Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism (The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History) by Professor Fernand Braudel (PDF)

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“In this concise book… Braudel summarizes the broad themes of his three-volume Civilisation materielle et capitalisme, 1400-1800 and offers his reflections on the historian’s craft and on the nature of the historical imagination… Taken as a whole, the book is provocative and stimulating. On occasion, it rises to revelation when two or three sentences of compressed but brilliant prose force us to reconsider the events of an entire century or the history of a continent.” — American Historical Review.

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⭐Renowned French scholar Fernand Braudel (1902 – 1985) associated with Annales School of History has focused on the economic history of the late Medieval and the Early Modern Period (from 15th till 18th century AD) in most of his work. In the mid of 1970’s, he held a series of lectures at John Hopkins University in which he presented a concise summary of his 3-volume-long work on the development of economy from the 15th till the 18th century AD in European, with some comparison to other economic systems of the same period. The content of these lectures by Prof. Braudel was later published in the form of a short book entitled ”Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism”.In my opinion, the most valuable part of this short volume is the followed concise as well as logical attempt of precisely defining the term ”capitalism”, in order to free it of the misleading, biased, and very often mythical interpretations that have accumulated around this particular word during many decades. At the same time, the author emphasizes the roles of monopolies which great capitalists (the owners of the huge capital, who were in the past, and still nowadays are, in very good relations with the ones who actually rule societies) have enjoyed and still are enjoying. Briefly, one could say as follows: these capitalists invest the capital in the broad sense (meaning, any financial resources) that is to their disposition to intervene (or using the author’s own words: ”preside or attempt to preside over”) in the production process (and subsequently the market) in order to maximize their profits. And ”capitalism” itself could be ”roughly” regarded as a ”manner in which this constant activity of insertion is carried on, generally for not very altruistic reasons” as Prof. Braudel pointed out.I would personally very strongly recommend this particular short book to those people who often use the word ”capitalism” having no genuine understanding of its actual meaning.

⭐This book summarizes the brilliant and honest (!) analysis of world-economies (the economy of economic wholes) and their patterns by the French historian Fernand Braudel. The author distinguishes three levels in human economic life: material everyday life, the market economy (public exchanges) and capitalism (private exchanges), in which capitalists intervene in the market economy.Material lifeThe history of mankind was (is) fundamentally influenced by biological powers (demographics), by progress in food production (rice, maize, wheat), by scientific, technical, industrial and military discoveries and by the creation of cities and money.Public marketsIn public economic life, trade transactions are transparent through a direct link between producers and consumers. Open competition provides self-regulation of markets and prices.CapitalismCapitalism is in fact a `countermarket’, a private market. It consists of two elements: capital (property) and the capitalist.Capital is not just accumulated money, but also the result of any useful work (agricultural land, buildings, machinery, stocks …).A capitalist is a person who uses his capital in order to intervene in public markets for selfish reasons. Huge amounts of capital are raised and used efficiently in long chains of trade transactions (import-export, division of labor), where the direct link between the producer and the consumer is broken. The capitalist becomes the friend of the princes and exploiter of the State, which allows him to distort the market in his favor. The myth of laissez faire and of a self-regulating market here is a pure illusion.The world systemCapitalism will triumph only when it identifies itself with the State. Its fate depends on its confrontation with social hierarchies: nearly everywhere the bourgeoisie, the merchants, became the backbone of the State and seized political power.Historically, the world system has hardly changed at all: the world continues to be divided into privileged and non-privileged subjects. Structurally, the capitalist system has a center (a capital) and consists of successive zones: the heart around the center, intermediate areas and peripheral zones. It continues to be based on international exploitation of resources and on legal or factual monopolies. But it does not overlay the entire economy (the market economy or the material everyday life).This analysis is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.I also highly recommend the book (in French) `Une leçon d’histoire de Fernand Braudel’, as well as his main works, like `The Wheels of Commerce’.

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