The paper responds to six assessments of and reactions to A Brief History of Commercial Capitalis... more The paper responds to six assessments of and reactions to A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism (2020) published in volumes 83/84 of the Italian journal Storica. The papers were put together by Paolo Tedesco, Lorenzo Bondioli and Michele Campopiano.
There is general agreement that institutional shareholders have been the major force driving the ... more There is general agreement that institutional shareholders have been the major force driving the movement for better standards of governance and accountability in corporate business worldwide. How does this work in an 'emerging' market where foreign institutional investors can establish a dominant market position but need to interact with business cultures run by local promoters and low in corporate transparency? This paper argues that while the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have established considerable leverage over Indian companies, and mounted successful pressure for modernisation of the stock market, their role in corporate governance is unlikely to be as significant as that of the domestic institutions which own substantial chunks of equity in Indian industry. The paper looks at the controversy surrounding the Securities and exchange Board of India's, (SEBI)'s, draft code of corporate governance and suggests that regulators seeking to enforce higher st...
Kaveh Yazdani and Dilip M. Menon, eds, Capitalisms: Towards a Global History. New Delhi: Oxford U... more Kaveh Yazdani and Dilip M. Menon, eds, Capitalisms: Towards a Global History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020, 397 pp.
This chapter focuses on the status of the peasantry in the late antique world, which very roughly... more This chapter focuses on the status of the peasantry in the late antique world, which very roughly spans the period from the fourth to the seventh centuries. It deals that the organisation of the Byzantine large estate was fundamentally similar to the organisation of Egyptian large estates in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chapter also focuses on the terminology for rural classes without making apparently commonsense assumptions as to who the georgoi were likely to have been. It discusses the case for permanent labour. The chapter pays more attention to the details of our evidence, referring especially to a few recently published papyri. It correlates all this evidence with whatever one has begun to learn about the organisation of estates in the more recent period, relying mainly on the work of Roger Owen and Alan Richards, and the sources they have used.Keywords: Byzantine large estate; georgoi; labour organisation; late antique world; permanent labour
Andreas Peglau: Unpolitische Wissenschaft? Wilhelm Reich und die Psychoanalyse im Nationalsoziali... more Andreas Peglau: Unpolitische Wissenschaft? Wilhelm Reich und die Psychoanalyse im Nationalsozialismus [Unpolitical Science? Wilhelm Reich and Psychoanalysis in Nazi Germany]. Mit einem Vorwort von Helmut Dahmer und einem ausfuhrlichen Dokumentenanhang, Giesen, Psychosozial-Verlag, 2013. 635 pp. – ISBN 9783837924473. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London UK
Anievas and Nişancıoğlu’s attempt to shift the terms of the debate about early modern capitalism ... more Anievas and Nişancıoğlu’s attempt to shift the terms of the debate about early modern capitalism by a major widening of its perspectives is a welcome move. Accepting this, the paper suggests that their argument can be more forcefully made if the theoretical residues of earlier traditions of Marxist historical explanation are purged from the way they expound that argument. The most ambivalent of these relates to their continued use of the idea of a ‘coexistence of modes of production’. This permeates the confused way they present Atlantic slavery. A second, comparable source of confusion concerns their description of the relationship between merchant capital and the absolutist state. The alliance between the modern state and mercantile capital is radically misrecognised thanks to an uncritical espousal of Anderson’s view of absolutism. The paper suggests that Anievas and Nişancıoğlu might have written a stronger book had they reconceptualised the economic history of capitalism by all...
This reply defends the need for a specifically materialist historiography of modes of production ... more This reply defends the need for a specifically materialist historiography of modes of production other than capitalism; argues that Marxists should see history as being driven by the state as much as it is by classes; defends the scientific value of the category ‘merchant capitalism’; and explains why Marx came around to seeing the slave plantations as part of ‘total capital’. It concludes by suggesting both that Marx allowed for different levels of determination when thinking about the origins of capitalism, and that Brenner’s account of the transition in English agriculture has now been seriously weakened by Jane Whittle’s critique of it.
To grasp current trends within capitalism without abandoning the framework of Marx’s Capital we n... more To grasp current trends within capitalism without abandoning the framework of Marx’s Capital we need to return to the category of ‘fictitious capital’ and make it central to our explanations. Based on the 2012 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Lecture, this essay combines reflections on Marx’s account of ‘fictitious capital’; an investigation of the role of bills of exchange; and an analysis of the recent turmoil in British and US banking. It looks at the way the opium trade, financed through the London bill market, integrated a constellation of interests in the City with the labour of peasant households in India as parts of a unified accumulation process. Opium was vital to the fortunes of British capitalism for most of the nineteenth century. The merchant banks that were the mainstay of Britain’s form of capitalism were also the key element in the re-emergence of global finance in the postwar period. The concluding part of the paper deals with the current banking crisis and foll...
