The Birth of Capitalism - or Not ...

I wrote this in May, 2024. The main theme of the post - identifying the birth of capitalism - kind of fell apart at the end. I meant to get around to revisiting it, but never did.

I'm going to go on and publish, I think there are good points in here. Particularly, the Chinese fleets visiting India & East Africa around 1000 AD and mostly leaving behind gifts, vs. the Portugese under the butcher Vasco da Gama visiting India 500 years later & committing PTSD level acts of barbarism.

It really makes me wonder, does enough of that history still underpin the culture of China, such that China as the new world hegemon would actually be a really good thing?

[Originally written 2024-05-15.]

So, the cliché of the out-of-control AI who turns the entire world into paperclips? It is here and now, approaching its 250th birthday: capitalism, which is well on its way to successfully turning the entire world into capital. "When capitalism started, we had plenty of nature but very little capital. Now, we are awash in capital but running out of nature (resources)."

That quote was me remembering Peter Barnes, "Capitalism 3.0". Here's what he actually said:

Is capitalism a brilliant solution to the problem of scarcity, or is it itself modernity’s central problem?
...
When capitalism started, nature was abundant and capital was scarce; it thus made sense to reward capital above all else. Today we’re awash in capital and literally running out of nature.

Capitalism is a virulent cancer that has infected our civilization and our planet. A pessimist would surely say neither will survive. Civilization crashes, and the Earth becomes Venus. Au revoir a tout les chose nous aimons. Au revoir a tout. Goodbye to everything we love. Goodbye to everything.

[Actually, civilization crashing might keep Earth from becoming Venus. Yay!?!?!?]

[After a climate crisis (1000 years ago?), the large North American indigenous populations decided to decentralize and deemphasize cities so as to ??? lower their environmental impact and resource requirements???]

[Venus === "mean temperature of 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F) and a pressure of 92 times that of Earth's at sea level".

I recently read an article saying that, once the tipping points had tipped, it would only take 300-400 years for the Earth to turn into a twin of Venus.]

But, thinking back to "Debt: the 1st 5000 Years", the rapacious behavior that characterizes capitalism started with the "Age of the Great Capitalist Empires (1450 - 1971)". The behavior of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean and India, once they found their way there, was so abhorrent and revulsive. And once it got started, it was almost as if the European colonizers - Britain, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany - were in a competition to see who could behave the worst.

Seriously, read the Wikipedia article on Vasco de Gama, acclaimed Portuguese explorer. It's horrifying - absolutely no joke, PTSD warning ...

500 years earlier, Chinese ships had found their way to India, the Indian Ocean, and Africa. They left lots of gifts behind. No piracy. No blockades. No sending basketsful of the hands and feet of hostages back to the hostages' families.

The Bard of the Revolution, my hero, Cory Doctorow has characterized the "out-of-control AI who turns the entire world into paperclips" as the LLC, the Limited Liability Corporation. A more specific identification than mine, of "capitalism". And, indeed, "Debt", identifies the driving force of the "Age of the Great Capitalist Empires" as the corporations, the 1st of which were the British East India company & others, if I remember right.

I think this is leading me to conclude that I am incorrectly identifying the Birth of Capitalism as "Wealth of Nations", 1776. Based on "Debt", maybe we should identify the Birth of Capitalism as 1498, when the Portuguese discovered the route to India, starting 5 centuries of European Colonialism raping & pillaging of the rest of the world. 5 centuries! Capitalism is 526 YO, FTW, FTL!!

TODO:

1. Eat the rich, before they eat us.

2. Kill capitalism, before it kills us.

[Afterthought]

Maybe a better starting date: the year of the incorporation of the British East India Company, or whichever corporate AI* was 1st. OK, checked this out, East India Company was incorporated 1600, Dutch version 1602. So, I think the attribution of the Birth of Capitalism to 1498, when the Portuguese started trade wars with India, is a OK year for the Birth of Capitalism.

Reading the article on Vasco da Gama, his expeditions seemed to have been backed by the Portuguese royality, not a corporation. The more I think about it, the more da Gama seems to be be pre-Capitalism.

1498 is the year of the Birth of European Colonialism. I think I will leave the year of the Birth of Capitalism as a matter still under study.

[*I believe it is appropriate to speak of all corporations as AIs. Computers nonwithstanding, corporations are group intelligences, with humans as their gut flora & maybe memes. And it is terrifying that for the most part their only real operating directive is: "make money; turn a profit".]