The microblog is generally correct here. Your attempt at reading between the lines or whatever is off target.
They’re referring to mercantile capitalism, which did come about around this time, though you could quibble that the Dutch technically beat the English with the Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam stock exchange. However (and I’m going to grossly oversimplify this), the machination of using investment capital to extract wealth was pioneered by the English following the collapse of feudalism, caused by the black plague, and the war against Spain.
Greed obviously wasn’t new, but the concept of using wealth to acquire more wealth was novel. Before this, landowners just piled their wealth up or used it to buy luxury goods.
“The spirit of imperialism” isn’t the same as “the yearning for never-ending and ever-growing profits”.
Infinite growth on a finite planet is literally impossible.
What propelled the hunger for exotic colonies? The foreign products which were so esteemed back in Europe.
We could argue all day what specific ideology it is what drove them, but I think it’s enough to say it was greed and cruelty of some sorts.
Greed absolutely. But feels like this meme is pretending that money only started existing in the 16th century and no one was greedy before that.
The microblog is generally correct here. Your attempt at reading between the lines or whatever is off target.
They’re referring to mercantile capitalism, which did come about around this time, though you could quibble that the Dutch technically beat the English with the Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam stock exchange. However (and I’m going to grossly oversimplify this), the machination of using investment capital to extract wealth was pioneered by the English following the collapse of feudalism, caused by the black plague, and the war against Spain.
Greed obviously wasn’t new, but the concept of using wealth to acquire more wealth was novel. Before this, landowners just piled their wealth up or used it to buy luxury goods.