‘We Earn Only for You’: Peasants and ‘Real’ Markets in Northern Pakistan

Abstract

This article analyses the realisation of the exchange-value of wheat in ‘real’ markets in northern Pakistan. Three ‘real’ markets are investigated: land, fertilizer and output. It is found that members of the dominant classes—landlords, industrial capital and merchant capital—are able to ‘regulate’ wheat production and processing markets. However, the members of the peasant classes require access to such markets in order to acquire necessary use-values that they do not themselves produce. As a consequence, the members of the peasant classes must deal with their structural subordination in ‘real’ markets.