Name:	Structures of everyday life: possible and impossible
	Braudel Fernand
Book series:	Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries. , Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries.
Genre(s):	Science, Education, History
Publisher:	Progress
The year of publishing:	1986
ISBN:	2-253-06455-6
“Material civilization, economy and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries.” - a fundamental three-volume work written by F. Braudel, one of the greatest masters of historical research. This work represents the highest achievement of the French historical school “Annals” in the desire of scientists of this historiographical direction to carry out a historical synthesis of all aspects of the life of society. The object of study of “Material Civilization” is economic history on a global scale from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The first volume examines “historical tranquility,” the leisurely, day-to-day, repeated human activities of obtaining their daily bread.

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The fundamental three-volume work of Fernand Braudel is a comprehensive study of the economic life of mankind in the era of the formation of capitalist relations, a turning point for its destinies. The first volume, entitled "Structures of Everyday Life. The Possible and the Impossible," is devoted to various areas of material life. The work is filled with a wealth of material concerning various aspects of the everyday life of people of the late Middle Ages and early modern times - both in Europe and far beyond its borders.
The book will be of interest not only to specialists in the field of history and economics, but also to a wide range of readers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
FERNAND BRAUDELE AND HIS VISION OF HISTORY 5
TO THE SOVIET READER 29
INTRODUCTION 33
PREFACE 37
Chapter 1. BURDEN OF QUANTITY 41
- World population: numbers that have to be made up 42.
Tidal system 42. Lack of numbers 45. How to count? 49. Equality between China and Europe 49. World population as a whole 51. Controversial figures 52. Centuries compared to each other 57. Inadequacy of old explanations 58. Climatic rhythms 60.
- Reference scale 62.
Cities, armies and fleets 63. Prematurely overpopulated France 66. Population density and levels of civilization 68. What other ideas does Gordon Hughes's map generate 74. The Book of Wild Men and Beasts 76.
- Completion of the biological Old Order with the advent of the 18th century. 84.
Balance always triumphs in the end 84. Famine 87. Epidemics 93. Plague 97. Cyclical history of diseases 102. Biological The old order within a long time span: 1400-1800. 104.
- Numerous against the weak numbering 107.
Against the barbarians 108. The gradual disappearance of “pure” nomads until the 17th century. 109. Conquest of space 112. When cultures resist 115. Civilizations against civilizations 117.
Chapter 2. DAILY BREAD 118
- Wheat 122.
Wheat and minor grain crops 123. Wheat and crop rotations 128. Low yields, compensation and disasters 135. Increasing yields and expanding acreage 137. Local and international trade in bread 139. Bread and calories 144. Grain prices and living standards 148. Bread of the rich , bread and cereals of the poor 151. Buy bread or bake your own? 154. So bread reigns 158.
- Figure 160.
Dry rice and irrigated rice 161. The miracle of rice plantations 164. The responsibility of rice 169.
- Corn (maize) 174.
Its origin has finally been revealed 174. Maize and American civilizations 176.
- Food revolutions of the 18th century. 179.
Corn outside America 180. Potatoes are even more important 184. It is difficult to eat unusual bread 188.
- What about the rest of the world? 190.
Hoe farmers 191. What about primitive peoples? 195.
Chapter 3. EXCESS AND ORDINARY: FOOD AND DRINK 199
- Table: luxury and mass consumption 203.
And yet a belated luxury 203. Carnivorous Europe 206. Declining meat rations since 1550 211. And yet a privileged Europe 216. Eating too well, or the quirks of the feast 219. Table setting 220. Slowly inculcating good manners 224. At the table Christov 225. Everyday food: salt 226. Everyday food: dairy products, fats, eggs 227. Everyday food: seafood 231. Cod fishing 234. After 1650, pepper goes out of fashion 238. Sugar conquers the world 243.
- Drinks and “stimulants” 246.
Water 246. Wine 251. Beer 257. Cider 260. The belated success of alcohol in Europe 260. Alcoholism outside Europe 266. Chocolate, tea, coffee 268. Stimulants: the greatness of tobacco 280.
Chapter 4. EXCESS AND ORDINARY: HOUSING, CLOTHING AND FASHION 286
- Houses around the world 286.
Building materials for the rich: stone and brick 287. Other building materials: wood, earth, fabrics 291. Rural housing in Europe 295. City houses and apartments 298. Urbanized villages 301.
- Interiors 303.
Poor people without furniture 303. Traditional civilizations, or Unchanging Interiors 305. Double Chinese furniture 308. In Black Africa 312. The West with its variety of furnishings 314. Floors, walls, ceilings, doors and windows 315. Fireplace 319. Stoves and stoves 321. Furniture makers before the vanity of buyers 324. Only ensembles are important 327. Luxury and comfort 332.
- Costumes and fashion 333.
If society were stationary 333. If there were only poor people 335. Europe, or the Madness of Fashion 338. Was fashion frivolous? 344. Two words about the geography of fabrics 348. Fashions in the broad sense and their fluctuations over a long time span 350. What to say in conclusion? 355.
Chapter 5. DISTRIBUTION OF TECHNOLOGY: ENERGY SOURCES AND METALLURGY 357
- The key problem is energy sources 359.
Human drive 360. Animal muscular power 364. Water engines, wind engines 376. Sail: the example of European navies 386. Everyday source of energy: wood 386. Coal 392. And to finish... 395.
- Poor relative - iron 397.
The initial stage of the simplest metallurgy (with the exception of China) 399. Successes of the 11th-15th centuries: Styria and Dauphine 402. Episodic concentration of production 405. A few numbers 407. Other metals 408.
Chapter 6. TECHNICAL REVOLUTIONS AND TECHNICAL BACKGROUND 410
- Three great technical innovations of the 411.
The invention of gunpowder 411. Artillery becomes mobile 412. Artillery on board ships 414. Arquebuses, muskets, guns 417. Production and budget 418. Worldwide artillery 421. From the invention of paper to printing 423. The invention of movable type 424. Printing and the great history 427. Feat of the West: sailing on the open ocean 428. Fleets of the Old World 428. Sea roads of the world 431. A simple problem of the Atlantic 434.
- Slowness of messages 440.
Stability of routes 441. The vicissitudes of the history of roads: their significance 445. River navigation 446. Archaic nature of vehicles; immutability, lag 448. In Europe 449. Ridiculous speeds and road capacity... 459. Carriers and transportation 452. Transport as a brake on the economy 456.
- A leisurely history of technology 457.
Technology and agriculture 457. Technology as such 458.
Chapter 7. MONEY 464
- Imperfect economic and monetary systems 469.
Primitive money 470. Barter trade at the very center of the money economy 473.
- Outside Europe: economies and metal coinage in its infancy 477.
In Japan and the Turkish Empire 477. India 479. China 481.
- Some rules for the functioning of money 486.
The dispute between precious metals 487. Leakage, hoarding and hoarding 492. Money of account 494. Metal reserves and the velocity of money circulation 497. Beyond the market economy 499.
- Paper money and credit instruments 500.
This is an ancient practice 502. Money and credit 504. Let's follow Schumpeter: everything is money and everything is credit 506. Money and credit are a specific language 507.
Chapter 8. CITIES 509
- The city as such 509.
From the insignificant role of cities to their global significance 510. The constantly renewed division of labor 514. The city and the newcomers, especially the poor 520. The arrogance of cities 522. In the West: cities, artillery, crews 528. Geography of cities and connections between them 531. Hierarchy of cities 536 Cities and civilizations: the Muslim world 537.
- The originality of Western cities 541.
Free Worlds 542. The Newness of Cities 544. Are Western City Forms Modelable? 547. Other development options 553.
- Major cities 558.
On whose conscience is this? Responsibility of States 558. What did capital cities serve? 560. Worlds out of balance 561. Naples: from Palazzo Reale to Mercato 564. St. Petersburg in 1790 567. The penultimate journey: Beijing 573. London: from Elizabeth to George III 581. Urbanization - a harbinger of the emergence of a new man 590.
INSTEAD OF CONCLUSION 593
LIST OF GRAPHICS 599
LIST OF MAPS AND DIAGRAMS 600
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 601
INDEX OF NAMES 605
INDEX OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 610

Our reader is offered the second edition of the Russian translation of the three-volume work of F. Braudel, published in France in 1979, “Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries.” This is the second major study by F. Braudel. The first, “The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II,” was published in 1949. During the thirty years separating these two dates, F. Braudel occupied a central place in French historiography. After Marc Bloch (1886-1944) and Lucien Febvre (1878-1956) - the founders of the historical school of the "Annals" - F. Braudel, becoming the generally recognized leader of this scientific direction, continued their "battle for history", the purpose of which, as they believed, was It was supposed to be not a simple description of events, not a carefree narration about them, but a penetration into the depths of the historical movement, a desire for synthesis, to embrace and explain all aspects of the life of society in their unity.

