In the middle of the second millennium of our era, beginning with the Netherlands, and then of England, there was a turn towards industrial production, which rather quickly destroyed the Middle Ages in Europe. What is the true cause of this epochal event? And why did it happen initially only in one - namely Protestant - country of Europe, and not in another or other countries, not in China or India? Convincing answers to these questions yet. Therefore, it makes sense to try to solve this problem.
Introduction.
Part 1. The conditions a turn towards the industrial production.
Part 2. Characteristics of the country - the pioneer of the turn towards the industrial production.
Part 3. Determining the cause of the turn towards the industrial production in the middle of the second millennium of our era.
Introduction
It was assumed, as early as the nineteenth century, that the industrial revolution began in the second half of the eighteenth century for reasons related to the beginning of the mass use of machinery, urbanization and the transition of an agrarian society to an industrial one, and it ended in the late nineteenth century.
A characteristic feature of the industrial revolution is the rapid growth of productive forces based on high-performance machines, culminating in the affirmation of capitalism.
All this is not so, because the industrial revolution, more precisely, the turn towards the industrial production, was confused with capitalism.
The term "the industrial revolution" was introduced by Jerome Blanqui, although the term "a turn towards the industrial production" is more appropriate in this case, since the revolution, by definition, does not last long, but the industrial revolution, as this is considered, continued about two centuries.
If the main peculiarities and "fruits" of this turn towards the industry are repeated further in other countries, then it only proves the adequacy of the turn towards the industrial production somewhere and sometime for the first time.
The turn towards the industrial production actually happened at the end of the sixteenth century in the Netherlands. And the reason for it is not directly related to technology and industrialization, which will be shown below.
It was only two centuries after the gradual development of the achievements of this turn in the Netherlands, and then in England and other Protestant countries has emerged the capitalist production and corresponding to it relations in more countries, which therefore gained the preferential development, and now are called as developed.
Thus, the turn towards the industrial production in the Netherlands created opportunities and showed ways of their realization for the emergence and the statement of capitalism.
The main feature of the industrial revolution is the transition from manual to machine labor, but in order for this transition to take place, one must first invent and implement these machines, and it in turn implies a fairly wide development of education and science.
And here "the growth of the productive forces on the basis of the large machine industry" is already one of results of the turn towards the industrial production, which is characteristic of an initial stage of capitalism, but not to the turn towards the industrial production.
The center for Science in Europe, the liberation of labor, own inventions and the implement of other high-performance machines into the economy, the leading position in world trade, book printing first appeared or became widely used in the Netherlands.
The regular mail, stock exchanges, and newspapers also appeared in this country for the first time. The Netherlands has become the center of world trade.
Thanks to religious freedoms, which for the first time in Europe were granted by the government of the Netherlands, the persecuted Protestants flocked to the Netherlands, including scientists, as a result of which the Netherlands became the center of European science, which was represented by the University of Leiden, founded in 1575 by Wilhelm of Orange, the leader of the Netherlands revolutionю
The book printing in the Netherlands has become leading in Europe.
Manual labor in most industries has been replaced by machine labor in accordance with local conditions.
In particular, windmills have worked intensively in the sawmills, paper workshops, milkchurns, in the manufacture of gunpowder.
Already at the beginning of the 17th century, 30 sugar cane refineries were operating in the Netherlands. Whole manufacturing industries related to port operations were organized. Through the whole country the enterprises for roasting of a brick for supply of numerous building sites with it worked.
In the Netherlands quickly on the basis of the shipbuilding, which is most advanced in the world, the enormous capital connected with capture of world trade by the United West Indian company founded in 1602, was formed.
As a result, income per capita of the Netherlands has become the highest in Europe.
Thus, by all indications for the first time, a turn towards the industrial production occurred in the Netherlands at the end of the 16th - early 17th centuries.
Only through certain time was it repeated first in England, then in Sweden, the USA.
