Overview

Very few authors have addressed the origins of capitalism in France as the emergence of a distinct form of historical society, premised on a new configuration of social power, rather than as an extension of commercial activities liberated from feudal obstacles. Xavier Lafrance offers the first thorough historical analysis of the origins of capitalist social property relations in France from a 'political Marxist' or ( Capital-centric Marxist) perspective. Putting emphasis on the role of the state, The Making of Capitalism in France shows how the capitalist system was first imported into France in an industrial form considerably later than is usually assumed. This work demonstrates that the French Revolution was not capitalist, and in fact consolidated customary regulations that formed the bedrock of the formation of the working class.

Full Product Details

Author:   Xavier Lafrance
Publisher:   Haymarket Books
Imprint:   Haymarket Books
ISBN:  

9781642591880

ISBN 10:   1642591882
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   16 June 2020
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements  Introduction  Problematising Capitalism  Importing Capitalism to France  Chapter 1 The Old Regime False Start: Attempts at Liberal Reforms  and the Absence of a Transition to Capitalism in Absolutist France  Absolutist France vs Capitalist England  British Competition and French Liberal Reactions  An Extensive Mode of Economic Development  Chapter 2 Non-Capitalist Industrialisation in Post-Revolutionary France  Nineteenth-Century France Economic Development: The Revisionist Account  Contrasting French and English Nineteenth-Century Industrial Development  The Non-Competitive Nature of French Markets  The Development of Cotton Production and Metallurgy  Opportunity-Driven Growth in Non-Competitive Markets  Chapter 3 The French Revolution and the Customary Regulation of Labour  Reassessing the French Revolution  Guilds and Workers’ Struggles under the Old Regime  The Persistence of Customary Regulations and Aspects of Labour Emancipation in Post-Revolutionary France  The Absence of Labour Subsumption by Capital in Post-Revolutionary France  Chapter 4 The Rise of the French Working Class: Republican and Socialist Struggles against Extra-Economic Exploitation  The Composition and the Making of the French Working Class  Notables, the State, and the Perpetuation of Non-Capitalist Surplus Appropriation  Pinning Down Social Ills, Naming the Antagonists  The Revolution of 1830 and the Rise of a Republican-Socialist Working Class  The Revolution of 1848 and the (Interrupted) Rise of the Democratic and Social Republic  Chapter 5 The State-Led Capitalist Transformation of French Industry  Geopolitical Competition and Capitalist Industrialisation  Building Foundations: The Making of a Competitive Market  The Erosion of Customary Regulations and the Subsumption of Labour  The Emergence of Capitalist Patterns of Investment  Changing Modes of Surplus Appropriation and (Partial) State Restructuring  Chapter 6 Capitalism and the Re-Making of the French Working Class  The Re-Composition of the Working Class  The Labour Movement under the Second Empire and the Paris Commune  The Rise of the Strike: Refusing the Depoliticisation of Production  The Transformation of Class Relations and the Rise of an Autonomous Socialist Working-Class Movement  Conclusion  References  Index

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Author Information

Xavier Lafrance, Ph.D. (2013), York University, is Professor of political science at the Universite du Quebec Montreal. With Charles Post, he is the editor ofCase Studies in the Origins of Capitalism(Palgrave 2018).

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