In the twenty years that have passed since the publication in Russia of the first volume of F. Braudel’s major work “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism, XV-XVIII Centuries,” the name of Braudel in the minds of the domestic reader has firmly become one of the most significant, iconic names of historians of the twentieth V. His works, his idea of ​​global history, the concepts he created - historical longitude (la longue durée), the world-economy (économies-mondes), different speeds of historical time, and finally capitalism - had a fruitful influence on the renewal of humanitarian knowledge that took place in these years in our country and contributed greatly to the formation of a new paradigm of social sciences. In addition to its epistemological significance, the ideas of Braudel's synthesis and echeloning of historical time - space were a powerful factor in the transition to a new type of historical writing and, in addition, seriously influenced modern historical education. In fact, today it is impossible to imagine courses of theoretical-methodological or historiographical content that would not pay fundamental attention to the contribution of the “new historical science”, its desire to overcome not only the positivist legacy, but also the criticism of structuralist explanatory models, its relationship to Marxist schemes of the historical process and economic theory of Marx, its role in the creation of a new quality of social and economic history, and finally, the complex struggle of history and sociology in the common field of the humanities. Meanwhile, all of the above points are inextricably linked in one way or another with the creative innovations of Braudel himself, this “prince” of French history, and with his colossal organizational and administrative activities in the key positions that he occupied over the years in the institutional space of the scientific world of France .

The problematics of his works, the questions that he poses in his research, are large-scale and invariably relevant, because they do not have a clear solution: on the one hand, his efforts are aimed at presenting a typology of civilizational models, at studying the exceptional role played by the Mediterranean Sea in world history , on the other hand, he is busy searching for a theoretical and historical explanation of the fundamental structures of capitalism, the origins of our modernity, the underlying reasons that determined the expansion of European civilization across the entire surface of the globe, as well as identifying probable scenarios for future, and now present, radical movements aimed at displacing or moving the world center, to achieve a new alignment and a new hierarchy of modern world-economies at the planetary level. Today we can say with confidence that Braudel’s two main books are “The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II” and “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism, XV-XVIII Centuries.” represent for the majority of researchers and practitioners who work in the field of the humanities and social sciences, an obligatory and necessary reference point, an indispensable guideline or measure of their own cognitive and other activities, allowing them to carry out methodological reflection in a situation of changing configuration of modern sciences about man and society . As the author of an original methodological perspective - the perspective of historical longitude, the famous longue durée - Braudel changed our usual view of historical facts, events and social changes, proposing a new type of approach to the realities that in one way or another constitute the social dimension of history. However, what exactly is valuable in the legacy of this outstanding scientist today and why, in the changing historiographical situation at the turn of the century, the figure of Braudel continues to remain an undisputed constant?

In order to understand the originality and essential features of Braudel’s creative method, it is important to recall, at least dotted line, some stages of his biography - however, quite well known - because during his life, his personal history, Braudel had to go through an exceptional experience in some sense and visit in very dramatic circumstances, which could not but influence the formation of his, also exceptional, personality. The first thing that should be noted is that by his birth, as well as by the impressions of his early childhood, he was, so to speak, a “border guard” - in the sense that he spent the first seven years of his life in a small place in French Lorraine , where he felt the influence of a multicultural environment and was imbued with the idea of ​​diversity of cultural experience, and also found himself in contact with the German language, which later facilitated his acquaintance with the achievements of German and Austrian scientific thought, which developed so rapidly in the period between the two wars, opened up before him doors to the market for German-language products in the field of social sciences and ensured the fruitful interaction of these elements with the power lines and achievements of Mediterranean culture, which largely laid the foundations for the complex edifice of Braudel's creativity.

At the same time, his childhood years spent in a small village allowed him to directly observe the realities of village life and subsequently had a serious influence on the formation of his theoretical ideas. It was then, in direct contact with these rural realities, unfolding in a slow time mode, in a temporality characterized by the repetition and reproduction of stereotypical behavioral patterns and customs rooted in the depths of time, that Braudel acquired a special taste and sensitivity, as well as the ability to sophisticated perception and understanding of various structures of historical longevity. In addition, his knowledge of village life allowed him to masterfully change the scale of the historical narrative, moving from broad generalizations to describing the picturesque details of the very material life to which he devoted himself to research. He once said to one of the doctoral candidates, returning his dissertation to him for revision: “Monsieur, it doesn’t smell like enough manure!”

To continue the theme of Braudel’s “borderliness,” let us also remember that his intellectual maturation took place in the exceptional environment of interwar Europe. It was this Europe that became the “environment” and “era” in which the initial period of his formation as a historian and practitioner of social sciences occurred. In fact, the First World War, the victory of the Bolshevik revolution, the loss of Europe’s hegemony in the Western “world-economy” and the transition of this hegemony to the United States, the crisis of 1929, the rise to power of the fascists and Nazis, and finally, the inevitability of the approach of the Second World War - all this created a number of conditions that forced Europe to look carefully in the mirror and radically question everything that until recently seemed obvious and unshakable. For example, the worldview that turned the mythological idea of ​​the universality and irreversibility of human progress into an undeniable postulate.

The situation of the 1920-1930s, marked by a deep crisis of European consciousness, left its mark on all those theses that Braudel developed during his life and which are included in the main objects of his research, in particular: not the old Europe, viewed from the point of view of the traditional Eurocentrism, but the Mediterranean, elevated in Braudel’s concept to the rank of a new world “center” and subject of world history. This interwar intellectual and cultural conjuncture, characterized by pluralism and the flourishing of critical reflection, the desire to problematize in a new way various manifestations of the European mind, is visibly present in his non-standard concept of time, breaking with contemporary views on temporality, and later transformed by him into a new and original the theory of different temporal speeds or historical durations.

We find the influence of the interwar historical context in Braudel’s concept of “human civilizations”, in a radical revaluation of the role of elements of the natural-geographical environment, in his special approach to the study of capitalism, based on the everyday levels of material civilization, or, also, in his special, heretical vision world, going against the prevailing “episteme” of the social sciences of the twentieth century. configuration.

Without setting ourselves the goal of covering all stages of Braudel’s biography, we will also say that in his individual experience there were extreme pages and situations of existential shock, which also could not but leave an imprint on his formation as a historian and as an intellectual. For example, the long five years that he spent in captivity during the Second World War.

In 1939, F. Braudel was ready to begin writing a book about the Mediterranean. It seemed that everything necessary for the implementation of this plan was available: a year before, he had received an appointment to the Practical School of Higher Studies in Paris, the preparatory work was completed. But the war began, and F. Braudel found himself at the front. After the defeat of the French army, he was captured and spent time from 1940 to 1945 in prisoner of war camps; At first he was in Mainz, and from 1942 he was transferred to a special regime camp in Lübeck.

