\author{Jean Ziegler, 1998 \and Translated by Based BBOC Anon \and Typeset by \LaTeX\,Anon}
@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ For communism, the anthropometrics cards are easy to establish: two bearded guys
When it comes to capitalism, there are only indexes: Dow Jones, CAC 40, Nikkei, etc. Just try to hate an index. The Evil Empire still has a geographical area, capitals. It is trackable. Capitalism is everywhere and nowhere. To whom should summonses be sent before a possible Nuremberg tribunal?
Capitalism? Cheesy archaism! Get up to date and use the right word: liberalism. The Littré defines "liberal" as "that which is worthy of a free man." Doesn't that sound good? And The Petit Robert gives us a convincing list of antonyms: "stingy, autocrat, dictatorial, dirigiste, fascist, totalitarian. You may have found excuses to define yourself as anti-capitalist, but admit that it would take vice to proclaim yourself anti-liberal.
Capitalism? Cheesy archaism! Get up to date and use the right word: liberalism. The \emph{Littré} defines \enquote{liberal} as \enquote{that which is worthy of a free man.} Doesn't that sound good? And \emph{The Petit Robert} gives us a convincing list of antonyms: \enquote{stingy, autocrat, dictatorial, dirigiste, fascist, totalitarian.} You may have found excuses to define yourself as anti-capitalist, but admit that it would take vice to proclaim yourself anti-liberal.
So what is this black book of capitalism all about?
Can't you see the madness in this project's excesses?
@ -84,26 +85,32 @@ without control, such as with the Multinational Agreement on Investment (MAI) ov
The capitalist leaders could fear that the disappearance of the small peasantry,
of the crafts and the industrial and commercial petty bourgeoisie would strengthen the ranks of the proletariat.
But "modernism" has provided them with the parade with automation, miniaturization, computing.
But \enquote{modernism} has provided them with the parade with automation, miniaturization, computing.
After the depopulation of the fields, we are witnessing the depopulation of factories and offices.
As capitalism does neither know or wants to share profit and work (we see this with the indecent and hysterical reactions of the bosses on the 35 hours, a measure that is nevertheless very meek) we inevitably arrive at unemployment and its cohort of social disasters.
The more unemployed, the less compensation is paid and the shorter the time. The fewer workers there are, the more pensions are planned.
This seems logical and inevitable. Yes, if solidarity is distributed over wages.
But if we take into account the gross national product which has increased by more than 40\% in less than twenty years while the wage bill has continued to decrease, it is quite different!
But this is not in the capitalist logic! Nearly twenty million unemployed in Europe, this is the positive result of capitalism!
But this is not in the capitalist logic!
Nearly twenty million unemployed in Europe, this is the positive result of capitalism!
And the worst is yet to come. Major European and American firms whose profits have never been so prosperous announce
% these are double quotes in the original text, not guillemets
layoffs by the hundreds of thousands. It is necessary to "rationalize" production, competition obliges!
The increase in foreign investment in France is applauded.
In addition to the dangers to national independence, it is questionable whether it is not the fall in wages that encourages investors.
The French champions of liberalism — of "modernism"! — (see Alain Madelin!) swear by England and the United States
The French champions of liberalism — of \enquote{modernism}! — (see Alain Madelin!) swear by England and the United States
who would be the champions of economic success and the fight against unemployment.
If the destruction of social protections, the precariousness of employment,
low wages and the short-term non-compensation of the unemployed which makes them disappear from the statistics are Mr Madelin's ideal,
I do not think it is the ideal of the workers of this country.
In the USA, a paradise of capitalism, 30 million inhabitants (more than 10\% of the population) live below the poverty line, and among these blacks are in the majority.
The supremacy of the United States in the world, the imperialist and standardizing spread of its way of life and culture can only satisfy servile spirits.
Europe would do well to be careful and react, as it still has the economic means to do so. But it would also need the political will.
To assist productive investment in industry or services, capitalism has the will to make them competitive in the face of short-term financial and speculative investments.
@ -115,7 +122,7 @@ Until the whole world is in the hands of a few transnationals, mostly American,
The problem then will be for capitalism to find consumers beyond this elite and its shareholders… and to maintain delinquency born of poverty.
The accumulation of money—which is only an abstraction—prevents the production of capital goods and elementary goods useful to all.
The black book of capitalism is already written before us in its "paradise". What about his hell, the Third World?\footnote{In the dictionary of the twentieth century (Fayard), Jacques Attali puts forward the figure of one in four people living in the US below the poverty line. Worldwide, nearly 3 billion people have less than \$2 per day, 13 million die of hunger every year and two-thirds of the world's hands do not benefit from any social protection.}
The black book of capitalism is already written before us in its \enquote{paradise}. What about his hell, the Third World?\footnote{In the dictionary of the twentieth century (Fayard), Jacques Attali puts forward the figure of one in four people living in the US below the poverty line. Worldwide, nearly 3 billion people have less than \$2 per day, 13 million die of hunger every year and two-thirds of the world's hands do not benefit from any social protection.}
The ravages of colonialism and neo-colonialism in a century and a half are incalculable, nor can the millions of deaths attributable to it be quantified.
All the major European countries and the United States are guilty.
@ -126,7 +133,7 @@ These bodies have only served to indebt the countries of the Third World and to
If they have allowed the development of insolent local fortunes, they have only increased the misery of the populations\footnote{Read Philippe Panure, Le Village monde et son château (World village and its castle), le Temps des Cerises, 1995.}.
In a few decades, international capitalism will hardly need labor anymore, automation obliges!
American laboratories study in vitro cultures, which will definitively ruin the agricultural Third World (and perhaps French agriculture, the world's second largest exporter).
American laboratories study \emph{in vitro} cultures, which will definitively ruin the agricultural Third World (and perhaps French agriculture, the world's second largest exporter).
Instead of sharing the goods, it will be unemployment that workers around the world will definitively share\footnote{Read Jeremy Rifjin, La fin du travail (The End of Work), La Découverte, 1996.}.
Yet essential services concerning education, health, environment, culture, mutual assistance will not be provided or will no longer be provided because they do not generate profits and are of no interest to the private sector, because they can only be provided by the States or the community of citizens to whom liberalism wants to remove all power and all means.
@ -159,11 +166,11 @@ Western economies benefit from slavery in the Third World and from the serfdom o
Corruption: Multinationals have such financial or political influence or pressure on all public or private officials that they stifle all resistance in their octopus tentacles.
Propaganda: to impose its creed and justify weapon stockpiling, its criminal acts and its bloody crimes, capitalism always invokes generous ideals:
defense of democracy, freedom, struggle against the "communist" dictatorship, defense of the values of the West,
defense of democracy, freedom, struggle against the \enquote{communist} dictatorship, defense of the values of the West,
while it most often defends only the interests of a propertied class, that it wants to seize raw materials,
govern oil production or control strategic locations.
This propaganda is propagated by economic and political rulers, a servile press and media.
These are the watchdogs already denounced by Nizan, the Betrayal of the clerics vilified by Julien Benda\footnote{Read Serge Halimi, Les Nouveaux Chiens de garde, Liber — Raison d'agir, 1997.}.
These are the \emph{watchdogs} already denounced by Nizan, the \emph{Betrayal of the clerics} vilified by Julien Benda\footnote{Read Serge Halimi, Les Nouveaux Chiens de garde, Liber — Raison d'agir, 1997.}.
Supporters of liberalism, lauders of the United States, I have not heard your voice speak out against the destruction of Vietnam, the Indonesian genocid,
the atrocities perpetrated in the name of liberalism in Latin America, against American aid to Pinochet's coup d'état, which was one of the bloodiest in history\footnote{Read Chili, Le Dossier noir, (Chile, the black file) Gallimard, 1974.},
@ -171,6 +178,22 @@ the killing of Turkish trade unionists; your indignation was somewhat selective,
I did not see you indignant when communists or simply those who wanted to give power to the people or defend the poor were killed.
