> Colonialism predates the Marxist notion of imperialism by 400 years. I don't disagree with that. > When the colonial powers started to conquer the world the

> Colonialism predates the Marxist notion of imperialism by 400 years. I don't disagree with that. > When the colonial powers started to conquer the world there was next to no capital. The whole point is the pursuit/accumulation of capital. Even if you start with next to no capital. > no serious scholar of economics, politics or history would call any pre-industrial economic system predominantly capitalist. In my own opinion I'd say it started around 1600 with the formation of the British and Dutch East India companies. It seems this is debated by many and largely depends on your definition of capitalism. [0] So I'm happy to just agree to disagree. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_capitalism