The Wheels of Commerce Volume 2 (urspr publ 1979; utgåvan 1979)

Reynolds, Sian (Translator)

Longer review to come after I finish parts II and III. So far, though, I feel comfortable saying that this is one of the most eye-opening and awe-inspiring works of history I've ever read, one of the few that really impresses me with the sheer size of the past, while maintaining readable and pleasant prose throughout. Braudel is a master of giving details on details which slowly cohere into some kind of pattern, and then pulling back to give a smart, crisp conclusion which makes that pattern come completely into focus. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2015-09.html#braudel ( )

Peut être plus abouti que le premier tome. Vraiment une somme accessible et éclairante. ( )

The second volume in Braudel's classic Civilisation and Capitalism, The Wheels of Commerce, is concerned with the middle of the three levels, the market economy itself. Circulation.

The market economy is defined as the moment when subsistence existence is transformed by exchange, what Braudel calls the fateful threshold of exchange value. The first part of this volume looks at the structure of the market economy as whole, to provide a typology, a model, or perhaps a grammar. We look at the development of markets in towns, fairs, shops, peddlers; trade circuits, bills of exchange, problems of currencies and specie. Along the way we are treated to fascinating case studies: the tiny snapshots of Volume 1 are also here, but supplemented with longer steady gazes of specific historical situations: the English/Portugese trade; the way Europeans gradually disrupted and usurped the ancient and extensive trade circuits of India in the 18th Century and China in the 19th Century.

In the second part of the volume, Braudel is concerned to cast light on the classical view (put forward by Marx, Polanyi, Weber and so on) that real capitalism (an industrial mode of production) only started in the 19th century.

Read the full review on The Lectern:

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2008/10/wheels-of-commerce-fernand-braudel.html ( )