essay main points Flashcards
What was the relationship between Atlantic slavery and the rise of capitalism?
-Economics return
- atlantic slave trade generated approximately 10% returns, while plantations yielded about 6-8% returns. These profits contributed to capital accumulation in Europe, particularly in England and the Netherlands.
- wiliam thesis: Slave trade super-profits funded the Industrial Revolution
-Consumer culture
- sugar, chocolate, cotton
-Property systems
- john locke labor theory
Thesis: Atlantic slavery was instrumental to the rise of capitalism through its generation of substantial economic returns (10% from the slave trade, 6-8% from plantations) that fueled capital accumulation in Europe, while simultaneously creating a modern consumer culture centered around commodities like sugar, tobacco, and cotton that transformed European labor patterns and household structures, all legitimized by property theories like Locke’s that provided philosophical justification for both private property and the commodification of human beings.
Why did capitalism spread so successfully around the world?
-Through systemic transformation of property relations
-Enclosure movement in Britain created the template for converting communal land into private property (justified by Locke’s labor theory
-Idea exported globally thru imperial power that establish new property systems
— New spain’s encomiendas
—New england’s charter companies
— India’s zamindar system
Thesis: Capitalism spread successfully around the world through the systematic transformation of property relations, where the Enclosure Movement in Britain (starting 1604) created the template for converting communal land into private property—a process legitimized by Locke’s labor theory and then exported globally through imperial power that established diverse property systems from New Spain’s encomiendas to New England’s charter companies, India’s Zamindar system, and China’s early private land markets.
Choose any primary source we have read so far in this class and explain its relevance and significance to the history of political economy
Colombus
-Beginning of maritime expansion that led to establishment of the first global economy (manila)
-Spanish peso became world’s first global currency
- Encomieda system and shaped property relations
Theis: Columbus’s letter marks the beginning of European maritime expansion that ultimately led to the establishment of the first truly global economy through Manila (1577) and the Spanish peso becoming the world’s first global currency, while also revealing the early commodification of indigenous peoples and resources with his explicit promise of “as much gold as they have need of” and “as many heathen slaves as their majesties may choose to demand” - a process that would evolve into the encomienda system and shape colonial property relations for centuries
What was the most important change in global political economy before the Industrial Revolution?
- First global PE (Manila)
- Intercontinetial trade networks
- Spanish Peso first global currency connecting several spheres (Asia, America, Europe)
Thesis: The most important change in global political economy before the Industrial Revolution was the establishment of the first truly global economy through Manila (founded 1577), which created unprecedented intercontinental trade networks and allowed the Spanish peso to become the world’s first global currency, fundamentally reorganizing economic power and connecting previously separate commercial spheres across Asia, the Americas, and Europe.
