The Merchants' Capital

New Orleans and the Political Economy of the Nineteenth-Century South

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century, Business & Finance
Cover of the book The Merchants' Capital by Scott P. Marler, Cambridge University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Scott P. Marler ISBN: 9781107357228
Publisher: Cambridge University Press Publication: April 29, 2013
Imprint: Cambridge University Press Language: English
Author: Scott P. Marler
ISBN: 9781107357228
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication: April 29, 2013
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Language: English

As cotton production shifted toward the southwestern states during the first half of the nineteenth century, New Orleans became increasingly important to the South's plantation economy. Handling the city's wide-ranging commerce was a globally oriented business community that represented a qualitatively unique form of wealth accumulation - merchant capital - that was based on the extraction of profit from exchange processes. However, like the slave-based mode of production with which they were allied, New Orleans merchants faced growing pressures during the antebellum era. Their complacent failure to improve the port's infrastructure or invest in manufacturing left them vulnerable to competition from the fast-developing industrial economy of the North, weaknesses that were fatally exposed during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Changes to regional and national economic structures after the Union victory prevented New Orleans from recovering its commercial dominance, and the former first-rank American city quickly devolved into a notorious site of political corruption and endemic poverty.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

As cotton production shifted toward the southwestern states during the first half of the nineteenth century, New Orleans became increasingly important to the South's plantation economy. Handling the city's wide-ranging commerce was a globally oriented business community that represented a qualitatively unique form of wealth accumulation - merchant capital - that was based on the extraction of profit from exchange processes. However, like the slave-based mode of production with which they were allied, New Orleans merchants faced growing pressures during the antebellum era. Their complacent failure to improve the port's infrastructure or invest in manufacturing left them vulnerable to competition from the fast-developing industrial economy of the North, weaknesses that were fatally exposed during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Changes to regional and national economic structures after the Union victory prevented New Orleans from recovering its commercial dominance, and the former first-rank American city quickly devolved into a notorious site of political corruption and endemic poverty.

More books from Cambridge University Press

Cover of the book Feral Animals in the American South by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book The Law of the Whale Hunt by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book A History of Singing by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Engaging with Social Rights by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Health and Wellbeing in Childhood by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Caricaturing Culture in India by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Semiconductor Nanolasers by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Statistical Downscaling and Bias Correction for Climate Research by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Global Environmental Constitutionalism by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Group Theory by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Image, Text, and Religious Reform in Fifteenth-Century England by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Leon Battista Alberti: On Painting by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Ecology by Scott P. Marler
Cover of the book Beyond Sex Differences by Scott P. Marler
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy