Europe's Transition Out of Feudalism | A Marxist Study of Mercantilism

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To the extent that it can be subjected to generalizations, mercantilist economic thought was the complex product of a transitional period. The particularities of the mercantilists were developed by the continuities and ruptures of a transitional conjuncture as the feudal mode of production receded into history and the emerging capitalist structure took its place. As such, export-surpluses, bullionism, state regulation, and monopolies were all the prescriptive features of a theoretical attitude driven by commercial competition.
Read the script here:
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Narration, script, and editing by M
Animated intro by Jack, co-host of the Auxiliary Statements podcast @AuxStatements on Twitter.
Intro music by Charles Tristan:
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Twitter:
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Footnote:
The definition of “conjuncture” provided by Wolff and Resnick (1979) is useful to our discussion of the mercantilist era: “A conjuncture is the social formation at a specific time and place. When a conjuncture involves the overwhelming masses of the population in one type of class relation, say feudal, then the entire formation takes the name of the primary relation: a feudal social formation. Other types of class relations present in a feudal social formation are secondary. A transitional conjuncture involves a situation where class struggles within and among class relations have developed to a point where a previously secondary class relation seriously threatens to become primary” (10).
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References:
Hunt, E. K., and Mark Lautzenheiser. 2011. History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective. 3rd ed. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Marx, Karl. 1991. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Compiled by Friedrich Engels. Translated by David Fernbach. Vol. 3. 3 vols. N.p.: Penguin Group.
Mini, Piero. 1974. Philosophy and Economics: The Origins and Development of Economic Theory. Gainesville, FL: University Presses of Florida.
Polanyi, Karl. 2001. “The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money.” In The Great Transformation, 71-81. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Resnick, Stephen, and Richard D. Wolff. 1979. “The Theory of Transitional Conjunctures and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism in Western Europe.” Review of Radical Political Economics 11 (3): 3-22. doi.org/10.1177/0486613479011....
Wiles, Richard. 1987. “The Development of Mercantilist Economic Thought.” In Pre-Classical Economic Thought: From the Greeks to the Scottish Enlightenment, edited by S. T. Lowry, 147-183. N.p.: Springer, Dordrecht.
Wolff, Richard D., Antonino Callari, and Bruce Roberts. 1984. “A Marxian Alternative to the Traditional ‘Transformation Problem.” Review of Radical Political Economics 16 (2/3): 115-35.
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Attribution:
Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
00:00:00 - 00:00:10 Opening
00:00:10 - 00:01:32 Introduction
00:01:33 - 00:03:49 Background
00:03:50 - 00:09:12 Mercantilism
00:09:13 - 00:11:23 Theory and Practice: The Mercantilist Experience
00:11:24 - 12:00 Conclusion

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16 май 2024

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Комментарии : 120

@megathai 2 года назад

Dope. I think yall need to get a better microphone 🎤 . It sounds a bit choppy and spitting. Other than that, finally a channel that isn't doing "what is socialism" for the trillionith time. We're getting into the deeper stuff. Could we have a video about how slave societies became feudalism in the first place?

@themarxistproject 2 года назад

A better audio setup would be nice, but equipment is quite expensive :/

@someesingh2827 2 года назад

Slaves became expensive commodities cuz 1) Peasants, who were earlier made into slaves if they were indebted, rebelled multiple times against it. 2) Germanic tribes became powerful confederations like Visigoths and Ostrogoths which cannot be raided or bullied into paying tribute (for slaves and other things) 3) An aggressive and powerful empire established in Iran (Sassanians) and in Africa (Ethiopian empire). This led to replacement of slavery with coloni system. This coloni system is the precursor of serfdom. Vassalage can be understood both as a continuation and expansion of Tetrarchy in Roman Empire and more so, military hierarchies within the Germanic confederations.

@pandalm7797 Год назад

@@themarxistproject I think its rather an issue of mixing. The music feels a bit too loud for the volume of the voice. Also yall could propably just start some crowdfunding for new equipment, since your content is a blessing for so many :)

@CripplingDuality Год назад

@@themarxistproject pop filters are pretty cheap. Can't comment on mics though.

@wobbenbuffet3286 2 года назад

this specific period has always been super interesting, and seeing a marxist analysis of it is awesome! understanding the slow death of feudalism is also super interesting, love your stuff man!

@jasonbenyousky4467 2 года назад

Fantastic analysis, you’re definitely growing to become one of the best of the educational channels out there

@username19237 2 года назад

Lovely video as always. I really appreciate the level on which some of your videos operate, even if I can’t completely grasp the concepts or immediately understand, it gives me much to chew on and come back to over time. Kind of like a tough video game boss that you have to revisit later when you’ve gained more experience and gear.

