I. COMPARISONS, A LITTLE-USED TOOL FOR HISTORY

 1. Comparisons

 SIMILAR ECONOMIES, SIMILAR THREATS,

SIMILAR REACTIONS 

Take kings' violent response to ascendant producers

in  19th-century Dahomey and 17th-century France 

• In France,

Louis XIV's eliminating Protestants

eliminates the producers themselves 

Dragonnade by Maurice Leloir in Le  Roy Soleil by T. Cabu, 1931

In Dahomey, 

the monarch sacrifices 300 slaves

to keep producers from buying them 

Dahomey human sacrifice in 1853, "Le Tour du Monde"

-- Analyzed by Claude Meillassoux,

Ostentation, destruction, reproduction , "Économies et sociétés,"

 1968, II, 4, 760-766

Beyond Marx:

The struggle of 

"slaves against masters, peasants against lords"

yields to that of rising commercial forces 

and the authorities they menace.

To be continued.

*      *      *

Next,
Hinterlands react to sudden growth

HINTERLANDS REACT TO SUDDEN GROWTH

THE RUDIMENTARY ECONOMIES 
OF PRE-COLONIAL AFRICA AND PRE-INDUSTRIAL FRANCE 
MAKE THE IMPACT OF GROWTH EASY TO DISCERN

Paris and Timbuktu were the main centers
north of the Alps or in West Africa,
but they were isolated
 in comparison with the Italian towns
and insignificant next to those
 of the Middle East, India and China 

• By 1450 France
had recovered from the plague
and the ravages of the Hundred Years' War.
Economic growth was gradual
and gently-centralizing power contained it

 Charles VI greets Louis II of Anjou near the Saint Michel gate, Chronicle of Jean Froissart, about 1390

 Paris: the north-south route looks like a country path.  

• By 1850 
sub-Saharan trade and production were expanding

and states able to keep them in check
had emerged in the most commercial regions
(in Northern Nigeria and west of Lake Chad) 

"Arrival at Timbuktu," Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa by Henry Barth, 1855 (color / Internet)

Timbuktu: soldiers precede the caravane because authority is weak and routes unsafe. 

• But upheavals were on the way

° In western Europe,
the geographic discoveries of the end of the 15th century
would bring unprecedented growth and social cataclysm.

° In West Africa,
growth had been relatively slow because climate belts
 discouraged the spread of agricultural improvements,
but after 1850 the end of the Atlantic slave trade
would turn breezes of change into hurricanes.

 -- Climate belts:
A popular history of the world, from the stone age to the new millenium,

by Chris Harmon, "The African civilizations," 1999.
A rare history to see political change as the result of economic evolution.

 .
End of this beginning.

*      *      * 

 

Next,
I.
Braking the search for gain

II. BRAKING THE SEARCH FOR GAIN

2. Braking the search for gain

SEEKING PROFIT SAPS 
 THE COLLECTIVE EFFORT THAT ALLOWS SURVIVAL,
SO PRE-CAPITALIST SOCIETIES CONTAIN IT

Historians ignore a priority
that transforms the meaning of institutions and events.

This chapter explains why containing profit
-- that is, limiting growth --
was necessary, and how it took place

Egyptian painting 

• One can't bring in the harvest alone   

• The origin of supernaturally-backed authority 

• The grandiose destruction of wealth

• Practices whose logic escapes us 

• Read accounts like detective stories

• Were (are) economic reasons recognized? 

• Growth's explosive consequences

*      *      *

Next,
One can't bring in the harvest alone 

ONE CAN'T BRING IN THE HARVEST ALONE...

OR FISH WITH LARGE NETS 
OR HUNT BIG ANIMALS

So unmechanized work must be collective --
think of the Harrison Ford film Witness,
where Amish meet to build a barn

Noon by Pieter Breugel the Elder, about 1550

Pursuing individual gain weakens the community.

Worse, communal lands become privately owned.
Then many leave --
"He went off to seek his fortune"

A few become merchants in the growing towns -- that's how a middle class grows up -- but most finish as vagabonds, mercenaries or brigands. 

Those who remain become sharecroppers or serfs. 

That menace explains the universal brakes on gain,
which villagers begin and centralized power extends.  

