Posting got truncated : sorry that I have to mail point D again. It's a =
a long way to Tipperary but it's a longer way from Amsterdam to=20
to Colorado=20
D.)This expansion, regardless of what changed in Asia, is not just bull. =
Rather, it was of such magnitude that the quantitative change became=20
a qualitative one. =20
Maybe, the trouble, though, is that quantitative changes were also =
occuring in Asia; thus, for example,=20
skipping the obvious case of the expansion of Inbdian textile =
production, the production of pepper i
in Sumatra and Java appears to have tripled in the sixteenth century =
with production moving from India to Indonesia, basically because land =
was cheaper there. This was one qualitative change concurent with =
qualitative change but it also appears as if in the course of the late =
sixteenth century, cultivation i Jn Java became increasingly oriented =
towards producing cash crops with the peasant increasingly succumbing to =
debt-servitude; moreover we also can discern a rise of rural =
enterpreneurs selling cash-crops to Chinese merchants, later the Dutch =
East India Company, who accumulate money to invest in soldiers, =
ceremonies and commerce. This is one example of the rise of commercial =
agriculture in the sixteenth century in Asia -and there are many others- =
in the same period as `capitalist agriculture' arose in Europe, =
according to Wallerstein, sure, I do not want enter the debate on =
`capitalism' but one may suppose that qualitative changes were occuring =
in Asia and in Europe.=20
Hope this historic evidence is useful, regardles of the conclusions one =
may draw from it it
cheers,
Dr. R.J. Barendse
Leiden University
Netherlands
Rene.barendse@tip.nl
Terry Boswell
Department of Sociology
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322