The Embedded Market · Chapter Three

Where Embeddedness Goes Wrong

Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306

Chapter Three of The Embedded Market: Exit, Voice and the Art of Holding a Market Well.

Abstract

In 1832 the British government appointed a Royal Commission to inquire into the Poor Laws, the parish system that had relieved the poor of England for more than two centuries. Its report, published in 1834, was among the most influential documents of the century. It described a countryside demoralised by relief: labourers paid from the rates whatever their wages, employers cutting pay because the parish would make up the difference, families multiplying on public money. The report's diagnosis produced the New Poor Law of 1834 and the workhouse. Karl Polanyi built a chapter of The Great Transformation on this history. In his account, the allowance system that magistrates in Berkshire introduced at Speenhamland in 1795 prevented a free market in labour from forming for a generation.

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). Where Embeddedness Goes Wrong. In The Embedded Market. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989478

@incollection{santaanna2026the3,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {Where Embeddedness Goes Wrong},
  booktitle = {The Embedded Market},
  chapter   = {3},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989478},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/the-embedded-market/03-where-embeddedness-goes-wrong/}
}

References

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Every chapter of The Embedded Market

  1. Chapter OneThe Sound a Market Makesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989475
  2. Chapter TwoThe Market Was Always Inside Somethingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989476
  3. Chapter ThreeWhere Embeddedness Goes Wrongdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989478
  4. Chapter FourThe Membrane That Listensdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989479
  5. Chapter FiveTwo Carmakers and Their Suppliersdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989487
  6. Chapter SixThe Cord at Fremontdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989488
  7. Chapter SevenThe Fire at Kariyadoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989489
  8. Chapter EightThe Complaints Nobody Readdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989490
  9. Chapter NineThirteen Weeks: A Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989495
  10. Chapter TenCounting What Speaksdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989496
  11. Chapter ElevenThe Hard Conversationsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989497
  12. Chapter TwelveThe Kitchen Tabledoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989498
  13. Chapter ThirteenHolding the Market Welldoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989499
  14. Chapter FourteenThe Listening Edgedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989500
  15. Chapter FifteenThe Workbookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989501

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The licence

Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.