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Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology: Chapter 14: Points of Departure in the Development of Commerce

Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology
Chapter 14: Points of Departure in the Development of Commerce
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table of contents
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Table Of Contents
  4. Introduction
    1. Aims and Goals
    2. Organization Overview
      1. Outline of the Textbook
      2. Translating Passages
      3. Modernizing the Text
      4. Some Useful History
        1. Ten Things Marx, Weber, and Durkheim Took for Granted about the History of the World that you Might Want to Read More About
      5. Suggested Further Reading
      6. Timelines (Marx, Weber, and Durkheim)
      7. Major Themes
  5. Downloads
  6. Marx and Engels
    1. Biography of Marx by F. Engels (1868)
    2. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
      1. Introduction
    3. Marx on Wages
      1. Introduction
      2. Ch. 19: The Transformation of the Value or Price of Labor Power into Wages
    4. Marx on Wage Labor and Capital
      1. Introduction
      2. Wage Labor and Capital
      3. The Nature and Growth of Capital
      4. Relation of Wage-Labor to Capital
    5. Value, Price and Profit
      1. Introduction
      2. Value and Labor
      3. The Different Parts into Which Surplus Value is Decomposed
      4. Attempts at Raising Wages
      5. The Struggle Between Capital and Labor and Its Results
    6. Capital, part 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Part I: Commodities
      3. Part II: Transformation of Money Into Capital
      4. Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value
    7. Capital, part 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital
      3. Part VIII: Primitive Accumulation
    8. Eighteenth Brumaire
      1. Introduction
      2. Opening Passages
      3. Part Two
      4. Part Three
      5. Part Four
      6. Part Five
      7. Part Six
      8. Part Seven
    9. Principles of Communism
      1. Introduction
      2. Principles of Communism
    10. The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery
      1. Introduction
      2. The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery
    11. Revolution is Coming
      1. Introduction
      2. Marx's Speech on the Toast to the Proletarians of Europe
    12. The Communist Manifesto
      1. Introduction
      2. Bourgeois and Proletarians
      3. Proletarians and Communists
    13. Concepts/Dictionary
  7. Durkheim
    1. Biography of Durkheim
    2. Rules of Method (1895)
      1. Introduction
      2. Part I: The Rules of Sociological Method
        1. Introduction
        2. What is a Social Fact?
      3. Part II
        1. Chapter 2: Rules for the Observation of Social Facts
          1. Section 1. Treat Social Facts as Things
          2. Section 2. Guidelines for Sociologists
          3. Section 3. Rules on the Distinction Between Normal and Pathological
    3. Division of Labor, Introduction
      1. Introduction
      2. Preface
      3. Book One
        1. Ch. 1: The Method for Determining this Function
        2. Ch. 2: Mechanical Solidarity Through Likeness
        3. Ch. 3: Organic Solidarity Due to the Division of Labor
        4. Ch. 4: Further Proof of the Preceding
        5. Ch. 5: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity
        6. Ch. 6: Progressive Preponderance cont.
        7. Ch. 7: Organic Solidarity and Contractual Solidarity
      4. Book 2
        1. Ch. 1: The Progress of the Division of Labor and of Happiness
        2. Ch. 2: The Causes
        3. Ch 3. Secondary Factors--Progressive Indeterminancy
        4. Ch. 4: Secondary Factors--Heredity
        5. Ch. 5: Consequences of the Preceding
      5. Book 3
        1. Ch. 1: The Anomic Division of Labor
        2. Ch. 2: The Forced Division of Labor
        3. Ch. 3: Another Abnormal Form
    4. Division of Labor, Book 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 3: Organic Solidarity Due to the Division of Labor
      3. Chapter 4: Further Proof the Preceding
      4. Chapter 5: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity; Its Consequences
      5. Chapter 6: Progressive Preponderance of Organic Solidarity, cont.
    5. Division of Labor, Book 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 2: The Causes
      3. Chapter 5: Consequences
    6. Division of Labor, Book 3
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 1: The Anomic Division of Labor
      3. Chapter 2: The Forced Division of Labor
      4. Conclusion
    7. Le Suicide (1897) - Introduction/Book 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Book Two: Social Causes and Social Types
        1. Ch. 1: Method of Determining Them
        2. Ch. 2: Egotistical Suicide
        3. Ch. 3: Egotistical Suicide, cont.
        4. Ch. 4: Altruistic Suicide
        5. Ch. 5: Anomic Suicide
    8. Education and Sociology (1922)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Nature and Role of Education
        1. Part 1: Different Definitions of Education
        2. Part 2: Defining Education
        3. Part 3: The Social Character of Education
        4. Part 4: The Role of the State in the Matter of Education
        5. Part 5: The Power of Education and the Means of its Influence
    9. Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 1: The Sociological Study of Religion
      3. Part 2: Theories of Knowledge
    10. EXTRA: Review of Année Sociologique (1898) article
    11. EXTRA: Review of Suicide by Havelock Ellis
    12. Concepts/Dictionary
  8. Weber
    1. Biography of Weber
    2. Methodological Foundations of Sociology (1921)
      1. Introduction
      2. Methodological Foundations of Sociology
        1. Point 1: Meanings are Empirically Situated
        2. Point 2: We cannot always find the intentions of the actors
        3. Point 3: The goal of interpretation is to generate evidence about the world, and we can do this both rationally and empathetically
        4. Point 4: Meaningless actions are still important insofar they impact social actions
