Do you think that the novel, Robinson Crusoe conveys an economic implication?

Question: Do you think that the novel, Robinson Crusoe conveys an economic implication? Give reasons for your answer.

Or, “Robinson Crusoe is a material man”. Do you agree? Substantiate your answer with your reference to the text.

Or, Robinson Crusoe conveys an economics doctrine. Do you agree? Elaborate on your answer.

Or, The theme of Robinson Crusoe is "I Find My Wealth All About Me.” Discuss.

Or, “Crusoe's materialism is an integral theme in Robinson Crusoe”- Justify.

Or, Discuss the use of money and property in Robinson Crusoe.

Or, Discuss money as an important theme in Robinson Crusoe.

Or Point out the economic, aspects of Robinson Crusoe.

Answer: If we just have a look at the beginning of Crusoe's career we see that he departed from his parental home being negligent and disobedient to his father's bid to be satisfied with "the middle station of (his) life," with the material purpose of "only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of thing admitted (ch-4)." In Brazil, we find his natural instincts for acquiring more land, goods, and money. "seeing how well the planters lived and how they grew rich suddenly,.... I purchased as much land that was uncaused as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and settlement"

“O drug' What art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me, no, not the taking off of the ground. One of those knives is worth all this heap. I have no manner of use for thee" (chapter-6) — despite these musings at the sight of the money comprising "about thirty-six pounds value in money, some European coin, some Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold, some silver." On the board the stranded ship, Crusoe could not resist the temptation to carry all the money with him though 'upon second thoughts! This very expression is a clear testimony of his materialism knowing fairly well, like Rosalind and Celia when they travel to the Forest of Arden in “As you like it," that money and gold will not be of any use in their new place, Robinson Crusoe took and stored the money with him and ultimately found good use of the same to serve his material purpose.

Crusoe treats everything in terms of commodity value. The clearest case is that of Xury, the Moorish boy who helped him to escape from slavery and on another occasion offered to prove his devotion by sacrificing his own life. Crusoe rightfully resolves "to love him ever after" and promises "to make him a great man". But when chance leads them to the Portuguese Captain who offers Crusoe 'sixty pieces of eight'- he cannot resist the bargain and sells his liberator's liberty into slavery. He has momentary scruples, it is true, but they are cheaply satisfied by securing a promise from the new owner to set him free in ten years if he turned Christian. Remorse later supervenes, he regrets the sale of Xury but only when he finds that he could be useful now as a slave in his expanding plantation. Moreover, immediately after his escape out of slavery from the Moors at sauce, he sells out the boat that facilitated his escape and also the leopards and lion's skin for a considerable amount of money which helped him a lot on his plantation.

He gathered a handsome amount from his two visits to the coast of Guinea and went on the third with a view to procuring Negroes to be used as slaves on his plantation. Being cast on the island Crusoe makes an account of his 'comforts' and 'miseries in terms of 'profit and loss', debtor and creditor' like a professional tradesman. The island gives him the complete laissez-faire that economic man needs to realize his aims. At home, market conditions, taxation, and problems with the labor supply make it impossible for the individual to control every aspect of production, distribution, and exchange. But Crusoe enjoys the interfered and absolute individual autonomy and autocracy in his personal empire, where he has no competitor to challenge his monopoly. Moreover, he has the help of a man Friday who needs no wages and who, unprompted, swears to be his slave forever.

In the Island Crusoe was the freehold of a rich though unimproved estate. Its possession, combined with the stock from the ship, gives him a sense of comfort and security. He is in fact the lucky heir to the labors of countless other individuals; his solitude measure and the price of his luck, since it involves the Fortunata decease of all the other potential stockholders; and the shipwreck for from being a tragic peripatetic is the Deus-ex machine which makes it possible for Defoe to present solitary labor, not as an alternative to the death sentence, but as a solution to the perplexities of economic and social reality.

That Crusoe is a materialist and capitalist is the core theme of the novel, Robinson Crusoe. He collects and gathers and expands money, gold, land, and properly in every way his ingenious and ratiocinative mind can provide him even at the risk of his life or at the cost of humanity itself i.e. the case of Xury. His personal relationships, even his family relationships are measured in terms of money. He ties himself into wedlock only when he feels fully financially secured as if he were guided by that old adage:

“Before you marry

Be sure of a house where into tarry."

Karl Marx in his Das Kapital calls Crusoe, the protagonist of Robinson Crusoe to be a potential capitalist. While Ian Watt, an eminent critic is of the view that Defoe's hero Robinson Crusoe, like all his other heroes, is an embodiment of economic individualism and he has all the characteristic features of a modern capitalist. He succeeds in creating capital and considers money more important than the love for parents, love for a woman, and even love for his own country, even his wanderlust is just because of his economic motive.

All these are sufficient to call Robinson Crusoe an economic man. He tries to make as much money from his newly built colony as possible and does not distribute the land among the settler down there but ascertains his own proprietorship over half of the island. Last, of all, he responds materialistically to the aesthetic beauty of the inside of a mere natural cave".

"The Wall reflects 100 thousand Lights to me from my two Candles; what was in the Rock, whether diamonds, or any other precious Stones, or Gold, which I rather supposed it to be, I knew not (Ch-Viii). He sees less of the beauty than of the gold, like Mammon in Paradise Lost.

"admiring more

The riches of Haven's pavement trodden Gold,

Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed

In vision beatific. (1,681-84)"