>Chattel slavery, indentured
>servitude, & other forms of unfree labor in the history of modern
>colonialism increasingly took on the quality that was *quite
>different* from pre-capitalist modes of unfree labor, *because* they
>were determined by the expanding reproduction of the relation between
>capital & free labor elsewhere (the expanded reproduction of the
>relation between capital & free labor & resulting rise of productive
>forces also made the main contribution to the *abolition* of chattel
>slavery -- Cf. Eric Williams).
>
>Yoshie
But this is not what Wood and Brenner argue. They argue that there was a
qualitative difference between English and Spanish colonial society, based
on the existence of capitalism in the former's mother country and the
absense in the latter's. As I have documented, this is false. Not only was
18th century Mexico as capitalist as New England, there was absolutely no
difference between sugar plantations in Brazil or in Jamaica. Like
elsewhere in Wood-Brenner, claims are made without any substantiation.
Louis Proyect
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