7
Oriental Despotism
K. Wittfogel
The characteristics of hydraulic economy are many, but three are paramount.
Hydraulic agriculture involves a specific type of division of labour. It intensifies
cultivation. And it necessitates cooperation on a large scale. The third characteris-
tic has been described by a number of students of Oriental farming. The second
has been frequently noted, but rarely analysed. The first has been given practically
no attention. This neglect is particularly unfortunate, since the hydraulic patterns
of organization and operation have decisively affected the managerial role of the
hydraulic state.
Economists generally consider the division of labour and cooperation key pre-
requisites of modern industry, but they find them almost completely lacking in
farming.^1 Their claim reflects the conditions of Western rainfall agriculture. For
this type of agriculture it is indeed by and large correct.
However, the economists do not as a rule so limit themselves. Speaking of agri-
culture without any geographical or institutional qualification, they give the impres-
sion that their thesis, being universally valid, applies to hydraulic as well as to
hydroagriculture and rainfall farming. Comparative examination of the facts quickly
discloses the fallacy of this contention.
A. Division of Labour in Hydraulic Agriculture
- Preparatory and protective operations separated from
farming proper
What is true for modern industry – that production proper depends on a variety
of preparatory and protective operations^2 – has been true for hydraulic agriculture
since its beginnings. The peculiarity of the preparatory and protective hydraulic
operations is an essential aspect of the peculiarity of hydraulic agriculture.
Reprinted from Wittfogel K. 1957. Oriental Despotism. Yale University Press, New Haven, Chapter 2,
pp22–48.