*      *      *

Next,
When chiefs become kings 

WHEN CHIEFS BECOME KINGS

CHIEFS APPEAR

WHEN PROFIT-SEEKING OVERWHELMS VILLAGE DYKES

With further growth they yield to kings,

whom sacred power reinforces 

• In traditional Africa,

a newly-rich man is admired 

if he shares his wealth,

tolerated if he spends it 

and sanctioned if he keeps it

Les cahiers d'Afrique / Internet

Griots -- traditional singers -- follow him, chanting praises that turn into mockery of his servile origins unless he gives the tip they expect: that is, unless he siphons off resources to reinforce the social order.

Expecting immigrants to bring gifts when they return to the village, and pestering them if they don't distribute enough, makes the same point.

• Kings control more complex societies
and magic reinforces them.
In France

° Sanctification at Reims
gives them magic power

The central panel of Joan's story as shown at the Panthéon, by Jules Lepneveu, end 19th century

The height of Joan of Arc's epic is persuading the Crown Prince to make the journey through English-held territory and be crowned at Reims.

Cavalcade of Louis XV after the sanctification, October 16, 1722 by Martin le Jeune

Sanctification lasts several days: vigil, ceremony, banquet, cavalcade.

Henri II's Book of Hours, about 1540

Then the king cures scrofula by his touch. 

-- The classic study:

 The royal touch: monarchy and miracles in France and England

by Marc Bloch, 1923

Monarchs are mediators with the ancestors,
divine rulers or representatives of God:
They maintain the cosmic harmony.

Translation
(since they can't influence nature): 
They maintain the social harmony
by containing what threatens it --
notably the search for profit. 

  
*      *      *

Next,

The grandiose destruction of wealth

THE GRANDIOSE DESTRUCTION OF WEALTH

 THE SIMPLEST WAY TO CONTAIN GROWTH: 
ELIMINATE WEALTH
BEFORE IT CAN BE INVESTED

Making  it spectacular to draws in the public,
and so reinforces authority. 
As by:

  • Competition

This 1914 movie filmed the last match, which anthropologists know a "potlatch."

When the Kwaktiul Indians of the North Pacific obtain goods by barter with whites (from about 1850) the clans that control the trade compete by throwing them into the sea. The clan that destroys most wins. 

The community watches from the shore.

• Ostentation

A royal army on the march,16th-century tapestry (detail), Renaissance Museum

European nobles disperse their income on accoutrements that they show off around the king. People come from miles to watch processions that break the routine.

Dispersing wealth with panache is part of nobles' prestige: King Arthur cares "not for gold or silver, but for honor alone," says a Roman envoy whom Arthur treats with a feast described for a full page.

-- La morte d'Arthur

• Funerals

By Richard Fleisher with Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, 1958

 The film shows the majesty of the destruction.

When a Viking chief dies a boat is filled with treasure and burnt.

Everyone watches from the shore.

 • Monuments 

Internet, AirPanu.RU

Ancient Egypt remains essentially unchanged for 3,000 years. Imagine -- 3000. 

Because the pharaohs neutralize investible income with monuments so huge that the term "pharaonic" applies to any construction that is over the top? 

That immensity is a constant show of power.  

 • Squandering 

European map of Africa of the 14th century, a sign of expanding exchanges.

A 14th-century ruler of the Mali Empire spends so much gold on his pilgrimage to Mecca that its value drops for a decade, which hinders emerging producers.

Populations watch the extraordinary caravan pass and benefit from the largesse. 

 Deliberate destruction
 transforms the meaning of innumerable
customs and events:
We will come back to it many times.

*     *     *  

Next,
Behavior whose logic escapes us

BEHAVIOR WHOSE LOGIC ESCAPES US

WE TEND TO GLOSS OVER 
WHAT WE DON'T UNDERSTAND  

Take an explorer's mistake

"Grant dancing with Ukelema," Second visit to discover the sources of the Nile by John Speke, London, 1864

He contrasts Western dancing (on the right)

with that of "black devils" 

But dance unites the village -- the youths set off the chief's exploits as the population looks on. At other times men and women dance in separate lines, never touching, because social organization is collective, including by gender.

