Civilization and Capitalism is the single most impressive work of
history I have read. Braudel''''s magnum opus is
an
economic history of
the four centuries during which the modern world was shaped. The
emphasis is, in Annales style, very much on social and economic
history — wars, treaties, kings and popes only feature incidentally.
Braudel takes a very broad view of his subject, however: temporally
Civilization and Capitalism looks both backwards to earlier
civilizations and forwards to the present; geographically it covers the
whole world, though the focus is on the "civilised" parts of it, and
particularly on Western Europe. At the heart of Braudel''''s account is a
three-level hierarchy: at the base is ordinary economic life, an
all-embracing sea of subsistence agriculture, village barter, and
production for local consumption; above this is the market, a world of
towns and trade, of markets, fairs, currencies, transport systems, bills
of exchange, and workshops; and finally there is capitalism, with its
monopolies, attempts to control complete trade networks or even entire
world-economies, and stress on flexibility above all else. The
structure of Civilization and Capitalism roughly reflects this
hierarchy.
The Structures of Everyday Life, subtitled "The Limits of the
Possible", deals with the everyday constraints of material life; in it
Braudel sketches what is almost a social history of the world. He
begins with a chapter on demographics, which he sees as fundamental to
understanding history. Two chapters are devoted to food: one to basic
subsistence, in the form of the three great cereal crops — wheat, rice
and maize — that feed most of the world''''s people; the other to the
"luxuries" — such things as table manners, salt, meat and spices. The
shifting boundary between luxury and necessity here is also apparent in
houses, clothes and fashion, and Braudel suggests it was significant
that only Europe had rapidly changing fashions. Two chapters cover
energy sources, metallurgy, transportation, and the critical
technological innovations — gunpowder, printing, and above all sea
navigation — which contributed to Europe''''s dominance. The final
chapter surveys the growth of towns, which Braudel considers both an
instrument and a clear marker of change.
The Wheels of Commerce moves on to trade and the market economy.
Braudel begins with the material culture of exchange, from shops,
markets, and pedlars to fairs and stock exchanges. He then explores the
higher levels of commerce: networks of merchants, trade circuits, bills
of exchange, supply and demand, trade balances, the relationship between
gold and silver currencies, and so forth. Two chapters deal with
capitalism. The first explores its scope and its relationship with
agriculture and early forms of industry, and in particular why it failed
to take hold in these domains. The second considers capitalism on its
home ground in finance and international trade, in a world of
partnerships and companies, of monopolies and control, with an influence
vastly disproportionate to its relative size. A final chapter places
economic life in the context of society seen as a "set of sets",
connecting it with social hierarchies, the state and the broad dynamic
of cultural change.
The Perspective of the World takes a global, world-systemic approach.
Braudel begins by arguing for the existence of multiple
"world-economies" and describing their geographical and temporal
dimensions. He then traces the development of the European
world-economy and of the "world cities" which successively ruled it:
Venice, Antwerp, Genoa, Amsterdam and finally London. This is followed
by an analysis of the emerging national economies and their relationship
with international capitalism, with a detailed comparison of France and
England. Braudel then turns to the rest of the world — the Americas,
Black Africa, Russia, Islam, the Fa