Building Capitalism

"Building Capitalism" represents an exploration of the nature of urbanization and capitalism. Linda Clarke argues that urbanization is a product of human labour engaged in building as well as a concentration of the labour force; that the quality of the labour process determines the development of production, and that, consequently, changes to the built environment reflect changes in the production process and, in particular, the development of wage labour. In support of these arguments, the author identifies a stage of capitalist building production involving a significant expansion of wage labour, and hence capital, and the transition from artisan to industrial production. The building activity which produced the first metropolis illustrates how the emerging capitalist mode of production finally replaced the remnants of feudal social relations. Linda Clarke draws from a wide range of original material relating to the development of London from the mid-18th to the early 19th century to provide a description of the development process: materials extraction, road-building, house-building, paving, cleansing and more.