Marx and Mill on “Systematic Colonization”: Irreconcilable Views?

Philippe Gillig

Working Papers of BETA from Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg

Abstract: In the final chapter of Capital I, Marx interprets the economists’ support for “Systematic Colonization” as an implicit admission that capitalism cannot be regarded as natural, because it must be created through State intervention. On this issue, one of Marx’s main targets is J. S. Mill, an enthusiastic defender of “Systematic Colonization”. Although historians generally accept Marx’s viewpoint on this topic, we defend the opposite view: Mill did not advocate the establishment of capitalism in the colonies when supporting “Systematic Colonization”. Indeed, Mill’s analysis of the colonial question presents astonishing similarities with that of Marx.

Keywords: K. Marx; J. S. Mill; colonization; E. G. Wakefield; critique of political economy; capitalism; socialism. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B10 B12 B14 P16 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2023/2023-44.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2023/2023-44.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2023/2023-44.pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2023-44

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers of BETA from Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).