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In recent years, we have been able to observe the emergence and mainstreaming of an EU discourse on digital sovereignty, which highlights the importance of gaining back control of EU digital infrastructure and technological production, based on the EU's perceived loss of economic competitiveness, limited capacity to innovate, high degree of dependence on foreign digital infrastructures and service providers and, related to all these factors, difficulty in providing EU citizens with a high level of cybersecurity. Bearing in mind that a considerable percentage of these infrastructures and service providers are under private sector control, the present article asks how this sovereignty discourse conceptualises the role of the private sector in EU cybersecurity. Drawing from a Regulatory Capitalism theoretical model, this article proposes that the EU has instead entered a Regulatory Mercantilist phase where it seeks to reassert its control over cyberspace, impose digital borders, accumulate data wealth and reduce its dependence on external private sector actors whose values may not reflect those of the EU order. A new approach to cybersecurity is emerging, in which the non-EU private sector can be perceived as much of a threat as foreign powers, and from whom digital sovereignty must be secured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the French Revolution (1789) and the outbreak of the Springtime of the Peoples (1848), European economic thought debated between the defense of protected markets and the proper opening of capitalist markets. In this paper, we address this process specifically in the framework of the German intellectual scene, from the bibliographic debates of the time, as a historical marker for a more complete understanding of the Hegelian conceptualization of political economy, its scope, limitations, and projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, we are facing the beginning of the end of the post-war capitalist world system. The 1920s was in the middle of the social, political and economic interregnum, a period of discontinuity in the social order, accompanied by widespread unrest, wars and power vacuums. In this article, that framework of the long and super long waves in the capitalist world systems is used to examine the recent interregnum that marks the re-emergence of Asia. Within the framework of the long and super long waves a new "flying geese" theory is built by incorporating the theory of dynamic industries with Akamatsu's theory. In the 1980s, Japanese integral production architecture improved quality and productivity in the automobile and electrical machinery industries. In the 1990s, the USA's open modular production architecture enabled China's compressed industrialisation, and the China-centric Asian production network replaced the Japan-led Pacific Rim triangular trade regime. In the 2000s, the knowledge-and technology-intensive (KTI) industries have established themselves as the new dynamic industries. The USA is the leading country to develop KTI industries. China is catching up quickly and has leapfrogged Japan in KTI industries. In conclusion, it is argued that these changes mark an approaching second interregnum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text is based on the use of discursive power to show that the longevity of trade unionism could be responsible for preventing it from disappearing; this is why we have studied its origin. Methodologically we have relied on the critical analysis of specialized literature. Our results indicate that the emergence of mercantilism at the beginning of the Modern Age brought about profound changes in professional corporations, which basically tested two strategies at the Spanish level: the master craftsmen tried to increase their control over the production process and the workforce, which made it difficult for officers to access the upper levels of the trade; and the officers were organized under a visibly trade union institution. In conclusion, respect for the stratified order by officers forced them to replicate the associative formulas of their teachers. In addition, they assumed a critical participatory role in new forms of economic development, which led them to claim rights, working conditions and employment conditions that they had traditionally and legally enjoyed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is true that, modernity gave us a meaning of development, from the patterns imposed by mercantilism, capital accumulation and the advent of industrial societies, in which case development, beyond cultural factors, imposed by capitalism, explained that process as a phenomenon of greater production and accumulation. We must look at the ways in which this development is taking place no longer from the perspective of sustainability, always looking to the future and caring for the welfare of future generations; and not just from the Eurocentric perspective of individualism and that this development must be at the expense of what is necessary to achieve establishment, ascendancy or personal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Kari Polanyi Levitt, Emeritus Professor of Economics from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec is presented. Among the issues she discussed include her interest in development economics as a young student during the war years, her work on the Plantation Economy, and her argument that modern capitalism is returning to its mercantilist origins and its parallels to the Plantation Economy.

