Mode of production
Marx's theory
Means of production & social relations of production
Primitive mode
Characteristics
Production for consumption.
Few tools.
Tribal groups -> egalitarian?
Primitive division of labor: hunters and gatherers.
Transitions
Farming locates us on certain geographical state, and generates a surplus
(more food than we need to sustain ourselves, which generates other
divisions of labor), which then leads to cities.
Slave mode
Characteristics
Production for consumption, but some trade.
More tools and increased sophistication.
Power and class: slaves doing all of the work, masters doing none.
Distinct division of labor.
Growth through conquest & limited productivity gains
For the system to grow and accumulate more wealth, the masters
need to make the slaves work more, which is limited because of the
nature of human slaves. Therefore, many wars occur because
masters try to conquer more land and enslave more people.
Transitions
Implosion and war
Stagnation
Feudalism
Characteristics
Agricultural production for consumption, urban production for trade.
Even more tools and increased sophistication.
A class based hierarchical society with a distinct division of labor.
Specialization
Transitions
Improvements in agriculture allows for urban growth and markets.
Deepening commodity trade and class relations.
Political change into parliamentary democracy.
Proto-Capitalism/Merchant Capitalism
Mercantilism: Accumulating wealth through trades of raw materials.
Exploiting regions for raw materials and trade (within & outside of Europe).
Trading empires: supported by the empires, state-sponsored enterprises.
Growing political support for trade (and, later, free market).
The first private property rights start to emerge.
The first stocks (you buy a part of the ship, if the ships return successfully, you
get a part of the earnings).
Agricultural & technological improvements (might be argued as the start of
the industrial revolution).
Capitalism
Property rights are normatively defined.
Production for exchange; aim of production is profit.
Laborers have no control over means of production and sell their work for
wages; capitalists have control of the means of production, thus control
production. Capitalism also operates on a class system.
Capitalists face two dilemmas:
with laborers (to generate the maximum amount of profit, capitalists
need to make the most profit out of their products and pay the least
wages),
and with other capitalists (the competition from all the other factory
owners).
The uncertainty (of markets: who/what will profit?) drives innovation for
better and/or cheaper products and services.
How can we make use of space in this sense?
Do parts of your production in other places of the world to lower your
production costs.
This is only possible with advanced transportation and communication
technologies, which are insanely expensive up until the 1900s.
An argument: we have this globalized connection because of the
capitalism systems where the basic characteristic is for capitalists to
segment their production and try to lower production costs and
generate new markets.
Capitalism is growth oriented.
Money is invested to increase production, and chase profits (more
money).
Results:
Deepening of the market system
New products & new technologies
Widening of the market system
New markets
Lower production costs: demand for labor / inputs
Expand supply (sale) of product:
Commodification (debates on how far it can go)
Geographical expansion
Limits on growth: technological constraints, environmental constraints,
political constraints (now mainly), etc.
