French long lots are "feudal" and square-grids are
"capitalistic"? Give me a break.
The French long lots simply guarantee that everybody
has access to the main transportation route, which was
rivers in French North America. The idea is that people
would be trading. Pretty capitalistic.
Barkeley,
Hold on. Trading doesn't equal capitalism. For a long time, people traded
without a capitalist market. It's worth repeating that the market (trade)
used to be a part of society instead of the opposite relationship that holds
today. As Ellen Meiksins Wood and others (Polyani, for one) point out,
capitalist trade is unique, with specific social relations between owners
and producers tethered to a market that commodifies land and labor in the
drive to accumulate capital.
Regards,
Seth Sandronsky
The origin of the square grid was Roman urban
planning (also seen independently in the layout of
Beijing). It was Thomas Jefferson who imposed the
square grid in the Northwest Territories Ordinance drawing
on the classical model. Capitalistic? Not any more
particularly than the French long lots.
Barkley Rosser
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