If we strip the conversation down to fundamentals capitalism as both a descriptive and analytical category refers to a system where markets allocate resources and private ownership guides investment through profit and loss signals. Historically however those markets have rarely if ever emerged in a vacuum. There are countless examples where merchants extended long distance trade routes only when backed by state power whether in the form of naval protection monopoly charters or outright conquest. What Beckert seems to want to emphasize is that these alliances between capital and state were instrumental in creating the conditions for large scale integrated markets to take hold.
The point you raise about profit opportunities from geographic price differences disappearing through arbitrage is a critical one because it forces us to consider the limits of pre industrial trading societies. As you note without productivity gains or new modes of production added wealth can only come from redistribution taking by force or luck in finding new trade niches. The fact that world GDP per capita barely moved over centuries underscores exactly how thin the opportunities were. This is where Beckert’s argument about intensification aims to show a qualitative change even if the examples he uses may be unconvincing to you.
If we strip the conversation down to fundamentals capitalism as both a descriptive and analytical category refers to a system where markets allocate resources and private ownership guides investment through profit and loss signals. Historically however those markets have rarely if ever emerged in a vacuum. There are countless examples where merchants extended long distance trade routes only when backed by state power whether in the form of naval protection monopoly charters or outright conquest. What Beckert seems to want to emphasize is that these alliances between capital and state were instrumental in creating the conditions for large scale integrated markets to take hold.
The point you raise about profit opportunities from geographic price differences disappearing through arbitrage is a critical one because it forces us to consider the limits of pre industrial trading societies. As you note without productivity gains or new modes of production added wealth can only come from redistribution taking by force or luck in finding new trade niches. The fact that world GDP per capita barely moved over centuries underscores exactly how thin the opportunities were. This is where Beckert’s argument about intensification aims to show a qualitative change even if the examples he uses may be unconvincing to you.