INT 200: Global Capitalism and its Discontents

From Antiquity to the Medieval World

Ancient Greece• 800 BCE to 1 CE: one of the most advanced

preindustrial economies– Prosperity and significant consumption

• Before– tribute in kind paid to a king by local peasant communities– the king supplied rations to his servants, officers, and soldiers– Chunks of silver and other precious metals used in transactions

• City States– An aristocracy dominated peasants – the former received taxes in kind (goods and services rather than

money — a percentage of the crops, usually) – and corvées (unpaid labor imposed by the state on peasants for the

performance of work on public projects for limited period of time)– peasant warriors => political rights, private property

Ancient Greece• City States: Trade and Markets

– agora, or internal market, where everyone could bring their products and sell them freely

– emporion, market dedicated to international trade– Trade networks, coins, partners– Slavery– Capitalism?

Roman Empire• Unified Market• Near Subsistence, wealthy landowning elite, urban centers,

imperialism vs. Surplus and specialization, highly monetized, network of regional economies, pax romana, Guilds (collegia) and corporations (corpora)

• Roman Law– Corporation, collegium– indebtedness of the collegium was not the debt of individuals– Property in common, officers and agents

Medieval Period

• Middle Ages (5th to the 15th century) following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire – from an economic backwater into the most advanced region in the

world – Started deserted cities and the collapse of long distance trade and

monetary system• Feudal System

– Agricultural population whose labor produced food for their lord in return for his protection

– Economy was agricultural and localized– Inhibited capitalism:

• No need to product more than what was needed for lord and serfs• force to guarantee that they were provided with sufficient food• manors were almost entirely self-sufficient, so limited the

role of the market• spent their wealth on military equipment or alliances

Medieval Period

• Crisis of the 14th Century– conflict between the land-owning aristocracy and the agricultural

producers, the serfs, brought on by demographic decline• Agricultural productivity limited because of technological limitations• weather related Great Famine of 1315–1317• Black Death in 1348–1350 • All led to decline in agricultural production

– feudal lords sought to expand agricultural production by warfare• demanded more tribute from their serfs to pay for military expenses• Some serfs rebelled, some moved to towns, some purchased lands, and some

began to rent lands

• Some large handicraft workshops but manors self-sufficient, and therefore limited the role of the market, but …– cleavage between capital and labor; growing markets for land, labor,

capital and commodities; property rights, investment, public courts