TOPIC: Money and Property, Quiz#3

ASSIGNMENT: Visit the rooms connected to the Royal Mint and research conceptions of work and value--both literal and figural. Locate a monetary amount in the novel, and using the conversion link, calculate today's value.

Be prepared to discuss the significance of money in the novel in terms of what items are worth. Also be prepared to discuss the economic diparity between the rich and the poor.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Chief among Moll's values is capitalism. How is the theme of capitalism explored and developed in the novel? Examples? Note already within the first thirty pages the connection that is established between sex and money. Is Defoe suggesting that Moll is "preconditioned" to prostitution? If not, what is the author up to?

2. Why does Moll spend so much time discussing money and property?

3. According to what we usually regard as one of the stereotypical assumptions of middle-class morality, the poor are poor because they are morally inferior, while the rich ar rich because they are morally superior. That is, wealth (and financial security) is directly related to virtue. How does this idea seem to square with Moll Flanders? Is it possible to move from poverty ("evil," "inferiority," "degeneracy") to wealth ("good," "superiority," "virtue")? If so, how? Consider again the matter of the capitalist work ethic. Is "external" condition (or circumstance) a reliable indicator of internal (spiritual or psychological) condition?

http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html