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The control of competition is designed, at best, to reconcile socioeconomic stability with innovation, and at worst, to keep competitors out of the market. In this respect, the nineteenth century was no more liberal than the eighteenth century. Even during the presumed liberal nineteenth century, legal regulation played a major role in the economy, and the industrial revolution was based on market institutions and organisations formed during the second half of the seventeenth century. If indeed there is a break in the history of capitalism, it should be situated at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the irruption of mass production, consumption and the welfare state, which introduced new forms of regulation. This book provides a new intellectual, economic and legal history of capitalism from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. It analyzes the interaction between economic practices and legal constructions in France and compares the French case with other Western countries during this period, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Italy.
The control of competition is designed, at best, to reconcile socioeconomic stability with innovation, and at worst, to keep competitors out of the market. In this respect, the nineteenth century was no more liberal than the eighteenth century. Even during the presumed liberal nineteenth century, legal regulation played a major role in the economy, and the industrial revolution was based on market institutions and organisations formed during the second half of the seventeenth century. If indeed there is a break in the history of capitalism, it should be situated at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the irruption of mass production, consumption and the welfare state, which introduced new forms of regulation. This book provides a new intellectual, economic and legal history of capitalism from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. It analyzes the interaction between economic practices and legal constructions in France and compares the French case with other Western countries during this period, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Italy.
Introduction; Part I. Building Ideal Markets: Economic and Legal Culture: 1. Economic thought and competition; 2. Codes, customs and jurisdictions; Part II. Trade and Marketplace: 3. Covered markets; 4. The world of shop; 5. Intangible trade and the produce exchange; Part III. Market as Transaction: 6. Contracts and the quality of goods; 7. Trademark, quality and reputation; 8. Expertise and product specification; 9. Rules of international trade; Part IV. General Rules of Competition: Speculation, Trusts and Fair Competition: 10. Hoarding and speculation; 11. The law of competition and unfair competition in other 'Western' countries; General conclusion: market, exchange and the ideal of non-competition.
Provides a new intellectual, economic and legal history of capitalism from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century.
Alessandro Stanziani is a professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and Senior Researcher at the Centre National des Recherches Scientifiques (CNRS) in Paris. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Naples and a Ph.D. in history from the EHESS, Paris. He has received numerous grants for his research, including one from the CNRS for a project on bonded labour in the Indian Ocean and one from the British Academy and French Ministry of Research Program on food policies in France and Britain in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries (with Peter Atkins). Stanziani has written approximately 80 articles and book chapters in English, French, German and Russian. He is the author of L'économie en révolution. Le cas russe, 1870–1930 and Histoire de la qualité alimentaire, 18e–20e siècles. He is the editor of La travail contraint en Asie et en Europe, XVIIe–XXe siècles and La qualité des produits en France XVIIIe–XXe siècles and co-editor of Nomenclatures et classifications. Enjeux économiques et dynamiques historiques (with Martin Bruegel and Jérôme Bourdieu).
'Stanziani explores European economic development from a fresh
angle, substituting a focus on law, credit, institutions,
regulation, and organizational innovations for the customary
centrality of technology and industry. The result is a provocative,
practice-centered analysis, stretching across four centuries. An
extraordinary recasting of economic history, as arresting as it is
engaging.' Philip Scranton, Rutgers University
'This work is original. It tackles key issues of the present-day
world economy, adding new views to a long-standing debate on the
role of governments, laws, institutions, regulations, conventions
and the like, leading readers back to late [eighteenth]-century
economic thought. In studying rules (codified of course, but also
habitual ways of doing), Stanziani suggests a new chronology of
capitalist development - ni plus, ni moins. In so doing, he sheds
new light on issues such as laissez-faire policy, social welfare
systems, mass consumption, institutions and actors since the late
[eighteenth] century up to now. This is an impressive achievement.'
Peter Scholliers, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
'Stanziani argues convincingly that the ancien régime concern with
just price and consumer protection was largely absent from
nineteenth-century standardization efforts.' Paul Cheney, The
Journal of Modern History
'Stanziani offers bold claims while being meticulous enough to
reward readers who require convincing … Rules of Exchange stands
out both for its bold claims and its ability to muster enough
evidence to defend them.' Kevin Goldberg, European History
Quarterly
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