Week 7
mechanics of imperialism
Key Questions
What is value transfer? How is value transfer maintained?
What are the primary mechanisms of value transfer? What is colonial tribute? What is monopoly rent? What is unequal exchange?
Why is imperialism an inherent feature of capitalism?
Required Materials:
Zak Cope, The Wealth of (Some) Nations: Imperialism and the Mechanics of Value Transfer, "Value Transfer"
Zak Cope, The Wealth of (Some) Nations: Imperialism and the Mechanics of Value Transfer, "Colonial Tribute"
Zak Cope, The Wealth of (Some) Nations: Imperialism and the Mechanics of Value Transfer, "Monopoly Rent"
Zak Cope, The Wealth of (Some) Nations: Imperialism and the Mechanics of Value Transfer, "Unequal Exchange"
Supplementary Materials:
Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, "Africa's Contribution to European Capitalist Development — The Precolonial Period"
Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, "Europe and the Roots of African Underdevelopment — To 1885"
Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, "Africa's Contribution to European Capitalist Development — The Colonial Period"
Aviva Chomsky, Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration, "Making the United States, Making Central America"
Aviva Chomsky, Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration, "The Cold War, Ten Years of Spring, and the Cuban Revolution"
John Smith, Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: The Globalization of Production, Super-Exploitation, and the Crisis of Capitalism, "Imperialism and the Law of Value"
Cheng Enfu and Lu Baolin, "Five Characteristics of Neoimperialism"