the now-ancient engine metaphor helps. In my interpretation of Marx
(and to a lesser extent of Brenner), slavery and colonialism provided
fuel for the capitalist engine. But the engine was created in the
English countryside. Once the engine started going (involving the
accumulation that Marx describes in much of CAPITAL), eventually it
didn't need fuel from slavery and colonialism. It could switch to
other fuel supplies, such as the surplus-value produced domestically.
of course, that metaphor isn't reality. No metaphor is.
With all due respect to Charles, I don't think it is profitable to
find support for arguments against Brenner in Marx's writings. (By
the same token, there is little support for Brenner's thesis as
well.) Marx simply never wrote much about the colonial world,
especially about Latin America. And what he wrote about Asia was
completely wrong. I keep expecting Jim to get into the details of
Latin American history, but judging from his last post, that was
another country and besides the wench is dead.
