If you eliminate your question about 'capitalist yes/no' you
automatically get the
RIGHT answer to IT, and you can go on to questions of real analysis of
what was really going on.
as to colonial NA and WS, see Wallerstein MWS vol 3 and AG Frank
WORLD ACCUMULATION 1492 -1789, pp 190 - 208.
agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca
On
Fri, 30 Jan 1998, Paula Sherman wrote:
> Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 18:25:24 -0800
> From: Paula Sherman <ishi@snet.net>
> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
> Subject: Colonial America
>
> Hello,
> I am a graduate student in Early American History at the University Of
> Connecticut and am currently trying to find some resources or
> discussions on the way that colonial America fits into world system
> theory. There is a group of historians who say that colonial America was
> capitalistic to begin with(which I am leaning towards), but just as many
> say that it was not and only became capitalistic around 1815.
>
> When you look at Virginia for example, colonist did not grow their own
> food for over twenty years. They were too busy planting fields of
> tobacco and stealing the food they needed from neighboring Native
> Americans. Colonial leaders even passed laws trying to force farmers to
> plant corn and other needed staples to feed the colony but colonists
> simply refused.
>
> But on the other side of the argument there were many farmers in the
> back country who had no real connection with the market economy. Is it
> accurate to say that every single exchange or barter that took place in
> a community was of a capitalist nature?
>
> The other thing that puzzles me is that when you look at the uneven
> development of the colonies, it seems to fit the model. The colonies
> were started as a post for exporting raw resources back to Europe. Much
> of these resources(including of course those extracted from Latin
> America) helped to fuel the Industrial Revolution. The places that
> developed the quickest like Boston, the Chesapeake, Charlestown, etc..,
> were all caught up in capitalism from almost the begining. The interior
> did not develop and many historians explain this as a problem of
> transportation of goods over rough territory. It was just too costly to
> transport some goods to coastal markets so they traded within the
> community.
>
> But how is this really different from the uneven development that has
> plagued Latin America? Development there followed the same pattern.
> Areas that developed the quickest were always caught up in capitalism
> and producing for export.
>
> This is something that I really want to understand as a historian of
> early America. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated since I
> cannot find any resources that deal with colonial America in the context
> of world system theory.
>
> Thanks,
> Paula Sherman
> ishi@snet.net
>
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Andre Gunder Frank
University of Toronto
96 Asquith Ave Tel. 1 416 972-0616
Toronto, ON Fax. 1 416 972-0071
CANADA M4W 1J8 Email agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca
My home Page is at: http://www.whc.neu.edu/whc/resrch&curric/gunder.html
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