David, your question was Spain vs. England as the birthplace of
capitalism. Piracy affects both, one positively and one negatively.
I certainly would not say that piracy was either a necessary or a
sufficient explanation -- only an important one to consider, but I do hope
that you enjoy Disneyland.
On Thu, May 24, 2001 at 03:04:07PM -0700, David Shemano wrote:
> Michael Perelman wrote:
>
>
> <<<Keynes, Treatise on Money
>
> 139: "The booty brought back by Drake in the Golden Hind may fairly be
> considered
> the fountain and origin of British foreign investment. Elizabeth paid off
> out of
> the proceeds the whole of her foreign debt and invested a part of the
> balance
> (about �42,000) in the Levant Company; largely out of the profits of the
> Levant
> Company there was formed the East India Company, the profits of which during
> the
> seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the main foundation of England's
> foreign
> connections; and so on.>>>
>
> and Ian Murray wrote:
>
> <<"England gained naval superiority over Spain largely through the
> action of the Elizabethan Sea Dogs. These private adventurers, in
> collusion with the English Crown, engaged in all sorts of violent
> activities directed against Spain in the New World. Besides plundering
> Spanish Ships and settlements, such Sea Dogs as Drake, Cavendish,
> Clifford and Raleigh engaged in what might be termed state-sponsored
> terrorism. For example, Drake extorted large ransoms from two Spanish
> colonial cities by threatening to burn them to the ground. He actually
> destroyed three other cities. His sack of Peru netted him and his
> backers 2.5 million Lpounds[money] and repaid his backers, including
> Elizabeth 47 to 1. Cumberland, leading a purely private expedition,
> captured Puerto Rico in 1598. Other Sea Dogs behaved similarly,
> plundering destroying and extorting their way to fame and fortune in
> England and sharing their loot with the English Crown. Drake and
> Raleigh, of course, were knighted for their achievements." [Janice
> Thompson, Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns, Princeton U Press,
> 1994]>>
>
> -----------------------------
>
> The next time I am at Disneyland and ride the "Pirates of the Caribbean," I
> will soak back and appreciate for the first time the Marxist-historical
> implications.
>
> However, is the argument that New World piracy was a "but for" cause of
> English industrial development? IOW, if there were no pirates, England
> would not have developed "capitalism?"
>
>
> David Shemano
>
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
