Read more
This book tries to decenter work on the history of capitalism by looking at the longue durée from the tenth century; at regions as diverse as Song China, South and South East Asia, Latin America and the Ottoman and Safavid Empires; and exploring the plurality of developments over this extended time and space. The authors argue against conventional accounts that locate the origins of capitalism solely within Europe and within the conjuncture of the industrial revolution.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Kaveh Yazdani, Dilip M. Menon
- Part I: Major Debates and Controversies
- 1. Silver, Globalization, and Capitalism
- Dennis O. Flynn
- 2. New World Slavery in the Capitalist World-Economy
- Leonardo Marques
- 3. Russian Capitalism: Exceptionalism vs Global Labour Intensive Path, 1700-1914
- Alessandro Stanziani
- 4. The Cambridge History of Capitalism: India
- David Washbrook
- 5. Mysore's Pre-Colonial Potentialities of Capitalist Development and Industrialization
- Kaveh Yazdani
- 6. Capitalism's Missing Link: What Happened to Southeast Asia?
- Eric Tagliacozzo
- 7. The Birth of Capitalism in Global Perspective
- Henry Heller
- Part II: Case Studies in the Histories of Capitalisms
- 8. One-Off Capitalism in Song China, 960-1279 AD
- Kent Deng
- 9. The First Capitalist Nation: The Development of Capitalism in England
- Joseph Inikori
- 10. The Thin Line between Economic Dynamism and Social Stability: Regulation and Deregulation in Japan (twelfth to the nineteenth C.)
- Masaki Nakabayashi
- 11. The View from Early Modern China: Capitalism and the Jingdezhen Ceramics Industry
- Anne Gerritsen
- 12. Artisans, Guilds, and Capitalist Development in Cairo, 1600-1800
- Nelly Hanna
- 13. Iranian Capitalism: Exceptionalism and Delayed Development
- Rudi Matthee
- Notes on Editors and Contributors
- Index
About the author
Dr Kaveh Yazdani teaches economic history at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. His scholarly interests include the 'Great Divergence' debate and the history of South and West Asia between the 17th and 20th centuries. He is the author of India, Modernity and the Great Divergence: Mysore and Gujarat (2017).
Professor Dilip M. Menon is the Mellon Chair of Indian Studies and the Director of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa at the University of Witwatersrand. He is the author of Caste, Nationalism and Communism in South India: Malabar, 1900-1948 (1994).
Summary
This book tries to decenter work on the history of capitalism by looking at the longue durée from the tenth century; at regions as diverse as Song China, South and South East Asia, Latin America and the Ottoman and Safavid Empires; and exploring the plurality of developments over this extended time and space. The authors argue against conventional accounts that locate the origins of capitalism solely within Europe and within the conjuncture of the industrial revolution. The essays emphasize historical conjunctures, flows of commodities, circulation of knowledge and personnel, the role of mercantile capital and small producers and stress throughout the necessity to think beyond present day national boundaries. The volume contends with clichés of Western exceptionalism to make a set of historical arguments about non-Western and interconnected economic developments across the globe, prior to the era of colonialism. It argues fundamentally that the multiple histories of capitalism can be better understood from a truly global perspective.
Additional text
Recommended.
