Spanning centuries and continents, this short work fundamentally
reconfigures our view of the rise of capitalism on the world stage.
The rise of
capitalism to global dominance is still largely associated – by
both laypeople and Marxist historians – with the industrial
capitalism that made its decisive breakthrough in 18th century
Britain. Jairus Banaji’s new work reaches back centuries and
traverses vast distances to argue that this leap was preceded by a
long era of distinct “commercial capitalism”, which reorganised
labor and production on a world scale to a degree hitherto rarely
appreciated.
Rather than a
picture centred solely on Europe, we enter a diverse and vibrant
world. Banaji reveals the cantons of Muslim merchants trading in
Guangzhou since the eighth century, the 3,000 European traders
recorded in Alexandria in 1216, the Genoese, Venetians and Spanish
Jews battling for commercial dominance of Constantinople and later
Istanbul. We are left with a rich and global portrait of a world
constantly in motion, tied together and increasingly dominated by a
pre-industrial capitalism. The rise of Europe to world domination, in
this view, has nothing to do with any unique genius, but rather a
distinct fusion of commercial capitalism with state power.
