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Anthropology
Sidney W. Mintz
cussing Wallerstein's ideas. One way would be of a world-system, and that the specific forms
to review the arguments as to whether capital? of labor associated with each region (all with?
ism is best understood by reference to class in his "periphery") differed substantially not
relations of production, or to market and ex? only from each other, but also involved in each
change relations ? a dichotomy that a few case a range of variation.
scholars are beginning to consider somewhat Even omitting from consideration eastern
obscurantist. Such a route would require in Europe, one can immediately note important
turn a review of a literature now grown rather differences between the Andean and Middle
prolix. A different way would be to recapitulateAmerican highlands on the one hand, and the
the arguments as to the differences between Caribbean and circum-Caribbean lowlands on
"capitalism" and the "capitalist mode of the other. The first difference turns out to be
production," for which the relevant literature temporal; forced integration with the European
is now alarmingly profuse as well. I will try core came later, and more slowly, on the main?
neither such approach here, choosing yet land. Secondly, the mainland labor supply
another, even though I cannot entirely avoid (except for Brazil, the Guianas and parts of
the intellectual penalty for backing into major Mesoamerica such as Morelos and Vera Cruz)
issues, without dealing with them fully. was from the first and thereafter mostly
By using materials treating one of the key autochthonous; in the Caribbean and circum
areas in the growth of world capitalism, the Caribbean, it was very soon entirely imported.
Caribbean region, and by trying to examine Thirdly, the mainland (again, excepting Brazil
the question of labor exaction there, I hope and the Guianas region) was colonized and
to be able to substantiate the theoretical "developed" by Spain, while "development"
significance of Wallerstein's work, while in the Caribbean islands was principally non
suggesting some of its persisting (but, I suspect, Hispanic, after about 1620. In other words,
by no means wholly inescapable) limitations. the mainland did not become integrated into
Hence I intend to try what many reviewers European intent at the same time, at the same
have predicted specialist readers of Waller? rates, in the same ways, or with the same results
stein's first volume would, indeed, undertake. as the Caribbean islands and their nearest
This choice on my part will probably persuade mainland surroundings. As part of all this,
some critics that historical particularism is component regions (that is, continental high?
still alive, if not entirely well; while convincing lands versus insular and littoral lowlands)
others that the reviewer, like Wallerstein, still differed, in terms of the extent to which they
does not understand the difference between were implicated in direct commodity produc?
"capitalistic" and "capitalism." tion for Europe itself. Finally, it must be
Wallerstein's formulation requires him to stressed that the integration of varied forms of
aggregate the diversity typical of the forms of labor-exaction within any component region
labor-exaction within each of his "sectors" or addresses the way that region, as a totality,
"zones." He is aware of the difficulties entailedfits within the so-called world-system. There
by this procedure, but cannot elude them was give-and-take between the demands and
entirely in this volume. Thus he assimilates to initiatives originating with the metropolitan
the "periphery" at least three different major centers of the world-system, and the ensemble
regions: eastern Europe, the continental high? of labor forms typical of the local zones with
lands of South and Middle America, and the which they were enmeshed. One hopes that
Caribbean and circum-Caribbean lowlands. He Wallerstein will try to deal with these local
recognizes (e.g., pp. 86-95) that these sub ensembles in later work; otherwise, the nature
areas fitted very differently into his conceptionof key economic regions within the periphery,
the ways in which such regions shifted from capital sources, technology, markets and
one part of the periphery to another, and why refining centers, the S?o Tome "model" pre?
such shifts occurred, cannot be made clear [31. figured New World developments on the Carib?
The postulation of a world-system forces us bean islands, in the circum-Caribbean region,
frequently to lift our eyes from the particulars and in Brazil.
of local history, which I would consider Sugar-cane was brought to Santo Domingo
salutary. But equally salutary is the constant in 1493, and was being grown there in 1494;
revisiting of events "on the ground," so that a grinding mill was built no later than 1503
the architecture of the world-system can be [5]; and the first sugar we know to have been
laid bare. Accordingly the balance of this produced there is documented for no later
critique is devoted to observations about the than 1505 ? 1506. The rising price of sugar
Caribbean sector of the periphery, and to the in Europe after 1510 was a stimulus to
problems entailed in treating it in undiffer Spanish colonists in the Greater Antilles,
entiated fashion. especially as it became clear that the gold
The Caribbean region became part of resources of the islands were scanty. Moreno
Europe's world, beginning with Columbus' Fraginals (personal correspondence) rejects
first voyage. Contrary to Wallerstein's passing Ortiz' assertion that sugar was shipped to
claim (p. 333, fn. 156), sugar (meaning the Spain from Cuba in 1517 [61, but it appears
sugar-cane) was not introduced first "into more certain that sugar of a commercial
Brazil, and later the Caribbean," but indepen? quality was produced in Santo Domingo in
dently in each case, and first in the Caribbean. the same year [71. Plantation production of
Not only sugar-cane, but also a large-estate sugar was carried from Santo Domingo to
form of production utilizing enslaved Africans Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, all under
as the principal labor base; and, as a result, the Spanish tutelage, with European capital and
first commercial New World sugar was pro? control above, and African slaves and enslaved
duced for export. Developments in Santo aborigines as the labor force. This first phase
Domingo, and later in the other three Greater of Caribbean plantation production continued,
Antilles, followed with some fidelity patterns though very unevenly and, at times, with limited
laid down even before the "Discovery" in success, during the sixteenth century and
Madeira, the Canary Islands, Sicily and, as thereafter; it was the Spaniards, not the
concisely described by the Polish economic Portuguese, who introduced the sugar-cane,
historian Marian Malowist, on Portuguese S?o the first grinding mills, plantation production,
Tome, in the Gulf of Guinea, off the West and African slave labor to the New World.
African coast. In S?o Tome, Malowist writes, "Slavery followed sugar," Wallerstein asserts.
though
As it moved, the ethnic composition of the slave class was
... the mode of production was rather primitive on the transformed. But why Africans as the new slaves? Because
island... the sugar plantation system there was intimately of exhaustion of the supply of laborers indigenous to the
linked to large-scale international trade, in which the big region of the plantations, because Europe needed a source
merchants of Antwerp and then Amsterdam participated of labor from a reasonably well-populated region that
equally. In these great centers of economic life were was accessible and relatively near the region of usage.
created numerous sugar refineries, operating in the sixteenth But it had to be from a region that was outside the world
century thanks to the growing deliveries of the molasses economy [nota bene; italics added] so that Europe
[me'lasse] of S?o Tome [4]. could feel unconcerned about the economic consequences
for the breeding region of wide-scale removal of manpower
as slaves. Western Africa filled the bill best (pp. 88-89).
