Tributary World-Ecologies, Part I
The Origins and the North Sea World
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2022.1066Keywords:
World-Ecology, Feudalism, Capitalism, Middle Ages, Historical SociologyAbstract
This essay, in two parts, argues for the centrality of the world-ecology perspective for theorizing the relations, dynamics, and crises of the High Medieval Worlds. Commercialization Theorists view the High Middle Ages as a period of early capitalism, while classical Marxist theorists conceive it as a continuation of feudalism. In contrast to both conceptions, I argue that this era can instead be evaluated on its own terms from the world-ecology perspective. In Part I, I develop two interrelated historical-geographical and theoretical arguments. By employing a comparative world-historical methodology, I first argue that two distinct world-ecologies emerged in the North Sea and the Mediterranean during the High Middle Ages. Second, I define world-ecologies not only in terms of commercial relations, but also of production relations, that is, the mode of appropriation of nature and labor. Next, I focus on the common characteristics of tributary world-ecologies. These two world-ecologies were distinguished by agrarian tributary relations, two-tiered commercial networks, and a multiple state-system. I argue that they expanded due to the unique bundling of climatological upturn, novel production relations, and technological and organizational innovations. I conclude Part I by analyzing the North Sea world-ecology, which has typically served as a model for both Commercialization and Classical Marxist perspectives. While there is no question that both perspectives have their merits, it seems more fruitful to explain the relations and dynamics of the North Sea world by the mutual-conditioning of nature, tributary production, and two-tiered commerce. Second, it is more useful to theorize the North Sea world in relation to the larger tributary worlds, characteristic of the High Middle Ages.
References
Abulafia, David. 2011. The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. London: Allen Lane.
Abu-Lughod, Janet. 1989. Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D: 1250-1350. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
_____. 1996. “Discontinuities and Persistence.” Pp. 278-291 in The World System: Five Hundred Years of Five Thousand, edited by A. G. Frank and B. K. Gills. London: Routledge.
Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon and Cristóbal Kay. 2010. “Surveying the Agrarian Question (Part 1: Unearthing Foundations, Exploring Diversity).” Journal of Peasant Studies 37(1):177-202.
Anderson, Perry. 1974. Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism. London: New Left Books.
Arrighi, Giovanni. 1994. The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times. London: Verso.
_____. 1998. “Capitalism and the Modern World-System: Rethinking the Non-Debates of the 1970s.” Review 21(1):113-129.
Bloch, Marc. 1947a. “Comment et Pourquoi Finit L’esclavage Antique (I)” (How and Why did the Ancient Slavery End (I)). Annales, Histoire, Histoire, Science Sociales 2e Année 1(Jan-Mar):30-44.
_____. 1947b. “Comment et Pourquoi Finit L’esclavage Antique (II)” (How and Why did the Ancient Slavery End (II)). Annales, Histoire, Histoire, Science Sociales 2e Année 2(Apr-Jun):161-70.
_____. 1961. Feudal Society, 2 Vols. Translated by L.A. Manyon. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Braudel, Fernand. 1992. Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century. Volume III: The Perspective of the World. Translated by Siân Reynolds. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Brenner, Robert. 1977. “The Origins of Capitalism: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism.” New Left Review 104:25- 92.
_____. 1985a. “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe.” Pp. 10-62 in The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe, edited by T. H. Aston and C. H. E. Philpin. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
_____. 1985b. “The Agrarian Roots of European Capitalism.” Pp. 213-327 in The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe, edited by T. H. Aston and C. H. E. Philpin. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
_____. 2001. “The Low Countries in the Transition to Capitalism.” Journal of Agrarian Change 1(2):169-241.
Byres, Terrence. 2006. “Differentiation of Peasantry under Feudalism and the Transition to Capitalism: In Defence of Rodney Hilton.” Journal of Agrarian Change 6(1):17-68.
_____. 2009. “The Landlords Class, Peasant Differentiation, Class Struggle and the Transition to Capitalism.” Pp: 57-82 in Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Rural Transformation, and the Agrarian Question, edited by H. Akram-Lodhi and C. Kay. London and New York: Routledge.
Cahen, Claude. 1953. “L’évolution de L’iqtac du IXe au XIIIe Siècle: Contribution à une Histoire
Comparée des Societies Médiévales” (The Evolution of Iqta’ from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century: Contribution to a Comparative History of Medieval Societies). Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 8e Année 1(Jan-Mar):25-52.
Cahen, Claude. 1968. Pre-Ottoman Turkey: A General Survey of the Material and Spiritual Culture and History c. 1071-1330. New York: Taplinger Publishing.
Chayanov A. V., Daniel Thorner, Basile H. Kerblay, and R. E. F. Smith. 1966. The Theory of Peasant Economy. Homewood, Ill: Published for the American Economic Association, by R.D. Irwin.
Crone, Patricia. [1989] 2003. Pre-Industrial Societies: Anatomy of the Pre-Modern World. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
Çizakca, Murat. 1994. “Economic Islamization of Medieval Eurasia: An Institutional Framework.” Library of Mediterranean History I(1):47-75.
Dobb, Maurice. 1963. Studies in the Development of Capitalism. New York: International Publishers.
_____. 1978. “A Reply.” Pp. 57-67 in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, edited by R. H. Hilton. London: Verso.
Duchesne, Ricardo. 2003. “Rodney Hilton and the Peasant Road to ‘Capitalism’ in England.” Journal of Peasant Studies 30(2):129-145.
Fossier, Robert. 2006. “Rural Economy and Country Life.” Pp: 27-63 in The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol.3 c. 900 – c. 1024, edited by T. Reuter. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Goetein, Shelomo Dov. 1967. A Mediterranean Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Hilton, Rodney H. 1949. “Peasant Movements in England before 1381.” Economic History Review (2nd Series) 2(2):117-136.
_____. 1973. Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381. New York, NY: The Viking Press.
_____. 1978a. “Introduction.” Pp. 9-30 in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, edited by R. H. Hilton. London: Verso.
_____. 1978b. “A Comment.” Pp. 109-117 in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, edited by R. H. Hilton. London: Verso.
_____. 1990. Class Conflicts and the Crisis of Feudalism. London: Verso.
Kosminsky, Evgeniĭ Alekseevich.1956. Studies in the Agrarian History of England in the Thirteenth Century. Translated by Ruth Kisch. New York: Kelley and Millman, Inc.; Oxford, Eng.: Basil Blackwell.
Lombard, Maurice. 1947. “Les Bases Monétaires d’une Suprématie Économique: L’or Musuluman du VIIe au XIe Siècle” (The Monetary Bases of an Economic Supremacy: The Muslim Gold from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century). Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 2(2):143-160.
Marx, Karl. [1894] 1991. Capital. Volume III. London: Penguin Books.
_____. [1939] 1993. Grundrisse. London: Penguin Books.
McCormick, Michael. 2001. Origins of the European economy: Communications and Commerce, A.D. 300-900. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Moore, Jason W. 2000. “Environmental Crises and the Metabolic Rift in World-Historical Perspective” Organization & Environment 13 (2): 123–157.
_____. 2003a. “The Modern World-System as Environmental History?” Theory & Society 32(3):307–377.
_____. 2003b. “Nature and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism.” Review 26(2):97–172.
_____. 2003c. “Capitalism as World-Ecology.” Organization & Environment 16(4):431–458.
_____. 2007. “Silver, Ecology, and the Origins of the Modern World, 1450-1640.” In Rethinking Environmental History, edited by Alf Hornborg, J.R. McNeill, Joan Martinez-Alier, 123-142. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
_____. 2015. Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. London: Verso.
_____. 2017. “The Capitalocene, Part I: On the Nature and Origins of Our Ecological Crisis.” Journal of Peasant Studies 44(3):594–630.
_____. 2018. “The Capitalocene, Part II: Accumulation by Appropriation and the Centrality of Unpaid Work/Energy.” Journal of Peasant Studies 45(2):237-279.
Patel, Raj and Jason W. Moore. 2018. History of the World in Seven Cheap Things. London: Verso.
Pirenne, Henry. 1956. Mohammad and Charlemagne. London, UK: Allen and Unwim.
_____. 1969. Medieval Cities: The Origins and the Revival of Trade. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Polanyi, Karl. 1957. The Great Transformation. Boston, Mass: Beacon Press.
_____. 1968. Primitive, archaic, and modern economies: Essays of Karl Polanyi. Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Books.
Postan, Michael M. 1972. Medieval Economy and Society. New York: Pelican.
Procacci, Guiliano. 1978. “A Survey of the Debates.” Pp. 128-142 in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, edited by R. H. Hilton. London: Verso.
Slicher van Bath, B. H. 1966. The Agrarian History of Europe, AD 500-1850. Translated by Olive Ordish. London: Edw. Arnold.
Smith, Adam. [1776] 1999. The Wealth of Nations: Books: 1-3. London: Penguin Books.
Somçağ, Selim. 1994. Avrupa Feodalizminin Evrimi. (The Evolution of European Feudalism.) Ankara: Bağlam Yayıncılık.
de St. Croix, G. E. M. 1981. Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Sweezy, Paul M. 1978a. “A Critique.” Pp. 33-56 in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, edited by R. H. Hilton. London: Verso.
_____. 1978b. “A Rejoinder.” Pp. 102-108 in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, edited by R. H. Hilton. London: Verso.
Takahashi, Kohachiro. 1978. “A Contribution to Discussion.” Pp. 68-97 in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, edited by R. H. Hilton. London: Verso.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1974. The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
_____. 1992. “The West, Capitalism, and the Modern World-System.” Review 15(4):561-619.
_____. 2000a. “Rise and Future Demise of The Modern World-System.” Pp. 71-105 in Essential Wallerstein, edited by I. Wallerstein. New York, NY: The New Press.
_____. 2000b. “World-System Analysis.” Pp. 129-148 in Essential Wallerstein, edited by Immanuel Wallerstein. New York, NY: The New Press.
_____. [1980] 2011. The Modern World-System II: Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy, 1600-1750, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
White, Lynn. 1963. “What Accelerated Technological Progress in the Western Middle Ages?” Pp: 272-291 in Scientific Change, Historical Studies in the Intellectual, Social, and Technical Conditions for Scientific Discovery and Technical Invention, From Antiquity to the Present, edited by A. C. Crombie. New York: Basic Books.
Wickham, Chris. 2005. Framing the Early Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
_____. 2010. The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400-1000. London, UK: Penguin Books.
_____. 2016. Medieval Europe. New Haven, Conn., and, London, UK: Yale University Press.
Wood, Ellen M. 1994. “From Opportunity to Imperative: The History of the Market.” Monthly Review 46(3):14-40.
_____. 1995. Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
_____. [1999] 2002a. The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View. London: Verso.
_____. 2002b. “The Question of Market Dependence.” Journal of Agrarian Change 2(1):50-87.
_____. 2005. Empire of Capital. London, UK: Verso.
_____. 2008. Citizens to Lords. London, UK: Verso.
_____. 2009. “Peasants and the Market Imperative: The Origins of Capitalism.” Pp. 37-57 in Peasants and Globalization: Political Economy, Rural Transformation, and the Agrarian Question, edited by A. H. Akram-Lodhi and C. Kay. London and New York: Routledge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.
