Document Type : Original Independent Original Article

Highlights

Introduction

Capitalism, an economic and political system characterized by private ownership of industry and commerce, wherein private wealth is utilized for the production and distribution of goods, serves as a mode of production and a specific economic and social formation. It constitutes a social and economic order predicated on market principles and has been dominant among nearly all states within the global system. Recent studies in the scientific literature of political economy address various forms of capitalism, including territorial capitalism, industrial capitalism, financial capitalism, monopoly capitalism, state capitalism, crony capitalism, and creative capitalism, which primarily arise from a critical perspective of the system. However, scholars generally acknowledge the diversity within capitalism, recognizing that each variant possesses its own relative advantages. The origins of capitalism as an economic and political system, along with the development of a market-oriented social and economic order in the Middle East, and its subsequent evolution, have been largely overlooked in studies, especially those conducted in Iran, on political economy, both at micro and macro levels, despite their significant role in contemporary Middle Eastern issues. Recent scientific studies in this field frequently examine the sovereignty and supremacy of the capitalist system, along with the various forms of capitalism, including crony capitalism, neoliberal capitalism, polymorphic capitalism, gap capitalism, and catastrophic capitalism, and their effects on the economic and political frameworks of regional governments. Therefore, this study aims to address the question: What is the origin of capitalism? What were the processes of its emergence, evolution, and development within a historical context? It is hypothesized that capitalism initially originated not in Europe, but in the Middle East and North Africa. Capitalism has evolved and transformed throughout history in a nonlinear, interactive, and phased manner, influenced by various domestic and global entities. This region has undergone distinct forms of capitalism throughout its economic and political history. Initially, the market-oriented traditional commercial capitalism characterized the pre-colonial era, marking the origins of global capitalism. This was followed by social and commercial entrepreneurial capitalism during the Islamic era, representing a transformative phase and the peak of both indigenous and global capitalism in the Middle East. Currently, polymorphic and Western capitalism prevails, reflecting the colonial and post-colonial stages of evolution and integration into Western capitalism. This study addresses certain conceptual and empirical blind spots while challenging key Eurocentric assumptions (i.e., historical, normative, preconscious, and stage-oriented) and the spatial abstractions that arise from them. It critiques the dismissal of the causal agency of the non-European world and the obscuring of the violence inherent in European capitalism throughout various stages of capitalism's transformation, evolution, and expansion in the Middle East.

Methodology

This study employed a novel methodology grounded in global analysis and various theories of the global system and complex uneven development. It utilized historical-explanatory, transformation-phase-oriented, statistical, and comparative methods to investigate and elucidate the origins of Middle Eastern capitalism and its historical evolution from the pre-colonial period to the present century. The study findings provide a comprehensive and innovative perspective on the history of capitalism within the political economy framework of the Middle East and North Africa.

Findings and conclusion

The study findings indicated that the Middle East has undergone multiple stages of the capitalist system, characterized by non-linearity and interactivity, with each stage exhibiting a distinct formulation of capitalism. These stages are as follows:

1. Emergence and inception (ancient times to the rise of Islam)
2. Maturity and prosperity (the rise of Islam to the 13^th century)
3. Decline (from the 14^th to the 18^th century)
4. Initial integration (from the 18^th century to the first half of the 20^th century)
5. Final integration (from the second half of the 20^th century to the present)

The first phase (emergence, growth, and development), coincided with the ancient period (before the advent of Islam), represented the Middle East as the heart of the establishment of commercial and market-oriented capitalism within the global system, serving as the epicenter of worldwide capital accumulation. During the second stage (maturity and prosperity), which aligned with the rise of Islam, a variant of commercial, entrepreneurial, and social capitalism emerged. By the thirteenth century, the Middle East had become the focal point and systematic center of global accumulation. At this juncture, the Middle East constituted the central region, while other areas were considered peripheral to it. This stage marks the initial phase of the Middle East's influence on the development of capitalist institutions in Europe and the Italian city-states within the Afro-Eurasian world system. The third stage, characterized by a gradual decline leading to early integration at the onset of the colonial period, was marked by significant events including the Mongol invasion, the Crusades, and the Black Death. During the initial phase of this period, specifically the 15^th and 16^th centuries, the Middle East maintained stability under Ottoman rule. The geopolitical strategies and influences of the Ottoman Empire facilitated the rise and consolidation of capitalism in Europe, particularly in northern regions such as Britain, rather than in the Italian city-states. Events such as the Black Death and the Mongol invasion, which caused the decline of capitalism in the Middle East, simultaneously stimulated the growth of capitalism in Europe. The establishment of European monetary and financial institutions, coupled with capital accumulation in the region and the ongoing Industrial Revolution, facilitated the emergence of Western capitalism as the central component of the global system, exerting influence over the Middle East, which occupied a peripheral position under British hegemony. The colonial era (secondary integration and primary domination from the early 19^th century to the second half of the 20^th century) was characterized by the Ottoman Empire's reforms, including free trade agreements, monetary reforms, foreign borrowing, and the establishment of the Ottoman Bank, driven by pressures from European capitalist governments and reformers advocating for modernization. These developments, coupled with adverse economic impacts on the empire and the Middle East, facilitated deeper integration of the region under Ottoman rule, ultimately resulting in the empire's collapse and disintegration within the global capitalist framework. During the colonial-postcolonial era, the mechanisms of capitalism's penetration evolved in comparison to earlier periods. This period marks the initiation of the institutionalization and consolidation phases of capitalism. Neoliberal capitalism employed two primary mechanisms: consent, through expropriation and forced accumulation via structural adjustment policies and the Washington Consensus, and coercion, through forcible liberalization, including war and coups, to enhance its influence and dominate the economies of Middle Eastern nations. These efforts aimed to enhance the institutionalization of capitalism and progress towards a phase of institutional consolidation, which resulted in crises and developments, including the Arab Spring in the region.

Subjects

• Economic
• Middle East
• Economic Policy
• North Africa