Profits from Power

Readings in Protection Rent and Violence-Controlling Enterprises

By Frederick C. Lane

Subjects: Economic History
Paperback : 9780873954204, 128 pages, June 1979
Hardcover : 9780873954037, 128 pages, June 1979

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Table of contents

Introduction

1 National Wealth and Protection Costs

2 The Economic Meaning of War and Protection

3 Oceanic Expansion: Force and Enterprise in the Creation of Oceanic Commerce

4 Economic Consequences of Organized Violence

5 Meanings of Capitalism

6 Public Debt and Private Wealth: Particularly in Sixteenth-Century Venice

7 The Role of Governments in Economic Growth in Early Modern Times

8 Economic Growth in Wallerstein's Social Systems. A Review Article

Description

"Of the many sources of power, these essays deal with only one: physical violence and the threat of violence exerted by some men over others. " Thus Frederic C. Lane introduces his essays on profits and protection rent, or the cost of protecting economic activities from the disruption of violence. With the theme of protection rent, Lane analyzes both particular cases, such as the development of trade in the West Indies and the prosperity of sixteenth-century Venice, and general questions, such as the role of capitalism in economic development and the economic relationships of the West to the rest of the world. In prose that is always graceful and clear, Lane presents his thoughts from many years of study that will be stimulating to sociologists and anthropologists, as well as to economic historians.

Frederic C. Lane is Professor of History, Emeritus, from the Johns Hopkins University and a former president of the American Historical Association and the International Economic History Association.