The Moral Economy of Trade

The Moral Economy of Trade (1994) investigates the agents of trade during the process of transformation from an indigenous rural subsistence economy into a cash-crop-producing market economy and a more-or-less integrated market-system in Southeast Asia. Drawing on earlier anthropological and sociological studies of trade and markets in tribal and peasant societies, it makes use of a new perspective on traders and their relation to society. By looking at this situation from the viewpoint of the individual trader or group of traders, it explores their action strategies and the dilemma they face: on the one hand, fulfilling a moral obligation to share proceeds with kinsfolk and neighbours and, on the other, realizing profits and accumulating trading capital.