Re: Capitalism as slavery and colonialism

["James M. Blaut" <70671.2032@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louet al:

The disciussion about disease  vis a vis the shift  of power from Iberia to
nothern Europe is insteresting but flawed as an interpreation of the
triumph of Holland, Britsin, etc. The proper unit of analysis is not Spain,
Holland, etc. THe entire economy from Italy right through to Lisbon to
Flanders and on up the  Rhine was an itnegratedeconomic system. The Dutch
controlled much of Brazilian sugar from the outset (1600)..
Flemingscontrolled the Portuguese Asian spice trade. It alian merchant
companies were everywhere. All ofthis is quantifiably accurate. Our oroblem
-- an inheritance from Eurocentrism -- is the mental map that sees
16th-18th C Europe as a jigsaw puzzle of nation-states which didn't, in
economic terms, exist in those times.

Jim