Nature and Fictitious Capital: The Historical Geography of an Agrarian Question

Capitalism is produced in part through its own production of nature, but it has been argued that nature also poses certain obstacles to capitalist development. Political economists and rural sociologists have argued that in certain instances agriculture, as a form of production based in nature, has proven resistant to capitalist transformation. The Mann–Dickinson thesis still stands as one of the best such formulations. This essay argues for turning the Mann–Dickinson thesis on its head so as to ask how it is that an obstacle for one set of capital comprises an opportunity for other capitals. The essay therefore examines agriculture as a nexus of nature and circulating capital. It argues that what has been construed as a primary obstacle (the disunity of working and production time and the cumulative effects thereof) has been poorly appreciated as comprising a distinctive opportunity for capitalist investments and appropriations through the credit system. Credit, by no means an exogenous or anachronistic force, develops along with production and constitutes a social relation of production along with other such relations. These contentions are borne out in a critique of the nature-as-obstacle argument and then in a discussion of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century agriculture in the United States, especially in California. In the latter discussion, I focus on the role of credit as the system that mediates the relations between nature and capital in and between different space–times. Credit, I argue, was necessarily constituted spatially and was contingently tied to the rise of agrarian formations in the American West.     

Extensions to the Hub Location Problem: Formulations and Numerical Examples

Although a tremendous amount of analytical research is being conducted on the hub location problem, few models exist that extend the number of characteristics found in actual hub-and-spoke networks. Four extensions are presented in this paper: (1) a capacitated network model; (2) a minimum threshold model; (3) a model that endogenously determines the number of open hubs for the network; and (4) a model that incorporates a flow-dependent cost function for the spokes as well as the interhub links. Both the capacitated and the minimum threshold models drop the assumption of a completely interconnected network commonly found in hub location models. Numerical results show that total network costs are often minimized by closing a few interhub links. The third extension is the first known hub location model to determine the optimal number of hubs based on the needs of the network. In this model, the number of open hubs depends on the distribution of flows in the network and how cost effectively the flows can be moved across the network. Previous models that endogenously determined the number of open hubs utilized a fixed cost for establishing each hub in order to limit the number of hubs in the network. The final extension recognizes the potential of all links to amalgamate flows and includes a separate flow-dependent cost function for the spokes in addition to the one for the interhub links. Numerical results are shown for all four models.     

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan in the northeastern Basin of Mexico was an unusually large and influential early city and state. This article reviews recent research trends in Teotihuacan from its founding and explosive growth ca. 100 BC into the largest city in Mesoamerica. Biogenetics provide details of how immigration fueled the city’s growth and shaped its multiethnic composition and link Teotihuacan to other parts of the central highlands and more distant regions. Urban theory highlights the importance of neighborhoods and how their composition changed. Collective aspects of irrigation, markets, warfare and the military, and ideology encouraged the development of Teotihuacan’s corporate governance. Although Teotihuacan politically dominated central Mexico, its control over the regional economy was not as centralized. Beyond its hinterland, Teotihuacan’s foreign relations were a mosaic of trade diasporas, diplomatic exchanges, pilgrimages, emulation, and strategic direct interventions of limited duration. As its foreign influence retracted, Teotihuacan faced challenges from its hinterlands and intermediate elites and factions that culminated in the burning and desecration of the urban center. The Epiclassic saw the change from Teotihuacan’s regional state to city-states and confederations. Although much reduced in size, Postclassic Teotihuacan retained an enormous legacy that subsequent states sought for their historical validation.