Parrying Polanyi

The article expands on prior arguments revolving around anthropologist/economist Karl Polanyi’s substantivist thought both by highlighting critical perspectives on capitalism that long predated Polanyian views, and by identifying a bounty of new evidence and theory concerning premodern and contemporary marketplace economies. Together these lines of evidence question and transcend Polanyi’s entrenched claims. The conceptual scheme Gary and Richard present distinguishes between open and competitive marketplaces and the capitalist impulse thereby adding depth and breadth to the analysis of price-making markets and their divergent social and economic outcomes across time and space. The article also highlights Implications for the late second millennium CE rise of the Atlantic powers in the West. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Field Museum and its Vice President of Science, Dr. Thorsten Lumbsch, which facilitated publication.
February 9. 2024