Market and Violence : : The Functioning of Capitalism in History / / Heide Gerstenberger.

• Superior document: Historical Materialism Book Series ; Volume 258
• VerfasserIn: Gerstenberger, Heide,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands : : Koninklijke Brill nv,, 2023.; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: First edition.
• Language: English; German
• Series: Historical materialism book series ; Volume 258.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xiii, 742 pages)

A sweeping history of capitalist violence by one of the preeminent theorists of capitalist society working today.

Despite their many disagreements when it comes to the subject of capitalism, Marxist and market-liberal approaches seem to agree about one thing: the economic structures of capitalist market society have made direct violence against the person not only superfluous, but economically counterproductive. Heide Gerstenberger's Market and Violence does not contest the thesis that there has been, in many places, a decline in the use of violence in the pursuit of profit; but it demolishes the assumption that this can be put down to the evolution of economic rationality. By means of a deep engagement with the concrete historical reality of capitalist economies, Gerstenberger establishes that, wherever capitalism has been tamed, this has been achieved only by a combination of energetic social contestation and political intervention. First published in German in 2018, the present English-language edition makes a sweeping history of capitalist violence by one of the preeminent theorists of capitalist society working today available to a wider readership.

Table of Contents

Intro -- ‎Contents -- ‎Preliminary Observations to Market and Violence -- ‎Chapter 1. On Direct Violence in Pitiless Conditions -- ‎Chapter 2. Armed World Trade -- ‎Robbery and Regulations -- ‎Overseas Trade Monopolies -- ‎Just Another Commodity -- ‎First Theoretical Remark: On Merchants and Capitalists -- ‎Chapter 3. Historical Preconditions for Capitalist Accumulation -- ‎Competition Set Free -- ‎Commercial Freedom Ashore -- ‎Commercial Freedom on the High Seas -- ‎The Pacification of Transport Routes -- ‎The Fight against Highway Robbery -- ‎Fighting Piracy -- ‎The Capital of Industrial Capitalism -- ‎From Merchant Capital to the Trading Capital of Industrial Capitalism -- ‎The Liberation of Wage Labour from Coercive Political Power -- ‎Wage Labour in Germany and Particularly in Prussia -- ‎Wage Labour in France -- ‎Wage Labour in England -- ‎Servitude, Slavery, Free and Unfree Wage Labour in the United States -- ‎Indenture (Temporary Servitude) -- ‎Slavery -- ‎The Living and Working Conditions of Slaves -- ‎Slavery and Profit -- ‎Unfree Wage Labour in the South -- ‎Free Wage Labour Beyond the Former Slave States -- ‎Second Theoretical Remark: The Political Economy of Capitalist Labour -- ‎Chapter 4. Appropriation Abroad -- ‎Forced Trade -- ‎Territorial Sovereignty -- ‎Fiscal Exploitation -- ‎For Example: The Conquest of Financial Sovereignty in India -- ‎Tributes, Poll Taxes and Labour Services -- ‎For Example: Caoutchouc instead of Money -- ‎Limits to Taxation -- ‎Settlement and Expulsion -- ‎Excursus: Justifications -- ‎Practices of Settlement -- ‎Spanish America -- ‎Australia -- ‎North America: United States of America -- ‎Algeria -- ‎Land Grabbing through Colonisation: A Summary -- ‎Teaching a Lesson -- ‎Decisions on Site -- ‎International Experts in Pacification -- ‎Patterns of Recruitment -- ‎With Drill and the Maxim.

