Before European Hegemony pt. 1

Janet L. Abu-Lughod's analysis of pre-14th century European culture is quite interesting. It seems that her main focus is on main cities that were of importance rather than nations. In the first segment, she concentrated on Champagne and Brie. In her research, she found that Champagne and Brie were of great interest in trading due to fairs. At the fairs, she classified the different traders present 1) local merchants, 2) outside merchants from French and Flemish towns, 3) merchants from various French cities, 4) merchants from northern-Italy, 5) merchants from peripheral countries (Spain, Portugal, Germany, England, Scotland, and 6) merchants from the Orient (Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Syria).

With the creation of fairs, a whole economy was created; as a thoroughfare, different cultures started to create new and innovative markets, making a cross-cultural, globalized trade network. As the fairs started to increase in participation, the innovation of productivity started as well. Specialization became apparent and Abu-Lughad talks about the workers became "proletarianized." Further, Abu-Lughad talks about that stability of the fair and how that fairs were secure because when traveling, there were always a caravan of them when they traveled and there was also cartels that would ensure the terms of trade.

However, fairs came to end due to either 1)politically inspired interference with merchants, 2) unification of France, 3) larger Italian ships that navigated the Atlantic, 4) Black Death, 5) industrialization of Italy, and 6) administrative changes of business due to all the factors above.

In the section about Ghent and Burges, Abu-Lughad looks into the textile market that was created and the different factors that gave rise to it as well as its demise. During the beginning, Flemish weavers were on the rise; there was a revolution of sorts during the 11th century because of the vertical loom. In addition, most wool woven was from England. Nevertheless, there was friction due to conflict between France and England, which made the Flemish vulnerable because of their reliance on England.

With the textile industry on the rise, Bruges became a port town where trades from all over the world conducted business. In the microcosm of a global market, Bruges started to create a small money and credit system due to the influx trading. Italian merchants-bankers started to settle in Bruges and inevitably created the "bill of exchange." The "bill of exchange" was basically a receipt that stated the buyer and seller exchanged goods in an area that was different from where they traded. However, just like Champagne, Flemish cities found their demise in the Black Death as well as multinational firms moving to places of low-labor wages but high returns. Abu-Lughad blames this dependency of multinational firms to the death of many Flemish markets.

Though Abu-Lughad's book is a good geographical analysis, I found very little sociological relevance. I do understand some social impacts of trade, but it seems the emphasis was more on the location of the markets and the impact it had. I guess one could argue that was the point of her argument, but it seems to be less theoretical and more scientific. It could be my naivete on the subject but I think her research is a really good geographical analysis, not so much on social theory.