book report

[Name of writer appears here]

[Course name appears here]

[Professor 's name appears here]

[Date appears here]

Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism

Frenand Braudel 's Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism ' offers very sharp insight on the birth and the growth of capitalism in the history of material civilization . His theory has been used as a theoretical tool explaining the globalization of modern capitalism . Yet , the value of his book is more than its utility in globalization studies . In this book , he criticizes the European point of view

on the history of material civilization and extends his scope to non-European economy . Especially , he portrays economic history as a spontaneous , slowing evolution with long term equilibriums and disequilibriums , ignoring the history of economics as the successive transitions of big events such as the stages of slavery , feudalism , and capitalism . He thinks that the preindustrial economy is also characterized by the coexistence of inflexibility , inertia and slow motion

HYPERLINK "http /www .rpi .edu kime2 /ehtm /myissues /braudel .htm www .rpi .edu kime2 /ehtm /myissues /braudel .htm

Braudel notes that the exchanges from Europe across Siberia to China "formed a system of interdependence " Moreover "at the beginning of the sixteenth century , Russia 's principal foreign market was Turkey " which Braudel also classifies as a separate "world-economy "reminiscent of Russia " Braudel terms the Turkish economy "a fortress " but also a "source of wealth " and a "crossroads of trade , providing the Turkish Empire with the lifeblood that made it mighty " The Turkish economy was not any more isolated from the rest of the world than the Russian economy

A long French report on the Levant trade confirms this impression "[French] ships carry more goods to Constantinople than to all other ports in the Levant . The surplus funds are transferred to other ports by means of bills of exchange which the French merchants of Smyrna , Aleppo and [Port] Said provide for the Pashas

Braudel then asserts that European trade in the Turkish empire was minimal and "merely passed quickly through [because] money , the sinews of western trade , usually only made fleeting appearances in the Turkish Empire : as part went to the sultan 's treasury , part oiled the wheels of top-level trade , and "the rest drained away in massive quantities to the Indian Ocean " In that case , Braudel should have asked what intermediary role the Turkish economy played between Europe and India . Then too Braudel notes that caravan routes ran from Gibraltar to India and China "the whole movement-in-space which made up the Ottoman economy " which "owed its suppleness and vigour to the tireless convoys which converged from every direction

Far from having a self-contained "fortress " economy , then , the Ottoman empire drew its lifeblood from being a crossroads between other economies , of which were independent of each other . Of course , the Turks tried to maintain their power , derive maximum benefits from their intermediary position , and bar others from sharing in it as best they could . Turkish merchants , not content with their intermediary role at home...