@carlosw1687 Год назад

Thanks very much, great explanation. Love the background music

@liyura8907 2 года назад

i have to be honest, i found this one particularly difficult to follow. a lot of terms im not very familiar with thrown out without explanation throughout the video. i'll come back to it later when im home and able to take notes and such, i think the economic systems that existed prior to capitalism is a very interesting topic and i'd love to learn about it from a marxist perspective, just seems im not there yet.

@JeronimusJack 2 года назад

i thought so too, it's maybe good for people who know about the transition out of feudalism. all those details/terms like commercial-, industrial-, etc. capital. i was wondering what is the meaningful difference. it's surely not an introduction

@danielvictor3262 Год назад

Great content as always. I'm new to the channel from the Philippines and I hope a content on Imperialism and neo-colonialism can be produced sooner or later, I want people to know how US Imperialism preserve old ruling orders of feudal landowning families not only here but mostly in the global South.

@whythelongface64 4 месяца назад

Salutes tp the CPP/NPA from India

@endTHEhegemony_Today Год назад

Sweet video, thanks for the digestability of this info. I think one of the big reasons many people dont study history or economics as adults is because the info is dense. You explain it well! 🖤💜💙💚💙💜🖤 Much love, just found your chanmel and im working through your catalog! Drink water, Comrades!!

@dalenewton8804 2 года назад

Excellent cursary explanation of the transition. For anyone that's interested in going father into the nuances of the transitions, I suggest the book I've very useful 'The Origin of Capitalism' A longer view- by Ellen Meiksins Wood.

@chiara-qx5qi 2 года назад

I really love Wood's book!

@sail2byzantium 2 года назад

I'm still not sure I understand the origins of mercantilism. A video not really for beginners, with the narration preceding a bit too quickly and too academic jargon-y in tone (I could probably do better here if I could READ this, rather than hear it at its quick and dense pace). I'll keep trying though--it has sparked my interest. Thanks for posting!

@themarxistproject 2 года назад

There's a link to the script in the description if you prefer reading :)

@pb8601 2 года назад

I have to use captioning and I didn’t understand anything. I’ll stick with Richard Wolff’s clear and comprehensible programs.

@NathanWHill 2 года назад

Excellent video. What work by Wolf and Resnik were you relying on here?

@jasonmendelli6023 Год назад

After spending a summer 18 years ago working in Stamford, Lincolnshire, I realised at the age of 31 that feudalism is alive and well in the UK

@billyherrington5112 2 месяца назад

Capitallism is dead. The future is Techno-Feudalism

@andren55 2 года назад

Great video comrade!

@Cybersyn 2 года назад

I'm really interested in a materialist history of pre-capitalist modes of production. Thanks! 🧑‍🌾🧺🐂⛵🪙

@JonathanKelly24 2 года назад

Perry Anderson and Ellen Meiksins Woods have some good texts on the topic

@Cybersyn 2 года назад

@@JonathanKelly24 thank you!!

@someesingh2827 2 года назад

Read Political Economy from USSR. It will be very appealing to u

@hybridxg2204 Год назад

The regrettable century podcast on Rome is really good.

@thesunthatneversets4579 2 года назад

The Soviet Union managed to develop centuries of raw capitalist accumulation in a few decades all while fighting two world wars, a brutal multiple front civil war, and the intervention of numerous great powers, all while starting from a mostly feudal economic base. Not only managing that, but also equaling and even surpassing the most powerful nation in human history in almost no time.

@runbychews134 2 года назад

You know they quit ww1 right?

@Gint._ 2 года назад

@@runbychews134 lol that was Tsarist Russia not Soviet Union

@MM-KunstUndWahrheit 2 года назад

Absolutely, that is what tou have to say when you primarily hear one side of the propaganda...The history of the Soviet Union circulated around the state itself, the unity of the states. It was never for the people

@hybridxg2204 2 года назад

Not that I don’t agree they achieved great development and were better than the US in that aspect, even in amount of human toll, why the hell do we have to keep virtue signaling in RU-vid comments about it? It’s not even related to the video and people are saying it. Like why is this here?

@ethanglover1579 2 года назад

The soviets also had the American and British capitalist economies supplying them while fighting WW2. They were losing until the received the help, similar to the Ukraine and Russia situation today. The Soviets also had famine and genocide as the norm in their history, including after WW2.

