Question

1. Historians have debated whether or not the Cotton Kingdom (1820s-Civil War) should be considered a capitalist society.

I'm not sure how to form my argumentative essay on this topic. I'm curious to hear from someone what the main points of debate are on both sides of this topic. Here are my specific questions:

a. What is the definition of a capitalist society? This seems to be a highly debated area (especially when it comes to this debate).

b. What are the main arguments for the Cotton Kingdom being a capitalist society?

c. What are the main arguments against the Cotton Kingdom being a capitalist society?

Thank you for your help?

Answer 1

a. What is Capitalism?

In layman terms, Capitalism is a such a mechanism/arrangement in economy wherein
1 Businesses and Industry are run and controlled by private owners rather than by the Government
2. The objective or the basis of decision making is profit motive. For example, If a startup has two options-either to construct house or to produce beer. Further, the venture of beer is more profitable than the venture of constructing house, the startup will produce beer (not construct house ) irrespective of the fact that this decision will not promote welfare.
Private ownership and decision making with the objective of profit-making is the essence of capitalism.

Definition:

To be more precise, Capitalism is an economic and social system wherein individuals are free to own the means of production and maximize profits and in which allocation of resources (what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce )is determined by the pricing system.

Economist Karl Marx supported the argument that Capitalism would be overthrown because it inevitably leads to the exploitation of labour.

The Capitalistic form of economy has its roots in the work of famous economist Adam Smith -Wealth of Nations-in the year 1776.

Till date, most of the economies in the world are in between complete Capitalism and complete Socialism. For Instance, India at present is more of a Capitalist economy and less of a socialist economy. It is neither a Capitalistic economy nor a Socialist economy.

Slavery in the cotton kingdom
What is Cotton kingdom?

Cotton kingdom means a cotton-producing region of the United States until the period of civil war. The basic feature of the cotton kingdom is that its activities were done by slave labor.
During the American Revolution and the civil war, North America and South America witnessed a different kind of social and political development. The North became a production powerhouse. This was due to the rise of movements like women’s right and abolitionism. However, South America turned out to be cotton kingdom where labor was sourced from slavery.

Slavery and Cotton house are synonymous in nature.

There are two schools of thought regarding cotton kingdom, some argument it as Capitalist while others view it as non-capitalist.

Arguments for Cotton house considered Capitalist society

First, their slaves of the cotton kingdom were highly productive and contributed to huge profit. Second reason is that slaves of the cotton kingdom were in tune with the market and reacted appropriately to its mechanisms. Another aspect was the profitability of slave agriculture. The slave trade was a significant source of income for traders.

Arguments against Cotton house considered Capitalist society

Slavery of Cotton house not considered capitalistic because there was an absence of wage labour. The second argument is "inefficiency argument". Slaves of Cotton Kingdom are inefficient because slaves were forced to work and so they were unproductive. Economist used this inefficiency argument in their analyses of slavery - they contrast the unproductive slave of South America with North America's industrialism and capitalism.

On comparing argument it seems that capitalism could not have developed as it did without Cotton house.