introduction

Chapter 1 Tools of Exchange

Europe: Exchange mechanism at the lowest level
Ordinary markets like today / Cities and markets / Markets are growing in number and specialization / City intervention / London / Count for yourself /
The truth of England is the truth of Europe / Various markets: the labor market / The market is a boundary, and the boundary itself moves / Levels below the market / Stores /
Specialization and hierarchization / Shops conquer the world / Reasons for the advance / The active activities of peddlers / Is peddling an old profession?

Europe: Exchange Mechanisms at the Highest Level
Regular market, an old device that always needs maintenance / City festivals / The evolution of regular market / Regular market and circulation / The decline of regular market / Warehouse / Exchange /
Amsterdam's Stock Market / Everything Starts Again in London / Is It Necessary to Visit Paris? / Exchanges and Currency

The world outside Europe
Markets and shops are everywhere / The changing landscape of the rudimentary market / Is it the world of the porter or the merchant? / Banks in India /
There are few exchanges but many regular trading days / Is Europe equal to the rest of the world?

tentative conclusion

Chapter 2 Markets and the Economy

Merchants and Commercial Circulation
Round Trips / Commercial Circulation and Bills of Exchange / Business Is Impossible Without a Closed Commercial Circulation / On the Difficulties of Countertransactions / Commercial Cooperation /
Commercial Networks, Divide and Rule, and Conquest / Armenians and Jews / Portuguese and Spanish America: 1580–1640 / Conflicting Commercial Networks, Declining Commercial Networks / Dominant Minorities

Added Value in Commerce: Supply and Demand
The Added Value of Commerce / Supply and Demand: The Problem of First Motives / Demand / Supply

Markets and Geography
Companies and the spaces they belong to / Urban spaces / Raw materials markets / Precious metals

National Economy and Trade Balance
Balance of Trade / Interpretation of Numbers / France and England around 1700 / England and Portugal / Eastern and Western Europe / On the Overall Balance of Payments / India and China

Market positioning
Self-regulating markets / Across centuries / Does the present provide evidence?

Chapter 3 Production: Capitalism Beyond Its Own Domain

capital, capitalist, capitalism
The word "capital" / Capitalist, capitalists / Capitalism: a recent term / The nature of capital / Fixed capital, current capital / Calculation of capital / Analysis by sector

land and money
The prerequisites of capitalism / The number, inertia, and productivity of the peasantry / Poverty and survival / Even if it is said to be long-term, it does not mean that there is no change /
The Western Feudalism Is Not Dead / Montaldeo / Overcoming Obstacles / From the Periphery of Europe to its Center / Capitalism and Trial Serfdom /
Capitalism and the Plantations of America / The Plantations of Jamaica / The Heart of Europe / The Parisian Suburbs: The Brie Region in the Time of Louis XIV /
Venice and Terra Firma / The countryside around Rome in the early 19th century: A case of derailment / Podere in Tuscany / Only a few advanced regions / The case of France

Capitalism and Pre-Industry
The Fourfold Model / Is Bourgeois's Schema Valid Outside Europe? / Agriculture and Pre-industry Are Inseparable / Industry: Providence / The Precariousness of Workers /
From Country to City, City to Country / Does Pioneer Industry Exist? / Merchants and Guilds / Pre-Employment / Pre-Employment in Germany / Mines and Industrial Capitalism /
Mines of the New World / Salt, Iron, and Coal / Manufactures and Factories / The Van Loebes of Abbeville / Capital and Bookkeeping / On Industrial Profits / Walter Hoffmann's Laws (1955)

Transportation and capitalist enterprises
Land Transport / Water Transport / Maritime Transport / Calculatable Truth: Labor and Capital

A somewhat negative conclusion

Chapter 4: Capitalism in its own domain

At the top of commercialized society
The Merchant's Hierarchy / Specialization Occurs Only at the Lower Levels / Commercial Success / The Fund / Credit and Banking / Money: To Circulate or to Fade?

