Re:Capitalism and Slavery
by dragonwriter on Thursday May 07, 2015 @02:38PM
(#9507262)
> I'm confused by the argument made here. An economic system fairly different from the modern world, which was not called capitalism at the time ("capitalism" is mainly an 1880's+ idea), used slaves. Slavery was abolished and later that system evolved into capitalism.
Capitalism was a term coined in the late 19th Century to refer to the post-feudal economic system that developed through several centuries and was in full swing by the mid-19th century, and overlapped considerably with the use of chattel slavery.
While its critics hadn't yet called it "capitalism", the system which they did get around to calling "capitalism" did not evolve only after the abolition of slavery as you claim.
Re:Capitalism and Slavery
by yummyfajitas on Thursday May 07, 2015 @02:46PM
(#9507329)
I don't dispute that old-school market economies involved the use of slavery. I just don't know what the point of the article is, beyond perhaps attempting to affiliate "slavery" and "capitalist" moods in our mind.
I'm not sure what the conclusion is. The author seems to think someone forgot about slavery, though it's unclear who.
As a counterpoint to the mood affiliation, I'll just remind everyone here that the term "dismal science" was coined by Thomas Carlyle, who favored slavery rather than "find[ing] the secret of this Universe in 'supply and demand,' and reducing the duty of human governors to that of letting men alone". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dismal_science