Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée
Recent literature in the world-systems perspective has refocused attention on questions of ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ in historical capitalism, yet rarely critically examines the underlying assumptions regarding these zones. Drawing on a developing dataset on the world’s wealthiest individuals (the Worl...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
2019-09-01
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| Series: | Journal of World-Systems Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/893 |
| _version_ | 1819210348200198144 |
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| author | Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz Corey R Payne |
| author_facet | Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz Corey R Payne |
| author_sort | Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent literature in the world-systems perspective has refocused attention on questions of ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ in historical capitalism, yet rarely critically examines the underlying assumptions regarding these zones. Drawing on a developing dataset on the world’s wealthiest individuals (the World-Magnates Database), we trace the development and expansion of sugar circuits across the Atlantic world from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries to explain how the sugar commodity chain leads us to rethink some prevailing notions of core and periphery. Namely, we challenge the notion that these zones consist of geographical spaces that, since very early in the development of the world-economy, became permanently specialized in the production of raw materials (periphery) or more sophisticated manufactures (core); and that labor forces have been trans-historically relatively free/better-paid in core activities and coerced/poorly-paid in peripheral ones. We argue that, prior to the nineteenth century, the world-economy is not only characterized by the uneven and combined emergence of various forms of labor exploitation, as usually argued within a world-systems perspective, but also one in which core-like and peripheral activities (that is, those providing access to relatively greater or lesser wealth) were not yet as clearly bounded geographically as they would become in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We find that a longue-durée analysis of sugar production by enslaved labor illustrates not merely processes of peripheralization, but of what we call coreification. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T06:09:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f60e4ed40d1143a188ddeafd08641211 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1076-156X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T06:09:45Z |
| publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
| publisher | University Library System, University of Pittsburgh |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of World-Systems Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-f60e4ed40d1143a188ddeafd086412112022-12-21T17:57:29ZengUniversity Library System, University of PittsburghJournal of World-Systems Research1076-156X2019-09-0125239541910.5195/jwsr.2019.893804Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-DuréeRoberto Patricio Korzeniewicz0Corey R Payne1University of Maryland, College ParkThe Arrighi Center for Global Studies Johns Hopkins UniversityRecent literature in the world-systems perspective has refocused attention on questions of ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ in historical capitalism, yet rarely critically examines the underlying assumptions regarding these zones. Drawing on a developing dataset on the world’s wealthiest individuals (the World-Magnates Database), we trace the development and expansion of sugar circuits across the Atlantic world from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries to explain how the sugar commodity chain leads us to rethink some prevailing notions of core and periphery. Namely, we challenge the notion that these zones consist of geographical spaces that, since very early in the development of the world-economy, became permanently specialized in the production of raw materials (periphery) or more sophisticated manufactures (core); and that labor forces have been trans-historically relatively free/better-paid in core activities and coerced/poorly-paid in peripheral ones. We argue that, prior to the nineteenth century, the world-economy is not only characterized by the uneven and combined emergence of various forms of labor exploitation, as usually argued within a world-systems perspective, but also one in which core-like and peripheral activities (that is, those providing access to relatively greater or lesser wealth) were not yet as clearly bounded geographically as they would become in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We find that a longue-durée analysis of sugar production by enslaved labor illustrates not merely processes of peripheralization, but of what we call coreification.http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/893SugarSlaveryAtlanticHistorical CapitalismCorePeripherySemiperipheryPeripheralization |
| spellingShingle | Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz Corey R Payne Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée Journal of World-Systems Research Sugar Slavery Atlantic Historical Capitalism Core Periphery Semiperiphery Peripheralization |
| title | Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée |
| title_full | Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée |
| title_fullStr | Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée |
| title_short | Sugar, Slavery, and Creative Destruction: World-Magnates and “Coreification” in the Longue-Durée |
| title_sort | sugar slavery and creative destruction world magnates and coreification in the longue duree |
| topic | Sugar Slavery Atlantic Historical Capitalism Core Periphery Semiperiphery Peripheralization |
| url | http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/893 |
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