New Left Review I/226, November-December 1997

Carlos Astarita

Asymmetrical Trade in the Feudal System and in the Early Transition to Capitalism

Historical research has analyzed unequal exchange using two fundamental models: the ‘circulationist’ model, espoused by Wallerstein and Braudel, attributes development and under-development to the transfer of value from peripheral to central areas through unequivalent exchange. The endogenous model, by contrast, denies the influence of commerce in capitalist evolution. [1] In the present article, taking a limited region, Castile, I will analyze commerce in feudalism and during the early transition to capitalism, particularly commodity value, and the relation between exchange and socio-economic reproduction. The goal is to redefine the character of asymmetric exchange, if only in a condensed form. [2]

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