In particular, at the end of XVII century, England began to overtake the world leader - the Netherlands - in terms of growth rates of high-performance manufactories, and then in world trade. By the middle of XVIII century, England became the leading capitalist country in the world in terms of economic development.
After a while, in this country, a transition to large-scale machine production had been happened on the basis of the invention of spinning machines by Arkwright, Hargreaves, Crompton (1769); the steam engine by Watt (1775); and the use of coke for metallurgy in the eighties of XVIII century.
We must assume that this material shows the difference between the industrial revolution, more precisely, a turn towards the industrial production, and capitalism, and, accordingly, indicates the time of this turn.
In this regard, the reasons for the turn towards the industrial production, proposed so far, are as the prerequisites, statements about changing one on another, or signs of a turn to the industrial production.
Consider them briefly.
A. Saint-Simon considered the transition from the feudal and theological system to the industrial and scientific system to be the cause of the industrial revolution [1, p. 5].
This consideration of Saint-Simon does not indicate the cause of the industrial revolution, but the external progressive course of the world economy.
A. Toynbee believed that the industrial revolution has started in 1760 (England), pointing out that “until 1760 in England the old industrial system was kept; no great mechanical invention has yet been implemented [2, p. 13]. At this, Toynbee states that the industrial revolution consists in “replacing the medieval system of regulation, which until now the production and distribution of wealth were subordinated, by the competition (ibid., p. 121).
Toynbee's considerations clearly state the same thing that Saint-Simone's cause, adding to it the competition. That is, he is again on positions of the external observer behind the course of socioeconomic development, without penetrating into a being of a problem, and stopping only on external signs of the process of the formation of capitalism.
The pioneer of economic history, William Cunningham, has found only the prerequisites of the industrial revolution. He had seen them at the beginning of the Great Geographical Discoveries and the struggle for the colonies, in which England has won [3].
Surprisingly, but a fact, the historians are completely unwilling to look at the root. Here and Cunningham evaded to identify the causes of the industrial revolution, noting only some of its prerequisites.
The French scientist - P. Mantoux - considered that “the industrial revolution is the expansion of previously squeezed forces, the sudden blooming and lush growth of the embryos that remained until then in a hidden or dormant state”] 4, p. 415].
This statement is about nothing at all, especially since Mantoux has not indicated, why these “squeezed forces” arose precisely in England.
The Russian historian of economics I. Kulisher has indicated a number of reasons for the emergence of the industrial revolution: the need for technical improvements and the ability to satisfy them due to the successes of the natural sciences, the dispossession of land of peasants, which has revealed the ready labor force, the appearance of prudent and initiative businessmen, the implementation of machines [5, p. 493].
All reasons, to which Kulisher has pointed out, are, at best, prerequisites of the industrial revolution or phenomena accompanying it, since each of these alleged causes has its own reason. For example, Kulisher does not explain why arose a need for technical innovations.
In turn, Marxists believe that all revolutions are made as a result of the class conflict over economic resources, attitude towards property, denoting a change in socio-economic formations.
Thus, Marxists reject the idea of social consensus, which happened not so rare.
The very origin of the turn to the industrial production is not from the conflict of classes, and from the gradual development of the social consciousness, led to the recognition of the goodness of labor and its fruits, refutes the Marxist idea of the conflictness, consisting the change of the formations.
Closest to the determination, at least, of one condition, promoting the emergence of the industrial revolution, more precisely, the turn towards the industrial production, in our opinion, was Max Weber who in the work claimed that the Lutheran sermon not only has given the impetus of Reformation , but also had an impact on the origination of capitalism, at this, the characteristic feature of Protestant communities, Weber has assumed, is the conducting commerce as a virtuous type of activity [6].
Indeed, Luther recognized labor as goodness, not only duty, but this statement of the founder of Protestantism is only a condition that contributes to the emergence of a turn towards the industrial production, but it could not produce it.
Below we will try to identify not only the conditions for the industrial turn, but also the true reason for the turn towards the industrial production, as well as the place and time of its initial appearance.
Part 1. The conditions a turn towards the industrial production.
