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The Moral Economy of Trade: Ethnicity and Developing Markets

Edited by Hans-Dieter Evers, Edited by Heiko Schrader

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While trade and markets are of interest to social scientists, the question of what can be bought from where, from whom, and at what price, is a matter of concern for most members of any society. As the world market grows and becomes more homogenous and Western development agencies intervene, the construction of Third World market systems come under scrutiny. But how do changes in a market-system affect the lives of the traders, their customers and their country? This text investigates the agents of trade during the process of transformation from an indigenous rural subsistence economy into a cash-crop producing market, and a more or less integrated market-system in Southeast Asia. Drawing on earlier anthropological and sociological studies of trade and markets in tribal and peasant societies, the contributors look at this situation from the viewpoint of the individual trader or group of traders. They explore their action strategies and the dilemmas they face.