For your complicity or silence, I do not hear you asking for forgiveness.
\section{Maurice Cury}
Maurice Cury est poète, romancier, essayiste, scénariste de cinéma
et de télévision, auteur radiophonique et théâtral. Dernières parutions :
Les orgues de Flandre (roman), La Jungle et le désert (poèmes et
textes) E. C. Éditions, Le Libéralisme totalitaire.
Président du Conseil permanent des écrivains, vice-président du
Syndicat national des auteurs et compositeurs.
\section{Notes}
Afin d’en faciliter la lecture, les notes en fin de texte ont toutes été
converties, dans cette édition numérique des Classiques des sciences
sociales, en notes de bas de page. JMT.
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{\arabic{chapter}}
\setcounter{chapter}{0}
@ -180,31 +203,30 @@ It was during the nineteenth century that capitalism, based on wage labour, beca
Western Europe and the United States, then subordinating the whole world, by either indirect or direct forms of domination (colonization).
Its genesis essentially ran its course over the previous three centuries (sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries).
This is, to use adam Smith's terminology, taken up by Marx, the era of "primitive accumulation." (or better, to make Adam Smith's term more accurate, "Previous accumulation").
How will capitalists (who possess the wealth likely to be converted into means of production (machines, raw materials, etc.)) and "proletarians",
This is, to use adam Smith's terminology, taken up by Marx, the era of \enquote{primitive accumulation.} (or better, to make Adam Smith's term more accurate, \enquote{Previous accumulation}).
How will capitalists (who possess the wealth likely to be converted into means of production (machines, raw materials, etc.)) and \enquote{proletarians},
(devoid of any autonomous means of subsistence and reduced, in order to survive, to become the wage-earners of the previous ones) will end up facing one another?
Bourgeois ideology, which is expressed among political "thinkers" and vulgar economists of the nineteenth century, tells us that originally, society has been divided into two categories:
Bourgeois ideology, which is expressed among political \enquote{thinkers} and vulgar economists of the nineteenth century, tells us that originally, society has been divided into two categories:
Some are laborious, intelligent, thrifty
Some others lazy, squandering.
%«
"It goes without saying that some piled treasure on treasure, while the others soon found themselves devoid of everything."\footnote{Capital, book I, tome III, Paris, Éditions sociales, 1950, p. 153.}
%»
Karl Marx cites, among the authors developing this thesis, M. Thiers\footnote{Ibid., p. 153. Adolphe Thiers, De la propriété, Paris, 1848.}.
In the twentieth century, the good doctor Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize in medicine and supporter of Pétain, will explain in L'homme, cet inconnu (Man, the unknown)'\footnote{Dr Alexis Carrel, Man, the unknown, Paris, Plon, 1935.} that the former were genetically superior, and the latter, inferior.
\enquote{It goes without saying that some piled treasure on treasure, while the others soon found themselves devoid of everything.}\footnote{\emph{Capital}, book I, tome III, Paris, Éditions sociales, 1950, p. 153.}
Karl Marx cites, among the authors developing this thesis, M. Thiers\footnote{Ibid., p. 153. Adolphe Thiers, \emph{De la propriété}, Paris, 1848.}.
In the twentieth century, the good doctor Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize in medicine and supporter of Pétain, will explain in \emph{L'homme, cet inconnu} (Man, the unknown)'\footnote{Dr Alexis Carrel, \emph{Man, the unknown}, Paris, Plon, 1935.} that the former were genetically superior, and the latter, inferior.
And Karl Marx observes: "In the annals of real history, it is conquest, enslavement, the reign of brute force that has always prevailed."\footnote{Karl Marx, op. cit. cit., p. 164.}
And Karl Marx observes: \enquote{In the annals of real history, it is conquest, enslavement, the reign of brute force that has always prevailed.}\footnote{Karl Marx, \emph{op. cit.}, p. 164.}
To study this period, which began with the great maritime discoveries at the end of the fifteenth century, we will use two major sources:
An old one, the one provided by Karl Marx's Capital in its development on "primitive accumulation" (Book I, VIIIth section)\footnote{Karl Marx, op. cit. cit., pp. 153-22.}.
The other, more recent, certainly richer in information and more "up-to-date", will be provided by the great work of Fernand Braudel: Material Civilization, Economy and Capitalism, fifteenth-eighteenth century\footnote{Paris, Armand Colin, 3 volumes, 544, 600 and 608 p.}.
An old one, the one provided by Karl Marx's \emph{Capital} in its development on \enquote{primitive accumulation} (Book I, VIIIth section)\footnote{Karl Marx, \emph{op. cit.}, pp. 153-22.}.
The other, more recent, certainly richer in information and more \enquote{up-to-date}, will be provided by the great work of Fernand Braudel: \emph{Material Civilization, Economy and Capitalism, fifteenth-eighteenth century}\footnote{Paris, Armand Colin, 3 volumes, 544, 600 and 608 p.}.
Braudel's point of view, like that of Marx, pays particular attention to the socio-economic infrastructure of history, but differs from it because it does not give a central place to the division of society into opposing classes.
The confrontation of the two points of view could have been exciting: it is unfortunately absent from the work of Braudel, who obviously had not read Marx (at least that part of Capital that covered the same subject)\footnote{Cf. J. Suret-Canale, "Braudel as seen by Pierre Daix", La Pensée n° 307, 3rd trimester 1996, pp. 160-161.}.
The confrontation of the two points of view could have been exciting: it is unfortunately absent from the work of Braudel, who obviously had not read Marx (at least that part of Capital that covered the same subject)\footnote{Cf. J. Suret-Canale, \enquote{\emph{Braudel as seen by Pierre Daix}}, La Pensée n° 307, 3rd trimester 1996, pp. 160-161.}.
\section[’Antediluvian’ forms of Capital]{The market, and the 'antediluvian' forms of Capital}
\section[\enquote{Antediluvian} forms of Capital]{The market, and the \enquote{antediluvian} forms of Capital}
The class societies that preceded capitalism were characterized by a personal bond from the dominant to the dominated (slave, tributary, serf, etc.).
The dominated was, of course, exploited, and often in the most brutal way, but the exploitation was "justified", at least ideologically, by a certain reciprocity:
The dominated was, of course, exploited, and often in the most brutal way, but the exploitation was \enquote{justified}, at least ideologically, by a certain reciprocity:
duty of protection on the part of the dominant, even assistance, often under a patriarchal mask.
With capitalism, social relations take on an increasingly abstract, anonymous aspect. And thereby taking on a dehumanized aspect.
@ -214,56 +236,56 @@ And the very relationship between the capitalist and the wage-earner is in the f
The market, the commodity, the commodity production appear very early in the most diverse societies.
But they are not the exclusive, let alone initial, forms of exchange:
archaic societies present "non-market" forms of exchange, highlighted since Durkheim.
Karl Polanyi had the merit of stressing the specificity of these exchanges in relation to market exchange\footnote{Karl Polanyi, Primitive, Archaïc and Modern Economies, (Ed. George Dalton) Boston: Beacon Press, 1968.}.
archaic societies present \enquote{non-market} forms of exchange, highlighted since Durkheim.
Karl Polanyi had the merit of stressing the specificity of these exchanges in relation to market exchange\footnote{Karl Polanyi, \emph{Primitive, Archaïc and Modern Economies}, (Ed. George Dalton) Boston, Beacon Press, 1968.}.
In "simple" market production, the agricultural or artisanal producer owns his means of production.
In \enquote{simple} market production, the agricultural or artisanal producer owns his means of production.
It produces in part or in whole, no longer to directly cover its own needs, but to sell, on a market where products are exchanged
through monetary equivalents, with producers specializing according to a social division of labor.
With productive capitalism, the capitalist, owner of the means of production (land, machinery, raw materials, etc.)
