Were the Industrial Revolution and capitalism the result of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade?

by 124876720

Howdy,

I've been reading Sven Beckert's article on this topic in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the development of slavery and capitalism, in which he basically attributes capitalism, industrialisation, and the modern system of the rule of law to the institution of slavery. I was wondering what the rest of the historical community feels about this topic: is it true that slavery created both capitalism and the industrial revolution?

BukkakeOnIce

Industrialisation depended on resources rather then slaves. Some may argue that money from the atlantic slave trade was used to fuel industrialisation however records indicate there was a clear distinction between the land owning slaver class and the industrialists. This concept is known as 'Gentlemanly Capitalism' and was put forward by Peter Cain and Antony Hopkins and although much of it is more to do with colonial expansion, they also touch on the fact that the Gentlemanly class who would own slaves very much looked down upon on the industrialists due to the manual nature of their work.

The profits were the triangular trade are quite overblown; it was certainly a lucrative industry but certainly not close to being large enough to fund the industrial revolution. The income from the trade was very much directed to small port cities such as Bristol.By the time industrialisation began, the slave trade was in massive decline since its was cheaper to breed slaves then import them from Africa.

If anything, Capitalism which was very much built around the idea of free trade is contradictory to slavery. West Indian slave owners often held large monopolies on the production of certain goods while others back in the UK held monopolies over the actual trade. The fundamental component of capitalism is free trade and capitalists who massively invested in the east Indies realised the cheaper goods produced in the west Indies were really hindering their profits.

I would suggest reading 'Capitalism, Slavery and Bourgeois Historiography' by Cedric Robinson in the History Workshop Journal volume 22 issue 1