(Western dance too was collective, as with English and North American square dancing, the French village "bourrée" and court and salon dances. That changed in the early 19th century, when the waltz accompanied emphasis on the middle-class couple.) 

Since the explorer has the artist draw his partner's astonishment, he knows he's broken the rules. He thinks he's done the right thing -- showing Africans how to dance!   

Explorers, like historians,
confront worlds that they don't understand.
Instead of pointing out enigmas,
they amass data.

Sometimes an enlightening detail slips 
into their accounts.    

*     *     *

Next,
Read accounts like detective stories

READ ACCOUNTS LIKE DETECTIVE STORIES

"SHE HAD BEEN TRAINED 

TO LOOK FOR ANAMOLIES"

-- The silence of the lambs,
crime novel by Thomas Harris

Figuring out the past means acting like a detective,
pondering what seems odd. 

Clues can be customs or events that seem irrational 
 or tangible elements, 
like a painting placed too high for viewing, 
  places too vast for traffic, 
 a king replacing Jesus... 

Street art, Belleville

A detective, shadows, a clue...

...or they jump out from

the narratives of historians and explorers... 

A library's history shelves

Map at the Paris Mission Center ("Procure des Missions")

...although they are buried in data. 

*     *     *  

Next,
Were -- are? -- economic motivations recognized?

WERE -- ARE? -- ECONOMIC MOTIVATIONS RECOGNIZED?

So used to that invisible -- toqueville

YES, BECAUSE ONE INSTINCTIVELY KNOWS 

WHAT REINFORCES RULES OR BREAKS THEM

No, because thinking through customs
means viewing them from a distance

• Take a modern practice,

buying what one does not need

Window at the Galeries Lafayette department store, Richard Nahem, Eye Prefer Paris

"If I wore my favorite black dress on Tuesday in Cincinatti, I'd  see pictures on social media on Wednesday, and I couldn’t repeat the look in San Diego on Thursday ...or else ... people would think I had only one dress."

-- Woman preparing a book tour, New York Times

For women, changing outfits every day is a kind of tax. Asked why they do it, many will say out of habit, because they like shopping, or that if they don't do it, they'll seem to lack the means. This author mentions the pressure, but does not examine the reason for it. 

• Very few people say

"such purchases give an impression of liberty

but in fact are imposed,

because the economy depends on them."  

The next chapters show how 
social organization and beliefs
corresponded to practical needs, 
whether people were aware of it or not.

Usually not.

*     *     *

Next,
The search for profit's explosive consequences

PROFIT'S EXPLOSIVE CONSEQUENCES

PAGE  IN PREPARATION

https://truthout.org/articles/a-new-socialist-movement-must-oppose-both-capitalism-and-imperialism/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/opinion/trump-2020-campaign.html?action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=Opinion

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/opinion/sunday/2019-best-year-poverty.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
GLOBALIZATION MEANS THAT MILLIONS
LOSE LAND,  SOCIAL TIES AND AND  BELIEFS,
A CHANGE THAT SPEED MAKES STILL MORE VIOLENT
AND THAT THE ROSY PICTURE
OF IMPROVEMENT OMITS 

When buying stuff is the only replacement

for faiths that have been fervently held,

can one be surprised at a nihilism

that in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, India (...)

is basically the same?

Getty images

Showing the intensity
with which pre-industrial African and French societies
contained capitalism 
implies its destructiveness.   

End of this introduction.

*      *      *

Next,

V, 2.
Curbing growth: kings and ritualized warfare  

III. CURBING GROWTH: KINGS AND RITUALIZED WARFARE

 3. Containing growth: kings and warfare

TO UNDERSTAND PRIMITIVE CONTROL OF CAPITALISM,
WATCH HOW MONARCHIES AND WARFARE EVOLVE

Images show early kings static,
with weapons (or other symbols of power) 
taking up their hands

Internet

King of Benin, 16th century  

Emperor of Byzantium, 11th century 

Archaic monarchies and warfare limit growth

and are limited themselves

• The royal imperative, maintain the status quo 

• Ritualized warfare, another barrier to growth 

Both change as economies expand. 

