Re: The Prize by Any Other Name

[Harry L Cook <hlc710@xxxxxxxx>]

My point was that modern capitalism is a system made up of several
independent institutions - money, banks, markets - and long driven by
the incentive for economic improvement, that developed and evolved quite
naturally throughout most of the Middle Ages.  They all began to come
together as the Middle Ages gave way to the modern era and climaxed with
the Industrial Revolution in England.
					Harry L. Cook

"Bruce R. McFarling" wrote:
>
> On 25 Nov 2001 20:27:51 -0800, Harry L Cook
> <hlc710@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >I seldom disagree with Henry C.K. Liu, but I  think
> >that analytically markets and capitalism can be seen
> >as evolving quite naturally throughout most of the
> >Middle Ages, at least the last two thirds.  First there
> >were markets, then merchant capitalism, the capitalism
> >of trade and exchange, then with the advent of the
> >Industrial Revolution in England industrial capitalism,
> >the capitalism of saving and investment.
>
> The question is not in the existence of markets, but
> the existence of a market *system*, including in
> particular the reliance on markets for the requisites
> of production, even when those requisites are not
> in fact produced for sale in the markets ... with
> land and labour being primary examples of such
> "fictitious commodities".  A system such as Polyani
> described could not have sprung into being instantly,
> fully formed, but involved taking existing
> institutions playing a more subsidiary role and
> modifying them to place them central to the whole story.
>
> The weakness of Polyani's story, of course, is that it
> reads as if Europe was the center of action in the
> development of these institutions, when it was clearly
> a sideshow in the development of the system until
> the conquests of Mexico and Peru gave it access to enough
> silver to buy its way into the main trade routes in
> East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean.
> It was, after all, no superior technology nor superior
> fighting prowess that established the Raj for England, but
> rather the ability of the East India company to finance
> larger armies of Indians fighting with weapons produced
> in India than the opposition could finance.
>
> It is probably no more surprising that the Europeans
> established a system without long term viability than
> the problems that the Atecs were experiencing when
> Cortes brought horses and old world diseases to Mexico.
> And, of course, the viability of the modified version
> developed afterwards is still an open question, though
> it seems more likely that a collapse will more closely
> resemble those of the Maya or Easter Island, with the
> biological sustainability failing while the society
> is preoccupied with other concerns.
>
> Virtually,
>
> Bruce McFarling, Shortland, NSW
> ecbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Virtually,
>
> Bruce McFarling, Newcastle, NSW
> ecbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx