Re: Re: Max Weber's Genteel Racism (was Re: weber)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

>But why enclosure? Why travel abroad and steal people? Why did it
>occur to people to enclose common land for the first time? Why didn't
>they think of it before?
>
>Doug

Enclosing land is utterly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
Spain enclosed land all through the 15th and 16th century but did not "take
off". I just finished reading Adolfo Gilly's splendid history of the
Mexican revolution 1910-1920. The original Zapatista movement was sparked
by enclosures in Morelos, when sugar producing haciendas were created at
the expense of communal land deeded to Indians in the 17th century. While
Mexico was enclosing land, Japan at the very same moment was reinforcing
feudal property relations in the countryside so as to hasten capital
accumulation for the growth of native manufacturing. Japan took off because
it was protected from colonialism. England took off because it became
colonialist. Mexico failed to take off because it was a victim of
neocolonialism. Period. Case close. Sentence: ten years with time off for
good behavior.

Louis Proyect
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