Stages of transition from peasant societies to market societies

Vectoral Chronosophy

Werner Sombart Modern Capitalism, 3 vols, Compares demand oriented and acquisition oritented types of economies 3 stages of economic systems 1. Individual Economies: total demand of an economic entity is produced within this entity 2. Transition Economies: partial demand of an economic entity is provided from other economic entities (partial acquisition) 3. Capitalist Economies: productive societies are differentiated on a world scale level and depend totally on each others

Walt Whitman Rostow, Stages of Economic Growth 5 development stages of societies 1.Traditional societies 2.Transition societies 3.Period of economic take-off 4.Industrial stage 5.Mass consumers societies

Karl Polanyi The GREAT TRANSFORMATION –CRITIQUE on the idea of the self regulating market (=SRM) by Adam Smith ( ) –The SRM was „the fount and matrix of the system,“ the „innovation which gave rise to a specific civilization.“ Karl Polanyi 1944: The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our Time. (Boston: Beacon Press 1957: p3)

Transformation humans land/ nature human labour force means of production Market organization of economic activity is the natural state of human affairs CREATION OF LATE 18th AND EARLY 19th century BRITISH THOUGHT

The idea of the dominance of markets The market organiszation is the very organization of human life At markets capital goods labour forces are visible as well as paid services

Activities of Subsistence  Commodities Eating Healing Learning Housing ACITIVITIES Nutrition Medicine Schools Accommodation NEEDS

Unpaid reproductive activites? informal work child work illegal work homework subsistence work = peasant‘s work

Market Societies Originated from the practice of the ENCLOSURE OF THE COMMONS The market economy has expanded primarily by enabling state and commercial interests to gain control of territory that has traditionally used and cherished by others, and by transforming that territory – together with the people themselves – into expandable RESOURCES OF EXPLOTATION Establishment of the Global Economy  Establishment of the Global Economy

Global Economy had to established simoultaneously In the CENTERS In the PERIPHERIES COMMODIFICATION COLONIALIZATION

Target of this new global Economy (= World System) Continued Accumulation of Capital All results of human work are converted into commodities = COMMODIFICATION Continued submission of all life spheres to the the new order of production of commodities

COMMODIFICATION (Karl Marx) Definition –„In Marxist political economy, commodification takes place when economic value is assigned to something that traditionally would not be considered in economic terms, for example, an idea, identity, gender.“ (wikipedia) Before 1400 land and work were not considered to be commodities.

Process of Enclosure in the Center (Britain) 1235 Statute of Merton Necessity „to approve“ (=improve) land In order to increase the profit share of land lords system of „open-field“ = communally managed strips of arable land Commons: pastures, heathland (Heide), swamp (Moore), forests Nutzungs-Rechte: estovers (fuelwood) turbary (peat cutting = Torfstechen) pannage (turning pigs into the wood)

Development as Enclosures in the Center -- accelerating in the 19th century land-lords engaged and gained importance in the expansion processes Privatization of land, commons and rights of use  Modernization of Agriculture PEASANTS  day-laborer in extending farms  day-laborer in the manufactures  migration into zones of capitalist production (mirgartion into cities) SEMIPROLETARIZATION

Development as Enclosures at the Periphery Dispossession: standard practice was to declare all “uncultivated” land to be the property of the colonial administration Forced Labor: In the early years of colonial rule, indigenous labor could only be recruited by force. Taxed into the market by building up a cash economy: To meet their tax obligations, rural people had to sell their labor or to grow crops for sale

Center Periphery

Center Periphery within the Centers

Periphery is a social category e.g. all people who cannot effort a living wage  partly excluded from the market

Sugar boiling-house in the 19th century  capitalist mode of production

The iceberg-model of formal economy Market oriented activities: capital and wage labor Informal work and services Subsistence work by peasants Household work Colonies Nature ___________________________