All these years, F. Braudel lived an extremely intense intellectual life. It was a time of reflection when his vision of history was taking shape. Not having the necessary materials at hand, but possessing a phenomenal memory, he worked a lot, filling out one school notebook after another and regularly sending them to L. Fevre. As a result, he wrote the first version of a huge (1160 pages) and fascinating book about the history of the Mediterranean.

Braudel's vision of history from this time on was determined primarily by the desire to understand human achievements and make them understandable to others. True, under the influence of the terrible situation in which the whole world found itself, under the influence of the painful events of those years and on the basis of the thoughts about history that had already formed in him by that time, this desire was refracted in a very unique way. Braudel wanted with all his might to move away from the events of the war, from the everyday life of those difficult years, but not to turn away from them, as if these events did not exist at all, but to rise above them, look at them somewhat from the outside, to see behind them those deep forces, having understood and appreciated which It would be possible not only to prevent their repetition, but at least not to do what is not worth doing. This is where, at first, F. Braudel’s completely incomprehensible desire for a non-event history came from at the very time when events were tormenting both the whole world and himself, this is where, again, inexplicable at first glance, his long, throughout his stay in the camp, mental immersion in the 16th century.

The phenomenon, in fact, is not entirely ordinary: from a special regime prisoner of war camp there is a stream of school notebooks with strange names: “In the heart of the Mediterranean”, “The Share of the Environment”, “Collective Fates and the Common Movement”, “Human Unity. Paths and cities." “I needed to believe,” F. Braudel writes in this regard, “that history, that the destinies of humanity are accomplished on a deeper level... At an unimaginable distance from us and from our everyday troubles, history was being made, taking its leisurely turn, such unhurried, like that ancient life of the Mediterranean, whose immutability and a kind of majestic stillness I have so often felt.”

About 20 years passed from thinking about the research topic to publishing a book about the Mediterranean. In 1947, Braudel defended his dissertation, and in 1949 a book was published, which in both form and content fit into the historiographical direction represented by the Annals. In it, as L. Febvre wrote, everything was embodied “that all of us have been striving for for 20 years, be it Marc Bloch, Henri Pirenne, Georges Espinasse or Andre Sayu, Albert Demangeon, Henri Hauzé or Jules Sion - I name only the dead, - in our desire to create a history more alive, more thoughtful, more effective, more adapted to the needs of our era."

The construction of a typology of different historical times and various socio-historical durations was a kind of reaction of rejection to the horrors of the surrounding reality. As Braudel himself later said, he then felt the need to go beyond the immediate reality of wartime events - irrational events. It was this need that forced him to search and try to identify other time registers and dimensions, in particular, to develop his own long-term vision of the deep history that unfolds over a long period of time.

This desire, forced by external circumstances, to distance himself from the realities and time frames of event history allowed Braudel not only to discover the middle and long time, characteristic of conjunctures and structures, respectively (in his terminology), but also to debunk the concept of temporality that was dominant in that period. The idea proposed by Braudel of the multiplicity of historical and social durations, corresponding to historical phenomena that are different in nature, but capable of being articulated in a common register of physical time and subject to the complex dialectic of simultaneity and different phases, sometimes leading to layers, seems quite simple. Nevertheless, in essence it meant a radical critique of the basic parameters of the then considered self-evident model of modern temporality and the development of a more subtle and hitherto unseen modality, in which it was henceforth proposed to re-model the concept of time.

In 1958, F. Braudel’s article “History and Social Sciences” was published. Long time duration,” this article represents, on the one hand, a summing up and theoretical generalization of the concrete historical research of both the founders of the “Annals” and the author himself, and on the other hand, a kind of program that largely determined the originality of F. Braudel’s work . The article states that starting around the 30s, the idea of ​​historical time radically changed in French historiography. Previously, it was perceived in a simplified and unambiguous way, as calendar time flowing evenly, as a pre-given scale or axis on which the historian only had to string facts and events of the past. The idea of ​​time as a meaningless duration of the past is replaced by the idea of ​​social, meaningfully defined time, or rather, of the multiplicity of times, the various time rhythms inherent in various kinds of historical realities, and the discontinuity of social time.

This more complex and at the same time more consistent with objective reality understanding of time was embodied in different ways in the works of French historians. The works of F. Braudel himself are permeated with the idea of ​​the dialectic of three different time extensions, each of which corresponds to a certain deep level, a certain type of historical reality. In its lowest layers, as in the depths of the sea, spaces and stable structures dominate, the main elements of which are man, earth, and space. Time passes so slowly here that it seems almost motionless; the ongoing processes - changes in the relationship between society and nature, habits of thinking and acting, etc. - are measured over centuries, and sometimes millennia. This is a very long time span. Other realities from the field of economic and social reality, like the ebb and flow of the sea, are cyclical in nature and require other time scales for their expression. This is already a “recitative” of socio-economic history; societies and civilizations are distinguished by the same temporal characteristics. Finally, the most superficial layer of history: here events alternate like waves in the sea. They are measured in short chronological units; this is a political, diplomatic and similar “event” story.

The schematization reproduced by Braudel in the article is a simplification of historical reality, in which, in his opinion, tens, hundreds of different levels and corresponding time rhythms can be distinguished. In addition, within each given level of historical reality, several temporal extensions can coexist, intertwine, overlap one another, like tiles on a roof, since they are nothing more than forms of movement of various areas of social reality. The coordination of times, a meaningful explanation of genuine temporal rhythms is, according to F. Braudel, the most reliable means of penetrating into the depths of historical reality.

Thus, already in his first big book, “The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II” (1949), Braudel seems to find himself at the crossroads of two major historical coordinates: the temporal one, which became for him that period that was pivotal for European history, which was so called the “long” 16th century, when, strictly speaking, the birth of world history took place, and spatial history, represented by the Mediterranean, around which numerous civilizational movements take place and to which historical waves of various peoples of the Old World flow.

Historical analysis carried out in the work “Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries.” (1979), radically expands the chronological and spatial framework of the study to a time period of almost a thousand years, covering processes, the beginning of which can be attributed in one case to the 11th century, in another to the 18th century, and echoes of which can be detected in the 20th century. Following the lessons learned from L. Febvre, Braudel believes that the specific spatio-temporal dimension of research is dictated by the “historical problem” posed in it. The spatial framework for considering such a global problem as capitalism and the emergence of “modernity”, or, as we would say, modern industrial society (modernité), expands to the borders of the Old World, and in essence - to a planetary scale.

Thus, one can state a clear, direct connection between these two works, with the first appearing as a kind of huge, unlimited chapter of the second. However, there is another, perhaps deeper - theoretical and conceptual - connection between them, which consists in a new appeal to themes and models of explanation developed back in 1949, and their enrichment and rethinking 30 years later. So, for example, the model of material civilization is a theoretical element built on top of the theory of geohistory, and the modeling of typical elements of the world-economy is nothing more than a generalization of the lessons learned from the study of a specific “case” of the European world-economy of the “long” 16th century. The study of the general patterns of the functioning of capitalism and the behavior of capitalists undoubtedly follows from earlier studies of their behavior and role in the civilizations of the Mediterranean.