The duality of consciousness acquired by man has led to the emergence of the most effective force, driving human communities along the path of progress, both cultural and technological [7].
The egoism of the animal (natural) consciousness in human communities was thereby contrasted to the altruism of its self-awareness, and this altruism was most vividly expressed in a culture with its diverse interests, striving for the beautiful, and religion, especially in Christianity, that in total could not but contribute to the civilizational progress.
Nevertheless, this progress was not too fast, lasting several thousand years as a result of the gradual development of the individual and social consciousness to a certain breakthrough, when it became possible, on the one hand, to “spill out” beyond the boundaries of only state to boundless terrestrial open spaces, and on the other hand, some kind of permission from religion and the state to effective and almost unlimited use of labor and its fruits without any braking in culture and in the sphere of technologies appeared.
It is known that beingness and consciousness continuously interact, not existing without each other. Therefore, without the gradual accumulation of data, the creation of appropriate conditions, a person is not able to implement his own original ideas, for example, in the technical field, even if they have formed at him.
An example of this is Leonardo da Vinci, who invented a parachute, bicycle, tank, robot, searchlight, put forward the ideas of an airplane and a helicopter, but they turned out to be unclaimed.
That is, consciousness of the highest level is powerless before circumstances if the conditions for realization of the new ideas and projects did not ripen.
What should be the conditions for the start of the industrial revolution, more precisely, the turn towards the industrial production?
It is clear that with the slaveholding system, technical solutions that increase the labor productivity were not required because of the cheapness of labor.
The structure of the economic management in the Middle Ages also did not need technical progress owing to the forced labor of laborers, in one way or another attached to the land, which were actually owned by feudal lords almost in all countries of the world.
The craft disunity of artisans in the cities, the lack of a widespread credit and financial system also did not contribute to the emergence of the high-performance equipment, which also deprived the sense of the activities of artisans. They also did not promote the development of trade, the range of which was limited mainly to raw materials and luxury goods, moreover, poverty and humiliation of almost the entire population hampered the wide development of trade relations with high turnover, the more that the lack of roads of the acceptable quality, capacious and fast freight transport, numerous borders between fiefdoms, and robbery on the roads has also hindered for trade.
Even the voyages of the Portuguese and Spanish sailors to distant continents at the end of the 15th century of our era did not lead to a noticeable industrial turn.
What then caused this turn?
It is known that freedom can be obtained only when your hands are untied.
But hands of everyone were bound by strict religious rules and restrictions, which was typical up to a certain limit for Christianity.
Confucianism in China, which established strict rules of behavior and hierarchy of social structures for more than 2.000 years, with its public ethics, political ideology, scientific traditions, unlike the rest of the world which was recognized by the Chinese, who were proud of their cultural, structural and social achievements, as the barbaric, in fact has cut off China from the rest of the world, that eventually has led Chine to stagnation.
The Confucian idea of retribution, referring only to descendants, and not affecting the otherworldly, immortality of the soul, being essentially a primitive way of thinking of the archaic type, naturally, could not contain the contradictoriness both Creation and a human consciousness. Therefore, the Chinese community was more inclined to respect the traditions, than to try to produce something new, that is, to create, which, if it manifested itself, did not receive development. The Chinese community and now practically only copies any innovations, without asking the problems of obtaining fundamentally new knowledge and new technologies on their own.
Similar strict regulations and restrictions are characteristic, acting to this day, for Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, offering the flock to live traditionally, to rely on the will of the highest powers. All these confessions impede the emergence of any new one that violates the order established, that extremely profitably for the ministers of the churches.
And since the power of the churches at that time was indisputable, nsofar any deviation from the norm was being ruthlessly suppressed
Heretics, inventors were being simply burned at the stake or they were executed by other means, as, for example, happened in Russia under Ivan the Terrible with the inventor of the glider, who flew from the bell tower with the help of the wings, having made by him. There are also numerous examples of similar "work" of the Inquisition.
However, nothing lasts forever.
