Summary Of "Pre-capitalist Economic Formations" By Eric Hobsbawm

We have summarized here the essential of this book by the author.

PRE-CAPITALIST ECONOMIC FORMATIONS

III

For Marx, slavery is the main feature of the ancient system. Analysis of it appears to be the western Roman half of the Mediterranean, rather than the Greek. Rome begins as a peasant community. It is not a fully egalitarian community because, as tribal developments with mutual marriages and conquests tend to produce higher and lower social kinship groups, but the Roman citizen is essentially a landowner. His primary occupation is war because the only threat to his existence comes from other communities claiming his land, and the only way to secure the land for every citizen is to occupy it by force. But the very expansionist tendencies of these peasant communities lead to the bankruptcy of the peasant qualities that are their foundation. To a certain extent, slavery, the concentration of land ownership, etc., are compatible with the foundations of these communities. Beyond this point, they should collapse.

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