CB: If today is the negation of the negation of merchant capital, there would be somethings from ole merchantilism superceded and some preserved (or resurrected) ________________________________
On 10/29/05, Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was thinking more in terms of Marx's understanding of merchant capitalism as a system in > which profits were made by arbitrage rather than by improving methods of production. One difference is that under merchant capital, the wage and price differentials were long-lasting; the equalization effects of arbitrage were weak. These days, the equalization effect is stronger, mostly (it seems) occurring in a downward direction for wages. The reason why the equalization effects were weak was because merchant capital acted as a "middleman" between precapitalist modes of production and nascent industrial capitalism. Nowadays, slavery and feudalesque systems are marginal rather than central. -- Jim Devine "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