In its pattern of enterprise, royal support and
taxation, large-scale organization of production,
slave-labor basis, tight linkage to European That different instances of capitalist develop
ment, unfolding in different regions using dif? is in accord with the nature of entrepreneur
ferent technologies, and with differing goals, ship, and with other factors of production
should also differ in the extent to which the besides labor power. As Tomich puts it
costs of reproduction of the labor force (personal communication), "How the land is
would be borne by local societies and enter? used will be determined by the relationship
prises, should surprise no one. Today's inter? between social classes and how they do or do
national labor market ? Turks in Germany, not fit into... [the] system of international
Algerians in Paris, Pakistanis in London, and trade and production. Then one might ask:
Puerto Ricans in New York ? represents a given the appearance of a class that wants to
comparable and more unified phenomenon. profit by producing for this trade, what
But Wallerstein has in mind forces and mechanisms are available to expand the sur?
events now 400 years old. Even if Africa was plus at its disposal?"
right for Europe's purposes, lying as it did out? In the Caribbean region, conquest, settle?
side Wallerstein's "periphery," slavery and the ment and control proceeded gradually; effec?
use of enslaved Africans remains less than self tive control of territory resulted in staggering
explanatory. Economic historians have been losses of population, thereby making the
puzzling for a long time over the "causes" of problem of "development" a different one. But
slavery ? or rather, over why slavery, rather the abundant land resulting from population
than some different means for relating labor decline was also land that could not be ade?
to the other factors of production, should quately policed. Put differently, the Antilles
emerge and become institutionalized in constituted, and in large part remained, a
some regions and not in others. But the con? frontier for several centuries:
cern here is not why slavery was ever employed
or why it is, in one or another case, absent. The plantation organization of agricultural industry is
The concern is, rather, why slavery was intro? largely concentrated in the tropical zone, not because of
climate, but because tropical regions constitute the most
duced into the Caribbean region in the first important and the most accessible frontier of the world
place; why it flourished, spread and became community. They constitute a frontier where there are
heavily institutionalized there; and how it exploitable resources, mostly agricultural, that are nearer
to consuming centers in terms of cost than are the vast
was related to other forms of land-labor linkage areas of sparsely peopled lands capable of producing
and use in the same area. various kinds of agriculture in the temperate zones. The
The rapid destruction of the aboriginal reason the plantation dominates where it does is the
necessity in those regions of securing a disciplined and
populations of the Antilles and the surrounding
dependable labor force. Where the native peoples are not
mainland littoral deprived those who killed sufficient in numbers or cannot be induced or coerced
them off of their labor. That land was abun? to supply the necessary labor, laborers are imported as
indentured servants, as contract laborers, or as slaves. It is
dant and became more so, relative to popula?
this rather than climate that gives its character to the
tion, was hence conjoint with human action. plantation [8].
Land is, of course, under specific social condi?
tions, a force of production, and not in itself
Thompson, one of the foremost and earliest
a relation of production. How land is used is
serious students of the plantation institution,
always mediated by cultural values and, in a
argues that the plantation form could (and
class-divided society, by conflicting cultural did) exist in non-tropical areas; Malowist [9]
values, which pattern social interaction and
indicates how the forcing-up of agricultural
express social relationships among groups. The
productivity on large estates in eastern Europe
question as to "why slavery?" thus becomes and the Baltic region played a part in the
assimilated to the particular social conditions
development of the more advanced lands of
under which a specific form of labor-exaction
western Europe. One can thus contend that
features when its appearance in history is the significant element in the formation, with circulation
associated with the most varied social and and exchange playing a secondary, although significant,
role. If we look, however, at the entire capitalist socio?
economic systems?" [19]. He distinguishes economic formation and not merely at its individual
first between what he calls (a) household sectors [modes? S.W.M.], we find that its central feature
slavery ? "which makes its earliest appearance is the accumulation of capital based upon the exploitation
of wage-labor, and it is the requirements and needs of the
and finds its greatest significance in pre-class central sphere which create and utilize the subordinate
societies"; and (b) commodity slavery (for sectors, with the circulation process merely providing the
which somewhat misleading label he apologizes) ? means for maintaining and reproducing the system [23].
have bounded New World slavery as if geogra? Freedom and slavery constitute an antagonism... We
are not dealing with the indirect slavery, the slavery of the
phy were the same as political economy. To proletariat, but with direct slavery, the slavery of the black
examine the capitalist system globally when races in Surinam, in Brazil, in the Southern States of North
looking at any one of its sectors means taking America. Direct slavery is as much the pivot of our
industrialism today as machinery, credit, etc. Without
into account the accumulation of capital
slavery, no cotton; without cotton, no modern industry.
through wage-labor at the core, while seeing Slavery has given their value to the colonies; the colonies
other sectors as satisfying the systemic re? have created world trade; world trade is the necessary
condition of large-scale machine industry. Before the
quirements of that core. Such an assertion
traffic in Negroes began, the colonies only supplied the
neither contradicts nor purports to refute Old World with very few products and made no visible
Marx's assertion that the secret of primitive change in the face of the earth. Thus slavery is an econom?
accumulation consisted of "... nothing else ic category of the highest importance [30].
relationships as "seigneurial" with Waller? it ever the decisive form, vis-?-vis the metro
stein's view of the capitalist dominated world poles.
economy (and, implicitly, with Marx's curious In fact, it is possible to schematize Carib?
"anomalies"), writes as follows: bean plantation and labor history usefully,
even if we do not yet have more than a
In the slave sectors of the capitalist formation a minimum of the information needed to make
complex pattern developed. Both slaves and masters had such schemata satisfactory. I would suggest
dual relationships, one with respect to each other, and
one with respect to the wider formation. The plantation
that, excluding the United States South and
owners were from this point of view capitalists and acted treating the "West Indies" as meaning the
as such externally with respect to the wider economy, Caribbean islands and certain parts of the im?
but as Marx puts it, they were such only formally, since
mediate mainland (such as the Guianas), it is
they produced with slave labor. Because of their use of
slaves they had a tendency internally to develop what possible to project at least five such periods,
Genovese has termed 'seigncurial' patterns, but this, like or "phases":
the external aspect, was also incompletely developed.
(a) slave-based sugar-cane plantations in the
The slaves too had similar ambivalent relationships.