"Material Civilization, Economy and Capitalism, XV-XVIII Centuries", separated from "The Mediterranean" by 30 years, repeated and updated the success that befell this earlier work, but also confirmed Braudel's place as one of the first masters in the post-war International of Historians. Both the first and second works matured and were revised for more than twenty years before they emerged from his pen in a finished form - “extremely simple and clear.” The first became a school for historians, contributing to the gradual establishment in the professional environment of a certain way of thinking and writing history. Can the same be said about “Material Civilization”? The main goal of the entire study is formulated in the preface that preceded the first volume of the 1967 edition. Noting at the very beginning of the preface that universal history always requires some kind of general scheme in relation to which the entire explanation is built, F. Braudel writes: “Such a scheme is inevitable imposes itself: from the 15th to the 18th centuries. people's lives were marked by some progress, unless, of course, we understand this word in its modern sense of continuous and rapid growth. For a long time there was slow, very slow progress, interrupted by rapid retrograde movements, and only during the 18th century, and again only in a few privileged countries, was a good road discovered, never to be lost from sight... A comprehensive study of this progress, the discussions it provokes, the reflections that illuminate it, will obviously be located along the main axis of this work”; “how did that system, that complex system of existence that is associated with the concept of the Old Order, how could it, if considered on a global scale, become unusable and break apart; How did it become possible to go beyond its limits, to overcome the obstacles inherent in this system? How was it broken through, how could the ceiling be broken through? And why only in favor of a few who find themselves among the privileged on the entire planet?”

The first two volumes - “Structures of Everyday Life: The Possible and the Impossible” and “Games of Exchange” - identify elements of the general structure of the world economy of the 15th-18th centuries that acted as a stimulus or brake on historical movement. The first volume is a “weighing of the world,” “an attempt to identify the limits of what is possible in the pre-industrial world.” F. Braudel examines the most diverse spheres of the material, everyday life of people - food, clothing, housing, equipment, money - and always with one goal: to find “the rules that for too long kept the world in a rather difficult to explain stability” (T. I. P. 38) . This volume also carefully examines those slow changes in individual elements of the structure of the world, accumulations, uneven advances that imperceptibly, but nevertheless created that critical mass, the explosion of which in the 18th century. changed the face of the world.

The second volume (Games of Exchange) pits the “market economy” against “capitalism” and explains these two layers of economic life by revealing how they mix with each other and how they oppose each other.

This division of economic life into a market economy and capitalism, as F. Braudel himself believes, readers will probably consider the most controversial point in his work. Is it possible, as he himself formulates his opponent’s supposed question, not only to contrast the market economy and capitalism, but even to draw a clear distinction between them? After much hesitation, F. Braudel admits, he finally came to the conviction that the market economy developed during the period under review, encountering opposition from both below and above, i.e., on the one hand, a huge mass remained beyond its reach infra-economy - material, everyday life, which the market economy could not grasp, and on the other hand, the market economy opposed capitalism, which at that time (as, indeed, in the author’s opinion, now) did not cover the entire economic life of society.

In the third volume - “The Time of the World” - the task is set to “organize the history of the world” in time and space in such a way (of course, while simplifying it, as F. Braudel himself admits) in order to “locate the economy side by side, below and above other participants in the division of this time and space: politics, culture, society" (Vol. III. P. 8-9). In the course of implementing this plan, the third volume became a kind of crossroads at which general spatio-temporal characteristics from the theoretical arsenal of F. Braudel met with specific realities from the period under consideration. The ebbs and flows in the history of the world economy, the interdependence of production and material goods in different regions manifest themselves either in the form of relatively short-term events lasting 3-4 years, 10, 25-30 years, or in the form of secular cycles with crisis peaks in 1350, 1650, 1817 years, then as a vector of an even longer time span.

All these developments at the level of economic history, superimposed on the general axis of time, sometimes unite and complement each other, sometimes, on the contrary, they come into conflict and break apart from each other.

In full accordance with this general orientation, the main question formulated by F. Braudel in the preface to his work is resolved. The slow accumulation of not only (and not mainly) wealth, but above all skills, technical solutions, appropriate ways of thinking, as well as the structural transformations that took place just as slowly in the course of traditional growth in the relationship between man and nature, between the market and capital, capital and state, etc., etc., prepared the conditions for the industrial revolution. All these slow accumulations and structural transformations fit into the longue duree perspective. As for the social-industrial revolution, during which there was a breakthrough, a transition (take-off) to the modern type of economic growth, this is an opportunistic moment, the fate of a relatively short time and a confluence of completely different circumstances, different from those that originate at least in the XIII, and even in the XI century.

Material Civilization is a work that is itself the culmination of a lifetime of research and discussion. But this result cannot be considered final, because it represents, like the “Mediterranean,” a fairly flexible framework that allows you to change and adjust individual elements without questioning the weight of the whole. It is also interesting that this book, begun during a period of relatively prosperous development of industrial countries, was completed and partially redone by Braudel against the backdrop of the emerging systemic crisis that swept the whole world and struck the very foundations of the modern world economic system. It so happened that the appearance of this work, in a sense, marked one of those “secular turns” with the help of which capitalism survives and transforms, making the necessary transformations and amendments and redistributing forces and means: “Secular crises are the price to pay for the ever-increasing inconsistency between the structures of production, demand, profit, employment, etc.” (Vol. III. P. 543-544).

So, having briefly surveyed Braudel’s professional path and intellectual heritage (about which there is a solid literature), let’s think about what accounts for such a strong popularity of his ideas, such a long fame of their author and a persistent, undiminished interest in his works, which, despite the fact that that they were written in the best traditions of academic historiography and have been among the bestsellers for many years. Braudel's legacy has become an integral part of the French social sciences, including in institutional terms (let us not forget that the three main structures, at the origins and at the head of which was Braudel - the House of Human Sciences, the School of Higher Social Studies and the Editorial Board of the Annals - personify represents a significant part of the best that has been created by the French intellectual elite over the past fifty years) and has long stepped beyond the boundaries of the French hexagon. Braudel's two main books have been translated into more than 20 languages, including Russian and Korean. This means that references to his concepts, models, theories and hypotheses have become an accepted norm in historical discussions and works of history.

The reasons for this lie, on the one hand, in the universality of the problems to which his work is devoted, on the other hand, in the radically innovative nature of the solutions he proposes and explanations of the causes of the phenomena described. Indeed, Braudel was concerned both with the history and current state of capitalism and what is succinctly meant by the word modernite, and with the role of the world “center” that the Mediterranean space played in its time. Trying to find the key to understanding the special place of European civilization, exploring the various dimensions of material civilization and everyday life, studying the role of the geohistorical basis in the development of civilizations, as well as the complex dialectic of their historical destinies, Braudel in one way or another touched upon themes of universal significance. In other words, the plots developed by Braudel are of interest to everyone, no matter what national historiography they are placed in.

Along with this obvious universal dimension of Braudel's legacy, which attracts a wide range of readers around the world, whether they are historians, social scientists or simply educated people, his work contains a number of novel and sometimes unexpected prospects for scientific research. These radically innovative perspectives are associated, firstly, with a new vision of the colossal and eternal problem of temporality and the most acceptable forms of its intelligibility, as well as various ways of human perception of such a complex reality as time and its specific implications, and, secondly, with new opportunities in the approach to the study and decoding of the social, and consequently, new ways of building an integral system of our knowledge about society.

Yu. N. Afanasyev

Other chapters from this book

• The second Russian edition of Fernand Braudel’s fundamental work “Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries.” is being carried out twenty years after the first volume of the first edition appeared in the Progress publishing house, and fourteen years after the first...
• The fact that this voluminous book - “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism” - is being translated into Russian is both an honor and a joy for me. I expect a lot of criticism of her, but also a fair amount of agreement with her. The only thing,...
• When in 1952 Lucien Febvre entrusted me with writing this work for the series “The Fates of the World” that he had just begun, I, of course, had no idea what an endless undertaking I was getting involved in. In principle, we were talking about a simple generalization of data from works devoted to the economic history of pre-industrial...
• And here I am on the threshold of the first book - the most complex of the three volumes of this work. The point is not that each of its chapters in itself may seem inaccessible to the reader. Complexity arises imperceptibly from the multiplicity of goals, from difficulties...
• Wheat, rice, maize - these staple foods for most people still pose a relatively simple problem. But everything becomes more complicated as soon as you turn to less common types of food (and even meat), and then to various needs - clothing, housing. For in these areas they always coexist and incessantly...

