Mat: I have the literature, and have considered the arguments. But still content that they (however destructive) gave a relatively small material difference to the pace of capitalist development. And the benefit came by the reduction of competition rather than direct exploitation. The argument on gold was put forward by Earl Hamilton in the 20s and 30s. Jan DeVries has a variant on it now. But I don't think it holds up. The main effect would be by increasing liquidity producing a profit inflation, increased liquidity increases output by stimulating people to reduce slack in the economy. This if it is managed well may stimulate an increase in the long run growth rates, particularly if there are no supply constraints on the economy. But gold by increasing the money supply may introduce inflation into the economy, and if inflation is too high, it tends not to stimulate. Remember that most of that gold went into Spain and Spain did not industrialise. And although I was educated at the University of Toronto under Mel Watkins, I do not believe that the forward linkages can have an effect that would be much larger than the trade multiplier. Sugar meant everything to the Caribbean, but did it mean much to Europe? Improvements in agricultural productivity (releasing labour), and improvements in manufacturing technology were many, many, many times more important. The economies and societies of the peripheral world were destroyed, annihilated, plundered, large number of people were killed, directly and indirectly, but this is not what the development of capitalism depended upon. ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Mathew Forstater" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Just the amount of precious metal looted from Africa and the Americas!--are people aware of the amount of gold and silver stolen from Africa and the Americas at all??? We are talking about billions and billions amd billions of today's dollars... More later? Mf Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archives http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://members.tripod.com/rodhay/batochebooks.html http://www.abebooks.com/home/BATOCHEBOOKS/ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
