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. 

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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. 

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Next,
The royal imperative, maintain the status quo