르네상스 정신의 탐색: 셰익스피어의 작품에 나타난 경제관을 중심으로 = Exploration on the Spirit of Renaissance through the Economic View in the Plays of William Shakespeare

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The aim of this paper is to research the spirit of renaissance through analyzing some economic issues in Shakespeare’s plays which deal with economic policies and systems such as mercantilism, physiocracy, enclosure, and usury. In order to achieve this aim, I referred to the spirit of the Christian faith throughout the development of the discussion, because when we view the history of human civilization, we see a religion may have a big influence on how human beings think and act.
At the beginning of the Reformation, Martin Luther urged that the church should go back to the Bible as he considered that it is the core and root and measure of the Christian faith. Although it is difficult to put forward clear evidence to support the writer’s opinion, the ideological and spiritual foundations built by the Reformation laid the groundwork in order that the Renaissance movement might be able to happen in the future. Naturally, such movements have caused humans to think carefully about their cultural origins and turn their interests towards the ancient Greek and Roman classics. In that sense, we should refer to the Christian faith when we’re dealing with economic issues in the Renaissance because the writer thought that the Reformation had a great influence during the time of the Renaissance movement.
During the renaissance period, the British government enacted mercantilist policies in an effort to increase its national wealth. Meanwhile, they thoroughly controlled international trade deals between England and other countries in order to increase import tariffs on trade. The English government implemented physiocracy policy to protect rural farmers from the evils of enclosure that could be carried out by the gentry, an emerging middle class at that time. Even though the gentry is the main benefactor and the royal family’s support base, the English government tried to regulate enclosure by establishing new laws and committees. As a result, this kind of measure came into a conflict between the authorities and the gentry. From the gentry’s point of view such moves were regarded as a kind of betrayal. It is because these measures resulted in decreased profits for them.
Studying the themes regarding economic policies, movements, and systems, the writer felt that the Christian faith during the time had a strong influence in people’s thoughts and behavior. Upon that view, the writer researched the Renaissance spirit reflected in these economy-related topics. The Renaissance spirit refers to the spirit of the Protestant faith shaped by the Reformation that was led by Martin Luther.
In conclusion, the Renaissance spirit is that spirit which is trying to be free from fetters of past errors in conventional religion in order to restore the true faith at the centre of the Bible. The spirit is a spirit to stand against the absolute power which is ready to blindly disturb the natural flow of social and cultural development in human civilization in order to keep their vested and economic interests. Under this spirit, which invokes innate human rights as its defense against absolute power, any ordinary citizen has rights freely to pursue personal development, happiness and freedom to make economic activity.

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