Political economists
Adam Smith gets a shout out in this book, alongside a list of other political economists and economic theorists. Polanyi intentionally blurs the line between political theory and economic theory, saying that to ignore that politicians have economic interests is absurd. He sees the realms of political and economic life as intermingled, so that capitalist theorists are both economic thinkers and politicians, including Adam Smith.
Land owners
In the book, there is a reference to an important development in English law, the Speenhamland laws. Polanyi mentions the way that land owners have grown to become a powerful group because of the ways that renting effected the economy. Now, owning land is something that most working class people can't afford, perhaps their whole lives, so they pay hefty sums to land owners for the right to exist and work.
Renting workers
These renting workers are exploited of their time by working for companies that often make exorbitant profits, only to pay their workers a meager salary, which they spend to pay land owners for rent. They rent property which makes the likelihood of owning land very unlikely, because rent is pretty expensive—and land is even more expensive. Therefore, the working class is kept from social mobility because the economy is designed to keep them paying rent.
Ancient man
Before these instabilities and imbalances in the economy, there were ancient civilizations that Polanyi discusses. He says that in places like Egypt, Greece, Babylon, and ancient China, there were obvious differences in their ways of life. For instance, the idea of currency was different; there were currencies in gold and silver, but these were valued as commodities, and most trade was still done in commodity. Instead of monetary exchange, ancient man was more likely to trade real goods for other real goods.
