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Afro-Eurasian Bronze Age Economic Expansion and Contraction Revisited*
ANDRE GUNDER FRANK†
Luxembourg
WILLIAM R. THOMPSON
Indiana University
| In an article published in 1993, Andre Gunder Frank made a number of assertions about the early emergence of a southwest Asian-based world system. Not only did a world system begin to emerge in the Bronze Age, Frank contended, its structure and cycles strongly influenced local activities throughout the system. Moreover, this emergent system became the core of the contemporary world system, later spreading to Afro-Eurasia and the Americas, thereby suggesting five thousand or more years of systemic continuity. Almost from the beginning, the southwest Asian core was characterized by systemic features that seem highly contemporary. These features included capital accumulation as a motor force, core-periphery divisions of labor, alternating periods of rivalry and hegemony, and economic cycles of upswing and downswing. |
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The economic cycles were singled out for special attention in the 1993 article as one of several important processes and as indicators of system existence and geographic scope. The argument for linking economic fluctuations to the existence of a system was that the rough synchronization of economic cycling in various parts of the ancient world could serve as partial evidence for the existence of a single system pulsing to a singular rhythm. A schedule for ancient A and B phases was advanced and then followed by a discussion of applicable evidence. Frank's conclusion was that the evidence did appear to support the chronological scheme put forward and, therefore, it also supported the claim that a single world system had existed at this early date. |
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The professional reaction to this analysis was a mixture of cautious support, downright grumpiness, and vehement rejection. While some analysts were sympathetic to the idea of an early southwest Asian—centric system, there was considerable opposition to, among other aspects of the 1993 argument, the nature of the evidence put forward to support the systemic claims. Much of this opposition can be reduced to a rejection of the 1993 evidence as adequate to support Frank's assertions. While it is interesting in its own right that little attention has been focused on improving the quality and scope of the evidence over the past decade, the obvious next step is neither to embrace or reject outright Frank's assertions. Rather, to the extent that the argument is interesting and potentially of considerable significance to the study of ancient and modern worlds, the next step is to broaden the evidentiary net, refine its focus, and reexamine the question of the timing and scope of long-term economic fluctuations in ancient southwest Asia. |
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This examination will proceed in precisely this fashion. After first reviewing, and commenting upon, the many objections to the 1993 study that appeared simultaneously with the object of criticism, a new study of the pattern of economic expansion and contraction in the Bronze Age will be executed. As much as possible, this second attempt will seek to take advantage of the often good advice that was forthcoming in the objections. While the product will be narrowly focused on economic fluctuations, its review of the evidence will be reasonably comprehensive. In the end, the point is to create a better database for considering claims about the number of ancient systems, its/their degree of integration, and the geographic scope of the systems under examination.1 |
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