- Share your observations about what you saw in Franklin’s autobiography and how it related to the moral/paternalist economy we described in class. Do you see places where he demonstrates capitalist values? How do you think the fact that being a printer shaped his life/career?
2. Open and read Benjamin Franklin’s The Way to Wealth. Appoint a scribe to record your thoughts in a google doc here. What is the style of this piece? What are the values that it advocates? What words/terms are used most frequently? In what way are they similar to or different from the values we see Franklin himself display in the first part of his Autobiography? Would you say this piece gives its readers a good manual on how to succeed in the capitalist world? Is anything missing? What? How might we compare this as a statement of the essence of capitalism with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations? Franklin later stated that he wrote this piece to “encourage and strengthen those important Virtues” of “Industry and Frugality among the lower People.”This work was republished more than 1,000 times in 26 different languages before 1850? Why do you think it had such an impact?
3.
Open up Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations
Do a word search for the following terms (Start with the one closes to the first letter of your last name.) How many times does Smith use this term? In what context? Do you think it is an important term to him? Positively or negatively? If you have time move on to the next word.