Comercio Internacional

Marxism, Capitalism and
Mercantilism
David O sterfeld*

Traders Versus the State: Anthropological Approaches
to Unofficial Economics, by Gracia Clark (Boulder,
Colo.: Westview Press, 1 988).

T

raders Versus the State: Anthropological Approaches to Unofficial Economics is at once both a frustrating book to read and
a fascinating book to review. One might suppose from its title
t hatthe book deals with conflict between
officials on the
one hand and those engaged in tradingor merchandising on the other.
And one might suppose from reading the subtitle that the book
focuses on the activities of those in the "black" or "informal" markets.
The book, however, does not deal with trade or traders, as such, but
with the activities of the small-scale street vendor. Nor is itsfocus
solely on the "illegal" or "black market" or "informal sector" activities.
Several of the articles deal specifically with the activities of "licensed
s treet vendors." The meaning of "unofficial" is made clear in the
introductory chapter by Gracia Clark.
The purpose of the book is to analyze the "petty commodity mode
of production." The term "traders" is restricted to those engaged insmall-scale production and commerce, in particular the street vendors; the term "unofficial" means those economic activities that pose
a t hreat to the position of the more established, capital-intensive
middle- and upper-class merchants. The activities of the "petty commodity traders" jeopardize the established positions of the "capitalists" or "bourgeoisie." Since the latter tend to controlthe state, they
a re able not only to defend their own position by using the coercive
a rm of the state to regulate and control the activities of the petty
t raders but, according to Johanna Lessinger (p. 141),they are even
*David Osterfeld is professor of political science at Saint Joseph's College.
The Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 5 , No. 1 (1991):107-114
ISSN 0889-3047


108T he Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 5, No. 1

able to enhance their positions by using the state to "appropriate the
often sizeable patches of real estate on which existing markets are
located," thereby facilitating "the process of capitalist development."
Thus, she concludes, "the process of capitalist development has a very
direct role in accentuating class differences," as thebourgeoisie
continually solidify and improve their positions a t the expense of
t he poor, whose position deteriorates over time. The origins and
growth of "petty commerce" is traceable, according to Florence
Babb (p. 30), "to the contradictory, and uneven development of
c apitalism. . . ." I n short, the real enemies of the "traders," who are
a ctually small scale street vendors, is not somuch the state but
t he "bourgeoisie" who control the state and use it for their own
purposes. T raders Versus the State would be more accurately entitled: S treet Vendors Versus the Middle Class Merchants. A more
a ppropriate subtitle would be: A M arxist Viewpoint.
The lengths to which one can go in order to blame all evils on
"capitalism" is illustrated in the article on the "Informal TradeSector
in Tanzania" by Donna Kerner. Kerner notes that President Julius
Nyerere committed Tanzania to a policy of "socialist development" as
early as 1967, required peasants to market their food crops through
" parastatal crop authorities," i.e., s tate-run marketing boards; introduced a policy of massive price controls; and nationalized the banks
and nearly all businesses and labor unions.These policies resulted
in massive shortages and extensive black market activities.
T he government responded to the economic crisis by mandating
t hat "every able-bodied citizen" be "engaged in productive labor," and
defining "labor" so as to exclude traders or "intermediaries." It then
began a massive campaign of arresting"job1ess loiterers" and sending
t hem to work on government-owned...