The Taming of Economic Aristocracies

Abstract

Civilising processes were, and are, bound up with the state. The state functions as a pacifying force in the conflicts of all those who take part in the economic process; it takes over the functions of intervening in conflicts and developing institutions of conflict resolution. In the course of one or two generations, we can observe the internalisation of the new forms of conflict behaviour by all the economic groups that are involved. Collective events leave their trace in the new roles of all participants, of the state and the attitudes of its officials, and also in the memory and behaviour of the groups involved insofar as they learn to solve their conflicts through the new institutions that were outcome of the prior conflicts. The examples that I use here are taken from the two different economic cultures, and they show that each of the two cultures has its own way of civilising its economic aristocracies.