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Reading guide for The Origin of Capitalism. A Longer View. Meiksins Wood.

 Reading guide for The Origin of Capitalism. A Longer View. Meiksins Wood. 

Chapter 2: “Marxist Debates”. 

1. Why does the author speak about the old models of capitalism as a paradoxical blend of transhistorical determinism and free market voluntarism?

2. What is the model (antithetical to the old models) that the author is searching for? How does she define it? 

3. Explain Marx’s two different narratives about the origins of capitalism. 

4. Explain the “commercialization model” (page 35). 

5. Explain why, in the commercialization model, capitalism is just a quantitative expansion of commerce and wealth. 

6. What transformed wealth into capital, according to Marx? And why? (page 36). 

7. Where did capitalism begin, according to Marx? 

8. What is the central question posed by Sweezy and Dobbs about the transition from feudalism to capitalism?

9. Dobb and Hilton explain this transition in terms of a “liberation of petty commodity producers from feudal exploitation”: does this explanation belong to the commercialization model or not? Why?

10. What is, for Sweezy, the reason for the transition from feudalism to capitalism? (page 40). 

11. What does Sweezy say about the inability of the ruling class to maintain control over the labor power? 

12. Explain the idea of capitalism as an economic model already present in the simple commodity production (42). 

13. What is “serfdom” according to Perry Anderson? 

14. Where is the “new economic sphere”, not controlled by aristocracy, according to Perry Anderson? 

15. What is “absolutism”, according to Anderson? Why does it fracture the unity that characterized the feudal system? 

16. Is Anderson’s explanation about the origin of capitalism compatible with the commercialization model? Explain.

Kurz - Reading guide.

 Reading guide for “Classical Political Economy” - Kurz. 

1. Explain the difference between Classical Economy and Marginalist Economy (pages 19-20)

2. The author says that classical economists have an “objectivist point of view”. Why? (page 19). 

3. Why do the issues of socio-economic reproduction and development assume centre stage in the analysis of classical political economy? (page 20).

4. The systemic and general approach is “dynamic”. Why? (page 20).

5. Why the author relates the marginalist approach to “robinsonades”? (page 20). 

6. Explain the methodological individualism of the marginalist approach (page 20). 

7. According to the author, if we only have autarchic units of production and consumption, then, there is no society. Do you agree with this opinion? (page 21).

8. Explain the place of Sociology between “Political Economy” and “Economics” (page 21). 

9. Explain the position of Auguste Compte against Political economy.

10. With marginalism, sociological themes were removed from the economic discourse. Why? (page 22). 

11. Explain David Hume’s naturalistic view of man (page 22). 

12. What is Adam Smith’s view of moral judgment? (page 22)

13. What is the main theme of Smith’s Wealth of Nations? (page 23)

14. What is the role of the concepts of cooperation and assistance in Smith’s scheme? (page 23)

15. Explain the two crucial axioms in Smith’s scheme (page 24). 

16. Explain the three characteristics of Smith’s economic agent (24).

17. Explain the “three grand orders of men”, or social classes, according to the classical economists (page 24). 

18. Explain the differences in the access to information and knowledge, according to the social class (pages 24-25). 

19. Why does asymmetric information give rise to a moral hazard (page 26). 

20. Explain the process of adverse selection of debtors by the banks, in Smith’s scheme (page 26). 

21. Explain the opposition between the cleverness of legislators and the cunning of business people (page 27).

Article: "Classical Political Economy." - Kurz

 

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