I've just seen the excellent https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015gps/the-misadventures-of-romesh-ranganathan-series-3-1-sierra-leone . At one point Romesh relates how, as someone from the UK, he has benefited from the historical horrors of transatlantic slavery because supposedly the economic development of the UK was built on the wealth that created. I've heard that assertion elsewhere too. I'm guessing there are people on here clued up about this stuff and I'm keen to hear peoples' takes on this.
A half-arsed Google throws up stuff that I'm skeptical about. eg https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/industrialisation_article_01.shtml . One point made is that the industrial revolution was financed by merchant bankers who had become capitalised with wealth accumulated from the profits from slave trading. I had thought of financing of the UK industrial revolution as being an example of the miracle of endogenous credit creation. I thought most of the key innovators did not have access to formal centres of finance. Instead they started up using IOUs trusted by local suppliers etc (as explained in https://jpkoning.blogspot.com/2013/02/ripple-or-bills-of-exchange-20.html ).
The other point made was that profits from slavery produced consumer demand that induced people to dream up industrialisation as a means to profit from fulfilling it. To me that seems more plausible. But I think the message from unpicking that is very different from my initial take from hearing assertions about slavery having financed our legacy of prosperity. Consumer demand may have come about in 1790 because slave merchants were employing lots of footmen and building stately homes and so pushing up wages etc. But the same economic mechanism could also kick-in if eg badly paid people were empowered to negotiate higher wages and become consumers.
The message from history Romesh seemed to be relating as he reflected on visiting a slave port in Liberia was that treating fellow humans terribly, whilst horrible, is something we shamefully have to accept as the cause of our current favourable situation. I'm really not sure at all whether that is the right take.
A half-arsed Google throws up stuff that I'm skeptical about. eg https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/industrialisation_article_01.shtml . One point made is that the industrial revolution was financed by merchant bankers who had become capitalised with wealth accumulated from the profits from slave trading. I had thought of financing of the UK industrial revolution as being an example of the miracle of endogenous credit creation. I thought most of the key innovators did not have access to formal centres of finance. Instead they started up using IOUs trusted by local suppliers etc (as explained in https://jpkoning.blogspot.com/2013/02/ripple-or-bills-of-exchange-20.html ).
The other point made was that profits from slavery produced consumer demand that induced people to dream up industrialisation as a means to profit from fulfilling it. To me that seems more plausible. But I think the message from unpicking that is very different from my initial take from hearing assertions about slavery having financed our legacy of prosperity. Consumer demand may have come about in 1790 because slave merchants were employing lots of footmen and building stately homes and so pushing up wages etc. But the same economic mechanism could also kick-in if eg badly paid people were empowered to negotiate higher wages and become consumers.
The message from history Romesh seemed to be relating as he reflected on visiting a slave port in Liberia was that treating fellow humans terribly, whilst horrible, is something we shamefully have to accept as the cause of our current favourable situation. I'm really not sure at all whether that is the right take.