Fernand Braudel (French Fernand Braudel, August 24, 1902 - November 27, 1985) - French historian. He revolutionized historical science with his proposal to take into account economic and geographical factors when analyzing the historical process. A prominent representative of the French historiographic school “Annals”, which was engaged in a thorough study of historical phenomena in the social sciences. Investigating the origins of the capitalist system, he became one of the founders of world-system theory.

Born into the family of a mathematics teacher in the small village of Lumeville-en-Ornois near the German border in Lorraine. Peasant childhood played a role in shaping his worldview. In 1909, he entered primary school in the Parisian suburb of Meriel, where he studied with the future actor Jean Gabin, and then at the Voltaire Lyceum in Paris.

He received his higher education at the Sorbonne at the Faculty of Humanities. “Like all left-wing students of that time,” he was attracted by the French Revolution, and as the topic of his thesis he chose the revolutionary events in the town closest to his home village, Bar-le-Duc. He spent the next decade teaching history at a college in Algeria, with a break for military service in 1925-1926. The years in Algeria were of great importance in defining his work. In 1928 he published his first article.

In 1932 he returned to Paris to teach at the Lycée Condorcet and then at the Lycée Henri IV. At this time he met his colleague Lucien Febvre. Already in 1935, he and the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss were invited to teach at the newly created University of São Paulo in Brazil, and Braudel spent three years there.

At the beginning of World War II, as a reserve lieutenant, he was mobilized and went to the front in an artillery unit. Having taken part in the battles, after the signing of the armistice in the summer of 1940, together with the remnants of his military unit, he was captured, where he spent almost five years - first in a prisoner-of-war camp for officers in Mainz, and from 1942 - in a special regime camp in Lübeck.

In 1947 he defended his dissertation. Since 1948, Braudel directed the French Center for Historical Research. In 1949, he became a professor at the College de France, occupying the department of modern civilization, and also headed the jury for the defense of historical dissertations.

Corresponding Member of the British Academy (1962). Honorary doctorate from the universities of Brussels, Oxford, Geneva, Cambridge, London, Chicago, etc.

Braudel’s most famous work is considered his three-volume work “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism, XV-XVIII Centuries,” published in 1979, dedicated to the transition from feudalism to capitalism.

Fernand Braudel is a well-known proponent and promoter of an interdisciplinary approach.

Books (9)

Grammar of Civilizations

The work of the outstanding historian Fernand Braudel, the largest representative of the French historical school of the Annales, is devoted to the development of the civilizations of the West and the East.

“The Grammar of Civilizations” was written in 1963 and was intended by the author as a textbook for the secondary education system in France. However, it turned out to be too complex for a textbook, but it was received with great interest by the scientific community of the world, as evidenced by translations into many languages.

Unlike other fundamental studies of the author, it is written in a much more accessible form, which facilitates the perception of Braudel’s concept not only by specialists, but also by a wide readership.

Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV - XVIII centuries. In three volumes. Volume 1. Structures of everyday life: possible and impossible

"Material civilization, economy and capitalism, XV - XVIII centuries." - a fundamental three-volume work written by F. Braudel, one of the greatest masters of historical research.

This work represents the highest achievement of the French historical school “Annals” in the desire of scientists of this historiographical direction to carry out a historical synthesis of all aspects of the life of society. The object of study of “Material Civilization” is economic history on a global scale from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

The first volume examines “historical tranquility,” the leisurely, day-to-day, repeated human activities of obtaining their daily bread.

Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV - XVIII centuries. In three volumes. Volume 2. Exchange Games

Exchange Games are a complex world of economic communications. Fernand Braudel explores the various levels of commercial activity - the work of peddlers, long-distance trade, the work of international exchanges and credit institutions. He traces how their complex interactions influenced society, social hierarchy and entire civilizations.

One of Braudel’s main tasks is to compare the market economy and capitalism, determining their points of contact, the degree of independence and the nature of the confrontation.

Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV - XVIII centuries. In three volumes. Volume 3. Time of the world

The third volume - “Time of the World” - sets the task of “organizing the history of the world” in time and space, identifying such realities in economic life that acquire a global resonance and set the rhythm for all of humanity.

The author analyzes the causes of the rise and fall of world-economies, the formation of national markets, the history of the industrial revolution, and verifies his main hypotheses set out in the first two volumes in a specific historical chronological sequence.

Essays on history

The book brings together several articles on the nature of history that the famous French Annales historian Fernand Braudel published between the 1940s and early 1960s.

The author compares history with other human sciences in order to determine the possibilities of their mutual enrichment. In his generalizations, he outlines the ways of convergence of the human sciences, the place of the idea of ​​longevity (la longue duree) as the essence of the historical process, the role of mathematics and computers in social scientific knowledge.

The book may be of interest to representatives of all social sciences, since it clearly presents the problems to which the formation of postmodernist ideology became the answer.

The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Part 1. The role of the environment

The classic work that made the French historian famous has been translated into Russian for the first time.

The first edition of the work, dedicated to the history of the Mediterranean in the second half of the 16th century (but going far beyond this chronological and geographical framework), appeared in 1949.

It attracted attention by summarizing the experience of several generations of historians from different countries, including the innovative research of the Annales school, as well as the originality of Braudel’s historical method. He introduced into use the concepts of historical periods of long duration, structures and conjunctures, against the background of which specific events, “the dust of everyday life,” are considered.

Also pioneering was the comprehensive approach to studying the entire region, which at that time was the center of the whole world for Europeans, in its totality, going beyond the usual political framework and historical stereotypes, and most importantly, in interaction with the natural environment.

The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Part 2. Collective destinies and universal shifts

In the 2nd part of F. Braudel's monograph, a detailed picture of the life of Mediterranean societies is drawn, and its main aspects are described in detail: economic, political and civilizational.

This is the largest section of Braudel's three-part work, the most rich in original material and most fully reflecting the author's historical predilections.

In contrast to the 1st part, which describes the Mediterranean geographical environment, and the 3rd, devoted to “event” history, both stable social structures and the dynamics of various processes are explored here; Their detailed quantitative characteristics are given, and a unique view of Mediterranean civilizations is expressed.

The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Part 3. Events. Policy. People

The last volume of F. Braudel's trilogy, dedicated to the Mediterranean Sea, tells about the events of the traditional, in the author's understanding, mainly political history of the second half of the 16th century.

Despite the French historian’s dislike for the narrative form, this section of his work is read with enthusiasm and will be of interest not only to scientists, but also to a wide range of history buffs.

The combination of two fundamental concepts - culture and civilization - in the history of cultural studies caused a lot of controversy and discussion, and led to the emergence of opposing points of view. The desire to join the global flow, to acquire the features of a universal civilization is widely discussed by our contemporaries. Along with this, there are fears of the loss of nationally distinctive features of culture, uniqueness, which can dissolve and melt in the process of “technization” and “Westernization.” Fierce denunciations by O. Spengler, A. Schweitzer, J. Huizinga of “machine civilization” with its catastrophic urbanization, ecological crisis, insane militarization, primitiveness of spiritual interests, wastefulness and disregard for the individual are supported by many theorists.

There is a desire to return “back to nature”, limit consumption and comfort, and live a “simple”, unpretentious life.

In the social sciences, the concept of civilization was supplanted by the theory of socio-economic formations that determine the ascent along the path of progress, although historical material “resisted” schemes and conventional constructions. Despite the economic determinism so widespread in methodology, knowledge about the development of the material life of society turned out to be extremely poor and limited.

This is why F. Braudel’s work “Material Civilization” is so interesting. Economy and capitalism of the 15th-18th centuries” 1, which examines the problems of the relationship between culture and civilization based on extensive historical material.

