ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the evolution of human economic systems from communal, tribal societies to the more hierarchical systems of slave-based empires, feudalism and mercantilism. It focuses on the classic work by Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, along with recent discoveries in economic anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary biology that address the evolution of human societies over time. The chapter outlines the main characteristics of traditional, hunter-gatherer societies; slave-based empires; feudalism and mercantilism; and describes the common threads and major differences of these human societies. It analyzes the role of tradition, authority, and markets, along with the specialization of labor and the use of the surplus product, in each of these four economic systems. The chapter explains how cooperation, specialization, redistribution, and reciprocity were important to the survival of people living in hunter-gatherer societies and in other economic systems. Stagnation and the pressures from the new capitalist class provoked changes in the mercantilist economic system.