@phillipmackintosh8079 Год назад

Since you're garnering comments, I'll offer one. This is my "cup of tea," but I'm a prof. The narrative is so high flown that you're preaching to the choir, an elite one at that. I presume the aim, here, is to attract newcomers. My sense, from more than 25 years of university teaching, is that you lost 95% of the uninitiated from the start, with this: "To understand mercantilist thinking is to understand the historical circumstances of a transition between modes of production." The stragglers' eyes rolled up at this: "the ascriptive legitimation of feudal class hierarchies could only be an anachronism in the emerging capitalist mode of production." Might I suggest, respectfully, that you rethink who your audience is, what you want them to know, and why? Please note the comment by "Liyura," below. You have an apparent eager learner, but the video isn't accessible enough. Nevertheless, many thanks for your efforts.

@themarxistproject Год назад

Thank you for your thoughts. I struggle with this constantly and frankly I don't yet have an answer to the questions about who my audience is. I want this channel to be more accessible than academia, but I also don't want to rehash the same tired "Theory 101" information that other people have already done (probably better than I could anyway). Striking that balance has been an ongoing learning process. I think some of the channel's videos have done better than others in this regard. I do really appreciate these criticisms. After reading your comment I've already caught myself reframing certain things for the sake of accessibility.

@ratelslangen Год назад

I disagree. While the choice of words is very jargon heavy and could easily be simplified a few notches, the subject matter is perfectly understandable for someone like me with no formal education in any of this. All you need is an understanding of how material conditions push and inspire ideology, and what feudalism and capitalism is.

@anikasadia6948 Год назад

The music is so ecstatic that i can't focus on the lecture. My body starts dancing on its own. 😂

$@frickfrack1725$

@frickfrack1725 Год назад

This channel rocks

@not_foster7025 2 года назад

Good video but the background music is way too loud.

@themarxistproject 2 года назад

Apologies! It sounded a little different to me in the editor with headphones on. Shouldn't get too in the way of the whole video though

@gugamar 9 месяцев назад

I liked the video but, you might want to explain the jargon a bit more if you'd like to make these videos more accessible to interested passersby like me. Some examples of the jargon might go a long way. Otherwise it feels like an introductory video for the expert.

@glenngamst61 2 года назад

Mercantilism laid the foundation for the subsequent small business class and their petty bourgeois mentality or outlook that still haunts much of the working class under capitalism in the US today. Interesting video.

@eve36368 2 года назад

Yes! This! When I was in school during the George W Bush administration, Mercantilism was glorified as making prices & nationality seem sensible. Like, it was fascist propaganda to say the least, sigh.

@colonel__klink7548 Год назад

One of the interesting academic points of contention I think is the role of the catholic church. I have become quite convinced of the argument that the catholics are largely responsible for the rise of individualism not the protestants. Hear me out. One of the biggest differences between the initial protestant rebels and the catholics? The catholics would not oversee a patently forced marriage. They had stressed for centuries marriage as an act of love and while arranged marriages still happened this catholic pressure worked on society over time. This is important as what came before is... well tribalism. Loyalty to the tribe, the clan, the family. Arranged marriages are not about happiness. They are about maintaining familial power by establishing alliances and ensuring it has children. The act of love being a truly selfish was a defiance of this. Something the catholics do not get enough credit for promoting. This is also why they were so hostile towards divorce. Marriage was not a contract between clans where the children are bought and sold. Its a solem vow between two individuals irrespective of their families and responsibilities.

@user-ud1vy5bt1q 11 месяцев назад

Passing into the dustbin of history...

@hiwaga7399 2 месяца назад

Overall, this was well done. The graphics are simple but easily understood and your diction is clear. It was a bit dull and hard to focus on with my ADHD. Wish there was more focus on mercantilism and it's impact on culture (both the colonies and colonizers) beyond philosophy and academia. I think your script writing could use some polishing. It is far too formal and uses unnecessarily long words. If your goal is to educate the people, you have to use language they would be familiar with. Don't get me wrong, using the appropriate vocabulary allows nuances that otherwise would be lost if you oversimplify your words. But your priority is to be _understood_ .

@beeinthehive 2 года назад

"We hate kings... So let's act like them. We want to be mini kings."

@Walden87 Год назад

What happend to the Discord server?