Unlike the rest of the continents, in Europe from about the eleventh century a curious situation was created.
Ever since the Ancient Rome, the urban dwellers enjoyed significant privileges compared with the rural population. This tradition has not faded away in the Middle Ages. In many European countries, the urban dwellers in their status were actually equated with noblemen, municipalities were active in cities, parliaments were working, and universities were opened for young people. In particular, the first university of Europe appeared in Bologna in 1088.
All this could not but affect the growth of self-consciousness mainly the urban population, with which the feudal lords had to be reckoned, who by the beginning of the 16th century had found a common language with the urban population in an effort to abandon extortion and the omnipotence of the papacy, especially since there was a complete disintegration of the Catholic Church, expressed in the sale of indulgences - the paid diploma of the Pope about an absolution.
And here, quite opportunely for the ruling elites of the German states, appeared a German theologian, who dared to speak out not only against indulgences in 1517, but also in his address “To the Christian gentry of the German nation” who declared the fight of the entire German people against the papal domination.
Thus, Europe turned out to be the only place in the world in which the growth of self-consciousness of a significant part of the population clearly manifested itself and required finally eliminating at least the omnipotence of the papacy, shifting the emphasis of conscious existence from the spiritual into the mundane, in which undoubtedly should also be divine.
And this divine was found.
Having turning to the originals, Luther rejected the authority of the papal decrees and epistles and urged that the Bible should be the main source of Christian truths, not the church.
Luther also rejected the juxtaposition between the worldly and the spiritual, stating that God's grace is being exercised also in worldly life on the professional endeavors, since God intends people to one or another type of activity, investing in them various talents and abilities, and the duty of a person to work diligently, fulfilling his calling [8].
As a result, there was a split of the Catholic Church with the formation of several areas of Protestantism.
The idea of Luther that the main vocation of man is diligent labor, has liberated Protestant public, who appeared, allowing it to take a different attitude not only to labor, but also to its fruits, especially new ones.
In all Protestant countries the prohibition on novelties of the technology and their use was removed.
Therefore, the reason for Reformation that took place in Europe was the progressiveness of Christianity, in which, unlike other religious directions, initially in the Christ's Mount Preaching was laid the contradiction between the existing beingness and the "world" other – the best.
Naturally, sooner or later the idea of a “right” joining this better “world” should have appeared through the improvement of the existing world through effective labor efforts and their fruits for the common good that God cannot fail to notice directly.
Besides, Europe which inherited the Roman traditions and many cultural lines of antiquity generally in the cities founded still by Romans, gradually accumulated in itself discontent with wildness of surrounding, remembering times of high culture of antiquity, and keeping thereby, at least, in potency the aspiration to its samples which was expressed as a result in art of the Renaissance, the beginning of which preceded the epoch of the industrial revolution, that has become an additional push for it not only by the general increase in literacy and culture of the population, its enculturation to the beautiful in sculptures, painting and new secular literature instead of theological treatises and Bible, but also by the expansion of incoming information flows into minds, which were carrying in themselves the various ideas of creative members of communities to improve life.
And the possibility of such a life improvement was opened by the recognition of the goodness of labor.
Thus, the unique conditions, developed in Western Europe, - mostly Roman in its origin - led to a gradual growth of the self-awareness of its urban population, and, in its turn, the controversial character of Christianity, led it eventually to the Reformation, which officially recognized the goodness of work, opened thereby the gates to all new ideas and ensured the possibility of their effective implementation.
The water wheel has become widely used. It has set in motion a hammer weighing up to one ton in the processing of metals. In paper production, with the help of the wheel, the presses were raised and lowered, in mining – have lifted ore and pumped out water from mines.
On the smelters has connected the water wheel with the bellows to inject the intense air flows into the melting furnaces, that allowed to increase amount of the melted metal significantly.
Guns and guns began to cast in special forms, openings in trunks did by means of the boring machine.
The Middle Ages came to an end. Bullets easily pierced the knightly armor, the cannons destroyed the castle walls.