... Bad years in fact became more frequent: for example, between 1698 an 1715 the population of F... more ... Bad years in fact became more frequent: for example, between 1698 an 1715 the population of France declined from 19 to 16 millions due to repeated crises. The persistence of heavy feudal levies led to a flight of the peasantry into wage labour or beggary. ...
... SPECIAL ARTICLE Chayanov, Kautsky, Lenin: Considerations towards a SynthesisJairus Banaji Two... more ... SPECIAL ARTICLE Chayanov, Kautsky, Lenin: Considerations towards a SynthesisJairus Banaji Two kinds of misconceptions and prejudice have come in the way of a sympathetic and correct understanding of AV Chayanov's work. ...
The paper responds to six assessments of and reactions to A Brief History of Commercial Capitalis... more The paper responds to six assessments of and reactions to A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism (2020) published in volumes 83/84 of the Italian journal Storica. The papers were put together by Paolo Tedesco, Lorenzo Bondioli and Michele Campopiano.
There is general agreement that institutional shareholders have been the major force driving the ... more There is general agreement that institutional shareholders have been the major force driving the movement for better standards of governance and accountability in corporate business worldwide. How does this work in an 'emerging' market where foreign institutional investors can establish a dominant market position but need to interact with business cultures run by local promoters and low in corporate transparency? This paper argues that while the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have established considerable leverage over Indian companies, and mounted successful pressure for modernisation of the stock market, their role in corporate governance is unlikely to be as significant as that of the domestic institutions which own substantial chunks of equity in Indian industry. The paper looks at the controversy surrounding the Securities and exchange Board of India's, (SEBI)'s, draft code of corporate governance and suggests that regulators seeking to enforce higher st...
Kaveh Yazdani and Dilip M. Menon, eds, Capitalisms: Towards a Global History. New Delhi: Oxford U... more Kaveh Yazdani and Dilip M. Menon, eds, Capitalisms: Towards a Global History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020, 397 pp.
This chapter focuses on the status of the peasantry in the late antique world, which very roughly... more This chapter focuses on the status of the peasantry in the late antique world, which very roughly spans the period from the fourth to the seventh centuries. It deals that the organisation of the Byzantine large estate was fundamentally similar to the organisation of Egyptian large estates in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chapter also focuses on the terminology for rural classes without making apparently commonsense assumptions as to who the georgoi were likely to have been. It discusses the case for permanent labour. The chapter pays more attention to the details of our evidence, referring especially to a few recently published papyri. It correlates all this evidence with whatever one has begun to learn about the organisation of estates in the more recent period, relying mainly on the work of Roger Owen and Alan Richards, and the sources they have used.Keywords: Byzantine large estate; georgoi; labour organisation; late antique world; permanent labour
Andreas Peglau: Unpolitische Wissenschaft? Wilhelm Reich und die Psychoanalyse im Nationalsoziali... more Andreas Peglau: Unpolitische Wissenschaft? Wilhelm Reich und die Psychoanalyse im Nationalsozialismus [Unpolitical Science? Wilhelm Reich and Psychoanalysis in Nazi Germany]. Mit einem Vorwort von Helmut Dahmer und einem ausfuhrlichen Dokumentenanhang, Giesen, Psychosozial-Verlag, 2013. 635 pp. – ISBN 9783837924473. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London UK
Anievas and Nişancıoğlu’s attempt to shift the terms of the debate about early modern capitalism ... more Anievas and Nişancıoğlu’s attempt to shift the terms of the debate about early modern capitalism by a major widening of its perspectives is a welcome move. Accepting this, the paper suggests that their argument can be more forcefully made if the theoretical residues of earlier traditions of Marxist historical explanation are purged from the way they expound that argument. The most ambivalent of these relates to their continued use of the idea of a ‘coexistence of modes of production’. This permeates the confused way they present Atlantic slavery. A second, comparable source of confusion concerns their description of the relationship between merchant capital and the absolutist state. The alliance between the modern state and mercantile capital is radically misrecognised thanks to an uncritical espousal of Anderson’s view of absolutism. The paper suggests that Anievas and Nişancıoğlu might have written a stronger book had they reconceptualised the economic history of capitalism by all...
This reply defends the need for a specifically materialist historiography of modes of production ... more This reply defends the need for a specifically materialist historiography of modes of production other than capitalism; argues that Marxists should see history as being driven by the state as much as it is by classes; defends the scientific value of the category ‘merchant capitalism’; and explains why Marx came around to seeing the slave plantations as part of ‘total capital’. It concludes by suggesting both that Marx allowed for different levels of determination when thinking about the origins of capitalism, and that Brenner’s account of the transition in English agriculture has now been seriously weakened by Jane Whittle’s critique of it.
