It is hard to separate the very idea of capitalism
in any of its forms from the emergence of colonialism and imperialism in what
are now the lesser developed countries.
To really think about this, it goes back to Smith.
In looking at the output of the pin factory, he celebrates the division of
labor in which “This great increase of the quantity of work which, in
consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of
performing, is owing to three different circumstances; first, to the increase
of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of the time
which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and
lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and
abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.” (Wealth of Nations,
Book 1, Chapter 1). The Smithian framework that he looks at is a right and just
celebration of the increase in output. But there is a potential problem there
where there is so much history interwoven in the celebration of the increase in
output. It makes me think of Ellen Wood’s description of capitalism not as an
inevitable, teleological continuation of the path of history, but instead as a
separate thing that happened in one small corner of the world. Once can easily
imagine a million small capitalisms developing but then dying in their crib. It
was not until increased output was able to be a twin with the military might of
the British Navy that these pins would be able to go everywhere. If you just
had the output and tried to market it in the single nation, the market for pins
would soon be saturated unless you were able to grow the market. You can do
that internally, by making pins more fashionable, and making the output less
durable, but you can also do that by looking outside your borders, in which you
take your innovation and you undercut local producers in your market. Wealth
from your near abroad and is funneled to the owners of capital.
Markets get exhausted, and your near abroad seeks to
emulate you. You must look further afield for potential markets. At the same
time, your own resources are limited. Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham can
become the workshops to the world, but they are hungry. They need cotton from
the subcontinent and Egypt and the American south. They need rubber from the
south pacific. How best to proceed? Do you buy the goods you need on the open
market from local producers, or is there a better, cheaper way? I read a story
recently about the South Pacific Company was always in need of rope for its
ships. Instead of buying from the local producers, they created concessions on
the islands, and they bought from the companies that they controlled, and
formerly free entrepreneurs became workmen, with start and end times and wages
set not by their need and their clocks, but by the company.
Colonialism and imperialism are just the
capitalistic division of labor writ large, why Lenin called it the highest
stage of capitalism. The colonial subjects were deliberately kept down so that
they could be cheap labor for the developed west and a cheap source of
resources, while being a captive market for the colonial power. This deliberate
decision was reinforced up until the point it was no longer in the best
financial interests of the parasite colonializer to be directly involved in the
affairs of the less developed world (though they often still try to exert their
influence). The legacy of colonialism is that capitalism is entrenched
throughout the world, but there are certain winners and losers, of whom most
did nothing to earn their relative well-being. I sit in my home and enjoy all
creature comforts, while someone with equal mental and physical endowments born
elsewhere may struggle to survive because the East India Company was the boss
of the county for years and the infrastructure and institutions development was
deliberately slowed.
Works
Cited
Baddeley, M. (2006) Convergence or Divergence? The Impacts of Globalisation on Growth
and Inequality in Less Developed Countries, International Review of Applied
Economics, 20:3, 391-410, DOI: 10.1080/02692170600736250
Cypher, J. M. (2014). The process of economic development.
London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Fessenden, M. (2015, February 24). See
Shipping Traffic Move Through Straits Around the World. Retrieved from
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-shipping-traffic-move-through-straits-around-world-180954399/
Lenin, V. (n.d.). Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/
Smith, A. (2003). The
wealth of nations. New York, NY: Bantam Classic.
Wood, E. M. (2017). The
origin of capitalism: A longer view. London: Verso.
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