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Market and Violence
The Functioning of Capitalism in History
Series: - Historical Materialism Book Series, Volume: 258
Author:
Translator:
** Winner of the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2023. ** Despite their many disagreements when it comes to the subject of capitalism, Marxist and market-liberal approaches seem to agree about one thing: the economic structures of capitalist market society have made direct violence against the person not only superfluous, but economically counterproductive. Heide Gerstenberger's Market and Violence does not contest the thesis that there has been, in many places, a decline in the use of violence in the pursuit of profit; but it demolishes the assumption that this can be put down to the evolution of economic rationality. By means of a deep engagement with the concrete historical reality of capitalist economies, Gerstenberger establishes that, wherever capitalism has been tamed, this has been achieved only by a combination of energetic social contestation and political intervention. First published in German in 2018, the present English-language edition makes a sweeping history of capitalist violence by one of the preeminent theorists of capitalist society working today available to a wider readership.
Heide Gerstenberger is a German social theorist who until 2005 was Professor for the Theory of Bourgeous Society and the University of Bremen. Her major work on state theory, Impersonal Power, was published in the Historical Materialism Book Series in 2007.
Preliminary Observations to Market and Violence
1 On Direct Violence in Pitiless Conditions
2 Armed World Trade
âRobbery and regulations
âOverseas Trade Monopolies
âJust Another Commodity
âFirst Theoretical Remark: On Merchants and Capitalists
3 Historical Preconditions for Capitalist Accumulation in Metropolitan Capitalist Countries
âCompetition Set Free
âThe Pacification of Transport Routes
âThe Capital of Industrial Capitalism
âThe Liberation of Wage Labour from Coercive Political Power
âServitude, Slavery, Free and Unfree Wage Labour in the United States
âSecond Theoretical Remark: The Political Economy of Capitalist Labour
4 Appropriation Abroad
âForced Trade
âTerritorial Sovereignty
âFiscal Exploitation
âTributes, Poll Taxes and Labour Services
âLimits to Taxation
âSettlement and Expulsion
âExcursus: Justifications
âPractices of Settlement
âTeaching a Lesson
âMaking Indigenous People into âNativesâ
âThird Theoretical Remark: Capitalist Colonial Rule
âLabour under Coercive Colonial Power
âFourth Theoretical Remark: Colonial State Violence
5 The World at War
âThe Burdens of the âGreat Warâ on African Shoulders
âThe War of the Others
6 The Domestication of Industrial Capitalism in the Metropolitan Capitalist States
âEngland
âUSA
âFrance
âGermany
âFifth Theoretical Remark: The Functioning of Domesticated Capitalism and Its Vulnerability
7 Domesticated Capitalism in Globalised Competition
âPreconditions of Globalisation
âDecisions
âThe Political End to the âTrente Glorieusesâ
8 Market and Violence in Globalised Capitalism
âSixth Theoretical Remark: Unbounded Exploitation
âForced Sex Work
âBasic Patterns of Labour Exploitation in Globalised Capitalism
âThe Boundless Exploitation of âForeignersâ
âSeventh Theoretical Remark: States and Their Margins
âUnbounded Exploitation âOffshoreâ
âUnbounded âInshoreâ Exploitation in Non-metropolitan Capitalist Countries
âEighth Theoretical Remark: Class Analysis?
âThe Political Geography of Poison
âUnbounding the World of Commodities
âCommercialised Force of Arms
âPhysical Nature, Production and Violence
âNinth Theoretical Remark: PostColonial States as a Theoretical Challenge
âOn the New Political Economy of Violent Criminality
âTenth Theoretical Remark: Violent Criminality in Global Capitalism
Concluding Remarks on Market and Violence
Postscript
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
1 On Direct Violence in Pitiless Conditions
2 Armed World Trade
âRobbery and regulations
âOverseas Trade Monopolies
âJust Another Commodity
âFirst Theoretical Remark: On Merchants and Capitalists
3 Historical Preconditions for Capitalist Accumulation in Metropolitan Capitalist Countries
âCompetition Set Free
âThe Pacification of Transport Routes
âThe Capital of Industrial Capitalism
âThe Liberation of Wage Labour from Coercive Political Power
âServitude, Slavery, Free and Unfree Wage Labour in the United States
âSecond Theoretical Remark: The Political Economy of Capitalist Labour
4 Appropriation Abroad
âForced Trade
âTerritorial Sovereignty
âFiscal Exploitation
âTributes, Poll Taxes and Labour Services
âLimits to Taxation
âSettlement and Expulsion
âExcursus: Justifications
âPractices of Settlement
âTeaching a Lesson
âMaking Indigenous People into âNativesâ
âThird Theoretical Remark: Capitalist Colonial Rule
âLabour under Coercive Colonial Power
âFourth Theoretical Remark: Colonial State Violence
5 The World at War
âThe Burdens of the âGreat Warâ on African Shoulders
âThe War of the Others
6 The Domestication of Industrial Capitalism in the Metropolitan Capitalist States
âEngland
âUSA
âFrance
âGermany
âFifth Theoretical Remark: The Functioning of Domesticated Capitalism and Its Vulnerability
7 Domesticated Capitalism in Globalised Competition
âPreconditions of Globalisation
âDecisions
âThe Political End to the âTrente Glorieusesâ
8 Market and Violence in Globalised Capitalism
âSixth Theoretical Remark: Unbounded Exploitation
âForced Sex Work
âBasic Patterns of Labour Exploitation in Globalised Capitalism
âThe Boundless Exploitation of âForeignersâ
âSeventh Theoretical Remark: States and Their Margins
âUnbounded Exploitation âOffshoreâ
âUnbounded âInshoreâ Exploitation in Non-metropolitan Capitalist Countries
âEighth Theoretical Remark: Class Analysis?
âThe Political Geography of Poison
âUnbounding the World of Commodities
âCommercialised Force of Arms
âPhysical Nature, Production and Violence
âNinth Theoretical Remark: PostColonial States as a Theoretical Challenge
âOn the New Political Economy of Violent Criminality
âTenth Theoretical Remark: Violent Criminality in Global Capitalism
Concluding Remarks on Market and Violence
Postscript
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Economists, sociologists, students of Marxist political economy, global trade and market society, all readers interested in the relationship between capitalism and violence.