1 00:00:01,520 --> 00:00:06,240 in this video we are going to continue with enlightenment and basically we are 2 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:11,779 going to talk about them enlightenment thinkers related with the political 3 00:00:11,779 --> 00:00:17,339 thinking and we are going to talk about the basic economic perspective in the 4 00:00:17,339 --> 00:00:22,320 18th century or the most important one at least so let's talk about this main 5 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:25,839 alignment thinkers the first one is going to be Voltaire Voltaire is a 6 00:00:25,839 --> 00:00:33,759 French thinker he is going to defend as you can see the Parliament as the 7 00:00:33,759 --> 00:00:38,640 institution that is going to limit the power of the monarch so the idea of 8 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:44,600 Voltaire is or he's supporting the British system if you remember we have 9 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:50,859 talked about parliamentarism in Great Britain and he Voltaire is supporting 10 00:00:50,859 --> 00:00:57,759 this idea the idea of a parliament limiting the power of the monarch okay 11 00:00:57,759 --> 00:01:02,979 and he also is going to defend the religious tolerance it means religious 12 00:01:02,979 --> 00:01:10,579 freedom anyone can believe in anything they want they can believe in in Allah 13 00:01:10,579 --> 00:01:16,620 they can believe in Jesus Christ etc they can believe in any type of a God or 14 00:01:16,620 --> 00:01:24,060 religious thinking. Remember, if Voltaire is in favor of a parliament limiting the 15 00:01:24,060 --> 00:01:31,500 power of the monarch is because he is against the absolute monarchy, okay? So he 16 00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:35,219 is part of the Enlightenment thinkers and he is going to support the idea of a 17 00:01:35,219 --> 00:01:39,900 parliament, okay, limiting the power of the monarch, so it means he is 18 00:01:39,900 --> 00:01:44,420 going to be against the absolute monarchy. The second Enlightenment 19 00:01:44,420 --> 00:01:48,140 thinker is going to be Montesquieu he is going to support the idea of separation 20 00:01:48,140 --> 00:01:52,659 of powers remember three powers executive legislative and judiciary so 21 00:01:52,659 --> 00:01:58,939 that's the point that's the idea he is going to support the separation of 22 00:01:58,939 --> 00:02:05,599 powers if you remember during the British Revolution in Great Britain in 23 00:02:05,599 --> 00:02:10,340 the 17th century what they this revolution is going to set the power of 24 00:02:10,340 --> 00:02:14,240 the Parliament limiting the power of the monarch and in Great Britain also in 25 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:18,860 that moment in the 17th century they are going to establish this separation of 26 00:02:18,860 --> 00:02:27,680 powers so Voltaire and Montesquieu are accepting okay and defending the ideas 27 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:34,939 or the basis of the British political system okay so they are going to accept 28 00:02:34,939 --> 00:02:38,599 this British political system they are going to accept these main ideas and 29 00:02:38,599 --> 00:02:45,610 they are going to defend them the third Enlightenment thinker is going to be 30 00:02:45,610 --> 00:02:52,409 Rousseau he is the most difficult one okay and Rousseau is going to defend two main ideas 31 00:02:52,409 --> 00:02:58,729 the idea of a social contract and the idea of popular sovereignty when we talk about a social 32 00:02:58,729 --> 00:03:09,210 contract we talk about the creation the the the to write a constitution so this social contract 33 00:03:09,210 --> 00:03:15,370 means a social contract between the ruler it means the prime minister or the king and the individuals 34 00:03:15,370 --> 00:03:24,650 the citizens of the country. So Rousseau is establishing that every country needs a 35 00:03:24,650 --> 00:03:29,770 constitution, every country needs a social contract, a constitution that is going to be 36 00:03:29,770 --> 00:03:35,370 accepted by the ruler and by the individuals and it's going to be written by the ruler and the 37 00:03:35,370 --> 00:03:43,129 individuals. So the idea of a constitution is like to have a framework, a legal framework, 38 00:03:43,129 --> 00:03:49,849 the most important law that is going to limit the power of the ruler and 39 00:03:49,849 --> 00:03:57,969 establish the rights of the individuals so when we talk about Rousseau and the 40 00:03:57,969 --> 00:04:04,689 social contract means he supported to write a constitution and a 41 00:04:04,689 --> 00:04:07,870 constitution that is going to be accepted and written by the ruler and 42 00:04:07,870 --> 00:04:13,150 the individuals establishing the limits for the ruler and the rights for the 43 00:04:13,150 --> 00:04:19,139 individuals also he's going to defend this idea the idea of popular sovereignty 44 00:04:19,139 --> 00:04:25,680 popular sovereignty means that the population of a country freely is going 45 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:33,019 