HIST2703 · History

Is All Commerce Capitalism? Global Histories of Production, Exchange, and Power

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Fulfills the LAMA Requirement for History Majors Adam Smith famously wrote of "a certain propensity in human nature...to truck, barter, and exchange." Less than a century later Karl Marx observed that capitalism "cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing...the whole relations of society." This course examines both these propositions, asking what role exchange has played in human societies and in what sense capitalism is revolutionary. We study a global range of ancient, medieval, and modern trade networks, modes of production, and social meanings in and around exchange. We investigate connections trade fostered and where power inhered in the production, distribution, and consumption of goods.