In addition, the mills, using water or wind as a propulsion unit, began to operate in the cloth and flour-grinding industry.
The spinning machine appeared, pulling the fiber into a thread and twisting it simultaneously, the tape units started working on weaving manufactories, on which one worker made 20 tapes of different colors at once.
Portuguese invented light and maneuverable vessels – caravels. They were equipped with three masts with direct and slanting sails and could move in the necessary direction not only at a fair wind, but also with an oncoming one.
The wide use has got the invention of Johann Gutenberg the individual metallic letters, from which was possible to make lines and pages for imprints on paper. He also invented the printing press.
In England in 1589 an industrial knitting machine was invented. The device consists of a needle with a hook, which work by opening and closing sequentially, simulating the procedure of hand knitting. In 1660 there were about 650 knitting machines, and in 1844 - about 43 thousand.
In the middle of the second millennium of our era in Europe the logarithmic ruler (slide rule), a microscope, the telescope, a silicon musket was also invented.
At the end of the 15th century Luka Pacioli suggested to make double entry in accounting.
In the 16th century in Europe were invented a pocket watch, granular gunpowder, a diving bell, diethyl ether, a wheeled yacht with sails, sealing wax, a pencil, a water closet, and a world map in a new projection.
At the beginning of the 17th century in Europe were invented an arithmometer (adding machine), a steam turbine, a caliper, a liquid thermometer, a barometer, a counting machine, and a vacuum pump.
Finally, the broadest use of credit was begun, which is the basis of mass commodity production, having making possible to fill the shortage of its own resources and bring capital into continuous circulation.
The opportunity to mass production of various goods demanded the development of trade, finding new markets for goods.
Part 2. Characteristics of the country - the pioneer of the turn towards the industrial production.
Therefore, the first country to follow the precepts of Martin Luther in the form of Calvinism (the Swiss version of Protestantism) and make a leap for capitalism was the Netherlands, freed from dominion of Spain in a long war with it. Along with that here thanks to Protestantism was eliminated shackles, fettering the use of the innovations.
In addition, the Netherlands had a hardworking, literate population, a number of large cities, including port cities, access to the sea, old traditions of navigation, a tendency to maritime trade, and could use these circumstances quite effectively thanks to the support of industrialists and businessmen by the state, which had for that time the most democratic institutions.
Thus, self-consciousness of the population of this country due to the prevailing circumstances, the main one of which, according to Protestant logic, was the new attitude to work, supported by the reformed church, has reached by that time the highest level, compared to other countries.
Citizens of this state had new interests which expanded the information flows covering them, that in itself created the forward trend in the technical and cultural relation, which did not disappear and by present time.
This “Golden age” of the Netherlands began in 1576 and lasted for about a century.
The government of the Netherlands has granted great religious freedoms to its citizens, while the rest of Europe was in fact stagnant.
From many European countries, persecuted Protestants flocked into the Netherlands, including scientists, with the result that the Netherlands became the center of European science.
This entailed the attainment of the highest level of the publishing. Christophe Plantin’s publishing house (Christophorus Plantinus) has become the largest in Europe in the 16th century, with branches in Paris and Leiden.
In connection with the participation of the Netherlands in geographical discoveries the geographical science and cartography have reached great heights in it.
The Dutch set up two services that distinguished them from other European countries that period: the regular mail and an information newspaper.
The country by its coastal provision had a remarkable trump – windmills, and their ways of use differed in a big variety. They found use during "Golden Age" for sawmills, paper workshops, milkchurns, factories for production of gunpowder. Through the whole country there were enterprises for roasting of a brick. Natives of Antwerp have created in Amsterdam several industries of the manufacturing industry, related the work-of the port. The soap factories organized by them gained the global recognition. The plants on cleaning of a sugar cane by 1630 there were already 30. The cutting of diamonds also began in the Netherlands, having revealed in full next century.