F. Braudel dedicates his address to the reader in connection with the translation of the trilogy into Russian to Russian historians A. A. Guber,

1 Braudel F. Material civilization. Economy and capitalism of the XV-XVIII centuries: In 3 vols. M., 1988-1993.

B. N. Porshnev, E. A. Zhelubovskaya, M. M. Strang, A. 3. Manfred, whose works were known to him, and notes the importance of historical studies of culture and civilization. He insists on interdisciplinary interaction between scientists from different specialties, believing that various human sciences “shatter” history.

Social sciences cannot produce fruitful results if they start only from the present, which is not sufficient for their construction. This point sounds especially important for cultural studies.

About the biography of the scientist

Let us turn to some of the main events in the life of this outstanding historian of our time.

Fernand Braudel (1902-1985) was born in 1902 in a small town in Lorraine, in eastern France. He recalled that in those years he also found the village blacksmith and cartmaker at work, knew how hemp was soaked in the meadow lowlands, and saw wandering lumberjacks. A stone path as old as the world lay in front of his house. These are archaic for the 20th century. the forms of everyday material life came to mind more than once when he studied the history of European civilization. Even in modern economic systems, as Braudel later wrote, there are residual forms of the material culture of the past. They disappear before our eyes, but slowly, and it never happens the same way.

The material life of society is multi-layered, and changes paint a picture of a long time span, penetrating the silent thickness of centuries. The “primary” elements of civilization are visible in every culture, forming the basis of the daily life of the people. They evolve little by little, transforming into new forms, but still accompany man, forming his powerful “root” system, giving stability to existence.

It is these problems of numerous interweavings in the economy that will become the object of philosophical and cultural reflections for Braudel.

Fernand Braudel graduated from the Voltaire Lyceum in Paris and continued his education at the famous Sorbonne. Having become a professional historian, he taught at lyceums for almost 10 years (with the exception of 1925-1926, when he served in the army), working in Algeria, studying in the archives of European countries. Already in those years, he developed a deep love for the Mediterranean, which later became the topic of his dissertation.

In 1937, Braudel was appointed to the École Practical des Hautes Etudes in Paris. During these years, a group of historians became famous, united around the French magazine “Annals: Economics. - Society. - Civilizations", which was founded in 1929 by Marc Bloch (1886-1944) and Lucien Febvre (1878-1956). Their views turned out to be very close to Braudel, and he had friendly relations with Febvre since 1932.

The Annales school (this name later stuck) was distinguished by a new methodology for the study of world history. Objecting to “event” history as the only possible one, theorists proposed restoring the entire volume of historical life, including changes in the value system, differences in the rhythms of change in material life. The focus was on everyday life, which has inertia, duration and stability. From these positions, Braudel began writing a book about the Mediterranean.

His studies were interrupted by the Second World War. Braudel found himself at the front. During the defeat of the French army, he was captured and from 1940 to 1945 he was in a prisoner of war camp: first in Mainz, and from 1U42 - in a special regime camp in Lübeck. It’s hard to imagine, but it was during these years that Braudel wrote a huge and original work in 1160 pages - “The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II”, practically relying only on his phenomenal memory, without having books or any historical materials at hand.

He handed over the school notebooks in which this study was written from the camp to his friend the historian Fevre, who carefully preserved them. After the end of World War II, Braudel was able to defend his dissertation on this manuscript, and in 1949, publish a book. In the same year, he became head of the department of modern civilization at the College de France, and from 1956 to 1970 he headed the Annales magazine, continuing the line of M. Blok and L. Febvre in the study of cultural history.

In 1952, he accepted Febvre's offer to write a book for the Destiny of the World series about the economic history of pre-industrial Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. This research greatly fascinated Braudel, and as a result of many years of work, three fundamental volumes, “Material Civilization. Economy and capitalism of the XV-XVIII centuries", which became a major event in world historical science.

The book outlines the original concept of the evolution of the material culture of society, the problems of preserving and transforming archaic forms, the emergence and spread of new formations, and traces the connections and interdependencies of the material and spiritual life of society.

The book contains more than 500 first-class illustrations, maps, graphs, diagrams? engravings, photographs, and the bibliography includes 5,500 on-. naming. All this makes scientific work extremely interesting and exciting; looking at paintings executed by famous masters with the highest taste and authenticity is a pleasure.

The abundance of factual material in the books gave many contemporaries the basis to call Braudel “a miracle of historical erudition.” The theoretical concept is interesting, easy to understand, and presented in a good literary style. This contributed to the fact that soon all three volumes became widely known, were published in many countries, and in 1988-1992. were also published in Russia. Each volume is a unique study of the history of the material civilization of Europe: Volume I - “Structures of Everyday Life: The Possible and the Impossible”; Volume II - “Games of Exchange”; Volume III - “Time of the World”. We have yet to return to this amazing trilogy.

I would like to draw attention to the portrait of Braudel: the photograph captures the image of an unusually hardworking, enthusiastic historian, with a penetrating, friendly gaze and the appearance of an intellectual, innovator and organizer of scientific research.

In 1962, Braudel created the House of Human Sciences in Paris and directed it until his death. He was elected a member of the French Academy, an honorary doctorate from the universities of Brussels, Oxford, Madrid, Geneva, Warsaw, Cambridge, London, Chicago, and a Research Center in the USA was named after him.

Fernand Braudel died in 1985 at the age of 83, having lived an incredibly eventful life, gaining recognition and authority in world historical science.

Structures of everyday life

Let’s focus on the main framework of the historical concept and present in more detail some of the plots of Volume I - “Structures of Everyday Life: The Possible and the Impossible.” Every word in this name is important, because it is endowed with a deep meaning. The concept of “everyday” is key. It expresses the main methodological orientation of the Annales school. History happens not from case to case, not from event to event, not from one form of government to another, but daily. Life consists of a huge number of “fleeting moments” that people often do not notice, they are so familiar and perceived as “naturally occurring” or “for granted.”

It is this meaning that Braudel puts into that “basic” activity that is found everywhere and the scale of which is almost fantastic.

This vast area at ground level I call, for lack of a better term, material life, or material civilization^.

Material life, as Braudel explains, is people and things, things and people. Food and drinks, housing and building materials, furniture and stoves, costumes and fashion, transport and energy sources, luxury goods and money, tools and technical inventions, diseases and methods of treatment, plans of villages and cities - everything that serves man, that is connected with him in everyday life.

T This “opaque” zone is not only vast, but also inert, changes in it occur extremely slowly.

Above the lower “floor” rises a more mobile zone, the so-called market economy, mechanisms of production and exchange associated with the activities of people in agriculture, with workshops, shops, exchanges, banks, fairs and markets. The structure is completed by the third “floor,” where transnational forces operate that can distort the course of the economy and undermine the established order.

They generate anomalies and "turbulences" and create an upper limit on the "possible and impossible."

Thus, a pattern emerges where all three floors are in close contact with each other, like tiles on a roof. This is

1 Braudel F. Material civilization... T. I. Structures of everyday life: possible and impossible. P. 7.

allows Braudel to conclude that “there is no one, A some economics". And this is typical not only for the distant historical past, but also for modern society.

All floors of the “building” have their lower and upper limits, which form the boundaries of the “possible and impossible.” The lower zone is especially large, covering a significant number of the population. This is a continuation of the “ancient economy”, because the old skills, abilities and orders prevail in it: grain is sown in the same way as always, the rice field is leveled in the same way as always.

Each “floor” lives not only according to its own laws, but also in accordance with its own rhythms. There are ebbs and flows, long or short-term cycles, waves of rise and fall roll over each other, creating unique configurations of material life in space And time. Analysis of these processes allows us to observe how equilibrium was achieved in history, why it began to collapse, and how crises arose.

“Daily bread” plays an important role in everyday life. This is exactly what one of the chapters of Volume I is called. Braudel quotes the famous proverb: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are,” for food testifies And about a person’s culture, his social rank, material capabilities, national habits, level of civilization, age, taste preferences.