@af8828 2 года назад

Question: where/how do enclosures come into play during this period? I've been reading Less Is More by Jason Hickel (on degrowth) and in his chapter on the origins of capitalism, he claims that feudalism had collapsed by the mid 14th century (due to, as you mentioned, "unforseen demographic changes" aka the black death which increased labour costs) and a revolution took place where peasants had increased agency, etc. So was this series of revolutions/ failed rebellions across europe by former feudal peasant classes part of the mercantilist era, or was mercantilism the response by the former feudal rulers to regain their power? Or something else? I have a stem background and am trying to grasp history/political economy so pls bear w me if I'm spewing nonsense at times, thanks :)

@themarxistproject 2 года назад

Mercantilism as a set of policies and ideas was promoted by the merchant class, which certainly didn't belong to the landed elite. I think merchants could certainly come from peasant backgrounds but by and large they were a distinct class that had its own interests regarding economic and political affairs. The peasant rebellions fit in this story insofar as heightened bargaining power of the peasants necessarily implied the weakening influence of the feudal lords. The thesis in this video is that the convergence of all of these distinct dynamics catalyzed the advent of capitalism. A relatively weak feudal class became increasingly powerless in the face of affluent and influential merchant guilds, and so on. Enclosures, if I'm not mistaken, came at a relatively late stage of mercantilism. Right around the time mentioned in the video where the sphere of power shifted to production and not exchange. The emergent capitalist class needed to wrest control of the means of production from the free peasantry and landlords alike. I think this is the advantage of thinking in structural/overdetermined frameworks. It avoids dichotomizing class conflicts and helps us identify multifaceted forces of change whereby previously auxiliary class processes (merchant capital, in our case) dislodge the prevailing structure (e.g. lord-serf relations).

@af8828 2 года назад

@@themarxistproject thank you! Succinctly put.

@NathanWHill 2 года назад

@@themarxistproject Just on enclosures. Starts around 1450 with rises in wool prices, proceeds in three distinct phases (depending on the type of land and changing class relations) and is only completed in the 19th century. Excellent book on this by Allen 'the enclosure of the yeoman'.

@peterbonucci9661 Год назад

I'm really interested in this, but I just can't make it through the long sentences and big words. I feel like you're teaching to a graduate level audience and that's just not me. MS Word has a reading level estimater that you could use on your script. If you brought it down to a 9th grade level, it would really help. You completely lost me at "epistemologically." Professor Wolff is really good at this. He has videos here on RU-vid.

@zentenn9665 Год назад

Hmm

@stevenr.rodriguez9997 Год назад

Music is a little loud compared to your voice, but great stuff! Very interesting!

@orion9590 Год назад

This video leaves me without providing knowledge that I understand. It feels like the language is over technical

@mahirabrar7618 Год назад

Please use smaller words

@dann5480 Год назад

Music is a bit too loud.

@SCHMALLZZZ 6 месяцев назад

I can totally understand that Socialism is just the transtional phase between capitalism and communism. But isn't the transitional phase between Mercantilism and Capitlaism Imperialism? Imperialism uses military force via Colonialism to implement Mercantilism on poor countries.

@gaberobison680 Год назад

Mercantilism is just traditional Victorian liberal capitalism but without steam power and ownership by artisans, merchants and guilds. While not optimal, it’s a hell of a lot better than capitalism in terms of ownership but worse in raw exploitation (slavery). At least that’s my simplified view of things!

@SCHMALLZZZ 6 месяцев назад

Mercantilism and colonialsim are the foundstions of imperialism. Capitalism was created to fix the problems of mercantilism.

@lavoisier_mefistofelico 2 года назад

♥️☭

@whitrenee1 Год назад

I Am Neutral I Don’t Have A Side But I Also Need More Subs

@TheThundercow 2 года назад

Music is way too loud, it's hard to hear your voice.

@Tetragrammaton22 2 года назад

It's really only at the beginning of the video, it gets better later on.

@swempley 2 года назад

You have a Patreon? LMAO fu*king ironic as fu*k.

@chrisgaming9567 Год назад

There's nothing ironic about it. Patreon is a genuinely voluntary agreement, which does not even involve private MOP ownership or anything like that.

@arthurmorgan1550 Год назад

Why do Right-wingers think socialism is when no monetary transactions?

@swempley Год назад

@@arthurmorgan1550 Why do left wingers think socialism actually works? Because they're just whiney college kids who've never had a real job.

@arthurmorgan1550 Год назад

@@swempley Because we know how to read about socialism instead of just listening to what the state department and corporate media says about it. Socialism works. Read some studies such as Capitalism, Socialism and the Physical Quality of Life by Shirley Cereseto. I also recommend Blackshirts & Reds by Parenti.

@swempley Год назад

@@arthurmorgan1550 Give me a single example of a country where socialism actually works.