Anievas and Nişancıoğlu's attempt to shift the terms of the debate about early modern capitalism by a major widening of its perspectives is a welcome move. Accepting this, the paper suggests that their argument can be more forcefully made if the theoretical residues of earlier traditions of Marxist historical explanation are purged from the way they expound that argument. The most ambivalent of these relates to their continued use of the idea of a ‘coexistence of modes of production'. This permeates the confused way they present Atlantic slavery. A second, comparable source of confusion concerns their description of the relationship between merchant capital and the absolutist state. The alliance between the modern state and mercantile capital is radically misrecognised thanks to an uncritical espousal of Anderson's view of absolutism.The paper suggests that Anievas and Nişancıoğlu might have written a stronger book had they reconceptualised the economic history of capitalism by allowing for a whole epoch dominated by powerful groups of merchant capitalists. In conclusion, I argue (pace Marx) that the commercial capital of the later middle ages/early modern period was the first form in which production began to be subordinated to capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-15thcentury, the space economy in Africa has assumed an imperial outlook under the influence of European mercantilism. It was the era that unfettered capitalism prevailed as economic orthodoxy for control of regional economies. At the inception of fettered capitalism in the mid-20thcentury, an imperial structure that served western interests under colonial rule was further entrenched in many African countries. At the turn of the 21stcentury, neoliberalism emerged as global economic orthodoxy, and free-trade relations implemented to manage Euro-American and Chinese mercantilism worldwide. This unleashed epistemological ideologies that ushered in urban productivity decline in the African space economy. As an entry point to address this urban development challenge in new regionalism, this article makes a case for neo-mercantilism as an alternative development ideology for Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than England and other states, the German principalities were, in the pre-industrial period, hampered by silver outflow and persistent pressures on the balance of payments, which led to idiosyncratic models and strategies of economic development usually but not entirely helpfully called “Cameralism.” It is less well understood how Cameralism, as a policy of order and development, and monetary theory went together. The present paper will sketch these working mechanisms as well as provide a few angles for new perspectives and future research. A first section after the brief introduction studies general issues of development in relation to balance-of-payment constraints (II), followed by the discourses on whether the domestic currency ought to remain stable in terms of intrinsic (silver) value (III), or whether it may be debased so as to raise domestic exports and competitiveness (IV). Both options were considered, at times and by varying actors, as valid strategies of promoting economic development, especially export-led growth, although most contemporaries viewed coin debasement as harmful to the economy. A fifth section discusses an alternative to the aforementioned strategies, that of raising effective monetary mass through increasing velocity. Since the Middle Ages and into the nineteenth century, the German economic tradition had a clear understanding of how velocity could be managed and the common weal stimulated by an increase in “vivacity” of circulation (V). In hindsight, it appears that we find here a powerful program towards promoting economic development and Europe’s rise towards capitalism. A conclusion will offer some thoughts for further research (VI). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the links between international law, race and colonial capitalism through the Spanish and Portuguese Conquests of the Americas. Turning to the early modern philosophers of the School of Salamanca, Bohrer argues that economic theories of emergent capitalism are deeply intertwined with the racial theories of colonial conquest. Moreover, through a close reading of these texts, and in particular of the texts of Francisco de Vitoria, this paper argues that the conceptions of international trade, commerce and travel at the heart of liberal notions of international law are themselves suffused with the logics of racism, colonisation, and capitalist accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on economist Rudolf Hilferding. Topics discussed include his education and career, economic theory and mercantilist policy. Other topics which includes history of economics, capitalism and price revolution are also discussed. In addition, topics such as economic manuscripts of economist Karl Marx is also mentioned.

The article discusses early English mercantilist writings leading up to the English Civil War and evaluates their contributions to the development of liberal institutions which led to the economic growth and ultimately to the doctrine of free trade. Topics include medieval views toward trading and the way it was carried out, seminal work on institutional change and mercantilism, and the change from feudalism to capitalism.

