Small Property Mode of Production

• See the book: A Social History of Ancient Greece

Description

Via DeepSeek:

"The "Small Property Mode of Production" (SPMP) is not a universally standardized term but is rooted in classic analyses of economic systems. It primarily describes a pre-capitalist or non-capitalist form of production where:

• Direct producers (artisans, peasants, freeholders) own their means of production (tools, land, workshops).

• Production is primarily for personal use or direct exchange in local markets, not for generating surplus value for a capitalist class.

• The scale is small and decentralized, often organized around the household or small workshop.

Its analysis stems from two main theoretical lineages:

• Classical Political Economy & Marxism Karl Marx (Petty/Mode of Production, "Simple Commodity Production"), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (Mutualism) Marx analyzed it as a transitional form eroded by capitalism. Proudhon saw decentralized small property as a foundation for a mutualist society.

*Anarchist & Distributist Thought	Mikhail Bakunin, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc	Viewed widespread, decentralized property ownership as a bulwark against both state and capitalist concentration of power.

Historical Examples: Medieval guilds, free peasantries, independent artisans, the Jeffersonian ideal of the yeoman farmer.

Characteristics

Defining features:

Property Relations: Ownership is personal and non-alienable. The producer has a direct, often intimate, relationship with their tools and land.

Social Relations: Absence of a permanent wage-labour class. Labour is performed by the owner, family, or through reciprocal/cooperative arrangements (e.g., guilds, commons).

Production Logic: Driven by use-value and livelihood ("production for need") rather than profit-maximization and capital accumulation. Market exchange, when it exists, is for obtaining other use-values.

Scale & Technology: Inherently limits scale. Technology is oriented toward skill enhancement and sustainability rather than labour displacement and mass output.

More information

• The theory of peasant economy. [by] A.V. Chayanov. Edited by Daniel Thorner, Basile Kerblay [and] R.E.F. Smith. American Economic Association translation series, 1966

ToC:

1. Chayanov's concept of peasant economy, by D. Thorner.
2. A.V. Chayanov: life, career, works, by B. Kerblay.
3. On the theory of non-capitalist economic systems, translated by C. Lane.
4. Peasant farm organization, translated by R.E.F. Smith.
5. Bibliography of A.V. Chayanov (p. 279-296)