Surplus Production In Economics
The surplus product, which is the product in excess of the amount required for life to progress emerged with the further development of agriculture. Surplus production is one of the first economic problems that human beings have faced. It emerged in the Neolithic Age and was both the base of urbanization and the beginning of social classifications.
The neolithic age, when the surplus product emerged, was the period when the last Ice age ended and the climate became much more suitable for agriculture. During this period, the foragers became farmers, transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more settled one. One of the reasons they preferred to start farming was because of the population pressure causing an increase in competition for food. Also; an effort to prepare for the dry years, the requests to trade their products with other products, preparedness for attacks, and the emergence of more products than needed as a result of the construction of irrigation channels in barren regions played an important role in starting to produce surplus products. However, the production of the surplus products has caused some people to have more goods and products than others who are part of society. The public did not like the fact that some had more products and some had less, and there were conflicts between people. This was the start of social classification.
The formation of social classes positively contributes to the economy in terms of the emergence of professions, status and competition, and the increase of consumers and sellers in the sectors. However, if considered from a negative perspective, the classification among humans brings about problems and advantages such as the conflict between people, fighting and being superior to each other, contempt, and similar. On the other hand, the state imposes more taxes on surplus products due to the need for surplus products and not necessarily to be taken. In cities with surplus products, trade increases, and as a result, more dynamism and economic growth and development occur. It becomes more developed and ahead than other cities.
Farmers commenced supplying a surplus of food that they may share with different people of their community. They started to concentrate on a selected area, alternate, and earn cash from the manufacturing of surplus. In the period when urbanization started to spread, the authorities representing religious institutions and the state-controlled the surplus product. These clergy and rulers were sharing the surplus product of the society according to their priorities. This was done to maintain order in society. At that time, those who had more products would seem superior, and these people seemed superior in society because they kept the surplus products to themselves. This made the class distinction clear, and the gap between rich and poor began to widen. This caused different classes to be affected differently by the economic crisis that occurred in the future and was a reason for scarcity.
The surplus product, which emerged with the development of agriculture while the people of the Neolithic period passed from nomadic life to settled life, caused conflict in the society despite being controlled by the rulers. As a result, surplus products have been the basis of urbanization and the beginning of social classification. This was one of the triggers for the first economic problems faced by humans in history.
- Authors: Alida Ovadya & Yasemin Yırcalı
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