*      *      *

The pages on Africa summarize recherche done in 1972-73 for a doctorate from Columbia University (New York), "Growth and violence in the precolonial Sudanic Belt," 1975. It included consulting the archives of Paris, Abidjan, Dakar, Bamako, Wagadugu and Accra, interviews in those towns and in Segu (Mali) and three months of field work in Djimini (Ivory Coast).  

It was published as Croissance économique et violence dans la zone soudanienne in "Guerres de lignages et guerres d'état en Afrique,"ed. J. Bazin et E. Terray, Paris, Éditions des Archives, 1982. 

*      *      *

Next,
The royal imperative, maintain the status quo

3.1. KINGS' FUNCTION, MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO

 3.1.Kings maintain the status quo

 RULERS DOMINATE THE ECONOMY, 
RESTRAIN COMMERCIAL PEOPLE
AND ARE RESTRAINED THEMSELVES

Chief or king?
Both control their economies,
but kings's societies are more evolved
and supernatural power reinforces them

Detail, 14th-century map

The Emperor of Mali controls trade.

• Kings concentrate wealth, then make it circulate

• African kings, prestige and constraint 

• Preventing the rise of powerful dynasties 

• For kings of medieval Europe, comparable containment

• Commercial peoples' highlighted subordination

*      *      *

Next,
Kings concentrate wealth, then make it circulate

KINGS CONCENTRATE WEALTH, THEN MAKE IT CIRCULATE

THEY CONTROL COMMERCE
AND DISTRIBUTE ITS GAINS 

• In 13th-century Afghanistan

Marco Polo negociates rubies with a king,

but he avoids a "wild" place 

where he cannot trade
because there is no ruler

Internet, no source named
-- The voyage of Marco Polo by V. Chklovski, n.d.

• In 19th century Africa...

Ashanti king, Internet, photographer not named

Showing wealth, an aspect of royalty

° The Ashanti suzerain (Ghana) uses weights that are one-third heavier than others and declares that only kings or men of high rank deal with commerce, "as I do." 

° The Mossi ruler (Burkina Faso) has a monopoly. 

° The wives of the Yoruba king (southern Nigeria) wrap their wares in a cloth that lets them be housed and avoid tolls...

-- -- Aubin 445 ; references and a page of examples, n. 42

• In 17th-century France,

the same system on a much larger scale

Louis XIV grants their privileges to the East India Company, 1664, India Company Museum, town of Lorient

Colbert presents members of the Royal Academy of  Sciences to Louis XIV by Henri Testelin, 1667, chateau of Versailles

• Royal control is much more extensive

than usually said:

These details are examples of
clues slipping into accounts

without further comment 

° Monarchs set up state monopolies: Catherine de Medicis initiates silk production a century before Louis IV establishes the famous production of mirrors and tapestries (and more).

° The independent search is under the king's control, indirect (through the guilds) or direct (Louis XIV gives Madame de Montespan, a favorite, three pirate ships to raid the Levant). 

-- ° The king's way: by Françoise Chandeneggor, 1981, 294

But Nicolas Fouquet makes his Brittany fortress a center of Atlantic commerce without informing Louis XIV, hastening his fall. 

° Fouquet's project described:

 Fouquet's trial by Simone Bertière, 2013, 103 (in French)

• Suzerains distribute the wealth

to retain or gain supporters

and maintain the balance between clans,
practices that keep it from being invested 

Thirteenth-century Roman fresco, Internet, source not named

• Such distribution -- or its absence --

can indicate stability or change

° When an Anglo-Saxon chief is called "ring-giver" he is behaving as expected, and his society is probably cohesive.

° When the formula "The Pharaoh gave this" suddenly appears in Egyptian tombs, it may show that he seizes and distributes wealth, which suggests a growing economy. 

° France's Henri IV establishes a much more powerful kingship and amasses treasure at the same time (toward 1600). 

° "The queen is too kind..." is nobles' formula of thanks when Henri's widow, Marie de Médicis, shores up the start of her regency by distributing that treasure. Later she gives royal income to a favori, a sign of growing power. 

"Greedy" kings do not redistribute.

Mention of them usually means that 
their power expands. 

*     *     *

Next,

African kings, prestige and constraint