Colonialism created the conditions for modern capitalism’s emergence

Evidence

If the first three centuries of colonialism were marked by territorial conquest, wealth extraction, and an increasingly interconnected global mercantile network, it would take until the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century for a mode of production not directly based on tribute to fully emerge. Colonialism slowly created the conditions for the transition from the tributary mode of production (plantations or mines with slaves) to something different: modern capitalism (factories with workers, developed national markets, and growing international trade cycles). The capitalist mode of production can be described as one in which people are paid to work instead of merely forced to work. Nevertheless, exploitation is still present in capitalism: workers generate an output value greater than what it costs to hire them, value that is converted by the capitalist into profit. Additionally, workers have no other choice but to sell their labor; since they do not own the means to produce anything themselves, they are obligated to buy what they need to subsist from the capitalist. A geographically extended labor pool—available and willing workers all over the world—was formed. This new labor market was created in large part by advances in manufacturing technologies linked with growth in the transportation, finance, and communication sectors that characterized the industrial revolution, and it allowed factory owners to easily replace skilled workers with interchangeable unskilled workers, which meant workforces could be increased or decreased (hired or fired) in response to fluctuations in the market. The resulting social relations that sustained both labor and commodity exchange in industrial capitalism were radically different from the feudal and family-based forms of production that preceded them. Despite the continuities between colonialism and capitalism, capitalism did indeed transform the social and economic order that had characterized Europe during early colonial times. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 251

Categorization

• XREF: This sets up the book’s central analogy between colonialism and data colonialism — connects to the extraction-logic framing developed in the rest of the book. — connects to: Capitalism was expanding before Marx as colonial extraction — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 41; Colonial power instrumentalized reason and thereby corrupted modernity’s promise — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 615; Colonial capitalism already created a world labor market before globalization — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3873 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• European colonialism freed capital accumulation from Europe’s material limits #expands (0.90) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 519
• Colonialism and capitalism form two sides of one continuous dispossession process. #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 280
• Colonial capitalism already created a world labor market before globalization #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3873
• Capitalism created the first global economy based on economics rather than politics #contradicts (0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 173
• If modernity depends on colonialism, the two are inseparable #expands (0.78) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 104
• Colonial labor flows and racial subjugation predated and founded modern globalization. #corroborates (0.76) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 92
• Colonialism constitutes modernity itself rather than merely deriving from it #expands (0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 44
• Colonialism functions as a coherent system requiring economic, political, and cultural domination. #expands (0.73)
• Data colonialism can only be understood within the longer history of colonialism and capitalism #qualifies (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 57
• Data colonialism expands capitalism by absorbing previously uncommodified life streams #qualifies (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 68