I’m reading an intro to Afro-American studies book in preparation for a book that I’m about to write. In one paragraph is written:
Chapter 3
“Thus we see the close connection between the slave trade and the development of capitalism in Europe. Capitalism represents an increased use of machinery and increased demanded [sic] for more raw materials…”
The first thing that comes to my mind is that it seems like the authors are implying that industry makes trade. Am I interpreting this correctly? Even more important for me, the last sentence looks like a big fallacy. Never in MES did I see capitalism defined in this manner. I’d like to hear some insights into these two sentences. The book that I’m reading is here → http://eblackstudies.org/intro/contents.htm. This book is anti-capitalist (it says so), just so you know, and what I want to refute in my book.
Also, if anyone knows of any good books concerning African American studies that would help me (in regards to economics), I’d appreciate it. Thank you.
Capitalism actually destroyed the slave trades. It was the rising wealth of Manchester capitalists that bankrolled the abolitionists in Great Britain, which eventually put an end to the global trade in slave.
In fact there was such an animosity between the slave owners and the capitalists that the British parliaments held hearings where the conservatives attempted to demonstrate that workers in factories were worse off than their own slaves over in the colonies. This was eventually picked up by Marx and Engels later in the 19th century to denounce capitalism.
So because Capitalism is…capital…intensive…we need to steal individual’s personal bodies to undergo…capital intensive industry? The author fails into the same delusion that almost every socialist from Marx on, and perhaps even before Marx, falls into and that is a confusion between mercantilism and capitalism.