Small Property Mode of Production

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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.

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