Capitalism and Slavery -Eric Williams

 

ISBN: 9976-01-241-548616-5

Verdict: 👍👍 👍 👍

 

Two of my favourite topics - History and Economics provide the context for this exceptional book and hence my 4 thumbs up 🏆

This is one of those rare books one must read to fully understand the creation  of wealth during British Empire period and what laid the economic  foundation for many organisations that exists today.

This book was based on Eric’s doctoral dissertation submitted to the Oxford University in 1938! Hence well researched and fact based, which due to the nature of the time would have undergone strict scrutiny.

This book does not seek to discuss the slave (the person)  but slavery (the business model) and the underlying economic model which is the premise used to justify some disgusting actions. This book discusses the ‘economic’ model and presents interesting facts, the kind of facts that really should be taught on all history courses. 

I learnt a lot reading this book about the triangular trade between England, Africa and the Caribbean which included how support industries also flourished i.e., chain makers, carpenters and even insurance companies

•  “Lloyds like other insurance companies insured slaves and slave ships” (p98)
•  “The disgusting thing, which shocked me, was that “The Church also supported the slave trade”. (p38)

The problem was for the new colonies – the European, Indian and in some cases the Chinese workers just were not up to the hard manual labour required in the new world- 

•  “The Spaniards discovered that one Negro was worth four Indians” (p6) and “by 1680 they had already had positive evidence.in Barbados, that the African was satisfying the necessities of production better than the European” (p13) 
• Writes Professor Phillips - “it was the survival of the fittest. Both Indians slavery and white servitude were to go down before the black man’s superior endurance” (p17)

It’s interesting to read about the ‘abolitionist’ who only sprung to the cry of emancipation when the business mode was disrupted by Cuban, Brazilian and French sugar, and the independence of the United States from Britain when 

•            “Jamaica preferred ‘Yankee Doodle’ to ‘God save the Queen’ “(p137)

For me the conclusion summed the book up nicely and a great end...

“Men pursuing their interest, are rarely aware of the ultimate results of their activity. The commercial capitalism of the eighteenth century developed the wealth of Europe by means of slavery and monopoly” (p199)