to vote their ruler okay the idea of popular sovereignty is that the power 46 00:04:33,019 --> 00:04:38,519 the power that the ruler is going to have gains from the population of the 47 00:04:38,519 --> 00:04:44,040 country and this population of the country is going to elect as they have 48 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:51,040 the power they elect the ruler. How? Through voting. So as you can see Rousseau is 49 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:56,220 supporting two main ideas social contract and popular sovereignty that 50 00:04:56,220 --> 00:05:02,040 they are the basis of a democratic country. It means to have a constitution 51 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:06,439 limiting the power of the ruler and giving rights to the individuals, a 52 00:05:06,439 --> 00:05:13,120 constitution written by the ruler and individuals and also the idea of popular 53 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:19,019 sovereignty that it means that the people of the country have the power so 54 00:05:19,019 --> 00:05:24,759 that they are going to give this power freely to the ruler how voting him or 55 00:05:24,759 --> 00:05:32,339 her the last element in case we need to talk about are Diderot and d'Alembert 56 00:05:32,339 --> 00:05:38,560 Diderot and d'Alembert also French French French French and Rousseau lived in 57 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:46,560 So Diderot and D'Alembert, they are going to edit or they edited the Encyclopédie 58 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:58,560 The Encyclopédie is a number of volumes or books that they are going to gather all the knowledge of that period of time 59 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:08,399 Okay? And the idea of writing or editing this type of books is to share this knowledge 60 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:14,240 with the population that they are able to read, that they know how to read. 61 00:06:15,759 --> 00:06:20,160 Make sense? So the idea is that Hiderot and D'Alembert are going to edit the 62 00:06:20,959 --> 00:06:25,920 encyclopedia and in this encyclopedia that is going to have a number of volumes, 63 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:31,360 a number of books. What they are going to do is to bring together all the knowledge 64 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:37,360 of that time, of the 18th century, and share it with all who could read the books, of course. 65 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:45,839 Nowadays we have a really famous encyclopedia, that is Wikipedia, where you can find all the 66 00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:55,990 knowledge gathered in this web page. So here is Diderot and here is D'Alembert 67 00:06:56,709 --> 00:07:03,189 and both are going to edit the Encyclopédie. This is the first volume of the Encyclopédie 68 00:07:03,189 --> 00:07:06,069 but the Encyclopédie is going to have more than one volume, 69 00:07:07,990 --> 00:07:16,759 more than 20. And finally what we need to talk about is the economic thinking and we are going 70 00:07:16,759 --> 00:07:30,279 to see the main perspective related to the economic thinking, that is the economic liberalism. 71 00:07:32,519 --> 00:07:42,519 Economic liberalism is the main economic theory in the 18th century and this economic liberalism 72 00:07:42,519 --> 00:07:53,040 was developed by Adam Smith in his book La riqueza de las naciones. 73 00:07:53,040 --> 00:08:00,540 So this book is going to support two main principles, well here is Adam Smith, even 74 00:08:00,540 --> 00:08:04,560 you see here three main principles, it's going to be only two, it's going to be free 75 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:11,459 trade and movement and the law of supply and demand. 76 00:08:11,459 --> 00:08:17,180 So the idea of economic liberalism is two principles, free trade and movement of goods 77 00:08:17,180 --> 00:08:19,120 and the law of supply and demand. 78 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:21,560 I'm going to explain both. 79 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:26,500 The first idea is free trade and movement of goods, it means that you can move freely 80 00:08:26,500 --> 00:08:32,620 the objects that you are going to sell or you are going to trade with. 81 00:08:32,620 --> 00:08:39,820 So for example, if I want to import some products from the US, I have to pay to bring those 82 00:08:39,820 --> 00:08:47,899 products to Spain, there are going to be tolls, what we call aduanas. 83 00:08:47,899 --> 00:08:56,139 For example, if you go from Madrid to Asturias, you need to pay, if you are using the roads, 84 00:08:56,139 --> 00:09:00,100 you need to pay in a specific moment. 85 00:09:00,100 --> 00:09:06,779 Those places you are paying for are called tolls, las aduanas. 86 00:09:06,779 --> 00:09:10,899 So you need to pay for using these roads. 87 00:09:10,899 --> 00:09:17,360 So Adam Smith is saying, okay, we must have free trade and movement of goods. 