Question

“Western colonialism was inextricably connected to the growth of Western capitalism. This had a lasting impact on the way capitalism developed in a colonised country like India.” Justify the statement.

Answer 1

• Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and organised to accumulate profits within a market system.
• Capitalism in the West emerged out of a complex process of European exploration of the rest of the world, its plunder of wealth and resources, an unprecedented growth of science and technology, and its harnessing to industries and agriculture.
• What marked capitalism from the very beginning was its dynamism, its potential to grow, expand, innovate, and use technology and labour in a way best assured to ensure the greatest profit.
• What marked it too was its global nature.