"buys" from the worker the use of his labor power for a wage that roughly corresponds to the amount necessary for the reconstitution and reproduction of this labor power;
\enquote{buys} from the worker the use of his labor power for a wage that roughly corresponds to the amount necessary for the reconstitution and reproduction of this labor power;
This amount being less than what's produced by the implementation of this labour power.
The supplement thus emerging (Marx's "surplus value" or "surplus value") belongs to the capitalist.
The supplement thus emerging (Marx'\enquote{surplus value} or \enquote{surplus value}) belongs to the capitalist.
The capital advanced and implemented in production by the capitalist is thus at the end of the cycle reproduced and increased by a supplement.
The capitalist can use this supplement for personal consumption, but he can also "accumulate" it in order to increase the mass of his capital. This is "expanded" reproduction.
The capitalist can use this supplement for personal consumption, but he can also \enquote{accumulate} it in order to increase the mass of his capital. This is \enquote{expanded} reproduction.
In earlier societies, the product of exploitation (of the slave, the tributary, the feudal dependent — serf or villain)
was mainly consumed by the privileged classes and relatively little "reinvested".
The productive cycle was repeated more or less on the same scale. "Growth," to the extent that it existed, was very slow and almost imperceptible.
was mainly consumed by the privileged classes and relatively little \enquote{reinvested}.
The productive cycle was repeated more or less on the same scale. \enquote{Growth}, to the extent that it existed, was very slow and almost imperceptible.
In contemporary (productive) capitalism that is being set up thanks to the industrial revolution, with the widespread use of mechanical energy,
advances in labour productivity will allow for "expanded reproduction" on an increasingly broad scale, in short, "growth."
advances in labour productivity will allow for \enquote{expanded reproduction} on an increasingly broad scale, in short, \enquote{growth}.
This productive capitalism appeared as early as the Middle Ages, in an embryonic form, in Italian cities in the form of "manufacture"
("Factory" practicing in the same place the manual division of labor, or work at home, the capitalist providing the raw material,
This productive capitalism appeared as early as the Middle Ages, in an embryonic form, in Italian cities in the form of \enquote{manufacture}
(\enquote{Factory} practicing in the same place the manual division of labor, or work at home, the capitalist providing the raw material,
for example the thread to the weaver, and buying the manufactured product from him).
But, until the end of the eighteenth century, capital was essentially in forms that Marx called "antediluvian",
But, until the end of the eighteenth century, capital was essentially in forms that Marx called \enquote{antediluvian},
market capital or finance capital (usurious) forms that had appeared as early as antiquity.
In these forms, there is also accumulation, but not through the creation of wealth: capital here just to take its tithe from existing production.
The advent of productive capitalism, essentially industrial, in addition to the technical conditions already mentioned, presupposes economic and social conditions.
\section[The 'liberation' of the workforce]{The 'liberation' of the workforce: impoverishment and exploitation of the peasantry}
\section[The \enquote{liberation} of the workforce]{The \enquote{liberation} of the workforce: impoverishment and exploitation of the peasantry}
The first condition is the existence of a "free" workforce, that is to say, free from feudal or seigneurial obligations and servitudes;
The first condition is the existence of a \enquote{free} workforce, that is to say, free from feudal or seigneurial obligations and servitudes;
but also devoid of any autonomous means of subsistence (and in particular land).
This "liberation" took place in England at the end of the fourteenth century and ended during the first Revolution, that of Cromwell, in the seventeenth century.
This \enquote{liberation} took place in England at the end of the fourteenth century and ended during the first Revolution, that of Cromwell, in the seventeenth century.
In France, it will take place with the Revolution of 1789, and, later, in the rest of Europe, under the direct or indirect influence of revolutionary and Napoleonic conquests.
This "liberation" is inseparable from a massive impoverishment and the expropriation of the small peasantry.
This \enquote{liberation} is inseparable from a massive impoverishment and the expropriation of the small peasantry.
In England, this phenomenon began during the reign of the Tudors and was amplified in the eighteenth century; it is slower and more limited on the mainland.
The peasants thus "liberated" and expropriated constitute a growing mass of wanderers and destitute people,
subjected in England to the ferocious legislation on the Poor laws, ready-madeworkforce, when the time comes, for the capitalist industrial enterprise.
The rural exodus will feed, in the nineteenth century, urban and industrial growth and emigration to America or to the "temperate" colonies.
The peasants thus \enquote{liberated} and expropriated constitute a growing mass of wanderers and destitute people,
subjected in England to the ferocious legislation on the \enquote{Poor laws}, ready-madeworkforce, when the time comes, for the capitalist industrial enterprise.
The rural exodus will feed, in the nineteenth century, urban and industrial growth and emigration to America or to the \enquote{temperate} colonies.
Let us return to the English example, studied by Karl Marx. Serfdom disappeared there at the end of the fourteenth century.
Most of the peasant population was then made up of small independent, relatively well-off tenants.
The end of the Wars of the Roses (civil war between feudal clans) and the advent of the Tudor dynasty were accompanied by two phenomena:
the dismissal of the feudal "suites" maintained by the nobles (fallen or ruined) threw on the roads a first mass of people without fire or place;
on the other hand the parvenus who overtook the place of the old ruined or extinct nobility undertook to "assert" their domains by expelling
The end of the \enquote{Wars of the Roses} (civil war between feudal clans) and the advent of the Tudor dynasty were accompanied by two phenomena:
the dismissal of the feudal \enquote{suites} maintained by the nobles (fallen or ruined) threw on the roads a first mass of people without fire or place;
on the other hand the parvenus who overtook the place of the old ruined or extinct nobility undertook to \enquote{assert} their domains by expelling
massively the peasants holding their land to convert it into sheep pastures:
the rise of the wool factory of Flanders, of which England had long supplied the raw material, the resulting rise in the price of wool encouraged this speculation.
@ -271,10 +293,10 @@ In vain, laws of Henry VII (1489) and Henry VIII prohibited the demolition of pe
The Reformation and the confiscation of the property of the clergy - including suppressed religious orders - a quarter to a third of the lands of the kingdom,
distributed by Henry VIII to favorites, led to an acceleration of the phenomenon:
all those parvenus who had become "gentlemen" continued to expel the peasants.
The small and medium-sized peasants, the "yeomen", still provided the bulk of the troops of Cromwell's English Revolution.
all those parvenus who had become \enquote{gentlemen} continued to expel the peasants.
The small and medium-sized peasants, the \enquote{yeomen}, still provided the bulk of the troops of Cromwell's English Revolution.
But by 1750, the evolution was complete:
the small English peasantry was virtually eliminated in favour of the "Landlords", the large landowners, replaced by capitalist farmers, or, in Ireland, by tenants, precarious, expellable at will.
the small English peasantry was virtually eliminated in favour of the \enquote{Landlords}, the large landowners, replaced by capitalist farmers, or, in Ireland, by tenants, precarious, expellable at will.
\begin{displayquote}
The creation of the proletariat without fire or place — dismissed from the great feudal lords and farmers victims of violent and repeated expropriations —,
@ -282,23 +304,22 @@ was necessarily going faster than its absorption by the nascent factories… So
\end{displayquote}
Hence, from the end of the fifteenth century, a fierce legislation against the poor.
A law of Henry VIII stipulated that robust vagrants would be condemned to the whip; tied up behind a cart, they would be whipped until blood trickles down from their bodies.
After which, they would be imprisoned. A subsequent law of the same king aggravates the penalties by additional clauses:
in case of recurrence, the vagrant must be whipped again and have half of the ear cut off; on the second recurrence, he will be hanged.
In 1572, Queen Elizabeth renewed this legislation:
\begin{displayquote}
Under the almost maternal reign of Queen Bess tramps were hanged in batches, arranged in long lines.