88 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:26,519 It means the traders, the merchants, shouldn't be paying these tolls, shouldn't be paying 89 00:09:26,519 --> 00:09:35,340 these aduanas because they are supposed to have, it is supposed to be easy to move the 90 00:09:35,340 --> 00:09:40,620 objects or the goods from one place to the other so the idea of free trade and 91 00:09:40,620 --> 00:09:46,620 movement of goods is that it means if a trader or a merchant do not have to 92 00:09:46,620 --> 00:09:54,779 pay to introduce for example the objects or the products in a city they are going 93 00:09:54,779 --> 00:10:00,539 to go to the city more than once in order to sell their products but imagine 94 00:10:00,539 --> 00:10:09,259 in the 18th century, the cities are surrounded by a wall, una muralla, and they have a gate, 95 00:10:09,580 --> 00:10:16,320 una puerta, so if they want to cross the gate of the city with some goods, they need to pay, 96 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:23,399 okay, so imagine you are a merchant, okay, you need to pay every time you get into the city with the 97 00:10:23,399 --> 00:10:29,980 goods, so in a specific moment you are going to go once or twice at most, because you don't want to 98 00:10:29,980 --> 00:10:37,220 pay every time you go, ok, the toll, no? La aduana. So Adam Smith is saying, ok, 99 00:10:38,059 --> 00:10:46,059 banish all these tolls, ok, eliminate all these tolls, so the traders or the merchants can go 100 00:10:46,059 --> 00:10:53,519 into the city easily, so they can go more than once or twice, so they can sell all the goods 101 00:10:53,519 --> 00:10:59,940 they have they have so it would be easier for them okay to trade and it is 102 00:10:59,940 --> 00:11:06,539 easier to trade the money is going to move and people is going to be richer so 103 00:11:06,539 --> 00:11:12,809 that's the idea the other idea is that he is going to propose the law of supply 104 00:11:12,809 --> 00:11:19,590 and demand okay the law supply and demand means that if I have imagine I 105 00:11:19,590 --> 00:11:25,350 sell cell phones okay I sell phones okay and I have a lot of people that they 106 00:11:25,350 --> 00:11:31,230 want phones but I have only two so imagine I have 50 people that they want 107 00:11:31,230 --> 00:11:36,750 to buy my phones but I only have two so only two people can have a phone so the 108 00:11:36,750 --> 00:11:39,850 price of the phone is going to be higher or lower it's going to increase or 109 00:11:39,850 --> 00:11:46,649 decrease it's going to increase because I have many people that wants the phones 110 00:11:46,649 --> 00:11:53,950 but I have only two okay so I know I can increase the price as much as I want 111 00:11:53,950 --> 00:12:00,490 because one or two of these 50 are going to pay for the phone anyway okay so 112 00:12:00,490 --> 00:12:05,830 that's the idea if I have a few goods to sell but I have a lot of people that 113 00:12:05,830 --> 00:12:15,250 they want to buy the phones okay the price is going to increase but if what I 114 00:12:15,250 --> 00:12:23,409 have is a lot of goods and a few people wanting to buy the products what I'm 115 00:12:23,409 --> 00:12:28,450 going to do is to decrease the price because I have a lot of different I have 116 00:12:28,450 --> 00:12:33,730 a lot of products but a few people that they want to buy my products so that's 117 00:12:33,730 --> 00:12:41,169 why what I'm going to do is to decrease the to decrease the number to decrease 118 00:12:41,169 --> 00:12:46,409 the price so remember this the law of supply and demand la ley de la oferte la 119 00:12:46,409 --> 00:12:50,850 demanda supply means the number of goods I have the demands is the number of 120 00:12:50,850 --> 00:12:55,889 people that they want to buy my products so if the supply is high but the demand 121 00:12:55,889 --> 00:13:00,610 is low what I'm going to do is to decrease the price if the supply is low 122 00:13:00,610 --> 00:13:05,750 but the demand is high what I'm going to do is to increase the price that is the 123 00:13:05,750 --> 00:13:10,649 idea so Adam Smith is going to support the idea of free trade and movement of 124 00:13:10,649 --> 00:13:17,129 goods it means a banish the tolls and let them the woods move easy as well as 125 00:13:17,129 --> 00:13:21,990 the merchants so they can provide with these goods to the cities and other 126 00:13:21,990 --> 00:13:28,769 places easily so the money is going to move faster and the other idea is to 127 00:13:28,769 --> 00:13:35,370 propose this law of supply and demand it means depending on the supply and demand 128 00:13:35,370 --> 00:13:39,950 the price is going to be higher or lower if the supply is high but the demand is 129 00:13:39,950 --> 00:13:45,629 low price is going to be low if the supply is low and the demand is high the 130 00:13:45,629 --> 00:13:52,710 price is going to increase and thus the economic liberalism and its two 131 00:13:52,710 --> 00:13:59,190 principles. This is the main economic perspective of the 18th century and is 132 00:13:59,190 --> 00:14:07,470 going to spread through the 19th and 20th and 21st century.