{"id":434,"date":"2006-03-18T03:08:30","date_gmt":"2006-03-18T03:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=434"},"modified":"2018-08-23T16:06:31","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T20:06:31","slug":"saturday-march-18-2006-corporatism-and-colonialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=434","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, March 18, 2006 \u2014 Corporatism and Colonialism"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just fin\u00adished read\u00ading Dean Mahomet\u2019s Trav\u00adels, an auto\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal account of a career in the East Indi\u00adan Company\u2019s armed forces dur\u00ading the eigh\u00adteenth cen\u00adtu\u00adry, by a self-edu\u00adcat\u00aded Bihari Mus\u00adlim who even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly immi\u00adgrat\u00aded to Ire\u00adland [see Read\u00ading for March 2006]. There are many things to learn from this book, but I would like to use it as evi\u00addence for my views on the his\u00adto\u00adry and nature of the Corporation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Con\u00adtrary to what peo\u00adple are uni\u00adver\u00adsal\u00adly taught, the Cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion is not a \u201cfree mar\u00adket\u201d enti\u00adty, and has no con\u00adnec\u00adtion what\u00adso\u00adev\u00ader with lais\u00adsez-faire eco\u00adnom\u00adics, pri\u00advate prop\u00ader\u00adty, or free mar\u00adket prin\u00adci\u00adples. In a gen\u00aduine free mar\u00adket, the Cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion would not be per\u00admit\u00adted to exist. It is a spe\u00adcial col\u00adlec\u00adtivist form of prop\u00ader\u00adty \u201cown\u00ader\u00adship\u201d, cre\u00adat\u00aded by the State in order to cir\u00adcum\u00advent free mar\u00adket prin\u00adci\u00adples, by sev\u00ader\u00ading respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty for debt from own\u00ader\u00adship. That is what the \u201clim\u00adit\u00aded lia\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty\u201d built into incor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion is all about. The ear\u00adli\u00adest cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtions were cre\u00adat\u00aded entire\u00adly by gov\u00adern\u00adment action, and their pur\u00adpose was to extend the pow\u00ader of gov\u00adern\u00adment over long dis\u00adtances. The first cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtions, such as the Hud\u00adson\u2019s Bay Com\u00adpa\u00adny [the old\u00adest con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adous\u00adly exist\u00ading cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion today], the East India Com\u00adpa\u00adny, and the Dutch East India Com\u00adpa\u00adny, were designed to exer\u00adcise the pow\u00ader of the State in the places they oper\u00adat\u00aded. They had armies, police, courts, pris\u00adons, and the pow\u00ader to seize prop\u00ader\u00adty, to try and exe\u00adcute peo\u00adple, and most impor\u00adtant\u00adly to make war and col\u00adlect tax\u00ades. While \u201ctrade\u201d may have been the excuse for the for\u00adma\u00adtion of these cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtions, they were no more con\u00adnect\u00aded to \u201ctrade\u201d in its free mar\u00adket mean\u00ading than Hitler and Stal\u00adin\u2019s exchanges of vast resources did in the 1930\u2019s, or the Chi\u00adnese Com\u00admu\u00adnist Par\u00adty\u2019s \u201ctrad\u00ading\u201d in the slave labour of its death camps with Nike and oth\u00ader glob\u00adal corporations.<\/span><\/p>\n

This becomes per\u00adfect\u00adly evi\u00addent in Dean Mohamet\u2019s account. Though his loy\u00adal\u00adty is firm\u00adly with the East India Com\u00adpa\u00adny and its army, he could not help but notice that its con\u00adquests brought vast suf\u00adfer\u00ading to the Indi\u00adan peo\u00adple. As I said, the Com\u00adpa\u00adny had the pow\u00ader to tax, and it taxed with a fierce\u00adness unpar\u00adal\u00adleled in Indi\u00adan his\u00adto\u00adry, using its army to back a class of zamin\u00addars <\/em> who squeezed the peas\u00adants for every last drop of blood. Ben\u00adgal, which had been one of the most pros\u00adper\u00adous places on earth, and had not expe\u00adri\u00adenced food short\u00adages for cen\u00adturies, was quick\u00adly reduced to abject star\u00adva\u00adtion by the pre\u00adda\u00adtions of the Company.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most illu\u00admi\u00adnat\u00ading fact is this: the por\u00adtion of the East India Com\u00adpa\u00adny\u2019s bud\u00adget devot\u00aded to pur\u00adchas\u00ading trade goods was only a frac\u00adtion of what it spent on equip\u00adping, train\u00ading, and deploy\u00ading its army. Its prin\u00adci\u00adpal source of \u201ccash flow\u201d was not the buy\u00ading and sell\u00ading of goods (which was for the most part the sell\u00ading of opi\u00adum), but the hir\u00ading out of its army to inde\u00adpen\u00addent rulers, so that they could crush local revolts, or seize ter\u00adri\u00adto\u00adry from rivals. It\u2019s \u201cmar\u00adket\u201d activ\u00adi\u00adties con\u00adsist\u00aded of mil\u00adi\u00adtary oper\u00ada\u00adtions. It force\u00adful\u00adly sup\u00adpressed free com\u00adpe\u00adti\u00adtion of any kind, in favour of cen\u00adtral\u00adly con\u00adtrolled state man\u00adage\u00adment of economies, and tax\u00ada\u00adtion. A typ\u00adi\u00adcal exam\u00adple of its tax\u00ading pow\u00ader was the tax on salt, essen\u00adtial to life, which it made a state monop\u00adoly. For two cen\u00adturies, the British Empire, act\u00ading through the com\u00adpa\u00adny, used this bar\u00adbarous tax to con\u00adtrol the sub\u00adcon\u00adti\u00adnent. Indi\u00adans could not gath\u00ader salt, even from their own land, or from the sea. It is no won\u00adder that Gand\u00adhi chose, as his most dra\u00admat\u00adic protest, to walk to the seashore and pick up a hand\u00adful of salt \u2014 a seri\u00adous crime under British rule.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just fin\u00adished read\u00ading Dean Mahomet\u2019s Trav\u00adels, an auto\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal account of a career in the East Indi\u00adan Company\u2019s armed forces dur\u00ading the eigh\u00adteenth cen\u00adtu\u00adry, by a self-edu\u00ad\u00adcat\u00aded Bihari Mus\u00adlim who even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly immi\u00adgrat\u00aded to Ire\u00adland [see Read\u00ading for March 2006]. There \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-au-blog-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9715,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/9715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}