Thus, Dutch invent, introduce various novelties in life and the technical industries, paying special attention to improvement of the ships and navigation, thereby having quickly turned the Netherlands into the leading trade country of the world. In the Netherlands outstanding artists and architects appear.
Except novelties from other countries of Europe, Dutch had also own inventions: the pocket watch of Peter Hoenlein (1510), the world map of Gerard Mercator (1569), a microscope Zachariah of Jansen (1590), the pendulum clock of Christiaan Huygens (1657), lenses for a microscope Antoni Van leeuwenhoek (1673).
The leading industry of the united provinces has become shipbuilding, which brought the country to the first place in the world in size and quality of the military and merchant fleet.
The most advanced was the financial market of the Netherlands, in the cities had acting commodity and stock exchanges. However, the economic prosperity of the country was ensured by the international trade.
The huge capital, having formed rapidly in the Netherlands, is mainly associated with the activities of the United West India Company, founded in 1602, which allowed for the maximum coordination of shipping and trade, first with South-East Asia, and then with Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, South Africa.
Subsequently, this company seized trade with West Africa and America. As a result, this company was for a long time the largest trading company in the world.
The emergence of huge trading capital brought the Netherlands into the country with the highest per capita income in Europe.
The only competitor of the Netherlands at this time in trade was also Protestant country - England.
Nevertheless, the status of the Netherlands was so high at that time, that in 1689 the English parliament appealed to stadtholder of the Netherlands William III to occupy English throne.
The leading role of the Netherlands in the world was actually undermined by the victory over its army by the British in the war at the end of the 17th century. The “golden age” of this country ended, and the leading role in the turn towards the industrial production passed to another Protestant country - England.
The flag of the turn towards the industrial production was raised by more powerful Protestant England even higher, but with a delay of a century, since the recognition of labor and its fruits by goodness was hampered by a more conservative management system and a softer form of Protestantism.in England compared to the Netherlands.
At the head of the state in England was the monarch, who was at the same time the head of the independent Anglican church, although separated by the end of the 16th century under Queen Elizabeth from the Roman Catholic Church, but retained elements of Catholicism (Anglo-Catholicism), and therefore Luther's radicalism was not welcoming originally - Anglican church has taken a position between Protestantism and Catholicism.
However, the "39 articles" of the Anglican faith were imbued with the Protestant spirit, denying purgatory, indulgences, the power of the Pope, and presenting the salvation not only in one spiritual quest, but also in worldly acts, that is, in fact, removed all the restrictions, imposed by the papacy, in particular, upon the free enterprise and responsiveness to innovations in science and technology, although formally these articles repeated all the canons of the scripture.
Therefore, not immediately, but gradually both the state and the church not only stopped hindering the development of trade and industry, but also began to promote in every way the development of education, science and technology.
By the end of the 18th century, a knitting machine, a steam engine was invented in England, and blast furnaces were widely used.
The demand for metal parts of spinning machines, steam engines, seeders and other mechanisms led to the invention of turning and milling machines for efficient and fast metalworking.
The displacement of the Netherlands on the second plan in world trade and the seizure of colonies, the development of large-scale machine production has led to an increase in productivity in both industry and agriculture, and the displacement of the masses of the population from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector, gradually having turned England into a leading industrial country – the main country of capitalism of that time.
Part 3. Determining the cause of the turn towards the industrial production in the middle of the second millennium of our era.
So, the Middle Ages could be completed only under the following conditions.
Removal of strict religious regulations and restrictions, that impede private initiative, scientific and technical progress.
Recognition of labor is not a duty, but a blessing.
The emergence of a freelance and educated part of the population within a centralized and independent state.
The emergence of the first condition was facilitated by a clear disintegration of the Catholic Church by the middle of the Middle Ages, which disgraced itself by the trade in indulgences, hypocritically asserting along with that its commitment to the spiritual.
As a result, such failure of the papacy could not but cause the outrage among the educated and honest religious community.
