‘Laway lang ang kapital’ (Saliva as capital): Social embeddedness of market practices in brokerage houses in the Philippines

Abstract

However drive for profit underpins the logic of market practices, there are social mechanisms which make it happen and they vary from one location to another. While this truism is generally accepted, these mechanisms work in the context of place-specific social relations and studies relating to them are very much underrepresented by way of empirical exposition in most studies that deal with communities and work places in the margins. As an answer to this lacuna, this article deals with market practices in brokerage houses in a rural fishing community in the Philippines as manifested through what people in the fishing community call ‘laway lang ang kapital’ (saliva as capital). Focussing on trust and specific socio-cultural concepts of ‘pakinabangan’ (reciprocity), ‘apa’ (empathy) and ‘hiya’ (shame) that inform the everyday performance of trust, the article elaborates on this market arrangement which thrives on credit. It shows how social relations and community values underpin the management of profit and the very logic of how fish trading is managed and economic outcomes are realised by both fishmongers and fish traders alike in a rural setting like the one examined here.