Research Foundation of SUNY Sugar and the Expansion of the Early Modern World-Economy: Commodity Frontiers, Ecological Transformation, and Industrialization Author(s): Jason W. Moore Source: Review (Fernand Braudel Center), Vol. 23, No. 3 (2000), pp. 409-433 Published by: Research Foundation of SUNY for and on behalf of the Fernand Braudel Center Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40241510 . Accessed: 21/06/2014 17:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Research Foundation of SUNY and Fernand Braudel Center are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Review (Fernand Braudel Center). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 17:08:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Sugar and theExpansion of theEarly Modern World-Economy CommodityFrontiers, Ecological Transformation, and Industrialization* JasonW. Moore articleattempts to restoreand operationalizethe concept of the frontierfor the studyof worldcapitalist expansion and its structuraltendency towards environmental degradation. World-sys- temsanalysts have paid considerableattention to theways in which theworld-economy expands. The bulk of thiswork has been given over to the studyof long waves,the reorganizationof production units,state-formation, and otherimportant processes. The ecological dimension,though acknowledged from time to time,has been un- deremphasized.I willtrace the development and expansionof sugar cane productionand tradein orderto illustratethe centrality of en- vironmentaldynamics as a way of rethinkingthe early modern historyof capitalistexpansion. The historyof sugarproduction and tradeis well-known.Despite the existenceof a vastliterature, how- ever, the environmentalhistory of sugar has not been given the attentionit deserves, nor has thelink between ecological transforma- tion and the expansionarylogic of worldcapitalism. My goal is to suggestways of rethinkingearly modern capitalist expansion as a socio-ecologicalprocess. WhenI speakof frontiers, I am buildingon world-systemstudies of "incorporation"(see Hopkinset al., 1987; Wallerstein,1989: ch. 3). The term frontieris overused. It has rarelybeen employed usefullyin historicalsocial science. Nonetheless,I thinkit can be * Special thanksto Edmund BurkeIII, WalterL. Goldfrank,and Diana Carol Moore Gildea forcomments on thisarticle in draft. REVIEW,XXIH, 3, 2000, 409-33 409 This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 17:08:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 410 JasonW. Moore reconceptualizedsatisfactorily within the world-systemsparadigm. The conceptof thefrontier has been employedby historical sociolo- gistsengaged in regionalstudies, but has not been theorizedade- quately.Thomas D. Hall, forinstance, defines a frontieras thearea "where. incorporationoccurs" (Hall, 1989: 24). In her otherwise brilliantstudy of Southern Appalachia, Dunaway ( 1996a) does much the same, treatingthe frontiersimply as a zone of incorporation. This conceptualizationdoes notdistinguish the incorporation of the Americasfrom Asia and Africa,where strong state structures im- peded fullincorporation until the nineteenthand twentiethcentu- ries.Whereas incorporation studies have focusedon fairlygeneral world-systemicprocesses and social transformationswithin particu- lar regions,I wishto drawattention to theways in whichthe produc- tion and distributionof specificcommodities, and of primaryprod- uctsin particular,have restructured geographic space at themargins of the systemin such a wayas to requirefurther expansion. To this end, I suggestthe concept of thecommodity frontier. COMMODITY FRONTIERS The idea of the commodityfrontier derives from the world-sys- temsconcept of thecommodity chain, which "refers to a networkof labor and productionprocesses whose end resultis a finishedcom- modity"(Hopkins & Wallerstein,1986). Althoughthe usual ap- proachto thestudy of commodity chains is to beginwith the finished product,the task of trackingfrontier expansion requires a focuson relativelyunfinished, "raw" materials; a fullanalysis would require a subsequentbacktracking, which is outsidethe scope of thisarticle. The pointof commoditychain analysis is two-fold:1) to determine the boundariesand shiftingconfiguration of the world-economy's interdependentdivision of labor; and 2) to analyzeshifts between core, periphery,and semiperipheryover time accordingto each zone's retentionof surplus value. While state actors attempt to shape thesystem's division of labor to theiradvantage, the primary organ- izingmechanisms are commoditychains, whose operationsare by definitiontransnational. This approachpermits an end runaround traditionalconceptions of frontierexpansion, which accept the nation-stateor imperialsphere as theprimary unit of analysis rather thanthe world-economy as a whole. This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 17:08:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SUGAR AND EARLY MODERN WORLD-ECONOMY 411 The existenceof multiple commodity frontiers in theAmericas- sugar, silver,timber, cattle, foodstuffs, cotton, tobacco, fursand deerskins,fisheries, etc.- allows us, first,to tracknot onlycapitalist expansion but also the unevennessof thatexpansion. This helps correctthe impression of manycritics of theworld-systems perspec- tive,who rightlyargue that the transition to capitalismhas assumed radicallydifferent forms in differentplaces, but wronglycontend thatworld-systems analysis is incapableof theorizingthis diversity. Secondly,it providesa wayto linkup relativelyabstract processes suchas longwaves with relatively specific processes such as commod- ityproduction and labor relationsin particularplaces. The concept of the commodityfrontier, moreover, sheds lighton the waysin whichplace-specific commodity production shapes and is shapedby the socio-spatialexpansion of the law of value-ongoing primitive accumulation-under whichpeople are forcedto "sell to survive" (Moore, 1997). This approachpermits a deeperexamination of how the world-economyand local ecosystemsinteract to determinethe rateof capitalistexpansion.1 Thirdly, because commodityfrontiers, especiallysugar, required numerous capital inputs unavailable at the immediatepoint of production, the concept provides a morespecific theorizationof the simultaneousdeepening and wideningof the system'ssocial divisionof labor. In short,the commodityfrontier givesmeaning to the conceptof the "multipliereffect" in termsof spatial expansion and the global reach of the law of value. And fourthly,because the most significantcommodity frontiers were based on theexploitation of theenvironment- sugar, silver and gold mining,tobacco, grain, among others- the concept allows an explo- rationof the interrelationships between production in one place,and theexpansion of capitalist space in general.I mustadd thatcommod- ityfrontiers constitute the foundation of a broaderworld-historical category2-the frontier mode of capitalist expansion- the primary arena 1 For the relationshipbetween long waves and the advance of settlementon the frontier,see Earle 8c Cao (1993). 2 It is of course true thatthere were manyinstances of capitalistexpansion, in the New World and elsewhere,which did not hinge directlyupon commodityproduction. Certainly,religious missions, military colonization, Utopian communities, etc., cannot be chalked up to commodityproduction in a simpleway. In addition,preemptive coloni- zation has been an importantfeature of imperialismsince the sixteenthcentury (Hall, 1989; Dunaway, 1996a). That said, the primaryimpetus for preemptivecolonization came fromthe competitionover thefruits of resourceexploitation and profitabletrade This content downloaded from 128.226.37.5 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 17:08:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 412 JasonW. Moore ofwhich was theAmericas. I willtouch briefly on thislatter concept in the conclusion. The frontierhas been such a slipperycategory because it refers simultaneouslyto a certainkind of socio-spatialmovement and to a certainkind of place-thatis, the term"frontier" refers both to the "space-of-flows"as wellas to the "space-of-places."The two dimen- sionsof the frontier mode maybe capturedin thefollowing formula- tion. A frontieris a zone beyondwhich further expansion is possiblein a waythat is limitedprimarily by physicalgeography and the contra- dictionsof capitalismrather than the opposition of powerfulworld- empires.The frontieris a specifickind of space definedby the forwardmovement of the (capitalist)system. Further expansion is possible so long as thereremains uncommodified land, and to a lesser extent labor, "beyond" the frontier.Where the external barriersto capitalistexpansion initially outweigh the internal ones- as in Africaor Asia duringthe early modern period- we mustspeak of bordersand not frontiers. Commodityfrontiers were profoundlytransformative of land and labor because theywere oftenhighly industrial In particular, sugar productionand refining,and silvermining were among the most industrialactivities of the earlymodern