The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Invaded the World

A concise, colourful and compelling account of the rise of capitalism to global domination.

Today, the majority of people live under the economic system called capitalism, it touches almost every aspect of our lives, and most neighborhoods have never known another system. However, a quick glance at the world around us reveals that things cannot go on like this forever: an economy built on endless pooling and consumption of resources is incompatible with a finite planet. How did this happen? As the economic historian Trevor Jackson explains in thisValuable writers, capitalism did not always prevail, nor did it have to be, nor did capitalism have to be this way.

With a solid knowledge of history and economics, and an insight into telltale anecdotes, Jackson explains the origins of capitalism, how it spread around the world, and how it became the dominant mode of organizing life. It traces the development of capitalism from the accidental emergence of an international monetary system, through the emergence of the banking system, and the emergence of a new form of slavery in the eighteenth century.and fossil fuel-based industrialization, all the way up to the global capitalist system propagated by nineteenth-century imperialism. In the midst of this, readers learn about the surprising role of Chinese berry trees, Dutch cheese, whale fat, imperial gin and tonic, Spanish conquistadors, Mexican miners, and English bankers in the history and development of capitalism.Rich in memorable characters and living scenes, as well as extensive quantitative analysis and historical composition, The Voracious Machine offers the clear vision that capitalism is not a natural, permanent, or inevitable feature of human life, but an economic system with a history. And just as humans made it, they can also tear it down.