The Malvinas Malignancy

Note: All work on this site is designed to expand "organically". In others work I'll get things done, I hope, just as soon as I have a moment and can get round to it.  

There are perhaps major examples of mercantile capitalism, of the English variety at least. The Dutch and others had their own, as did England and, indeed, Britain of a more minor ilk. But let us stick with the British, imperialist three for the moment, for imperialism and mercantile capital go hand in glove, two of which were successful in the sense of being effected and one not.

Of the former the first was on the Indian sub-continent in the form of the East India Company the tentacles of which, despite its official demise, still reach deep into worldwide commerce and both relatively local and global politics. Yet it began as long ago as 1600, founded by Englishman, Thomas Smythe, the son of a haberdasher, who did well both economically and politically, or was it the other way round. The Company itself began in the business of Indian tea. In a generation it established its first base on the sub-continent, adding one generation for the next four, including Calcutta in 1690. And protection of trade by the middle of the 18th Century turned to territorial control and, where considered necessary, conquest. It began in 1857 with the Battle of Plassey about a hundred miles north of Calcutta and was completed directly or indirectly within less than one hundred years by which time time the total wealth extracted may have been close to £10 trillion.  

The second such was in Southern Africa, with the Cape Colony….., which can certainly be seen as the indirect, some would argue direct, source of first Apartheid and second the continuing racial strife that has continued since…...

And the third, the one that failed, was, you might be surprise to learn, was in South America; in fact in the very south of South America, where the Parana River reaches the sea as the River Plate. On its north shore today lies Uruguay with its capital, Montevideo. To it south is Argentina and specifically Buenos Aires. But then both were one and known as the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata.