Andre Gunder Frank

Sun, 19 May 2013 03:04:52 -0400

Andre Gunder Frank

Reorient: Global Economy in the Asian Age

By Jack San Filippo

In his book entitled Reorient: Global Economy in the Asian Age, Andre Gunder Frank explores the idea of a holistic approach concerning the world economic system. His focus strays from contemporary Eurocentric thought patterns that regard European dominance in the nineteenth and twentieth century as related to internal innovation or the European spirit. Throughout the book Frank works to dismiss many of the conceived notions of European dominance as put forward by historian philosophers from Karl Marx to Max Weber and Immanuel Wallerstein. Rather he proposes that the world economy and its leading centers remained in Asia until at least 1800, and that the economic might of Asia (especially the Chinese market) were a part of and related to the market structure of a single global economy (224). Frank’s interest in China as being central to the global economy is explained in light of the vast misconceptions that he claims were placed into popular use by Eurocentric and or misinformed authors of the past.

The lack of global perspective and its influence upon Eurocentric thinkers relays an inability to properly understand the empirical date that is available from foreign sources. Frank therefore attempts to fill in the gaps left behind by Eurocentric authors and in doing so he often dispels common beliefs. For example the longstanding idea that perhaps Chinese traditionalism held it back from industrializing like the west, which Frank derives as nonsensical in light of the reality that the West was more traditional than the East (258). Frank critiques Marx and Marxist historians/ economists for their narrow view concerning internal European economic transition, and the search for what they view as “the rise of the West” (26). By confining themselves to internal economic developments such as the division of labor, Marxists fail to understand the impact and influence different markets have on each other, much less on a world economy. In later chapters as well Frank points out the rather rash inability for even Marx himself to come to terms with Asian power (323). Max Weber supported the Eurocentric view of not only Protestant rationality supporting European dominance but he also put forth the idea of Oriental despotism as a repressor of Asian innovation, two ideas that Frank criticizes (16). Furthering his attack on Eurocentrism, Frank dispels his own (and Immanuel Wallerstein’s) previous theories concerning the existence of a world system. Frank states Wallerstein’s world system not only excludes the majority of the world before 1750, it also implicitly states that “Most of the world, including all of Eurasia east of the Mediterranean…had played no significant part in the making and early history of the ‘modern world system” (45). Wallerstein’s limited views of what make up essential and non-essential aspects of the ‘modern world system’ are also brought to light, such as his theory on Asian hoarding of silver, which fails to even remotely understand the complexity of Asian markets (153).

According to Frank, the need to sift through the pile of Eurocentric authors is counter to the pre-Industrial Revolution mode of thought (14). In fact European intellectuals such as Adam Smith maintained Asian superiority in nearly every aspect of pre-Industrial life (11). James Blaut also contends that Eurocentric ideas of early European dominance are false and his scientific dismissal of their theories is a major influence upon Frank (21). Technology, science, metallurgy all expanded in Asian domains. Shipbuilding and transportation were one major example in which “westerners exploited Asian knowledge and skill” (199). The textile industries of China, Persia and India were considered far superior to European textile industries due to high-quality and low-cost modes of production (200). Further supporting Asian innovation Frank writes, “the world economy continued to be dominated by Asians until about 1800.” Europe in the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries was actually peripheral to its markets in the Mediterranean, which would not have been as wealthy if not for the riches of the Orient (56). Chinese and Indian markets led the world through utilization of West Asian and other routes, as well as having internal markets that could rival all of Europe (66). These internal markets not only fostered technological and other advancements but they supplied a level of commodity goods that simply could not be rivaled in price and quality in Europe (111). Therefore the only possibility for European intrusion into Asian markets would have to involve Asia’s most coveted commodity, that of silver (133). Luckily enough in the search for the Orient, the Americas were discovered in 1492, and with it came the discovery of not only vast deposits of silver, but it opened up what would become the Atlantic economy which would aid in shifting the center of the global system from Asia to that of Europe (55).

