The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind by Jan Lucassen

Author:Jan Lucassen [Lucassen, Jan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, World, social history, Social Science, anthropology, Cultural & Social
ISBN: 9780300262995
Google: Dkk5EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2021-07-27T00:24:18.724523+00:00

Until 1500, the world had consisted of a number of large, separate islands, especially in the way in which people worked. Although hunter-gatherers still inhabited large parts of the earth’s surface, they were marginalized to the (sub-)Arctic regions and to spots in the tropical rainforests of Africa and South America. Everywhere else, agriculture dominated. This was not only self-sufficient but also productive enough to generate surpluses. These were divided into two major models: in Eurasia, distribution via the market, and in the Americas and in parts of sub-Saharan Africa in polities, organized according to the redistributive model.

This disappeared rapidly there, not as before in Mesopotamia, for example, from inside out and gradually, but rather from outside in and in an extremely violent manner. Within the market model, free entrepreneurship of peasants and artisans with wage labour dominated, but, adjacent and simultaneous to this, confrontations between polities could lead to enslavement and, in turn, enslavement sometimes resulted in whole societies becoming highly dependent on slave labour.

With European maritime expansion, we reached a turning point, as all these separate islands came into permanent contact with each other. This led to the rapid demise of hunter-gatherers, the destruction of the last great redistributive societies, the retreat of reciprocity to the household and the expansion and intensification of the market economy. This expansion occurred in two ways: through the export of the market model and, simultaneously, through the expansion of unfree labour. Unfree labour became dominant in Russia as a result of the expansion of serfdom and in many other parts of the world through the sharp increase of chattel slavery. That was most intensive in the Caribbean and Brazil, increasingly so in Africa and possibly also in and around Central Asia. Although sheer numbers were equally impressive in the Indian Ocean, slavery there amounted to a much smaller proportion of the total population.

The extension and intensification of the market model affected all sectors. Peasants in Eurasia, by far the largest portion of the global population, intensified their work in all ways, both in actual agriculture and in cottage industry. Even the Russian serfs followed this pattern within the limits imposed by the system. This growing market orientation of the peasant household meant more work not only for men but also for women and children. The same happened in the rapidly growing towns and cities, and this also applies to sectors such as shipping and the military. The main motive behind this, partly under the influence of globalization, was more extensive consumption and new opportunities to consume above the absolute subsistence level. This is most evident in the increased sugar consumption, but also in the spread of stimulants such as tea, coffee, alcohol and opium, as well as textiles and, in Europe, cheap printing.

As a rule, workplaces were still small, whether we are talking about farms, those of craftsmen, or most American plantations. There were large work units, such as the armies, that had existed for thousands of years, and there were now many ocean-going ships, shipyards and arsenals, and other military workplaces.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.