The document discusses the history of capitalism and its relationship to non-capitalist systems. It argues that capitalism in the past only occupied a small part of the economy and existed alongside much larger non-capitalist systems. It also discusses Fernand Braudel's distinction between the economy, capitalism, and a lowest non-economic stratum. The document advocates understanding capitalism in relation to the surrounding non-capitalist context from which it was defined.

1. Feminist Economics,
Finance, and the Commons
BELFAST 7 JUNE 2019

40. The witch hunt was one of the
most important events in the
development of capitalist society
and the formation of the modern
proletariat.

41. …the unleashing of a campaign of
terror against women, unmatched by
any other persecution, weakened the
resistance of the European peasantry
to the assault launched against it by
the gentry and the state,
at a time when the peasant
community was already
disintegrating under the combined
impact of land privatisation,
increased taxation, and the extension
of state control over every aspect of
social life.

42. The witch-hunt deepened the
divisions between women and men,
teaching men to fear the power of
women, and destroyed a universe of
practices, beliefs, and social subjects
whose existence was incompatible
with the capitalist work discipline,
thus redefining the main elements
of social reproduction.

43. In this sense, like the
contemporary attack on ‘popular
culture,’ and the ‘Great
Confinement’ of paupers and
vagabonds in work-houses and
correction houses, the witch-
hunt was an essential aspect
of primitive accumulation and
the ‘transition’ to capitalism.

94. Capitalism in the past (as distinct from
capitalism today) only occupied a narrow
platform of economic life. How could one
possibly take it to mean a ‘system’
extending over the whole of society?
(Fernand Braudel (1982) Civilization and
Capitalism 15th-18th Century vol II: The
Wheels of Commerce.

95. It was nevertheless a world apart, different
from and indeed foreign to the social and
economic context surrounding it. And it is in
relation to this context that it is defined as
‘capitalism’, not merely in relation to new
capitalist forms which were to emerge later
in time.
In fact capitalism was what it was in
relation to a non-capitalism of immense
proportions.
(Wheels, p.239)

96. And to refuse to admit this dichotomy within
the economy of the past, on the pretext
that ‘true’ capitalism dates only from the
nineteenth century, means abandoning
the effort to understand the significance –
crucial to the analysis of that economy – of
what might be termed the former typology
of capitalism.
(Wheels, p.239)

97. If there were certain areas where it
elected residence – by no means
inadvertently – that is because these
were the only areas which favoured the
reproduction of capital.” (Wheels, p.239)

98. the distinction of sectors between what I have called the
‘economy’ (or the market economy) and ‘capitalism’ does
not seem to me to be anything new, but rather a constant
in Europe since the Middle Ages.
There is another difference too: I would argue that a third
sector should be added to the pre-industrial model – that
the lowest stratum of the non-economy, the soil into
which capitalism thrusts its roots but which it can never
really penetrate.
This lowest layer remains an enormous one.
(Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th
Century vol.II: The Wheels of Commerce, London: Collins,
1982, pp.229-30.).

99. Above it, comes the favoured terrain of the
market economy, with its many horizontal
communications between the different markets:
here a degree of automatic coordination usually
links supply, demand and prices.
(Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism
15th-18th Century vol.II: The Wheels of
Commerce, London: Collins, 1982, pp.229-30.).

100. Then alongside, or rather above this layer, comes
the zone of the anti-market, where the great
predators roam and the law of the jungle
operates. This – today as in the past, before and
after the industrial revolution – is the real home of
capitalism.”
(Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism 15th-
18th Century vol.II: The Wheels of Commerce,
London: Collins, 1982, pp.229-30.).

104. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

105. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social
relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied
widely and that variation has been central to the organization of
gender relations and gender inequality.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

106. Social Reproduction
Renewing life is a form of work, a kind of production, as
fundamental to the perpetuation of society as the production of
things.
Moreover, the social organization of that work, the set of social
relationships through which people act to get it done, has varied
widely and that variation has been central to the organization of
gender relations and gender inequality.
From this point of view, societal reproduction includes not only
the organization of production but the organization of social
reproduction, and the perpetuation of gender as well as class
relations.
Barbara Laslett and Johanna Brenner, ’ Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical
Perspectives,’ Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 15 (1989): 383

116. Rational Economic Man
• An autonomous agent
• able bodied, independent,
rational, heterosexual male
who is able to choose from an
number of options limited
only by certain constraints.
• Weighs cost and benefits to
maximise utility
• Self interested in
marketplace; altruistic at
home

119. By the end of the nineteenth century, most
economists had come to agree that all paid
services should be considered productive, and
many advocated the term “unproductive” be
dropped from the language of their discipline.
Yet, almost to a man, they also agreed that
nonmarket services lay outside the realm of
economics and therefore did not contribute to
economic growth.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.470

120. By the end of the nineteenth century, most
economists had come to agree that all paid
services should be considered productive, and
many advocated the term “unproductive” be
dropped from the language of their discipline.
Yet, almost to a man, they also agreed that
nonmarket services lay outside the realm of
economics and therefore did not contribute to
economic growth.
While paid domestic servants were considered
part of the labour force, unpaid domestic
workers were not.
Nonmarket production – a wife’s work in the
home, for instance – was implicitly defined as
unproductive.
Nancy Folbre, ‘The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in
Nineteenth-Century Thought’, Signs, Spring 1991; 16, 3, p.470

124. The creation of a Third World
female industrial work force
"took off" in the 1960s and by
the 1980s was a major
phenomenon in dozens of
Asian, Latin American and
African societies. -
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/art
icle/third-world-women-factories
In the twenty years from 1970 to
1990, the number of textile,
clothing and footwear (TCF)
workers increased by 597
percent in Malaysia; 416 percent
in Bangladesh; 385 percent in Sri
Lanka; 334 percent in Indonesia;
271 percent in the Philippines;
and 137 percent in Korea.
http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-
centre/press-releases/WCMS_008075/lang--
en/index.htm

133. There is no commons without
active co-production
(commoning), and without an
important measure of self-
governance.
Thus, it differs from both public
and state or city-owned goods,
and from private property
managed by its owners.

144. Power is the ability to bring about
change.
The occupation of the institutions is
only one part of what makes change
possible.
The power to act comes from a
combination of occupying both the
institutions and the squares.

145. The broader discussions and alliances on the left
can most productively be framed not from the
Cold War of left equalling more state and right
equalling more market,
but as between those who uphold the existing
institutions of the state, with its separation of
parliamentary politics from the struggles and
alternatives rooted in civil society,
and those who are rooted in those struggles as the
basis of a new productive, and participatory,
politics.

146. At the end of the day, human
beings want to do things
together.
We want to do things
collectively.

149. THENETWORK-MOVEMENT
Thepointis notwhat solutionis validfor the
whole,but what solutions workwithinthe
whole.
Thereis no needto find asingle answer towhat
everyonemust do.

150. THENETWORK-MOVEMENT
The point is to create something more than mere alliancebuilding
(where the parts, understood as constituted groupings of people, are
supposed to stay the same only co-operating punctually)
and less a one-size-fits-allsolution
(e.g., the idea of the party).

151. THENETWORK-MOVEMENT
The point is to create something more than mere alliance
building
(wherethe parts, understood as constituted groupings of
people, aresupposed to stay the same only co-operating
punctually)
andless a one-size-fits-allsolution
(e.g., the idea of the party).