DEBATE - Further Thoughts on Agrarian Capitalism: A Reply to Albritton

Author: Zmolek M.

Source: The Journal of Peasant Studies, Volume 29, Number 1, October 2001 , pp. 129-154(26)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $49.55 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

In response to Albritton [2000], who asserts that the central dynamic of capitalism's genesis was putting-out manufacturing, I provide a sketch of the processes of agrarian capitalism. The elaboration of the common law in the Middle Ages enabled widespread conversion to leaseholds after the plague. An increasingly privatized system of land ownership resulted from the enclosure movement in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the upheavals of the seventeenth century represented the triumph of the enclosers. The rise of cottage industry in the eighteenth century was supported by a systematic effort at improving agricultural productivity. By the Industrial Revolution, the principle of individual control over production had long been established.

Keywords: Albritton; agrarian capitalism; leaseholds; enclosers; cottage industry

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2001-10-01