Adam Smith was the first ever to counter the mercantilist approach to enrichment as a zero-sum game, arguing that trade can lead to mutual gains and that the greater the degree of the freedom to trade, the greater the gains. Ayn Rand's more radical approach demonstrates - in what sometimes constitutes a shocking manner - that even when a deal looks totally off balance, it still can yield benefits for the underdog of the transaction. Our study shall investigate the positions of both thinkers and of the currents of political thought they stand for, respectively, classical liberalism and objectivism, in what concerns the liberties a society needs to safeguard in order to assure the greatest possible degree of development, both at the macroeconomic level and at that of its citizens' every days' lives. While two centuries separate Adam Smith and Ayn Rand, there are more parallels between their doctrinaire positions than one might think at a first glance. We shall elaborate upon the subject, identifying these elements and pointing out which contribute more to fostering human flourishing and - generally - development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the Marxist philosophy regarding 19th and 20th century modern cities referred to as phantasmagoria. The author comments on the urban growth and urbanization at the time and describes the influence of capitalism on these phenomena. He also considers the development of capitalism, the mercantile system, and modern governmentality (biopolitics) during this period. The philosophies of such figures as Karl Marx, Georg Hegel, and Giorgio Agamben, relating to modern cities, are also provided.

This is a commentary to a well-known paper of Bresser-Pereira: The two methods and the hard core of economics. Therefore, it target a very suggestive article that seeks to examine the conceptions of man of classical political economy and Keynesian economics in contrast to the reductive conception of man found in positive economic theory, especially in neoclassical theory. It shows that both conceptions at large think with abstracts economic men. However, the first one reasons with individuals who are determined by the historical and social structures of the capitalistic economic system. The second one seeks to present them in a formal way, as if they were mere pieces of a large automaton, i.e., the mercantile system as a large and standardized mechanism. In the end, Marx is distinguished because he does not reflect based on a static anthropological foundation. For him, men are subjects that become because they can realize themselves only in the course of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capitalism is still in a systemic crisis that started in the Summer of 2007. Financial instability arose from the difficulties inherent in a particular segment of US financial markets, then spread to the rest of the world. The financial crisis mutated into a banking crisis and, in less than a year, it became a full blown crisis of the real economy. Now, the crisis of private debt has turned into a public debt crisis, and the global crisis has heavily affected Europe. The recession is likely to be a prolonged one even if one accepts that the feeble recovery, if there is a recovery at all, will not end in another depression. The trigger of a double dip may be European contradictions. Capitalism could therefore face again, in the medium term, a prolonged period of stagnation with mass unemployment. In this paper, we will first give a brief outlook of the global and European crisis. Then we will focus on Europe. We will inquire in particular into the contradictions of European neo-mercantilism, considering some 'microeconomic' but crucial dimensions of the nature of competition and industrial restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the varieties of capitalism in transitional societies in Latin America and Central / Eastern Europe. The intended purpose of these transitions from semi-closed import-substituting economies in the first case and state socialist ones in the second was to institutionalize open-market economies. Twenty or thirty years later, there is a variety of types of capitalism in these countries, which I classify into three: open-market, neo-mercantilist, and anemic. This paper discusses the varieties of capitalism in transitional societies in Latin America and Central / Eastern Europe. The intended purpose of these transitions from semi-closed import-substituting economies in the first case and state socialist ones in the second was to institutionalize open-market economies. Twenty or thirty years later, there is a variety of types of capitalism in these countries, which I classify into three: open-market, neo-mercantilist, and anemic. My paper makes two claims. First, the successful transfer of institutions depends on the congruence between these institutions and the broader institutional framework of the recipient economies, a point not developed by institutionalist theories. I offer a hypothesis in this regard: Two critical nodes of congruence are the regulatory and extractive capacity of the state and the strength of civil society. Second, market capitalism (as liberal democracy as well) is a complex institution, and some of its components "travel" more easily across societies and institutional frameworks, and therefore are easier to institutionalize. This is the source of the hybrid variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two models define early modern English thinking about social and economic value: an aristocratic model in which value derives from an ineluctable essence; and a mercantile or proto-capitalist model which posits value as the product of monetary exchange on the market. Both models marginalize labouring bodies. For the aristocracy, labour is the province of the lower social orders; for merchants, the productive activity of the labouring body is elided by a focus on monetary circulation. What, then, do we make of plays that take labouring bodies as their subject matter? Through a reading of Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday, this article explores how labouring bodies resist dominant class efforts to deny the value of productive activity. In the play, aristocratic and bourgeois attitudes toward labour are displaced by a vision that embraces the labouring body as the source of social and economic value. In opposition to aristocratic and mercantile world views, I argue that the play affirms an artisanal consciousness, a perspective that views the social in terms of the sensuous and communal activity that underpins the production process. The play, in short, offers a thoroughly embodied vision of the social world, one in which social and economic value derives neither from an essential birthright nor from the impersonal circulation of goods on the market, but must be enacted through sensuous communal labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a general overview of the structural transformations marking the "new capitalism" and analyzes the contradictions of European neomercantilism within the Great Recession. In the past two decades, neoliberalism turned into a paradoxical sort of privatized financial Keynesianism based on the triad of traumatized workers, manic-depressive savers, and indebted consumers. It argues that the present European economic and political situation is deeply rooted in linking capitalist accumulation to the attainment of export surpluses, a situation in which, as is the case in Germany, most of the net external balances, are realized within Europe itself. It shows that such a process has led to the rise of strong neomercantilism (in Germany) and to weak neomercantism (in Italy). The recent crises, including those in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, are discussed in this framework. It concludes by observing that in light of the ongoing contradictions, the challenge for the Left is the question of the socialization of the banking system, of investment, and of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues against the charges that fantasy literature is more ethical than political by focusing on the generic plot of China Miéville's "The Scar." The narrative set-up of the novel is "steampunk" history that de-familiarizes the relationship between technological and cultural development both in abstract or by allegory. Its perspectival reversal trains the attention on uneven development in the abstract and in the present and it claims that this serves to give symbolic reach to a tension between mercantilism and capitalism.