Wheat, rice, maize, soybeans, and corn were “plants of civilization”; they were the signs of sedentary life. It was necessary to have farming skills, to know the usefulness of cereals, and how to eat them.

Braudel explores in detail the distribution routes of these cereals, the types of “breads” common in different countries, yields and prices, cooking And the products of bakers, the emergence of mills and bakeries, scientific farming and diet.

"History of Humanity" united in their renewal over thousands of years and in their marking time, synchrony and diachrony are inextricably linked with each other,” concludes Braudel 1.

Let us recall that Braudel conducts research into the phenomena of material culture within the framework of “possible and impossible”, the boundaries of “bottom and top”, “poverty” And luxury."

The established boundaries are very fluid: what was luxury yesterday becomes commonplace and widespread today:

Braudel F. Material civilization... Vol. I. P. 47.

“When some food, which has long been rare and coveted, finally becomes available to the masses, there follows a sharp jump in its consumption, as if an explosion of a long suppressed appetite. But, having become “popularized,” this type of food quickly loses its attractiveness, and a certain saturation is expected.

The rich are condemned to prepare the lives of the poor in the future - this is the tendency of the spread of culture and civilization. It is difficult to define luxury once and for all, which is changeable in nature, elusive, multifaceted and contradictory,” concludes F. Braudel 1 .

He gives many examples from cultural history showing how an excess or rare product becomes common and everyday. For example, sugar was a luxury until the 14th century; up to the XVI-XVII centuries. very rarely used a fork while eating; Luxury items included a handkerchief, small and deep plates.

Luxury is a reflection of differences in social levels, but it constantly exists as an external limit to desire, thereby stimulating production.

Braudel provides a huge amount of information about the peculiarities of cooking in China and India, Arab countries and Europe, about the spread of various “stimulating” drinks - wine and beer, coffee and tea, and the customs of their consumption.

As Braudel notes, the home is characterized by traditional permanence. The house is stable in history, has remained almost unchanged for centuries and invariably testifies to the slow pace of development of civilizations and cultures that persistently strive to preserve, retain, and repeat those techniques, materials, and technologies that have stood the test of time.

Cut stone, brick, wood and clay, as well as felt, cloth, reed or straw - these are the main building materials. The houses of poor and rich, rural and urban residents differed; the dwelling of the nomads was different from that of the settled population; in the North they built differently than in the East or South.

Traditional civilizations were distinguished by the constancy of the interior of their houses. For a long time, people did not know chairs; they were replaced by benches, barrels or other seats. There was almost no heating in the houses; the kitchen fireplace and brazier served as the only sources of heat. In the countries of the East, the dwelling inside was filled with numerous

Right there. P. 200.

with pillows, mattresses, carpets, which were spread out in the evening and rolled up in the morning.

In China, houses were distinguished by exquisite furniture made from precious woods; varnish and inlay complemented the decoration. In Africa, clay huts were built, made of poles and reeds, round “like dovecotes,” occasionally covered with lime, without furniture, except for clay pots and baskets, without windows, carefully fumigated every evening with smoke from mosquitoes.

The interior and decoration of a European house also have a long history. The floor on the first floor was made of compacted earth, patterned slabs began to be used in the 16th century, and wooden parquet became common only in the 18th century, and then only in rich houses. The walls were covered with wallpaper fabrics; by the end of the 17th century. paper wallpapers spread, which also symbolized luxury. Only in the 16th century. Transparent glass appeared, and before that, window openings were covered with parchment, cloth, oiled paper, and plaster plates. That is why the window frames were often made of wood.

For centuries, carpenters built houses and furniture: heavy cabinets, huge tables, benches and chairs - everything was stable and heavy. Each house had a wooden chest, fastened with iron strips, spacious and monumental.

The history of furniture makes it possible to reproduce the atmosphere of life, its way of life, the way people communicate; imagine how they ate, slept, played, and worked in this separate world.

What was the owner of this House like, how did he dress, did he follow fashion as an opportunity for renewal? Braudel devotes the chapter “Costumes and Fashion” to these problems. The history of costume is examined in a broad social and cultural context: types of fabrics, their production and distribution, social hierarchy that strictly regulates the appearance of classes, national characteristics of clothing, its seasonal nature, pomp and demonstrative richness of toilets, festive and everyday outfits.

The costume often served as a kind of social mask - a priest, an artisan, a courtier, a peasant. Thanks to this, he became “recognizable” to others. The traditional style of clothing was preserved everywhere; festive attire was passed from parents to children, taken out of chests at a certain time.

The Japanese kimono, Indian sari, and Spanish poncho have undergone almost no changes. Fashion means not only abundance, excess, madness, but also the rhythm of change. Until the beginning of the 12th century. the costume in Europe remained almost unchanged: chitons to the toes for women, to the knees for men. But in general - centuries and centuries of immobility.

Braudel dates the first appearance of fashion to the 14th century, when the rule of change in clothing began to operate, although it operated very unevenly and did not cover all layers, encountering initial resistance. National fashion centers emerge, and gradually its samples are adopted in other countries.

So, in the 16th century. Among the upper classes, a black cloth suit, introduced by the Spaniards, became fashionable. This can be seen in many paintings. It replaced the magnificent costume of the Italian Renaissance. But in the 17th century. The French suit with bright silks and loose fit triumphed. Fashion spread from Paris to all parts of Europe. Unusual dress was often ridiculed. The excessive height of women's hairstyles, manicures, spots on the face, and the diversity of men's suits were symbols of fashion trends. Fashion meant the search for a new language, it was a way to record differences from previous generations. The secrets of fabric production were jealously guarded from competitors. It took centuries for silk to travel from China to Europe; The journey of cotton was no less lengthy; flax and hemp only gradually penetrated into other countries.

Fashion reigned not only in clothing, it covered the style of behavior, manner of writing and speaking, receiving guests and daily routine, caring for the body, face, and hair. Appearance made it possible to judge the era, social status, professional occupations, age and gender, material wealth, tastes and nationality.

** These are the realities of material life. Food, drinks, housing, clothing, fashion - this is the reality in which a person lives every day. It constitutes the language of culture, the combination of “things and words,” symbols and meanings that a person owns, becoming their “captive.”

Within individual societies, these things and languages ​​constitute a whole. Civilizations are strange assemblages of material values, symbols, illusions, fads and intellectual constructs.

Technical inventions

Closely interacting with the lower “floor” of everyday life is an equally vast layer of technical inventions, energy sources, means of transportation, and forms of monetary exchange. Braudel devotes subsequent chapters to this.

Mechanical means and instruments of the material life of society have existed for a long time. Inventions appeared, but very slowly conquered the world and acquired universal significance. Arabic numerals, gunpowder, compass, paper, silk, and printing were not approved at a gallop; it took considerable time for them to be accepted. Every invention had to wait years or even centuries to enter or be introduced into real life.

> "F. Braudel analyzes the historical process of the movement of three great innovations, sometimes called technical revolutions. These include: 1) invention of gunpowder; 2) typography; 3) swimming in the open ocean.

It is difficult to compare these technical achievements with each other - the first contributed to the improvement of artillery and was a weapon of war; the second led to the spread of enlightenment and education; third, it changed the sea routes of the world and made cultural contacts real. Let us dwell in more detail on the importance of printing.

Paper came to Europe from China through the Muslim countries of the East. The first paper mills began operating in Spain in the 12th century. But European paper production really began to develop in Italy at the beginning of the 14th century. Old linen was used as raw material, and the profession of rag picker became very popular. China knew printing from the 9th century, Japan - from the 11th century. It was carried out from wooden boards, each of which corresponded to one page. This was an extremely long process.

Then ceramic type was invented, which was attached to a metal mold with wax. Then the letters were cast from tin, but they quickly wore out. At the beginning of the 14th century. movable wooden type was used. Only from the middle of the 15th century. typesetting and movable type appeared, invented by Gutenberg, a master from the city of Mainz in Germany. This font remained almost unchanged until the 18th century. The invention quickly spread - by 1500, 236 European cities had their own printing houses, in the 16th century. About 140-200 thousand books were published.

