Of course Karl Marx held that slavery and colonialism were integral to 
capitalism from its origin . Brenner was wrong : 

“ The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and 
entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest 
and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the 
commercial hunting of black-skins, signalised the rosy dawn of the era of 
capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief momenta of 
primitive accumulation. On their heels treads the commercial war of the 
European nations, with the globe for a theatre. It begins with the revolt of 
the Netherlands from Spain, assumes giant dimensions in England’s Anti-Jacobin 
War, and is still going on in the opium wars against China, &c.
The different momenta of primitive accumulation distribute themselves now, more 
or less in chronological order, particularly over Spain, Portugal, Holland, 
France, and England. In England at the end of the 17th century, they arrive at 
a systematical combination, embracing the colonies, the national debt, the 
modern mode of taxation, and the protectionist system. These methods depend in 
part on brute force, e.g., the colonial system. But, they all employ the power 
of the State, the concentrated and organised force of society, to hasten, 
hot-house fashion, the process of transformation of the feudal mode of 
production into the capitalist mode, and to shorten the transition. Force is 
the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one. It is itself an 
economic power.”

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm




-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#5389): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/5389
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/79572310/21656
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy 
[[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Reply via email to