Marxist notions of the origins of capitalism are still largely structured by the famous debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. This essay suggests that that tradition of historiography locates capitalism too late and sees it in essentially national terms. It argues that capitalism began, on a European scale, in the important transformations that followed the great revival of the eleventh century and the role played by mercantile élites in innovating new forms of business organisation. However, with this starting point, it becomes important to bring Islam into the picture in a central way, since the Mediterranean was the common heritage of many cultural and religious groups. Islam shaped the tradition of early capitalism both by preserving monetary economy and through its own precocious development of the partnership form. The essay periodises this early capitalism into a 'Mediterranean' and an 'Atlantic' phase, and concludes by looking briefly at the ways in which merchants dominate labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the development of the London East India agency houses during the first half of the nineteenth century, and their evolving commercial and political relationships with merchants and manufacturers in the British provinces. It outlines the emergence of pressure groups in Britain concerned with influencing British economic policy in India and the Far East, and their role in shaping policy as the East India Company receded in importance following the Charter Acts of 1813 and 1833. What emerges is a complex picture of collaboration between interest groups in London and the provinces. This challenges and refines aspects of the gentlemanly capitalism thesis of Cain and Hopkins, which emphasizes both the supremacy of London-based financial and mercantile interests in the formation of British policy towards the empire, and the separateness of City-based ‘gentlemanly capitalists’ from provincial mercantile and industrial interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on Karl Marx's treatment of mercantilism. Ignorance of economic developments taking place in the mercantilist era; Distinction between absolute and relative surplus value; Validity of private property; Explanation of industrial capitalism.

Focuses on the criticism of the mercantile system by economist Adam Smith. Evaluation of the nature and consequences of specific Smithian compositional styles; Illustration of Smith's rhetoric of economics using Smithian compositional rules; Analysis of the market economy and its fluctuation through history.

This paper presents a theoretical elaboration of the ethical framework of classical capitalism as formulated by Adam Smith in reaction to the dominant mercantilism of his day. It is seen that Smith's project was profoundly ethical and designed to emancipate the consumer from a producer and state dominated economy. Over time, however, the various dysfunctions of a capitalist economy -- e.g., concentration of wealth, market power -- became manifest and the utilitarian ethical basis of the system eroded. Contemporary capitalism, dominated as it is by large corporations, entrenched political interests and persistent social pathologies, bears little resemblance to the system which Smith envisioned would serve the common man. Most critiques of capitalism are launched from a Marxian-based perspective. We find, however, that by illustrating the wide gap between the reality of contemporary capitalism and the model of a moral political economy developed by Smith, the father of capitalism proves to be the most trenchant critic of the current order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]