Book contents
- Fronmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter One Introduction: Marx’s Field as Our Global Present
- Chapter Two Into the Field with Marx: Some Observations on Researching Class
- Chapter Three Marx’s Merchants’ Capital: Researching Agrarian Markets in Contemporary India
- Chapter Four The Ties That Divide: Marx’s Fractions of Capital and Class Analysis in/for the Global South
- Chapter Five Marx in the Sweatshop: Exploitation and Social Reproduction in a Garment Factory Called India
- Chapter Six Thinking about Capital and Class in the Gulf Arab States
- Chapter Seven Marx on the Bourse: Coffee and the Intersecting/Integrated Circuits of Capital
- Chapter Eight Learning Marx by Doing: Class Analysis in an Emerging Zone of Global Horticulture
- Chapter Nine Understanding Labour Relations and Struggles in India through Marx’s Method
- Chapter Ten Investigating Class Relations in Rural South Africa: Marx’s ‘Rich Totality of Many Determinations’
- Chapter Eleven From Marx’s ‘Double Freedom’ to ‘Degrees of Unfreedom’: Methodological Insights from the Study of Uzbekistan’s Agrarian Labour
- Chapter Twelve The Labour Process and Health through the Lens of Marx’s Historical Materialism
- Chapter Thirteen Marx and the Poor’s Nourishment: Diets in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa
- Chapter Fourteen Marx In Utero: A Workers’ Inquiry of the In/Visible Labours of Reproduction in the Surrogacy Industry
- Chapter Fifteen Marx, the Chief, the Prisoner and the Refugee
- Chapter Sixteen Postcolonial Marxism and the ‘Cyber-Field’ in COVID Times: On Labour Becoming ‘Working Class’
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Chapter Three - Marx’s Merchants’ Capital: Researching Agrarian Markets in Contemporary India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2022
- Fronmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter One Introduction: Marx’s Field as Our Global Present
- Chapter Two Into the Field with Marx: Some Observations on Researching Class
- Chapter Three Marx’s Merchants’ Capital: Researching Agrarian Markets in Contemporary India
- Chapter Four The Ties That Divide: Marx’s Fractions of Capital and Class Analysis in/for the Global South
- Chapter Five Marx in the Sweatshop: Exploitation and Social Reproduction in a Garment Factory Called India
- Chapter Six Thinking about Capital and Class in the Gulf Arab States
- Chapter Seven Marx on the Bourse: Coffee and the Intersecting/Integrated Circuits of Capital
- Chapter Eight Learning Marx by Doing: Class Analysis in an Emerging Zone of Global Horticulture
- Chapter Nine Understanding Labour Relations and Struggles in India through Marx’s Method
- Chapter Ten Investigating Class Relations in Rural South Africa: Marx’s ‘Rich Totality of Many Determinations’
- Chapter Eleven From Marx’s ‘Double Freedom’ to ‘Degrees of Unfreedom’: Methodological Insights from the Study of Uzbekistan’s Agrarian Labour
- Chapter Twelve The Labour Process and Health through the Lens of Marx’s Historical Materialism
- Chapter Thirteen Marx and the Poor’s Nourishment: Diets in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa
- Chapter Fourteen Marx In Utero: A Workers’ Inquiry of the In/Visible Labours of Reproduction in the Surrogacy Industry
- Chapter Fifteen Marx, the Chief, the Prisoner and the Refugee
- Chapter Sixteen Postcolonial Marxism and the ‘Cyber-Field’ in COVID Times: On Labour Becoming ‘Working Class’
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Summary
Abstract
After analysing Marx's many insights on merchants’ and commercial capital, and on circulation more broadly, this chapter shows how these have crucially shaped debates on Indian capitalism. It outlines the features of existing commercial capitalism in India, and it explores the many methodological challenges of concretely researching ‘Marx's merchants’ on the ground, effectively suggesting a Marxian research agenda on commercial capitalism for the twenty-first century.
Introduction
In this market, open auctions are conducted directly from covered platforms, where a small number of bullock carts and a much larger number of tractor trolleys filled with produce from the surrounding villages are lined up by farmers for sale […] Much is at stake here at this site of transfer, technique, vigilance, manipulation, exploitation and resistance. And yet none of this is easily apparent except to those routinely involved in the making and managing of grain heaps from day-to-day and across marketing seasons. (Mekhala Krishnamurthy describing Harda Mandi in Madhya Pradesh, 2019: 94)
In the midst of an era of monopoly capital and rampant commodification without much by way of brakes lies a set of concepts that are highly relevant to the study of political economy. They call out to be dragged to the centre-stage from the wings, as they never seem to capture quite enough spotlight in the study of development. These are merchants’ capital (MC) and commercial capital (CC) (Banaji 2016, 2020; Jan 2017). What did Marx have to say about these concepts, and what is it about them that demands engaging with them in the twenty-first century?
Drawing from decades of field research in India, this chapter outlines questions about theories and research on MC through a Marxian lens. It analyses Marx's engagement with the categories of MC and CC. It reveals the relevance of Marxian analysis for early and more recent debates on Indian capitalism and points to ways they may be developed. Finally, the chapter introduces methodological research challenges associated with conducting fieldwork on MC and CC.
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- Marx in the Field , pp. 31 - 48Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2021