Seasons of Self-Delusion: Opium, Capitalism and the Financial Markets
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Jairus Banaji in
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Abstract
To grasp current trends within capitalism without abandoning the framework of Marx’s Capital we need to return to the category of ‘fictitious capital’ and make it central to our explanations. Based on the 2012 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Lecture, this essay combines reflections on Marx’s account of ‘fictitious capital’; an investigation of the role of bills of exchange; and an analysis of the recent turmoil in British and US banking. It looks at the way the opium trade, financed through the London bill market, integrated a constellation of interests in the City with the labour of peasant households in India as parts of a unified accumulation process. Opium was vital to the fortunes of British capitalism for most of the nineteenth century. The merchant banks that were the mainstay of Britain’s form of capitalism were also the key element in the re-emergence of global finance in the postwar period. The concluding part of the paper deals with the current banking crisis and follows Hilferding in arguing that by providing liquidity to the markets for fictitious capital, speculation plays a crucial role in sustaining profitability for the bigger capitals.
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3.
Marx 1981, p. 536.
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4.
Marx 1980a, pp. 35–6.
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5.
Mayhew 1999, p. 199.
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6.
Marx 1981, p. 594.
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7.
Marx 1981, p. 599.
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8.
Marx 1981, p. 609.
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9.
Marx 1981, p. 597.
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10.
Marx 1981, p. 601.
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11.
Marx 1981, p. 600.
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12.
Marx 1981, p. 608.
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13.
Marx 1981, p. 625.
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15.
Marx 1981, p. 599.
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16.
Marx 1981, p. 598.
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17.
Marx 1981, p. 599.
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18.
Marx 1981, p. 635; cf. p. 650, ‘devalued securities’.
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19.
Burn 2006, p. 16.
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20.
Burn 2006, p. 27.
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22.
Burn 2006, p. 101.
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Burn 2006, p. 184.
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24.
Burn 2006, p. 186. Bolton’s views are best represented in Fry 1970.
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25.
Mayhew 1999, p. 199.
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26.
Marx 1981, p. 621.
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27.
Kynaston 1995, p. 9.
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28.
McRae and Cairncross 1985, p. 7.
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McRae and Cairncross 1985, p. 8.
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Kynaston 1994, p. 181.
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Kynaston 1994, p. 68.
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Kynaston 1995, p. 294.
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Farooqui 2006, p. 99.
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Cheong 1974, p. 109.
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Greenberg 1951, p. 164.
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Richards 2002, p. 168.
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Farooqui 2006, pp. 25ff. The involvement of Indian capital is discussed at length in Farooqui 1998, Chapter 5, ‘Smuggled Malwa Opium and Indigenous Business Enterprise’.
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38.
Siddiqi 1995, p. 198.
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Siddiqi 1995, p. 199.
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Jones 2000, p. 33.
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Le Fevour 1968, p. 26.
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Greenberg 1951, p. 34.
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Cheong 1974, p. 115.
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Marx 1981, p. 676.
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Marx 1980b, p. 16.
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Greenberg 1951, p. 104.
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52.
Marx 1980c, p. 201; Marx 1970, p. 140 (translation modified).
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53.
Marx 1980b, p. 19.
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54.
Richards 1981, pp. 69–70: ‘From Agra, marking the western boundary to just beyond Monghyr, in the southeast, the opium region stretched more than five hundred miles along the Ganges River . . . over a million peasants received government licenses to grow opium’.
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55.
Royal Commission on Opium 1894a, p. 26.
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56.
Royal Commission on Opium 1894a, pp. 277–8.
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Whitcombe 1971, p. 32; Richards 1981, p. 72.
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Royal Commission on Opium 1894a, p. 27.
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Zhang 2005, pp. 104–5.
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Trocki 1999, p. 91.
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Blake 1999, pp. 90–1.
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Blake 1999, p. 77.
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Wong 1998, p. 311.
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Blake 1999, p. 106.
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‘Widely respected’: Blake 1999, p. 114.
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Wong 1998, pp. 219–21.
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Wong 1998, p. 265.
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Marx 1980b, p. 13.
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Anderson 1987, p. 34.
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Wong 1998, pp. 254–5, 310.
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Edgerton 1991; Williams 2006, p. 201.
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Wong 1998, p. 404, Table 16.10.
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Wigan 2010, p. 119.
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McDonald and Robinson 2009, p. 322.
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Cohan 2010, p. 425.
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Cohan 2010, p. 238.
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Cohan 2010, p. 526.
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Cohan 2011, p. 589.
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Cohan 2011, p. 590.
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Stulz 2010, p. 76.
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Cohan 2011, p. 507.
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Altvater 2011, pp. 275, 280.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1350 | 253 | 9 |
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Seasons of Self-Delusion: Opium, Capitalism and the Financial Markets
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Jairus Banaji in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
To grasp current trends within capitalism without abandoning the framework of Marx’s Capital we need to return to the category of ‘fictitious capital’ and make it central to our explanations. Based on the 2012 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Lecture, this essay combines reflections on Marx’s account of ‘fictitious capital’; an investigation of the role of bills of exchange; and an analysis of the recent turmoil in British and US banking. It looks at the way the opium trade, financed through the London bill market, integrated a constellation of interests in the City with the labour of peasant households in India as parts of a unified accumulation process. Opium was vital to the fortunes of British capitalism for most of the nineteenth century. The merchant banks that were the mainstay of Britain’s form of capitalism were also the key element in the re-emergence of global finance in the postwar period. The concluding part of the paper deals with the current banking crisis and follows Hilferding in arguing that by providing liquidity to the markets for fictitious capital, speculation plays a crucial role in sustaining profitability for the bigger capitals.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1350 | 253 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 297 | 7 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 336 | 41 | 0 |
