Bauer denied the slave trade caused African underdevelopment by citing preexisting endemic slavery

Evidence

At the LSF colloquium, Bauer argued that the world’s poorest peoples were indigenous communities and ‘Amazonian Indians’, precisely because they enjoyed the fewest ‘external contacts’. Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, in contrast, offered proof of the economic benefits such ‘contacts’ brought. Elsewhere, Bauer claimed that not even the transatlantic slave trade could be claimed as a cause of ‘African backwardness’, as slavery had been endemic in Africa prior to the slave trade and was only ended by the West. ‘Whatever one thinks of colonialism it can’t be held responsible for Third World poverty’, he concluded. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 401

Categorization

• XREF: Direct counterpoint to Chapter Three’s treatment of Nkrumah’s neocolonialism; also resonates with debates in The Moral Economy and development-economics literature the reader covers. — connects to: Bauer rejected the developed-underdeveloped dichotomy and vicious-cycle-of-poverty analysis as fallacious — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1314; Bauer argued industrialization did not require government intervention or raw materials — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1318; The slave trade financed Britain’s industrial revolution while underdeveloping Africa’s economies — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 600

Broader Connections

• The slave trade financed Britain’s industrial revolution while underdeveloping Africa’s economies #contradicts (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 600
• Bauer rejected the developed-underdeveloped dichotomy and vicious-cycle-of-poverty analysis as fallacious #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1314
• Bauer argued industrialization did not require government intervention or raw materials #corroborates (0.70) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1318