Weber saw speculation as socially constructive, building solidarity among traders

Evidence

Where Marx lays bare the corrosive sociality bred by capital’s reifying imagination, Weber is more interested in the force of that imagination to unite markets and publics under the aegis of the iron cage. This view also reflects a crucial departure from the Marxist analysis of speculation in the reproduction of capitalism. Weber’s emphasis is placed on speculation’s socially constructive (rather than destructive) role in upkeeping reciprocal networks of trading interdependencies, mutual responsibilities, and even solidarity. It is these webs of reciprocal obligation between speculators that led to the complex social fabric of early finance capitalism. As Weber writes in an evocative passage of his magnum opus Economy and Society, markets are social because market participants are guided by “the potential action of real or imaginary competitors” (1978, 636). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 143

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘reputation and reciprocity among traders’ theme from the law-merchant and diamond-bourse readings. — connects to: Weber saw the speculator as a charismatic socially embedded figure beyond rational calculation — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 226
• QUESTION: Worth checking whether Komporozos-Athanasiou eventually turns to ‘imaginary competitors’ as a seed of the speculative subject — it seems central to his homo speculans definition.