Peripheral capital accumulation in Iran, 1800-1978

Abstract

This study analyzes the pattern of transition from the precapitalist to the capitalist mode of production in Iran, and the specific character of capitalist development within the period of 1800-1978. The general theoretical framework around which the empirical and historical evidence from Iran is organized is based on three main theses. The first thesis is that, through the approach of the internationalization of capital, it is possible to cut across the formal distinction between 'circulationism' and 'productionism' and to bring elements of the two perspectives together. The approach of the internationalization of capital is based on the historic periodization of the development of the world market, distinguishing between the three circuits of capital (merchant, money and productive capitals), and specifying the dynamics of the successive internationalization of each circuit. Emphasis is placed on the forms of subsumption of labour by capital (formal and real subsumption of labour) and modes of surplus labour extraction (absolute and relative surplus-value appropriation) in identifying the dynamics of the internationalization of each circuit of capital. This approach allows us to take into account both exchange and production relations. While the sphere of production always plays a determinant role in shaping the centre/periphery relationship, the sphere of exchange is dominant in certain historical cojunctures. This is the capitalism in the periphery. Two structural features of the process of transition to capitalism in the periphery are focused upon in order to highlight the specificity of this process. First, drawing upon Marx's distinction between the 'first path' of transition, direct-producer/capitalist, and the 'second path', merchant/capitalist, it is argued that the internationalization of the circuit of merchant capital has blocked the 'first path' of transition to capitalism in the periphery, and has imposed the 'second path'. Second, internationalization of the circuits of money and productive capital in the periphery has not led to the generalization of capitalist wage-labour and the real subsumption of labour by capital. Despite the destruction of precapitalist modes of production in the periphery, non-capitalist 'forms' of production are seen to have survived and are restructured as integral components of the dominant capitalist mode of production. In relating this approach to the historical experience of capitalist development in Iran, the period under consideration is divided into two main phases. The first phase (1800-1950) is characterized by the internationalization of the circuit of merchant capital, which not only blocked an organic transition to capitalism but also consolidated the precapitalist mode of production and intensified production of commodities for the world market on that basis. At this phase labour processes were formally subsumed by capital, and the sphere of exchange was dominant in establishing the relationship of the Iranian economy with the world market. The second phase (1950-1978) is distinguished by the internationalization of money capital, which led to the capitalist transformation of the economy and real subsumption of labour processes by capital. At this phase, the sphere of production was both dominant and determinant in shaping the relationship of the Iranian economy with the world market. However, the evidence drawn from the Iranian case-study shows that, although capitalism became the dominant mode of production in the 1970s, and second thesis of this study. The third thesis of this study is that the mechanisms of transition to capitalism in the periphery are fundamentally different from those in the centre. The endogenous model of transition in the centre cannot be transposed to peripheral formations where the transformation of production relations has occurred in the context of incorporation into a world market in which capitalism had already asserted itself. The approach of the internationalization of capital specifies the different trajectory taken in the transition to despite the movement towards the internationalization of productive capital, proletarianization and real subsumption of labour by capital were accompanied by the survival and re-structuration of non-capitalist 'forms' of production as integral components of the expanded reproduction of capital in both urban and rural areas. The imposition of the 'second path' of transition by merchant capital, and the survival of non-capitalist 'forms' of production in the present phase of productive capital are seen as the defining features of the peripheral character of capitalism in Iran. The Iranian case, as an example of peripheral capital accumulation, shows that: (i) the dynamics of transition to capitalism in the periphery are fundamentally different from those of the centre, and there is no justification for extending the 'classical' model of transition into a general theory of capitalist developement; and (ii) the centre/periphery relationship cannot be characterized either in terms of perpetual stagnation and underdevelopment or in terms of the development and eventual homogenization of relations of production. A diversified treatment of both capital and precapitalist modes of production, and of the historical periodization of world capital accumulation, provides a synthesis which cuts across these overly simple classifications. Show more