On the one hand, they were directly subordinated to a Hispanic Greater Antilles, 1500?1580;
slave-holding class at home, while on the other hand their (b) plantations based on slave and indentured
productive relations were in the last analysis determined labor in the French and British Lesser Antilles,
by the dominant wage-labor system of Europe and the
American north [33].
1640-1670;
(c) plantations based exclusively on slave
labor, at their apogee in English Jamaica (post
This seems to me a supple and intelligent
attempt to deal with the problem; but I am 1655) and French St. Domingue (post-1697);
afraid that it may not be entirely satisfactory.
(d) plantations based on enslaved, semicoerced
To begin with, the emphasis in Marx's analysis, and "contract" labor in Spanish Cuba (post
as in those by Padgug and Genovese, is upon 1762) and Puerto Rico (post-1815);
the United States South, rather than upon the (e) plantations based on emancipated and
Caribbean region, and I think the differences "contract" labor, throughout the sugar
are substantial. Genovese has shown his aware? colonies (post-1838, British; post-1848,
ness of these differences, particularly in The French; post-1886, Cuba; etc.).
World the Slaveholders Made; but I cannot Subsequent periods or "phases," (as I will
attempt to review the argument here. Within try to make clear in a later publication) involve
the Caribbean region, not only may differ? the firm emergence of a rural proletariat and,
ences from one colony to another be specified, finally, the virtual elimination of manual labor
but also differences in te^ns of the maturation, from the sugar-cane fields in the "most ad?
apogee and decline of particular, specific sys?
vanced" colonial Caribbean societies.
tems. These local systems varied in the degree I have omitted here any attempt to cor?
to which they were integrated into the world relate the "phases" with stages in the history
economy, and each historical instance requires of capitalism (mercantile vs. industrial), or to
careful and serious study. Slave labor was specify a particular "mode of production"
important, in general, almost from the "Dis? for each "phase." Though I believe such spec?
covery" until nearly the end of the nineteenth ification will eventually be possible, it is too
century (abolition did not come until 1873 in early to attempt it now. For the moment, my
Puerto Rico, 1886 in Cuba). But slavery was major point is that, only for certain periods
not always the dominant form of labor-exac? and in certain colonies, were the principal
tion in many Caribbean societies, nor (if one export commodities produced exclusively
accepts the Wallerstein and Padgug theses) was by enslaved labor. Equally important, where
such labor was not exclusively slave-based, a general tendency, with actual developments
the complementary forms usually involved depending upon the specific historical cir?
some degree of coercion [34]. What is more, cumstances" [37]. This strikes me as over
thoughtful study of slave-based production in generous, even so. While it would appear to
the Caribbean colonies repeatedly turns up have held in certain Caribbean instances
evidence that the slaves commonly produced during the ascent of the slave-based plantation
part of their own subsistence, sold part of economies, their descent was regularly marked
their product, and were able to accumulate by the use of other (non-slave) forms of co?
some liquid capital [35]. Accordingly, I would ercion, and eventuating in free labor. These
argue that the gap between slave and free labor cases, I believe, can be most profitably studied
was by no means always so clear as might be as occurring within the world-economy, and
supposed; that intermediate forms and degrees responsive to it. Otherwise, one is compelled
of coercion were common; and that the slaves' to attempt to analyze them as detached from
entire product - at least, in specific Antillean that economy, generating their own internal
cases, which are richly documented ? was not dynamic without respect to their position in
forcibly appropriated by their masters, any wider fields of forces. An illustration may help.
more than was their entire labor-power [36]. In a careful and interesting article entitled
I would also accept Wallerstein's contention "Background to the emergence of imperialist
that the variant forms of labor-use and labor capitalism in Puerto Rico" [381, the Puerto
exaction to be found in the Antilles between Rican historian A.G. Quintero Rivera argues
the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries ? that that the economic changes of the eighteenth
is, during the entire history of post-Columbian and nineteenth centuries in that society
slavery - coexisted within a single world constituted a transition "from a subsistence
economy, the dominant mode of production agriculture of family production to what I have
of which was based on free labor. called a seignorial hacienda economy; both pre?
That one cannot have capitalism or the capitalist regimes" [39]. Quintero's argument
capitalist mode of production without "free" rests on what he regards as two important
labor (which has sometimes been called "wage fallacies: the identification of capitalism with
slavery") seems to be self-evident. If free labor commerce; and the tendency to ignore the
is not by itself a sufficient defining feature of relative unimportance of wage labor in the
anything, at least there is unanimity on its Puerto Rican economy during those centuries.
being a necessary defining feature of the Quintero points out that, toward the
capitalist mode of production. Trouble arises end of the eighteenth century... Spain began to take
only when different forms of labor exaction concern in turning Puerto Rico into a productive colony
rather than a dependent one. This concern became a vital
coexist. Which among such forms may be con? necessity when the Empire began to vanish at the beginning
sidered to stand for, or to define, a social of the nineteenth century.
formation? Are coexistent forms of labor A large number of Spanish families from the
emancipated colonies and also French families from
exaction to be understood as inherently Louisiana and Haiti, began to arrive on the island. Many
incompatible, giving rise by some evolutionary of them brought their slaves, working tools, or some
process to an inexorable movement toward a agricultural machinery with them. The Spanish govern?
ment gave them land and facilities to start cultivation.
single form?
It did away with a whole set of impediments to trade
Padgug, citing "Marx's observation that which had been imposed on the island... Agricultural
slavery as a system normally breaks down the production for exportation began to increase rapidly.
This is the situation mentioned earlier which the inter?
modes of production in which it arises and
preters of economic history of Puerto Rico, have erro?
turns them into forms of itself," feels the neously seen as the origins of development of capitalism.
need to concede that this is correct, but "only Why, then, did no working class appear? [40]
But working classes never simply "appear." basis of labor-exaction, under these specific
They are particularly unlikely to "appear" in conditions, was slavery and coercion. In this
situations where land is available for squatter connection, Quintero cites an early paper of
cultivation, police power to shut such cultiva? mine on the role of forced labor in nineteenth
tion off is lacking, and population density is century Puerto Rico, indicating that I treat
low. The emigre planter families who arrived the anti-vagrancy "regulations as a road to
with their slaves and machinery in the early capitalism in terms of the labour force that
nineteenth century were well advised to come they created from previously independent
thus equipped. As Quintero himself points out,producers. [Mintz] overlooks," he says, "the
they and their fellow-planters soon received stage of serfdom that these regulations
help in "producing" a working class: the generated" [431. I do not feel I overlooked
forced labor laws, "promulgated by the Crown"the stage of serfdom," because I do not feel
and which constituted what was known as the "serfdom" defines at all the mode of produc?
