Market and Violence

Heide Gerstenberger is a German social theorist who, until 2005 was Professor for the Theory of Bourgeous Society at the University of Bremen. Her major work on state theory, Impersonal Power, was published in the Historical Materialism Book Series in 2007.

“Gerstenberger’s book is sure to become an influential and controversial point of reference in a good many contemporary debates, both empirical and theoretical, about capitalism and its history.”—Peter Hallward, Radical Philosophy

• Preliminary Observations to Market and Violence1 On Direct Violence in Pitiless Conditions2 Armed World TradeRobbery and regulationsOverseas Trade MonopoliesJust Another CommodityFirst Theoretical Remark: On Merchants and Capitalists3 Historical Preconditions for Capitalist Accumulation in Metropolitan Capitalist CountriesCompetition Set FreeThe Pacification of Transport RoutesThe Capital of Industrial CapitalismThe Liberation of Wage Labour from Coercive Political PowerServitude, Slavery, Free and Unfree Wage Labour in the United StatesSecond Theoretical Remark: The Political Economy of Capitalist Labour4 Appropriation AbroadForced TradeTerritorial SovereigntyFiscal ExploitationTributes, Poll Taxes and Labour ServicesLimits to TaxationSettlement and ExpulsionExcursus: JustificationsPractices of SettlementTeaching a LessonMaking Indigenous People into ‘Natives’Third Theoretical Remark: Capitalist Colonial RuleLabour under Coercive Colonial PowerFourth Theoretical Remark: Colonial State Violence5 The World at WarThe Burdens of the ‘Great War’ on African ShouldersThe War of the Others6 The Domestication of Industrial Capitalism in the Metropolitan Capitalist StatesEnglandUSAFranceGermanyFifth Theoretical Remark: The Functioning of Domesticated Capitalism and Its Vulnerability7 Domesticated Capitalism in Globalised CompetitionPreconditions of GlobalisationDecisionsThe Political End to the ‘Trente Glorieuses’8 Market and Violence in Globalised CapitalismSixth Theoretical Remark: Unbounded ExploitationForced Sex WorkBasic Patterns of Labour Exploitation in Globalised CapitalismThe Boundless Exploitation of ‘Foreigners’Seventh Theoretical Remark: States and Their MarginsUnbounded Exploitation ‘Offshore’Unbounded ‘Inshore’ Exploitation in Non-metropolitan Capitalist CountriesEighth Theoretical Remark: Class Analysis?The Political Geography of PoisonUnbounding the World of CommoditiesCommercialised Force of ArmsPhysical Nature, Production and ViolenceNinth Theoretical Remark: PostColonial States as a Theoretical ChallengeOn the New Political Economy of Violent CriminalityTenth Theoretical Remark: Violent Criminality in Global CapitalismConcluding Remarks on Market and ViolencePostscriptBibliographyIndex of NamesIndex of Subjects