        5. Point 5: Sociological understaning is explanatory
        6. Point 6: Sociological understanding is hypothetical
        7. Point 7: Motives of actions are crucial to sociological interpretation because they are related to causality
        8. Point 8: Meaningless actions are not unimportant, but they are not sociological facts
        9. Point 9: Individuals...are the intelligible performers of meaningful actions
        10. Point 10: Sociology is distinct from psychology
        11. Point 11: Sociology is distinct from the discipline of history
    3. PESOC, part 1
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 1: The Problem
        1. Chapter 1. Religious Belief and Social Layering
        2. Chapter 2. The "Spirit" of Capitalism
        3. Chapter 3. Understanding Luther's Conception of Beruf (Calling)
    4. PESOC, part 2
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 2: The Vocational Ethic of the Ascetic Braches of Protestantism
        1. Chapter 4. The Religious Foundations of Worldly Ascetism
        2. Chapter 5. Ascetism and the Spirit of Capitalism
    5. The Development of Commerce
      1. Introduction
      2. Chapter 14: Points of Departure in the Development of Commerce
      3. Chapter 15: Technical Requisites for the Transportation of Goods
      4. Chapter 16: Forms of Organization of Transportation and Commerce
      5. Chapter 17: Forms of Commercial Enterprise
      6. Chapter 21: Interests in the Pre-Capitalistic Period
    6. The Rational State
      1. Introduction
      2. The Rational State
        1. A. The State Itself; Law and Officialdom
        2. B. The Economic Policy of the Rational State
        3. C. Mercantilism
    7. The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit
      1. Introduction
      2. The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit
    8. Politics as a Vocation
      1. Introduction
      2. Lecture
    9. Bureaucracy
      1. Introduction
      2. Part 3, Chapter 6, Section 7: Bureaucracy
    10. CSP
      1. Introduction
      2. Introduction on Power
      3. Distribution of Power within a Gemeinschaft Community
        1. Classes
        2. Status Groups (Stände)
        3. Parties
    11. Concepts/Dictionary
  9. Early American Sociology
    1. Biography of Early American Sociologists
      1. William Graham Sumner
      2. Lester Frank Ward
      3. Albion Woodbury Small
      4. Franklin Henry Giddings
      5. Thorstein Veblen
      6. Charlotte Perkinds Gilman
      7. Jane Addams
      8. Robert Ezra Park
      9. Charles Horton Cooley
      10. Edward Alsworth Ross
      11. W.E.B. Du Bois
      12. Charles Abram Ellwood
    2. Comparison of Spencer and Ward by Barnes (1919)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Sociological View of the State
        1. Part I: Sumner, General Characteristics of His Sociological Thought
        2. Part 2: Ward; General Characteristics of His Sociological System
    3. Thorstein Veblen, on Labor(1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Instinct of Wokrmanship and the Irksomeness of Labor
    4. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics (1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. Preface
      3. Chapter 1
      4. Chapter 15
    5. Du Bois on The Study of Social Problems (1898)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Study of Social Problems
        1. Development of the Problems
        2. The Present Problems
        3. The Work Already Accomplished
        4. A Program of Future Study
    6. Jane Addams, “Trade Unions and Public Duty” (1899)
      1. Introduction
      2. Trades Unions
    7. Edward A. Ross on Social Control (1900)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Control
    8. Charles A. Ellwood on Revolution (1905)
      1. Introduction
      2. Revolutions
    9. Charles Horton Cooley, “Social Consciousness” (1907)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Mind in General
      3. Social and Individual Aspects of Consciousness
      4. Social Will
    10. Lester Ward, “Social Classes” (1908)
      1. Introduction
      2. Social Classes and Inequalities
    11. Franklin H. Giddings on Theory and Public Policy (1911)
      1. Introduction
      2. Theory and Public Policy
        1. Evolution is Simple or Compound
        2. Can war then be outlawed and generally prevented?
    12. Small on the Sociological Point of View (1920)
      1. Introduction
      2. The Sociologists' Point of View
        1. "Why need we study society?"
  10. Creative Commons License
  11. Recommended Citations
  12. Versioning

Chapter 14: Points of Departure in the Development of Commerce

In the beginnings commerce is an affair between ethnic groups; it does not take place between members of the same tribe or of the same community but is in the oldest social communities an external phenomenon, being directed only toward foreign tribes.  It may, however, begin as a consequence of specialization in production between groups.  In this case there is either tribal trade of producers or peddling trade in products of a foreign tribe.  In any case the oldest commerce is an exchange relation between alien tribes.

The trade of a tribe in its own products may appear in various forms.  It usually develops to begin with as an auxiliary occupation of peasants and persons engaged in house industry, and in general as a seasonal occupation.

Here you might think of the example of the farmer who whittles dolls out of wood during the winter and then trades these dolls for extra rations from other farmers later in the year.  The point for Weber is that these products are add-ons to the community’s main occupation (farming), not the principal enterprise.

Out of this stage grow peddling and huckstering as an independent occupation; tribal communities develop which soon engage in commerce exclusively.

Annotate

Next Chapter
Chapter 15: Technical Requisites for the Transportation of Goods
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Copyright © 2019 by Allison Hurst. Classical Sociological Theory and Foundations of American Sociology by Allison Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
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