Large-scale merchant capitalism depended on state finance tied to war.

Evidence

Fernand Braudel: “Beginning in the sixteenth century and with more eclat in this century of renewal, the States—at least those who would live, prosper and especially resist the exhausting expenses of land and sea warfare—the States dominate, deform economic life, subject it to a network of constraints; they capture it in their net … the part of economic life that was at that point most modern, that which we would readily designate as operating within the framework of largescale merchant capitalism was linked to these financial ups and downs of the State.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1515

Categorization

• XREF: Braudel’s point that the state deformed and captured economic life aligns with Robinson’s account of how racial capitalism was forged in state violence. — connects to: Competing state-capitalist blocs destabilized the global economy and caused World War II. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 521; The war economy handed Big Business guaranteed profits and immunity from competition — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 141