Late Antiquity as Early Capitalism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2158178
AutoresTom Bra (0000-0002-8565-2416, autor de correspondencia), Tom Brass
Año2005
Volumen32
Número1
Páginas118-150
Fecha de publicación2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Peasant Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0306-6150 • E-ISSN: 1743-9361
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/030661504200322411
OpenAlexW2008238855
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7

Taking issue with the thesis (advanced by Weber, de Ste Croix, and others) about the link between unfree labour and economic decline in ancient society, Banaji claims that between the fourth and seventh centuries the eastern Mediterranean was characterized much rather by economic growth and the emergence of productive aristocratic landowners employing 'free' wage labour. These 'new' agrarian classes become in turn 'evidence' for the presence in late antiquity of early capitalism. The sources for such a reinterpretation, however, are either incomplete or wholly lacking. Locating capitalism in ancient society also reproduces the claim made by cliometricians that capital and labour are ever-present, historically non-specific and thus 'natural' economic categories that cannot be transcended

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Ancient history · Archaeology · Capital (architecture · Capital accumulation · Capitalism · Economics · Economy · Human capital · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reinterpretation · Wage · Wage labour · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical Economic and Legal Thought · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law