Considering Frank’s analysis that a 17^th century crisis did not occur globally, but was rather regional and due to negative climatic effects upon food supplies, we can begin to uncover the true reasons behind European entrance into Asian markets. Namely that Europeans bought their way into the trade of Asia. They were able to accomplish this due to multiple reasons pertaining to accumulated and reinvested colonial wealth, the Atlantic market economy for European goods, and a cyclical economic downturn that affected Asia (278). Frank declares that Europe in a sense, used the gold and silver they extracted in the Americas, to buy themselves a seat on the Asian train of commerce (277). New World silver mixed with the European division of labor allowed for the West to compete with Asian markets (282). The Atlantic market and other colonial holdings also allowed for a market in which European goods could be offloaded (278). The rapid growth of the West in the nineteenth and twentieth century allowed it to expand upon itself and eventually come to dominate an Asian market that had been become stagnant. According to Frank it was the “new silver and copper money, not to mention the additional credit it supported, that increasingly monetized and stimulated production in the world, regional, national and many local economies “that make up the single global economy (138).

Therefore according to Andre Gunder Frank, Europe had no superior, ethnic, rational or capitalist advantage to offer as explanation for its sharp rise in the nineteenth century (283). The technology and other innovations put forth by Eurocentric authors to explain current European dominance are, according to Frank, too limited in their scope to fully understand the big picture of a global economy. Frank asserts that a globalist system in which what were considered regional markets did in fact have an influence upon each other as of the year 1500. Frank also maintains that although Europe rose to predominance in the nineteenth century, it was still outmatched by its Asian neighbors in productivity, production and accumulation (356).

I have not had a forty ounce of beer in exactly one year.

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:53:26 -0400

I have not had a forty ounce of beer in exactly one year.

this is how i feel about academia. a bunch of...

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:50:20 -0400

this is how i feel about academia.

a bunch of ‘professors’ shitting out their mouths without having ever concerned their entire career with a single genuine thought.

If academics did porn it would be the kind where some diseased whore shits on their face followed by the scholastic method in which they decide whether or not that shit was marxist.

bin ich nicht wunderbarrrrrrrrrr?

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:46:00 -0400

bin ich nicht wunderbarrrrrrrrrr?

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Sun, 19 May 2013 00:57:17 -0400

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Sat, 18 May 2013 18:21:56 -0400

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:01:57 -0400

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:00:19 -0400

still hot.

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:26:00 -0400

still hot.

natalie portman bum.

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:25:00 -0400

natalie portman bum.

Paz de la Huerta

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:41:00 -0400

Paz de la Huerta

lurkdat: ‘take on me’ casper tho.

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:28:50 -0400

lurkdat:

‘take on me’ casper tho.

is it ironic that in my class on witchcraft there is this one 40...

Tue, 07 May 2013 01:14:00 -0400

is it ironic that in my class on witchcraft there is this one 40 year old single bitch who is rude to everyone and gives shitty criticism every moment that she can, and it is because of her existence in the context of the subject matter, that I can totally understand the ways in which women would be accused of “being witches.”

I would burn this cunt alive if I could.

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Thu, 02 May 2013 23:46:16 -0400

kelly reilly will loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:33:40 -0400

kelly reilly

will loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

likewildlife: Bonita.

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:41:36 -0400

likewildlife:

Bonita.

homie was fatttttttt

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:24:41 -0400

homie was fatttttttt

right? like look at this pic and tell me rightttt

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:24:00 -0400

right? like look at this pic and tell me rightttt

me and this bird had a photo shoot today.

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:46:42 -0400

me and this bird had a photo shoot today.

Photo

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:46:00 -0400

over life

Andre Gunder Frank

I have not had a forty ounce of beer in exactly one year.

this is how i feel about academia. a bunch of...

bin ich nicht wunderbarrrrrrrrrr?

Photo

Photo

Photo

Photo

still hot.

natalie portman bum.

Paz de la Huerta

lurkdat: ‘take on me’ casper tho.

is it ironic that in my class on witchcraft there is this one 40...

Photo

kelly reilly will loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

likewildlife: Bonita.

homie was fatttttttt

right? like look at this pic and tell me rightttt

me and this bird had a photo shoot today.

Photo