regimen de la libreta (work-book regime), or tion characteristic of Puerto Rico's nineteenth
white slavery" [41 ]. Of course, that working century slave-and~agregado plantations. Rather,
class was not free: I believe that forced labor was employed on
capitalistic enterprises within the international
These laws forced persons without a trade, occupation, or division of labor, since Puerto Rico at the time
any state-recognized property to work for a proprietor.
formed part of the periphery of the capitalist
This included, of course, peasants, working the land by
tradition but without property titles. [Quintero neglects world-economy. That the mode of production
to mention, moreover, that freehold in land had been required coerced labor does not, in my view ?
instituted by the Crown in 1778.] Anyone without trade and, I daresay, in Wallerstein's ? mean that
or property had to carry a work-book signed by the
proprietor for whom he was working, and non-possession
nineteenth-century Puerto Rico was feudal,
of such constituted a punishable offense. In order to move no matter how one stretches definitions. Nor,
to some other part of the island, or even to move from it seems to me, does the fact that the Puerto
one farm to another in the same region, the work-book
Rican economy expanded on a forced-labor
carrier needed the approval of the proprietor for whom
he was working. It is impossible to conceive the develop? basis, so as to export market commodities to
ment of a labor market under these conditions [42]. European centers, signify that its economy
was "noncapitalistic."
I would put the matter slightly differently. I suspect that there is a genuine difficulty
It was because a labor market could not develop
implicit in the view that enables one to con?
that these conditions were necessary. But ceptualize coerced-labor systems within the
these conditions were not an internal conse? Antillean region as self-contained forms of
quence; the granting of freehold, the admission land-labor relationship, defining the social
of foreign planters with their slaves and formations of which they are parts as lying
machinery, and the anti-vagrancy legislation outside capitalism (or, alternatively, as un?
were the consequence of external forces, affected by the capitalist mode of production).
responding to external needs and opportuni? The Cuban case, though different from that
ties. The heightened importation of slaves of Puerto Rico, provides another example.
? indeed, at the very moment that slavery There, Moreno Fraginals has documented
was declining in much of the Caribbean ? was how the plantation system and slavery
also the result of external forces. The produc? began to expand, particularly from the sixth
tion undertaken on the new and expanding decade of the eighteenth century onward [44].
agricultural enterprises of the time was The slave system received no official challenge
destined for foreign markets, and was under? until well into the nineteenth century, and
written in many cases by foreign capital. The slavery did not end there until more than
twenty years after the War Between the States. character, so long as production was chiefly directed
toward immediate local consumption. But in proportion,
During that century or so of intensified slavery, as the export of cotton became of vital interest to these
it seems now generally agreed that many of the states, the over-working of the negro and sometimes the
paternalistic protections typical of Cuban using up of his life in 7 years of labour became a factor in
a calculated and calculating system. It was no longer a
slavery before the 1760's were reduced in
question of obtaining from him a certain quantity of use?
number and in effect. What is more, the ful products. It was now a question of the production of
introduction of more than 125,000 Chinese surplus labor itself [48].
"contract laborers," during a mere 22 years
(1853?74), strongly suggests that the need Eugene Genovese, without doubt Marx's most
for labor remained high throughout. The eloquent and persuasive critic on this theme,
interesting thing about all of this is that the writes:
more intensified, the more impersonal, the
less (iseigneurial," the harsher Cuban slavery If for a moment we accept the designation of the planters
as capitalists and the slave system as a form of capitalism
became, the closer the system got to the
[a position that Marx himself may have had some trouble
point where emancipation would be an inev? with, but never abandoned], we are then confronted by
itable step. What is it, then, about these "slave a capitalist society that impeded the development of
societies" [45] and "plantation economies" every normal feature of capitalism [49].
I think that this is a useful criticism, and three years of "apprenticeship"); and in Cuba
that it might be extended, even more force?
in 1886.
fully, to analyses of Antillean societies, such The movement of emancipation was, in
as that undertaken by Quintero in the case of each of these instances and in each colony, of
Puerto Rico. Only by defining Puerto Rico immense importance. In many cases, however,
(or some other Caribbean plantation society) it was followed (and in some cases, preceded)
without direct reference to its fit within wider by large importations of "contract" laborers,
economic and political systems is it possible as has already been noted; indeed, even in the
to view the coercion of labor as contradictory twentieth century, the massive intra-Caribbean
to the capitalist mode of production ? since movement of plantation workers (e.g., from
I would assert that it was capitalism, and the Haiti and Jamaica to Cuba) kept pace with the
capitalist mode of production, which brought continued importations of "free" laborers
the coerced-labor forms of the Caribbean plan? (including Chinese to Cuba, Javanese to
tations into being. Such an assertion, needless Surinam, Africans to the British West Indies,
to add, requires its own defense, which I can? etc.). These various "units" of human labor
not undertake here. Suffice it for the moment were not slaves; they were, by the conventional
to say, perhaps, that I do not mean by this criteria of the time, free. But what did they
have to do with the transformation of slave
that the combination of local productive
forces was ever irrelevant to the forms such based and "seigneurial" economies into "truly"
development took. Rather, such forces, and capitalistic economies, based on the capitalist
the relations of production built upon them, mode of production? Are we now to be told
were repeatedly geared into wider social, that, in the moment of emancipation, a
economic and political fields of force whose paternalist, seigneurial, non-wage, precapitalist
vital centers lay elsewhere. economy miraculously becomes an impersonal,
As to the "normal" characteristics of wage-based, capitalist economy? Our question
capitalism, the argument devolves to some thus eventuates in whether these "slave soci?
extent into a debate between abstract char? eties" and "plantation economies" could be
acterizations of "types" on the one hand, and transformed, on the day their slaves were freed,
historical particulars on the other. It may be of into societies typified by capitalism and the
help to pursue the issue in one regard, at least. capitalist mode of production when, the day
To study the history of labor, the plantation before freedom, they were supposedly neither.
economy, and the slave mode of production in This argument, whatever its limitations [51],
the Caribbean region, a few dates must be may make a little clearer the advantage of
brought to mind. The slave trade ended at dif? Wallerstein's world-system approach. It may
ferent points for different metropolitan powers: also throw some light on the difficulties of
Denmark, 1802; England, 1808; Sweden, 1813; talking about "normal" capitalism if one wishes
Holland and France, 1814; Spain, 1820. (As is to take into account what capitalists were
well known, the trade continued in defiance doing outside the European heartland. The
of such legislation, and enslaved Africans were history of Cuban slavery after 1762 indicates
arriving in Cuban and Puerto Rican ports, well a fairly steady progression toward the degrada?
into the second half of the nineteenth century.) tion of the black population, both free and
Emancipation came later: in the British colo? enslaved, an elimination of traditional guaran?
nies in 1838 (actually, in 1834, followed by tees of various kinds for the slaves, an inten?
four years of "apprenticeship"); in the French sification of labor use and its maltreatment,
colonies in 1848; in the Dutch colonies in and an assimilation to slavery of the "contract"
1863; in Puerto Rico in 1873 (followed by labor practices used with Chinese migrants.
