Sunday, August 20, 2017

Was hard-work of the West helped to create her wealth, or the plundered wealth from the Colonies?



Modern world seems  totally unaware of, or even ignorant of the foundation-roots of capitalism: how did such huge surplus capital got accumulated in Europe and America that made industrial revolution possible ? Was that the fruit of man’s free enterprise and liberal freedom ? The clear answer is a firm NO ! That huge capital accumulation was the result of plain and atrocious PLUNDER of European nations upon the new world colonies like India, Africa and the native America !


Irfan Habib’s paper ‘ Capitalism in history’
 describes the horror of this story as follows:

Three major components of colonial exploitation from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century must be distinguished: the Spanish mining of silver with forced labour in the Americas; the forcible transfer of millions of Africans as slaves across the Atlantic; and the levying of tribute on Asian shipping and land. England came in time to be the major beneficiary from all these three practically simultaneous processes of forcible subjugation and destruction of non-European economies.

Between 1500 and 1650 nearly 112.5metric tons of silver were annually transported into Spain through official channels. E.J. Hamilton, who gave this estimate, speculated about its influence on prices in Europe—the so-called price revolution—and the redistributive consequences of such inflation, benefiting mainly the employers and the merchants, at the cost of wage-labourers and custom-bound rentiers. This, he thought, generated capital in Western Europe that could ultimately ignite the industrial-revolution. It must be remembered that the crucial link here is not between the rise of capitalism and some incidental monetary process, but between it and the reckless exploitation of the Amerindian peoples, who because of deficiencies in their instruments of war, were absolutely helpless victims of their rapacious conquerors.

There is yet another aspect of silver influx which Hamilton and his critics do not consider. As silver stocks rose in Western Europe, and silver prices in terms of gold plummeted year after year. Western Europe gained a continuous advantage over the rest of the world in the transactions of trade. By 1600 Western Europe exported possibly 100 tons of silver annually; during the seventeenth, the annual average rose to 150-160 tons. There was a wholesale diversion of Asian exports of manufactures, especially textiles, and drugs and spices from interregional traditional commerce to Western Europe in return for bullion. The new trade was largely controlled by European merchant-capital, spearheaded by the Dutch and English East India Companies; and its continuous expansion from silver exports greatly enlarged the size of European commercial capital.

Carl Marx adds his version of the said story  in his ‘Das Capital’ : "The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the indigenous population of that continent, the beginnings of the conquest and plunder of India, and the conversion of Africa into a preserve for the commercial hunting of black-skins, are all things which characterize the dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief moments of primitive accumulation’

'The Guardian' Article ( August 2005)  by Richard Drayton gives the finishing touch to the story: See link: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/aug/20/past.hearafrica05)

"For the colonial Americas were more Africa's creation than Europe's: before 1800, far more Africans than Europeans crossed the Atlantic. New World slaves were vital too, strangely enough, for European trade in the east. For merchants needed precious metals to buy Asian luxuries, returning home with profits in the form of textiles; only through exchanging these cloths in Africa for slaves to be sold in the New World could Europe obtain new gold and silver to keep the system moving. East Indian companies led ultimately to Europe's domination of Asia and its 19th-century humiliation of China.
Africa not only underpinned Europe's earlier development. Its palm oil, petroleum, copper, chromium, platinum and in particular gold were and are crucial to the later world economy"

Please share another narrative by Erik Flanagan, from link: http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/flanagan.html ( The Dream Library, article 'Black struggle in Colonization')

At the time of the Spanish infiltration, the island of Jamaica was inhabited by hundreds of native people known as the Arawak Indians. These people were gentle and peaceful people and were virtually unprepared for the onslaught by the Spanish settlers. Explorers set out across the island in search of gold and jewels, which proved no avail, but did realize the profit that could be made from the natives as free workers for them. Soon almost all of the Arawaks were under the blanket of slavery with no defense against the powerful white oppressors. Columbus observed a natural landscape with a tone of awe and wonderment, a land of unmatchable beauty. The Arawaks, however, provided a tone that contrasted powerfully and give a real account of the passions of these white men.

" Vast numbers died as a result and thousands more committed suicide by hanging themselves or drinking poisonous cassava juice to escape from their bondage. Mothers are said to have murdered their children rather then let them grow up and suffer the slavery they had known." (Floyd, 1979, p. 31)
The Spanish settlers of the time used every ounce of available resource (the Arawaks) that they could get their hands upon for their own profit. Although this time in European history is noted for it's vast leaps in exploration and prosperity, this quote explains the means by which they achieved their goals. This exploitation of the native people of Jamaica by the white man displays the framework that was so deeply grained in to the minds of the future white rulers that effected the treatment of Blacks. By the mid seventeenth century there was not a drop of pure Arawak blood left on the island of Jamaica (Carley, 1963, p. 23). African slaves were brought in by the Spanish as laborers over the years, but the majority came with the new British rule over Jamaica."

Though we can not decry 'colonization' at this stage, as it was simply another major event of the past that shaped the destiny of mankind, a proper study can help us to recheck false claims; that it was pure hard-work that helped the West to amass her present day huge wealth and quality of life! The wealth she plundered from colonies, and the labor-force from these colonies she had forcibly employed to create such wealth had definitely played a major role.

Authored by: Abraham J. Palakudy

He is a researcher and seeker of knowledge, especially in fields like Mind&Reason, self&world, metaphysics, Spirituality, men&societies, and finally Democracy and general polity.

Twitter: Voice of Philosophy@jopan1

His profile and other blog-posts: https://www.blogger.com/profile/14249415589712707293