http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/west-got-rich-modern-capitalism-born/
Modern capitalism was born because of the fruits of slavery. It was the key industry of the United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it transformed the world economy over the next one hundred years. The author credits the industrial revolution, the spread of capitalism, and the Great Divergence to the boom of cotton. It created vast empires that pushed capitalism around the world and begin global capitalism, as we study it today.
Europe's ability to industrialize depended upon their ability to control monocultural production of cotton in the Western Hemisphere. This of course fueled the trade of slaves and perpetuated a dependent relationship between colonizers and colonies. The rise of industrial power in Europe also drove deindustrialization in other parts of the world as markets shifted west. "We do not know if Europe and North America could have grown rich without slavery, but we do know that industrial capitalism and the Great Divergence in fact emerged from the violent caldron of slavery, colonialism, and the expropriation of land."
The article goes on to say that slavery was the most crucial labor regime to the creation of capitalism and it did not die out because of being unprofitable in a modern economy, but because of violent struggle. The legacy of slavery is still felt today in the inequality and instability of the modern, global economy.
2 comments:
Hannah, this is a powerful article. I never have analyzed the impact of the slave trade on the growth of capitalism. Southern cities, like Charleston, SC, were fueled by the slave trade. The legacy of inequality is definitely due to slave trade and the lack of laws during the founding of the United States. Do you believe that capitalist markets would be the same today without slave trade? I am inclined to believe that it would be, but social dynamics would be vastly different.
Culture obviously could not be the same without the legacy of slavery, but I believe its also true for capitalist markets. The capital generated by manufacturers of cotton products fueled industrialization and colonizers were able to shift all production to the markets where it was most profitable creating booms in some regions and deindustrialization in others that has still not be overcome even today.
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