This indignation was expressed for the first time by Martin Luther, who categorically rejected the similar intermediary between God and laymen, but he did not stop on it, and pointed to impossibility of the opposition of the earthly and spiritual, as God intends the people for this or that type of activity, putting in them various talents and abilities, and by that God carries out a certain intention.
The rejection of church restrictions and the recognition of labor as a blessing, as and its fruits, entailed the removal of the chains from private initiative and opened the way for various creative ideas, thereby having served the scientific and technical progress, including the invention and use of high-performance machines.
This kind of trend was also supported by the autonomy and enlightenment of the urban population, since in the major cities of Europe, from the 11th century, universities were functioning, as well as parliaments, and municipalities were acting.
And the greatest support for this protest was originally provided by the government of the Netherlands, freed from the rule of Spain. It was into the Netherlands that all Protestants persecuted in most European countries rushed.
There the first-ever industrial revolution, more precisely, the turn towards the industrial production also began about what it was told above in more detail.
The conditions promoting this turn at first in one Protestant country, and then and in other Protestant countries - England, Sweden, the United States are that.
Nevertheless, all these conditions, without which this turn would not take place at a certain time and place, do not reveal the cause of its occurrence then and here, especially since the true reasons, as it sometimes happens, are carefully hidden and even distant from the event.
Self-consciousness, which distinguishes man from all other living beings, was reflected in the emergence religion in human communities — the conservative part of self-consciousness, and - culture, with the inclusion of science, technology and art — the liberal part of self-consciousness.
In turn, the duality of consciousness as the main driving force of the person and his communities [7] was being expressed through religion in relation to own beingness - worldly, and to some otherworldly, who is spiritualized it, at this in culture this duality has been manifested as interest in the new, acquiring the finished expression in creativity [9].
The most piercing and clearly the relationship of the worldly (being) and the spiritual (otherworldly divine) in their insoluble contradictions was revealed by Christianity between what is and what should be.
In the Sermon on the Mount Christ has expressively outlined these contradictions, which were partially realized only after one and a half thousand years for the first time by Martin Luther.
"The poor in spirit are blessed wherefore they possess by the Kingdom of Heaven." (The Gospel from Matthew. Ch. 5, item 3).
In essence, here it says about the horizon to which each person needs to aspire because in the Kingdom of Heaven there is no property to which here all cling, there is no fight for these or those benefits. In this Kingdom all understand and love each other. Moreover, there all are as whole.
Therefore, the person who tries to reject temptations of the material world will come nearer to a state of pure spirit, that is, to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Seem, that it is impossible in our world, and those some people which try to make sincerely it, are called blissful.
If the Christian church in its main part - the Catholic - understood this statement as a person's inescapable desire from the “dirt” of the worldly to the “purity” of the spiritual, emphasizing the latter and opposing it to the worldly, then Luther has caught another facet of this allegorical thought of Christ.
He stated, that, since God created the person to strive for spiritual things and to realize this goal, he rewarded man with various abilities and talents, then only labor can be the only real way for the manifestation of this divine gift.
By this, Luther has presented labor not as some duty, but as grace, having removed here the contradiction between the worldly and the spiritual.
A confirmation of this idea of Luther is also the following maxim of Christ: "Meek persons are blissful wherefore they will inherit the earth". (The Gospel from Matthew. Hl. 5, item 5), from which it follows that the goodness is the gathering of meek people who do not have a subject for disputes and who quietly live and work on the earth for the common benefit.
Thus, it is the duality of consciousness in the form of the struggle of its lower (natural) component and higher non-natural (self-consciousness) that led to the formation of religious social consciousness, in which an attempt was originally made to completely eliminate the lower consciousness, replacing it with only by one gift from God – self-consciousness, that is, to defeat the flesh for the sake of the spiritual.
Similar estrangement from natural essence of the person could not but lead church, in particular, and Christianity, to defeat, in view of the increasing hypocrisy of her attendants, not capable to replace animal essence of the person of one spiritual, despite all efforts.
Such decomposition of Christian church in the person of her most powerful wing – Catholicism - to the middle of the second millennium of our era reached the latest edge – sale of indulgences the, that is, documents from the church power, which are temporarily saving Catholic from punishment for committed sins.
