Re: Role of the Colonial Trade in the Industrialization of Europe

with all due respect O'Brien' 1982 article has received several serioius 
answers  from scholars including if i may say so my ReOrient book, which 
O'Brien has praised.
gunder frank
On Tue, 31 Aug 1999, Ricardo Duchesne wrote:

> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 17:20:26 -0400
> From: Ricardo Duchesne <RDUCHESN@unbsj.ca>
> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
> Subject: Role of the Colonial Trade in the Industrialization of Europe
> 
> The idea that the colonial trade was crucial to the industrialization 
> of Europe is (still) a commonly accepted claim  among world-system 
> followers - this, despite the significant statistical evidence 
> already put forward against this claim. One of the strongest, 
> empirical challenges goes back to O'Brien's article "European Economic 
> Development: The Contribution of the Periphery" (EHR 1982), an 
> well-known article which, notwithstanding Wallerstein's response to 
> it in the same journal (1983), still awaits a serious answer from ws 
> scholars.  Among the many claims of this article is the highly 
> damaging one that, if we agree with  Bairoch's data that commodity 
> trade between core and periphery amounted to no more than 4% of the 
> aggregate GNP for Western Europe, and if we assume that core 
> capitalists made such large profits as 50% on the trade turnover, and 
> that they re-invested as high as 50% of their profits, the colonial 
> profits re-invested would have amounted to only 1% og GNP, or 10% of 
> gross investment.
> 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                     ANDRE GUNDER FRANK
                     Visiting Professor        
University of Miami           &         Florida International University  

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            We have met the enemy, and it is US 
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