\enquote{Under the almost maternal reign of \emph{Queen Bess} tramps were hanged in batches, arranged in long lines.
Not a year passed that there were not three or four hundred hanging on the gallows in one place or another, says Strype in his Annals.
According to him, Somersetshire alone counted in one year forty executed, thirty-five marked with red iron, thirty-seven whipped and one hundred and eighty-three —
"incorrigible scoundrels" — released… "Thanks to the nonchalance of the justices of the peace and the foolish compassion of the people," adds the commentator.\footnote{Ibidem, p. 177}
\end{displayquote}
\enquote{incorrigible scoundrels} — released… \enquote{Thanks to the nonchalance of the justices of the peace and the foolish compassion of the people}, adds the commentator\footnote{Ibidem, p. 177}.}
The "law on the poor" of the same queen (1597) made the indigent a burden on the parishes.
The \enquote{law on the poor} of the same queen (1597) made the indigent a burden on the parishes.
The "assistance" of the parishes consisted in locking up the needy in hospices or "Workhouses".
The \enquote{assistance} of the parishes consisted in locking up the needy in hospices or \enquote{Workhouses}.
These are actually prisons where they will be subjected to exhausting work and barely fed.
The Law on the Poor was not repealed until 1834… But only because the English bourgeoisie finds it intolerable to have to pay a tax to maintain "slackers".
The Law on the Poor was not repealed until 1834… But only because the English bourgeoisie finds it intolerable to have to pay a tax to maintain \enquote{slackers}.
The destitute will continue to be sent to hospices where they work at least 18 hours a day and where they're carefully given clothes and food only at a lower level than that of the lowest paid worker!
\section{Slavery and mercantile colonization}
@ -328,7 +349,7 @@ every year, a galleon departs from Acapulco, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, to
America exports little except money.
The Spanish settlers, concerned to make a quick fortune, while living "nobly" (without working with their hands) subjected the Amerindian population to a frenzied exploitation,
The Spanish settlers, concerned to make a quick fortune, while living \enquote{nobly} (without working with their hands) subjected the Amerindian population to a frenzied exploitation,
accompanied by barbaric treatment (torture, mutilation) to rule by terror.
The population of the Antilles, the first lands reached by the discoverers, who could not bear slavery and forced labor, was decimated by ill-treatment,
sometimes leading to collective suicides, and by diseases introduced by Europeans and to which it was not immune.
@ -338,7 +359,7 @@ in the nineteenth century, the last Caribbean (a few dozen) will be deported to
On the continent, the Amerindian population will not be annihilated, but will be terribly affected for the same reasons:
in New Spain (Mexico) the population, estimated at 25 million in 1520, fell to 7 million in 1548, and was reduced to less than one and a half million in 1595-1605, a decrease of 95\% in three quarters of a century.
In Peru, work in the silver mines of Potosi is fueled by the "mita", the chore, an institution borrowed from the ancient Inca Empire, but which then leads to a distant deportation, at more than 3,000 meters above sea level, to work underground.
In Peru, work in the silver mines of Potosi is fueled by the \enquote{mita}, the chore, an institution borrowed from the ancient Inca Empire, but which then leads to a distant deportation, at more than 3,000 meters above sea level, to work underground.
The working conditions are such that few come back: the required people, before departure, are invited to follow the Mass of the dead…
The demographic collapse would have been less in Peru than in New Spain, but would have reached 20 to 30\% between 1530 and 1660.
@ -349,10 +370,10 @@ In North America, a land of temperate colonization, the repression or annihilati
in 1703 the Puritans of New England granted by decree a bounty of 40 pounds sterling per Indian scalp or for each Redskin taken prisoner.
In 1720 the bounty was raised to 100 pounds.
\section{The Black Slave Trade\footnote{\label{foot18}For an overview: Serge Daget, La traite des Noirs (The Black slave trade), Éditions Ouest-France Université, 1990, 300 p. For details: De la Traite à l'esclavage (From Slave trade to slavery) (Actes du colloque international de Nantes, 1985), Paris, 1988, 2 volumes, XXXII-551 and 733 p.}}
\section{The Black Slave Trade\footnote{\label{foot18}For an overview: Serge Daget, \emph{La traite des Noirs} (The Black slave trade), Éditions Ouest-France Université, 1990, 300 p. For details: \emph{De la Traite à l'esclavage} (From Slave trade to slavery) (Actes du colloque international de Nantes, 1985), Paris, 1988, 2 volumes, XXXII-551 and 733 p.}}
Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, was outraged by the treatment to which the Amerindians were subjected.
He denounced it in particular in his Brevissima Relation de la Destrución de las Indias.
He denounced it in particular in his \emph{Brevissima Relation de la Destrución de las Indias}.
In 1542 he obtained the prohibition of the slavery of the Indians (which did not change much to their fate) and proposed to replace them with African slaves.
He had to repent of it afterwards.
In fact, the employment of black slaves imported from Africa had already started.
@ -380,8 +401,8 @@ In the early sixteenth century, the cane was introduced to the Spanish West Indi
It was Portuguese Brazil that first imported African slaves on a large scale: around 1580 it became the first producer of cane sugar.
In the Lesser Antilles, partly abandoned by the Spanish and colonized by the English, French and Dutch,
colonization was primarily the work of Europeans who employed a workforce of "indentured labourers";
thoses labourers pay for their journey through a "commitment" of work of 3 to 7 years for the benefit of those who recruited them.
colonization was primarily the work of Europeans who employed a workforce of \enquote{indentured labourers};
thoses labourers pay for their journey through a \enquote{commitment} of work of 3 to 7 years for the benefit of those who recruited them.
This systemworked poorly; servitude, even temporary, had disappeared from European habits; recruited from among the marginalized, the committed had little aptitude for agriculture, let alone tropical agriculture.
During the seventeenth century, they will be replaced by black slaves, and the crops performed so far (tobacco, indigo) will be marginalized in favor of the sugar plantation.
During the temporary occupation of Brazil by the Dutch, the latter were introduced to the sugar agribusiness:
@ -400,10 +421,10 @@ almost everything it consumes, tools, clothing, and even food, is imported.
The plots allocated to slaves for food crops, for which they are granted a maximum of one day a week, are not enough to support them.
Flour and wines from Europe, dried or salted cod from North America, are imported.
The American demand for slaves, linked to the development of the plantation economy, caused the rise of the slave trade; the slave trade takes the form of the "triangular" trade;
the slave ship, at first, brings to the coast of Africa "trade goods" (textiles, hardware, bimbeloterie, alcohols, then powder and firearms), all products intended for the consumption of privileged layers of African society, organizers and beneficiaries of trafficking.
The American demand for slaves, linked to the development of the plantation economy, caused the rise of the slave trade; the slave trade takes the form of the \enquote{triangular} trade;
the slave ship, at first, brings to the coast of Africa \enquote{trade goods} (textiles, hardware, bimbeloterie, alcohols, then powder and firearms), all products intended for the consumption of privileged layers of African society, organizers and beneficiaries of trafficking.
From the coast of Africa, the slave ship left with its cargo of slaves for America, and exchanged its slaves for colonial goods (sugar, tobacco, coffee, etc.).
However, since the price of the cargo of a slave ship is equivalent to the loading of four ships in colonial goods, much of the trade is done in "droiture", tools and goods from Europe against colonial goods.
However, since the price of the cargo of a slave ship is equivalent to the loading of four ships in colonial goods, much of the trade is done in \enquote{droiture}, tools and goods from Europe against colonial goods.
One exception: Portuguese Brazil directly trades its imported slaves for tobacco and rum.
Growing rapidly in the second half of the eighteenth century, the slave trade will become, until the first quarter of the nineteenth century,
@ -424,7 +445,7 @@ But to this demographic bloodletting must be added all the human victims resulti
The hunt for slaves had become, for the ruling strata of African states, the most lucrative activity:
for a captive taken prisoner, how many deaths were made during the raids on the villages?