‎Making Indigenous People into 'Natives' -- ‎Third Theoretical Remark: Capitalist Colonial Rule -- ‎Labour under Coercive Colonial Power -- ‎Slavery and Ersatz Slavery -- ‎Domestic Slavery -- ‎Ersatz Slavery -- ‎Debt Bondage -- ‎Contractual Debt Bondage (Coolie-Labour) -- ‎For Example: The Plantation Economy on the East Coast of Sumatra -- ‎For Example: Production in the Tea Gardens of Assam -- ‎Coolies Were Not Slaves -- ‎For Example: Lascars -- ‎Forced Labour as a Development Strategy -- ‎For Example: Military Logic and State Violence in German South West Africa -- ‎For Example: Forced Labour in the Congo, International Criticism and a Continuing Practice -- ‎For Example: Private Enterprises in the Caoutchouc Belt (Moyen Congo) -- ‎Unfree Wage Labour -- ‎For Example: German South West Africa -- ‎For Example: Compounds -- ‎Peasant Workers: Specific Transformations -- ‎For Example: India -- ‎Fourth Theoretical Remark: Colonial State Power -- ‎The Colonial Order -- ‎The Colonial Specificity of the Monopoly of Violence -- ‎The Specificity of Colonial Exploitation -- ‎The Big Difference -- ‎Chapter 5. The World at War -- ‎The Burdens of the Great War on African Shoulders -- ‎The War of the Others -- ‎Chapter 6. The Domestication of Industrial Capitalism in the Metropolitan Capitalist States -- ‎England -- ‎United States of America -- ‎France -- ‎Germany -- ‎The Brutalisation of the Regime of Appropriation -- ‎The National Socialist Labour Regime -- ‎Disciplining through Terror -- ‎Preparations for the Big Robbery -- ‎Calculation and Violence -- ‎Forced Recruitment -- ‎The Economic Exploitation of Soviet Prisoners of War and 'Eastern Workers' -- ‎The Economic Exploitation of Concentration Camp Inmates -- ‎Not for the Eyes of the World -- ‎Fifth Theoretical Remark: The Functioning of Domesticated Capitalism and Its Vulnerability.

‎Chapter 7. Domesticated Capitalism in Globalised Competition -- ‎Preconditions of Globalisation -- ‎Decisions -- ‎The Political End to the 'Trente Glorieuses' -- ‎Chapter 8. Market and Violence in Globalised Capitalism -- ‎Sixth Theoretical Remark: Unbounded Exploitation -- ‎Forced Sex Work -- ‎Basic Patterns of Labour Exploitation in Globalised Capitalism -- ‎The Boundless Exploitation of 'Foreigners' -- ‎Domestics -- ‎Day Labourers -- ‎Labour Conditions Not Covered by Collective Agreements -- ‎Construction Workers in Qatar and Elsewhere -- ‎The Snakeheads' Hostages -- ‎Seventh Theoretical Remark: States and Their Margins -- ‎Unbounded Exploitation 'Offshore' -- ‎Flags of Convenience -- ‎Export Processing Zones (EPZs) -- ‎Representatives of Workers' Interests - an Endangered Species -- ‎Unbounded 'Inshore' Exploitation in Non-metropolitan Capitalist Countries -- ‎Child Labour and Child Slavery -- ‎Eighth Theoretical Remark: Class Analysis? -- ‎The Political Geography of Poison -- ‎Poison in Industrial Production -- ‎Poison in Agriculture -- ‎Toxic Waste -- ‎Unbounding the World of Commodities -- ‎The Human Body as a Supplier of Commodities -- ‎Trafficking in Hair -- ‎Trafficking in Organs -- ‎Commercialised Force of Arms -- ‎Conflict Diamonds -- ‎Private Military Companies -- ‎Physical Nature, Production and Violence -- ‎Land Grabbing -- ‎Raw Materials of Violence -- ‎For Example: Oil Exploitation in Nigeria -- ‎Ninth Theoretical Remark: Post-Colonial States as a Theoretical Challenge -- ‎On the New Political Economy of Violent Criminality -- ‎Piracy -- ‎Drug Trafficking -- ‎Smuggling of Human Beings -- ‎Tenth Theoretical Remark: Violent Criminality in Global Capitalism -- ‎3 September 2020: Postscript to Chapters 7 and 8 -- ‎Concluding Remarks on Market and Violence -- ‎Postscript -- ‎Bibliography -- ‎Subject Index -- ‎Author Index.