The ancient handwritten book was gradually replaced by the printed book. With the distribution of books, the possibilities of scientific contacts have significantly expanded and the level of education has increased. Thus, technical inventions had a significant impact on spiritual life.

Braudel analyzes in detail the technical innovations that enabled long voyages and great geographical discoveries, successes in shipbuilding and trade expeditions.

However, ground transport, as Braudel notes, seemed to be “stricken by paralysis.” Everything about it remained the same: poor road construction, constant routes, low speeds, archaic vehicles. The poet Paul Valéry said that “Napoleon walked as slowly as Julius Caesar.”

In Europe, carriages appeared at the end of the 16th century, postal stagecoaches only in the 17th century, only a narrow strip was paved on the main roads and it was difficult for two carriages to pass each other.

The technical development of transport slowly accelerated. Ultimately, at one point or another, everything begins to depend on technological advances.

Money and financial settlements

Braudel includes the monetary system in the material culture of society, calling it an “ancient technical means”, an object of desire and interest of people. Monetary circulation appears as an instrument, structure and deep regularity of any slightly advanced system of exchanges. Money is layered on all economic and social relations.

This is a “wonderful indicator” that allows one to judge all the activities of people, down to the most modest phenomena of their lives. Species are introduced into everyday life in thousands of ways: rents and loans, duties and taxes, market prices and wages - the networks are spread everywhere.

Money is the “blood of the social organism”; it helps the circulation of goods, accumulates capital, and testifies to poverty and wealth. Monetary systems are diverse and seem mysterious. These are unique “languages” of culture and civilization, calling for knowledge and dialogue. Money is the standard in the implementation of the exchange of goods.

Already in ancient times, “primitive” money existed in different countries. It could be salt, cotton fabric, copper brass

lety, beads, golden sand by weight, corals and precious stones, shells, animals, birds, dried fish - you can’t count it all. Such archaic forms of exchange persist for a long time under the thin “skin” of developed monetary systems and, during crises or changes in the economy, are again revived in the form of “barter transactions” and natural exchange.

Metal money, gold, silver, and copper were built on top of these primitive forms. Each of these types had its own coverage area - for large, medium and small transactions and settlements. Coins accelerated monetary circulation, accumulated in the form of valuables, flowed in a stream to different countries, rose in price and fell, and changed their owners.

Then payment orders, obligations, receipts, loans, and bills began to participate in the exchange.

Over the centuries, the monetary system gradually became more complex: the more economically developed a country became, the more diverse its monetary and credit instruments were, stimulating production and consumption. Money is not only a means of economic exchange, it has socio-cultural value, creating images of stinginess and wastefulness , wealth and poverty, defining the limits of the possible and the impossible.

The city as the center of civilization

In the final chapter of Volume I, Braudel examines the city as the center and embodiment of civilization with all its positive and negative features and consequences. Cities are like electrical transformers: they increase voltage, speed up exchanges, they constantly change people's lives.

Braudel analyzes a number of ways to classify cities according to various criteria: the political approach identifies capitals, fortresses, and administrative centers; economic - ports, caravan trade centers, trading cities, industrial cities, financial centers. The social approach presents a list of cities - rentiers, church, princely residences, craft centers. This classification can be continued according to cultural, religious, scientific and other criteria.

There are open cities, connected to the immediate rural environment, or closed cities, closed within their borders. Depending on the situation, the pace of development of cities, the prevailing types of occupations and even their fate changed.

The ancient polis, Greek or Roman, was an open system. From the outskirts, people gathered in the square to resolve common affairs, and took refuge in it in case of danger.

The medieval city was a closed and self-sufficient unit. Walking beyond its fortress walls is like crossing a state border. Among the citizens there were two categories; The first included “partials,” who needed to live at least 15 years in the city to become a citizen. The second category were “full-fledged”, having at least 25 years of permanent residence. They were privileged, a minority, “a small town within a town.”

In 16th-century Marseille, to obtain citizenship one had to have “ten years of permanent residence, own real estate, and marry a city girl.” In these cities, dynasties of craft and merchant nobility - cloth makers, grocers, furriers, hosiery makers - had great power.

Cities under the tutelage of the central government are royal residences and centers of the Catholic Church. They owned the money, the distribution of privileges and honors.

Capitals are a special type of city: they grew rapidly economically, became populous, created a powerful national market, attracted craftsmen and artists for decoration, and were famous for the contrasts of wealth and poverty.

Describing the life and everyday life of many large cities of the world, Braudel devotes a special section to St. Petersburg in 1790, citing various information from the guidebook of I. G. Georgi, who lived in the era of Catherine II.

St. Petersburg was founded by Peter I in 1703. But the chosen location was extremely inconvenient for development. It took an unbending will for a city to arise on marshy lands and numerous islands. Alarming water levels and floods created a constant threat. Cannon shots, white flags during the day, lit lanterns, and continuous ringing of bells complemented the city's appearance. The city had to rise above mortal danger. Therefore, stone foundations, embankments reinforced with granite, specially dug canals, and paved streets were necessary.

It was a colossal and very expensive job. St. Petersburg was a busy construction site. Along the Neva were barges loaded with lime, stone, granite, alloy

in the forest. The stock exchange and customs office, Nevsky Plyos turned into a busy port by the sea. The Neva was the main highway of the city. She provided drinking water that was impeccable; In winter it turned into a sleigh path and a place for folk festivals. There was even a special profession of “ice sawers” ​​to supply cellars located on the first floors of houses.

In 1789, almost 218 thousand people lived in St. Petersburg, with twice as many men as women. It was a city of court aristocracy, army youth, and service people. Orthodox churches coexisted with Protestant and Catholic churches, and houses of prayer for schismatics. You cannot find another city in the world where every resident speaks so many languages. Even among the lowest-ranking servants there were not those who did not speak not only Russian, but also German and Finnish, and among those who had received some kind of education, there were often those who spoke eight or nine languages . Sometimes one of these. a rather amusing mixture of languages ​​was created - such was the capital of St. Petersburg in the 18th century.

Big cities are a kind of test showing the level of development of culture and civilization. They create a modern state, but they themselves are the result of the economic and social development of society. In them, the world of the old order gradually or accelerated changed, and a new type of city dweller emerged, with a special character and lifestyle. Braudel notes that a St. Petersburg resident has the tastes of a metropolitan resident, formed in all respects in the image and likeness of the tastes of the court. The latter set the tone with his requests, festivities, which were to the same extent universal celebrations, with magnificent illumination on the Admiralty building, on official buildings, on rich houses.

Not only a national character is characteristic of a person, but the city also introduces special features into his mentality, giving originality to the manner of communication, the way of perceiving the world, the style of speech, thereby increasing the real diversity and uniqueness of the individual.

Concluding the review of the subjects that were the subject of Braudel’s analysis, it is necessary to emphasize that the concept of material culture and civilization is modern, because the problems of the 20th century are constantly felt in it: the combination of inertia and acceleration, the duration of change, the combination of archaic forms and innovative achievements. The choice of alternative development paths increases human responsibility for the fate of culture and civilization.

The variety of forms of material culture makes it possible to build a model (or even a “grammar”) of the economic life of society.

Braudel repeatedly returns to the image of the House. If the first floor is still a solid, traditional foundation, then two floors rise above it. The upper “floors” rest on the lower ones, forming the thickest layer within one social reality. It must be borne in mind that contact between “floors” materializes in a thousand inconspicuous points: markets, shops, fairs, warehouses, shops, wholesale and retail trade - their contact, rivalry and competition are revealed everywhere. On the top “floor” - stock exchange operations, bank transactions - the “shadow zone” of powerful capital begins.