The closer freedom comes, the less "seigneurial" same form. What is more, slaves cannot be
slavery turns out to be. Of course the end of consumers in the way that free wage-earners
slavery, and eventually, of contract labor, sig? are consumers; and although this assertion
nificantly changed the statuses and bargaining leaves much to be desired [53], it will do for
positions of the workers. It is of interest, then, present pruposes.
that improvements such as emancipation were But the relationship between free wage
so often accompanied by massive additional earners in Europe and coerced labor in the
importations of labor; the differences between New World is not exhausted or analyzed by
"slavery pure and simple" and "veiled slavery" mention of this distinction. Indeed, the
were being finessed. In parts of the Caribbean, distinction serves in at least one important
les droits des seigneurs apparently included way to conceal their relationship. European
the right to degrade the bargaining position of wage-earners produced commodities that
the newly-freed by trying to alter the land slaves consumed; more significantly, slaves in
labor ratio overnight. What Wakefield had the Caribbean produced commodities that
suggested as colonial policy, and Marx had European wage-earners consumed. How these
attacked so vigorously, had indeed become parallel productions and consumptions operated
policy, in some instances. It seems to me that in the total absence of any direct exchange be?
these particular historical processes, occurring tween the free and the enslaved remains one of
under specific circumstances, and representing the most important chapters in the history of
concords achieved in the metropolitan centers world capitalism; indeed, it is in some ways so
of power by competing capitalist groups with obvious that it appears to have been largely
interests in the colonies, attest powerfully to overlooked. I do not intend to deal with this
the reality of the world-system, and of its use? matter here. Suffice it to say that, when the
fulness in understanding how that system whole story of the production of low-cost,
expanded and consolidated itself. high-energy food substitutes (such as sugar,
This is not an argument about inevitability, rum, tea, coffee, chocolate, and even tobacco)
but about the international division of labor for the European working classes has been told,
that typified capitalism's spread as a world it may turn out that the indirect savings to
system. In Wallerstein's view, free labor in European capitalism were very substantial.
Europe itself underwrote and forecast the Here, then, would be a way in which core
developments outside the core. I find this a and periphery, "veiled" slavery and "slavery
convincing perspective in one way, at least, pure and simple," capitalist and "precapitalist"
that Wallerstein does not deal with specifically. modes of production were tied together, that
There has now been some debate concerning has still received too little attention [54].
the contribution of New World enterprise, The relationship between different modes of
and particularly slave-based production and labor-exaction (different modes of production,
the slave trade, to the growth of capitalism in in part) in different parts of the world-economy,
the core [52]. Marx himself was very clear as and within different single segments of that
to why the slaves were differentially integrated economy (as in the case of a Caribbean society,
into the world system, because their labor where enslaved labor, "contract" labor, and
supposedly was - except for their initial cost "free" labor may be found in conjunction and
and maintenance - entirely surplus. The interdependent) deserves another word. Padgug
mystification that typifies the transformation has argued convincingly against the view that
of part of wage labor into surplus value different forms of labor are freely interchange?
presumably does not occur in the case of the able in specific historical settings. He writes:
slaves or, at any rate, does not occur in the
There can be no doubt that to a certain degree this mode of production, an African mode of
view is correct. The post-emancipation American systems,
production, and many discussions of the
for example, were indeed able to convert to other systems
of labor without losing their position in world markets. Asiatic mode of production. No doubt some?
But that they were able to do this was not in fact a function one will eventually put this all together effec?
of the absolute interchangeability of labor systems, but tively; I suspect that something of the same
rather of the dominance of capitalism in the world, a
dominance which created and kept in operation a major
might be said in regard to the debate over
system of commodity production and exchange_ mercantile and industrial capitalisms. At any
The apparent interchangeability of labor systems at rate, I have chosen to avoid engaging these
particular historical moments paradoxically exists, there?
issues head-on; perhaps Wallerstein's projected
fore, only because of the peculiar nature of the dominant
labor form, a form which in terms of dominance is not at further studies will do precisely that.
all interchangeable with other forms. That this should be
so ought not to be surprising. For slavery, like other
modes of production, has particular characteristics and
NOTES
particular effects which differentiate it from all other
modes. And at points where it is precisely those character?
1 Fernand Braudel, Eric R. Wolf and A.G. Frank have
istics and effects which dominate the entire socio-economic
praised The Modem World-System so warmly that they
formation or which are decisive for its functioning (as, for
have been cited on its dust jacket. It is the first of four
example, in the period when slavery in the Americas proved volumes promised, the second of which may have appeared
to be the only system capable of providing labor in suffi? by the time this essay is published. The book has been
cient quantities to enable the colonies to be tied into the
reviewed, mostly favorably, by at least a score of thought?
world system), it is not at all interchangeable with other ful scholars in the United States and the United Kingdom.
modes. It is true that Marx tends to lump slavery and No one whose comments I have read so far takes this
serfdom together on occasion as if they were interchange? volume or its author's purposes lightly, whatever his/her
able, but this is only vis-?-vis wage-labor, and is only criticisms. The book is very heavily footnoted, which is
meant to demonstrate the vast differences which exist
a source of both distraction and illumination (as well as
between all precapitalist labor relationships and the of intimidation); and the style has proved disappointing
capitalist one [55]. to some reviewers. This first volume has pleased, among
others, Samir Amin, Andrew Appleby, Rod Aya, Lewis
Coser, Michael Hechter and John Walter, it has failed to
Once again, the explanation is made to
convince, among others, Rondo Cameron, Eugene Genovese,
hinge upon the integration of local segments Frederic C. Lane, Richard Rapp, and Keith Thomas. In
of the periphery with the world-economy and, her review in the New York Times, Gertrud Lenzer called
on the local level itself, of one subsegment the publication of The Modern World-System "one of the
extraordinary publishing non-events of the season"; its
with another.
appearance had not been remarked by Publishers' Weekly,
Some injustice may be done Wallerstein's even though it surely would prove to be "one of the
view by the tack this reviewer has taken, important books of the year [1974]." Lewis Coser
(Political Science Quarterly for September, 1975) calls it
particularly in avoiding the issues of mercantile "the first major American work in a neo-Marxist vein since
vs. industrial (commercial vs. productive) the publication of Barrington Moore's seminal Social
capitalism, and of the concept of mode of Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy eight years ago."