How many then died along the way, in the convoys leading the prisoners to the coast, sometimes for hundreds of kilometers?
How many dead in "repositories" on the coast? How many deaths at sea during transport?
How many dead in \enquote{repositories} on the coast? How many deaths at sea during transport?
Because they were often numerous, especially when an epidemic broke out on board, due to overcrowding, hygiene and food conditions, during a crossing of several weeks.
To this should be added, in Africa itself, the consequences of the permanent insecurity resulting from the hunt for slaves:
populations reduced to famine by the destruction of their villages and crops, forced to take refuge in areas of difficult access but deprived of resources.
@ -435,16 +456,14 @@ in the French part of Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti), in 1789, 2.2 m
Fénelon, governor of Martinique, in a 11 April 1764 letter to the minister , was surprised by this negative development and highlighted the causes of this depopulation, which forces the constant import of new slaves:
bad food, excess work, imposed even on pregnant women, very frequent diseases of children.
The slave trader Degrandpré, quoted by the R.P. Dieudonné Rinchon acknowledges:
\begin{displayquote}
Admittedly, we were speculating about the excess of their work and we were not afraid of making them die of fatigue, if the price we get from their sweat equals the price of their purchase.\footnote{R. P. Dieudonné Rinchon: The slave trade and slavery of the Congolese by the Europeans, Paris, Vanelsche, 1929, pp. 97-98.}
\end{displayquote}
\enquote{Admittedly, we were speculating about the excess of their work and we were not afraid of making them die of fatigue, if the price we get from their sweat equals the price of their purchase.}\footnote{R. P. Dieudonné Rinchon: \emph{The slave trade and slavery of the Congolese by the Europeans}, Paris, Vanelsche, 1929, pp. 97-98.}
Hilliard d'Auberteuil (quoted by Gaston Martin\footnote{Gaston-Martin, Histoire de l'esclavage dans les colonies françaises, Paris, P.U.F., 1949, pp. 124-125.}), who resided twelve years in Saint-Domingue, wrote (in 1776):
\begin{displayquote}
One third of the Negroes of Guinea usually die in the first three years of transplantation, and the laborious life of a negro, made in the country, cannot be estimated at more than fifteen years.
\end{displayquote}
The expression "to work like a nigger" has remained in french language.
Hilliard d'Auberteuil (quoted by Gaston Martin\footnote{Gaston-Martin, \emph{Histoire de l'esclavage dans les colonies françaises}, Paris, P.U.F., 1949, pp. 124-125.}), who resided twelve years in Saint-Domingue, wrote (in 1776):
\enquote{One third of the Negroes of Guinea usually die in the first three years of transplantation, and the laborious life of a negro, made in the country, cannot be estimated at more than fifteen years.}
The expression \enquote{to work like a nigger} has remained in french language.
It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the servile population stabilized and began to grow naturally:
various factors led to this: the rise in the cost of slaves, the interruption of the slave trade during the Napoleonic Wars,
the great fear aroused among the slavers by the revolt in Santo Domingo (Haiti).
@ -452,24 +471,23 @@ Slave owners will be interested in maintaining and reproducing their labor.
To maintain the discipline of their slaves, the owners had to impose a regime of discrimination and terror.
The "Black Code" enacted in 1685, during the reign of Louis XIV, collection of regulations concerning the government, the administration of justice, police, discipline and trade of negroes in the French colonies\footnote{The Black Code... In Paris, at Prault, Imprimeur-libraire, 1767. Reproduction in facsimile: Basse-Terre, Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe; Fort-De-France, Société d'histoire de la Martinique, 1980.} in force until 1848
The \enquote{Black Code} enacted in 1685, during the reign of Louis XIV, collection of regulations concerning the government, the administration of justice, police, discipline and trade of negroes in the French colonies\footnote{\emph{The Black Code}... In Paris, at Prault, Imprimeur-libraire, 1767. Reproduction in facsimile: Basse-Terre, Société d'histoire de la Guadeloupe; Fort-De-France, Société d'histoire de la Martinique, 1980.} in force until 1848
(with the exception of the colonies where the abolition of slavery decreed by the Convention was applied from 1794 to 1802), laid down the official rules.
It punishes with death any assault by a slave against his master or against free persons, as well as the theft of horses or oxen;
If a slave is fugitive for more than a month they will have their ears cut off and will be marked with a red iron with a fleur-de-lis on his shoulder;
if they reoffends, they will have their shank cut and will be marked with a fleur-de-lis on the other shoulder; the third time he will be punished with death.
The tortures (marks and mutilations) were not abolished until 1833.
Masters have the right to have their slaves chained and whipped "when they believe that the slaves deserved it."
Masters have the right to have their slaves chained and whipped \enquote{when they believe that the slaves deserved it}.
Except in the cases provided, it is in principle forbidden for masters to torture, maim or kill their slaves.
But in fact, the masters, whatever they do, are never punished:
the courts, in the hands of the settlers, had as their principle that a master could never be convicted on the complaint of a slave, for fear of jeopardizing the authority of the slave regime.
In his report on the Troubles of Santo Domingo, the conventional Garran notes that there is no example of a master brought to justice for killing or maiming a slave.
An ordinance of 1784 which limited to 50 the number of lashes that a master could inflict on a slave "was recorded with great difficulty" and was not executed\footnote{Garran-Coulon report, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, An V, tome 1, p. 25.}.
In his report on \emph{the Troubles of Santo Domingo}, the conventional Garran notes that there is no example of a master brought to justice for killing or maiming a slave.
An ordinance of 1784 which limited to 50 the number of lashes that a master could inflict on a slave \enquote{was recorded with great difficulty} and was not executed\footnote{\emph{Garran-Coulon report}, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, An V, tome 1, p. 25.}.
Marriage and sexual relations between settlers and slaves are in principle prohibited: in fact, the settlers took slave concubines and, very quickly, a layer of mestizos was formed, hierarchized according to their proportion of "white" blood.
In 1789, in the French part of Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti) there were 35,440 whites, 509,642 slaves, and 26,666 freedmen and "colored people."
Marriage and sexual relations between settlers and slaves are in principle prohibited: in fact, the settlers took slave concubines and, very quickly, a layer of mestizos was formed, hierarchized according to their proportion of \enquote{white} blood.
In 1789, in the French part of Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti) there were 35,440 whites, 509,642 slaves, and 26,666 freedmen and \enquote{colored people}.
Freedmen and free men of color could own plantations and slaves but were subject to strict discrimination: in 1789, the settlers denied them political rights.
In a pamphlet published in 1814, Vastey, secretary to King Christophe (Henri 1st, immortalized by aimé Césaire's play) lists the tortures inflicted by the settlers on the slaves, especially during their insurrection:
@ -483,7 +501,7 @@ It goes without saying that the example given here of the French colonies, for t
The prohibition of the trade, despite the repression of the British squadrons, was not enforced and it was not until around 1860 that the traffic ended.
After a "great fear" of the slavers due to the insurrection of the slaves in the French part of Saint-Domingue, which led in 1804 to the independence of the Black Republic of Haiti,
After a \enquote{great fear} of the slavers due to the insurrection of the slaves in the French part of Saint-Domingue, which led in 1804 to the independence of the Black Republic of Haiti,
the first half of the nineteenth century saw a new boom in American slave plantations.
This time no longer in the context of mercantilism, but of the market dominated by modern, industrial capitalism:
the rise in the south of the United States of the slave plantation, to supply raw materials to the English factories of Manchester and its region;
@ -492,19 +510,19 @@ Slavery was not abolished until 1833 in the English colonies, in 1848 in the Fre
in 1866 in the United States (after the defeat of the Southerners in the American Civil War), in 1886 in Cuba (Spanish colony) and in 1888 in Brazil.
Forbidden in the Atlantic, the slave trade will experience a new development in the nineteenth century in East Africa, especially in Sudan (dependence on Egypt) and in the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar, created by the Arabs of Oman, controlled from the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba the entire coast of the Indian Ocean, from Somalia to Mozambique\footnote{See Abdul Sheriff, Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar. Integration of an East African Business Empire into the World Economy (1770-1873), Ohio University Press, 1987, 320 p. and G. Clarence-Smith (Ed.), The Economies of the Indian Ocean. Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century, London: F.Cass, 1989.}.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar, created by the Arabs of Oman, controlled from the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba the entire coast of the Indian Ocean, from Somalia to Mozambique\footnote{See Abdul Sheriff, \emph{Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar. Integration of an East African Business Empire into the World Economy (1770-1873)}, Ohio University Press, 1987, 320 p. and G. Clarence-Smith (Ed.), \emph{The Economies of the Indian Ocean. Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century}, London: F.Cass, 1989.}.
This "Arab" slave trade was sometimes put forward to try to "excuse" the European slave trade, on the theme "We were not the only ones".
The problem is that this "Arab" slave trade was driven by the demand of the European capitalist market.
This \enquote{Arab} slave trade was sometimes put forward to try to \enquote{excuse} the European slave trade, on the theme \enquote{We were not the only ones}.
The problem is that this \enquote{Arab} slave trade was driven by the demand of the European capitalist market.
Indeed, its main objective was the search for ivory: by the slaughter of elephants, but especially by the looting of the "treasures" in elephant spikes accumulated by the chiefdoms of Central Africa.
Indeed, its main objective was the search for ivory: by the slaughter of elephants, but especially by the looting of the \enquote{treasures} in elephant spikes accumulated by the chiefdoms of Central Africa.
Parts of the Nile or Zanzibar, looting expeditions destroyed villages, massacred or enslaved the population, the captives being destined to play the role of porters, to transport the ivory.
Slavery was a kind of "by-product" of ivory plundering: the slaves who survived were sold to the Middle East where domestic slavery remained,
Slavery was a kind of \enquote{by-product} of ivory plundering: the slaves who survived were sold to the Middle East where domestic slavery remained,
or used as labour in the clove plantations of Zanzibar, the main supplier to the world clove market, controlled by the British.
The European market was indeed demanding ivory, solicited by the consumption of the wealthy classes: billiard balls, piano keys, knife handles for Sheffield cutlery.
We can estimate the number of slaves exported to Asia, through the Indian Ocean, in the nineteenth century, at 400,000\footnote{François Renault, Problems of research on the trans-Saharan and Eastern slave trade in Africa in De la Traite à l'esclavage, already quoted in footnote \vref{foot18}, tome 1, pp. 37-53.};
The number of slaves "produced" by the Sudanese slave trade can be estimated at 750,000 (plus 10 to 30 per cent of "losses" during transport, and an unevaluable proportion of losses at the time of capture)\footnote{Gérard Prunier, La traite soudanaise (The Sudanese Black trade) (1820-1885); ibid., volume 2, pp. 521-535.}.
We can estimate the number of slaves exported to Asia, through the Indian Ocean, in the nineteenth century, at 400,000\footnote{François Renault, \emph{Problems of research on the trans-Saharan and Eastern slave trade in Africa in De la Traite à l'esclavage}, already quoted in footnote \vref{foot18}, tome 1, pp. 37-53.};
The number of slaves \enquote{produced} by the Sudanese slave trade can be estimated at 750,000 (plus 10 to 30 per cent of \enquote{losses} during transport, and an unevaluable proportion of losses at the time of capture)\footnote{Gérard Prunier, \emph{La traite soudanaise} (The Sudanese Black trade) (1820-1885); \emph{ibid.}, volume 2, pp. 521-535.}.
\section{The Road to India and Asian Colonization}
Impossible to offer in return European manufactured items: Asians do better and cheaper.
We must resign ourselves to paying off purchases in cash. It is American silver that balances the purchases of Asian trade.
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, one-third, perhaps even half of the silver provided by America, was absorbed by China\footnote{F. Braudel, op. cit, volume 2, p. 169.}.
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, one-third, perhaps even half of the silver provided by America, was absorbed by China\footnote{F. Braudel, \emph{op. cit}, volume 2, p. 169.}.
The latter tightly controls its entrances and only the Portuguese have been able to establish a trading post in Macau.
Japan, on the other hand, closed itself in 1638 to European trade, with the exception of limited and controlled access to the port of Nagasaki, reserved for the Dutch only.
@ -529,63 +547,61 @@ During the eighteenth century, French and English undertook to consolidate their
Dupleix's French attempt was considered a personal initiative and disavowed by the French East India Company.
This attempt was abandoned following the French defeat in the Seven Years' War (1763). The British East India Company took over.
Plassey's victory (1757) resulted in the company's takeover of Bengal. The style of colonization and commercial relations will then change radically.
To trade, the company adds as a source of profits the fiscal exploitation of the conquered territories. Then begins the "repatriation" of money and other wealth accumulated in India.
To trade, the company adds as a source of profits the fiscal exploitation of the conquered territories. Then begins the \enquote{repatriation} of money and other wealth accumulated in India.
At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the movement began that would transform India from a supplier of manufactured and luxury goods to a supplier of raw materials for British industry (cotton, jute).
This will also transformt India into a buyer of manufactured products of English industry, resulting in the ruin of traditional craftsmanship.
For China, it is even later, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that the reversal takes place: to settle the purchases of Chinese products (silks, tea) silver is gradually replaced by opium imported into China by the East India Company.
It was around 1820 approximately that the balance reversed to the detriment of China.
The "Opium War" (1839-1842) forced China to open five ports, cede Hong Kong, and especially the import of opium that the Chinese government had tried to prohibit.
In Braudel's words: "Here is China paid in smoke, and what smoke!"\footnote{F. Braudel, ibid., p. 191.}
The \enquote{Opium War} (1839-1842) forced China to open five ports, cede Hong Kong, and especially the import of opium that the Chinese government had tried to prohibit.
In Braudel's words: \enquote{Here is China paid in smoke, and what smoke!}\footnote{F. Braudel, \emph{ibid.}, p. 191.}
\section{What consequences for peoples?}
For the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) the history of the colonial administration of the Dutch "unfolds a picture of murders, of betrayals, corruption and baseness that will never be equalled"\footnote{Thomas Stanford Raffles, The History of Java and its dependencies, London, 1818, quoted by Marx, op. cit., p. 194.}.
For the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) the history of the colonial administration of the Dutch \enquote{unfolds a picture of murders, of betrayals, corruption and baseness that will never be equalled}\footnote{Thomas Stanford Raffles, \emph{The History of Java and its dependencies}, London, 1818, quoted by Marx, op. cit., p. 194.}.
The author of this judgment is the governor whom the English appointed during their occupation, during the Napoleonic Wars.
Looting, enslavement, extortion, all means are good to ensure the Dutch East India Company which exploits Indonesia until the end of the eighteenth century record profits.
The state, in the nineteenth century, will do even better: from 1830, Governor Van den Bosch establishes the "system" that bears his name: forced cultures, forced labor.
The state, in the nineteenth century, will do even better: from 1830, Governor Van den Bosch establishes the \enquote{system} that bears his name: forced cultures, forced labor.
Peasants have to provide one-fifth of their best land, one-fifth of their working time to provide free export products. Forced crops and forced labour will often go far beyond official boundaries:
we will go so far as to demand a third or even half of the land, and in working time from 66 to 240 days a year\footnote{Charles Robequain, Le monde malais (the malese world), Paris, Payot, 1946, p. 351.}. At the same time, the property tax doubles.
Later the establishment of plantations (tobacco, rubber trees, oil palms, etc.), will lead to the recruitment of "contractual" labor, actually forced laborers treated worse than slaves.
we will go so far as to demand a third or even half of the land, and in working time from 66 to 240 days a year\footnote{Charles Robequain, \emph{Le monde malais} (The malese world), Paris, Payot, 1946, p. 351.}. At the same time, the property tax doubles.
Later the establishment of plantations (tobacco, rubber trees, oil palms, etc.), will lead to the recruitment of \enquote{contractual} labor, actually forced laborers treated worse than slaves.
In India, the English will find the support of certain social strata – in particular merchants and bankers – who will become intermediaries of British trade.
In 1793, by a simple regulation, the administration of the East India Company changed the status of the "Zamindars", who were tax farmers in the Mughal Empire.
The "Zamindars" then became large landowners, British-style Landlords, in the territories in which where they were responsible for collecting taxes whereas peasants were reduced to the condition of precarious tenants.
In 1793, by a simple regulation, the administration of the East India Company changed the status of the \enquote{Zamindars}, who were tax farmers in the Mughal Empire.
The \enquote{Zamindars} then became large landowners, British-style Landlords, in the territories in which where they were responsible for collecting taxes whereas peasants were reduced to the condition of precarious tenants.
Monopolies of salt, opium, betel, and other products were granted to senior employees of the company, who made quick fortunes.
But the worst was yet to come, with the destruction of handicrafts: India's economic equilibrium was based on the association of agriculture and handicrafts (textiles in particular).
From 1814 to 1835, imports of "Indians" into Britain fell by three-quarters; conversely, imports of British industrial cotton into India are multiplied by 50!
From 1814 to 1835, imports of \enquote{Indians} into Britain fell by three-quarters; conversely, imports of British industrial cotton into India are multiplied by 50!
The ruined craftsmen had to retreat to the work of the land, already overloaded. A governor-general of India could thus say that the bones of the weavers whitened the plains of India.
Periodic famines became a feature of India:
18 famines from 1875 to 1900 caused 26 million deaths\footnote{J. Chesneaux, L'Asie orientale au XIXe et XXe siècles, Paris, PUF, 1966, p.189.}. There will be others in the twentieth century (that of Bengal, in 1943, will make 3 to 4 million deaths).
18 famines from 1875 to 1900 caused 26 million deaths\footnote{J. Chesneaux, \emph{L'Asie orientale au XIXe et XXe siècles}, Paris, PUF, 1966, p.189.}. There will be others in the twentieth century (that of Bengal, in 1943, will make 3 to 4 million deaths).
For China, the first opium war will be followed by other European military interventions aimed at imposing the law of great capitalist powers, which will be awarded port "concessions".
For China, the first opium war will be followed by other European military interventions aimed at imposing the law of great capitalist powers, which will be awarded port \enquote{concessions}.
Since 1842, they have required China to limit customs duties on imported foreign goods to 5\%.
We will witness a dislocation of the traditional economic circuits, a worsening of misery that will lead to peasant insurrections, the most important of which was that of the Taï-Pings (1851-1864).
We can summarize with Marx:
\begin{displayquote}
The discovery of the gold and silver countries of America, the enslavement of the natives, their imprisonment in mines or extermination, the beginnings of conquest and plunder in the East Indies,
the transformation of Africa into a kind of commercial garenne for the hunt for black skin, these are the idyllic processes of primitive accumulation that signal the capitalist era at its dawn\footnote{Karl Marx, op. cit., p. 193.}.
\end{displayquote}
\enquote{The discovery of the gold and silver countries of America, the enslavement of the natives, their imprisonment in mines or extermination, the beginnings of conquest and plunder in the East Indies,
the transformation of Africa into a kind of commercial garenne for the hunt for black skin, these are the idyllic processes of primitive accumulation that signal the capitalist era at its dawn.}\footnote{Karl Marx, \emph{op. cit.}, p. 193.}
\section{Eastern Europe and the "second serfdom"}
\section{Eastern Europe and the \enquote{second serfdom}}
Dependency and exploitation through the global market of America, Asia and Africa have also affected the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
The Ottoman Empire was gradually penetrated by Western trade.
Since the sixteenth century, the French, followed by the English, have benefited for their counters, the "ladders of the Levant", from exterritoriality.
Since the sixteenth century, the French, followed by the English, have benefited for their counters, the \enquote{ladders of the Levant}, from exterritoriality.
In Eastern Europe (roughly, east of the Elbe) the local aristocracy, to purchase luxury goods from Western Europe (clothingfurniture, wine, etc.) intensified its exploitation of the peasantry.
By taking ownership of the land and generalizing serfdom.
This is what historians call the "second serfdom" that is developing in Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Prussia) at the very moment when serfdom is disappearing from Western Europe.
This is what historians call the \enquote{second serfdom} that is developing in Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Prussia) at the very moment when serfdom is disappearing from Western Europe.
It will reach its peak in Russia at the end of the eighteenth century, under the reign of Catherine II, and will take forms close to slavery pure and simple.
It will make possible this classified ad in a St. Petersburg newspaper:
"For sale, a wig maker and a cow of good breed". This reinforced exploitation of the peasantry allows the large owners to make money by massively exporting food and raw materials to Western Europe: cereals, flax, wood, etc.
\enquote{For sale, a wig maker and a cow of good breed}. This reinforced exploitation of the peasantry allows the large owners to make money by massively exporting food and raw materials to Western Europe: cereals, flax, wood, etc.
The maritime cities of the Hansa (German and Baltic), then the Dutch, finally the English, will be the intermediaries and beneficiaries of this trade.
\section[Market capital and financial capital]{Market capital and financial capital (usurious). From mercantilism to liberalism}
@ -599,18 +615,18 @@ Hence a protectionist customs policy.
Competition between trading nations will often take on a violent course: piracy (privateering) and abuses of all kinds. It will often lead to wars:
in the wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, alongside dynastic rivalries, economic motivations took an increasing place:
thus, in the war waged by Holland (the "United Provinces") revolted against Spain, in the Anglo-Dutch and Franco-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century,
thus, in the war waged by Holland (the \enquote{United Provinces}) revolted against Spain, in the Anglo-Dutch and Franco-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century,
in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Seven Years' War, in the Anglo-French conflict under the Revolution and the Empire.
The advent of industrial capitalism was accompanied by the promotion of "liberal" ideology.
Industrial capitalism comes into conflict with previous institutions: criticism of monopolies, corporate regulations, colonial "Exclusive"
The advent of industrial capitalism was accompanied by the promotion of \enquote{liberal} ideology.
Industrial capitalism comes into conflict with previous institutions: criticism of monopolies, corporate regulations, colonial \enquote{Exclusive}
(a rule that forbade the colonies to trade with foreign nations, and to produce manufactured goods whose supply was to be reserved for the metropolis),
criticism of protectionism, trafficking and slavery.
However, this liberal ideology is of variable geometry:
it triumphed in nineteenth-century England with the repeal, in 1846, of the protectionist laws on wheat.
These laws responded to the interests of the "landlords", but embarrassed the industrialists by bidding the price of bread and the level of wages.
But in contradiction with the principles of "free trade", the same England imposes on India a discriminatory customs policy.
These laws responded to the interests of the \enquote{landlords}, but embarrassed the industrialists by bidding the price of bread and the level of wages.
But in contradiction with the principles of \enquote{free trade}, the same England imposes on India a discriminatory customs policy.
It penalizes Indian exports of manufactured goods, and encourages imports of British industrial products.
England fought the slave trade through her Atlantic surveillance squadron, but supported the Southerners slave owners, their cotton suppliers, during the American Civil War…
The United States and Germany will achieve their industrialization under the aegis of a protectionist policy.
@ -619,6 +635,7 @@ The end of the nineteenth century saw the triumph, including in England, of impe
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, colonial trade fueled finance capital (usurious):
the bank in fact at that time did not practice productive investments, but lent to the States, to the sovereigns.
Those who pay are the subjects, subject to tax obligations, that is to say in the final analysis especially the peasants.
The financial centers are successively Genoa which changes the money of the King of Spain into gold coins necessary for the pay of his mercenaries.
Genoa will finally be a victim of the bankruptcy of the Spanish state
Then, the trade in colonial products was concentrated in Antwerp, which was until 1575 the first financial center in Europe.
@ -633,41 +650,37 @@ Public debt and taxation that contribute powerfully to the exploitation and impo
Sovereigns, to immediately obtain the money they need and save themselves the burdens and delays of collecting taxes,
To finance the collection of certain taxes, according to a practice that dates back to antiquity.
This is what the "fermiers généraux" will do in France, who immediately provide the king with the money he needs.
This is what the \enquote{fermiers généraux} will do in France, who immediately provide the king with the money he needs.
These tax farmers are remunerated by collecting certain taxes on the soverign's behalf.
With a profit margin that sometimes reaches 100\% and is never less than 30\% (notoriously usurious margin).
Moreover, governments borrow, first from bankers and then directly from the public.
François 1st launched in 1522 the first public state loan by asking the bourgeois of Paris to lend him 200,000 pounds, for interest.
These were the first "rents on the town hall", guaranteed by the revenues of certain municipal taxes.
\begin{displayquote}
Public debt operates as one of the most energetic agents of primitive accumulation.\footnote{Karl Marx, op. cit, p. 196.}
\end{displayquote}
These were the first \enquote{rents on the town hall}, guaranteed by the revenues of certain municipal taxes.
\enquote{Public debt operates as one of the most energetic agents of primitive accumulation.}\footnote{Karl Marx, \emph{op. cit.}, p. 196.}
This method of plundering state resources for the benefit of the rich is flourishing today more than ever. (the Pinay and Giscard borrowings provide the contemporary illustration).
Colonial system, fiscal abuses, public debt, impoverishment and expropriation of peasants are preparing, in various ways, the advent of industrial capitalism.
All these means, however, were not sufficient, at first, to provide the manpower that nascent industrial capitalism needed.
It will be provided for in England by the use of the children of the "workhouses".
It will be provided for in England by the use of the children of the \enquote{workhouses}.
Lancashire, for its spinning and weaving, needed "small and agile fingers".
Lancashire, for its spinning and weaving, needed \enquote{small and agile fingers}.
\begin{displayquote}
Immediately the custom of procuring so-called 'apprentices', workhouses belonging to the various parishes of London, Birmingham and elsewhere, was born.
\enquote{Immediately the custom of procuring so-called \enquote{apprentices}, workhouses belonging to the various parishes of London, Birmingham and elsewhere, was born.
Thousands of these poor abandoned children, aged seven to fourteen, were thus sent north.
The master (the child thief) was responsible for dressing, feeding and housing his apprentices in an "ad hoc" house near the factory.
The master (the child thief) was responsible for dressing, feeding and housing his apprentices in an \enquote{ad hoc} house near the factory.
During the work, they were under the eye of the guards.
It was in the interest of these prison warden to make these children work to excess.
Because their own pay decreased or increased depending on the quantity of products they knew how to extract from thoses children.
The mistreatment was the natural consequence…
In many manufacturing districts, mainly in Lancashire, these innocent beings, without friends or supporters, who had been handed over to the masters of the factory, were subjected to the most horrific tortures.
Exhausted by the excess of work… they were whipped, chained, tormented with the most studied refinements.
Often, when hunger twisted them the hardest, the whip kept them at work.\footnote{John Fielden, The Curse of the Factory System, London, 1836. Quoted by Karl Marx, op. cit. cit., p. 200.}
\end{displayquote}
Often, when hunger twisted them the hardest, the whip kept them at work.}\footnote{John Fielden, \emph{The Curse of the Factory System}, London, 1836. Quoted by Karl Marx, \emph{op. cit.}, p. 200.}
These practices, contemporary "liberalism" has extended them to tens of millions of children, in Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand and elsewhere.
These practices, contemporary \enquote{liberalism} has extended them to tens of millions of children, in Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand and elsewhere.
Thus came to the world the triumphant Capital, "sweating blood and mud through all pores"\footnote{Karl Marx, op. cit. cit., p. 202}.
Thus came to the world the triumphant Capital, \enquote{sweating blood and mud through all pores}\footnote{Karl Marx, \emph{op. cit.}, p. 202}.
\section{Jean Suret-Canale}
@ -1872,18 +1885,18 @@ He has held many trade union positions (secretary of the C.G.T. proofreaders' un
\section{Brief bibilography}
\begin{itemize}
\item Jean Bruhat et Marc Piolot, Esquisse d’une histoire de la C.G.T. (Sketch of a history of the CGT), Éditions de la C.G.T., 1966.
\item Maurice Dommanget, Histoire du Premier Mai (History of the First of May), Éditions Archives et documents, 1972.
\item Fernand Rude, Les Révoltes des canuts, 1831-1834 (The canuts revolts, 1831-1834), Petite Collection Maspero.
\item Institut C.G.T. d’histoire sociale (C.G.T. Institute of Social History), C.G.T. Approches historiques.
\item Émile Pouget, La Confédération générale du travail et Le Parti du travail (The General Confederation of Labour and the Labour Party), Éditions C.N.T., 33, rue des Vignoles, Paris XXe, 1997.
\item Georges Lefranc, Juin 36, l’Explosion populaire (June 36, the grassroot explosion), Éditions Julliard, 1966.
\item Gérard Adam, Histoire des grèves (History of strikes), Éditions Bordas, collection “Voir l’histoire” , 1981.
\item Jean-Pierre Rioux, Révolutionnaires du Front populaire (Revolutionnaries of the Popular Front), collection 10/18, 1973.
\item Thierry Laurent, La Mutualité française et le monde du travail (The French Mutuality and the world of work), Éditions Coopérative d’information et d’édition mutualiste, 1973.
\item Jean Maitron (sous la dir. de), Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français (Biographical Dictionary of the French Workers' Movement), Éditions ouvrières.
\item Marcel Caille, Les Truands du patronat (The Mobsters of the bosses), Éditions Sociales, 1977.
\item Jean Bruhat et Marc Piolot, \emph{Esquisse d’une histoire de la C.G.T.} (Sketch of a history of the CGT), Éditions de la C.G.T., 1966.
\item Maurice Dommanget, \emph{Histoire du Premier Mai} (History of the First of May), \emph{Éditions Archives et documents}, 1972.
\item Fernand Rude, \emph{Les Révoltes des canuts, 1831-1834} (The canuts revolts, 1831-1834), Petite Collection Maspero.
\item\emph{Institut C.G.T. d’histoire sociale} (C.G.T. Institute of Social History), C.G.T. Approches historiques.
\item Émile Pouget, \emph{La Confédération générale du travail et Le Parti du travail} (The General Confederation of Labour and the Labour Party), Éditions C.N.T., 33, rue des Vignoles, Paris XXe, 1997.
\item Georges Lefranc, \emph{Juin 36, l’Explosion populaire} (June 36, the grassroot explosion), Éditions Julliard, 1966.
\item Gérard Adam, \emph{Histoire des grèves} (History of strikes), Éditions Bordas, collection “Voir l’histoire” , 1981.
\item Jean-Pierre Rioux, \emph{Révolutionnaires du Front populaire} (Revolutionnaries of the Popular Front), collection 10/18, 1973.
\item Thierry Laurent, \emph{La Mutualité française et le monde du travail} (The French Mutuality and the world of work), Éditions Coopérative d’information et d’édition mutualiste, 1973.
\item Jean Maitron (sous la dir. de), \emph{Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français} (Biographical Dictionary of the French Workers' Movement), Éditions ouvrières.
\item Marcel Caille, \emph{Les Truands du patronat} (The Mobsters of the bosses), Éditions Sociales, 1977.
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