The Development of Commercial Transactions in a "Non-commercial" Environment: History of a Social Adaptation Process Observed in Northern Laos at the End of the 20th Century

Abstract

Both non-market and market circulation regimes are defined in relation to transfer. The definitions do not adequately integrate the specific dimensions of the dynamics of production and the ways in which production and transfers link together. However, those linkages are important because without production there would be no transfers and circulation regimes and production dynamics are self-validating. The example of a rapidly changing society—northern Laos at the end of the 20th century—is illuminating in this respect. It serves to identify, from a historical perspective, the linkages between “non-market” production dynamics and market exchanges in a society in which the latter have become a dominant social bond. We demonstrate that the dynamics of “non-market production” formed the substrate for the development of market exchanges that otherwise would not have emerged.