Indeed, few recent books in history and the social sciences
production. I tried to indicate at the outset
seem to have stirred their readers so profoundly. Peasant
that a serious pursuit of either of these Studies VI (January, 1977) has published a five-part review
arguments would diffuse the focus of this symposium, and The American Journal of Sociology 82
(March, 1977) a three-part review of The Modern World
inquiry. As to the concept of mode of produc?
System; while the Department of Sociology of American
tion itself, I believe that the merits of ongoing University has seen fit to sponsor a two-day conference
debates are partly sapped by matters of style on the political economy of the world system, with nine
and of vogue. It may be some time before the prepared papers (March 31-April 1, 1977).
2 My original title "Macro-Batics," had been inspired by
concept can be examined coolly, and with
Anthony Hopkins's stimulating "Clio-Antics: A Horoscope
sufficient perspective, to fulfill its analytic for African Economic History," in Christopher Fyfe (ed.),
promise. In recent years we have been treated African Studies Since 1945 (London: Longman, 1976),
pp. 31-48. Among those to whom an earlier draft of this
to a village mode of production, a domestic
essay was sent for comments, I owe warm thanks to Bulletin 10 (1969), p. 29 (My translation, S.W.M.).
Eduardo Archetti, Fredrik Barth, Ciro Cardoso, Eugene 5 Mervyn Ratekin, "The early sugar industry in Espahola,"
Genovese, Scott Guggenheim, Harry Hoetink, Anthony Hispanic American Historical Review 34 (1954), p. 4.
Hopkins, Dominique Legros, Manuel Moreno Fraginals, 6 Fernando Ortiz, Cuban Counterpoint (New York: Knopf,
Robert Padgug, William Sturtevant, Dale Tomich and 1947), pp. 282-283.
Eric Wolf, all of whom responded promptly and cogently. 7 Ratekin, op. cit., p. 7.
I have not been able adequately to deal with many of the 8 Edgar T. Thompson, "The plantation" (A part of a Ph.D.
telling criticisms these (and other) friends offered, for a dissertation, University of Chicago) (Chicago: The Univer?
wide variety of reasons, disagreements in some cases sity of Chicago Libraries, 1932), pp. 13-14.
included; but I have cited them freely in text and in foot? 9 Marian Malowist, "The problem of the inequality of
notes. I remain deeply in their debt, and take full respon? economic development in Europe in the latter Middle
sibility for the final result. Special thanks to Ms. Lauri Ages," Economic History Review 19 (April, 1966), pp.
Schell, who provided valuable assistance. 15-28.
3 Contrast in this connection, for example, the following 10 Eric R. Wolf and Sidney W. Mintz, "Hacienda and
citations: "The slave economy developed within, and was plantations in Middle America and the Antilles," Social
in a sense exploited by the capitalistic world market; con? and Economic Studies 6 (September, 1957), pp. 380-412.
sequently, slavery developed many ostensibly capitalistic 11 In an illuminating comment on this point, Moreno
features, such as banking, commerce and credit. These Fraginals (personal correspondence) writes as follows:
played a fundamentally different role in the South than To your question as to why slavery was introduced
in the North. Capitalism has absorbed and even encouraged into the Caribbean region in the first place, and the
many kinds of precapitalist social systems: serfdom, slavery, citation from Thompson, one must add: climate is
oriental state enterprises, and others. It has introduced one factor determining the establishment of planta?
credit, finance, and banking, and similar institutions tions, but not the only one_
where they did not previously exist. It is pointless to The plantation, like any other institution or organiza?
suggest that therefore nineteenth century India and tion created by human beings, is a living organism. For
twentieth century Saudi-Arabia should be classified as its existence it is necessary that a series of variables
capitalist countries" (Eugene Genovese, The Political co-occur: but these variables do not combine them?
Economy of Slavery. New York: Pantheon, 1967, p. 19). selves in a rigid [invariant] fashion through time and
space. On the contrary, a large number of combinations
No matter whether commodities are the output of is possible.... [T]here is no doubt that the sugar
production based on slavery, of peasants..., of plantation is the plantation model or prototype, from
communes..., of state enterprise..., or half-savage the seventeenth century to the beginnings of the nine?
hunting tribes, etc. - as commodities and money they teenth. If we take sugar as our example, we see that
come face to face with the money and commodities in climate was one of the fundamental components
which the industrial capital presents itself and enter as taken into account in the establishment of a planta?
much into its circuit as into that of the surplus-value tion, since sugar-cane requires climatic conditions
borne in the commodity capital, provided the surplus suitable to its cultivation, and the profitability of
value is spent as revenue; hence they enter into both the sugar enterprise is contingent upon these condi?
branches of circulation of commodity-capital. The tions. Climate alone, of course, is not decisive. For
character of the process of production from which example, sugar manufacture from the seventeenth
they originate is immaterial. They function as com? to the nineteenth centuries required a fuel which, in
modities in the market, and as commodities they the initial stage of development, could only be ob?
enter into the circuit of industrial capital as well as tained in the form of firewood (lena). Moreover, it
into the circulation of the surplus-value incorporated required motive power which, until well into the nine?
in it. It is therefore the universal character of the teenth century, cattle (principally oxen) could provide.
origin of commodities, the existence of the market If we add the basic required factors we get: suitable
as a worldmarket, which distinguishes the process of climate + forest or firewood + sufficient cattle +
circulation of industrial capital" (Karl Marx, Capital, abundant land.