To grasp current trends within capitalism without abandoning the framework of Marx’s Capital we n... more To grasp current trends within capitalism without abandoning the framework of Marx’s Capital we need to return to the category of ‘fictitious capital’ and make it central to our explanations. Based on the 2012 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Lecture, this essay combines reflections on Marx’s account of ‘fictitious capital’; an investigation of the role of bills of exchange; and an analysis of the recent turmoil in British and US banking. It looks at the way the opium trade, financed through the London bill market, integrated a constellation of interests in the City with the labour of peasant households in India as parts of a unified accumulation process. Opium was vital to the fortunes of British capitalism for most of the nineteenth century. The merchant banks that were the mainstay of Britain’s form of capitalism were also the key element in the re-emergence of global finance in the postwar period. The concluding part of the paper deals with the current banking crisis and foll...
... Bad years in fact became more frequent: for example, between 1698 an 1715 the population of F... more ... Bad years in fact became more frequent: for example, between 1698 an 1715 the population of France declined from 19 to 16 millions due to repeated crises. The persistence of heavy feudal levies led to a flight of the peasantry into wage labour or beggary. ...
... SPECIAL ARTICLE Chayanov, Kautsky, Lenin: Considerations towards a SynthesisJairus Banaji Two... more ... SPECIAL ARTICLE Chayanov, Kautsky, Lenin: Considerations towards a SynthesisJairus Banaji Two kinds of misconceptions and prejudice have come in the way of a sympathetic and correct understanding of AV Chayanov's work. ...
Text of a lecture given to the Séminaire “Lectures de Marx” at the École Normale Supérieure, Pari... more Text of a lecture given to the Séminaire “Lectures de Marx” at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris on 20th May. The French version will appear in a series published by Les éditions sociales. Cf. https://adlc.hypotheses.org/13094
Paper presented to the IISG conference "Towards a Global History of Primitive Accumulation", Amst... more Paper presented to the IISG conference "Towards a Global History of Primitive Accumulation", Amsterdam, 9-11 May, 2019. My thanks to the organizing committee, especially to Marcel van der Linden and Pepijn Brandon, for inviting me to present one of the two keynotes at the conference.
More or less final draft of a paper presented to a recent workshop on “Religion and Capitalism” o... more More or less final draft of a paper presented to a recent workshop on “Religion and Capitalism” organized by Prof. Pritam Singh at Oxford Brookes on 21 June, 2017 (with thanks to Pritam Singh, Adam Hanieh, and Barbara Harriss-White especially). A very slightly revised version of this will appear as an appendix to my Haymarket book "A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism", to be published in August 2020. Note that the Arabic transcriptions systematically omit subscript dots.
Draft of a chapter scheduled to appear The Handbook of Marxism, eds., Sara Farris and Alberto Tos... more Draft of a chapter scheduled to appear The Handbook of Marxism, eds., Sara Farris and Alberto Toscano.
(The following excerpt from Grossmann's Das Akkumulations-und Zusammenbruchsgesetz des kapitalist... more (The following excerpt from Grossmann's Das Akkumulations-und Zusammenbruchsgesetz des kapitalistischen Systems (1929) is an extract from a complete translation of the text that will be published along with other writings of Grossmann as part of a project that Rick Kuhn is currently handling. The excerpt covers pp. 490 to 530, which are part of a long chapter called 'Modifying countertendencies'.) The function of capital export under capitalism. The overaccumulation of capital and the struggle for investment spheres. The role of speculation in capitalism. (a) Earlier presentations of the problem The export of capital is a fact as old as modern capitalism itself. From a scientific point of view we have to explain why capital is exported and what role the export of capital plays in the mechanism of capitalist production.
How the West Came to Rule is a welcome contribution to Marxist debates on capitalist origins not ... more How the West Came to Rule is a welcome contribution to Marxist debates on capitalist origins not just for its sharp focus on the issue of Eurocentrism in the way capitalism is written up historically and conceived popularly, 1 but also because it sets out to develop an alternative framework to those histories. The essential feature here is its subsuming of large parts of the world outside and beyond ‗Europe' and the general argument that it is impossible to understand the true origins of western capitalism without assigning a central place to those areas of the world. Stated in this way the argument is unexceptionable, since no Marxists have seriously disagreed with Marx's view that western capitalism (capitalism as it emerged in Britain and more widely in ‗western' countries) would have been impossible without the preceding or accompanying histories of colonial subjugation, Atlantic slavery and the world market more generally. The debates have always been about how much all of that mattered and whether capitalism can really be said to have ‗started' in a single country, notably England, and somehow spread outwards from there. Both the critique of Eurocentrism and the call for a more integrated historiography of capitalism have the potential to steer future Marxist scholarship and debate away from the problematics and framing guidelines of the transition debates, not least of the one dominated by the work of Brenner and the perspectives of what is called ―Political Marxism‖. But for this shift to new ways of thinking about capitalist origins to come about How the West needs at least a preliminary critique that rids it both of its residual formalism (as I see it) and of the one or two confused characterizations this leads to. Whether ‗combined and uneven development' really does work as a framework of explanation at the level of generality at which the authors situate it (that is, beyond the dynamics of a capitalist world dominated by a mounting sense of nationality) is a separate issue that I shall leave aside for others to take up.
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Cf. https://adlc.hypotheses.org/13094