Really? Do you have an example? Brenner does not compare Great Britain to France in the 16th and 18th century to "answer" the question whether "big tenant farms" or "small family farms" are better seedbeds for capitalism.
That, the above, is transparently a mis-reading of Brenner, just as, I believe citing Allen's figures on agricultural productivity to refute Brenner is a mis-reading. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 2:45 PM Subject: [PEN-L] British farming and market imperatives Robert Brenner applies the “case study” approach to defend the “agrarian capitalism” thesis. This is the stock and trade of PhD dissertations. My wife is just finishing up her own, which compares financial crises before and after Bretton Woods in order to answer the question whether the U.S. is in decline. By the same token, Brenner compares Great Britain and France in the 16th through 18th century in order to answer the question whether big tenant farms or small family farms are better hotbeds of capitalist growth. All in all, the methodology seems to owe a lot to the physical sciences. For example, you might take two mice and feed one with a diet of McDonald’s Big Macs for a month and the other a nice vegetarian diet. The one eating Big Macs will end up a total wreck, much like France with its inefficient small family farms. However, there are significant differences between the mouse and society. The scientist can be relatively assured that the two mice he is testing are pretty much alike. He can also test their blood and cell samples during the testing period to see how they are responding to the diets. But France and Great Britain were not exactly alike in the early 16th century, were they? An even more decisive difficulty is establishing the link between tenant farming and subsequent economic development in Great Britain. Gentlemen farmers were notoriously neglectful when it came to keeping financial records–the mice blood of capitalism. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/british-farming-and-market-imperatives/
