering captains lacy and his cousin askew all the boots they will need for seven years. Similarly Rose offers Sybil her cambric apron, romish gloves, purple stocking, and a stomacher to find out if Lacy is actually in France

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The emergence of the corporation
(more so relevant to class as its spoken about in regards to identity, than commerce)

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Ludgate, Temporal economies
credit appearing, and how even though the speculation is described only positively in the story, it is important to remember that the mastermind is Hans who was Lacy, who was terrible with his money when traveling abroad as seen in scene 1.

referencing Eyre's score:

"resells these foreign commodities at a considerable profit, a transaction that not only makes him extrodinarily wealthy but also buys him the social capital that will allow him to be appointed alderman and later Lord Mayor of London (21)

The act and nature of Eyre's speculative investment is a display of early global capitalism. Dekker refers to Eyre as a "freebooter" which is a pun that "deftly sutures the distinction between artisanal production and pirate-like capital accumulation." (22)

Credit related to the economy:

Eyre is only able to buy the shipment as a result of the credit offered to him by Hans/Lacy. Roger Oatley swears "on my credit", Firk swears "eternal credit to us of the Gentle Craft"

This connects artisanship to capital accumulation

Debt in the play:

Oatley: Ha, ha ha! I had rather than a thousand pound

I had an heart but half so light as yours

Eyre: Why, what should I do, my lord? A pound of care pays not a dram of

debt. Hum, let's be merry whiles we are young. Old age, sack and

sugar will steal upon us ere we be aware (11.18) : saying that happiness is not 100% correlated with wealth

Also, Lacy ran up his credit:

I furnished him with coin, bills of exchange,

Letters of credit, men to wait on him,... (1.21)

& figurative debt in the economy of love related to legitimate commerce:

Hans telling rose:

But since thou payest sweet interest to my hopes,

Redoubling love on love, let me once more,

Like to a bold-faced debtor, crave of thee

This night to steal abroad... (15.11)

Rose is the debtor, Hans recuperates her debt for a romantic vision of controllably profitable commerce. The interest rose pays is a happy future in exchange for his down payment of love...? The money that Hammon gives to Rose and Ralph helps them rebuild their household and have a good future.

Argues that venturing carelessly leads to to bankruptcy (Lacy when he traveled) vs venturing carefully leafs to prosperity.

While Eyre's success is all success, and how it is portrayed positively with no doubt or thought of negative results, it can still be looked at as haunted by Lacy's earlier bad credit. This new identity as Hans gives him new credit (30)

Keeping in mind Lacy's past failure combined with Eyre's success argues that there is no "certain outcome to transnational venturing. The time of global commerce always implies an indeterminate future shaded by risk" (30).

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The Social meaning of money
"It is the commercial profits gained from the foreign merchant that enables Eyre to expand his social network far beyond the class he was born into" (341). (relates back to how the transaction gave Eyre the "social capital" he needed in order to move up).

Morality of commerce and versus foreigners

"The shoemakers are more interested in maximizing their master's gain at the skipper's expense that in establishing any lasting bond with him" (342).

Locals not being fans of foreigners

"There is nothing morally opprobrious about money-making so long as it helps protect the interests of if the shoemakers and the English people in general against foreign dealers" (341).

There is a common inter-class interest of working together for the country in favor of foreign nations and people.

Bottom of 345 into 346 has more talk about "us vs them" and how that ideal operates even if the "us" don't really realize the gain of others in their grouping.

Specifically the Dutch against the English

Exploiting the skipper brings the shoemakers closer together in us v them.

Money to cement social bonds

When Ralph is drafted to the war, his fellow shoemakers offer money as a farewell gift, which is small change compared to what Lincoln gave Lacy, however in proportion to their incomes/net worth, the shoemakers' gifts are substantial.

Oatley gives Lacy twenty pounds to separate lacy from his daughter (343).

"emotions can be purchased or compensated in a commercial exchange".

Money to move up socially:

"For those who have money to spare, it is therefore paramount to spend it first and foremost on things- be they feasts or gifts- that work to strengthen existing communal bonds within the same group or work to establish strategic alliances with people of different groups. This way they can not only further the collective interests of their own kind, but also transcend the traditional boundaries between social groups and, like Eyre, venture into the world of their socioeconomic betters" (345).

Eyre would not have been able to move up if it wasn't for the purchase, and wouldn't be able to participate in the economic activity of the wealthy that can (and did) net huge gains.

He encourages his employees to be "mad like him" but they are still confined to working as shoemakers

346

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Laboring body and community
The play is a fantasy:

The Shoemaker’s Holiday as a bourgeois fantasy, a depiction of a London in which self-determination and a bit of luck is all one needs to achieve personal wealth and climb the social ladder. In Paul S. Seaver’s words, the play offers a demoralized London populace ‘‘a piece of commercial escapism’’, (259).

Capitalism is gaining at the expense of another:

‘‘Dekker’s conceptual notions reﬂect those of the merchants: wealth is a ﬁxed pie; an increase in one’s position depends upon the diminution of another’s’’. 260).

the apparently fantastical nature of the play—its unrelenting emphasis on a frictionless process of social mobility—does not obscure the darker, more problematic dimensions of the play— the economic and social realities associated with England’s emerging capitalism—but in fact works to draw them out and expose them to scrutiny (260).

Eyre has a wholesome and fraternal/artisan view:

"Thus Eyre treats Lacy’s gift of portagues not as a ticket out of the labouring class but as an opportunity to celebrate and better the lives of his apprentices."266).

"Hammon’s unrequited affection for Jane highlights an economic system that thrives on desire, a system in which consumption does not satisfy want but only heightens it, playing on the lack at the heart of desire. That Jane will not sell her affection or her body does not prevent Hammon from trying to acquire her, and he wastes no time before offering to ‘‘pay you for the time which shall be lost’’ if she were to come with him (12.32)."269).

" Hammon cannot approach Jane as a fellow human being but only as a good to be purchased, as a commodity displayed within a shop window." (269).