The Political Economy of Cyclical Expansion and Rivalry, 1689–1763

After the depression and structural transformation of the seventeenth century, the eighteenth century may be termed one of competitive expansion. On the European continent the century was typified by a seemingly unending series of wars, while overseas it was marked by the development of the slave-powered sugar plantation complex, principally in the West Indies, and the development of the slave and triangular trades between the West Indies, Europe, Africa, and North America. Both of these developments were integrated into the process of world capital accumulation and became major factors in this process. Later in the century India and, to a lesser extent, Indonesia would suffer transformations that would render their participation in this process qualitatively and quantitatively different. The precious metals to lubricate this expansion were supplied by the renewed increase of silver production in the old mining regions of Spanish America and for a time by the supply of gold from Minas Gerais in Portuguese Brazil.