Maureen Anderson wrote:
>
>
> I'm jumping threads here (re "anti-imperialism of fools" and the
> characterization of the Greek merchant class as the main promoters of
> democracy), but offhand do you know Ellen Wood's take on the role of
> merchants in antiquity?
>
> I only know her stuff on European feudalism and the origins of
> Capitalism. Based on her analysis there I'd guess she'd be the last
> person to see Greek society, or the role of Greek merchants, as
> analogous or predecessor to capitalism/capitalists. So if I'm wrong
> I'd love to hear about it.
Welcome back! I've missed you on the list.
You're not wrong; she definitely rejects any "capitalism before capitalism" in Athens, and as to merchants she simply doesn't mention them in her book on Athenian democracy. She sees the moving force of Athenian democracy as the successful struggle of the peasantry to smash all forms of compulsory service. She repeats the argument briefly in _Democracy Against Capitalism_, but she develops it at great length in her earlier book, _Peasant-Citizen & Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy._
There is an older marxist tradition, developed most fully expressed by George Thompson in _Aeschylus and Athens_ and _The First Philosophers_, that does see an Athenian "Merchant Class" almost as a modern capitalist class and speaks of it forming an "alliance" with the peasantry and urban artisans against the "feudal" aristocracy. Since then Finley, Ste. Croix, Wood, & others have pretty much made hash of those earlier views.
(I learned an awful lot from Thompson in my early days as a marxist and still hold great admiration for him, but he was wrong on quite a few things apparently.) (He is not to be confuse, incidently, with the other great british marxist with the same last name, E. P. Thompson.)
All of Wood's books are first rate. I've already ordered the hardback of the expanded version of _Origin of Capitalism_ (and after almost wearing the paperback out I bought a hardback edition of _Democracy against Capitalism_). Some of the ideas of the _Origin_ were developed earlier in a fine book, _The Pristine Culture of Capitalism: A Historical Essay on Old Regimes and Modern States_ (Verso, 1991).
A pure speculation: the notion of an Athenian (or other ancient) capitalism seeped into Marxism from Weber, and is still promulgated by many for whom "Weber" is a swear word. The late Jim Blaut seems to have followed Weber in identifying capitalism with any sort of profit-seeking commerce.
Carrol
]
> BTW, I hear her brilliant and lucid little book, _Origins of
> Capitalism_ - highly recommend to all - is about to come out in an
> updated, expanded version.
>
> Maureen