To tolerate further such profanation of faith was impossible.
Therefore, Luther suggested removing the discredited Catholic Church as an intermediary between parishioners and God, and restoring the balance between secular and spiritual, having recognized the main maintenance of life the wordly labor for the benefit of society.
Thereby, from the Protestants in the person of Luther and the liberal government of the country of concentration at that time of Protestantism (the Netherlands) have appeared some kind of the permission to receiving any "fruits" of labor and their use for the greater benefit of society, despite possible violations of the established traditions, having opened the road to discoveries and innovations.
On the other hand, the duality of consciousness in the form of the struggle of the lower (natural) component of it and the highest - extra-natural (self-consciousness) led not only to the Reformation, but also to the appearance of a significant number of creative people.
Self-consciousness demands all the time extension of information flows, which it receives for the account of the conscious transformation by people by surrounding space in the form of the change of the existing artificial and natural environment, and this transformation is got that better, than more the person knows and understands how the world surrounding him functions. Cognition demands education. Schools and universities were emerging.
In Europe, to the time of Luther's appeal, a layer of intellectuals and fairly literate people with broad interests and considerable creativity who were not given developing, forcing them to engage exclusively in theology, had formed in large cities.
Creativity is characterized by an overflow of an individual with a deep sense of dissatisfaction with own surrounding.
It comes to the person from the lowest (natural) consciousness in his striving to create greater comforts for existence.
However, this feeling is combined in a person with a higher consciousness (self-consciousness), whose dissatisfaction with insufficient social comfort, the development of science and art, reaching a high degree, requires extending the achievements of civilization and culture to all.
But the lowest consciousness dominates herewith, since the activity of these individuals is manifested mostly by instinct, without much thought, with a minimum of rationality, giving, nevertheless, the most creative persons of all living.
Having received the appropriate "permission" from the reformed Church, these creative persons did not slow down to intensify scientific research, offering as a result a lot of technical and organizational innovations.
The machine production arose, ships and navigation improved, trade revived, mail and newspapers appeared, communications between the continents expanded.
And country, in which originally all of this was manifested more intensely and quickly, was the Netherlands of the end of XVI, the beginning of XVII centuries.
To support of our theses should be noted that at the beginning of the first Millennium ad in China were invented mills, pumps, new technologies of agricultural production, as well as were invented compass, seismograph, gunpowder, paper, silk manufacturing technology, multi-tiered buildings.
However, the turn towards the industrial production there did not happen precisely because of forced labor and slavery in the Chinese community of that time. That is, in itself the manifestation of self-awareness in the form of creativity is not enough to turn towards the industry. A manifestation of self-consciousness in the form of the liberation of labor for the main population of the country is also required.
Therefore, the turn towards the industrial production took place not in China, but in Europe after one and a half thousand years. The accumulated dissatisfaction of an educated person in his self-consciousness requires more than a comfortable existence, high position in society: it pushes him through the struggle of the lowest consciousness with its primitive requirements, to a high, in this case, to a certain liberation of labor and its creative use, which became possible for the first time in the Netherlands at the end of XVI century.
And this turn transferred the slow development of civilization into the accelerated consistently in Protestant countries, and then, by their example, in many others, which led to such large-scale and impressive achievements of the human civilization by now precisely because of a certain liberation of labor.
Thus, dissatisfaction and duality of consciousness in the form of the struggle of the lowest (natural) of its component and the highest extra-natural (self-consciousness) through Christianity in the person of Luther, and through the Protestant country (Netherlands), which was determined by the high degree of development of culture and science in it, have led to a kind of resonance of the reformed Christianity and creative minds, containing in their potency technological culture,
Thereby, the struggle of the lowest (natural) consciousness and self-consciousness, having led to a resonance the reformed Christianity and creativity in the technological sphere at the end of 16th a century, turned the world towards the industrial production, having set the direction into capitalism.
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