Mainstream economists beginning with Adam Smith present capitalism as if it were present all the way back to hunting and gathering societies. But Karl Polanyi knew better. He examined civilizations in the ancient world and found no trace of market autonomy.
In his great book “Great Transformation” he argued that the self-regulating markets are not more than 2 centuries old. They led to war, depressions and fascism at the time of his death and we are experiencing the same conditions today.
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