Vol. II [Moscow, (1885) 1956], p. 113). But not merely land; it must be land of certain sorts,
for example flatland, since sugar fabrication is not
I am indebted to Dale Tomich's "Some further reflections feasible in mountainous locales. Nor is that all. The
on class and class-conflict in the World Economy" sugar of those centuries was a soft, heavy product,
(Working Papers, Seminar I: Group formation and group which had to be packaged in large barrels, difficult to
conflict in the historical development of the modern transport, and with a high ratio of bulk to product. In
World-System, Fernand Braudel Center, SUNY-Binghamton , other words, the cask, in the optimum size for moving
December, 1976), where these citations are similarly and transport, amounted to 30% of the total weight of
employed. the exported merchandise. The only way to ship these
4 Marian Malowist, "Les debuts du Systeme des plantations barrels (before the birth of the sugar railway) was in
dans la periode des grandes decouvertes," Africana
carts which went to embarkation ports... on tropical derived from - to put it most charitably - the work of
roadways passable only in the dry season. The precipita? Achille Loria. Where Turner must have got most of his
tion required for the best cane yield was so high that ideas is suggested by Lee Benson, in "Achille Loria's
the roads were inundated in the rainy season. influence on American economic thought," Agricultural
Once analyzed, these factors reveal that the sugar History 24 (1950), pp. 182-199. Loria, in turn, is
plantation required suitable climate + firest or fire? roundly buffeted by Engels in his preface and supplement
wood + sufficient cattle + abundant flat and cheap to Vol. Ill of Capital (Moscow: Foreign Languages
land + nearness to a port of embarkation. Finally, the Publishing House, [1894] 1959). Turner's descendants,
major social-economic problem: labor power. As this especially William Christie Macleod and Walter Prescott
did not exist in the optimal zone, it had to be Webb, were also preoccupied with the possible wider sig?
imported; so the optimal zone had to be located, nificance of the ratio between land and labor. Today,
beyond these other factors, in a geographical setting more and more students seem to be turning back to
providing easy access to the receiving market and to political factors in attempting to explain why abundant
the supply market for labor power. When one analyzes land plus scarce labor do not automatically result in
thus the phenomenon of the sugar plantation, with the slavery, but nonetheless often appear to "generate" it.
perspective of an entrepreneur intending to establish The ironic element, perhaps, is that the importance of
an enterprise in the best possible place, one understands political power in making slavery possible and in en?
that plantations and slavery [together] are a very forcing its operation was clear - though not always to
Antillean phenomenon, although both earlier and later the same degree -to such early students of colonialism
they are found in other zones... (by no means an ideologically homogeneous group!) as
To sum up: sugar production with slaves on plantations Roscher, Leroy-Beaulieu, and even Albert Galloway
was a consequence of the 'low land-labor ratio,' in Keller. Thompson (op. cit., p. 23) notes that Oppen
situations where the factors you enumerate, those I heimer, that early student of the state (Franz Oppen
have added, and yet others coincide. (My translation, heimer, The State New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1922) saw
S.W.M.). this clearly as well: "The state originally begins its career
12 H.J. Nieboer, Slavery as an Industrial System (The Hague: as a large estate, and Oppenheimer believes, the large
Nijhoff, 1900). estate may prove the last stronghold of the principle
13 Stanley Engerman, "Some considerations relating to of exploitation which the state embodies."
property rights in man," Journal of Economic History 33 16 Engerman, op. cit., p. 59.
(March, 1973), pp. 43-65. 17 Though some students are less uncertain. Cf. Barry Hindess
14 Evsey Domar, "The causes of slavery or serfdom: a and Paul Q. Hirst, Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production
hypothesis,". Journal of Economic History 30 (1970), (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975).
pp. 18-32. 18 I have already conceded my unwillingness here to engage
15 This is not the place to trace the antecedents of the the issue of dominance within a mode of production, in
land-labor ratio controversy. Domar (op. cit.) believed dealing with Wallerstein's approach. Legros has touched
he had rediscovered Nieboer in 1970. Among those who on this matter usefully, in his "Chance, necessity, and
had managed to keep Nieboer in mind during the interim, mode of production," American Anthropologist 79
however, one may mention Thompson, op. cit. (1932); (1977), pp. 26-41,
J.J. Fahrenfort, "Over vrije an onvrije arbeid," Mensch en 19 Robert A. Padgug, "Problems in the theory of slavery
Maatschappij 1943), pp. 29-51; S. Mintz, "Canamelar: and slave society," Science and Society (1976), pp. 3-27.
The contemporary culture of a rural Puerto Rican 20 Ibid., p. 6.
proletariat" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New 21 Ibid., pp. 15-16.
York, 1951), and review of S. Elkins, Slavery, American 22 Ibid., p. 17.
Anthropologist 63 (1961), pp. 579-587; and H. Hoetink, 23 Op. cit., loc. cit.
The Two Variants in Caribbean Race Relations (London: 24 Ibid., p. 22.
Oxford University Press, 1967). Nieboer, however, is only 25 Ibid., pp. 20-21.
one in a long and complex lineage of serious students of 26 Op. cit, loc. cit.
the problem. Marx, of course, dealt with the issue in 27 Andre Gunder Frank, "The development of underdevelop
discussing the so-called primitive accumulation of capital ment," Monthly Review (September, 1966).
in Capital, Vol. I (New York, International Publishers 28 Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I (New York: International
[1887] 1939). Herman Merivale, in his Lectures on Publishers, [1887] 1939), p. 738.
Colonisation and Colonies (London: Longman, Orme, 29 Ibid., pp. 775-776, 785.
Brown, Green and Longmans, 1841-1842), and Edward 30 Karl Marx, letter to P.V. Annenkov, Dec. 28, 1846 in
Gibbon Wakefield, in his A View of the Art of Colonisa? Karl Marx to Frederick Engels: Selected Works (New
tion (Oxford: Clarendon, 1849), also contributed to the York: International Publishers, 1968).
argument (Both of them, but particularly Wakefield, are 31 Karl Marx, letter to the editors of Otechestvenniye
brilliantly criticized by Marx.) Yet another line of devel? Zapiskie, in Shlomo Avineri, Karl Marx on Colonialism
opment is represented by Frederick Jackson Turner, and Modernisation (New York: Doubleday, 1969), p. 470.
whose famous "frontier hypothesis," it would appear, is 32 Karl Marx, Grundrisse (London: Pelican, transl. Martin
Nicolaus, 1973), p. 523. This is, however, what some 12 (October, 1973), pp. 31-63.
exegetes would call a cheap shot. The passage, as trans? 39 Ibid., p. 40.
lated by Jack Cohen (Karl Marx, Pre-Capitalist Economic 40 Ibid., pp. 39-40.
Formations [Formen die der Kapitalistischen Produktion 41 Ibid., p. 42.
vorhergehen], New York, International Publishers, 1965 42 Ibid., p. 43.
