The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 303)
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- The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 303)
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retards the disintegration of the peasantry.”*? In other words, merchant/
moneylending capital undermines the precapitalist mode of production without
necessarily replacing it with a capitalist one or it could be a very slow process
depending on the “given circumstances.” The spread of commodity production, the
increased monetization of the economy, and the changes in property relations
do not lead directly and inevitably to the formation of a proletariat.
In Britain, for example, they were taking place on a substantial scale
as early as the sixteenth century but the modern working class did
not emerge until late in the eighteenth century. But they do establish
the preconditions for this development by shaking the ties that link
producers directly to their means of production.”
I already noted the role of European and local merchant capital in the
facilitation of trade in the last decade of the nineteenth century. However, with the
onset of the Mandate, this role increased substantially as the country became more
intensively integrated with the world capitalism market. This along with the growth
in the cities and increased European settlement created increased opportunities for
merchant/moneylending capital. The peasant’s increased need for cash to pay
taxes, buy some subsistence goods in the market, and generally to carry on until
the next harvest all resulted in increased borrowing from the merchants/
moneylenders. However, the need for increased borrowing after the onset of the
Mandate was most noticeable in the 1920s after the steep decline in agricultural
prices and crop failures. For some peasants, this ultimately resulted in loss of land,
“Tbid., 187.
Kay, 155-6.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. - هو جزء من
- The Dispossession of the Peasantry
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- المنشئ
- Riyad Mousa
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