The Choices and Strategies of Capitalism
The Spirit of Capitalism / Long-Distance Trade: The First Prize Lottery / Education and Information / "Competition Without Competitors" / Monopolies on an International Level /
Cases of Failed Monopolies: The Cochineal Market of 1787 / The Treachery of Money / Exceptional Profits, Exceptional Delays

Boss and company
The Company: Early Development / Limited Partnership / Joint Stock Company / Limited Development / Precedents for the Company / The Law of Three Laws / British Companies / Companies and Consonances /
Freedom of business and commerce

Reconsideration of the tripartite system

Chapter 5 Society or the “Whole Set”

Various hierarchies in society
The plurality of societies / Vertical observation: The privileged few / Social mobility / How to understand change? / The simultaneity of social change in Europe /
Henri Pirene's Theory / France: Gentry or Robe Nobility? / From City to State: Luxury and Conspicuous Luxury / Revolution and Class Struggle / Some Examples /
Order and Disorder / People Below Zero / Coming Out of Hell

interventionist state
The duties of the state / Maintaining order / When expenditures exceed income: The great father of the state / The Huro and Asiento of Castile / The financial revolution in England: 1688-1756 /
Budget, economic cycle, national production / Financiers / From tax collectors to general tax collectors / National economic policy: mercantilism /
Society and culture, the unfinished state that deals with them / State, economy, capitalism

Civilization isn't always about rejection.
The Diffusion of Culture: The Islamic Model / Christianity and Commodities: The Debate on Usury / Are Puritanism and Capitalism Aligned? /
Retrospective Geography Explains Much / Are Capitalism and Reason Aligned? / A New Way of Life: Florence in Quattrocento /
Different time, different worldview

Capitalism Outside Europe
The Miracle of Long-Distance Trade / Norman Jacobs's Arguments and Insights / Politics, and Especially Society

conclusion
main
Biographical Index

A representative historian of the French Annales School, which led world historiography
Fernand Braudel, “The Pope of History”

In 20th century France, a movement arose to look at history from a new perspective.
Along with this movement, the 'Annales School' was born, centered around the academic journal 'Annales' co-founded by Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch in 1929.
They argued that history should be interpreted based on society rather than politics, on groups rather than individuals, and on structures rather than chronologies.

Fernand Braudel was a second-generation scholar and representative scholar of the Annales School. He deepened the Annales School's perspective of "new history" and expanded the scope of history to include economic and social history.
Braudel wanted to look at the history of mankind as a whole rather than a fragmentary history.
To this end, he closely studied the daily lives of people, such as population changes, food, clothing, and shelter, and luxuries, which scholars of the time had overlooked.
Believing that the lifestyles of people over centuries ultimately shaped the world, he statistically analyzed and quantified the vast archives of ancient documents containing information on commerce and daily life.

Braudel believed that a solid 'structure' was created through the 'continuation' of small, trivial events repeated every day.
He is still called the 'godfather' of French history today, having gained insight into history and the driving force that changes the world through the structures that define the basic aspects of people's lives and their limitations.

Material life of the pre-industrial era of the 15th to 18th centuries
A monumental masterpiece viewed from a macroscopic perspective

"Material Civilization and Capitalism," a masterpiece that has led the world's historiography, examines the past, present, and future of material civilization and capitalism through a detailed study of human society before industrialization.
This work, the product of decades of in-depth research into vast amounts of material, including ancient documents, pamphlets, and past and contemporary papers, comprehensively examines not only world historical events but also various fields such as economy, culture, geography, and society, capturing the dynamic flow of material civilization and capitalism.

Volume 1, "The Structure of Everyday Life," examines the framework of civilization created by everyday life by examining material culture, including objects, tools, everyday activities, currency, and cities.
It is on the basis of this material culture that economic activities such as peddlers, merchants, shops and stores, markets and regular markets arise.
Large corporations conduct remote trade, and exchanges emerge to handle international trading activities.
In Volume 2, "The World of Exchange," I trace the two realms of "market economy" and "capitalism," and attempt to structurally explain these two dynamic realms that build upon the material culture covered in Volume 1.
The market economy and capitalism are intertwined yet distinct and opposed to each other, and this paper examines what inequalities create this duality.
Volume 3, "Time of the World," examines the rise and decline of cities that exerted capitalist influence globally.
Cities such as Venice, Antwerp, Genoa, and Amsterdam took the lead in turn, national economies emerged in France and England, and England later dominated the world through the Industrial Revolution.

Praise poured in for this book

There is no denying that this book is full of detailed information and bold hypotheses… … It shows the endless variety of commercial possibilities that humans are capable of.
—Jonathan Spence, [New York Times Book Review]

The renowned French historian Fernand Braudel argues that we can gain a deeper understanding of history by studying how people ate and dressed, where they lived, and where they obtained their necessities and luxuries.
Braudel shows in detail how the great flow of history is created from small parts.
―Elizabeth Grossman, [Saturday Review]

This book is alive and breathing, not only with the author's long-standing scholarship and refined writing style, but also with his understanding of humanity and sharp metaphors for modern society.

― [Economist]

Fernand Braudel wanted to write a 'history closely related to humanity'.
He started a revolution.
He made the suffering of the 20th century a land of discovery.

― [La Croix]