[1858], p. 112, reads differently: "If we now talk of 43 Ibid., p. 43, footnote 43.
plantation-owners in America as capitalists, if they are 44 Manuel Moreno Fraginals, El Ingenio (La Habana:
capitalists, this is due to the fact that they exist as UNESCO, 1964).
anomalies within a world market based upon free labour." 45 Orlando Patterson, The Sociology of Slavery (London:
The German original, in Padgug's view, is ambiguous: MacGibbon and Kee, 1967).
"Dasz wir jetzt die Plantagenbesitzer in Amerika nicht 46 Jay Mandle, "The plantation economy: an essay in
nur Kapitalisten nennen sondern dasz sie es sind, beruht definition," Science and Society 36 (Spring 1972), pp.
darauf, dasz sie als Anomalien innerhalb eines auf der 49-62.
freien Arbeit beruhenden Weltmarkts existieren" (Karl 47 Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll (New York:
Marx, Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen ?konomie: Pantheon, 1974).
Das Kapitel vom Kapital-Epochen ?konomischen Gesell? 48 Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I (New York: International
schafts-formation, Heft V, Frankfort, Europ?ische Verlags? Publishers [1887] 1939), p. 219.
anstalt, Wien, Europa Verlag, 1967 [1858]), p. 412. 49 Eugene D. Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery
Cardoso (personal correspondence) believes I am inferring (New York: Pantheon, 1965), p. 23.
(and imputing) a doubt Marx himself never had. I think 50 Immanuel Wallerstein, "American slavery and the capitalist
that Cohen's translation is inaccurate, that Nicolaus's is world-economy," A merican Journal of Sociology 81
correct, and that the original is not really ambiguous. (March, 1976), p. 1212.
And I think Marx was puzzled by slavery within 51 Ciro Cardoso (personal correspondence) finds my
capitalism without being led to conclude, therefore, that argument weak. "On the one hand," he writes, "it does
not seem to me that these new 'indentured servants' from
what he was looking at was not capitalistic.
33 Padgug, op. cit., p. 18. China, India or Java could be thought of as free by any?
34 I cannot dwell on this point. It is supported, to some one making a considered judgment. On the other, aboli?
extent, by Marx's thesis on the wider effects of the slave tion did not mean to anyone the passage to a typical
mode of production (cf. Padgug, op. cit.), though not capitalist system in regard to productive relations, since
entirely. Cf., for instance, S. Mintz, "Groups, group slavery was replaced by sharecropping and similar arrange?
boundaries and the perception of 'race,'" Comparative ments, which represented a high level of personal depen?
Studies in Society and History 13 (October, 1971), pp. dence, including extra-economic coercion. I believe this
437-450; Stuart B. Schwartz, "The manumission of is one of the clearest cases of the formal subjection of
slaves in colonial Brazil: Bahia, 1684-1745," Hispanic noncapitalist forms of labor to a clearly capitalist process,
American Historical Review 54 (November, 1974), pp. thereby preventing internal opportunities for preexisting
603-635, and Stuart B. Schwartz, "Perspectives of structures - productive forces, forms and levels of
Brazilian Peasantry," Peasant Studies Newsletter 5 accumulation, and a whole historical context ? from
(October, 1976), pp. 1-19. responding differently to new influences of the world
35 This raises additional serious questions concerning how market... For me... this reveals the necessity of analyzing,
best to characterize "the slave mode of production," so in transitions of this sort, the contradictions [arising
called. Cf., for instance, S. Mintz, Caribbean Transforma? from] the confluence of external and internal forces."
tions (Chicago: Aldine, 1974), pp. 131-213. (My translation. S.W.M.). See Cardoso, "Latinoamerica y
36 Ciro Cardoso (personal correspondence) writes: el Caribe (siglo XIX): la problem?tica de la transition al
According to Marxist theory of modes of production capitalismo dependiente." Paris, Congreso de Americanistas,
and socioeconomic formations, as I understand it, the septiembre de 1976, mimeograph (revised version, March,
fact that a 'peasant breach' [that is, slave production 1977).
52 A useful review of some of this literature appears in
for independent use and sale] may coexist with slavery
is not at all an impediment to the existence of a slave William A. Green, "Caribbean historiography," Journal
mode of production_In every socioeconomic forma? of Interdisciplinary History 7 (Winter 1977), pp. 509-530.
tion, the dominant mode of production coexists with 53 I have found particularly enlightening Dale Tomich's
others, and nothing prevents members of a social class Prelude to Emancipation; Sugar and Slavery in Martinique
from being immersed in more than one type of produc? 1830-1848 (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History,
tive relations (as with the peasants of western Europe University of Wisconsin, 1976).
who, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, during 54 Once again, with regard to Marx, it seems to matter whether
winters, could also be textile workers in the domestic one prefers the letter or the spirit, as Wallerstein puts it.
system of production.) (My translation. S.W.M.). The contrast between proletarian and slave illuminates our
37 Padgug, op. cit., p. 22. understanding of capitalist Europe, while it may some?
38 A.G. Quintero Rivera, "Background to the emergence of times obscure our understanding of the capitalist periphery.
In the case of Caribbean slaves, many of them were, for
imperialist capitalism in Puerto Rico," Caribbean Studies
much of the time, producers and consumers of surplus of massive slavery in the New World, is revealing. It
value-surplus product, separable from their slave labor seems evident that a number of characteristics of
power. On this point see, for instance, Mintz, op. cit., sugarcane cultivation - the heavy, largely unskilled
1974, Ciro Cardoso, "La brecha campesina en el sistema work in tropical climates, the availability of free land
esclavista," ms. 1977. As I have indicated earlier, Cardoso close to the plantations, the need to keep the labor
does not see this qualification as any restriction upon the force together during the slack season, and the possibil?
slave mode of production as dominant under particular ity of using that force, including women and children,
conditions. in minor tasks - conspired with the "sugar hunger"
On a slightly different note, more apposite to the in post-Renaissance Europe to create a special affinity
direction in which the reviewer is going, Albert Hirschman between sugarcane and slavery. Obviously it was not
writes: sugarcane that created slavery, but it is fairly safe to
suggest that slavery would not have become as extended
There is, then, nothing intrinsically inconceivable in as it did after the sixteenth century without that
one particular commodity acting as a multidimensional particular staple and its peculiar bundle of character?
conspiracy in favor of or against development within istics ("A generalized linkage approach to development,
a certain historical and sociopolitical setting. But how with special reference to staples," Economic Develop?
likely is it that such conspiracies have really existed? ment and Cultural Change, Vol. 25, Supplement 1977,
For an answer to this question, a brief excursion into p. 96).
a different historical period and event, the emergence 55 Padgug, op. cit., pp. 24-25.